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# Laurent Lessard

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://laurentlessard.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Blog](https://laurentlessard.com/blog/) - this is some test writing
- [CDC'25 in Rio de Janeiro](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc25-in-rio-de-janeiro/) - I attended the 2025 Conference on Decision and Control in Rio de Janeiro. The photo above is a panoramic view from the statue Christ the Redeemer. This year, I had one paper with my student Mohammad and another with my colleague and former postdoc Bryan Van Scoy. Here are short summaries of the works and
- [CDC'22 in Cancún](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc22-in-cancun/) - I attended the 2022 Conference on Decision and Control in Cancún, Mexico. The photo above is of the Mayan ruins in Tulum, about 100 minutes drive from Cancún. This was the first time since 2019 that CDC was held in-person, and it was nice to finally attend a large conference in-person after so many years
- [ACC'25 in Denver](https://laurentlessard.com/acc25-in-denver/) - I attended the 2025 American Control Conference in Denver. Two of my students attended and presented papers (Milad, left, and Mohammad, right). This was their first time attending an academic conference! The paper with Milad and myself was titled "Spacecraft attitude control under reaction wheel constraints using control Lyapunov and control barrier functions". In short,
- [CDC'23 in Singapore](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc23-in-singapore/) - I attended the 2023 Conference on Decision and Control in Singapore. The photo above is a panoramic view from the top (57th floor) of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. This was my first time in Singapore, and probably the farthest I have ever traveled in my life! This year, I had one paper with my
- [CDC'24 in Milan](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc24-in-milan/) - I attended the 2024 Conference on Decision and Control in Milan. The photo above is a panoramic view of the city from the roof of the Duomo. This year, I had one paper, which was led and presented by my former student Matthew Wallace, who recently graduated. The paper with Matthew, Brett Streetman, and myself
- [Solving Wordle](https://laurentlessard.com/solving-wordle/) - What is the best first guess in Wordle? Is it always possible to win in 5 moves? What about 4 moves? How hard is Hard Mode? Read on to find out!
- [Dissipativity and Algorithm Analysis](https://laurentlessard.com/dissipativity-and-algorithm-analysis/) - My new article titled: "The Analysis of Optimization Algorithms: A Dissipativity Approach" appeared in the June 2022 issue of the IEEE Control Systems Magazine. In the article, I explain how the behavior of iterative optimization algorithms can be viewed through the lens of energy dissipation. In mechanical systems, total energy is always conserved. So if
- [The Reverse Sweep](https://laurentlessard.com/the-reverse-sweep/) - If you've been following the NBA playoffs, you will know that we are on the verge of a potentially historic event: the first ever reverse-sweep! The Boston Celtics will face the Miami Heat at Boston on Monday May 29th in game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals to determine which team will advance and face
- [NCCR Symposium: Systems Theory of Algorithms](https://laurentlessard.com/nccr-symposium-systems-theory-of-algorithms/) - It was an honor and a privilege to be one of eight invited speakers at the bi-annual NCCR Automation Symposium. The symposium was hosted in-person at ETH Zürich in May 2022. The theme of this symposium was "Systems Theory of Algorithms". As explained on the symposium website, many iterative algorithms in optimization, games, and learning
- [Visit to Lund University](https://laurentlessard.com/visit-to-lund-university/) - I had the honor and privilege to be a thesis opponent for the Ph.D. defense of Martin Heyden at Lund University's Department of Automatic Control in Sweden. The picture on the right is with Anders Rantzer, Martin Heyden, and Richard Pates (Anders and Richard were Martin's co-advisors). During my visit to Lund, I also gave
- [Speed-robustness trade-off for optimization algorithms](https://laurentlessard.com/new-preprint-speed-robustness-trade-off-for-optimization-algorithms/) - Excited to share a new manuscript, by Bryan Van Scoy and me titled "The Speed-Robustness Trade-Off for First-Order Methods with Additive Gradient Noise". It is now available on arXiv. I also have some slides here. Background When solving an optimization problem, a ubiquitous approach is to use an iterative algorithm that finds progressively better candidate
- [INFORMS'19 in Seattle](https://laurentlessard.com/informs19-in-seattle/) - I attended the 2019 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA on Oct 20-23, 2019. INFORMS is the leading international association for Operations Research & Analytics professionals. It's outside my wheelhouse, but I thought it would be nice to attend since Operations Research does touch on optimization, modeling, and data-driven decision-making, which are topics that interest
- [Lyapunov functions for optimization algorithms](https://laurentlessard.com/manuscript-on-lyapunov-functions-for-optimization-algorithms/) - Adrien Taylor, Bryan Van Scoy, and I have recently posted a manuscript on arxiv entitled "Lyapunov Functions for First-Order Methods: Tight Automated Convergence Guarantees". Lyapunov functions are a mathematical tool used in the analysis of dynamical systems for implicitly certifying stability. The rough idea is that we look for some sort of "energy function" that
- [ACC'20 in Denver (online)](https://laurentlessard.com/acc20-in-denver-online/) - I attended the 2020 American Control Conference, which was supposed to take place in Denver, Colorado, but moved to a 100% online format as a precaution against COVID-19. I normally include a photo of the conference venue with these blog posts, but I don't think anybody would be interested in seeing my home office setup
- [New preprint: Robust stabilization!](https://laurentlessard.com/new-preprint-robust-stabilization/) - I'm excited to share our new preprint on robust stabilization, by Saman Cyrus and me. The title is "Generalized necessary and sufficient robust boundedness results for feedback systems", and it is now available on arXiv. This work is the culmination of Saman's PhD and formed the core of his thesis, which he recently successfully defended
- [NecSys'19 in Chicago](https://laurentlessard.com/necsys19-in-chicago/) - I attended the 8th IFAC Workshop on Distributed Estimation and Control in Networked Systems (NecSys) in Chicago on September 16-17, 2019. NecSys is a small international single-track conference that tends to attract optimization/controls/distributed systems researchers. The last time I attended NecSys was in 2012 (in Santa Barbara) while I was still a postdoc, and I
- [CDC'19 in Nice](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc19-in-nice/) - I attended the 2019 Conference on Decision and Control in Nice, France. The photo above is a panoramic view of Nice taken from the top of Castle Hill. My research group had a solid showing at this year's CDC with 3 papers. In no particular order, here are short summaries of each paper and a
- [Allerton'19](https://laurentlessard.com/allerton19/) - I attended the 57th annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing in Monticello, IL. At the conference, I presented an invited talk in a session organized by Bin Hu, my former postdoc who is now at UIUC --- so it was nice to see Bin again! My talk was largely about the following recent
- [ACC'19 in Philadelphia](https://laurentlessard.com/acc19-in-philadelphia/) - I attended the 2019 American Control Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The conference was held in downtown Philadelphia, which is filled with beautiful historical buildings, such as the Union League building, pictured on the right. This was a conference of firsts. Together with my former postdoc Bin Hu, who is now faculty at UIUC, I co-organized
- [8th Midwest Workshop on Control and Game Theory](https://laurentlessard.com/8th-midwest-workshop-on-control-and-game-theory/) - I recently attended the 8th Midwest Workshop on Control and Game Theory hosted by the University of Washington in St. Louis. The two-day workshop brought together faculty, postdocs, and grad students in the fields of controls, optimization, game theory, and economics. This was my first time visiting Wash U, and it's a beautiful campus! The
- [L4DC'19 at MIT](https://laurentlessard.com/l4dc19-at-mit/) - I had the pleasure to attend the inaugural Conference on Learning for Dynamics and Control at MIT. The goal of this new conference is to bring together researchers at the interface between machine learning, control, optimization, and related areas, with a focus on addressing scientific and application challenges in real-time physical processes modeled by dynamical
- [CDC'18 in Miami Beach](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc18-in-miami-beach/) - I attended the 2018 Conference on Decision and Control in Miami Beach, Florida. A welcome change of weather from the looming winter in Madison! The photo above was taken from the terrace of the conference venue. At the conference, I took part in the Workshop on the Intersections of Machine Learning and Parameter Estimation in
- [New preprint: Machine teaching!](https://laurentlessard.com/new-preprint-machine-teaching/) - Hot off the presses, a new paper by me, Xuezhou Zhang, and Xiaojin (Jerry) Zhu. The paper is titled "An Optimal Control Approach to Sequential Machine Teaching" and is now available on arXiv. The paper is about "machine teaching", which can be thought of as the dual problem to "machine learning". The general paradigm is
- [Princeton Day of Optimization 2018](https://laurentlessard.com/princeton-day-of-optimization-2018/) - I attended the inaugural Princeton Day of Optimization hosted by the Princeton Operations Research and Financial Engineering (ORFE). The theme of the day was "The intersection of optimization, control, and machine learning," and the event did not disappoint! There were six keynote talks on a variety of topics related to the theme and a poster
- [New preprint: A canonical form for distributed optimization algorithms](https://laurentlessard.com/new-preprint-a-canonical-form-for-distributed-optimization-algorithms/) - We have just posted a preprint titled: "A Canonical Form for First-Order Distributed Optimization Algorithms". It is available here and on arXiv. This is joint work with my student Akhil Sundararajan, my postdoc Bryan Van Scoy, and myself. Our work provides a canonical form for distributed optimization algorithms that will enable more streamlined analysis and
- [New preprint: A general absolute stability theorem](https://laurentlessard.com/new-preprint-a-general-absolute-stability-theorem/) - We have just posted a preprint titled: "Unified Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for the Robust Stability of Interconnected Sector-Bounded Systems". It is available here and on arXiv. This is joint work with my student Saman Cyrus and myself. Our work provides a new absolute stability result that generalizes several existing works and enables new analyses,
- [ISMP'18 in Bordeaux](https://laurentlessard.com/ismp18-in-bordeaux/) - I attended the 23rd International Symposium on Mathematical Programming in Bordeaux, France. ISMP is an optimization conference that is held once every three years and it was my first time ever attending. It was also my first time visiting the south of France since my childhood. A nice opportunity to enjoy French cooking and do
- [ACC'18 in Milwaukee](https://laurentlessard.com/acc18-in-milwaukee/) - I attended the 2018 American Control Conference in Milwaukee, WI. This was a unique opportunity, being a local conference (only a short bus ride away from Madison!) so I took the opportunity to bring the whole research group (photo on the right). At the conference, my student Saman Cyrus presented our paper (also co-authored by
- [NSF CAREER Award!](https://laurentlessard.com/nsf-career-award/) - I am thrilled to announce that I have received the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation! Here is a description of the award from the NSF website: CAREER: The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who
- [Manuscript on analyzing Approximate SGD](https://laurentlessard.com/manuscript-on-analyzing-approximate-sgd/) - Bin Hu and I have recently posted a manuscript on arxiv entitled "Analysis of Approximate Stochastic Gradient using quadratic constraints and sequential semidefinite programs". Approximate Stochastic Gradient refers to the standard SGD algorithm, which is widely used in solving optimization problems, but with the twist that gradient information is noisy. In this paper, we investigate
- [CMO-BIRS workshop: Beyond Convexity](https://laurentlessard.com/cmo-birs-workshop-beyond-convexity/) - I attended a week-long workshop titled "Beyond Convexity: Emerging Challenges in Data Science", hosted by the Casa Matemática Oaxaca (CMO) in Oaxaca, Mexico. The workshop consisted of talks, breakout sessions, and many discussions on topics including semidefinite programming, nonlinear/nonconvex optimization, deep learning, and statistics. Much time was spent brainstorming about unsolved problems and discussing emerging
- [Allerton'17](https://laurentlessard.com/allerton17/) - I attended the 55th annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing in Monticello, IL. On the right is a photo of the view from the conference venue. You wouldn't guess that this is in Illinois! At the conference, I presented an invited paper by my student Akhil Sundararajan and myself entitled "Robust convergence analysis
- [ICML'17 in Sydney, Australia](https://laurentlessard.com/icml17-in-sydney-australia/) - I attended the 2017 International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) in Sydney, Australia. ICML is one of the flagship machine learning conferences. Since machine learning is a very applied field, there was a considerable industry presence, including all the big-name tech giants: Google (Brain, DeepMind), Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, NVidia, etc. Machine learning isn't my area
- [Focus period at Lund University](https://laurentlessard.com/focus-period-at-lund-university/) - I attended the LCCC Focus Period on Large-Scale and Distributed Optimization at Lund University in Sweden during the month of June, 2017. The focus period consisted of a three week stay and a three-day workshop on the topic of large-scale and distributed optimization. Focus Periods are a unique opportunity for researchers to come together, collaborate,
- [SIAM Conference on Optimization in Vancouver](https://laurentlessard.com/siam-conference-on-optimization-in-vancouver/) - I attended the SIAM Conference on Optimization in Vancouver, Canada. This was a memorable conference for several reasons. First, this conference only happens once every three years. Its the flagship conference for optimization research, and it was also my first time attending a SIAM conference! Finally, as a Canadian, it is always nice to visit
- [6th Midwest Workshop on Control and Game Theory at Michigan](https://laurentlessard.com/6th-midwest-workshop-on-control-and-game-theory/) - I recently attended the 6th Midwest Workshop on Control and Game Theory hosted by the University of Michigan. The two-day workshop brought together faculty, postdocs, and grad students in the fields of controls, optimization, game theory, and economics. This was my first time visiting Ann Arbor; it's truly a beautiful city (see photo on the
- [Smart Urban Infrastructures Workshop at MIT](https://laurentlessard.com/smart-urban-infrastructures-workshop/) - I attended the Smart Urban Infrastructures Workshop presented by LIDS at MIT. The idea was to bring together researchers and leaders from academia and industry for a series of short talks and panel discussions. The topics covered several types of "urban infrastructures", including: Ride-sharing platforms: optimization, control, scheduling, and management (car sharing, bike sharing). Autonomous
- [ACNTW workshop 2017 at Northwestern](https://laurentlessard.com/acntw-workshop-2017/) - I attended the 2017 ACNTW workshop (workshop on optimization and machine learning) hosted by the Center for Optimization and Statistical Learning at Northwestern University. This workshop brought together optimization researchers from the midwest for a one-day workshop on a variety of topics including matrix completion, nonconvex approaches, and machine learning. Although most of the talks
- [CDS20 at Caltech](https://laurentlessard.com/cds20-at-caltech/) - I attended a very special workshop at Caltech this past week. The occasion was a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the CDS program (Control + Dynamical Systems), and also marked the launch of Caltech's new CMS department (Computing + Mathematical Sciences). It was also an opportunity to celebrate some birthdays: Richard Murray's 50th, John
- [October SoCal tour](https://laurentlessard.com/socal-talk-tour/) - During the month of October, I traveled to various schools throughout Southern California to give talks. Here is the list: ComNetS Seminar at the University of Southern California Systems and Control Research Seminar at UCLA Optimization and Control Seminar at UC San Diego CMS Seminar at Caltech CCDC Seminar at UC Santa Barbara I had
- [CDC'15 in Osaka, Japan](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc15-in-osaka-japan/) - I attended the 2015 Conference on Decision and Control in Osaka, Japan. This was a special trip for me as it was my first conference attending as an assistant professor. I attended many excellent talks and had several productive discussions. It was also my first time ever visiting Japan! I stayed a couple extra days
- [IMA workshop on optimization and parsimonious modeling](https://laurentlessard.com/ima-workshop-on-optimization-and-parsimonious-modeling/) - I recently attended the IMA Workshop on Optimization and Parsimonious Modeling at the University of Minnesota. This was my first opportunity to attend an optimization workshop and interact with a new community of researchers. Although the controls and optimization communities do intersect, there were many new faces here. Thanks to the great venue and moderate
- [ACC'16 in Boston](https://laurentlessard.com/acc16-in-boston/) - I attended the 2016 American Control Conference in Boston. A wonderful city, beautiful weather, and as usual, a well organized event. The banquet at the New England Aquarium was a particularly nice touch! On the research side of things, in addition to the many great talks I attended, I particularly enjoyed two semi-plenary lectures on
- [Faculty position at the University of Wisconsin--Madison](https://laurentlessard.com/faculty-position-at-the-university-of-wisconsin-madison/) - I am excited to announce that I have accepted a faculty position at the University of Wisconsin--Madison! Starting in a couple weeks, I will join the Optimization Group at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. My tenure home department will be Electrical and Computer Engineering. If you're curious about my research and how I'll fit in
- [IMA workshop on decentralized control](https://laurentlessard.com/ima-workshop-on-decentralized-control/) - I recently attended the IMA Workshop on Distributed Control and Decision Making over Networks at the University of Minnesota. The workshop was very well organized; I feel that the perfect balance was struck between seminars, guided group discussions, and free blocks of time well suited for one-on-one discussions. Overall a very positive and productive experience,
- [ICCOPT'16 in Tokyo, Japan](https://laurentlessard.com/iccopt16-in-tokyo-japan/) - I attended the 2016 International Conference on Continuous Optimization (ICCOPT) in Tokyo, Japan. This was my first optimization conference, and also my first time visiting Tokyo. Both were impressive! I attended many high-quality talks from top names in optimization, met many new people, and learned a great deal. I gave a talk about my recent
- [MIT IDSS Launch](https://laurentlessard.com/mit-idss-launch/) - I attended the launch event for MIT's new Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS). IDSS is a new entity at MIT with the goal to bring together researchers in data science, statistics, systems, economics, and social science to address big societal challenges. Examples include the modernization of transportation networks, energy generation/distribution, healthcare, and financial
- [CDC'16 in Las Vegas](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc16-in-las-vegas/) - I attended the 2016 Conference on Decision and Control in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was one of the biggest CDC's to date, with over 1,600 registered participants. There were several highlights in my opinion. First, the Sunday workshops were excellent. I spent most of my time in the workshop on large-scale SDPs (organized by Amir
- [New collaborative work on enhancing color vision](https://laurentlessard.com/new-collaborative-work-on-enhancing-color-vision/) - I have been collaborating with Mikhail Kats, an applied physicist at UW-Madison. In recent work, we studied metamers, which are colors that appear the same to the human eye but have different electromagnetic spectra. The fact that metamers are indistinguishable is a result of the limitations of human vision. Mathematically, the human eye performs a
- [Akhil wins Teaching Excellence Award](https://laurentlessard.com/akhil-wins-teaching-excellence-award/) - Congratulations to my student Akhil Sundararajan for winning the 2017 Gerald Holdridge Teaching Excellence Award! This annual award recognizes top teaching assistants in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UW-Madison. Akhil received the award at the ECE department's annual Spring celebration. This year's celebration coincided with the ECE department's 125th anniversary, so Bucky Badger made an
- [Some press!](https://laurentlessard.com/some-press/) - O'Reilly Media's chief data scientist Ben Lorica (@bigdata) posted an article on the popular Radar Blog covering some of our research on analyzing/tuning optimization algorithms! As Ben points out, machine learning projects in practice consist of pipelines --- complex sequences of algorithms that are tailored to the particular task at hand. As the pipelines become
- [Two-player paper appears in TAC](https://laurentlessard.com/two-player-paper-appears-in-tac/) - The paper "Optimal Control of Two-Player Systems with Output Feedback" by me and Sanjay Lall will appear in the August 2015 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. The paper derives an analytical expression for the optimal LQG controller in perhaps the simplest decentralized architecture: two players with unidirectional information sharing between them. The
- [CDC'13 Submission](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc13-submission/) - The paper “Structural results and explicit solution for two-player LQG systems on a finite time horizon” by me and Ashutosh Nayyar was submitted to CDC’13 in Florence, Italy! This paper explores the two-player problem (see ALLER'11 and ACC'12 papers) but this time in discrete-time with a finite time horizon. The paper develops sufficient statistics and
- [O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper award](https://laurentlessard.com/o-hugo-schuck-award/) - It was a great honor to receive the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award for 2013. The award is given annually by the American Automatic Control Council (AACC) to recognize the best two papers (one for theory and the other for applications) presented at the previous American Control Conference. Our winning paper (in the theory category) was “Optimal Controller
- [Code section now live](https://laurentlessard.com/code-section-now-live/) - I have created a code section on this website, and it is now live! The idea is to make code accessible that allows other researchers to reproduce my published work and build upon it. For this reason, the code I post is written with an emphasis on accessibility and ease of use; I made no
- [AMPLab winter retreat](https://laurentlessard.com/amplab-winter-retreat/) - I had the opportunity to attend the AMPLab winter retreat in Asilomar, near Monterey. It's was a rare opportunity to interact with the broader community of AMPLab affiliates: graduate students, postdocs, faculty members, and industry sponsors. There were dozens of companies represented including Amazon, Google, Intel, Facebook, Samsung, and others. The three-day event included talks,
- [USC controls workshop](https://laurentlessard.com/usc-controls-workshop/) - I attended the Workshop on Future Directions in Networks, Optimization & Controls at USC. This one-day event following CDC featured 20-minute talks by professors, poster presentations by graduate students and postdocs, and a panel discussion on the future of research and education in controls. I had a great time --- there were many big names
- [CDC'12 in Maui](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc-2012-in-maui/) - I attended the 51st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control at the Grand Wailea hotel in Maui, Hawaii. The venue was beautiful, and provided a welcome escape from the cold and rain we've been getting in the bay area. At the conference, I presented a paper entitled "Decentralized LQG Control of Systems with a Broadcast
- [CDC'14 in Los Angeles](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc14-in-los-angeles/) - I attended the 2014 Conference on Decision and Control in Los Angeles. I must say this was one of the best CDC's I have ever attended. The venue was very nice, there was an abundance of high-quality talks, and all the organized events (breaks, receptions, banquet) were well planned and executed. Kudos to the organizers!
- [TCNS paper published!](https://laurentlessard.com/tcns-paper-published/) - The paper "An Algebraic Approach to the Control of Decentralized Systems" by me and Sanjay Lall will appear in the December 2014 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems. The paper describes a purely algebraic treatment of the notion of quadratic invariance, which can be used to analyze decentralized control problems. This
- [WUDS'14 in Amsterdam](https://laurentlessard.com/wuds14-in-amsterdam/) - I recently attended the 2014 Workshop on Uncertain Dynamical Systems in Amsterdam. Most of the attendees were from Europe, which made the workshop a unique opportunity to meet and hear from researchers that I had previously only known "on paper". I gave two talks, both about projects that are still in the works, but for
- [ACC'14 in Portland](https://laurentlessard.com/acc14-in-portland/) - I attended the 2014 American Control Conference in Portland, Oregon. On the right is a photo of the iconic Mount Hood taken outside the city on I-84. At the conference, I spoke at the workshop entitled "40 Years of Robust Control 1978 to 2018”. Chris Meissen also presented the paper "Performance certification of interconnected systems
- [Double submission to CDC'14](https://laurentlessard.com/double-submission-to-cdc14/) - Two papers submitted to CDC'14 in Los Angeles! The first paper is by Chris Meissen, me, Murat Arcak, and Andrew Packard and is called "Performance certification of interconnected nonlinear systems using ADMM". It is a generalization of a previous paper that will be presented at ACC in June. The second paper is called "State-space solution
- [Two journal papers accepted!](https://laurentlessard.com/new-journal-papers-accepted/) - Two recently submitted journal papers have been accepted for publication as full papers! I have uploaded revised versions of the papers, available via the links below. These versions are not yet final, but there will likely not be any further major changes. The first paper is “Optimal control of two-player systems with output feedback” which
- [CDC'13 in Florence](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc13-in-florence/) - I attended the 52nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control in Florence, Italy. On the right is a photo of the Duomo as viewed from the top of the neighboring Campanile bell tower. At the conference, I presented a paper entitled "Structural results and explicit solution for two-player LQG systems on a finite time horizon".
- [Allerton'13](https://laurentlessard.com/allerton13/) - I attended the 51st annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing in Monticello, IL. On the right is a photo of fellow Berkeley students and postdocs in front of the Allerton house. At the conference, I presented a paper entitled "A separation principle for decentralized state-feedback optimal control". The paper describes a new separation
- [ACC'14 Submission](https://laurentlessard.com/acc14-submission/) - The paper “Performance certification of interconnected systems using decomposition techniques” by Chris Meissen, me, and Andrew Packard was submitted to ACC’14 in Portland, Oregon! This paper proposes a framework by which one may certify the performance of an interconnected system. The main idea is to certify something about each component in such a way that
- [Journal paper submitted to TCNS!](https://laurentlessard.com/journal-paper-submitted-to-tcns/) - The paper “An Algebraic Approach to the Control of Decentralized Systems” by me and Sanjay Lall was submitted to the inaugural issue of the Transactions on Control of Network Systems. The paper is a follow-up to our ACC'10 paper and my doctoral thesis. It gives an algebraic treatment of the notion of quadratic invariance, which
- [CDC'13 Paper Accepted!](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc13-paper-accepted/) - The paper “Structural results and explicit solution for two-player LQG systems on a finite time horizon” by me and Ashutosh Nayyar was accepted for publication at CDC’13! (see previous post here) I am excited to have the opportunity to travel to Florence this December to present our work. Final versions of the paper are available
- [Journal paper submitted to Transactions on Automatic Control!](https://laurentlessard.com/tac-paper-submitted/) - The paper “Optimal control of two-player systems with output feedback” by me and Sanjay Lall was submitted to Transactions on Automatic Control. This paper was a long time in the making, and represents the culmination of several years of work. The paper explores a very fundamental control problem, which we call the two-player problem. Two
- [Another journal paper submitted to TAC!](https://laurentlessard.com/journal-paper-on-convexity-submitted-to-transactions-on-automatic-control/) - The paper “Convexity of Decentralized Controller Synthesis” by me and Sanjay Lall was submitted to Transactions on Automatic Control. This paper concerns the general problem of optimal structured controller synthesis. Such problems are hard in general, but can sometimes be expressed as convex optimization problems, which makes them much more tractable. This paper shows that
- [ACC'13 in Washington, D.C.](https://laurentlessard.com/acc13-in-washington-d-c/) - I attended the 2013 American Control Conference at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown DC. The venue is in the heart of the city, and walking distance from countless museums, art galleries, and historical monuments. At the conference, I presented a paper entitled "On Structured Realizability and Stabilizability of Linear Systems". The paper shows that structured
- [Journal paper submitted to Automatica!](https://laurentlessard.com/journal-paper-submitted-to-automatica/) - The paper “Optimal Decentralized State-Feedback Control with Sparsity and Delays” by Andrew Lamperski and me was submitted to Automatica. This paper concerns optimal decentralized controller synthesis for systems that satisfy a nested information structured. That is, for any two decision-makers, one must know strictly more than the other at every instant. Two ways in which
- [ACC'13 Paper Accepted!](https://laurentlessard.com/acc13-paper-accepted/) - The paper “On Structured Realizability and Stabilizability of Linear Systems” by me, Maxim Kristalny, and Anders Rantzer was accepted for publication at ACC’13 in Washington DC! This paper reveals the relationship between structured realizability and structured stabilizability for linear systems defined over graphs.
- [New Postdoc at Berkeley](https://laurentlessard.com/new-postdoc-at-berkeley/) - I have moved back to California! On November 1st, I started as a new postdoc in Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley, co-supervised by Andrew Packard and Kameshwar Poolla. I had a wonderful time in Lund, and am very thankful for the opportunity to have met and collaborated with so many great people. At Berkeley, I
- [LCCC Workshop on Information and Control in Networks](https://laurentlessard.com/lccc-workshop/) - I attended the LCCC Workshop on Information and Control in Networks, hosted by the Department of Automatic Control at Lund. I gave a talk, which was entitled "Optimal Collaborative Control in the Absence of Communication". The talk presented the work from my recent Allerton paper, along with some newer results. Slides for my talk are
- [NecSys'12 Presentation](https://laurentlessard.com/necsys12-presentation/) - The paper “Optimal State-Feedback Control Under Sparsity and Delay Constraints” by Andrew Lamperski and me was presented at NecSys’12 in Santa Barbara! The paper solves a general decentralized control problem under both sparsity and delay constraints using a dynamic programming approach. Our poster is available here.
- [Allerton'12](https://laurentlessard.com/allerton12/) - I attended the 50th annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing in Monticello, Illinois. I presented a new paper, "Optimal Control of a Fully Decentralized Quadratic Regulator", which shows the optimal way for two dynamic agents to collaborate in the absence of any explicit or implicit communication. It's not as simple as it sounds!
- [Best Presentation in Session Award](https://laurentlessard.com/best-presentation-in-session-award/) - I presented the paper “Optimal Controller Synthesis for the Decentralized Two-Player Problem with Output Feedback” by me and Sanjay Lall at ACC’12 in Montréal and was awarded the “Best Presentation in Session” award. Slides can be downloaded here.
- [ACC'13 Submission](https://laurentlessard.com/acc13-submission/) - The paper “On Structured Realizability and Stabilizability of Linear Systems” by me, Maxim Kristalny, and Anders Rantzer was submitted to ACC’13 in Washington DC! This paper reveals the relationship between structured realizability and structured stabilizability for linear systems defined over graphs.
- [CDC'12 Paper Accepted](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc12-paper-accepted/) - My paper “Decentralized LQG Control of Systems with a Broadcast Architecture” was accepted for publication at CDC’12 in Maui! This paper generalizes the method of our recent ACC’12 paper to systems with a broadcast architecture.

## Pages

- [Home](https://laurentlessard.com/) - Associate Professor Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Institute for Experiential AI (core faculty) Electrical and Computer Engineering (by courtesy) Khoury College of Computer Sciences (by courtesy) Northeastern University Contact Information The best way to reach me is via email: l.lessard@northeastern.edu Recent News May 20, 2026: I have updated my notes for ME4555 (System Analysis and Control).
- [ME 4555: System Analysis and Control](https://laurentlessard.com/teaching/4555-system-analysis-and-control/) - System Analysis and Control ME 4555 Northeastern University Instructor: Laurent Lessard This is an undergraduate-level course in classical control theory. The course covers modeling of physical systems, analysis and performance of linear systems, and basic feedback control. This course presents material that is fundamental and foundational for the study and practice of control systems. Concepts
- [CV](https://laurentlessard.com/cv/) - 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
- [Group](https://laurentlessard.com/group/) - Laurent Lessard, Ph.D. Principal Investigator Milad Alipour Shahraki Ph.D. Student in ECE (Google Scholar) (Website) Mohammad Hussein Yoosefian Nooshabadi Ph.D. Student in MIE (Google Scholar) Omar Farhat Ph.D. Student in MIE (Google Scholar) (LinkedIn) Guilherme Mainieri Eymael Ph.D. Student in MIE (LinkedIn) Cora Lutes M.S. Student in ECE (LinkedIn) Former group members Date of
- [ME 5374: Optimization Modeling for Engineers](https://laurentlessard.com/teaching/5374-optimization-modeling/) - Optimization Modeling for Engineers ME 5374 (special topics) Northeastern University Instructor: Laurent Lessard This course provides an introduction to optimization modeling in engineering contexts. Topics covered include linear programming, quadratic and convex programs, and mixed-integer and non-convex models. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to transform practical engineering challenges into optimization
- [Teaching Overview](https://laurentlessard.com/teaching-overview/) - Courses taught at Northeastern University ME 7247: Advanced Control Engineering This is a graduate-level course that covers topics in modern control engineering, including: optimal control, optimal filtering, robust/nonlinear control, and model predictive control. The main theme of the course is how uncertainty propagates through dynamical systems, and how it can be managed in the context
- [ME 7247: Advanced Control Engineering](https://laurentlessard.com/teaching/7247-advanced-control-engineering/) - Advanced Control Engineering ME 7247 Northeastern University Instructor: Laurent Lessard This is a graduate-level course that covers topics in modern control engineering, including: optimal control, optimal filtering, robust/nonlinear control, and model predictive control. The main theme of the course is how uncertainty propagates through dynamical systems, and how it can be managed in the context
- [CDC2023tutorial](https://laurentlessard.com/cdc2023tutorial/) - ThA01: Analysis and Design of Optimization Algorithms Using Tools from Control Theory Tutorial at the 62nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control in Singapore. Date: Thursday December 14, 2023 Organizers: Bryan Van Scoy (Miami University) and Laurent Lessard (Northeastern University) Abstract: First-order methods provide robust and efficient solutions to large-scale optimization problems. Recent advances in the
- [CS/ECE/ISyE 524: Introduction to Optimization](https://laurentlessard.com/teaching/524-intro-to-optimization/) - Introduction to Optimization CS/ECE/ISyE 524 University of Wisconsin--Madison Instructor: Laurent Lessard This course is an introduction to optimization from a modeling perspective. The aim is to teach students to recognize and solve optimization problems that arise in industry and research applications. Examples will be drawn from a variety of disciplines, including computer science, operations research,
- [ECE/CS/ME 532: Matrix Methods in Machine Learning](https://laurentlessard.com/teaching/532-matrix-methods/) - Matrix Methods in Machine Learning ECE/CS/ME 532 (formerly "Theory and Applications of Pattern Recognition") University of Wisconsin--Madison Instructor: Laurent Lessard This course is an introduction to machine learning that focuses on matrix methods and features real-world applications ranging from classification and clustering to denoising and data analysis. Mathematical topics covered include: linear equations, regression, regularization,
- [ECE 204: Data Science & Engineering](https://laurentlessard.com/teaching/204-data-science-engineering/) - Data Science & Engineering ECE 204 (formerly ECE 379) University of Wisconsin--Madison Instructor: Laurent Lessard A hands-on introduction to Data Science using the Python programming language. The course is intended for Freshmen and Sophomores of any major that have limited prior experience in computer programming or data science. The course teaches how to think about
- [ECE 717: Linear Systems](https://laurentlessard.com/teaching/717-linear-systems/) - Linear Systems ECE 717 University of Wisconsin--Madison Instructor: Laurent Lessard This is a graduate-level course on linear dynamical systems with an emphasis on state-space modeling in both discrete and continuous time. Topics covered include equilibrium points and linearization, natural and forced responses, canonical forms and transformations, controllability and observability, control-theoretic concepts such as pole placement,
- [ACC2019workshop](https://laurentlessard.com/acc2019workshop/) - W5: Interplay between Control, Optimization, and Machine Learning Workshop at the 2019 American Control Conference in Philadelphia, USA. Date: Tuesday July 9, 2019 in Room 408-409 Organizers: Bin Hu (UIUC) and Laurent Lessard (University of Wisconsin–Madison) Abstract: In the past 5 years, many interesting research ideas have emerged from the fields of controls, optimization, and machine
- [Research](https://laurentlessard.com/research/) - My research lies at the intersection of optimization and control, two fields that play a vitally important role in cyber-physical systems (CPS) applications but that tend to have very different goals and tools. My research thrust is to leverage the strengths of both fields with the ultimate goal of enabling safe and efficient complex systems.
- [Teaching](https://laurentlessard.com/teaching/) - /* This is a hack! it's only here because I named a subdirectory "teaching" and I want to create a PAGE named "teaching" that is part of the CMS. Old hack was to make an index.html in the /teaching subdirectory, but that was causing problems because the page doesn't update with everything else. So I'm
- [BibTeX](https://laurentlessard.com/publications/bibtex/) - this is not visible --- see code!
- [Publications](https://laurentlessard.com/publications/)

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