November 20, 2015, Webb 1100

Network systems are mathematical models for the study of cooperation, propagation, synchronization and other dynamical phenomena that arise among interconnected agents. Network systems are widespread in science as they are fundamental modeling tools, e.g., in sociology, ecology, and epidemiology. They also play a key growing role in technology, e.g., in the design of power grids, cooperative robotics behaviors and distributed computing algorithms. Their study pervades applied mathematics. This talk will review established and emerging frameworks for modeling, analysis and design of network systems. I will survey the available comprehensive theory for linear network systems and then highlight selected nonlinear concepts. Next, I will focus on recent developments by my group on (i) modeling of the evolution of opinions and social power in social networks, (ii) analysis of security and transmission capacity in power grids, and (iii) design of optimal strategies for robotic routing and coordination.

Francesco Bullo is a Professor with the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received the Laurea degree "summa cum laude" in Electrical Engineering from the University of Padova, Italy, in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree in Control and Dynamical Systems from the California Institute of Technology in 1999. From 1998 to 2004, he was an Assistant Professor with the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
His main research interests are network systems and distributed control with application to robotic coordination, power grids and social networks. He is the coauthor, with Andrew D. Lewis, of the book "Geometric Control of Mechanical Systems" (Springer, 2004, 0-387-22195-6) and, with Jorge Cortés and Sonia Martínez, of the book "Distributed Control of Robotic Networks" (Princeton, 2009, 978-0-691-14195-4). He is an IEEE Fellow. His students' papers were finalists for the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (2002, 2005, 2007), and the American Control Conference (2005, 2006, 2010). His articles received the 2008 IEEE CSM Outstanding Paper Award, the 2011 Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award, the 2013 SIAG/CST Best Paper Prize, and the 2014 Automatica Best Paper Prize. He has published more than 250 papers in international journals, books, and refereed conferences. He has served on the Editorial Boards of "IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control," "ESAIM: Control, Optimization, and the Calculus of Variations," "SIAM Journal of Control and Optimization," and "Mathematics of Control, Signals, and Systems".