DCL Student Symposium 2026
Thank you for your interest in the DCL Student Symposium! The Symposium is an annual event which brings together members of the Georgia Tech community working in the area of systems and controls to network and share their research. The Symposium is entirely organized by DCL students, and it is our hope that connections between students working in labs across the Institute will be forged at this event. We look forward to seeing you on Friday, April 24th at the Symposium!
Information
The symposium is actively being planned. Check back regularly as we add more details!
- Date: Friday, April 24th
- Location: TSRB auditorium (1st floor, right of the entrance)
- Lunch and light refreshments will be provided
Tentative Agenda
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 09:00 - 09:15 | Opening Remarks |
| 09:15 – 10:15 | Plenary Talk - Dr. Francesco Bullo |
| 10:15 – 11:00 | Student rapid talks |
| 11:00 – 11:45 | Student poster session |
| 11:45 – 12:30 | Lunch |
| 12:30 – 14:00 | Student spotlight talks |
| 14:00 – 14:15 | Coffee break |
| 14:15 – 15:45 | Student spotlight talks |
| 15:45 – 16:00 | Coffee break |
| 16:00 – 17:00 | Faculty panel |
| 17:00 | Closing Remarks |
Plenary Talk
Speaker: Dr. Francesco Bullo
Website: https://fbullo.github.io/
Abstract
This talk surveys recent advances on contraction theory for dynamical systems, as a robust, computationally-friendly and modular stability theory. Starting from basic notions, I will present novel theoretical properties and examples of contracting dynamics, including gradient systems, controlled Lure’ systems, constrained optimization solvers, and multiplayer games. As first application I will discuss online feedback optimization, where a dynamic plant is interconnected with a controller based on first-order optimization methods. Second, I will discuss the contractivity properties of recurrent neural networks and briefly review applications to unsupervised representation learning, implicit learning models, and reservoir computing.
Biosketch
Francesco Bullo is Distinguished Professor and Mosher Endowed Chair of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA. He received the Laurea degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Padova, Italy, in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree in Control and Dynamical Systems from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, in 1998. His research interests include contraction theory, network systems, neural networks, and mathematical neuroscience. He is the author or coauthor of Geometric Control of Mechanical Systems (Springer, 2004), Distributed Control of Robotic Networks (Princeton, 2009), Lectures on Network Systems (KDP, v1.7, 2024), and Contraction Theory for Dynamical Systems (KDP, v1.3 2026). He served as IEEE CSS President and SIAG CST Chair. He is a Fellow of ASME, IEEE, IFAC, NetSci, and SIAM.
Student Poster Session
Will include rapid summary talks from each student, along with an interactive poster session. Presenter list TBD.
Student Spotlight Talks
More detailed presentations of recent and ongoing student research work. Presenter list TBD.
Faculty Panel
The panel topic is “Building a Resilient Academic Career”, and will roughly focus on
- Learning and adapting to evolving research landscape
- Responding to technological advancements
- Surviving uncertain academic funding
Panelists will include plenary speaker Dr. Francesco Bullo and Georgia Tech faculty. Initial questions will be prepared by the organizers, and students will also be able to submit their own.