ICM & Systems Institute Special Seminar: John Doyle, California Institute of Technology, “Universal Laws and Architectures: Brains, Bugs, Nets, Dance, Art, Music, Literature, Fashion, and Zombies”
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Meet The Speaker
“Universal laws and architectures: brains, bugs, nets, dance, art, music, literature, fashion, and zombies”
John G Braun Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems, Electrical Engineer, and BioEngineering at Caltech. Has BS and MS in EE, MIT (1977), and a PhD, Math, UC Berkeley (1984). Current research interests are in theoretical foundations for complex networks in engineering and biology with focus on:
- hard limits on achievable robust performance ( “laws”) including measurement, prediction, communication, computation, decision, and control,
- the organizing principles that succeed or fail in achieving them (architectures and protocols),
- the resulting high variability data and “robust yet fragile” behavior observed in real systems and case studies (behavior, data), and
- the processes by which systems evolve (variation, selection, design).
Case studies are drawn from throughout technology plus cell biology, human physiology, ecology, neuroscience, and multiscale physics. Early work was in the mathematics of robust control, including extensions to nonlinear and networked systems. His group has been involved in software projects including the Robust Control Toolbox (muTools), SOSTOOLS, SBML (Systems Biology Markup Language), and FAST (Fast AQM, Scalable TCP). Prize papers include IEEE Baker, IEEE Automatic Control Transactions Axelby (twice), and best conference papers in ACM Sigcomm and AACC American Control Conference. Individual awards include AACC Eckman, and IEEE Control Systems Field and Centennial Outstanding Young Engineer Awards. He has held national and world records and championships in various sports. He is best known for having excellent co-authors, students, friends, and colleagues.
For more information on John Doyle, Click Here to view his homepage.
Seminar Abstract
“Universal laws and architectures: brains, bugs, nets, dance, art, music, literature, fashion, and zombies”
Complex networks arise in a wide range of applications from neuroscience and cell biology to the internet and social networks. The commonalities in these problems are often either overlooked or oversimplified while domain experts tend to apply different “languages” and mathematical “tools” to them. This talk will focus on progress towards a more “unified” theory for complex networks. The approaches described are motivated by neuroscience, cell biology, and technology, and involving several elements: hard limits on achievable robust performance ( “laws”), the organizing principles that succeed or fail in achieving them (architectures and protocols), the resulting high variability data observed in real systems and in case studies (behavior, data), and the processes by which systems evolve (variation, selection, design). We will leverage a series of case studies from neuroscience, cell biology, human physiology, and technology to illustrate the implications of recent theoretical developments, also drawing on hopefully familiar examples from dance, art, music, literature, fashion, and the recent popular obsession with zombies.
Hard limits on measurement, prediction, communication, computation, decision, and control, as well as the underlying physical energy and material conversion mechanism necessary to implement these abstract processes are at the heart of modern mathematical theories of systems in engineering and science (often associated with names such as Shannon, Poincare, Turing, Gödel, Bode, Wiener, Heisenberg, Carnot,…). They form the foundation for rich and deep subjects that are nevertheless now introduced at the undergraduate level. Unfortunately, these subjects remain largely fragmented and incompatible, even as the tradeoffs between these limits are essential to understanding human physiology and neuroscience, and are of growing importance in building integrated and sustainable systems. We will aim for an accessible summary of how they do and don’t relate to each other, and progress and prospects for a more integrated theory. Particular inspiration will be drawn from Turing’s work in honor of his 100th birthday, the challenge of tradeoffs between system efficiency and robustness, and how this is reflected in the speed and flexibility in computation, communication and control in organisms and technologies. References [1]and [4] are the most accessible and broad introduction and the other papers give more domain specific details.
Selected recent references:
- Alderson DL, Doyle JC (2010) Contrasting views of complexity and their implications for network-centric infrastructures. IEEE Trans Systems Man Cybernetics—Part A: Syst Humans 40:839-852.
- Sandberg H, Delvenne JC, Doyle JC. On Lossless Approximations, the Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem, and Limitations of Measurements, IEEE Trans Auto Control, Feb 2011
- Chandra F, Buzi G, Doyle JC (2011) Glycolytic oscillations and limits on robust efficiency. Science, Vol 333, pp 187-192.
- Doyle JC, Csete ME(2011) Architecture, Constraints, and Behavior, P Natl Acad Sci USA, vol. 108, Sup 3 15624-15630
- Gayme DF, McKeon BJ, Bamieh B, Papachristodoulou P, Doyle JC (2011) Amplification and Nonlinear Mechanisms in Plane Couette Flow, Physics of Fluids, V23, Issue 6, 065108
- Page, M. T., D. Alderson, and J. Doyle (2011), The magnitude distribution of earthquakes near Southern California faults, J. Geophys. Res., 116, B12309, doi:10.1029/2010JB007933.
- Namas R, Zamora R, An, G, Doyle, J et al, (2012) Sepsis: Something old, something new, and a systems view, Journal Of Critical Care Volume: 27 Issue: 3
- Chen, L; Ho, T; Chiang, M, Low S; Doyle J,(2012) Congestion Control for Multicast Flows With Network Coding, IEEE Trans On Information Theory Volume: 58 Issue: 9 Pages: 5908-5921
Note: There will be a reception following the talk from 5:30 to 6:30pm sponsored by the Systems Institute
