Murray Wiki - User contributions [en]

Mengdi Wang, 11-12 Feb 2026

2026-02-04T23:47:49Z

Sjchung:

Mengdi Wang from Princeton University will visit Caltech on 11-12 Feb 2026. Please sign up here to meet with her:

'''Wednesday, 11 Feb:'''
* 7:45 am: Richard Murray, Ath
* 9:00 am: Open
* 9:45 am: Open
* 10:30 am: Open
* 11:15 am: Jiachen Yao
* 12:00 pm: Lunch with students (Ath)
* 1:15 pm: Open
* 2:00 pm: Open
* 2:45 pm: Seminar setup
* 3:00 pm: CDS tea
* 3:30 pm: Seminar
* 5:00 pm: Done for the day

'''Thursday, 12 Feb:'''
* 9:00 am: Eric Mazumdar (Zoom)
* 9:45 am: Soon-Jo Chung (235 Guggenheim)
* 10:30 am: Open
* 11:15 am: Open
* 12:00 pm: Lunch with postdocs (S. Lake)
* 1:30 pm: Pietro Perona, Chen
* 2:15 pm: Yisong Yue, ANB
* 3:00 pm: Richard Murray, 109 Steele Lab (will pick up in Yisong's office)
* 3:45 pm: Done for the day

<hr>

'''From Genome to Theorem—and Back to the Lab: Can AI Co-Scientists Do Science?'''

Professor Mengdi Wang 
Princeton University

11 February (Wed), 3-4 pm 
213 Annenberg

Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly used for scientific reasoning across mathematics, genomics, biology, and physics. This talk discusses recent advances in AI for science—including reasoning for math, physics and emerging science agents—while critically examining their limitations such as overestimated reasoning abilities. I then introduce LabOS, an AI-XR co-scientist that bridges computation and physical science by combining multimodal AI agents, extended-reality interfaces, and laboratory automation. By enabling AI systems to see experimental context, collaborate with humans, and assist in real-time execution, LabOS points toward a future where AI moves beyond analysis to active participation in scientific discovery.

Mengdi Wang is an Associate professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Center for Statistics and Machine Learning at Princeton University. Mengdi received her PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013, where she was affiliated with the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. Mengdi received the Young Researcher Prize in Continuous Optimization of the Mathematical Optimization Society in 2016, an MIT Tech Review 35-Under-35 Innovation Award (China region) in 2018, and the American Automatic Control Council Donald P. Eckman Award in 2024.

Nok Wongpiromsarn, May 2024

2024-05-14T15:31:28Z

Sjchung:

Nok Wongpiromsarn, an Assistant Professor at Iowa State, will visit Caltech on 20-21 May 2024.

20 May 2024
* 9:15a: Richard, 109 Steele Lab
* 10:00a: Apurva
* 10:45a: Open
* 11:30a: Open
* 12p-1:15p: Lunch
* 1:15p: Open
* 2:00p: Open
* 3:00p-4pm: Soon-Jo Chung (235 Guggenheim)
* 4:00p: Open
* ~6 pm: dinner with Richard

21 May 2024
* 10:15a: Open
* 10:30a: Open
* 11:15a: Open
* 12-1p: Lunch
* 1-3 pm: Apurva Badithela thesis defense
* 3:00 pm: Eric Mazumdar (meet at defense)
* 3:45 pm: Open
* 4:30 pm: Open
* 5:00 pm: Richard, 109 Steele Lab

Lars Nielsen, March 2023

2023-03-08T19:44:49Z

Sjchung: /* 14 Mar (Tue) */

Lars Nielsen from Linkoping University in Sweden will visit Caltech on 13-17 March 2023.
__NOTOC__

{| width=100% border=1
|- valign=top
| width=20% |
=== 13 Mar (Mon) ===
* 8:30 am: Richard, 110 Steele Lab
* 9:30 am: open
* 10:15 am: open
* 11:00 am: Michael Dickinson
* 11:45 am: Lunch: Richard + Faculty
* 1:15 pm: open
* 2:00 pm: Hold: seminar
* 3:15 pm: open
* 4:00 pm: open
| width=20% |

=== 14 Mar (Tue) ===
* 9:00 am: open
* 10:00 am: Biocircuits meeting (optional)
* 12:00 pm: Lunch: students
* 1:15 pm: Soon-Jo Chung (235 Guggenheim)
* 2:00 pm: open
* 2:45 pm: open
* 3:30 pm: open
* 4:15 pm: open
* 6:00 pm: Dinner with Richard and RuthAnne
| width=20% |

=== 15 Mar (Wed) ===
* 1:00 pm: Markus Meister
* 1:45 pm: open
* 3:00 pm: CDS Tea
* 3:45 pm: open
| width=20% |

=== 16 Mar (Thu) ===
* Dinner with Richard and graduate students
| width=20% |

=== 17 Mar (Fri) ===
* 4:00 pm: wrap up with Richard
|}

=== Seminar information ===

Force-Centric Perspectives on Autonomous Vehicle Safety-Maneuvers

Lars Nielsen, Division of Vehicular Systems, Linköping University 
(postdoc at Caltech 85-86)

13 March, 2-3 pm OR 15 Mar, 2-3 pm 
213 Anneberg

Abstract:
Real-time avoidance maneuvers for vehicles have been developed using a force-centric perspective,
where the founding principles are obtained from studies of optimal maneuvers. The
developed optimization framework, the different criteria used, and the obtained solutions give
insight into how to control the forces on the vehicle. A highlight in this presentation is the first
algorithm not needing a tire-road friction estimate.

Wen-Hua Chen, 4-21 Oct 2022

2022-09-28T05:38:25Z

Sjchung: /* 4 Oct (Tue) */

Professor Wen-Hua Chen from the University of Loughborough will visit Caltech on 4-21 Oct 2022. A schedule for the first few days of his visit is given below. Please feel free to sign up for any open times.

{-
|-
| align=top |
=== 4 Oct (Tue) ===
* 8:30 am: Richard Murray, 109 Steele Lab
* 9:00 am: Soon-Jo Chung, 235 Guggenheim (including lab tour (CAST & ARCL))
* 9:45 am: Open
* 10:30 am: Open
* 11:15 am: Open
* 12:00 pm: Lunch with Richard
* 1:15 pm: Houman Owhadi, 201 Steele House
* 2:00 pm: Open
* 2:45 pm: Open
* 3:30 pm: Open
* 4:15 pm: Open
* 5:00 pm: Done for the day

| align=top |

=== 5 Oct (Wed) ===

* 9:00 am: Open
* 9:45 am: Open
* 10:30 am: Open
* 11:15 am: Open
* 12:00 pm: Lunch
* 1:30 pm: Open
* 2:15 pm: Open
* 3:00 pm: CDS Tea, Annenberg
* 3:45 pm: Seminar - 121 Annenberg
* 5:00 pm: Richard Murray, 109 Steele Lab
* 6:00 pm: Dinner with NCS group
|}

'''Stability of Optimisation-Based Control: Brief Review and New Results'''

Prof Wen-Hua Chen 
Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering 
Loughborough University

With the increase of the size and the complexity of systems and their performance specifications, it is more difficult to find analytic solutions for a control system as in traditional approaches to give optimal performance. Model Predictive Control (MPC) provides a promising mechanism to realise numerical optimal solutions online to achieve best possible performance. However, establishing stability and other formal properties of this type of optimisation-based control imposes significant challenges. This talk starts with the brief overview of 30 years’ journey in developing stability theory for MPC. It points out that despite all the success, there is still a significant gap between available theoretic tools and practical applications. For example, a terminal cost that covers the optimal cost-to-go is, in general, required to add the cost function in order to ensure stability of a MPC algorithm, but most of MPC used in practical applications does not have a terminal cost (for example, all cases studies in Matlab Nonlinear MPC Toolbox do not have a terminal cost but work well). This talk presents a new approach and development in this area. The stability condition is entirely complementary to the existing terminal based MPC stability theory. Opposite to the existing MPC stability conditions, the new stability conditions cover the terminal cost being less than the optimal cost-to-go including zero terminal cost even negative. The new conditions are established based on a property of a modified stage cost. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the links and differences between the new approach and the existing stability theory. It is hoped that this work would trigger more research into understanding the interaction between optimisation and feedback loops in both the AI and the control community so ensure efficiency and safety of future robotics and autonomous systems.

Dr Wen-Hua Chen holds Professor in Autonomous Vehicles in the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering at Loughborough University, UK. Prof. Chen has a considerable experience in control, signal processing and artificial intelligence and their applications in aerospace, automotive and agriculture systems. In the last 15 years, he has been working on the development and application of unmanned aircraft system and intelligent vehicle technologies, spanning autopilots, situational awareness, decision making, verification, remote sensing for precision agriculture and environment monitoring. He is a Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of IEEE, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Engineering and Technology, UK. Recently Prof Chen was awarded an EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Science Research Council) Established Career Fellowship in developing control theory for next generation of control systems to enable high levels of automation such as robotics and autonomous systems.

Thomas Mohren, 2 Oct 2019

2019-10-02T14:44:25Z

Sjchung: /* Schedule */

Thomas Mohren, a PhD student working with Tom Daniel and Steve Brunton at U. Washington, will visit Caltech on 2-3 Oct 2019. If you would ilke to meet with Thomas, please sign up here:

=== Schedule ===

2 Oct 2019 (Wed)
* 10:00 Group meeting presentation, 181 BBB
* 11:30 am: Richard
* 12:00 pm: Lunch with Petter, Yuxiao (pick up at Richard's office)
* 1:30 pm: Joel Burdick (room 245 Gates-Thomas)
* 2:15 pm: Karena Cai (331 Annenberg)
* 3:00 pm: CDS tea
* 3:45 pm: SJ Chung (235 Guggenheim)
* 4:30 pm: Francesca (230 Annenberg)

3 Oct 2019 (Thu)
* 10:00 am: Open
* 10:45 am: Open
* 11:30 pm: Kate (Dickinson lab) BBB 204
* 12:15 pm: Lunch with Apurva
* 1:30 pm: Kellan (Dickinson lab) BBB 204
* 2:15 pm: Amir (Dickinson lab) BBB 204
* 3:00 pm: Leave for airport

=== Group meeting talk ===

Neural-inspired sparse sensing for classification and control 
Thomas Mohren, U. Washington

Sparse sensor placement is a central challenge in the efficient characterization of complex systems when the cost of acquiring and processing data is high. Leading sparse sensing methods typically exploit either spatial or temporal correlations, but rarely both. We use sparse sensor optimization in combination with neural-inspired sensory encoding to leverage the spatiotemporal coherence exhibited by many biological systems. Using flying insects as a model, we subject flapping plate with embedded strain gauges to inertial rotation. We show that nonlinear filtering in time is essential to detect rotation, whereas instantaneous measurements fail. My current project aims to understand how animals overcome temporal challenges such as sensory delays and time varying control effectiveness during locomotion. Using the inverted pendulum as a benchmark model, I study the effectiveness of timing-based controllers in dealing with these challenges.

Kristin Rozier, May 2019

2019-05-15T16:38:07Z

Sjchung: /* Schedule */

Kristin Rozier will visit Caltech on 17 May (Fri). Kristin is an Assistant Professor at Iowa State University, in the Aerospace Engineering and Computer Science Departments. Previous to that, she spent three semesters at the University of Cincinnati (2015-2016) and 14 years as a Research Scientist at NASA, holding civil service positions at NASA Ames Research Center (2008-2014) and NASA Langley Research Center (2001-2008).

=== Schedule ===

* 10 am-10:30: Soon-Jo Chung (235 Guggenheim)
* 10:45 am: Seminar setup
* 11:00 am: Seminar
* 12:00 pm: Lunch with Richard
* 1:15 pm: Tung Phan (Steele library)
* 2:00 pm: Open
* 2:45 pm: Apurva
* 3:30 pm: Open (if needed)
* 4:15 pm: Open (if needed)
* 5:00 pm: Done for the day

=== Seminar abstract ===

From Unmanned Aerial Systems to Robonaut2: On-board Runtime Reasoning in Air and Space

Kristin Rozier
Iowa State University

Runtime Verification (RV) has become critical to the deployment of a wide range of systems, including aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, rovers, and robots. The most useful, important, and safety-critical jobs will require these systems to operate both intelligently and autonomously, with the ability to sense and respond to both nominal and off-nominal conditions. It is essential that we enable reasoning sufficient to react to challenging environments and detect critical failures on-board, in real time, to enable mitigation triggering. We are challenged by the constraints of real-life embedded operation that limit the system instrumentation, space, timing, power, weight, cost, and other operating conditions of on-board, runtime verification. While the research area of RV is vast, there is a dearth of RV tools that can operate within these constraints, and without violating, e.g., FAA rules for flight certification.

The Realizable, Responsive, Unobtrusive Unit (R2U2) analyzes specifications that combine temporal logics with probabilistic reasoning to provide formal assurances during runtime, enabling self-assessment of critical systems. This presentation overviews the achievements of the three-year NASA Early Career Faculty proposal, "Multi-Platform, Multi-Architecture Runtime Verification of Autonomous Space Systems." We discuss the unique design of R2U2 and demo R2U2 on-board Robonaut2, disambiguation emergent faults in the knee joint. We highlight on-going work in predictive and adaptable runtime verification, including adaptations for other platforms, and seek future collaborations with JPL missions.

Paul Van den Hof, Dec 2018

2018-12-03T23:10:44Z

Sjchung: /* Schedule */

Paul van den Hof is Full Professor and Chair of the Control Systems (CS) Group at the Department of Electrical Engineering. He is interested in data-driven modeling, control and optimization of dynamic systems in several technological fields: industrial process control, oil reservoir engineering, high-tech mechatronic and cyber-physical systems, etc. His focus is the development of fundamental techniques, such as data-driven modeling, closed-loop and control-oriented identification and data analytics, experimental design and performance monitoring, and model-based control, monitoring and optimization.

=== Schedule ===

* 10 am: Richard Murray, 107 Steele Lab
* 10:30 am: open
* 11:00 am: open
* 11:45 am: Lunch with CDS faculty
* 1:00 pm: Seminar, 106 Annenberg
* 2:00 pm: Soon-Jo Chung, 106 Annenberg
* 2:45 pm: Open
* 3:30 pm: Richard Murray, 107 Steele Lab
* 4:00 pm: Open
* 4:45 pm: Open (if nothing else available)
* 5:30 pm: Depart

=== Seminar ===

'''Data-driven modeling in linear dynamic networks''' 
Friday, December 7th at 1pm, 106 Annenberg

In many areas of science and technology, the complexity of dynamic systems that are being considered, grows beyond the level of single systems into interconnected networks of dynamic systems. In control and optimization this has led to the development of decentralized and distributed algorithms for control/optimization, as e.g. in multi-agent systems.
From the modelling perspective, data-driven modelling tools are typically developed for relatively simple open-loop and closed-loop structures, while the opportunities for big data handling in the current data science era, are becoming abundant. As a result there is a strong need for the development of data-driven modelling tools for large-scale interconnected dynamic networks.
In this seminar we will highlight the main developments and challenges in this area. Besides setting up a modelling framework, we will address problems of local identification of a particular part of the network, including the selection of the appropriate signals to be measured. The concept of network identifiability is highlighted and the role of structural properties of the network, in terms of its topology/graph, is given strong attention. It is also shown how classical closed-loop identification methods need to be generalized to be able to cope with the new situations.

Karan Kalsi, Oct 2017

2017-09-28T16:45:22Z

Sjchung: /* 5 Oct (Thu) */

__NOTOC__
[[Image:Karan_Kalsi.jpg||right]]
Dr. Karan Kalsi is currently a power systems research engineer at the Pacific Northwest National Lab, Richland, WA, USA. He is the lead investigator on Department of Energy funded research to develop efficient, reliable and secure control strategies for Smart Grid assets. He is the principle investigator on the topic of developing future power grid control paradigms as part of the laboratory’s Future Power Grid Initiative. He is the Co-principle investigator on EED SEED project related to modeling and controls for distributed energy resources in microgrids. Karanjit is also actively involved with IEEE including being the 2011 Chair of the IEEE Richland Section Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) Affinity Group and was recently elected as the 2012 Vice-chair of Technical Activities and Outreach of the IEEE Richland Section Power and Energy Society.

More: http://energyenvironment.pnnl.gov/staff/staff_info.asp?staff_num=2178

== Schedule for Karan Kalsi visit, 2-5 Oct 2017 ==

=== 2 Oct (Mon) ===
* Morning: HR check-in, office setup
* Lunch: Richard
* 2 pm: Open
* 3:30 pm: Colloqium reception (location?)
* 4 pm: CMS colloqium - George Papanicoulou (Stanford), 105 Annenberg

=== 3 Oct (Tue) ===
* 10 am: Open
* 11 am: Open
* IST lunch bunch
* Afternoon off

=== 4 Oct (Wed) ===
* Morning off
* Lunch open
* 3 pm: CDS tea
* 4 pm: Open

=== 5 Oct (Thu) ===
* 10 am: Soon-Jo Chung (235 Guggenheim) CAST and aerospace robotics research
* 11 am: Open
* Lunch: Open
* 2 pm: head for airport