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Russell Rhinehart, Ph.D.

Dr. Russell Rhinehart


Education

Ph.D., Chemical Engineering

North Carolina State University, 1985

 

M. S., Nuclear Engineering

University of Maryland, 1969

 

B. S., Chemical Engineering

University of Maryland, 1968


Major Areas of Interest

Process improvement (modeling, optimization, and control).

Product improvement (modeling, and design).


Recent Research Activities

Automating Process Management – Exploring the computer as a “cyber assistant” for process-level managerial decisions: recognizing steady-state, and triggering activities to analyze system behavior, and adjust the control system.

Nonlinear Process Control – Exploring approaches to use an engineer’s process-model for automatic control – from single loop feedback to multivariable, constraint-avoiding, horizon-predictive, economic optimizing algorithms.

Autonomous Knowledge Extraction – Exploring computer ability to extract linguistic cause-and-effect rules by observing normal process operations, as a human observer might develop understanding from observation.

Statistical and Probabilistic Methods in Process Control – Exploring methods for a self-tuning filter, steady-state identification, and a goodness of control monitor.

Nonlinear Constrained Optimization – Analysis revealed a fundamental relation between the number of random starts in optimization searches and the probability of finding the global optimum. Extensions of steady-state identification developed a functional stopping criterion for regression. Exploring Leapfrogging as a multi-player optimization algorithm.

Model Validation – Models are based on hypothesized mechanisms, and validation requires comparison to data. However, the data contain uncertainty. Exploring statistical model validation.

Tissue Engineering – Develop and validate models of the viscoelastic response of tissue structures to stress or strain to reveal fundamental mechanisms of nature. Knowledge allows product improvement by design, not trial-and-error.


Current Leadership Activities

Dr. Rhinehart is President (a 2-year volunteer position) of the American Automatic Control Council (AACC, www.a2c2.org), representing the United States automation community to the International Federation of Automatic Control. AACC hosts the annual and prestigious American Control Conference (ACC), recognizes exceptional achievements through diverse awards programs, supports K-12 awareness of control engineering, and promotes cooperation within the automatic control profession in the US. At any one time there are about 200 volunteer workers involved in AACC programmatic leadership. Including conference authors, participants, reviewers, sponsors, and other support volunteers, each year the AACC activities engage over 5,000 people, and represent a US community of about 300,000 involved in research, development, practice, or teaching of automation.

He is also the faculty advisor to the OSU student chapter of ISA. The Automation Society has over 50 OSU student members, most are graduate students in our electrical, industrial, mechanical, or chemical engineering programs. The organization mission is to promote automation as a career, and to develop student skills that are industrially practicable. Because of the activities and growth of the organization, last year Rhinehart received the OSU President’s Leadership Award as the outstanding faculty advisor to an OSU student organization.


Key Publications

  • Rhinehart, R. R., Instrument Engineers' Handbook, Vol I, Process Measurement and Analysis, 5th Edition, B. Liptak & K. Venczel Editors, Section 1.14, "”Uncertainty – Estimation, Propagation, and Reporting”, Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, in press 2013
  • Rhinehart, R. R., Instrument Engineers' Handbook, Vol III, Process Software and Digital Networks, 4th Edition, B. Liptak & H. Eren Editors, Section 2.13, "Neural Network Applications in Process Automation," Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2011
  • Rhinehart, R. R., Instrument Engineers' Handbook, Vol III, Process Software and Digital Networks, 4th Edition, B. Liptak & H. Eren Editors, Section 2.14, "Fuzzy Logic Applications in Process Automation," Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2011
  • Rhinehart, R. R., M. Su, and U. Manimegalai-Sridhar, “Leapfrogging and Synoptic Leapfrogging: a new optimization approach”, Computers and Chemical Engineering, Vol. 40, 11 May 2012, pp. 67-81. Click here for full text.
  • Ratakonda, S.; U. M. Sridhar; R. R. Rhinehart; and S. V. Madihally, “Assessing Viscoelastic Properties of Chitosan Scaffolds and Validating with Cyclical Tests”, Acta Biomaterialia, Vol. 8, No. 4, April, pp. 1566-1575, 2012. Click here for full text.
  • Rhinehart, R. R, S. Gebreyohannes, U. Manimegalai-Sridhar, A. Patrachari, and Md S. Rahaman, “A Power-Law Approach to Orifice Flow Rate Calibration”, ISA Transactions: The Journal of Automation, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 329-341, 2011. Click here for full text.
  • Shrowti, N., K. Vilankar, and R. R. Rhinehart, “Type-II Critical Values for a Steady-State Identifier”, Journal of Process Control, Vol. 20, No. 7, pp. 885-890, 2010. Click here for full text.
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