Narciso Macia

Emeritus Professor, The Polytechnic School

He worked as a development engineer for Honeywell (then AiResearch) from 1975 to 1981, in the fluidics group.

In 1981 he left AiResearch and co-founded a small company to develop a medical fluidic device that provided oxygen in an intermittent mode to emphysema patients. In 1983, he formed Control Systems Innovation, Inc., in which he continues to have a significant ownership interest, and uses it as a vehicle for his consulting activities. He is inventor/co-inventor of several devices related to fluid control and holds 3 patents.

In 1990 he joined ASU's Electronics and Computer Engineering Technology department. He has served as the Associate Chair. He has been active in university governance, serving as a senator and also as a secretary. He is involved with local middle and high schools. He is active in ASME and ASEE. He is a Registered Professional Engineer (Mechanical) in the State of Arizona.

On the personal side, he was born in Cuba, where he lived until his 14th birthday. He is married to Donna, and they have five children. He enjoys swimming, racquetball, hiking, and horseback riding. He is also involved in his local church by contributing to the process of building small-group communities within the larger church hierarchy.

Education

He received a BS and a MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington (1974, 1976), where he specialized in dynamic systems, automatic control and fluidics. He also received a PhD in Electrical Engineering from ASU in 1988. His dissertation dealt with modeling and identification of the respiratory system.

Expertise

Control systems, instrumentation, microcontrollers, fluidics, pulmonary mechanics

Research Interests

He is active in fluidics, respiratory mechanics, water filtration and recharge, embedded control, entrepreneurship mentoring, aquaponics, sustainable technologies and innovative methods for engineering education.

He is fascinated by aquaponics, since it integrates several of the disciplines that he has been involved in the past. Aquaponics can be thought of a mini "Planet Earth" where several subsystems work harmoniously in a synergetic manner. He believes that this work has the potential of exiting students to pursue careers in science and engineering. It also has tremendous potential for food production in developed and underdeveloped countries.

He has published 32 papers and has written two books: the first one on modeling and control of dynamic systems, and the second one, an accompanying lab manual.

Awards

2002 Professor of the Year (Corporate Leaders Program)