Yogendra Shastri


Address:
1018, S. Oakley Blvd., Apt.1,
Chicago, IL - 60612
Phone no: (312) 375-2354
email:yshast1@uic.edu

Link to personal web page

Ph.D. Research Topic:

The Ph.D. thesis, titled "Sustainable system management", looks into the aspect of decision making related to ecosystem management with sustainability as the criteria. Ecosystem management is a complicated task. Management options are available at different levels of the ecosystem and at different time and spatial scales. Sustainability provides a suitable index in such tasks, encompassing the various aspects of the system properties. The work will explore the management decision making using sustainability criteria. Fisher information based sustainability hypothesis is used as the quantifying measure of sustainability. The work will consider different parts of the system, from the individual industries to the complete natural ecosystem. After looking at each sub-system separately, the integrated system, with multiple objectives will be considered. Mathematical theories such as optimization and optimal control will be used to make the management decisions. Uncertainty, an important aspect of any system, will also be accounted for in the work.


Research Projects at VRI:

  1. Algorithms, Methods and Tools
  2. Sustainability and Security
  3. Energy and Environment
  4. Manufacturing, Planning and Management
  5. Molecular Modeling and Simulation



Research Interests:

  1. Sustainability and sustainable management
  2. Environmental management and pollution control
  3. Optimization and optimal control
  4. Application of advanced control in bioengineering

Academic History:

  1. Ph.D.: Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois, Chicago (enrolled in Fall 2003).
  2. M.Tech.: Systems and Control Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, 2003.
  3. B.Tech.: Chemical Engineering, Laxminarayan Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India, 2000.

Publications:

Journal:

  1. Y. Shastri and U. Diwekar. "Sensor placement in water networks: A stochastic programming approach". In Journal of Water Resource Planning and Management. Under review.
  2. Y. Shastri and U. Diwekar. "An efficient algorithm for large scale stochastic nonlinear programming problems". In Computers and Chemical Engineering. Under review.
  3. Y. Shastri and U. Diwekar. "Sustainable ecosystem management using optimal control theory: Part 1 (Deterministic systems)". In Journal of Theoretical Biology. Under review.
  4. Y. Shastri and U. Diwekar. "Sustainable ecosystem management using optimal control theory: Part 2 (Stochastic systems)". In Journal of Theoretical Biology. Under review.
  5. Y. Shastri, U. Diwekar and S. Mehrotra. "Water waste management and mercury trading: An optimization approach". In Journal of Environmental Management. Submitted for review.
  6. Y. Shastri and U. Diwekar. "L-shaped BONUS algorithm with application to water pollutant trading". In Annals of Operations Research. Submitted for review.

Proceedings:

  1. Y. Shastri and U. Diwekar. Sustainability of water ecosystem under uncertainty. In AIChE Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, 2004.
  2. Y. Shastri and U. Diwekar. Application of stochastic programming for optimal sensor placement in water distribution networks. In The Tenth International Conference on Stochastic Programming, 2004.
  3. Y. Shastri, T. Schweickhardt and F. Allgower. Plant and control relevant nonlinearity analysis of a CSTR: A case study. In 7th International Symposium on Dynamics and Control of Process Systems (DYCOPS), 2004.

Theses:

  1. Y. Shastri. Nonlinearity measures of optimal static state feedback controllers. M.Tech. Report, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, 2003.
  2. Y. Shastri. Application of higher order statistics in nonlinear system identification. M.Tech. Research Project Report, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, 2003.
  3. Y. Shastri. Graph theory based methods for fault diagnosis in chemical process industries. M.Tech. Mini Project Report, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, 2002.
  4. Y. Shastri. Regeneration of Potassium Permanganate (KMnO4) from Manganese-di-Oxide (MnO2) waste. B.Tech. Project Report, Laxminarayan Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India, 2000.

Review Paper/Poster Presentations:

  1. Y. Shastri and A. Phanse. Renewable energy sources in rural areas. At 'Technoscript', "Expressions-98", the technical festival organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) at the Visvesvaraya Regional College of Engineering, Nagpur, India, 1998.
  2. Y. Shastri, A. Phanse and S. Kulkarni. Zero emission cluster of industries. At "Treatwaste - 99", a national level seminar on 'Advances in Industrial Waste Treatment' at Laxminarayan Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India, 1999.
  3. Y. Shastri and A. Phanse. Briquitting of biomass for energy recovery. At "Treatwaste - 99", a national level seminar on 'Advances in Industrial Waste Treatment' at Laxminarayan Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India, 1999.
  4. Y. Shastri and S. Kulkarni. Hybrid vehicles for pollution control. At "SCETS-99", a students' chemical engineering and technology seminar, at Laxminarayan Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India, 1999.
  5. Y. Shastri. Discovery of Bakelite - The first synthetic polymer. At the national level essay competition, under the topic of 'A major scientific or technological discovery of this century', organized by Department of Atomic Energy Commission, Government of India, at BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Center), 1999.

Research Projects:

  1. M.Tech. Project: Worked on "Nonlinearity measures of optimal static state feedback controllers", under the guidance of Prof. Frank Allgower, University of Stuttgart, and Prof. R.D. Gudi, I.I.T. Bombay at University of Stuttgart, Germany. The work involved a comparative analysis of three control-relevant nonlinearity quantification methods, the exact optimal controller and two approximations to the exact optimal controller. The work was supervised by Dipl.-Ing. Tobias Schweickhardt (University of Stuttgart).
  2. M.Tech. Research Project: Worked on the topic of "Application of higher order statistics in nonlinear system identification", under the guidance of Prof. R.D. Gudi, I.I.T. Bombay. The work investigated the possibility of identifying a nonlinear system and the structure of the nonlinear system using higher order statistics (e.g. bicoherence, bispectrum, trispectrum etc.).
  3. M.Tech. Mini Project: Worked on the topic of "Graph theory based methods for fault diagnosis in chemical process industries", under the guidance of Prof. R.D. Gudi, I.I.T. Bombay. The work investigated the option of using signed digraphs to perform fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) in complex chemical processes using qualitative reasoning.
  4. B.Tech. Project: Worked on the project of "Regeneration of Potassium Permanganate (KMnO4) from Manganese-di-Oxide (MnO2) waste", under the guidance of Dr. S.S. Bhagade, L.I.T. Nagpur. The project investigated the possibility of utilizing the MnO2 waste to generate KMnO4, thereby creating a value addition apart from solving the waste disposal problem.

Review Seminars:

  1. M.Tech. Seminar: Presented a seminar on "Grade change control in paper industry", under the guidance of Prof. K.P. Madhavan, I.I.T. Bombay. The seminar focused on the various alternatives proposed for an effective control of the paper machine and plant during the production grade change.
  2. B.Tech. Seminar: Presented a seminar on "Zero Emission Vehicle Using Cryogenic Engines", under the guidance of Dr. S.S. Bhagade, L.I.T. Nagpur. The seminar put forth the work done in using cryogenic liquids as fuels for the engines which worked in a fashion similar to the conventional steam engines using the atmospheric heat for evaporation.

Important Scholarships received:

DAAD (German Academic Exchange Scheme) to carry out the Master's project at the University of Stuttgart, Germany for ten months under the guidance of Prof. Frank Allgower.


Working Experience:

Worked for Tata Honeywell Limited, Pune as a Graduate Trainee Engineer from July 2000 to June 2001 in Hi-spec Solutions division. The job included projects on: (1) TRAINER simulation software for operator training simulators (OTS) development of industrial processes, and (2) the ManageAbility process optimization project for the salt manufacturing unit of Tata Chemicals Limited, Mithapur.


Working Experience:

Underwent a four week industrial summer training at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Mumbai Refinery.