Theodore Pavlic

Assoc Professor, School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence

Associate Professor Theodore (Ted) Pavlic has an interdisciplinary background, starting with a decade of experience in industry in software engineering followed by a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering  (with further industrial experience in analog electronics) and postdoctoral training in computer science and life sciences. He began his faculty appointment at ASU jointly appointed in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, the School of Sustainability, and the School of Complex Adaptive Systems. After receiving tenure, he shifted into his current joint appointment in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence and the School of Life Sciences. His research focuses on understanding adaptive decision-making strategies in autonomous systems. To this end, his laboratory does empirical work with natural systems, such as social-insect colonies, and does engineering work building decision-making algorithms for artificial systems, such as decentralized energy management systems for the built environment. Just as the biological models provide inspiration for novel engineering solutions, the engineering problems inspire new lines of scientific inquiry about those biological systems. This bidirectional flow is facilitated by solid mathematical models of fundamental decision-making processes in common with both the natural and engineered systems. Professor Pavlic was the founding associate director of research for The Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University and continues to be closely associated with the center. He is also active in several professional organizations and publication venues across engineering and life sciences. Pavlic's lab has hosted a broad disciplinary range of postdoctoral scholars and students, and Pavlic is a faculty member in a large number of programs, including Sustainability, Industrial Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Applied Math in the Life and Social Sciences, Biology, and Animal Behavior, and he is active in several of the complexity-related groups across ASU's campus.