CSC@USC Seminar Series presents a unique opportunity to engage students, faculty, and industry, and exchange ideas and experiences in interdisciplinary research topics within the overarching theme of Control and Dynamical Systems. To this end, our objective is to organize a seminar series that builds on the ongoing activities within the Center for Systems and Control at the University of Southern California (CSC@USC). We aim to provide an invaluable educational forum for our graduate students by bringing in leading researchers and industrial talent to our campus.

To optimize the use of resources and avoid potential overlap, the seminar series is jointly organized and cross-listed with MHI CommNetS Seminars. Unless otherwise noted, the seminars are taking place on Mondays, at 2pm, in Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) 132.

Our seminar series is sponsored by the Ming Hsieh Institute and, since Fall 2023, by Quanser.

Spring 2024

 

Rebbecca Thien, The Australian National University
Physical realizability and coherent LQG control of linear quantum systems
Abstract
June 12, 2024, 10:30am; EEB 248 (note day/time change)

Host: Edmond Jonckheere

 

Mustafa Khammash, ETH Zurich
Theory and design of biomolecular control systems
Abstract
April 22, 2024, 2pm; EEB 132

Host: Mihailo Jovanovic

 

Gautam Goel, Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing
Two vignettes at the intersection of learning and control
Abstract
April 15, 2024, 2pm; EEB 132

Host: Stephen Tu

 

Aritra Mitra, North Carolina State University
Towards robust collaborative reinforcement learning
Abstract
April 8, 2024, 2pm; EEB 132

Host: Lars Lindemann

 

Prashant Mehta, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Variational principles in control and the arrow of time
Abstract
April 1, 2024, 2pm; EEB 248 (note room change)

Host: Ketan Savla

 

Chandra Murthy, Indian Institute of Science
Sparsity-aware Bayesian inference and its applications
Abstract
March 25, 2024, 2pm; EEB 132

Host: Urbashi Mitra

 

Nikolay Atanasov, University of California, San Diego
Elements of generalizable mobile robot autonomy
Abstract
March 18, 2024, 2pm; EEB 132

Host: Lars Lindemann

 

Magnus Egerstedt, University of California, Irvine
Mutualistic interactions in heterogeneous multi-robot systems
Abstract
March 4, 2024, 2pm; EEB 132

Hosts: Mihailo Jovanovic and Lars Lindemann

 

Ingvar Ziemann, University of Pennsylvania
Sharp rates in dependent learning theory
Abstract
Feb 26, 2024, 2pm; EEB 248 (note room change)

Host: Lars Lindemann and Pierluigi Nuzzo

 

Milad Siami, Northeastern University
Optimizing sparse interactions for control and sensing in complex networks
Abstract
Feb 23, 2024, 11am; EEB 132 (note day/time change)

Host: Mihailo Jovanovic

 

Yongduan Song, Chongqing University
Several critical issues in neural network driven control design and analysis

Abstract
Feb 20, 2024, 11am; EEB 132 (note day/time change)

Host: Petros Ioannou

 

Eva Kanso, University of Southern California
Insights into physical intelligence from individual and collective animal behavior
Abstract

Jan 29, 2024, 2pm; EEB 132

Host: Mihailo Jovanovic

Fall 2023

 

Nikolai Matni, University of Pennsylvania
Representation learning for dynamics and control
Abstract

Dec 7, 2023, 10am; EEB 132 (note day/time change)

Host: Lars Lindemann

 

Anuradha Annaswamy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Resilience and distributed decision-making in a renewable-rich power grid
Abstract

Oct 6, 2023, 4:15pm; EEB 132 (note day/time change)

Host: Petros Ioannou

Spring 2020

 

Mahyar Fazlyab, University of Pennsylvania
Safe deep learning in the feedback loop: A robust control approach
Abstract

March 23, 2020, 11:00am; via Zoom (note time/format change)

 

Bruno Ribeiro, Purdue University
Unearthing the relationship between graph neural networks and matrix factorization
Abstract

March 9, 2020, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Dimitra Panagou, University of Michigan
Control synthesis under spatio-temporal specifications
Abstract

January 22, 2020, 2:00pm; EEB 132 (note day change)
Cross-listed with CCI-MHI Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems

Fall 2019

 

Koji Fukagata, Keio University
Flow control and machine learning studies at Keio Fukagata Lab
Abstract

Nov 21, 2019, 2:00pm; RRB 208, Laufer Library (note room change)

 

Steven Brunton, University of Washington
Machine learning and sparse optimization for modeling, sensing, and controlling fluid dynamics
Abstract

Nov 18, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Stephen Boyd, Stanford University
Convex optimization
Abstract

Nov 4, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132
Cross-listed with CCI-MHI Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems

 

James Rawlings, University of California, Santa Barbara
Nonlinear optimization-based state estimation: robustness analysis by Q functions
Abstract

Oct 28, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Behcet Acikmese, University of Washington
Real-time optimization based control for agile autonomy
Abstract

Oct 21, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Vasileios Christopoulos, University of California, Riverside
The acting and adapting brain: Making decisions and learning to adapt in a dynamic world
Abstract

Oct 14, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Jin Wang, Auburn University
Process monitoring for smart manufacturing: challenges and opportunities
Abstract

Oct 7, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Eva Kanso, University of Southern California
Sea star inspired crawling and bouncing
Abstract

Sept 30, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Mitul Luhar, University of Southern California
Model-based design of active and passive flow control for wall turbulence
Abstract

Sept 23, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Ariyan Kabir, University of Southern California
Trajectory planning for manipulators performing complex tasks
Abstract

Sept 16, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Kimon Drakopoulos, University of Southern California
Misinformation in platforms: Persuasion and inundation
Abstract

Sept 9, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

Spring 2019

 

Behrouz Touri, University of California, San Diego
Stochastic adventures in systems and controls
Abstract

April 22, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Suman Chakravorty, Texas A&M University
A decoupling principle in stochastic optimal control and its implications
Abstract

April 17, 2019, 3:00pm; EEB 132 (note day change)
Cross-listed with CCI-MHI Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems

 

Jason Marden, University of California, Santa Barbara
If agents could talk … what should they say?
Abstract

April 8, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Panagiotis Tsiotras, Georgia Institute of Technology
Uncertainty synthesis for stochastic systems
Abstract

April 5, 2019, 11:00am; EEB 248 (note day/time/room change)

 

Niklas Karlsson, Verizon Media
Adaptive optimization and control in online advertising
Abstract

April 1, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Michael Demetriou, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Dynamic-data driven real-time estimation of plumes using adaptive sampling
Abstract

Mar 25, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Antonis Papachristodoulou, University of Oxford
Exploiting sparsity in semidefinite and sum of squares programming
Abstract

Mar 20, 2019, 3:00pm; EEB 132 (note day change)
Cross-listed with CCI-MHI Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems

 

Margareta Stefanovic, University of Denver
Robust stabilization with guaranteed performance in heterogeneous multi-agent systems with nonlinear uncertain couplings
Abstract

Mar 18, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Muriel Medard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Guessing Random Additive Noise Decoding (GRAND)
Abstract

Mar 4, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Jorge Cortes, University of California, San Diego
The role of network structure in controlling complex networks
Abstract

Feb 25, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Paul Newton, University of Southern California
Adaptive chemotherapy
Abstract

Feb 11, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Shaunak Bopardikar, Michigan State University
Sensor selection via randomized sampling
Abstract

Feb 4, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Frank Lewis, University of Texas at Arlington
Reinforcement learning structures for real-time optimal control and differential games
Abstract

Jan 28, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Dominique Duncan, University of Southern California
Analytic tools for identifying biomarkers of epileptogenesis after traumatic brain injury using multi-modal data and virtual reality to correct segmentation errors in MRI
Abstract

Jan 14, 2019, 2:00pm; EEB 132

Fall 2018

 

Geir Dullerud, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Automata-switched systems, decentralized control, and team games
Abstract

Nov 26, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Munther Dahleh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A marketplace for data: An algorithmic solution
Abstract

Nov 12, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Sonja Glavaski, ARPA-E
Building efficient, sustainable and resilient grid by controlling the edge
Abstract

Nov 5, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Amir Rahmani, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Swarm autonomy and a new era of space exploration
Abstract

Oct 29, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Rayadurgam Srikant, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
On the loss surface of neural networks for binary classification
Abstract

Oct 22, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Stanley Chan, Purdue University
Understanding plug-and-play ADMM: convergence, objective function, and generalization
Abstract

Oct 15, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Murat Arcak, University of California, Berkeley
Scalable symbolic control
Abstract

Oct 8, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Vanessa Jonsson, City of Hope Beckman Research Institute
Adaptive clinical trial design to address acquired resistance and therapeutic failure
Abstract

Oct 1, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

James Anderson, California Institute of Technology
Private models and distributed control of networked systems
Abstract

Sept 24, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Soon-Jo Chung, California Institute of Technology
Multi-agent cooperative control and estimation for flying cars and spacecraft swarms
Abstract

Sept 17, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Meisam Razaviyayn, University of Southern California
Finding a local optimum of a constrained non-convex optimization and its connections to global optimality
Abstract

Sept 10, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Jason Lee, University of Southern California
Towards theoretical understanding of over-parametrization in deep learning
Abstract

Aug 27, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

Spring 2018

 

Steven Brunton, University of Washington
Data-driven discovery and control of nonlinear systems
Abstract

Apr 23, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

John Baras, University of Maryland
Networked Cyber-Physical Systems (Net-CPS)
Abstract

Apr 16, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Anders Rantzer, Lund University
Towards a scalable theory of control
Abstract

Apr 9, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Jorge Poveda, University of California, Santa Barbara
Robust model-free control, optimization, and learning in cyber-physical societal systems
Abstract

Apr 2, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

B. Ross Barmish, University of Wisconsin, Madison
From the Kelly-Shannon collaboration to stock trading based on feedback control
Abstract

Mar 26, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Ali Jadbabaie, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Near-optimal sparse sensor and actuator selection
Abstract

Mar 19, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Pramod Khargonekar, University of California, Irvine
Electric grid integration of renewable generation and distributed control
Abstract

Mar 5, 2018, 11:00am; EEB 132 (note time change)

 

Magnus Egerstedt, Georgia Institute of Technology
Long-range autonomy and constraint-based coordination of multi-robot systems
Abstract

Feb 28, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132 (note day change)
Cross-listed with CCI-MHI Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems

 

Frank Doyle, Harvard University
Controlling the artificial pancreas
Abstract

Feb 26, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Sean Meyn, University of Florida
Reinforcement learning: hidden theory, and new super-fast algorithms
Abstract

Feb 21, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132 (note day change)
Cross-listed with CCI-MHI Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems

 

Richard Murray, California Institute of Technology
Safety-critical autonomous systems: What is possible? What is required?
Abstract

Feb 12, 2018, 11:00am; EEB 132 (note time change)

 

Douglas Smith, Air Force Office of Scientific Research
AFOSR – Unsteady Aerodynamics and Turbulent Flows: An introduction
Abstract

Feb 5, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Zhisheng Niu, Tsinghua University
A wait-and-see two-threshold optimal sleeping policy for a single server queue with bursty traffic
Abstract

Feb 2, 2018, 11:00am; EEB 132 (note day change)

 

Ulrich Muenz, Siemens
Future power system control functions: an industry perspective
Abstract

Jan 29, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Miroslav Krstic, University of California, San Diego
Traffic congestion control: A PDE backstepping perspective
Abstract

Jan 22, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Bassam Bamieh, University of California, Santa Barbara
Multiplicative noise as a structured stochastic uncertainty problem
Abstract

Jan 8, 2018, 2:00pm; EEB 132

Fall 2017

 

Maxim Raginsky, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Decentralized online optimization with global objectives and local communication
Abstract

Nov 27, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Srinivas Shakkottai, Texas A&M University
Towards a market-mediated software defined communications ecosystem at the wireless edge
Abstract

Nov 20, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Victor Preciado, University of Pennsylvania
From local network structure to global graph spectrum
Abstract

Nov 15, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132 (note day change)
Cross-listed with CCI-MHI Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems

 

Francesco Bullo, University of California, Santa Barbara
Network systems and Kuramoto oscillators
Abstract

Nov 7, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132 (note day change)

 

Jordan Berg, National Science Foundation
Dynamics, controls, and robotics programs at NSF: a biased perspective
Abstract

Nov 6, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Anil Aswani, University of California, Berkeley
Making robust decisions from data
Abstract

Oct 30, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Fabio Pasqualetti, University of California, Riverside
Synchronization patterns in networks of Kuramoto oscillators: A network-theoretic approach for analysis and control
Abstract

Oct 23, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Bin Hu, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Dissipativity theory for optimization and machine learning research
Abstract

Oct 16, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Allen Tannenbaum, Stony Brook University
Optimal mass transport and the robustness of complex networks
Abstract

Oct 9, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Carolyn Beck, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Epidemic processes over topologically varying networks
Abstract

Oct 4, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132 (note day change)
Cross-listed with CCI-MHI Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems

 

Aaron Ames, California Institute of Technology
Unified control of dynamic robotic systems
Abstract
Oct 2, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Evangelos Theodorou, Georgia Institute of Technology
The science of autonomy: a “happy” symbiosis among learning, control, and physics
Abstract

Sep 26, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 248 (note day/room change)

 

Angelia Nedich, Arizona State University
Fast distributed algorithms for optimization and resource sharing in networks
Abstract

Sep 25, 2017, 11:00am; EEB 248 (note time/room change)

Andrzej Banaszuk, Andrew Sparks, and Fu Lin, United Technologies Research Center
Systems and control research at United Technologies Research Center
Abstract

Sep 18, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132
 

Ramtin Pedarsani, University of California, Santa Barbara
Robust scheduling for flexible stochastic networks
Abstract

Sep 11, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 248 (note room change)

 

Terence Sanger, University of Southern California
Rate coding, spike coding, and biological control
Abstract

Aug 28, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132

 

Peter Schmid, Imperial College, London
Model-based and data-based flow analysis using optimization
Abstract

Aug 21, 2017, 2:00pm; EEB 132