CAPD - Center for Advanced Process Decision-making

History of PSE at Carnegie Mellon

1974 Gary Powers, former PhD student of Dale Rudd and classmate of Jeff Siirola, comes from MIT to join CMU to initiate research in the area of design, as motivated by Herb Toor (Dean of CIT) and Herb Simon.
1976 Art Westerberg, former PhD student of Roger Sargent, comes from Florida to join CMU. Funded by Herb Toor, Gary asks Art to join him in organizing the Design Research Center, which Gary heads for its first two years.
1978 Art Westerberg takes over as Director of the Design Research Center as Gary takes leave to establish his company Design Sciences.
1979 Ignacio Grossmann, former student of Roger Sargent, comes from the Mexican Petroleum Institute to join CMU and takes part in the Design Research Center (DRC).
1980 Art Westerberg steps down as Director of the DRC to take up duties as the Head of Chemical Engineering.
1981 Larry Biegler, former student of the late Dick Hughes, comes from U. Wisconsin to join our department and the DRC.
For next few years Art Westerberg, Larry Biegler and Ignacio Grossmann grow the effort in what was known at the time the area of "Computer-Aided Design(CAD)".
1983 Art Westerberg co-chairs FOCAPD Meeting.
1984 Ignacio Grossmann receives PYI, in 1985 Larry Biegler receives PYI. To obtain matching funds from industry the "Computer-Aided Process Design (CAPD) Consortium" is established in 1986. Art Westerberg becomes part of CAPD starting with five companies: Amoco, Exxon Res & Eng., Eastman Chemical, Simulation Sciences and Union Carbide.
1985 Art Westerberg and Sarosh Talukdar (ECE) are coPIs on a proposal to establish an Engineering Research Center in Design.
1986 NSF funds the Engineering Design Research Center (EDRC) for $21 million for eleven years. Art Westerberg is coDirector with Sarosh Talukdar for first six months and then Director for the next three and a half years. Fritz Prinz (ME) takes over and after him Dan Siewiorek (ECE, HCI). Ignacio Grossmann is the Synthesis Lab Director for the first seven years. Larry Biegler for last three. EDRC offers multidisciplinary courses with participation of Art, Larry and Ignacio.
1988 Art Westerberg, Larry Biegler and Ignacio Grossmann teach first industrial CAPD course, which continues to be taught today (with Steinar Hauan replacing Art after his retirement in 2004).
1989 Ignacio Grossmann co-chairs FOCAPD Meeting.
1992 Erik Ydstie, former PhD student of Roger Sargent, comes from UMass to join CMU.
1992 Erik Ydstie and Gary Powers join CAPD.
1994 "CAD" (Computer-Aided Design) group is renamed "Process Systems Engineering" (PSE) group.
1994 Larry Biegler co-chairs FOCAPD Meeting.
1994 Ignacio Grossmann becomes Head of Chemical Engineering and serves in that capacity until the end of 2002.
1996 With phase-out of EDRC, the center becomes the "Institute for Complex Engineered Systems" (ICES), motivated by Dean John Anderson. Pardeep Khosla first Director, succeeded later by Cristina Amon.
1996 Larry Biegler becomes President of CACHE until 1998.
1997 Art Westerberg, Larry Biegler and Ignacio Grossmann produce the textbook, "Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design."
1997 Ignacio Grossmann works with Tepper School (GSIA) in order to offer to CIT students "Minor in Manufacturing Management and Consulting" (renamed in 2005 "Minor in Supply Chain Management").
1998 Larry Biegler is appointed Director of CAPD, which expands its research efforts in Chemical Engineering after EDRC.
1999 Steinar Hauan, former student of Kristian Lien at Trondheim, joins CMU.
1999 Steinar Hauan joins CAPD.
2000 The CAPD, until then Computer-Aided Process Design (CAPD) Consortium is renamed "Center for Advanced Process Decision-making," to reflect broadening of research into process operations topics (control, planning and scheduling, safety).
2003 Ignacio Grossmann chairs FOCAPO Meeting.
2003/4 Art Westerberg co-chairs Intl. PSE Meeting in Kunming, China.
2004 Art Westerberg retires from CMU.
2005 Ignacio Grossmann takes over as Director of CAPD.
2005 Ignacio Grossmann co-chairs Pan American Advanced Study Institute on Process Systems Engineering.
2007 Nick Sahinidis, former stdent of Ignacio Grossmann, comes to CMU after a sixteen-year long career at the University of Illinois.
2007 Gary Powers unexpectedly dies at the age of 61. Read his obituary
2008 Steinar Hauan returns to Norway after nine years at CMU.
2008 Ignacio Grosmann co-chairs Pan American Advanced Study Institute on Emerging Trends in Process Systems Engineering
2009 Nick Sahinidis chairs INFORMS Optimization Society.
2011 Jeff Siirola joins CMU and the CAPD.
2012 Nick Sahinidis co-chairs FOCAPO Meeting.
2013 Larry Biegler becomes Department Head of Chemical Engineering.
2013 Chrysanthos Gounaris joins CMU and the CAPD.
2013 Nick Sahinidis becomes Programming Chair for Computing and Systems Technology Division of AIChE.
2014 Nick Sahinidis and Ignacio Grossmann co-chair the MINLP Workshop in Pittsburgh.
2015 Nick Sahinidis succeeds Ignacio Grossmann as Director of the CAPD.
2017 Jeff Siirola retires from CMU. The CAPD enjoys a long association with Jeff Siirola, who provides experienced guidance in conceptual design of chemical and energy processes, served as Distinguished Service Professor from 2011 to 2017, and continues to teach the process synthesis part of the CAPD short course.
2018 Larry Biegler steps down as Department Head of Chemical Engineering.
2020 Erik Ydstie retires from CMU and becomes Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering.
2020 Nick Sahinidis moves to Georgia Institute of Technology as the Butler Family Chair and Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Nick continues his association with CAPD and with Chemical Engineering at CMU with a Courtesy Appointment.
2020 Carl Laird joins the PSE Group and CAPD at CMU as Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. His appointment is effective August 1, 2021.
2020 Chrysanthos Gounaris becomes Conference Co-Chair AIChE Advanced Manufacturing and Processing Conference https://www.aiche.org/conferences/advanced-manufacturing-and-processing-conference/2022
Currently, CAPD has 20 companies with funding over $2 million/yr, involving about 40 graduate students, postdocs and visitors. The short course is taught by Larry Biegler, Salvador Garcia Munoz, Chrysanthos Gounaris, Ignacio Grossmann, Nick Sahinidis, Jeff Siirola and Erik Ydstie. The CAPD involves the special interest groups "Energy Systems Initiative" led by Larry Biegler and “Enterprise-wide Optimization” led by Chrysanthos Gounaris. Current research is directed to three major areas: modeling and optimization, process synthesis and product design, and enterprise-wide optimization and process operations.