His current areas of research interests include: distributed measurement and distributed control of distributed parameter systems using mobile actuator and sensor networks, smart mechatronics and process controls, applied fractional calculus in controls, signal processing and energy informatics, multi-UAV based cooperative personal remote sensing and real time water management and irrigation control. Dr. Chen is an Associate Editor on the Conference Editorial Board of the Control Systems Society of the IEEE (since 2002) and an Associate Editor on the Instrument Society of the America Editorial Board for the American Control Conference (since 2004). He is the General Chair for IEEE/ASME Int. Conf. on Mechatronics and Embedded Systems Applications (MESA) 2010, Qingdao, China and served as Program Chair for the ASME/IEEE Int. Conf. on MESA, Las Vegas, NV, in 2007 and MESA09 San Diego, CA, 2009 and Program Co-Chair for the IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation for 2006 and 2007. He is the TC Chair for MESA under ASME DED," Chair for MES for IEEE ITSS, and a member of IFAC TC2.2. Dr. Chen is a member of AMA, AWRA, AUVSI,ASME, IEEE, and the American Society for Engineering Education. He serves as an Associate Editor for ISA Transactions, IFAC Mechatronics, Acta Montanistica Slovaca, Fractional Calculus and Applied Analysis (FCAA), Fractional Differential Calculus (FDC), ASME J. of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control and IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology (TCST). He is a Designated Editor for IFAC journal Control Engineering Practice (CEP) and a member of Editorial Advisory Board of An International Journal of Optimization and Control: Theories & Applications (IJOCTA).