MOLECULAR CONTROL ENGINEERING
The field of engineering control, a derivative discipline that owes its origin and strength to the diverse fields of mathematics, physics, engineering, statistics, and computer science, has played a pivotal role in the unfolding of our industrial infrastructure and in the evolution of the modern society. The field which formally began with the dynamic analysis of the behavior of the steam engine, the forerunner of the Industrial Revolution by James Watt in 1788, now occupies center stage in engineering physical, chemical, and mechanical processes as well as in current theories of finance and economics.
PMC-AT is pursuing research aimed at enabling the extension of those technologies to the microworld - a goal of intense interest in modern manufacturing and energy science. Molecular systems occupy a unique place in the hierarchy of dynamical systems to which control engineering may be applied, because of the transition between classical and quantum physical laws that occurs at this scale. The precise length and time scales of dynamical events thus become extremely important in molecular systems, since control strategies must adapt to the changes in the laws of physics.
PMC-AT's efforts in molecular control engineering are currently focused on:
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