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

Graduate Students

  • Ma

    Sizhe Ma

    PhD Candidate

    BS Civil and Environmental Engineering:
    Technion Israel Institute of Technology

  • Lin

    Cheyu Lin

    PhD Candidate

    BS Civil and Environmental University:
    National Central University

  • Doctor Arastoo

    Maral Doctor Arastoo

    PhD Candidate

    BS Civil and Environmental Engineering:
    Amirkabir University of Technology

    MS Earthquake Engineering:
    Sharif University of Technology

  • Takara

    Matthew (Matt) Takara

    PhD Candidate

    BS Civil and Environmental Engineering:
    University of California, Berkeley

  • Kavee

    Korawich Kavee

    PhD Candidate

    BE Civil Engineering:
    Thammasat University

    BE Civil Engineering:
    University of New South Wales

  • Kieran Elrod

    PhD Pre-Candidate

    BS Structural Engineering:

    University of California, San Diego

  • Sam Esquivel

    PhD Pre-Candidate

    BS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Sheng Qu

    MS Researcher

    BE Environmental Engineering:
    Hohai University

  • Milo

    Assistant to the Assistant Professor

  • Page

    Assistant to the (Assistant to the Assistant Professor)

Graduate Students (Alumni)

  • Graff

    Lindsay Graff, PhD

    PhD Student @ CMU SALUS Lab

    Current Position: Assistant Professor, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

    BSE Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering:
    Princeton University

    MS Public Policy & Data Science:
    Carnegie Mellon University

    MS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

    PhD Civil Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

  • John Martins

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    Current Position: PhD Student, Northwestern University

    BE Electrical & Computer Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

    MS Electrical & Computer Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

  • Melinda Tatenda Mudzurandende

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    Current Position: Graduate Teaching/Research Assistant, Carnegie Mellon University, Africa

    BSC Mechanical Engineering:
    Academic City University

    MS Engineering Artificial Intelligence
    Carnegie Mellon University, Africa

  • Yuming Zhang

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    Current Position: PhD Student, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    BE Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture

    MS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

  • Zheyi Li

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    Current Position: Engineer, Weris, Inc.

    BE Transportation Engineering:
    Southwest Jiaotong University

    MS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

  • Shuhan Yang

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    Current Position: PhD Student, University of Georgia

    BE Civil Engineering:
    Beijing University of Technology

    MS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

  • Guillermo Montero

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    Current Position: Project Engineer, Thornton Tomasetti

    BE Civil Engineering:
    Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María

    MS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

  • Bowen Sun

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    Current Position: PhD Student, University of Florida

    BE Civil Engineering:
    Chongqing University

    MS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

  • Xinyao Shen

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    Current Position: Engineer, KeyLogic Systems

    BE Safety Engineering:
    East China University of Science and Technology

    MS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

  • Shufan Liu

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    Current Position: PhD Student, Purdue University

    BE Civil Engineering:
    China University of Mining and Technology

    MS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

  • Jiayu Li

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    Current Position: Software Development Engineer, AWS

    BE Water Science and Engineering:
    Chongqing University

    MS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

    MS Computer Engineering:
    New York University

  • Zhe Ma

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    BS Civil Engineering:
    Zhejiang Science and Technology University

    MS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

  • Xuanqi Zheng

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    BE Environmental Engineering: University of Science and Technology Beijing

    MS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University

  • Yuming Chang

    MS Researcher @ CMU SALUS Lab

    BS Environmental Science:
    Jilin University

    MS Civil & Environmental Engineering:
    Carnegie Mellon University