John Watkins, Ph.D.

Overview

John Watkins is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the director of Control Systems Laboratory at the Wichita State University (WSU). He received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1989 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University in 1991 and 1995, respectively.

From 1995 to 2004 he was an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Systems Engineering Department at the United States Naval Academy. During this time, he did cooperative work with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

He moved to WSU in 2004 where he worked with NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory. From 2009 to 2018, he served as department chair of the WSU Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. He recently served as the General Chair of the 2025 IEEE Green Technologies Conference.

Academic Interests and Expertise

Education:

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of Nebraska
• M.S. in Electrical Engineering, The Ohio State University
• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, The Ohio State University

Areas of Research Interest

• Robust Control
• Urban Air Mobility
• Time Delay Systems
• SATCOM Control and Anomaly Detection
• Artificial Pancreas Control

Areas of Teaching Interest

• Classical Control Systems
• Linear Systems
• Optimal Control
• Stochastic Control Systems
• Robust Control

Publications

Journal Articles

• Rafi, J. Steck, and J. Watkins, “Kalman-Filter-Based Adaptive Control: flight testing on general aviation aircraft,” Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, Vol. 40, No. 9, pp. 2307-2315, August 2017.
• Lakshmikanth, R. Padhi, J. Watkins, and J. Steck, “Adaptive Flight-Control Design Using Neural-Network-Aided Optimal Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion,” Journal of Aerospace Information Systems, Vol. 11, No. 11, pp. 758-806, November 2014.
• Lakshmikanth, R. Padhi, J. Watkins, and J. Steck, “SNAC Aided Dynamic Inversion for Optimal Regulation and Command Tracking with Online Adaptation for Enhanced Robustness,” Optimal Control Applications and Methods, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 479-500, July/August 2014.
• Hatime, R. Pendse, and J. Watkins, “Comparative Study of Task Allocation Strategies in Multirobot Systems,” IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol.13, No.1, pp. 253-262, January 2013.
• Hatime, K. Namuduri, and J. Watkins, “OCTOPUS: An On-Demand Communication Topology Updating Strategy for Mobile Sensor Networks,” IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol.11, No.4, pp. 1004-1012, April 2011.
• Emami and J. M. Watkins, “A Unified Approach for Sensitivity Design of PID Controllers in the Frequency Domain,” WSEAS Transactions Journal of Systems and Control, Vol. 4, No. 5, pp. 221-231, May 2009.
• Emami and J. M. Watkins, “Robust Performance Characterization of PID Controllers in the Frequency Domain,” WSEAS Transactions Journal of Systems and Control, Vol. 4, No. 5, pp. 232-242, May 2009.
• Cao, J. Watkins, and R. O’Brien, “A Graphical User Interface (GUI) for a Unified Approach for Continuous-Time Compensator Design,” Computers in Education Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2009.
• Piper and J. Watkins, “Investigating the Control Design of the Disturbance Reduction System for the LISA Mission,” IEE Proceeding Control Theory and Applications, Vol. 153, No. 1, pp. 29-36, 2006.
• Piper and J. Watkins, “Investigating the Effects of Cross-Link Delays on Spacecraft Formation Control,” The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, V53, N1, pp. 83-101, 2006.
• Esposito, M. Feemster, and J. Watkins, “Role of MATLAB Real-Time Hardware Interface with a Systems Modeling Course,” Computers in Education Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 41-50, 2006.
• Watkins, “A Virtual Implementation of a Dynamic Signal Analyzer using SIMULINK,” Computers in Education Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 20-28, 2006.
• Thorp, J. Watkins, and R. O’Brien, “Design and Implementation of Compensators in a Laboratory Environment for Junior Level Engineering Students,” Computers in Education Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 50-58, 2006.
• Piper, J. Watkins, and O. Thorp, “Active Control of Axial-flow Fan Noise Using Magnetic Bearings,” Journal of Vibration Control, V1, N9, pp. 1121-1232, 2005.
• Piper, J. Watkins, C. Wick, and S. Avramov-Zamurovic, “On the Design of an Electronic Muffler – A DSP Based Capstone Design Project,” Computers in Education Journal, VOL. XII, NO. 3, pp. 42-46, 2002.
• Watkins and E. Mitchell, “A MATLAB Graphical User Interface for Interactive Design of Linear Quadratic Regulators,” Computers in Education Journal, VOL. VXI, NO. 1, pp. 53-57, 2001.
• Watkins, G. Piper, E. Mitchell, and K. Wedeward, “Computer Animation of Dynamic Systems in the Classroom,” Computers in Education Journal, VOL. VIII, NO. 1, 1998, pp. 7-13.
• Watkins and S. Yurkovich, “Parameter Set Estimation Algorithms for Time-Varying Systems,” International Journal of Control, V66, N5, pp. 711-731, 1997.
• Garcia–Benitez, J. Watkins, and S. Yurkovich, “Nonlinear Control with Acceleration Feedback for a Two-Link Flexible Robot,” Control Engineering Practice, vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 989-997, 1993.

Book Chapters

• Rafi, J. Steck, V. S. R. Pappu, J. Watkins, and B. Steele, “Model Reference Adaptive Control for General Aviation Aircraft: Development, Simulation, and Flight Test,” in Advances in Computational Intelligence and Autonomy for Aerospace Systems, 1st Ed., Vol. 254, edited by Valasek, J., Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, AIAA, Reston, VA, 2018, Chap. 6, pp. 243-287.
• Hatime, K. Namuduri, and J. Watkins, “OCTOPUS: An On-Demand Communication Topology Updating Strategy for Mobile Sensor Networks,” in Embedded and Networking Systems: Design, Software, and Implementation, September 2013.
• -M. Kim and J. Watkins, “Robust and Reduced Order H-Infinity Filtering via LMI Approach and its Application to Fault Detection,” in Fault Detection, ISBN 978-953-307-037-7, InTech Publishing, March 2010.

Conference Papers

• Thakur, Y. Pillay, J. Watkins and E, Sawan, “A Reinforcement Learning Tuned Hybrid Type-3 Fuzzy Logic Controller for Exercise and Meal Aware Blood Glucose Regulation in Type 1 Diabetics for Artificial Pancreas,” Proceedings of the 10th IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), Vancouver, BC, August 2026.
• Yarlagadda, J. Watkins, E. Sawan, and G. Lakshmikanth, “Control-Aware Shapley-Value-Based Bandwidth Allocation for SATCOM Terminals under Heterogeneous Delays,” Proceedings of the 10th IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), Vancouver, BC, August 2026.
• K. Garnepudi, J. Watkins, E. Sawan, and G. Lakshmikanth, “Jamming Detection for SATCOM Terminal Telemetry Using a New Radio-Based Link Emulator and Temporal Convolutional Network,” Proceedings of the 10th IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), Vancouver, BC, August 2026.
• K. Garnepudi, J. Watkins, E. Sawan, and G. Lakshmikanth, “Deep Learning for Anomaly Detection in Satellite Signal Traffic: Securing Space-Based Infrastructure,” Proceedings of IEEE SoutheastCon, Huntsville, AL, March 2026.
• Menon, J. Steck, J. Watkins, K. Namuduri, K. Kraus and F. Farrington, “Navigation Path Planning and Flight Rules in Simulated Air Corridors for Urban Air Mobility,” Proceedings of the 2026 AIAA SciTech Forum and Exposition, Orlando, FL, January 2026.
• Krishna-Murthy, J. Watkins, E. Behrman, J. Steck and E. Sawan, “Robust Adaptive Quantum Feedback under Practical Uncertainties- A Lightweight Approach,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering, Albuquerque, NM, September 2025.
• Thakur, Y. Pillay, J. Watkins and E, Sawan, “Type-2 Fuzzy Logic Control of Blood Glucose Regulation in Type-1 Diabetic Patients,” Proceedings of the 2025 IEEE 68th International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), 2025.
• Pillay, M. Chace, J. Steck, J. Watkins and A. Dutta, “Neuro-adaptive Model Reference Tracking Controller for Cislunar Missions,” Proceedings of the 2024 AIAA SciTech Forum and Exposition, Orlando, FL, January 2024.
• Krishna-Murthy, J. Watkins, E. Sawan, and G. Lakshmikanth, “Optimal Control with Low Sensitivity to Sampling Period Uncertainty,” Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2024, Atlanta, GA, March 2024.
• Yarlagadda, J. Watkins, E. Sawan, G. Lakshmikanth, and K. Pham, “Application of Optimal Control to Flexible SATCOM Terminal Management,” Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2024, Atlanta, GA, March 2024.
• Thakur, J. Watkins, Y. Pillay, and E. Sawan, “Type-1 Fuzzy Controller for Blood Glucose Regulation in Type-1 Diabetic Patients,” Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2024, Atlanta, GA, March 2024.
• Alrishan, J. Watkins, and T. Emami, “Unified Approach for Robust Stability Design of a PID Controller with a Smith Predictor,” Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Electro Information Technology (eIT), Romeoville, IL, USA, 2023, pp. 095-102.
• Alrishan, J. Watkins, and T. Emami, “Unified Approach for Graphically Designing PID Controllers with Smith Predictors for Time-Delay Systems,” Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), Trieste, Italy, 2022, pp. 983-988.
• Alrishan, J. Watkins, and T. Emami, “Unified Approach for Weighted Sensitivity Design of PID Controllers with Smith Predictors,” Proceedings of the 2022 Australian & New Zealand Control Conference (ANZCC), Gold Coast, Australia, 2022, pp. 230-235.
• Emami, D. Tucker and J. Watkins, “Uncertain Gain and Time-Delay Control of 300-kW SOFC-GT,” Proceedings of the ASME 2021 Power Conference. ASME 2021 Power Conference, July 20–22, 2021.
• Gerges, J. Desai, J. Watkins, and S. P. Burugupally, “Master-Slave Control for a Pneumatically Actuated Low Pressure Soft Robotic Glove to Facilitate Bilateral Training for Stroke Patients,” Proceedings of the 2020 23rd International Symposium on Measurement and Control in Robotics (ISMCR), Budapest, Hungary, 2020, pp. 1-6.
• Almutairi, T. Venkatesan, J. Watkins, and E. Sawan, “Optimal Control Design of Large-Scale Systems with Uncertainty,” Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE 61st International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), Windsor, ON, Canada, August 2018.
• Rafi, J. Steck, and J. Watkins, “Application of a Kalman Filter for Reduction of Sensor/Turbulence-Induced Noise within a Model Reference Adaption Controller,” Proceedings of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference, San Diego, CA, January 2016.
• Hariharan, J. Watkins, and M. Sawan, “Optimal control in selective catalytic reduction using linear quadratic regulator,” Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE 59th International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, October 2016.
• Graziosi, M. Sawan, and J. Watkins, “Approximate Controller Design for Singularly Perturbed Aircraft Systems,” Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE 57th International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), College Station, TX, pp. 161-164, August 2014.
• Veeramachaneni and J. Watkins, “Robust Performance Design of PID Controllers for Time-Delay Systems with a Smith Predictor,” Proceedings of the 2014 American Control Conference, Portland, OR, pp. 2462-2467, June 2014.
• Veeramachaneni, J. Watkins, and T. Emami, “Robust Stabilization of Time Delay Systems Using PID Controller with a Smith Predictor,” Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Multi-Conference on Systems and Control, Hyderabad, India, August 2013.
• Veeramachaneni and J. Watkins, “Weighted Sensitivity Design of PID Controllers for Time Delay Systems with a Smith Predictor,” Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Multi-Conference on Systems and Control, Hyderabad, India, August 2013.
• Lakshmikanth, S. Reed, J. Watkins, and J. Steck, “Single Network Adaptive Critics (SNAC) + Optimal Control Modification (OCM) for Fast Adaptation of MRAC Flight Control,” Proceedings of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, Boston, MA, August 2013.
• Lee and J. Watkins, “Determination of All Stabilizing Fractional-Order PID Controllers That Satisfy a Robust Performance Constraint,” Proceedings of the 2013 American Control Conference, Washington, DC, June 2013.
• Emami, R. Hartnett, and J. Watkins, “Estimate of Discrete-Time PID Controller Parameters for H-Infinity Complementary Sensitivity Design: Autonomous Sailboat Application,” Proceedings of the 2013 American Control Conference, Washington, DC, June 2013.
• Lee and J. Watkins, “Determination of All Stabilizing Fractional-Order PID Controllers that Satisfy a Weighted Sensitivity Constraint,” Proceedings of the 51st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Maui, HI, December 2012.
• Veeramachaneni, J. Watkins, and T. Emami, “Determination of All Stabilizing PID Controllers for Time Delay Systems with Smith Predictors,” Proceedings of the 2012 ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Fort Lauderdale, FL, October 2012.
• Lee and J. Watkins, “Determination of All Robustly Stabilizing Fractional-Order PID Controllers,” Proceedings of the 2012 ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Fort Lauderdale, FL, October 2012.
• Steck, G. Lakshmikanth and J. Watkins, “Adaptive Critic Optimization of Dynamic Inverse Control,” Proceedings of Proceedings of AIAA Infotech@Aerospace Conference 2012, Garden Grove, CA, pp. 82-102, June 2012
• Emami, J. Watkins, and T. Lee, “Determination of all Stabilizing Analog and Digital PID Controllers,” Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Control Applications (CCA), Denver, CO, pp. 754-759, September 2011.
• Lakshmikanth, R. Padhi, J. Watkins, and J. Steck, “Single Network Adaptive Critic Aided Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion for Suboptimal Command Tracking,” Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control (ISIC), Denver, CO, pp. 1347-1352, September 2011.
• Lee and J. Watkins, “Determination of All Stabilizing Fractional-Order PID Controllers,” Proceedings of the 2011 American Control Conference, San Francisco, CA, pp. 5007-5012, June 2011.
• Emami and J. Watkins, “Robust Performance Design of PID Controllers with Inverse Multiplicative Uncertainty,” Proceedings of the 2011 American Control Conference, San Francisco, CA, pp. 5000-5006, June 2011.
• Gogoi, T. Emami, and J. M. Watkins, “Robust Stability Design of PI Controllers for a Non-Reheat Steam Generator United,” Proceedings of the 2010 ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Cambridge, MA, September 2010.
• Emami and J. M. Watkins, “A Unified Approach for Robust Stability Design of PID Controllers,” Proceedings of the 2010 American Control Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, July 2010.
• Emami, T. Lee, and J. M. Watkins, “Stability Regions in the Parameter Space for a Unified PID Controller,” Proceedings of the 2010 American Control Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, July 2010.
• Emami and J. M. Watkins, “A Unified Approach for H_∞ Complementary Sensitivity Design of PID Controllers Applied to a DC Motor with Communication Delay,” Proceedings of the 2009 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, November 2009.
• Emami and J. M. Watkins, “A Unified Approach for Weighted Sensitivity Design of PID Controllers,” Proceedings of the 2009 ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Hollywood, California, October 2009.
• Whitman, Z. Toro-Ramos, and J. M. Watkins, “A Practical Faculty Mentoring Program,” Proceedings of the ASEE Midwest Section Annual Conference, Lincoln, NE, September 2009.
• Emami and J. M. Watkins, “A Unified Approach for Sensitivity Design of PID Controllers in the Frequency Domain,” Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Applications of Electrical Engineering, pp. 135-140, Houston, Texas, April 2009.
• Emami and J. M. Watkins, “Robust Performance Characterization of PID Controllers in the Frequency Domain,” Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Applications of Electrical Engineering, pp. 121-127, Houston, Texas, April 2009.
• Emami and J. M. Watkins, “Robust Stability Design of PID Controllers for Arbitrary-Order Transfer Functions with Time Delay and Multiplicative Uncertainty,” Proceedings of the 41st Southeastern Symposium on System Theory, pp. 184-189, Tullahoma, TN, March 2009.
• Emami and J. Watkins, “Weighted Sensitivity Design of PID Controllers for Arbitrary-Order Transfer Functions with Time Delay,” Proceedings of the IASTED Conference on Intelligent Systems and Control, pp. 20-25, Orlando, FL, November 2008.
• Emami and J. Watkins, “Complementary Sensitivity Design of PID Controllers for Arbitrary-Order Transfer Functions with Time Delay,” Proceedings of the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Ann Arbor, MI, October 2008.
• Vadhavkar, J. Watkins and L. Paarmann, “Use of the Magnitude Invariance Method for Digital Emulation of Analog Controllers,” Proceedings of the IEEE Multi-conference on Systems and Control, San Antonio, TX, September 2008.
• Engle and J. Watkins, “A Software Platform for Implementing Digital Control Experiments on the Quanser DC Motor Control Trainer,” Proceedings of the IEEE Multi-conference on Systems and Control, San Antonio, TX, September 2008.
• Emami and J. Watkins, “Sensitivity Design of PID Controllers for Arbitrary-Order Transfer Functions with Time Delay Applied to a DC Motor with Communication Delay,” Proceedings of the IEEE Multi-conference on Systems and Control, San Antonio, TX, September 2008.
• Cao, J. Watkins, and R. O’Brien, “A Graphical User Interface (GUI) for a Unified Approach for Continuous-Time Compensator Design,” Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, PA, June 2008.
• Lee, J. Watkins, T. Emami, and S. Sujoldžić, “A Unified Approach for Stabilization of Arbitrary Order Continuous-Time and Discrete-Time Transfer Functions with Time Delay Using a PID Controller,” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, New Orleans, LA, December 2007.
• Woo and J. Watkins, “A Graphical User Interface for a Dynamic Signal Analyzer Using Simulink,” Proceedings of the ASEE Midwest Regional Conference, Wichita, KS, September 2007.
• Emami, J. Watkins and R. O’Brien, “A Unified Procedure for Continuous-Time and Discrete-time Root-Locus and Bode Design,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, New York, NY, June 2007.
• Kim and J. Watkins, “A New Approach for Robust and Reduced Order Fault Detection Filter Design,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, New York, NY, June 2007.
• Sujoldzic and J. Watkins, “Stabilization of an Arbitrary Order Transfer Function with Time Delay using a PID controller,” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, San Diego, CA, December 2006.
• Kim and J. Watkins, “A New Approach for Reduced Order H-infinity Filtering,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Minneapolis, MN, June 2006.
• Sujoldzic and J. Watkins, “Stabilization of an Arbitrary Order Transfer Function with Time Delay using PI and PD controllers,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Minneapolis, MN, June 2006.
• Malla, J. Watkins, and G. Piper, “Study of Pointing Maneuvers for a Spacecraft Virtual Structure Formation,” Proceedings of the 38^th Southeastern Symposium on System Theory, Cookeville, TN, March 2006.
• O’Brien and J. Watkins, “A Unified Approach for Discrete-Time Root Locus and Bode Design,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Portland, OR, June 2005.
• Watkins, “A Virtual Implementation of a Dynamic Signal Analyzer using SIMULINK,” Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, OR, June 2005.
• Hammer, G. Piper, O. Thorp, and J. Watkins, “Investigating Virtual Structure Based Control Strategies for Spacecraft Formation Maneuvers,” Proceedings of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, Providence, RI, August 2004.
• Esposito, M. Feemster, and J. Watkins, “Role of a MATLAB Real-Time Hardware Interface within a Systems Modeling Course,” Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Salt Lake City, UT, June 2004.
• Watkins and R. O’Brien, “A Novel Approach to a Control Systems Laboratory,” Proceedings of the 2003 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition, Washington, DC, November 2003.
• L. Ho, G. Piper, J. Watkins, and J. Piepmeier, “Robotic Testbed for Simulating Spacecraft Relative Motion,” Proceedings of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 2003 Flight Mechanics Symposium, Greenbelt, MD, October 2003.
• Piper, J. Watkins, and J. Leitner, “On the Impact of Cross-Link Delays on Spacecraft Formation Control,” Proceedings of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference, Austin, TX, August 2003.
• Watkins, G. Piper, and J. Leitner, “Control of Time-Delayed Double Integrator Systems,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Denver, CO, June 2003.
• O’Brien and J. Watkins, “A Unified Approach for Teaching Root Locus and Bode Compensator Design,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Denver, CO, June 2003.
• Watkins and G. Piper, “An Undergraduate Course in Active Magnetic Levitation: Bridging the Gap,” Proceedings of the Southeastern Symposium on System Theory, Morgantown, WV, March 2003, pp. 313-316.
• Piper, J. Watkins, J. Leitner, and F.L. Markley, “On the Control Design of the Disturbance Reduction System for the LISA Mission,” Proceedings of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, Monterey, CA, August 2002.
• Nelson, J. Watkins, and G. Piper, “Active Control of Fan Noise in Ducts Using Magnetic Bearings,” Proceedings of the 8th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference, Breckenridge, CO, June 2002.
• O’Brien and J. Watkins, “A Streamlined Approach for Teaching Root Locus Compensator Design,” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Orlando, FL, December 2001, pp. 3224-3229.
• Watkins, K. Lee, C. Hernandez, K. Blumenstock, and J. Schepis, “Adaptive Auto-Balancing Control of Magnetic Bearings for an Optical Chopper,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Arlington, VA, June 2001, pp. 1298-1303.
• Piper, J. Watkins, C. Wick, and S. Avramov-Zamurovic, “Design of an Electronic Muffler – A DSP based Capstone Design Project,” Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Albuquerque, NM, June 2001.
• Watkins, G. Brown, and K. Blumenstock, “Control of Integrated Radial and Axial Magnetic Bearings,” Proceedings of the 33rd Southeastern Symposium on System Theory, Athens, OH, March 2001.
• Watkins and E. Mitchell, “A MATLAB Graphical User Interface for Linear Quadratic Control Design,” Proceedings of the Frontiers in Education Conference, Kansas City, KS, October 2000.
• O’Brien, J. Watkins, G. Piper, and D. Baumann, “H_∞ Active Noise Control of Fan Noise in an Acoustic Duct,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Chicago, IL, June 2000.
• O’Brien, J. Watkins, G. Piper, and D. Baumann, “Robust Global Control of Fan Noise in an Acoustic Duct Using Magnetic Bearings,” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Phoenix, AZ, December 1999.
• O’Brien and J. Watkins, “The Temperature Box: An Introductory Control Systems Project,” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Phoenix, AZ, December 1999.
• Watkins, G. Piper, R. O’Brien, and D. Baumann, “On the Use of Magnetic Bearings for Global Control of Fan Noise,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, San Diego, CA, June 1999.
• Watkins and S. DeVilbiss, “An Input Synthesis Procedure for Parameter Set Estimation of Unstable Systems,” Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems, Baltimore, MD, March 1999.
• Watkins and K. Kiriakidis, “Adaptive Control of Time-varying Systems based on Parameter Set Estimation,” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Tampa, FL, pp. 4002-4007, December 1998.
• Watkins, G. Piper, D. Baumann, and G. Bell, “Adaptive Feedback Control in a Magnetic Bearing Pump System,” Classified Proceedings of the Naval Symposium on Electric Machines, Annapolis, MD, October 1998.
• Piper, J. Watkins, D. Baumann, and G. Bell, “Modeling of a Magnetic Bearing Pump,” Classified Proceedings of the Naval Symposium on Electric Machines, Annapolis, MD, October 1998.
• Baumann, G. Piper, G. Bell, and J. Watkins, “Implementation of Adaptive Control on a Magnetic Bearing Pump System,” Classified Proceedings of the Naval Symposium on Electric Machines, Annapolis, MD, October 1998.
• Piper and J. Watkins, “System Identification of the Sound Field in a Fluid Filled Pipe,” Proceedings of the 1998 Summer Computer Simulation Conference, Reno, NV, pp. 197-201, July 1998.
• Watkins, “Observer Design for Feedback Linearization Control of a Magnetic Levitation System,” Proceedings of the IASTED International Conference on Modeling and Simulation, Pittsburgh, PA, pp. 137-140, May 1998.
• Watkins, G. Piper, K. Wedeward, and E. Mitchell, “Computer Animation: A Visualization Tool for Dynamic System Simulations,” Proceedings of the 1997 ASEE Annual Conference, Milwaukee, WI, June 1997.
• Watkins, “Feedback Linearization of a Magnetic Levitation System,” Proceedings of the IASTED International Conference on Modeling and Simulation, Pittsburgh, PA, pp. 114-116, May 1997.
• Watkins and S. Yurkovich, “Set-Membership Strategies for Fault Detection and Isolation,” Proceedings of the CESA’96 IMACS Multiconference, Lille, France, pp. 824-830, July 1996.
• Watkins and S. Yurkovich, “Fault Detection Using Set-Membership Identification,” Proceedings of the 13th World Congress of IFAC, San Francisco, CA, pp. 61-66, July 1996.
• Watkins, “Fuzzy and Conventional Control of a Magnetic Levitation System,” Proceedings of the IASTED/ISMM International Conference on Modeling and Simulation, Pittsburgh, PA, pp. 291-293, April 1996.
• Watkins and S. Yurkovich, “Ellipsoid Algorithms for Parameter Set Estimation of Time-Varying Systems,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Seattle, WA, pp. 2554-2558, June 1995.
• Watkins and S. Yurkovich, “An Optimal Volume Ellipsoid Algorithm for Parameter Set Estimation of Time-Varying Systems,” Proceedings of the 26^th Southeastern Symposium on System Theory, Athens, OH, pp. 110-114, March 1994.
• Watkins and S. Yurkovich, “Calculation of the State Transition Matrix for Linear Time-Varying Systems,” Mathematical Computation with Maple V: Ideas and Applications, (T. Lee, ed.), pp. 157-166, Birkhauser, 1993.
• Watkins and S. Yurkovich, “Input Shaping Controllers for Slewing Flexible Structures,” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Control Applications, Dayton, OH, September 1992.
• Watkins and S. Yurkovich, “Vibration Control for Slewing Flexible Structures,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Chicago, IL, pp. 2525-2529, June 1992.
• Garcia-Benitez, S. Yurkovich, and J. Watkins, “Feedback Linearization with Acceleration Feedback for a Two-Link Flexible Manipulator,” Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Boston, MA, pp. 1360-1365, June 1991.

Awards and Honors

• 2025 Academy of Effective Teaching Award
• 2025 Wallace Faculty Lifetime Service Award
• 2011-2012 WSU College of Health Professions Leadership Fellowship
• 2011 WSU Cooperative Education and Work-Based Learning Faculty Advisor of the Year
• Best Paper Award for The 8th International Conference on Applications of Electrical Engineering (AEE’09)
• 2007 Wallace Excellence in Teaching Award, 2006-2007 Boeing Fellowship,
• Merl K. Miller Award for the outstanding paper on teaching/instructional methods published in the Computers in Education Journal in 2006 (with O. Thorp and R. O’Brien)
• John A. Curtis Lecture Award in 2002 for the best paper presented at the CoED sessions of the ASEE Annual Conference (with G. Piper, S. Avramov, and C. Wick),
• Merl K. Miller Award for the outstanding paper on teaching/instructional methods published in the Computers in Education Journal in 1998 (with G. Piper, K. Wedeward, and E. Mitchell),
• John A. Curtis Lecture Award in 1997 for the best paper presented at the CoED sessions of the ASEE Annual Conference (with G. Piper, K. Wedeward, and E. Mitchell)

Areas of Service

• ABET Program Evaluator
• Associate Editor on the Conference Editorial Board of the IEEE Control Systems Society
• General Chair for the 2025 GreenTech Conference
• General Chair for the IEEE Region 5 Congress and Student Competitions
• 2025 Technical Program Committee Chair for the Artificial Intelligence and Automation Control Conference
• 2025 Advisory Chair for the International Conference on Control and Robot Technology
• Program Chair for the 2025, 2024 and 2023 Robotics Systems and Automation Engineering Conference
• Program Chair for the 2023 International Conference on Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering
• Program Chair for the 2023 International Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics
• Program Chair for the 2022 and 2023 Robotics Systems and Automation Engineering Conference
• Finance Chair for the 51st North American Power Symposium, Chair of the IEEE Wichita Section
• Corresponding Editor for the IEEE Control Systems Magazine
• Publications Chair for the 2011 ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference
• Student Affairs Chair for the 2008 IEEE Multi-Conference on Systems and Control
• Vice Chair for Interactive Papers of the 2007 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control
• Registration Chair of the 2006 American Control Conference
• Finance Chair of the 2002 American Control Conference
• Organizations:
  • Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
  • Senior Member of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • American Society for Engineering Education