T.J. Tarn, Ph.D., professor of Systems Science and Mathematics in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, is internationally known for his expertise in robotics and automation and intelligent control. In 1997, Tarn and his then graduate student Kevin Brady were the first persons to control a robot live via the Internet. The "teleoperations" feat was a major step for the burgeoning field of robotics and a giant leap for telecommunications, adding a previously unexplored dimension to the Internet - remote control - and providing new horizons for other applications. In accomplishing this, Tarn showed that the Internet could be a medium to transfer force, rather than strictly a communications system, which is the way it had been seen. In 1998, sensing, or gathering, with high-level planning and decision-making processes. The theory, encapsulated in an algorithm, completely automates the process whereby a system must adapt to changing conditions. Building on these advances, Tarn tuned to synchronizing and integrating scheduling, planning and control for underwater robotics vehicles in a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Tarn has been awarded the title of Honorary Professor at several Chinese universities, including Chengdu University of Science and Technology and Tsinghua University. In 1993, he was general chairman of the First World Congress on Intelligent Control and Intelligent Automation, in Beijing, China.
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