Faculty Directory

Baras, John S.

Baras, John S.

Distinguished University Professor
Lockheed Martin Chair in Systems Engineering
Founding Director, Institute for Systems Research, 1985-1991
Director, Maryland Hybrid Networks Center, 1992-present
Electrical and Computer Engineering
The Institute for Systems Research
Mechanical Engineering
Fischell Department of Bioengineering
Maryland Robotics Center
2247 A.V. Williams Bldg.

John S. Baras received the Diploma in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (with Highest Honors) from the National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece, in 1970, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, in 1971 and 1973, respectively. Since 1973, he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland at College Park, MD, USA, where he is currently a Distinguished University Professor. He is also a Faculty Member of the Applied Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computation Program, and Affiliate Professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering, the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Department of Aerospace Engineering, and the Department of Decision, Operations and Information Technologies, Robert H. Smith School of Business. Since 2013, he has been a Visiting Senior Research Scientist at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden, and the Institute for Advanced Study of the Techical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. From 1985 to 1991, he was the Founding Director of the Institute for Systems Research (ISR) (one of the first six National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers). In 1990 he was appointed to the endowed Lockheed Martin Chair in Systems Engineering. Since 1992, he has been the Director of the Maryland Center for Hybrid Networks (HYNET), which he co-founded.

He is a IEEE Life Fellow, SIAM Fellow, AAAS Fellow, NAI Fellow, IFAC Fellow, AMS Fellow, AIAA Fellow, Member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). Major honors and awards include the 1980 George Axelby Award from the IEEE Control Systems Society, the 2006 Leonard Abraham Prize from the IEEE Communications Society, the 2014 Tage Erlander Guest Professorship from the Swedish Research Council, and a three year (2014-2017) Senior Hans Fischer Fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Study of the Technical University of Munich, Germany. In 2016 he was inducted in the University of Maryland A. J. Clark School of Engineering Innovation Hall of Fame. He was awarded the 2017 Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Simon Ramo Medal, the 2017 American Automatic Control Council (AACC) Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award, and the 2018 American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics Aerospace Communications Award. In June 2018 he was awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by his alma mater the National Technical University of Athens, Greece.

He has coauthored more than 1,000 technical papers in refereed journals and conferences, one book (Path Problems in Networks, 2010), co-edited three others, with 15,587 Google Scholar citations and an h-index of 55. He has given many plenary and keynote addresses in major international conferences worldwide. He has educated 91 doctoral students, 120 MS students and has mentored 70 postdoctoral fellows. He has been the initial architect and continuing innovator of the pioneering MS on Systems Engineering Program of the ISR. His research interests include systems and control, optimization, communication networks, applied mathematics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, signal processing and understanding, robotics, computing systems, network security and trust, systems biology, healthcare management systems, model-based systems engineering. He has been awarded nineteen patents and has been honored worldwide with many awards as innovator and leader of economic development.

Fellows

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 1984

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science, 2006

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 2014

American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2015

National Academy of Inventors, 2015

International Federation for Automatic Control, 2016

American Mathematical Society, 2019

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2020

Honors and Awards

1971, Ch. Chrysovergis Award, awarded by the Senate of the National Technical University of Athens, to the outstanding graduating student from the Department of Electrical Engineering

1978, Naval Research Laboratory Research Publication Award, Naval Research Laboratory, for “Ship RCS Scintillation Simulation”, Naval Research Laboratory Technical Report 8189, May,2,1978

1980, George S. Axelby Prize, IEEE, Control Systems Society, for the paper “Discrete-Time Point Processes in Urban Traffic Queue Estimation”, IEEE transactions On Automatic Control, AC-24, No. 1, pp. 12-27, February 1979, chosen among papers published in the IEEE transactions On Automatic Control, Vol. AC-23 (1978), and Vol. AC-24 (1979), December 11, 1980

1983, Alan Berman Research Publication Award, from the Naval Research Laboratory , for "Analysis and Evaluation of an Advanced EW System I: Deterministic Formulation", Naval Research Laboratory Technical Report 8629, August 11, 1983

1984, IEEE Fellow, IEEE, “for contributions to distributed parameter systems theory, quantum and nonlinear estimation, and control of queuing systems”

1991, Outstanding Invention of the Year Award, from the University of Maryland, for the invention of a “Low Complexity CELP Speech Coder”

1993, Alan Berman Research Publication Award, from the Naval Research Laboratory, for “Hierarchical Wavelet Representations of Ship Radar Returns”, Naval Research Laboratory Technical Report NRL/FR/5750-93-9593, December 31, 1993.

1994, Outstanding Invention of the Year Award , from the University of Maryland, for the invention of “A System Design for a Hybrid Network Data Communications Terminal Using Asymmetric TCP/IP to Support Internet Applications”

1995, Award for Outstanding Performance , for Analysis, Engineering and Implementation of a Novel, Actively Controlled Toolpost for High Precision Machining, from the Smart Materials and Structures DARPA Partnership Team, led by Martin Marietta Corporation.

1995, Outstanding Contributions to Seniors Award, from the Vice President for Student Affairs and the Senior Council, University of Maryland.

1996, Outstanding Paper Award, presented at Design SuperCon 1996 Conference, Santa Clara, CA., for “ATM in Hybrid Networks"

1996, Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) Research Award of Excellence for Outstanding Contributions in Advancing Maryland Industry  for research, development and commercialization done with Hughes Network Systems.

1997, Outstanding Service and Contributions to the Development of Strategic Directions for Increasing the Competitiveness of Maryland’s Growth Industry Sectors, presented by the Maryland Economic Development Commission in collaboration with the Department of Business and Economic Development of the State of Maryland.

1998, Mancur Olson Research Achievement Award, from the University of Maryland College Park, award honors faculty whose research achievements have been extraordinary over a long time period.

1999, Finalist in the Invention of the Year Competition for 1998, University of Maryland College Park, for the invention “A Method for Distributed Shared Key Generation Using Fractional Keys”

1999, Interviewed by J. Harter WJLA Channel 7, WJLA Channel 7, on my research on wireless Internet, and appeared in the Channel 7, Five-o’clock News program, on February 5, 1999.

2002, Best Paper Award in IT/C4ISR (Information Technology, Information Technology/Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) , at the 23rd Army Science Conference , for “On-Line Detection of Distributed Attacks from Space-Time Network Flow Patterns”

2004, Best Paper Award, presented at the ACM Workshop on Wireless Security, WiSe ’04, for the paper “Trust Evaluation in Ad-Hoc Networks”.

2006, Elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engieering Sciences (IVA), IVA is the world’s oldest engineering academy. Its mission is to promote the engineering and economic sciences and the development of industry for the benefit of society.

2007, Leonard G. Abraham Prize in Communication Systems, IEEE Communication Society (ComSoc), presented at the International Conference on Communications (ICC2007), for the paper “On Trust Models and Trust Evaluation Metrics for Ad Hoc Networks”, Journal of Selected Areas in Communications, Security in Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks, Vol. 24, Number 2, pp. 318-328, February 2006.

2008, Globecom '08 Best Paper Award for Wireless Networks , presented at the IEEE Global Communications Conference 2008 held at New Orleans, Louisiana, for the paper “Performance Metric Sensitivity Computation for Optimization and Trade-off Analysis in Wireless Networks”

2008, Best Paper Award for C4/ISR , at the 26th Army Science Conference, for “Power Allocation Tradeoffs in Multicarrier Authentication Systems”.

2008, Outstanding Invention of the Year Award , from the University of Maryland, for the invention of “Method and Implementation for Key Generation and Replacement using Markov Models”.

2009, Maryland Innovator of the Year Award, from the Maryland Daily Record, for the invention “Method and Implementation for Key Generation and Replacement using Markov Models”

2012, Award for "Principal Investigator with Greatest Impact", one of the two most significant awards bestowed for Research at the Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program (MIPS) 25th Anniversary Gala Celebration

2012, The Largest Selling Product, the other one of the two most significant awards bestowed for Research at the prestigious three year (2014-2017) Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program (MIPS) 25th Anniversary Gala Celebration. Award was given for HughesNet®, the product which resulted from Dr. Baras’ collaboration with Hughes Network Systems. HughesNet® is the largest-selling product ever developed with the help of the MIPS program. Dr. Baras created the algorithms by which the Internet is delivered over satellite worldwide.

2013, 2013 Jimmy Lin Award for Entrepreneurship, awarded by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Maryland, for the business model "Secure Mobile Devices", (with Vladimir Ivanov)

2013, IEEE Life Fellow

2013, Awarded the prestigious 2014 Tage Erlander Guest Professorship, by the Swedish Research Council

2014 to 2017, The prestigious three year (2014-2017) "Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship", by the Institute for Advanced Study of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany

2014 , American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow, “for distinguished contributions to the fields of systems and control, communication networks, network security, and leadership in establishing outstanding cross disciplinary research and education programs.”

2014, SIAM Fellow, for contributions to systems theory, stochastic control and communication networks.

2015, National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellow, http://www.academyofinventors.org/press-releases.asp

2016, 2017 International Federation for Automatic Control (IFAC) Fellow, for contributions to the theory and applications of stochastic systems and control and communication networks and for leadership in cross-disciplinary research and education

2016, 2017 IEEE Simon Ramo Medal, For exceptional contributions to the conception and commercialization of internet-over-satellite systems, and for leadership in model-based engineering, systems science, and engineering research.

2016, Inducted in the A. James Clark School of Engineeting Innovation Hall of Fame, for his outstanding contributions to Internet over satellite technology and hybrid networks, which has enabled broadband Internet services over interoperable satellite and terrestrial networks. | remarks |

2018, AIAA Aerospace Communications Award

2018, University of Maryland Distinguished University Professor

2019, Fellow of the American Mathematical Society for contributions to the mathematical foundations and applications of systems theory, stochastic systems, stochastic control, network security and trust, mentoring and academic leadership

2020, Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for fundamental and high impact contributions to Internet over satellite technology, cybersecurity, automatic control, model-based systems engineering, and for academic leadership.

 

Dr. Baras' research interests include scaleable multicast security; integrated management of hybrid communication networks; modeling and performance evaluation of large broadband hybrid networks; fast internet over heterogeneous (wireless-wireline) networks; manufacturing process selection for electromechanical products; intelligent control; wavelets; robust speaker identification; low complexity, high fidelity, low rate speech coding; image processing and understanding; learning clustering algorithms and classification; distributed control (or decision) systems; stochastic dynamic model building; stochastic control and scheduling; real-time sequential detection and estimation; computer-aided control systems design; queuing systems; quantum communications; nonlinear systems; and radar systems modeling and performance evaluation and distributed parameter systems.


Graduate students win ISR and ECE awards

Awards given for outstanding performance, teaching, and dissertation work.

ECE and ISR alumni feature prominently at American Control Conference

Xiaobo Tan, Sean Andersson and Fumin Zhang played key roles at the conference.

Profile of alum Nikolaos Sidiropoulos featured in IEEE SPS newsletter

He was lauded as an "SPS Pioneer in IEEE History."

ENES 489P holds Spring 2023 undergraduate systems design competition

The 48 students presented their model-based systems engineering design projects to a panel of industry professionals.

Baras, Sadler part of large ARL DataDrivER project

They have been awarded a one-year, $850K contract for "Integrated Data-Driven and Model-Based Systems Engineering."

Congratulations May 2023 ISR graduates!

Here's a list of May graduates with ISR ties---at all degree levels.

Accolades abound for graduating ECE Ph.D. student Nilesh Suriyarachchi

His work on how connected autonomous vehicles will help solve common traffic problems has led to UMD honors, prestigious internships and a best paper award.

ECE Names 2022-2023 Distinguished Dissertation Fellows

Fellowship recognizes excellence in research

Work on RIS-aided mmWave beamforming named a ‘best paper’

PhD student Nariman Torkzaban first author on research to improve wireless communication published in a special issue of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies

Remembering Roger Brockett, 1938-2023

Brockett was an ISR founding and permanent faculty member, and a giant of control and robotics.

Five Clark School authors part of new 'Age of Information' book

The text provides detailed information on the AoI network performance metric ushering in new opportunities for rethinking communication system design.

Alum Pedram Hovareshti wins BlueHalo honorable mention

He leads the medical technologies team, which was honored for work on multi-sensory rehabilitation.

Alum Sidiropoulos receives three IEEE Signal Processing Society awards

The former student of John Baras won the SPS Claude Shannon-Harry Nyquist Technical Achievement Award, the Best Paper Award, and the Donald G. Fink Overview Paper Award.

ECE Recognizes 2022 Distinguished Alumni Awardees

Award recognizes alumni who have made significant and meritorious contributions to their fields.

FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington visits UMD 5G Secure Test Bed

Simington participated in a CTIA meeting on 5G security and test bed tour hosted by ISR.

In Memoriam: 'Advisor for Life' Pravin Varaiya

Varaiya was a friend and supporter to ECE and ISR faculty and students for many years.

Congratulations ISR Spring 2022 graduates!

We congratulate graduates at all levels who have ISR advisors!

Packy, Suriyarachchi, Thompson, Weerakoon, and Young are 2022-2023 MRC GRA Recipients

The MRC Graduate Assistantship Program is open to mid-career UMD Ph.D. students with Maryland Robotics Center advisors.

New GAMEOPT framework will help future autonomous vehicles safely navigate unsignalized intersections

Algorithms for connected autonomous vehicles will help traffic safety in many ways.

Fatemeh Alimardani receives WTS-DC scholarship

The scholarships support female students studying transportation in the DC metro area.

Connected autonomous vehicles hold promise for alleviating traffic 'shock waves'

New paper by John Baras and Nilesh Suriyarachchi shows CAVs' proactive control actions can help on both beltways and straight-line roads.

Congratulations to our December 2021 ISR graduates!

ISR advisors graduated 22 Ph.D., 2 M.S., and 4 M.S.S.E. new alumni in December!

ECE Names 2021 Distinguished Alumni

Alumni named for their leadership and meritorious contributions to the field of engineering, their humanitarian efforts, and the application of their engineering education to other disciplines.

Best Student Paper Award for Baras students at ITSC 2021

Nilesh Suriyarachchi, Faizan Tariq and Christos Mavridis, along with John Baras, win for paper on connected autonomous vehicles.

ISR gives awards to Professor Richard La, four graduate students

ISR's annual awards ceremony was held on the Iribe Building's cantilever plaza.

NSF grant to address information quality in networked control systems

John Baras is the PI for project that will draw novel, synergistic connections between control, information, and real systems.

Measuring the 'suckiness' of invasive sea lampreys

Alum Xiaobo Tan and his MSU colleagues have developed sensing panels that can record the mechanics of the attachment.

Ph.D. student Nilesh Suriyarachchi gives seminar on connected autonomous vehicles for KTH

He spoke on cooperative highway merging for heterogeneous autonomous traffic.

Congratulations, May 2021 ISR graduates!

Institute for Systems Research faculty advised PhD, MS, BS and 12 MSSE students who graduated in May 2021.

Grad student Usman Fiaz wins Pelczar Award

The award is given to a doctoral candidate who has served at least one academic year as a teaching assistant with commendable performance, and who has demonstrated excellence beyond his or her course work.

Chapin, Fiaz and Mavridis win Wylie Dissertation Fellowships

The awards provide a semester of full-time support to doctoral candidates in the latter stages of writing their dissertations.

Improving patient health, one Amazon Alexa at a time

New research shows how telehealth can encourage patient self-care.

In memoriam: Dr. Radhakisan Baheti, NSF ECCS Program Director

Dr. Baheti passed away in March and will be greatly missed by ISR, ECE and the Clark School.

Ganguly, Fiaz, Suryan are first MRC GRA recipients

The new program is open to mid-career UMD Ph.D. students with Maryland Robotics Center advisors.

ISR, HyNet and ARLIS team for 5G initiatives

The work, which began in 2016, has resulted in new testbeds, published research and collaborations with the federal government, industry and international partners.

Remembering NSF ERC architect and leader Lynn Preston

Preston was a guide and friend to the Institute for Systems Research throughout its history.

ECE Names 2020 Distinguished Alumni

Mr. George Barnes, Dr. Jie Chen, Dr. Amit Roy-Chowdhury, Dr. Alan Pue, and Dr. Anuja Sonalker were honored on October 29 during a virtual ceremony.

MRC Faculty and Researchers to Present 16 Papers at International Robotics Conference - IROS 2020

International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems - From 25 October 2020 until 29 November 2020

New ebook details history of the NSF Engineering Research Center program

'Agents of Change' written by retired ERC program leader Lynn Preston and longtime collaborator Courtland Lewis.

Qu, Singh, Chakraborty, D'Antonio win 2020 ISR awards

The 2020 ISR Welcome Back Reception and Awards Ceremony was held online due to the pandemic situation.

Optimization model for outpatient cardiology scheduling published in Operations Research for Health Care

Work by Baras, Wood, Golden and Apergi could make getting access easier for heart patients.

Alum Xiaobo Tan named to Richard M. Hong Endowed Chair at MSU

At Maryland, Tan was advised by Professor John Baras and Professor P. S. Krishnaprasad.

Chrysa Papagianni appointed to University of Amsterdam faculty

The former Assistant Research Scientist will join the MultiScale Networked Systems group, working on secure programmable networks.

Alumnus Zhenyu Lin is Google software development engineer

The former student of John Baras is part of the Google Assistant team.

Alum Dipankar Maity joins ECE faculty at University of North Carolina Charlotte

Maity's research is broadly focused in controls, multi-agent-systems, robotics and cyber-physical systems.

Bill Fagan named UMD Distinguished University Professor

Fagan is the sixth ISR faculty member to receive the honor.

Alumnus Rajiv Laroia honored with IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal

Laroia founded Flarion Technologies in 2000 and developed Flash-OFDM broadband wireless technology there.

Reliability Engineering Ph.D./ECE M.S. student Paul Watrobski and colleagues write NIST IoT devices white paper

The paper describes how device characterization techniques could be used to describe IoT device communication requirements.

Port-Hamiltonian modeling formalism framework proposed for swarms

The approach could lead to new cooperative control system laws.

John Baras named Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Citation reads, "for fundamental and high impact contributions to Internet over satellite technology, cybersecurity, automatic control, model-based systems engineering, and for academic leadership."

Hybrid compositional planning for UAV rescue missions

John Baras and Usman Fiaz present an optimization-based method implementable in real-time.

Min Wu, Ray Liu named National Academy of Inventors Fellows

New inductees are latest of six UMD faculty recognized by NAI for ‘prolific spirit of innovation.’

Add-on mechanism could increase safety for networked vehicles

The event-based system could enhance controllability and notify other vehicles in dangerous situations.

ISR, ECE, CS, UMIACS faculty present 12 talks at Northrop Grumman University Research Symposium

ISR faculty's eight presentations are in machine learning, science of test, cybersecurity, and IoT sensing.

Ph.D. student Usman Fiaz competes in Unix 50 challenge at Nokia Bell Labs

Fiaz's team won the award for "Outstanding Achievement in Robotic Orchestration."

ISR remembers Carlos Berenstein

Berenstein, a founding faculty member of ISR, passed away Aug. 24, 2019.

Jiang, Marakby, Vaswani, and Wu named 2019 ECE Distinguished Alumni

The four alumni were nominated for their leadership and meritorious contributions to the field of engineering, their humanitarian efforts, and the application of their engineering education to other disciplines.

Alumnus Xiaobo Tan elevated to ASME Fellow

Tan was recognized for his work in robotics.

Alum Nikolaos Sidiropoulos named Louis T. Rader Professor at UVA

Sidiropoulos joined Virginia in August 2017 as the chair of its Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Baras named Fellow of the American Mathematical Society

Baras is also a Fellow of IEEE, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science, SIAM, AAAS, NAI, and IFAC.

Maryland Robotics Center launches a new postdoctoral fellowship program

The program will foster multidisciplinary collaborations among Maryland Robotics Center faculty.

John Baras to receive 2018 AIAA Aerospace Communications Award

Baras honored for his technical contributions and commercialization leadership of Internet over satellite, hybrid satellites, and terrestrial networks.

Alumna Mingyan Liu named ECE chair at University of Michigan

Liu earned MSSE and PhD degrees at Maryland, advised by John Baras.

ECE Inducts Three New Distinguished Alumni

Ghanadan, Tan, and Viniotis inducted for leadership and meritorious contributions to engineering, humanitarian efforts, and the application of their engineering education to other disciplines.

John Baras named Distinguished University Professor

Baras receives the highest academic honor conferred by the University of Maryland.

ENES 489P holds undergraduate systems design competition

Nine teams presented their model-based systems engineering design projects.

Aneesh Raghavan wins Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship

Raghavan's research interests are in control and networked cyber-physical systems.

Aneesh Raghavan and Usman Fiaz named outstanding graduate assistants

Only 80 graduate assistants university-wide will receive the Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award on May 8.

Alumnus Xiaobo Tan named Withrow Distinguished Scholar at Michigan State

The award recognizes the scholarship of senior faculty members in the MSU College of Engineering.

Profile and interview with John Baras in IEEE Control Systems Magazine

Dr. Baras talks about his education, career and research interests, as well as where he sees the field of control heading in the future.

Baras, Kenyon, Hughes Network Systems win MIPS Global Impact Award

The award celebrates their partnership in developing broadband Internet access via satellite.

Alumni Naomi Leonard and Xiaobo Tan part of public lecture on underwater robotics

The lecture was part of the Halcyon Dialogues on Robotics held at AAAS headquarters in Washington, D.C.

John Baras named AIAA Associate Fellow

AIAA Associate Fellows are individuals of distinction who have made notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics.

Alum Nikos Sidiropoulos named ECE chair at University of Virginia

Sidiropoulos is a former student of Professor John Baras.

Former postdoc Eirini Tsiropoulou named to IEEE ComSoc "rising stars" list

The N2Women: Rising Stars in Networking and Communications list honors women at the beginning of their careers.

Four Honored at 6th Annual ECE Distinguished Alumni Awards

The ECE Department honored four alumni for their leadership and meritorious contributions to the field of engineering.

John Baras receives 2017 IEEE Simon Ramo Medal

The medal is given "for exceptional achievement in systems engineering and systems science."

John Baras receives AACC Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award

The award is the highest recognition of professional achievement for US control systems engineers and scientists.

ENES 489P holds end-of-semester design contest

Projects were judged by representatives from Textron, TASC, Wheels Global Foundation and Grier Forensics.

Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou receives first Susan Frazier Postdoctoral Researcher Travel Award

The annual award will help ISR postdocs defray travel expenses of presenting research at academic workshops and conferences.

Dipankar Maity to receive Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award from UMD Graduate School

Winners of the award are among the top 2 percent of GAs on campus in a given year.

Tsiropoulou to join University of New Mexico faculty

Postdoctoral Researcher Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou will be a tenure-track assistant professor.

UMD Pushes Beyond Line of Sight to Map Impacts of Traditional Farming in Belize

The project marks the first time a UAS Test Site operator has flown using only instrumentation and cameras.

Congratulations ISR graduates!

These new alumni graduated from the University of Maryland in December 2016.

Alumnus Xiaobo Tan elevated to IEEE Fellow

His citation reads, “for contributions to modeling and control of smart materials and underwater robots.”

John Baras wins 2017 IEEE Simon Ramo Medal

The medal is given for exceptional achievement in systems engineering and systems science.

John S. Baras inducted into Clark School Innovation Hall of Fame

Baras created algorithms and protocols by which Internet services can be delivered over satellite.

Narayan, Zhou, Schlotfeldt, Strahan win ISR outstanding awards

ISR confers awards of excellence in its annual ceremony.

Eirini Tsiropoulou is new postdoc

She is working with John Baras on various networking research problems.

John Baras named IFAC Fellow

Baras honored "for contributions to the theory and applications of stochastic systems and control and communication networks and for leadership in cross-disciplinary research and education."

FICO purchases alums' cyber risk startup

Mingyan Liu and Manish Karir lead QuadMetrics, which calculates a 'security risk' score for businesses.

ENES 489P holds end-of-semester design competition

Undergraduate capstone course teaches hands-on systems engineering principles

Adomaitis, Baras, MacCarthy speakers at UMD climate forum

Trio spoke at "Systems Engineering for the Integration of Renewable Energy Resources."

Alumnus Radha Poovendran is PI for cybersecurity MURI grant

The research will aim to protect against a new type of continuous computer hacking attack, known as advanced persistent threats.

NAI Fellows' names read into the Congressional Record

Rep. David Jolly honored the Fellows, who include John Baras, Ben Shneiderman, Robert Fischell and E. Albert Reece of the University System of Maryland.

Alum Xiaobo Tan named 'Foundation Professor' at Michigan State

Tan develops bio-inspired underwater robots, electroactive polymer sensors and actuators.

Baras, Shneiderman named Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors

ISR faculty part of University of Maryland’s first cohort of NAI Fellows.

Baras, Yu, Sadler issued patent for wireless communication authentication

The invention is an authentication scheme encompassing a large family of authentication systems which may be built over existing transmission systems.

New research will help cyber-physical systems understand human activities

NSF grant funds Fermüller, Baras and Aloimonos to develop a three-layer architecture.

UMD Invention Could Make Your Mobile Device Almost Impossible to Break Into

Team develops authentication system for both fingerprint and sensor on mobile device.

Alumnus Xiaobo Tan promoted to full professor at Michigan State

Tan earned a 2002 Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland.

Maryland Robotics Center presents demonstrations at Maryland Day

Visitors meet bio-inspired, miniature, networked, underwater robots, and more.

ARC Lab holds inaugural open house

Lab conducts research in aunonomy, robotics and cognition.

Robots learn kitchen skills by watching YouTube videos

Autonomous robots can learn and perform complex actions via observation

Alum Radha Poovendran named IEEE Fellow; department chair

University of Washington professor recognized “for contributions to security in cyber-physical systems.”

John Baras elected AAAS Fellow

Baras recognized for accomplishments in multiple fields that mark his career.

Alum Xiaobo Tan developing robotic fish to 'stalk' real fish in the Great Lakes

The MSU professor's fish will track the movements of lake trout, walleye and lake sturgeon.

ECE Ph.D. Candidate Menon Wins Kulkarni Fellowship

Research grant will help Menon develop algorithms to maximize total power production on wind farms.

ENES 489P holds undergraduate systems design competition

Distinguished panel of industry and government experts judges students.

Students win ECE Dissertation Fellowships

This year all five Ph.D. students are related to ISR.

John Baras named Fellow of Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

Baras was recognized for his “contributions to systems theory, stochastic control and communication networks.”

Ph.D. student Anup Menon is finalist for IEEE CDC best paper award

Research developed an algorithm for desirable outcomes in multi-agent systems.

Alum Mingyan Liu named IEEE Fellow

Liu was honored for her contributions to modeling of wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks.

Mehdi Dadfarnia wins ISR undergraduate award

Undergraduate research at NIST supported the National Ambulance Specification project.

Audio of John Baras' October 2012 INCOSE MBSE lecture available

Hear a lecture about model-based systems engineering given by Professor John Baras. Slides available for downloading, too.

ISR Alumni Symposium is rousing success

Full house for presentations, discussions of entrepreneurship.

Alumnus Ayan Roy-Chowdhury and Professor John Baras issued U.S. Patent 8,397,062

Patent is for a method and system for source authentication in group communications.

MSSE student Mehdi Dadfarnia to speak at NIST seminar

First-year grad student will talk about requirements analysis for safer ambulance patient compartments.

Alumnus Alvaro Cárdenas joins University of Texas at Dallas faculty

Former student of John Baras specializes in network security.

Alum Xiaobo Tan improves robotic fish

Fish now can glide for long distances.

Baras, Somasundaram, Jain, and Tabatabaee issued U.S. Patent 8,325,746

This invention will optimize the link-state information that is to be broadcast in a routing domain of a communication network.

Baras Recognized with Two Greatest Economic Impact Awards

Maryland Industrial Partnerships recognized Dr. Baras and HughesNet® at their 25th Anniversary Gala.

Alumna Carole Teolis profiled in livescience.com story

Highlighted is NEON, an indoor navigation technology Teolis developed.

John Baras gives invited lecture at workshop on control of CPS systems

He presented a three-layer framework for modeling networked CPS.

Raghavan, Spyropoulos, Daily, Copeland win ISR awards

Outstanding awards presented at special reception in September.

Alumna Mingyan Liu promoted to full professor; wins best paper award

Former John Baras student a member of EECS Department faculty at the University of Michigan.

Alum Xiaobo Tan's research featured in NSF Highlight

Story features Tan's artificial muscle-enabled robotic fish.

Baras delivers distinguished lecture at the University of Michigan

Professor spoke on cooperative multi-agent systems and ‘magical’ graphs.

Baras is PI for $1M NIST cooperative agreement

Austin, Yang are co-PIs; research focuses on standards, test methods and measurement tools for cyber-physical systems.

Baras gives invited tutorial at WPMC'11

Professor speaks on wireless information infrastructures and the future internet.

Baras delivers keynote lecture at GE Global Research Controls Symposium

Professor speaks on emerging framework for model-based systems engineering.

Baras gives invited plenary lecture at MED2011

Lecture topic was “Cooperative Networked Systems: Multiple Graphs, Coalitional Games, New Probabilistic Models.”

GameSec 2011 Call for Papers Extended

Submission deadline is now July 5.

Baras Gives Invited Plenary Talk at IEEE-CYBER 2011

Prof. John Baras spoke on the subject of “Component-based Architectures for the Synthesis of Intelligent Networked Systems.”

Baras delivers keynote address at Labex Comin Labs opening

Speaks on the future of broadband networks at INRIA, Rennes Bretagne Atlantique.

2011 ISR Awards Ceremony winners announced

Awards given to faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students.

Roger Brockett honored for devotion to graduate student advising

ISR-affiliated faculty member receives Harvard's Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising.

Baras keynote speaker at ARO Special Workshop on Hardware Assurance

Lecture addressed physical layer security and trust mechanisms.

Baras Co-Editor of New Book, "Decision and Game Theory for Security"

Book addresses security investments, privacy, network security, authentication, and algorithms for security.

John Baras gives distinguished lectures in China

Professor speaks at Tsinghua University and Institute of Systems Science of the Chinese Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science.

Alumnus Ion Matei receives NIST postdoctoral fellowship

Work will focus on applying model-based systems engineering techniques in manufacturing.

Shamma, Baras receive MIPS grant funding

Research will improve speech separation software, develop broadband Internet-via satellite system.

John Baras, Vladimir Ivanov interviewed for TV segment on RFID theft

Two-part segment focuses on stolen identity and technology to prevent it.

Intelligent Automation, Inc. to sponsor colloquia series

IAI president and ISR alumnus Vikram Manikonda announces generous support.

Baras and Zhou issued U.S. Patent 7,827,459 for communications protocol

The invention is an improved telecommunications protocol.

ISR's busy November: NSF site visit, 25th anniversary dinner, SAC meeting

The Institute for Systems Research held three major events from Nov. 17–19.

Baras is Maryland lead for Systems Engineering Research Center

SERC is a consortium of 20 universities leveraging expertise in systems engineering.

Grad Students Win European Trusted Infrastructure Summer School Scholarships

Students advised by John Baras attend European Trusted Infrastructure School.

Baras is co-PI on NSF cyber-physical systems award

Research is contributing to cost effective development and deployment of many safety and security-critical cyber-physical systems.

Baras, Tabatabaee awarded new NSF NeTS grant

Three-year grant will explore "Component Based Routing and Clique Based Scheduling for Modular Cross-layer Design of Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks."

University of Maryland, U.S. Army RDECOM sign CRADA Agreement

Agreement expands research, development and engineering efforts between the two entities.

Poovendran Promoted to Full Professor at Univ. of Washington

Radha Poovendran, Ph.D. ‘99, conducts research in communications, network security, and cryptography.

Baras, Theodorakopoulos Publish New Book on Path Problems in Networks

Book offers modern view on algebraic path problems, including theory, algorithms, and applications.

Baras Gives Lecture on Model Based Systems Engineering at NIST

Professor spoke on the subject of “A Compositional Approach to Complex Systems Synthesis (COMPASS).”

Baras wins MIPS award to develop satellite communication algorithms

Professor will partner with Cerona Networks Corp. of Frederick, Md.

ENES 489P: New Systems Engineering Course for Fall 2010

ENES 489P offers hands-on experiences in systems engineering projects.

Marvin Sambur to speak at Air Force Systems Engineering Conference

ISR Professor of the Practice will brief study on SEP Effectiveness.

Horiuchi, Baras, Humbert participating in Department of Defense MURI projects

Projects focus on autonomous unmanned aircraft vehicle systems.

Alumnus Xiaobo Tan Earns Tenure at MSU

Tan, a 2002 ECE alumnus, has been promoted to Associate Professor of ECE at Michigan State University.

Baras gives semi-plenary lecture at NTNS2010

Professor speaks on “Dynamic 'Magic' Graphs in Cooperative Networked Systems.”

Baras gives plenary lecture at DYCOPS 2010

Professor speaks on "Architectures, Modularity and Robustness in Networked Control System."

Baras gives invited lecture to NITRD large scale networking group

Professor spoke on important research problems and challenges in complex dynamic networks.

Baras delivers distinguished lecture at UAEU

Speaks on security and trust in communication, information and social networks.

Martins, Somasundaram, Frazier win awards at ISR's annual ceremony

Congratulations to our outstanding faculty, graduate student and staff member!

Alumnus Xiaobo Tan receives MSU Teacher-Scholar Award

Assistant professor one of six to win the early career award.

Baras Participates in International Panel on Control Systems Design

Baras a panelist at "Designing Better Control Systems with Computational Models" in Shanghai, China.

Baras presents distinguished lecture at UC Irvine

ECE/ISR professor speaks on trust and reputation in networked systems.

Baras addresses National Science Foundation's annual ERC meeting

ISR founding director talks about the institute's past, present and future.

Former Director Eyad Abed honored at ISR reception

Abed is now a dean at United Arab Emirates University.

Alum Xiaobo Tan receives new autonomous robotic fish grant

The highly maneuverable, energy-efficient gliding fish will monitor aquatic environments.

Baras wins 'Innovator of the Year' Award

Key management system allows for high security with only modest communication, computation and memory requirements.

Baras, Yu win ECE Department's first Jimmy Lin Award

Award given for the invention, "Wireless Communication Method and System for Transmission Authentication at the Physical Layer."

Baras, Martins part of $9 million funding for microelectronics and systems research

SRC/DARPA grant establishes the Multi-Scale Systems Design Center.

Baras appointed to IEEE Systems Council

The Systems Council advances and coordinates IEEE work carried out in system design, development and management.

Alumnus Matthew James wins Best SICON Paper Prize

Former student of John Baras co-authored "An Introduction to Quantum Filtering."

Alumnus Xiaobo Tan to Lead New NSF Program for Secondary School Teachers

"Research Experiences for Teachers" will focus on biology-inspired technology and systems.

Baras, Gu and Jiang Receive NASA Patent Application Award

Professor and alumni develop new method for conditional access in broadcast/multicast systems.

Baras Participates in Panel on Mobile Wireless Networks Technology

Professor one of four experts to engage in discussion on "The Future of Multi-hopping" at MobiHoc 2009.

NSA designates University of Maryland as 'National Center of Academic Excellence'

OIT IT director and ECE/ME/ISR faculty honored for work in information assurance research.

Fourteen ISR-affiliated students receive Ph.D.s

Congratulations to our ISR-affiliated doctoral graduates!

Carlos Berenstein to retire in July

The Math/ISR professor gave a special lecture on May 21.

Eyad Abed to Join United Arab Emirates University

ISR director, ECE professor will become dean of UAEU's College of Information Technology.

ISR faculty participating in two Department of Defense MURI projects

Baras, Abed, Martins and Shamma to conduct research in multi-university research initiatives.

Baras, Goldsman win Invention of the Year Awards

Key exchange system and thin-film battery are top inventions.

Best paper award to Baras, Yu, Sadler

Trio win at Army Science Conference for paper on power allocation tradeoffs.

Best paper award at 2008 IEEE GLOBECOM

John Baras and three former/current advisees win in wireless networks category.

Baras Delivers Keynote Address at MobiCom 2008

Professor speaks at premier international forum addressing mobile computers and wireless networks.

TRX Systems wins Global Security Challenge competition

ISR alum Carole Teolis is the CEO of this company with University of Maryland ties.

Alumnus Nikos Sidiropoulos elected IEEE Fellow

Former student of John Baras also is an IEEE Signal Processing Society Distinguished Lecturer.

Vahid Tabatabaee joins ISR as Assistant Research Scientist

ISR alumnus will concentrate on wireless network research.

Alumnus Tan Presents Research at Capitol Hill Science Funding Event

Xiaobo Tan, assistant professor at Michigan State, showcased his research at a June event in DC.

ISR announces Systems Symposium poster contest winners

Five posters selected for $500 research support prize.

ECE Faculty Honored at Inaugural Scholarship & Research Celebration

Twenty-seven ECE faculty members honored, representing 1/8 of researchers recognized university-wide.

Alumnus Xiaobo Tan receives ONR grant for biomimetic robotic fish

Robots are based on biological principles and incorporate biomimetic electroactive polymers.

Researchers Win MURI Award for Multi-Scale Networks

Team that includes Profs. Baras and Ephremides wins multi-million dollar grant to develop communication networks.

Spring 2008 Systems Solutions available

Two symposiums, research and industry news, faculty and alumni updates, and more in ISR's newsletter.

Baras Delivers ECC '07 Plenary, Publishes Paper on Wireless Security

Based on ECC plenary lecture, paper was published in special issue of European Journal of Control.

Baras Gives Plenary Lectures on Wireless Security

Professor speaks at Med-Hoc-Net 2007 Conference in Corfu, Greece.

Baras gives plenary address at CAMS'07

Topic is collaborative control of underwater vehicles under severely limited communications.

ISR postdoc Vijay Gupta to join Notre Dame faculty

Research will focus on networked systems and multi-agent systems.

Congestion Control in Satellite Networks (ISR IP)

This IP is available to license.

John Baras invited speaker at MIT Enterprise Forum

ECE/ISR professor spoke on his patented "new method and apparatus for conditional access in broadcast/multicast systems."

Baras, Theodorakopoulos selected for IEEE Abraham Prize

Pair wrote best paper in communications systems published in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications in 2006.

Baras Delivers Keynote Address at Control Over Communication Workshop

Professor speaks at international workshop on feedback control over noisy communication channels.

Krishnaprasad, Baras, Moss participating in new MURI awards

ISR faculty on teams researching MANETs, sensor networks and micro air vehicles for Department of Defense.

UMD President Mote includes ISR highlights in remarks to legislators

Awards and research of ISR faculty, ISR industry partnerships cited in speech to Maryland General Assembly

ISR alum Ajay Gupta chairs task force for incoming Maryland governor

Gupta's firm guides O'Malley's cyber security and data privacy transition.

Richard La promoted to associate professor

ECE and ISR faculty member is specialist in network modeling and resource allocation.

Baras, Liu, Davis receive MIPS grants

Grants will support development of emergency responder communication software, a wireless Internet software library, and a database of harmful chemicals.

Baras honored for IVA membership at special reception

ISR founding director elected to Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science.

ISR alumni Sarkar, Poovendran earn tenure

Both have been promoted to associate professor at their universities

Berenstein, Baras, Gavilánez author network tomography article

American Mathematical Society publishes work in new book

Hendler part of DoD/MoD International Technology Alliance contract

ISR-affiliated professor part of team awarded contract for security, planning and decision making

Mingyan Liu promoted at University of Michigan

ECE/ISR alumna is named associate professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

Baras elected to Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science

Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR) has been elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science.

Miao Yu wins Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award

ISR-affiliated Assistant Professor Miao Yu (ME) will receive funds to assist with research.

ISR's 20th Anniversary Celebration Symposium

Special day features friends from throughout ISR's history

Baras, Gu, Jiang awarded patent for video codec

Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR) and ISR alumni Junfeng Gu and Yimin Jiang were issued U.S. Patent 7,006568 on Feb. 28, 2006 for a 3D wavelet-based video encoding/decoding system.

ISR alum Xiaobo Tan wins NSF CAREER Award

ISR alum and current Michigan State University ECE Assistant Professor Xiaobo Tan has won a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for his research, "Dexterous Biomimetic Micromanipulation Using Artificial Muscles: Modeling, Sensing and Control."

Abed, Baras, Krishnaprasad, Justh speak at swarming workshop

Speakers apply natural behaviors to networked groups of autonomous vehicles

Three new MIPS contacts for ISR faculty

Research includes wireless communication, preventing denial of service attacks and fire safe locator systems

ISR alum Aaron Falk named chair of IRTF

USC scientist to head Internet Research Task Force

Theodorakopoulos and Baras win best paper award

Grad student and advisor won for “Trust Evaluation in Ad-Hoc Networks.”

ISR's Xiaobo Tan joins Michigan State University

July 2004—Former ISR research associate to become Assistant Professor in ECE department.

Carlos Berenstein honored with celebration of his career

June 2004—ISR professors among speakers at the event, hosted by George Mason University.

Undergrad Jennifer Roberts wins two prestigious awards

April 2004—Graduating senior wins both NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award and Hertz Foundation award for upcoming graduate study.

CSHCN Industrial Advisory Board meeting held on April 20

ISR-affiliated center directed by Professor Baras

ISR faculty showcase research to Honeywell Labs delegation

Research of Baras, Abshire, Ghodssi, Krishnaprasad and Justh featured.

Mingyan Liu wins CAREER Award

Project develops design methodology for large-scale wireless sensor networks

Abed co-PI of a new NSF SGER grant

Research will focus on optimal stochastic unit responses subject to ramp and network constraints

Liu, Milner, Baras participating in MIPS awards

Research aids small Maryland companies.

Baras receives ARL Certificate of Appreciation

Professor recognized for support of CTA conference.

Ephremides, Baras, La, Ulukus awarded wireless networks grant

Research to exploit inter-layer dependencies in network protocols for improved performance.

Baras, Berenstein, Ephremides, Liu and Papadopoulos win DoD URI

Research to focus on distributed immune systems for wireless networks information assurance

Faculty participating in three different MURI awards

Research includes networked control systems, hybrid smart materials and radiofrequency pulses

ISR awarded grant for combined research and curriculum development in systems engineering

Faculty team to develop, widely disseminate, and evaluate an information-centric systems engineering curriculum

Shamma, Horiuchi, Baras, Krishnaprasad, Moss awarded acoustic sensors contract

Team will develop intelligent and noise-robust interfaces for MEMS acoustic sensors for DARPA

Baras, Poovendran win integrated security services contract

DARPA awards funding for dynamic coalition management

Other professional society fellows

  • Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science Fellow, 2006
  • Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Fellow, 2014

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

  • Fellow, 1984

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)

  • Fellow, 2020

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

  • Fellow, 2015

National Academy of Inventors

  • Member, 2015

American Mathematical Society

  • Fellow, 2019