Lithium-Sulfur Batteries, Peritoneal Oxygenation, and the Cardinal Sin in Control

In this talk, I will take you on two brief journeys that have fascinated me, personally, for a few years, now.  The first journey will focus on the lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery chemistry, which promises to achieve revolutionary specific energy levels but faces several critical technical challenges.  I will summarize my collaboration with colleagues and students on several challenges associated with Li-S battery management and control.  These challenges include modeling, parameterization, identifiability, test trajectory optimization, and state estimation (including dip point detection).  The second journey will focus on peritoneal oxygenation, a potential medical intervention for treating patients suffering from respiratory failure due to ailments including COVID-19.  I will summarize my collaboration with colleagues and students on the development of a peritoneal oxygenation system, its use for large animal experiments, and the identification of both peritoneal mechanics and gas transport models based on these experiments.  I will conclude the seminar by bringing these two journeys together into an insight I learned from a colleague long ago, about the cardinal sin in control and how to avoid it.