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COM-502: Dynamical system theory for engineers

Summary

Linear and nonlinear dynamical systems are found in all fields of science and engineering. After a short review of linear system theory, the class will explain and develop the main tools for the qualitative analysis of nonlinear systems, both in discrete-time and continuous-time.

Lectures

Instructor

Patrick Thiran

Patrick Thiran is a full professor in network and systems theory at the School of Computer and Communication Sciences at EPFL. He holds an electrical engineering degree from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, an M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, USA, and he received the PhD degree from EPFL, in 1996. He became an adjunct professor in 1998, an assistant professor in 2002, an associate professor in 2006 and a full professor in 2011. He was with Sprint Advanced Technology Labs in Burlingame, California, in 2000-01. His research interests are in communication and social networks, performance analysis and stochastic models. He is currently active in the analysis and design of wireless and PLC networks (scaling laws, medium access control), in network monitoring (network tomography, multi-layer networks), and data-driven network science. He also contributed to network calculus and to the theory of locally coupled neural networks and self-organizing maps. He served as an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems in 1997-99 and for the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking in 2006-10. He is currently on the editorial board of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communication. He is/was on the program committee of different conferences in networking, including ACM Sigcomm, Sigmetrics, IMC, CoNext and IEEE Infocom. He was TPC chair of AMC IMC 2011 and CoNext 2012. He is a Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation and of the IEEE. He received the 1996 EPFL Doctoral Prize and the 2008 Crédit Suisse Teaching Award.

Official source

Moodle Page

http://go.epfl.ch/COM-502

Summary

Lectures

Instructor

Patrick Thiran

Official source

Moodle Page

http://go.epfl.ch/COM-502

Lectures in this course (35)

Physarum can compute shortest paths Log in to Mediaspace to watch this video

Explores how Physarum Polycephalum can compute shortest paths in a directed graph model.

Dynamical Systems for Engineers Log in to Mediaspace to watch this video

Covers the theoretical basis of linear and nonlinear dynamical systems for engineers.

Small Scale Stability: Equilibrium Point Log in to Mediaspace to watch this video

Covers small scale stability around equilibrium points and introduces the Van der Pol oscillator.

Ergodic Theory: Chaos Log in to Mediaspace to watch this video

Explores elements from Ergodic Theory, transformations, invariant sets, and Lyapunov Exponents for 1-dimensional maps.

Small Scale Stability: Gradient Systems Log in to Mediaspace to watch this video

Covers small scale stability in gradient systems, focusing on trajectory properties and equilibrium point attraction.

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