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Coffee and Control: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Lucy Hodgins
Podcast in which I interview fascinating people from within the world of control theory/ control engineering. Primarily aimed at PhD/masters students but can hopefully be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in control. New episodes released monthly
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- 3 days ago30 min
Carmen Amo Alonso: Part 1 (Distributed and Localized Model Predictive Control)
In this episode I talk to the very wonderful Carmen Amo Alonso about her (award-winning) PhD research on distributed and localised MPC. We also cover super interesting and useful concepts such as system-level synthesis and ADMM, as well as her internship working at Tesla!You can access the transcript at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SErvHtKoE18QzelHDUh9im6AeG3zKPWZLRoNGx5BUyg/edit?usp=sharingFollow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/ ReferencesCarmen: https://camoalon.github.io/JPL: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/John Doyle: https://ieeecss.org/contact/john-doyleFeedback in biological control: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9867859https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9867794Thesis: https://thesis.caltech.edu/15262/3/Carmen_Amo_Alonso_Caltech_PhD_Thesis.pdfDistributed localised MPC paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9939038 Professor Melanie Zeilinger: https://nccr-automation.ch/about/people/melanie-zeilinger-0SLS for robust nonlinear optimal control: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.04943 Professor Nikolai Matni: https://nikolaimatni.github.io/ System-level synthesis tutorial: https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.01634 YouTube videos on DLMPC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF2Wbriy2Zghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhtuGZp8QM0&t=302sADMM survey paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.03700Professor James Anderson: https://www.columbia.edu/~ja3451/ Data-driven DLMCP: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9772975Willems fundamental lemma: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/262195/1/PersistencyExcitation.pdfPaolo Rapisarda episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/076dEw28abILPAbT5qA6aw Implementing DLMP on GPUs: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9831839Clubes de Ciencia: Mexico: https://clubesdeciencia.mx/ Peru: https://clubesdecienciaperu.org/Terry Sejnowski: https://biology.ucsd.edu/research/faculty/tsejnowski
- May 1, 202634 min
Journal Clubs (Creating reading groups that people want to be part of)
In this episode I talk to three lovely researchers all about journal clubs (AKA reading groups) – what they are, why you might want to be part of one, and how to start your own! I also give some insights from my own experiences running a (control-related) journal club, as well as a summary of three of my favourite papers we’ve read. You can find the transcript at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19i4egf_2KEWqkp94ZW3QjRTH8PeAZz6yEix8zoSfx4k/edit?usp=sharingFollow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/ ReferencesAl Edwards: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/62mm7y/doctor-al-edwardsAntonia Marcu: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5xk5lz/miss-antonia-marcuConvexification for soft landing optimal control paper: http://www.larsblackmore.com/iee_tcst13.pdfImproved soft robotic parameterisation paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8961972KKL observer synthesis paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.11655
- Apr 1, 202658 min
Brian Douglas (Control Engineering in Industry)
In this episode I got the opportunity to sit down with the fantastic Brian Douglas and talk about what it's like to be a control engineer in industry, common misconceptions he had, and advice for current students. We also discussed his YouTube channel, as well as a few more technical aspects of projects he's been involved with over the years!You can find the transcript at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gAyIAgd3RzVSSDmJ-As0gzJVekJG3IqU2L-1zJhuKYs/edit?usp=sharingFollow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/ ReferencesBrian Douglas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-douglas-505b7175/Engineering Media (Brian’s company): https://engineeringmedia.com/ Original YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq0imsn84ShAe9PBOFnoIrgMATLAB YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MATLABCo-design podcast episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3upRUgZBy79tqihMy9BDsJVeritasium: https://www.youtube.com/@veritasiumSmarter every day: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6107grRI4m0o2-emgoDnAAMark Rober: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRoberFormal verification video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kINfn-ZYiLYInControl episode: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/15223020-ep24-brian-douglas-boeing-control-videos-resourcium-map-of-control-theory-cartoons-mathworks
- Mar 1, 20261h 9m
Gioele Zardini (Engineering Trade-offs and Co-design)
In this episode I got to speak with the fantastic Gioele Zardini about his work on the co-design framework, a fascinating framework used to optimise large interconnected systems. We cover the theoretical background of this, intuition behind it, and a ton of different applications where it’s useful, as well as discussing exciting open questions in the field! Find the transcript at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XPZr9jP4Lphskkw-SiM8h-x1kp7LROqZ243S6zA7EsY/edit?usp=sharingFollow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/ ReferencesGioele Zardini: https://zardini.mit.edu/PhD thesis: https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/entities/publication/d7c08dd5-bf96-4c1f-a744-5e751f0f44a5PhDs in control interview: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10555200Emilio Frazzoli: https://idsc.ethz.ch/research-frazzoli/people/person-detail.frazzoli.htmlAndrea Cenci: https://nccr-automation.ch/about/people/andrea-censiMarco Pavone: https://profiles.stanford.edu/marco-pavoneNuTonomy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuTonomy(current site: https://motional.com/)Brad Nelson: https://msrl.ethz.ch/the-lab/team/Brad_Nelson.htmlDavid Sacramuza: https://rpg.ifi.uzh.ch/people_scaramuzza.htmlYujun Huang: https://zardini.mit.edu/people/yujun-huang/Uncertainty in co-design paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.02766 Background refs on category theory:David Spivak: https://dspivak.net/Brendan Fong: http://brendanfong.com/ Gioele's work in progress book: https://storage.zuper.ai/sync/ACT4E/ACT4E/alphubel-prod/build/last/build-public/ACT4E-public.pdfYouTube talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmAz6fEPa2oGioele's course: https://zardini.mit.edu/act4ed/MIT applied category theory course: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-s097-applied-category-theory-january-iap-2019/Seven sketches in compositionality: http://brendanfong.com/fong_spivak_an_invitation.pdf LQG control co-design paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9654960LQG background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4_hFa
- Feb 1, 202654 min
Barbara Franci (Game Theory and Resource Allocation)
In this episode I have a lovely conversation with Dr Barbara Franci about her research into game theory, exploring both theoretical concepts (such as variational inequalities, forwards-backwards algorithms, and stochastic Nash equilibrium-seeking problems) and practical applications, including resource allocation, energy management, and generative adversarial networks! You can find the transcript at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h9AbCPzzlt7ggNOGx3bK3pwSaCUo__LtYzvdJ-5wqYw/edit?usp=sharing Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/ ReferencesBarbara Franci: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/b-franciPhD thesis: https://tesidottorato.depositolegale.it/bitstream/20.500.14242/198173/1/FRANCI%20Tesi2.pdfMore background on evolutionary games: https://users.ssc.wisc.edu/~whs/teaching/805/handbook.pdfJeff Shamma inConctrol episode: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/18482182-ep40-jeff-shamma-gain-scheduling-nonlinear-control-learning-dissipativity-in-games-jiu-jitsu Wisdom of a crowd paper: https://epubs.siam.org/doi/abs/10.1137/18M1232267Francesco Bullo: https://fbullo.github.io/Original Galton paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/075450a0 Video on the Lagrangian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR4ff0dTLTwUseful lecture notes on these concepts: https://www.mit.edu/~gfarina/notes/ Distributed forwards-backwards paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9309063Extragradient paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/11184508Relaxed inertial forwards-backwards paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9682905 Professor Lacra Pavel: https://www.ece.utoronto.ca/people/pavel-l/Deterministic decoupling paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330888828_An_operator_splitting_approach_for_distributed_generalized_Nash_equilibria_computationPseudo-monotone functions: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225986571_Pseudomonotone_Operators_A_Survey_of_the_Theory_and_Its_ApplicationsInertial gradient descent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iudXf5n_3ro&t=60s GANs paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9523601Orig
- Jan 9, 202625 min
Meet the Faculty Candidates (Fascinating research from the CDC poster session)
In this bonus episode I explore the work of ten fascinating researchers that I met at the Meet the Faculty Candidates poster session at CDC last month. We cover a wide array of different areas, including data-driven methods, fault-tolerant control, biological systems, PDEs, distributed estimation and a whole lot more! Correction: At ~5:20 I mention that Anju was able to characterize the strategies of the two communicating entities at the Nash equilibrium - In actual fact this is a Stackelberg equilibrium (Stackelberg games involve players acting sequentially, taking either a leader or follower role)You can view the transcript for this episode at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15Tf4ORHPI5Thbs-nA9DQTSu87TKbYni9JJN2UXqn5kU/edit?usp=sharingFollow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/ Links and referencesAmy Strong: https://bridgeman.pratt.duke.edu/people/amy-strongPaper on data-driven invariance: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.19231 Anju Anand: https://sites.google.com/binghamton.edu/anjuanandStrategic quantisation: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10960399Incorporating privacy into the objective: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06321 Brian Block: https://mae.osu.edu/people/block.168Control of PDE traffic flow: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.04823 Declan Jagt: https://search.asu.edu/profile/3729730Stability analysis of coupled multivariate PDEs: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.14840 Scalar quadratic PDEs: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10384073PIETOOLS software: https://control.asu.edu/pietools/pietoolsHamza El-Kebir: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamza-el-kebir/Control authority degradation paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10354437Sensor and actuator degradation: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10521243Electrosurgery paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article/21/210/20230420/90578/Heat-conduction-in-live-tissue-duringElectrostatic signed distance functions: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.12554 Kirill Sechkar: https://engbio.ox.ac.uk/people/kirill-sechkarControl of genetic circuits paper: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.01.646303v2.full.pdf Nick Marios Kokolakis: <a href="https://www.linkedi
- Jan 1, 202651 min
CDC special (Conference of Decision and Control 2025)
In this episode I bring my microphones with me to the conference of decision and control (CDC) where I talk to a load of interesting researchers about their recent work. Featuring discussion of a wide range of different topics, including reinforcement learning, control architecture, game theory, AI-human interaction, event-triggered control and a whole lot more! You can view the episode transcript at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h6PdTd9xLTcJOGPx6TIkXOKPz_NGoS9_sA8CUvoZlx8/edit?usp=sharing Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/ CDC web-page: https://cdc2025.ieeecss.org/Female influencers in control: https://www.control.lth.se/external-engagement/female-influencers-in-automatic-control/Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe7VtNHI6bG8UBEoSGiAuVXNsmXSHlw8xG0LuMon2DVd0Pv0A/viewform inControl episode: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/18361436-ep39-female-influencers-in-control Alessandro Abate: https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/alessandro.abate/Maegan Tucker: https://maegantucker.com/Joe Moeller: https://joe-moeller.com/Category theory blog: https://joe-moeller.com/hi/Rodolphe Sepulchre: https://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/profiles/rs771inControl episode: https://CoffeeControlLinks.short.gy/9HLW37Spiking control of a snake: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.02968 Neuromorphic architecture: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.11924 Raj Velichete: https://ece.illinois.edu/about/directory/grad-students/rkv4Vijeth Hebber: https://www.vijethhebbar.com/John Doyle: https://www.eas.caltech.edu/people/doyleInControl episodes: https://CoffeeControlLinks.short.gy/yx0IF5https://CoffeeControlLinks.short.gy/qtk0LeDimos Dimarogonas: https://people.kth.se/~dimos/Plenary on formal verification for multi-agent systems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C3GSgVmxdo&t=1327sAttacks on controlling multi-agent systems: https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.soton.idm.oclc.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11036540ESC inspired by insect flapping: https://
- Dec 27, 202518 min
IEEE NextCom (Fostering Community Within Controls Research)
In this episode I talk to some wonderful members of IEEEcontrol systems society (CSS) NextCom committee about their work fostering inclusivity and belonging within CSS, as well as empowering the next generation of leaders within control. We also cover how you can be a part of this! You can find the transcript at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/186arBxVLdcpHUCT9djgXQ7IMVvX5SLsMk0LmnzOLbRY/edit?usp=sharing Fill in this leadership interest survey if you’d like to getinvolved: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc-9qK13qYOSylyo-L-s8LvIYjd9bUmWlpd7zj2C7cxDASK-Q/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=113511961640315346198 Slack channel: https://join.slack.com/t/next-comworkspace/shared_invite/zt-3kz84ooc6-iLeTIhTKs5oMwJ8ccjTZxw(This link will time-out after a little while – if you find it’s not working you can contract me or one of the other committee members and we can add you directly!) Links and referencesNextCom webpage: https://sites.google.com/view/css-nextcomBrooks Butler: https://sites.google.com/view/brooks-butlerEmail: bbutler2@uci.eduAnastasia Bizyaeva: https://anastasiabzv.github.io/Email: anastasiab@cornell.eduPhil E Paré: https://sites.google.com/view/philpareUmar Niazi: https://sites.google.com/view/umarniazi/Urmee Maitra: https://urmeemaitra.github.io/Carina Veil: https://profiles.stanford.edu/carina-veilPio Ong: https://pioong.github.io/Leonardo Toso: https://leotoso.github.io/ ECC episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4PAlFzgSoLM6andaXEWB8e
About Coffee and Control
Podcast in which I interview fascinating people from within the world of control theory/ control engineering. Primarily aimed at PhD/masters students but can hopefully be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in control. New episodes released monthly
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