Decision and Control Systems

Control Systems includes identification, modeling, analysis, and control of dynamic systems. Applications range from controlling robotic arms for tele-surgery to modeling and controlling economic markets; from temperature control in our homes and office buildings to control of unmanned vehicles, rockets, and robots. Controls analysis and implementation may require high mathematical sophistication as the models may be infinite-dimensional (partial differential equations, differential equations with delays), stochastic (stochastic processes and differential equations), nonlinear with perturbations, and they may be continuous-time or discrete-time (difference equations and finite-state machines). Many well-known techniques in optimization such as dynamic programming trace their origin to control theory. This area offers an unprecedented range of opportunities in theoretical work, applications, and their intersections.