Recap: NCCR Symposium - Complex Interconnected Systems and decision making in measure spaces

NCCR Symposium
03-10-2023
In the last week of September we welcomed 80 people to the NCCR Symposium on Complex Interconnected Systems and decision making in measure spaces. This is how it went...
Flyer for Symposium

Taking place at FHNW, Brügg, Switzerland, the two day symposium was an opportunity to welcome world class speakers and visitors into our community to share their thoughts and meet our researchers.

 

We began with an introduction from NCCR Automation director John Lygeros, before moving into an introduction by the host of the event, Silvia Mastellone.

Silvia
Silvia Mastellone introduces complex interconnected systems.
John Lygeros
John Lygeros introduces NCCR Automation.

We then moved swiftly into the scientific part of the symposium, by welcoming speakers Sonia Martinez (UC San Diego), Naomi Leonard (Princeton University), Na Li (Harvard University) and Giancarlo Ferrari Trecate (EPFL).

Sonia Martinez
Sonia Martinez "Distributionally Robust Coverage Control via Haar Wavelets"
Naomi Leonard
Naomi Leonard "Fast and Flexible Decision-Making in Complex Interconnected Systems"
Li Na
Na Li "Scalable distributed control and learning of networked dynamical systems"
Giancarlo Ferrari
Giancarlo Ferrari Trecate "Boosting the Performance of Nonlinear Systems with Neural-Network Control"

After an Apéro in the evening, we all headed home to rest, before being up early for the workshop on robust decision making in professional environments. As our students are nearing the end of their PhD programmes, it becomes more and more important to learn the skills that go into running a successful lab.

Workshop
On the morning of the second day, participants took part in a workshop on robust decision making in professional environments.
Workshop

After a lunch break, we were back with day 2 of the scientific programme. 

Florian Dorfler
Florian Dörfler introducing Measure Spaces.

On day 2, and discussing decision making in probability spaces, we welcomed Francis Bach (INRIA), Tryphon Georgiou (UC Irvine), Marco Cuturi (Apple), and finally Daniel Kuhn (EPFL).

Francis Bach
Francis Bach "Information Theory with Kernel Methods"
Tryphon Georgiou
Marco Cuturi "On the optimization of Monge Maps: Structured Priors and Neural Networks"
Marco Cuturi
Tryphon Georgiou "Measure Spaces of Thermodynamic States: Dissipation and Power in Physics and Biology"
Daniel Kuhn
Daniel Kuhn "Distributionally Robust Optimization: The Science of Underpromising and Overdelivering"

And of course, we couldn't waste the opportunity to grab some of our speakers for an interview or an episode of the inControl podcast - so keep your eyes peeled!