Arthur Westerberg

Arthur Westerberg retired as of June, 2004 and is no longer carrying out an active research program.

The last three research projects on which he worked before retirement were the following.

Westerberg, with Ph.D. student Lifei Cheng (co-directed with Eswaran Subrahmanian), created a simulation/ optimization/design/operation capability for stochastic models that describe the long-term future behavior of a process. This work showed how to formulate a problem with multiple objectives so it can be properly decomposed using a dynamic programming based algorithm. It also demonstrated, with a small problem, the very significant impact on solutions one will find that trade off present worth and risk.

Ph.D. student John Siirola (co-directed with Steinar Hauan) demonstrated the synergy of using many types of collaborating agents to solve complex single and multi-objective optimization problems. This work demonstrated that the approach truly parallelizes–using 100 computers solved problems, such as designing a chip-based chemical separator, 100 times faster than using one computer. Collaborating diverse agents solved problems seven to eight times faster still, while including multiple formulations enhanced performance by another factor of two to three.

Work in the n-dim group has developed information modeling environments and LIRE'. These systems support collaboration, history-keeping, design environment evolution, and event-handling for distributed teams of engineers carrying complex work processes such as design.

Westerberg is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and recipient of numerous awards, including the Lewis Award, AIChE, 2007; General Electric Senior Research Award, ASEE, 1999; E.V. Murphree Award, ACS, 1997; Founders Award, AIChE, 1995; AIChE Fellow, 1993; William H. Walker Award, AIChE, 1987; Computing in Chemical Engineering Award from the CAST Division, AIChE, 1983; ASEE Chemical Engineering Division Award (3-M Award), June, 1981.