The Cyber-Physical Limits of Control

Presented as part of the 2014 HCSS conference.

Abstract

As the speed of computer systems and their integration with the physical world have grown, the physical limits of control have become increasingly relevant for ensuring high confidence in software systems. In this talk, I will present exciting recent results on the physical limits in space and time for realizing optimal coordination and control in cyber-physical systems, and discuss their implications for the future of reasoning about control.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Alexander D. Wissner-Gross is an award-winning scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. He serves as an Institute Fellow at the Harvard University Institute for Applied Computational Science and as a Research Affiliate at the MIT Media Laboratory. He has received 112 major distinctions, authored 15 publications, been granted 20 issued, pending, and provisional patents, and founded, managed, and advised 4 technology companies, 1 of which has been acquired. In 1998 and 1999, respectively, he won the U.S.A. Computer Olympiad and the Intel Science Talent Search. In 2003, he became the last person in MIT history to receive a triple major, with bachelors in Physics, Electrical Science and Engineering, and Mathematics, while graduating first in his class from the MIT School of Engineering. In 2007, he completed his Ph.D. in Physics at Harvard, where his research on programmable matter, ubiquitous computing, and machine learning was awarded the Hertz Doctoral Thesis Prize. His work has been featured in over 100 news outlets worldwide including The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek.