Dr. Katherine A. Flanigan

Dr. Flanigan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Flanigan also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) have radically transformed engineering solutions over the last decade, improving infrastructure performance through the combination of sensing, computing, and control. CPSs have even been expanded to include human-in-the-loop control, where humans serve as operators or supervisors within the CPS. While these paradigms have been wildly successful for the design and operation of physical systems decoupled from—or only weakly coupled to—human social contexts, there are entirely unexplored human benefits and social capital derived from infrastructure that have yet to be scientifically understood and exploited.

Dr. Flanigan’s research reimagines current CPS theory, tools, and frameworks to explore systems where human behavior is central. Through her team’s work, the CPS paradigm is radically altered such that physical infrastructure is controlled and managed to meet social, or human-centered objectives that have never before been sensed, measured, or optimized. Dr. Flanigan’s work develops the theory and tools used for this purpose by establishing scientific understanding of human-centered infrastructure function, quantifying human benefits, and predicting and controlling these benefits. Here, the social context within which Dr. Flanigan’s work is situated is a first-class citizen; responsible (i.e., privacy preserving) sensing, computing, and management methodologies are emphasized and studied to prioritize user privacy, as well as to promote community engagement and governance.

Education

PhD - Civil Engineering Intelligent Systems, University of Michigan
MSE - Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Michigan
MSE - Civil Engineering, University of Michigan
BSE - Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University