COLLOQUIUM
Computer Science Department, Boston University
Center for Information and Systems Engineering, Boston University

Date: Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Time: 11:00am
Place: Room MCS 135, 111 Cummington Street
       (for directions, see www.cs.bu.edu/colloquium)


Chaos & Control

Professor Liz Bradley
Department of Computer Science
University of Colorado at Boulder
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~lizb


Abstract:

Understanding and exploiting the special properties of chaos can lead
to designs that vastly improve the performance of many practical and
useful systems --- spacecraft trajectories that require less fuel, for
example, or fuel injectors that mix gasoline and air more effectively.
Control strategies that leverage chaos's characteristic geometry,
ergodicity, and sensitivity to attain such improvements rely on
powerful computational tools that use a combination of quantitative
and qualitative reasoning to work with the special properties
involved.  This talk will begin with a review of the mathematical
theory and computational techniques that are used in the control of
chaos, and then cover a variety of interesting examples ranging from
science and engineering to dance.


Short Biography:

Elizabeth Bradley did her undergraduate and graduate work at MIT,
interrupted by a one-year leave of absence to row in the 1988 Olympic
Games, and has been with the Department of Computer Science at the
University of Colorado at Boulder since January of 1993.  Her research
interests include nonlinear dynamics, artificial intelligence, and
control theory.  She is the recipient of a NSF National Young
Investigator award, a Packard Fellowship, a Radcliffe Fellowship, and
the 1999 student-voted University of Colorado College of Engineering
teaching award.


Host: Azer Bestavros (CS/CAS)

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