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) Open: Choice of rate, reliability and ordering Open Topological consideration (spectra of Laplacians) (Zhipu?)
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	-
Ziad Fares Visiting student		Alice	RHC, KF	Thinking about possible projects. I suggested that he do something related to (1) RHC/Follow interaction; (2) NTG/Optragen based planner w/ stability; (3) state jumps. Working on image registration CDS 273 project.
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)
Demetri Spanos CDS postdoc			Optim	Looking at distributed computation and what can be accomplished. Need to push him to write up his results in journal form and work through a few significant applications. Will probably leave by fall.
Abhishek Tiwari EE Graduating		C4ISR	Stoch	Working on spatio-temporal planning, specifically feedback-based strategies for sensor selection. Need to get something done in this direction relatively quickly, so that he can graduate.
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)
Pete Trautman CDS 2005-	PF	Allce		Interested in doing some work on MHE/PF for Alice. This could fit into some probabalistic reasoning about maps that would feed the V&V project.
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 Open: modeling and analysis of quorom sensing Open: insect-inspired flight control (Fuller?)
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?
Sawyer Fuller BE: 2004?- NSF fellowship thru Sep 06		Drosophila		Interested in working on something bio-inspired, but robotics/control focused. Working on GUF for CDS 273; try to focus on something betwene MD's lab and my group.
Henrik Sandberg CDS postdoc: 2005-		B. Subtilis	Robust	Trying to find some nice work on "rest of the world" modeling, aimed at biological circuits. Currently doing a CDS 273 project with Elowitz, which I hope will allow some biologically directed theory over the summer.
Steve Waydo CDS 2001-	GUF	Vision	TBD	Setting up a project on feedback based vision. Working on CDS 273 project with GUF.