Event
MBSE Colloquium/UTRC CDS Invited Lecture: Roger Brockett
Monday, April 25, 2016
11:00 a.m.
2460 AV Williams Building
Kimberly Edwards
kedwards@umd.edu
Model-Based Systems Engineering Colloquium
UTRC Control and Dynamical Systems Invited Lecture
Cellular Reprogramming and Controllability of Complex Systems
Roger Brockett
An Wang Research Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Harvard University
Affiliate faculty member, Institute for Systems Research
Host: John Baras
Lecture: 11:00 a.m., Monday, April 25, 2460 AV Williams Bldg.
Roundtable: 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, April 26, 1146 AV Williams Bldg.
ABSTRACT
In this talk I will give a brief description of some models that have been used in cell biology and use these to explore problems related to the control of the fate of cells. The focus will be on cellular reprogramming, e.g. steering a group of skin cells so that they become skeletal muscle cells. Questions arise related to the kind of cellular memory needed for a particular cell type to continue to divide while preserving its type and how transcription factors can exercise control over the products of a subsequent cell division. Finally, I will discuss efforts devoted to developing a meaningful measure of the complexity of the “operating system” of a cell and the possible role of learning in its evolution and operation. This talk is based on an ongoing DARPA sponsored, multi-person, experimental and theoretical research effort centered at the University of Michigan under the leadership of Indika Rajapakse.
BIOGRAPHY
Roger Brockett’s contributions to control theory and applied mathematics include early work on frequency domain stability theory, differential geometric methods in nonlinear control, the computation of Volterra series, a geometric approach to the sufficient statistics problem in nonlinear estimation, stabilization questions, robot kinematics and dynamics, formal languages for motion control, hybrid systems, computational problems related to tensor ranking and integrable systems, quantum control, and optimal control of Markov processes. His research and teaching has been recognized with awards from IEEE, ASME, SIAM and AACC. He is a fellow of IEEE, SIAM and AMS and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. As a Harvard faculty member he served on the faculty council for several years, initiated long standing introductory level courses in design and developed major funding for group efforts in robotics and computer vision. He retired from his regular faculty position in 2012 after nearly 50 years of lecturing and having served as the major advisor of more than 60 Ph.D. students at Harvard, MIT and Brandeis. His 1970 textbook on linear systems has recently been reprinted in the SIAM Classic Series.
