April 25, 2013 | Eli Freund - School of Engineering

Networking the World: Dr. Peter Luh to Receive Prestigious Engineering Award

Dr. Peter Luh has been selected to receive the IEEE RAS Pioneer Award for 2013 "for pioneering contributions to the development of near-optimal and efficient planning, scheduling, and coordination methodologies for manufacturing and power systems."

By Victoria Chilinski (CLAS ’16)

lu2Dr. Peter Luh, the SNET Professor of Communications and Information Technologies in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, has been selected to receive the IEEE RAS Pioneer Award for 2013 “for pioneering contributions to the development of near-optimal and efficient planning, scheduling, and coordination methodologies for manufacturing and power systems.”

Dr. Luh thinks and speaks using examples and long chains of ideas, and his response when asked to comment on his work with IEEE was no exception to this. He reveals that the international nature of the organization speaks volumes of its mission, saying, “While other engineering disciplines are represented by societies with a national focus, electrical engineering doesn’t have an ‘American Society of Electrical Engineers.’ We have the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Our goal is to network the world.”

Over the course of the past three decades, Dr. Luh has developed and earned an excellent reputation within IEEE. He currently is an IEEE Fellow and has held various leadership positions within the institute’s committees.  He was also the founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (2003-07) and the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation (1999-03). 

Dr. Luh has a wide range of research interests, which include information technology and mathematical optimization of strategic importance to the society, including: intelligent manufacturing systems; smart and green buildings and eco-communities; smart power systems – smart grid, design of auction methods for electricity markets, robust renewable (wind and solar) integration to the grid, electricity load and price forecasting with demand management, and micro grid; and decision-making under uncertain, distributed, or antagonistic environments.  He has written and/or contributed to 15 book chapters, more than 100 archival technical journal papers, and more than 270 conference papers on subjects such as power/manufacturing systems, game theory, and large-scale optimization.

Dr. Luh was nominated for the Pioneer Award by Dr. Mengchu Zhou of New Jersey Institute of Technology, who is also an IEEE Fellow.

“I looked at the list of past [IEEE RAS Pioneer Award] recipients,” says Kazem Kazerounian, Interim Dean of the School of Engineering, “and the addition of [Dr. Luh’s] name brings recognition and pride to UConn.”