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SUMMARY:MechE Colloquium: Towards Hands-Off Automation: Data-Driven Design
 \, Robustness\, and Real-Time Control
DTSTART:20251125T120000
DTEND:20251125T130000
DTSTAMP:20260430T225921Z
UID:f57f5a9c4449283b548817192f67947f8a74a318d6b0e8c9c2674f9b
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Colin Jones\, Institute of Mechanical Engineering\, Sc
 hool of Engineering\, EPFL \nAbstract: Model Predictive Control (MPC) ha
 s become a cornerstone of modern automation\, enabling high-performance de
 cision making in applications ranging from energy-efficient buildings to r
 obotics. Yet widespread deployment remains hindered by three persistent ch
 allenges: the need for accurate models\, the difficulty of tuning\, and th
 e computational demands of real-time optimization.\nIn this talk\, I will 
 present our group's efforts to move towards "hands-off" automation — des
 igning and deploying controllers that require minimal engineering interven
 tion. I will highlight recent advances in data-driven predictive control m
 ethods that eliminate the need for explicit models\, robust control approa
 ches that guarantee safety even as the controller learns\, and real-time o
 ptimization techniques that allow predictive control to run reliably on em
 bedded platforms. Along the way\, I will share applications in energy syst
 ems\, power electronics and robotics\, demonstrating how automation can be
  made more scalable\, reliable\, and cost-effective.\n\n\nBiography: Coli
 n Jones is an Associate Professor in the Automatic Control Lab at EPFL\, S
 witzerland. Before joining EPFL\, Colin held postdoctoral and senior resea
 rcher positions at the University of Cambridge and ETH Zurich respectively
 . He received bachelor and master degrees in Electrical Engineering from t
 he University of British Columbia in 1999 and 2001\, before completing a P
 h.D. in Engineering at the University of Cambridge in 2005 for his work on
  polyhedral methods for constrained control. At EPFL\, he is Director of t
 he Robotics and Intelligent Systems (EDRS) doctoral program. He has also s
 erved as Associate Editor for leading journals such as the IEEE Transactio
 ns on Automatic Control\, the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technol
 ogy\, Systems & Control Letters\, and Optimal Control Applications and Met
 hods. His research interests include data-driven predictive control\, opti
 mization\, and embedded real-time solvers\, with applications in energy-ef
 ficient buildings\, smart grids\, and autonomous vehicles and has publishe
 d over 250 papers in these areas. 
LOCATION:CM 1 4 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==CM%201%204 https://epfl.zoom.u
 s/j/61360740951
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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