My CV is also available as a pdf here. (last updated 02/15/2022)

Education

Stanford University · Aeronautics and Astronautics
Ph.D. · Sep 2011
Advisors: Sanjay Lall and Matthew West
Stanford University · Aeronautics and Astronautics
M.S. · Jun 2005
Advisors: Sanjay Lall and Matthew West
University of Toronto · Engineering Science (Aero Option)
B.A.Sc. · Jun 2003
Advisor: Gabriele D’Eleuterio

Academic Employment

Aug 2020–Present Northeastern University
Associate Professor · Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Core Faculty · Institute for Experiential Artificial Intelligence
Sep 2015–Aug 2020 University of Wisconsin–Madison
Charles Ringrose Assistant Professorship · College of Engineering
Assistant Professor · Electrical and Computer Engineering
Optimization Group · Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
Nov 2012–Aug 2015 University of California, Berkeley
Postdoctoral Researcher · Mechanical Engineering
Supervisors: Andrew Packard, Ben Recht, Kameshwar Poolla
Oct 2011–Oct 2012 Lund University, Sweden
LCCC Postdoc · Department of Automatic Control
Supervisor: Anders Rantzer
Sep 2008–Sep 2011 Stanford University
Research Assistant · Aeronautics and Astronautics
Advisor: Sanjay Lall
Jul 2006–Sep 2008 Stanford University
Research Assistant · Aeronautics and Astronautics
Advisors: Sanjay Lall and Matthew West
May 2003–Sep 2003 University of Toronto
Summer Researcher · Institute for Aerospace Studies
Supervisor: Joaquim R.R.A. Martins
May 2002–Sep 2002 University of Toronto
Summer Researcher · Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Supervisor: Jan K. Spelt

External Funding

  • FREEDOM: Cognitive Distributed Sensing in Congested Radio Frequency Environments
    Sub-Project: Control of Distributed Radio Frequency Sensing (DRFS) Agents Integrated with SLAM in GPS-Denied Environments
    Kostas Research Institute / Army Research Office. L.Lessard’s share: \$300k / \$10M. 5/31/2023 – 5/31/2027
  • A control-theoretic approach to distributed optimization
    National Science Foundation (ENG/EECS/EPCN). Award Number 1936648 / 2139482. Amount: $380k. 09/15/2019 – 08/31/2022
  • CAREER: Automated analysis and design of optimization algorithms
    National Science Foundation (CISE/CCF/CIF). Award Number 1750162 / 2136945. Amount: $467k. 02/15/2018 – 01/31/2023
  • Analysis and design of decentralized control systems in the presence of uncertain latency or system parameters
    National Science Foundation (ENG/EECS/EPCN). Award Number 1710892 / 2136317. Amount: $380k. 08/01/2017 – 07/31/2020
  • CRII: CIF: Universal analysis of optimization algorithms
    National Science Foundation (CISE/CCF/CIF). Award Number 1656951. Amount: $175k. 02/15/2017 – 01/31/2019

Selected Awards

  • Charles Ringrose Assistant Professorship, 2020–2023.
    Charles Ringrose Assistant Professorship in the College of Engineering (duration of 3 years)
  • Gerald Holdridge Teaching Excellence Award, 2019.
    UW–Madison ECE award for contributions to teaching and integrating technology in the classroom.
  • Outstanding Service as a Reviewer of the L-CSS, 2017.
    For the IEEE Control Systems Letters (L-CSS)
  • O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award, 2013.
    For the paper “Optimal controller synthesis for the decentralized two-player problem with output feedback”.
    A major award recognizing the best paper at ACC 2012 in the theory category.
  • Best in Session Award, American Control Conference, 2012.
    For the paper “Optimal controller synthesis for the decentralized two-player problem with output feedback”.
  • Best in Session Award, American Control Conference, 2010.
    For the paper “Internal quadratic invariance and decentralized control”.
  • NSERC Post-Graduate Study Award, 2003–2004.
    Canadian funding to support graduate study in the USA.
  • Stanford University, Aeronautics and Astronautics Departmental Fellowship, 2003.
    Funding to support one year of tuition and expenses towards the completion of the MS degree.
  • NSERC Undergraduate Study Research Award, 2002.
    Canadian funding to support summer research work with Prof. J.K. Spelt in Toronto.
  • University of Toronto, Engineering Science Academic Excellence Award, 2002.

Teaching Experience

  • ME 4555: System Analysis and Control (Northeastern)
    Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023
  • ME 7247: Advanced Control Engineering (Northeastern)
    Fall 2021, Fall 2022
  • ECE 379: Data Science & Engineering (UW–Madison)
    Spring 2019, Fall 2019
  • ECE 717: Linear Systems (UW–Madison)
    Fall 2017, Fall 2019
  • CS/ECE/ISyE 524: Introduction to Optimization (UW–Madison)
    Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016.
  • ECE/CS/ME 532: Matrix Methods in Machine Learning (UW–Madison)
    Fall 2015, Fall 2016.
  • EE 263s: Introduction to Linear Dynamical Systems (Stanford)
    Summer 2011, Summer 2010.

Invited Talks

  • Stanford University (ISL Seminar), May 18, 2023
  • McGill University (CRM Applied Math Seminar), Mar 6, 2023
  • 10th IFAC Symposium on Robust Control Design (Plenary Speaker), Sep 1, 2022
  • ETH Zürich (NCCR Symposium – Systems Theory of Algorithms), May 23, 2022
  • Lund University (Controls Seminar), Jan 21, 2022
  • University of Michigan (Controls Seminar), Nov 12, 2021
  • University of Chicago & TTIC (ML Seminar Series), May 29, 2020
  • University of Washington (ECE Research Colloquium), Mar 3, 2020
  • Johns Hopkins (MINDS Seminar), Feb 18, 2020
  • Vector Institute, Oct 25, 2019
  • Cornell University (CAM Seminar), Oct 26, 2018
  • Harvard University (EE Seminar), Oct 19, 2018
  • Boston University (CISE Seminar), Nov 3, 2017
  • Northwestern University (EECS and OSL Seminar), Oct 11, 2017
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (ISE Seminar), Sep 22, 2017
  • University of Maryland (ISR Seminar), Oct 30, 2015
  • UC Santa Barbara (CCDC Seminar), Oct 31, 2014
  • Caltech (CMS), Oct 29, 2014
  • UC San Diego, Optimization and Control Seminar, Oct 28, 2014
  • UCLA (MAE, Systems and Control Seminar), Oct 10, 2014
  • University of Southern California (EE, ComNetS Seminar), Oct 8, 2014
  • Caltech (CDS), Nov 21, 2013
  • UC Santa Barbara (CCDC Seminar), Jun 7, 2013
  • University of Stuttgart (MST & IST, Systems and Control Colloquium), Oct 23, 2012
  • UC Berkeley (ME), Sep 31 and Aug 1, 2012
  • UC Santa Barbara (CCDC Seminar), Feb 10, 2012
  • UCLA (MAE, Systems and Control Seminar), Feb 7, 2012
  • Caltech (CDS), Feb 6, 2012
  • Stanford University, Jan. 31, 2012
  • UC Berkeley (EECS, Networking, Communications, and DSP seminar), Jan 30, 2012
  • Boston University (CISE), Dec 20, 2011
  • MIT (LIDS), Dec 29, 2011
  • Linköping University (ISY), Nov 30, 2011
  • KTH, Stockholm (EE), Nov 28, 2011

Workshop Talks and Presentations

Professional Activities

  • Journal Reviewer: IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control; IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems; IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing; IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology; IEEE Control Systems Letters; Mathematical Programming Series A and B; Automatica; Systems and Control Letters; Circuits, Systems & Signal Processing; International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control; Journal of the Optical Society of America A; SIAM Journal on Optimization; SIAM Journal on Mathematics of Data Science
  • Conference Reviewer: IEEE Conference on Decision and Control; American Control Conference; European Control Conference; Indian Control Conference; International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems; Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing; International Conference on Machine Learning.
  • Tutorial session organizer: 2023 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.
    Session title: “Analysis and Design of Optimization Algorithms Using Tools from Control Theory” (website)
  • Workshop organizer: 2019 American Control Conference.
    Workshop title: “Interplay between Control, Optimization, and Machine Learning” (website)
  • Invited session organizer, 2014 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.
    Session title: “Topics in Decentralized and Distributed Control”
  • Program Committee member:
    ICML’19, L4DC’20, L4DC’21, L4DC’22
  • Senior Member, IEEE
  • Member, AIAA, ASME, INFORMS, SIAM