SEMINAR CANCELLED: A systems-theoretic framework for quantitative modelling and optimization of teaching in higher education
Damiano Varagnolo
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
DEIB - Seminar Room "Nicola Schiavoni" (building 20)
March 2nd, 2020
2.30 pm
Contacts:
Simone Formentin
Research Line:
Control systems
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
DEIB - Seminar Room "Nicola Schiavoni" (building 20)
March 2nd, 2020
2.30 pm
Contacts:
Simone Formentin
Research Line:
Control systems
Abstract
We present a series of initiatives and results obtained in the last two years on optimizing the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching in higher education. More precisely, we describe an interpretation of teaching and learning at the university level as a partially identifiable and controllable system, and an associated framework that enables taking a quantitative approach on how to collect, share, interpret, and use information about students’ performance and teachers’ choices. We thus discuss some of the mathematical open problems associated to modelling, identifying, and controlling this system, and describe how these initiatives are affecting the daily life at our institutions. Finally, we present our plans for developing effective and sustainable local, national and international collaborations among engineering teachers.
Short Bio
Damiano Varagnolo received the Dr. Eng. degree in automation engineering and the Ph.D. degree in information engineering from the University of Padova respectively in 2005 and 2011. He worked as a research engineer at Tecnogamma S.p.A., Treviso, Italy during 2006-2007 and visited UC Berkeley as a scholar researcher in 2010. From March 2012 to December 2013 he worked as a post-doctoral scholar at KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. From January 2014 to November 2019 he worked first as Associate Senior Lecturer and then as Senior Lecturer at LTU, Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, teaching system identification and state-space based automatic control. He is now serving as Professor at NTNU in Trondheim within the Department of Engineering Cybernetics. His research interests include statistical learning, distributed optimization, and distributed nonparametric estimation, with a special focus on applications including identification and control for the built environment, learning analytics, and muscular rehabilitation.