ep40 - Jeff Shamma: gain scheduling, nonlinear control, learning & dissipativity in games, jiu-jitsu

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1. 

   S4 · E7 · 15 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 32 min

   ep45 - Peter Caines: from stochastic and adaptive control to mean field games, graphons, and beyond!

   Outline 00:00 - Intro 02:10 - London in the 1960s 12:40 - From Oxford to Imperial College: David Mayne and the discrete-time Riccati equation 18:05 - The "global tour": Montenegro roads, hitch-hiking to Istanbul, and the San Francisco waterfront 22:30 - Feedback and causality between stochastic processes 31:15 - The system identification years 40:50 - Model complexity, the bias–variance trade-off, and concentration inequalities 52:05 - Adaptive control: living through a golden era 1:0...

2. 

   S4 · E6 · 15 May 2026 · 1 hr 30 min

   ep44 - Mario di Bernardo: From Circuits to Cells and Swarms — Control meets Complexity

   Outline 00:00 - Intro 01:30 - Origin story: Naples, electrical engineering, and the fascination with chaos 08:00 - What is chaos? 15:00 - DC-DC converters and discontinuity-induced bifurcations 22:00 - Piecewise-smooth dynamical systems 26:55 - Complex networks, synchronization, and pinning control 40:30- Synthetic biology: from gene regulatory networks to multicellular control 58:00 - COVID-19: a network epidemic model for Italy 1:02:00 - Multiscale control, statistical mechanics, and p...

3. 

   S4 · E5 · 15 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 14 min

   ep43 - Steve Brunton: DMD, Koopman, SINDy, Eigensteve Channel, HydroGym, Optimization, and much more

   Outline 00:00 - Intro 01:15 - Origin story: early path and the road to science 04:20 - On graphical visualization and aphantasia 08:08 - The interest in fluid dynamics 12:00 - Caltech, Jerry Marsden, and the move to the Pacific time zone 19:43 - Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) and the Koopman operator 27:15 - On teaching and the Eigensteve channel 39:22 - SINDy: Sparse Identification of Nonlinear Dynamics 45:45 - Automatic knowledge creation and Expl...

4. 

   S4 · E4 · 16 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 10 min

   ep42 - inControl guide to ... the Nyquist criterion

   Outline 00:00 – Intro 04:43 – Life and background 08:45 – Bell Labs 13:42 – Inventing the negative feedback amplifier 18:15 – Nyquist's landmark contributions 20:43 – Regeneration theory 27:10 – Frequency response 32:03 – Cauchy’s argument principle 36:05 – The Nyquist criterion 41:37 – Why is it so hard? 45:27 – Robustness, margins, and practical aspects 56:41 – Beyond the Nyquist criterion 1:04:25 – Pitfalls and common misunderstandings 1:07:00 – Outro Links Brian Douglas's video: http://y2...

5. 

   S4 · E3 · 16 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 32 min

   ep41 - A minimal history of optimal control

   Outline 00:00 - Intro 02:55 - Brachistochrone problem 20:52 - Beginning of the calculus of variations 32:00 - Principle of least action 42:37 - Maximum principle 1:02:35 - Dynamic programming 1:11:12 - Linear quadratic control 1:16:37 - Beyond optimal control: games, nonsmooth analysis, MPC, RL 1:28:40 - Outro Links 300 years of optimal control: https://tinyurl.com/2s3t8se4 Brachistochrone: https://tinyurl.com/mwmv38ew Acta Eruditorum, 1696: https://tinyurl.com/55yf5v49 Acta Eruditorum, 1697:...

6. 

   S4 · E1 · 16 Dec 2025 · 1 hr 6 min

   ep39 - Female influencers in control

   Outline 00:00 - Intro 05:01 - Female Influencers in Control — The Backstory 08:08 - Sofya Kovalevskaya 15:21 - Irmgard Lotz 26:16 - A new wave of control influencers 34:26 - Some data 43:38 - What can one do? 1:00:10 - Exhibition + survey 1:05:21 - Outro Links Female influencers in control project: https://tinyurl.com/mv879ahf Charlotta Johnsson: https://tinyurl.com/343esbeu Eva Westin: https://tinyurl.com/3p6fd5n8 Margret Bauer: https://tinyurl.com/47d35xzb Sofya Kovalevskaya: https:...

7. 

   S3 · E12 · 17 Nov 2025 · 1 hr 25 min

   ep38 - inControl guide to ... Feedback

   Outline 00:00 – Intro 07:22 – Anatomy of a feedback loop 15:12 – A brief historical recap on the history of feedback 23:40 – Inventing the negative feedback amplifier 34:28 – Feedback in biology, economics, society, and ... board games! 52:44 – Negative vs positive feedback 59:15 – Feedback, causality, and the arrow of time 1:06:22 – Classics: fundamental limitations, uncertainty, robustness 1:21:30 – Adaptive control: learning in the loop 1:29:50 – Modern AI feedback loops (RL, social media,...

8. 

   S3 · E11 · 16 Oct 2025 · 1 hr 25 min

   ep37 - A. M. Lyapunov: The General Problem of Stability of Motion

   Outline 00:00 - Intro 03:12 - Early life 09:07 - St. Petersburg: Stability of Ellipsoidal Bodies 20:13 - Kharkov: The General Problem of the Stability of Motion 34:37 - Back to St. Petersburg: Probability & Academy 46:22 - Tragic end 49:50 - Posthumous recognition 57:49 - Legacy 1:20:39 - Outro Links A. M. Lyapunov: https://tinyurl.com/3kjuhfns S. Lyapunov: https://tinyurl.com/mury7p3s Smirnov's bio: https://tinyurl.com/6wpffh3z Bissell's essay: https://tinyurl.com/3ds3hubj...

9. 

   S3 · E10 · 15 Sep 2025 · 2 hr 14 min

   ep36 - Markos Papageorgiou: Traffic Control — Theory and Practice

   Outline 00:00 – Intro 00:51 – Early steps in research 09:55 – Historical overview of traffic control 25:20 – What is traffic? 34:06 – Road traffic control 45:37 – PI control of road junctions 58:19 – From macroscopic to microscopic simulations and back 1:10:08 – Dynamic traffic assignment 1:21:28 – Return to Greece 1:28:33 – The optimal control problem 1:41:48 – Traffic estimation 1:47:34 – The impact of automation and connectivity 1:59:20 – Traffic as an artificial fluid 2:07:51 – The future...

10. 

    S3 · E9 · 15 Aug 2025 · 1 hr 47 min

    ep35 - Cosimo Della Santina: From Dexterous Manipulation to Soft Robotics and Embodied Intelligence

    Outline 00:00 – Intro 01:19 – Early steps: PhD journey & robotic hands 15:42 – What is a soft robot? 23:35 – MIT years & models of soft robots 30:01 – Discretization & underactuation 37:21 – The regulation problem 47:01 – Pros and cons of soft robots 51:42 – The soft inverted pendulum 1:05:27 – Eigenmanifolds 1:15:22 – Physical intelligence 1:26:09 – On machine learning 1:37:49 – Embodied AI & TC on Robot Control 1:44:50 – Advice to future students Links - Cosimo’s...