エピソード

  • CONTROL 2026 (ACE Network/ UKACC Conference Special)
    2026/07/01
    In this episode I have the pleasure of attending the CONTROL2026 conference, and bring you along with me! This conference was the largest gatheringof control engineers in the UK recent years, co-organized by the ACE network and UK Automatic Control Council (UKACC). Join me as I explore the ACE network and some of the fabulous control engineering research taking place across theUK!Join the ACE network!: ⁠https://ukcontrol.org/join-ace You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1131VDAX37W9GOJ87c0PZqXt83VMds1rAdapr1HdgN3Q/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/ ReferencesControl 2026: https://control2026.ukcontrol.org/Conference proceedings: https://control2026.ukcontrol.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Control-2026-Proceedings-Booklet.pdfACE network: https://ukcontrol.org/UKACC: https://ukacc.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/IFAC: https://www.ifac-control.org/Pramod Khargonekar: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/khargonekar/Slides from his talk: https://coffeecontrollinks.short.gy/yaf5rkNorbert Weiner: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Norbert-WienerAutomony vs automation: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00146-020-01004-zInControl episode: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/11513053-ep6-norbert-wiener-and-cyberneticsMacy Conference proceedings: http://cybernetic-bookshelf.org:8083/book/2636Dartmouth conference: https://opendigitalai.org/en/the-dartmouth-conference-1956-the-big-bang-of-ai/John McCarthy: https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-McCarthyDaniel Coca: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/engineering/staff/profile/danielcoca.htmlEPSRC: https://www.ukri.org/councils/epsrc/Interview with Andy Lawrence: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6BvPXw3YyoqdsvbQ573OF1William Heath: https://www.bangor.ac.uk/staff/scse/william-heath-680178/enAlessandro Astolfi: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/a.astolfiAntonis Papachristodoulou: https://eng.ox.ac.uk/people/antonis-papachristodoulouStephen Duncan: https://www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-stephen-duncan/Francesca Boem: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/f.boemEDI survey: https://coffeecontrollinks.short.gy/ahijkyMentorship scheme sign-up form: https://ukcontrol.org/ace-network-mentor-schemeACE position paper: https://ukcontrol.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/ACE-Position-Paper.pdfNetwork + survey: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=yRJQnBa2wkSpF2aBT74-hyrBNzE3vqFAgmzn8RVGrRVUM1pNMEZFREExUTBJQ1dRUkJTNFRGNEJPVi4u&route=shorturl Claude shutdown: https://www.ithinkdiff.com/claude-fable-5-disabled-us-government/Brian Douglas podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0yUF9sf0cM2K9AeoQzoHal Chao Gu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chao-gu-609073220/Petri nets: http://www.petri-net.de/AEGEAN: https://en.about.aegeanair.com/company/fleet/Liam Hallinan: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LmZyKIIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=aoSalma Iraky: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salmassabry/TERRA github: https://github.com/sssabry/teraAnton Selivanov: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anton-SelivanovAllan Nascimento (Multi-horizon MPC author): https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.soton.idm.oclc.org/author/867072138905292 Miroslav Krstic: https://flyingv.ucsd.edu/Neural operators: https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.08481Mohammad Adballah: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/schools/meme/staff/phd/mohammad-abdallah/ Luke Rickard: https://www.lukerickard.co.uk/Will Rohde: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wfmrohde/Dan Hobson: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5xp9hs/mr-daniel-hobsonAnthony Rossiter: https://ieeecss.org/contact/anthony-rossiterControl101 toolbox: https://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/130439-control-101-toolbox
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    51 分
  • Carmen Amo Alonso: Part 2 (AI Architectures and the Dynamics of Intelligence)
    2026/06/07
    In the second part of my interview with the incredibly talented Carmen Amo Alonso we discuss her fascinating work at the intersection of AI and control, examining topics such as:Using tools from control theory to analyse and design AI systemsControlling large language models to guarantee a particular sentiment for their outputUsing vision-language-action models to control robots using languageand a whole lot more! You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ph1yaQuV_ybRM8h9rU5Uvmz9eB5Ar4HVhcBnc7b7zJ8/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/ ReferencesThe architecture of language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApC0AWWTajUDiffusion models: https://the-principles-of-diffusion-models.github.io/Skip connection paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.10609 Review of state-space models in AI: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.16899 3 Blue 1 Brown video on transformers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjZofJX0v4MDynamical systems framework paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.15731 Designing sequence models: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.09389v1Controlling LLM output: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.15454v3Controllability of LLMs: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05637v1 Vision-language-action model paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05487v1NARRATE: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.10762DEMONSTRATE: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12855v1Domitilla Del Vecchio: https://meche.mit.edu/people/faculty/ddv@MIT.EDUBiomolecular feedback systems book: https://www.fbswiki.org/wiki/index.php/Biomolecular_Feedback_SystemsMathias Foo episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1G3vhRoeenTWRrEwauT0neinControl episodes: Mario di Bernardo: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/19167890-ep44-mario-di-bernardo-from-circuits-to-cells-and-swarms-control-meets-complexityMustafa Khammash: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/12648716-ep11-mustafa-khammash-cybergeneticsJohn Doyle: https://ieeecss.org/contact/john-doyleInControl episode: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/12841020-ep12-john-doyle-part-i-a-pioneer-s-guide-to-robust-control-the-past-present-and-futureJerome Sieber: https://jerome.sieber.io/
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    52 分
  • Carmen Amo Alonso: Part 1 (Distributed and Localized Model Predictive Control)
    2026/06/02

    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=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/

    References

    Carmen: https://camoalon.github.io/

    JPL: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

    John Doyle: https://ieeecss.org/contact/john-doyle

    Feedback in biological control: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9867859

    https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9867794

    Thesis: https://thesis.caltech.edu/15262/3/Carmen_Amo_Alonso_Caltech_PhD_Thesis.pdf

    Distributed localised MPC paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9939038

    Professor Melanie Zeilinger: https://nccr-automation.ch/about/people/melanie-zeilinger-0

    SLS 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=mF2Wbriy2Zg

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhtuGZp8QM0&t=302s

    ADMM survey paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.03700

    Professor James Anderson: https://www.columbia.edu/~ja3451/

    Data-driven DLMCP: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9772975

    Willems fundamental lemma: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/262195/1/PersistencyExcitation.pdf

    Paolo Rapisarda episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/076dEw28abILPAbT5qA6aw

    Implementing DLMP on GPUs: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9831839

    Clubes de Ciencia: Mexico: https://clubesdeciencia.mx/

    Peru: https://clubesdecienciaperu.org/

    Terry Sejnowski: https://biology.ucsd.edu/research/faculty/tsejnowski

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    30 分
  • Journal Clubs (Creating reading groups that people want to be part of)
    2026/05/01

    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=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/

    References

    Al Edwards: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/62mm7y/doctor-al-edwards

    Antonia Marcu: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5xk5lz/miss-antonia-marcu

    Convexification for soft landing optimal control paper: http://www.larsblackmore.com/iee_tcst13.pdf

    Improved soft robotic parameterisation paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8961972

    KKL observer synthesis paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.11655

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    34 分
  • Brian Douglas (Control Engineering in Industry)
    2026/04/01

    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=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/

    References

    Brian 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/UCq0imsn84ShAe9PBOFnoIrg

    MATLAB YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MATLAB

    Co-design podcast episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3upRUgZBy79tqihMy9BDsJ


    Veritasium: https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium

    Smarter every day: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6107grRI4m0o2-emgoDnAA

    Mark Rober: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRober

    Formal verification video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kINfn-ZYiLY

    InControl episode: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/15223020-ep24-brian-douglas-boeing-control-videos-resourcium-map-of-control-theory-cartoons-mathworks

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    59 分
  • Gioele Zardini (Engineering Trade-offs and Co-design)
    2026/03/01
    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_hFazBGxUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_RDCFOlJx4Aaron Ames: http://ames.caltech.edu/Nikolai Matni: https://nikolaimatni.github.io/John Doyle: https://www.eas.caltech.edu/people/doyleCDC episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ZUcm3gVHKILDEyDjQtXvx Braess’s paradox: https://resources.mpi-inf.mpg.de/departments/d1/teaching/ws12/ct/Braess-paradox.pdf Co-design of mobility-on-demand systems: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2003.04739 Formula One co-design papers: https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/entities/publication/bd65f78e-f19a-4469-a379-d4b219893a33https://CoffeeControlLinks.short.gy/JQmudBCo-design of soft robotics: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.03761 Cosimo Della Santina inControl episode: https://CoffeeControlLinks.short.gy/LPNORz Games with partially-ordered objectives: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2111.07099 Mingjia He: https://mingjia-he.github.io/Paper on hierarchical games: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.12059 Game theory episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2xrwua7U2HfSW3sxY6BnRUJeff Shamma inControl episode: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/18482182-ep40-jeff-shamma-gain-scheduling-nonlinear-control-learning-dissipativity-in-games-jiu-jitsuVincent Abbott: https://zardini.mit.edu/people/vincent-abbott/Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli: https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Faculty/Homepages/sangiovanni-vicentelli.htmlInControl episodes: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/14692449-ep21-alberto-sangiovanni-vincentelli-part-i-classics-eda-logic-synthesis-spice-intel-x386-cadence-synopsis-platform-based-designhttps://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/14882529-ep22-alberto-sangiovanni-vincentelli-part-ii-cyberphysical-and-hybrid-systems-contracts-chiplets-models-of-computation-time-innovative-ecosystems-biobricks-neuromorphicsJohn Doyle: https://www.eas.caltech.edu/people/doyle
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    1 時間 10 分
  • Barbara Franci (Game Theory and Resource Allocation)
    2026/02/01
    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/9523601Original Goodfellow paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1406.2661 Partial information paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005109821006300Incorporating a bias: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10886508Nash games with misleading information: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/11008595Evolutionary dynamics in distributed control: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7823106
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    55 分
  • Meet the Faculty Candidates (Fascinating research from the CDC poster session)
    2026/01/09
    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: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-marios-t-kokolakis-44717b164/Pre-defined time RL paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005109825003152 Parth Paritosh: https://pptx.github.io/pparitosh/Estimating a subset of variables: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2312.01227Privacy preserving paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/11073227Radoslaw Patelski: https://www.linkedin.com/in/radoslaw-patelski/?originalSubdomain=plObservers for hovercraft: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9874346ADRC with parameter identification: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10345678ADRC with adaptive input gain: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019057825001089 Carmen Amo Alonso: https://camoalon.github.io/Research overview: https://camoalon.github.io/research/Comparing mixer blocks: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2405.15731 Intro to state space models in deep learning: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.16899 Combining generative AI with control in robotics: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.10762
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    26 分