Student Projects

This page contains information on what various students are working on, mainly so that I can get coverage over the entire range of problems we are working on and at the same time deconflict students. This page is restricted so that I don't have to try to be too careful about capturing everything exactly right.

Name	Comp	Appl	Theory	Comments
Networked Control Systems Packet-based estimation and control: individual packet loss → group communications Distributed estimation and control: consensus → composition (V&V) Choice of rate, reliability and ordering Topological consideration (spectra of Laplacians)
John Carson ME 1/2 time at JPL	SOS	EDL	V&V	V&V using SOS. Current approach is to look at IQCs as a mechanism to capture constraints and then use SOS to construct proofs for things like RHC.
Stefano Di Cairano Visitor: Jul 06 - Jul 07 Student of A. Bemporad		Alice	Hybrid	Will probably do something hybrid and/or RHC related. One possibility would be to work out a proof for the supervisory logic for the vehicle state estimator on Alice.
Michael Epstein ME: NDSEG fellowship through Sep 06		Alice?	Stoch	Has worked with Ling on packet-based; try to move toward input buffers and estimation w/ intermittent knowledge about control that was applied. Need to move in a direction that involves implementation
Melvin Flores CDS: Working part time at NGC	OTG	Space	RHC	Should graduate by Dec 2006. NURBS + finding control points that meet spatial constraints.
Vijay Gupta EE: Graduating			Stoch	Nice collection of results in distributed estimation with packet loss.
Zhipu Jin EE: Graduating		RoboFlag	Graph theory	Has done some good work on cooperative control. Has a 1/2 postdoc lined up with Andrea Bertozzi at UCLA. Can probably continue on a postdoc at Caltech, focused on MURI infrastructure. Could also look at some work on spectra of Laplacians.
Yasi Mostofi EE postdoc			Comms	Cross-channel feedback for sensor networks
Ling Shi CDS:	Spread		Stoch	Multiple aspects of packet-based control. Try to get focused on plug and play architectures for estimation and control, including effects of group communication protocols (spread)
Autonomy
Julia Braman ME: 2003- NSF fellowship through Aug 06	MDS	JPL, Alice	CCL	Goal and contingency management using MDS
Fei Wang EE: 2003-		Alice	Learning	Adaptation and learning for sensor fusion on Alice. Currently try to sort out how low in the hierarchy to go (eg, sensor → action versus sensor → map)
Nok Wongpiromsarn ME: 2005- Rotation student		RoboFlag	CCL	Doing a rotation project looking at how to do distributed surveillance using CCL-style proofs. Has approached me about jointly advising with Joel; deferred until after midterms.
Biology
Luis Soto CSULA MS student		Marine Eco	Dyn Sys	Working on modeling of marine ecosystems, following up on CDS 273 project.
Mary Dunlop ME: 2003- CSGF until Sep 06		E. Coli	System ID	Focused on system identification for synthetic biology, using both noise and forcing
Elisa Franco CDS: 2005-		E. Coli		Long term interesting in redesigning the feedback system of a bacterium. Likely initial focus is on design and analysis of feedback circuits (simpler than chemotaxis). Possibly jointly advised by Christina?