Built in 1953, Century Tower honors students killed in World Wars I and II. It also commemorates UF's 100th anniversary. Inside is one of North America's largest cast-bell carillons.

 

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Pramod P. Khargonekar

Biography

As a UF alumnus who has made significant strides in his career, Dean Pramod P. Khargonekar brought a wealth of experience to the College of Engineering when he took the helm as dean in 2001.

Born August 24, 1956, in Indore, India, Khargonekar originally came to UF in 1978 to do graduate studies in electrical engineering under world-renowned engineer Rudolf Kalman after receiving his B. Tech. Degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in 1977.

After receiving an M.S. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Florida in 1980 and 1981, respectively, he joined the Gator Engineering faculty as an assistant professor of electrical engineering until August 1984. During that time, he met and married Seema Khargonekar. They now have two children, Aditya and Shivangi.

From 1984 to 1988, Khargonekar and his family called the University of Minnesota home. He served as an associate professor of Electrical Engineering before joining The University of Michigan in 1989, where he last held the positions of Claude E. Shannon Professor of Engineering Science and chairman and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

In July 2001, he rejoined the University of Florida as Dean of Engineering, Associate Vice President of the Engineering and Industrial Experiment Station (EIES) and Eckis Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Khargonekar's current research interests are in learning and intelligent systems, control of semiconductor manufacturing systems, logic control of manufacturing systems, and control of color xeroxgraphy. He has taught a wide range of courses in control systems as well as a graduate course in machine learning.

Khargonekar is a recipient of the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award (1985), the American Automatic Control Council's (AACC) Donald Eckman Award (1989), the IEEE W. R. G. Baker Prize Award (1991), the George Axelby Best Paper Award (1990), the Hugo Schuck ACC Best Paper Award (1993), the Japan Society for Promotion of Science Fellowship (1992), and a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (1997).

At the University of Michigan, he received a teaching excellence award from the EECS department in 1991, a research excellence award from the College of Engineering in 1994, and the Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship from 1995 to 1998. He is a Fellow of IEEE.

Khargonekar served as the Vice-Chair for Invited Sessions for the 1992 American Automatic Control Conference. He was an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions and Automatic Control, SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, Systems and Control Letters, and International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control. He is currently an associate editor of Mathematical Problems in Engineering.