Real-time control of critical infrastructure in times of scarcity
Event details
| Date | 01.12.2025 |
| Hour | 11:00 › 12:00 |
| Speaker | Sophie Hall, PhD student at ETH Zurich |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract:
For decades, humanity operated under an illusion of abundance, exploiting oil, water, land and other planetary resources as if they were infinite. This paradigm is shifting as we confront resource scarcity. Grid congestion blocks renewable integration; traffic congestion is at its peak; compute centers strain power systems.
Trade-offs will be hardcoded into controllers, requiring their careful design. Automation tackles resource distribution across critical infrastructure, yet scarcity forces trade-offs between system efficiency (money, sustainability, degradation etc.) and user autonomy. This talk compares two contrasting approaches:
(1) Real-time control for self-interested users: Game-theoretic MPC models competitive agents sharing resources with predictions, dynamics, and constraints. I present energy management results from a Swiss DSO collaboration.
(2) Real-time control for maximal system efficiency: Global optimal control with robustness guarantees for compute load allocation. I present results from a 3-year collaboration with Google's Carbon-Aware Computing team achieving 15% carbon reduction through day-ahead planning and real-time control.
Looking forward, dynamic allocation algorithms allow for even richer objectives - for instance, caring for the disadvantaged - towards a welfarist control design.
Biography:
Sophie Hall is a PhD student at the Automatic Control Laboratory at ETH Zürich since May 2021, working in Prof. Dörfler's group. She completed her undergraduate studies in Mechanical Engineering focusing on medical control and signal processing at the University of Surrey, UK, and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. In 2021, she obtained MSc in Biomedical Engineering from ETH Zürich specializing in modeling and control. During her master's studies, she conducted research on Gaussian processes for control in Prof. Zeilinger's group and worked on real-time MPC schemes in Prof. Dörfler's group. Her PhD research focuses on game-theoretic MPC, its theoretical closed-loop properties, as well as energy and groundwater applications.
For decades, humanity operated under an illusion of abundance, exploiting oil, water, land and other planetary resources as if they were infinite. This paradigm is shifting as we confront resource scarcity. Grid congestion blocks renewable integration; traffic congestion is at its peak; compute centers strain power systems.
Trade-offs will be hardcoded into controllers, requiring their careful design. Automation tackles resource distribution across critical infrastructure, yet scarcity forces trade-offs between system efficiency (money, sustainability, degradation etc.) and user autonomy. This talk compares two contrasting approaches:
(1) Real-time control for self-interested users: Game-theoretic MPC models competitive agents sharing resources with predictions, dynamics, and constraints. I present energy management results from a Swiss DSO collaboration.
(2) Real-time control for maximal system efficiency: Global optimal control with robustness guarantees for compute load allocation. I present results from a 3-year collaboration with Google's Carbon-Aware Computing team achieving 15% carbon reduction through day-ahead planning and real-time control.
Looking forward, dynamic allocation algorithms allow for even richer objectives - for instance, caring for the disadvantaged - towards a welfarist control design.
Biography:
Sophie Hall is a PhD student at the Automatic Control Laboratory at ETH Zürich since May 2021, working in Prof. Dörfler's group. She completed her undergraduate studies in Mechanical Engineering focusing on medical control and signal processing at the University of Surrey, UK, and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. In 2021, she obtained MSc in Biomedical Engineering from ETH Zürich specializing in modeling and control. During her master's studies, she conducted research on Gaussian processes for control in Prof. Zeilinger's group and worked on real-time MPC schemes in Prof. Dörfler's group. Her PhD research focuses on game-theoretic MPC, its theoretical closed-loop properties, as well as energy and groundwater applications.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof. Giancarlo Ferrari Trecate