Profile of Dean
Biographical Sketc
Seraphin Chally Abou, PhD., P.E.
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering Laval University, (Quebec), Canada 1998 MS., Mechanical Engineering Polytechnic University of Gdansk, Poland 1988 BS., Mechanical Engineering Polytechnic University of Gdansk, Poland 1987 Assistant Professor: University of Minnesota Duluth, MN 2007-2013 Instructor: ETS (École de Technologie Superieure), Montreal, Canada 2001-2006 System Engineer: Pauwels Canada, Inc., Power Systems Control Division, Canada 1998-2001
Professional Preparation
Appointments
Research Summary
Seraphin Chally Abou, PhD's multidisciplinary research interests are in the areas of systems control methodologies and optimization, with emphasis on reliability and safety issues. These researches integrate safety-critical infrastructures modeling and simulation, energy systems, failure analysis, statistics and probability with understanding the fundamental physics of processes that lead to catastrophic loss of systems functions. Improvement of techniques such as diagnostic allows predictive science to be applied at conceptual phase of systems design, which traditionally has been dominated by qualitative or subjective decision-making. There are two major areas of research being pursued by Professor Abou and his students – safety-critical systems: Assessment of causally-related impacts of the electromagnetic fields from extra-high voltage power lines, performance and fault detection of the electrohydraulic systems in flight control, and fuzzy logic methodology development. Other research topics related to radiation safety, as well as its interaction with, and influence on environmental health and safety are also investigated.
Professor Abou has developed his research interest on uncertainty analysis for aviation system heath monitoring, (i.e., an expanded deployment of electro-hydrostatic actuators failure and health monitoring or by-wire technologies in critical applications). This is a key method enabling technology of optimization of maintenance strategy, safety and reliability of aviation system. For these studies, Dr. Abou has developed a research Lab on aircraft hydraulic actuated systems, and used a simplified assumption to develop the mathematical model in order to detect actuators and sensors’ faults in critical operation conditions.
Most recently he has received a grant to evaluate the safety and the risk of critical-safety infrastructure: Extra- high voltage transmission lines at low frequency. Also, he has been involved (primarily as proposal Principal or Co-Investigator) with the evaluation of air transportation safety. This funding area, called Intent Inference approach shifts the focus from systems integrity to holistic Safety-Driven Design. One key element of this approach employs task modeling to provide an explicit representation of the steps that a designer might take and the transitions among these steps.
Related Publications
[1.] Abou S.C.; “Fuzzy-Logic-based Network for Complex systems Risk Assessment: Application to Ship Performance Analysis”, Accident Analysis & Prevention, vol.45, pp.305-316, 2012
[2.] Abou S.C. “Performance assessment of multi-state systems with critical failure modes: Application to the flotation metallic arsenic circuit”. Reliability Eng. & System Safety, vol.95, Issue 6, pp. 614-622, 2010
[3.] S. Chaib, M. Saad, Seraphin Chally Abou, PhD and D. Boutat “Detection of Actuator Faults in Flight Control System”. Canadian Aeronautics and Space Journal. Accepted for publication, September 2009
[4.] Melhem, K., Saad, M., Wang, W. and David Koiloko, “Stability Analysis and Tracking Control of Holonomic Mechanical Systems: A Constructive Approach”, Int. J. Modelling, Identification and Control, 2008
[5.] Seraphin Chally Abou, PhD, Chien-Tsung Lu & Maarouf Saad “Advanced Diagnostic / Prognostic System: An Integrated Approach to Systems Health Monitoring”. ATRS, world conference, Berkeley, CA 2007
[6.] Seraphin Chally Abou, PhD., Dao Thien-My “Physical System Modeling for the Design and Control of Mechatronic Systems”. ISTED International Conf. on Modeling, Simulation and Optimisation, pp 73-77, Montreal, Canada, 2006
[7.] Seraphin Chally Abou, PhD, H. Khan & N. Sepehri ‘’Nonlinear Observer Based Fault Detection Technique for Electro hydraulic Servo-Positioning Systems’’. Mechatronics, Vol. 15, 9, pp 1025-1158, 2005
[8.] Khoder Melhem, Maarouf Saad, Seraphin Chally Abou, PhD & El-Kebir Boukas ‘’Linearization by Redundancy and Stabilization of Nonlinear Systems: A State Transformation Approach’’. 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and European Control Conference ECC 2005, Seville, Spain