News
2026
Congratulations, Jonghan and Mostafa! The papers “Logic-Based Verification of Task Allocation for LLM-Enabled Multi-Agent Manufacturing Systems” and “Attack-Resilient Control of Finite-State Cyber-Physical Systems via Inspection States” have been accepted to the 18th Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES).
Dr. Kovalenko has received support through the Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) Mid-Scale Seed Grant Program.
Welcome to Elijah Gruver and Chaitanya Patel, who joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher!
Congratulations, Hongliang! The paper “Energy-Aware Integrated Predictive Maintenance Planning and Production Scheduling” has been accepted to the 2026 American Control Conference (ACC).
Congratulations, Jonghan! The paper titled “Adaptive task planning and coordination in multi-agent manufacturing systems using large language models” has been accepted for publication in Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing.
2025
The CAIS lab enjoys a White Elephant gift exchange with Dr. Fitzsimons’s, Dr. Meira-Goes’s and Dr. Zhong’s labs!
Congratulations, Hongliang! The paper titled “Hierarchical Model Predictive Control for Energy-Aware Scheduling of Digital Twin-Based Batch Manufacturing Systems” has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering.
The CAIS lab enjoys a potluck party to celebrate the end of the semester!
Ilya, Hongliang, Adelaide, and Evan attended the Modeling Estimation and Control Conference (MECC 2024) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hongliang’s work was nominated for a best student paper award and he was selected as a “Rising Star” in the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division. Adelaide presented a poster and a short talk on her summer work for modeling a water treatment testbed. Ilya provided an overview of his recent CAREER award.
Welcome to Huihang Liu, who joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher!
Hongliang, Jonghan, Yifei and Greg presented their research at the IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2025) in Los Angeles, USA.
Congrats to Jonghan for passing the IE Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam!
An article featuring projects led by Jonghan and Yifei was highlighted by Universal Robotics! Excited to keep collaborating with DMI Companies through Pennsylvania’s Manufacturing PA Innovation Program.
Kickball game! A very exciting game with Dr. Derek Hall’s and Dr. Ezra Clark’s labs.
Ilya helped organize the workshop titled “The Future of Intelligent Manufacturing: From Innovation to Implementation.”
Dr. Kovalenko was invited to deliver a keynote speech titled “Intelligent and Adaptive Distributed Automation for Industrial Systems” at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2025). A video
Ilya, Yifei, and Jonghan attended the Automate 2025 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. They showcased some of the recent research with robotic assembly and had great interactions with the robotics and automation community.
Congratulations to Hongliang, winner of the poster competition at the 2025 industryXchange!
Welcome to graduate researcher Jiabao Zhao, visiting researcher Juan Jimenez, and undergraduate researcher Adelaide Orsetti!
Dr. Kovalenko delivered the seminar “Developing Intelligent Automation for Smart and Sustainable Manufacturing Systems” at the University of Connecticut.
The lab held a farewell bowling event for Joseph, who is returning to Technical University of Munich to complete his Master’s degree. Jonghan scored an impressive 182!
Dr. Kovalenko earned $70,000 working with DMI Companies through Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Manufacturing PA Innovation Program.
Dr. Kovalenko has been awarded a five-year, $689,000 NSF Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. The research project is titled “Intelligent Products for Mass Individualization in Manufacturing Systems.”
2024
The CAIS lab enjoys the White Elephant and holiday dinner with Dr. Fitzsimons’s and Dr. Meira-Goes’s labs!
The CAIS Lab attended the Pittsburgh Robotics Discovery Day to showcase research projects and network with academic and industry professionals in the robotics space.
Ryan presented his research at the Modeling Estimation and Control Conference (MECC 2024) in Chicago, Illinois. Afterwards, Ryan and Ilya got to join Prof. Kira Barton’s and Prof. Dawn Tilbury’s labs from University of Michigan for dinner.
The CAIS Lab goes on a hike at Stone Valley and returns to state college for an Autumn Cookout!
The CAIS Lab welcomes visiting scholar Joseph Alterbaum from the Technical University of Munich.
Jonghan presented his research at the IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2024) in Bari, Italy, joined by Oscar from Dr. Moore’s lab.
Congrats to Honglaing for passing the IE Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam!
Alanah presented her research at the 2024 Penn State OGEEP Summer Research Symposium.
Soccer game! Very exciting game with Dr. Derek Hall’s, Dr. Samuel Grauer’s and Dr. Ezra Clark’s team.
Yifei presented his research at the Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference (MSEC) in Knoxville.
Ryan presented his research at the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology (ISSST) in Baltimore, Maryland.
Welcome to Alanah Martinez from the University of New Mexico, who joined the lab as a summer research intern!
Jonghan, Alex, Yifei, and Hongliang presented their research at industryXchange 2024: Robotics in Pittsburgh.
Hongliang presented his research at the Penn State Climate Solutions Symposium.
Congrats to the CAIS Lab undergraduate researchers Victoria Lima and Hao Liu for graduating with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering!
Dr. Kovalenko presented the research at the Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES) 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The CAIS lab enjoys the semester-end potluck party with Dr. Meira-Goes’s labs!
Congrats to Jonghan for passing the Ph.D. Qualifying Exam!
Welcome to undergraduate researchers Shixun (Jacob) Sun, John Pimley, and Gregory Beal, who joined the lab in January 2024!
2023
The lab celebrated the holidays with a White Elephant gift exchange and Christmas dinner with Dr. Fitzsimons’s and Dr. Meira-Goes’s labs.
Congratulations to Mostafa on passing his Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam!
Jonghan, Alex, Oscar, and Dr. Kovalenko attended Pittsburgh Robotics Discovery Day and showcased robotic assembly research.
Dr. Kovalenko has been appointed as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE).
Dr. Kovalenko visited the Competence Center in Manufacturing at Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) in São José dos Campos, Brazil. He presented lab research and conducted a 3-day workshop on software tools.
Jan from Technische Universität München gave a talk on “Distributed Framework for Knowledge-Driven Root-Cause Analysis” and joined the lab for lunch.
Oscar presented at the 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2023) in Detroit, Michigan.
Congratulations to Sujani Patel on graduating with her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering!
Dr. Kovalenko presented at the 2023 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA 2023) in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Dr. Kovalenko and Hongliang presented their research at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2023) in Auckland, New Zealand.
The lab enjoyed a lunch together with Dr. Meira-Góes and visiting researchers.
Mostafa presented his research at the 2023 American Control Conference (ACC 2023) in San Diego, California.
Two papers have been accepted for the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2023):
Welcome to Alex Evans, who joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher!
The CAIS Lab officially launched at Leonhard 107 at Penn State University!
Congratulations to Oscar Wu and Chaeeun Kim on graduating with their B.S. in Mechanical Engineering!
The paper “A Model Predictive Control Framework for Improving Risk-Tolerance of Manufacturing Systems” has been accepted to the 2023 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA).
Welcome to Sufian, who joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher!
The paper “Risk-Averse Model Predictive Control for Priced Timed Automata” has been accepted to the 2023 American Control Conference (ACC).