Some of the most exciting interactions between mathematics and engineering are occurring in the area of analysis and control of uncertain, multivariable, and nonlinear dynamical systems. While changing technology has made control and dynamical systems theory increasingly relevant to a much broader class of problems, the interdisciplinary nature of this area means that it no longer has a natural home exclusively or even primarily within any one of the traditional engineering disciplines. The CDS option, as part of the Computing & Mathematical Sciences department, is designed to meet the challenge of educating students both in the mathematical methods of control and dynamical systems theory and their applications to problems in engineering and science.
Faculty and students in CDS are active in a number of research areas. The primary theoretical areas of research include stochastic and nonlinear dynamical systems, multiscale modeling, optimal and decentralized control, system identification and estimation theory, Bayesian modeling and analysis, uncertainty quantification, and communications and information theory. Active applications include networking and communication systems, embedded systems and formal verification, robotics and autonomy, molecular and systems biology, integrative biology, human physiology, economic and financial systems, computing systems, physics of fluids, quantum mechanics, seismology and earthquake engineering, and space systems.