Coffee and Control

Afleveringen

1. Hamed Rahimi Nohooji (Human-Robot Interaction and Soft Robotics)

   1 november 2026 · 1 uur 8 min

   Afspelen
   In this episode I had a wonderful time talking with Dr Hamed Rahimi Nohooji and all about control of robotics! We discussed dealing with constraints using barrier Lyapunov functions, control considerations in human-robot interaction, control objectives for soft robotics, co-design of soft robots, wind turbine control, and a whole lot more! Lees meer

   You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://coffeecontrollinks.short.gy/cDetOw

   Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/

   Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/

   References:

   Hamed Rahimi Nohooji: https://www.uni.lu/snt-en/people/hamed-rahimi-nohooji/

   Path planning of manipulators with flexible links: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.5772/10524

   Flexible robotics review: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01691864.2013.839079

   Moving obstacle avoidance paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00707-012-0799-5

   PhD thesis: https://coffeecontrollinks.short.gy/FBl2X0

   Adaptive control for robots with joint-space constraints: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0888327018301614
   Control for robots with velocity constraints: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016003217306269

   CLF and CBF reviews: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050921019128

   https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8796030

   Original progressive BLF paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.06288

   Learning progressive BLFs: [Under review]

   Romeo Ortega inControl episode: https://coffeecontrollinks.short.gy/s5WEDs

   NNs for exoskeletons review: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/14/1/16

   Original paper by Nussbaum: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/016769118390021X

   Chen Automatica Nussbaum function paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005109818306423

   Hamed’s Nussbaum function paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020025518310417

   N…

2. Keyan Miao (Interfacing Control with Neural ODEs)

   1 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 1 min

   Afspelen
   In this episode I got to chat with the incredibly wonderful Dr Keyan Miao about the fascinating work she’s done on neural ODEs. We discuss applying control theoretic tools to optimise neural ODEs, as well as their use for both controller and observer design. And in case that wasn’t already enough we also touch on dissipativity, Koopman operators, and reinforcement learning! Lees meer

   You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iI0swQSnNEqgGQgf7og8udRV3IBCXbbfEkLFlolGxEU/edit?usp=sharing

   Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/

   Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/

   Join the live recording on 20th October 2026!

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S9X66_Wfzc

   ( 9:30 PDT, 12:30 ET, 16:30 UTC, 17:30 BST, 18:30 CEST)

   References

   Keyan Miao: https://kymiao.github.io/

   Richard Vinter: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/r.vinter

   QianXiao Li from NUS and Wei-Nan Er from Princeton: https://www.jmlr.org/papers/volume18/17-653/17-653.pdf

   https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40687-018-0172-y

   https://ems.press/journals/jems/articles/5404458

   Book on control theory/ philosophy: https://apac.ee.kntu.ac.ir/publications/books/control-systems-a-historical-and-philosophical-perspective/

   Control theory/ philosophy article: https://www.numberanalytics.com/blog/control-theory-philosophical-lens-language

   NCCR automation fellowship: https://nccr-automation.ch/research-fellowship

   Andreas Krause: https://las.inf.ethz.ch/krausea

   Steve Brunton ResNet video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1UsKanMatM&t=911s

   Original neural ODE paper: https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper_files/paper/2018/file/69386f6bb1dfed68692a24c8686939b9-Paper.pdf

   Speeding up Neural ODE training and inference: https://proceedings.mlr.press/v235/miao24a.html

   Neural ODE review: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950550X25000263

   Review of Neural ODEs in biomedical engine…

3. IFAC World Congress Special

   1 september 2026 · 1 uur 5 min

   Afspelen
   In this episode I take you with me to the 2026 IFAC World Congress in Busan, South Korea, where I got to talk to a bunch of wonderful control researchers about their work. We cover a wide range of fascinating research areas, including observer design for transportation, event-triggered control, consensus control, extremum-seeking, robotic manipulation, control education and outreach, and a whole lot more! Lees meer

   You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XE4krcWk6KgQjUUtgxKejmsTBYTermPeL9e3uVOnRJQ/edit?usp=sharing

   Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/

   Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/

   References

   Workshops

   Arun Tangirala: https://arunkt-dev.github.io/

   Prem Jagadeesan: https://www.amrita.edu/faculty/prem-jagadeesan/

   Paper on defining sloppiness: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0282609

   Tom Oomen: https://toomen.eu/

   Monday

   inControl podcast: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/

   Live event recording: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/19954769-ep49-incontrol-ifac-2026-m-vidyasagar-h-khalil-s-boyd-so-you-want-to-write-a-classic

   Selsabil Bougherara: https://www.uphf.fr/lamih/membres/bougherara_selsabil

   Shengya Meng: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shengya-meng-1b299a294/

   Laura Albert: https://engineering.wisc.edu/directory/profile/laura-albert/

   Tuesday

   Ying Tan: https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/28203-ying-tan

   Miroslav Krstic inControl interview: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/16954129-ep31-miroslav-krstic-nonlinear-adaptive-control-pdes-delays-extremum-seeking-safety-neural-operators-for-control

   ESC paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4177053

   Wednesday

   Frank Park: https://me.snu.ac.kr/en/snu__professor/park-frank-chongwoo/

   Talk on geometric methods for robot learning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIKZzlomGIY

   Pritesh Patel: https://ww…

4. Francesca Boem (Distributed Monitoring and Attack Detection)

   1 augustus 2026 · 1 uur

   Afspelen
   In this episode I had the pleasure of talking to the fantastic Francesca Boem about her work on monitoring networked systems, approaches to detecting faults and cyber attacks, as well as her new start-up helping to ensure the security of wireless health-tech devices! Lees meer

   You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ttf7raapfDW4_aj3mnD8mSoy704d9T9BLnJk9QXbLqM/edit?usp=sharing

   Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/

   Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/

   Drop me an email if you’re attending IFAC WC: L.Hodgins@soton.ac.uk

   References

   Francesca Boem: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/65682-francesca-boem

   PhD thesis: https://www.openstarts.units.it/entities/publication/c9e28dd2-a9f3-4deb-bfb9-886a8f5d1661/details

   Thomas Parisini: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/t.parisini

   Distributed fault detection paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6580380

   Detectability of cyber attacks: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8264562

   Cyber attack detection for microgrids: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9054955

   Detecting covert cyber attacks: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9104026

   Detecting replay attacks: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.00737

   Fault-tolerant control/ active fault diagnosis: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8700304

   CONTROL 2026 episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2MTAxQo4PlTC0zo7OcYRB4

   BLE vulnerabilities paper: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10212293/1/ISCAS_2025_V4.pdf

   GiancarloFerrari Tricate: https://people.epfl.ch/giancarlo.ferraritrecate

   KIOS centre: https://www.kios.ucy.ac.cy/

5. CONTROL 2026 (ACE Network/ UKACC Conference Special)

   1 juli 2026 · 50 min

   Afspelen
   In this episode I have the pleasure of attending the CONTROL2026 conference, and bring you along with me! This conference was the largest gatheringof control engineers in the UK recent years, co-organized by the ACE network and UK Automatic Control Council (UKACC). Join me as I explore the ACE network and some of the fabulous control engineering research taking place across theUK! Lees meer

   Join the ACE network!: ⁠https://ukcontrol.org/join-ace

   You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1131VDAX37W9GOJ87c0PZqXt83VMds1rAdapr1HdgN3Q/edit?usp=sharing

   Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/

   Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/

   References

   Control 2026: https://control2026.ukcontrol.org/

   Conference proceedings: https://control2026.ukcontrol.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Control-2026-Proceedings-Booklet.pdf

   ACE network: https://ukcontrol.org/

   UKACC: https://ukacc.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/

   IFAC: https://www.ifac-control.org/

   Pramod Khargonekar: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/khargonekar/

   Slides from his talk: https://coffeecontrollinks.short.gy/yaf5rk

   Norbert Weiner: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Norbert-Wiener

   Automony vs automation: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00146-020-01004-z

   InControl episode: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/11513053-ep6-norbert-wiener-and-cybernetics

   Macy Conference proceedings: http://cybernetic-bookshelf.org:8083/book/2636Dartmouth conference: https://opendigitalai.org/en/the-dartmouth-conference-1956-the-big-bang-of-ai/

   John McCarthy: https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-McCarthy

   Daniel Coca: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/engineering/staff/profile/danielcoca.html

   EPSRC: https://www.ukri.org/councils/epsrc/

   Interview with Andy Lawrence: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6BvPXw3YyoqdsvbQ573OF1

   William Heath: https://www.bangor.ac.uk/staff/scse/william-heath-680178/en

   Al…

6. Carmen Amo Alonso: Part 2 (AI Architectures and the Dynamics of Intelligence)

   7 juni 2026 · 52 min

   Afspelen
   In the second part of my interview with the incredibly talented Carmen Amo Alonso we discuss her fascinating work at the intersection of AI and control, examining topics such as: Lees meer

   Using tools from control theory to analyse and design AI systems

   Controlling large language models to guarantee a particular sentiment for their output

   Using vision-language-action models to control robots using language

   and a whole lot more!

   You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ph1yaQuV_ybRM8h9rU5Uvmz9eB5Ar4HVhcBnc7b7zJ8/edit?usp=sharing

   Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/

   Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/

   References

   The architecture of language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApC0AWWTajU

   Diffusion models: https://the-principles-of-diffusion-models.github.io/

   Skip connection paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.10609

   Review of state-space models in AI: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.16899

   3 Blue 1 Brown video on transformers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjZofJX0v4M

   Dynamical systems framework paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.15731

   Designing sequence models: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.09389v1

   Controlling LLM output: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.15454v3

   Controllability of LLMs: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05637v1

   Vision-language-action model paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05487v1

   NARRATE: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.10762

   DEMONSTRATE: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12855v1

   Domitilla Del Vecchio: https://meche.mit.edu/people/faculty/ddv@MIT.EDU

   Biomolecular feedback systems book: https://www.fbswiki.org/wiki/index.php/Biomolecular_Feedback_Systems

   Mathias Foo episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1G3vhRoeenTWRrEwauT0ne

   inControl episodes: Mario di Bernardo: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/19167890-ep44-mario-di-bernardo-from-circuits-to-cells-and-swarms-control-meets-complexity

   Mustafa Khammash: https:…

7. Carmen Amo Alonso: Part 1 (Distributed and Localized Model Predictive Control)

   2 juni 2026 · 30 min

   Afspelen
   In this episode I talk to the very wonderful Carmen Amo Alonso about her (award-winning) PhD research on distributed and localised MPC. We also cover super interesting and useful concepts such as system-level synthesis and ADMM, as well as her internship working at Tesla! Lees meer

   You can access the transcript at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SErvHtKoE18QzelHDUh9im6AeG3zKPWZLRoNGx5BUyg/edit?usp=sharing

   Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/

   Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/

   References

   Carmen: https://camoalon.github.io/

   JPL: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

   John Doyle: https://ieeecss.org/contact/john-doyle

   Feedback in biological control: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9867859

   https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9867794

   Thesis: https://thesis.caltech.edu/15262/3/Carmen_Amo_Alonso_Caltech_PhD_Thesis.pdf

   Distributed localised MPC paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9939038

   Professor Melanie Zeilinger: https://nccr-automation.ch/about/people/melanie-zeilinger-0

   SLS for robust nonlinear optimal control: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.04943

   Professor Nikolai Matni: https://nikolaimatni.github.io/

   System-level synthesis tutorial: https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.01634

   YouTube videos on DLMPC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF2Wbriy2Zg

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhtuGZp8QM0&t=302s

   ADMM survey paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.03700

   Professor James Anderson: https://www.columbia.edu/~ja3451/

   Data-driven DLMCP: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9772975

   Willems fundamental lemma: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/262195/1/PersistencyExcitation.pdf

   Paolo Rapisarda episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/076dEw28abILPAbT5qA6aw

   Implementing DLMP on GPUs: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9831839

   Clubes de Ciencia: Mexico: https://clubesdeciencia.mx/

   Peru: https://clubesde…

8. Journal Clubs (Creating reading groups that people want to be part of)

   1 mei 2026 · 34 min

   Afspelen
   In this episode I talk to three lovely researchers all about journal clubs (AKA reading groups) – what they are, why you might want to be part of one, and how to start your own! I also give some insights from my own experiences running a (control-related) journal club, as well as a summary of three of my favourite papers we’ve read. Lees meer

   You can find the transcript at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19i4egf_2KEWqkp94ZW3QjRTH8PeAZz6yEix8zoSfx4k/edit?usp=sharing

   Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/

   Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/

   References

   Al Edwards: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/62mm7y/doctor-al-edwards

   Antonia Marcu: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5xk5lz/miss-antonia-marcu

   Convexification for soft landing optimal control paper: http://www.larsblackmore.com/iee_tcst13.pdf

   Improved soft robotic parameterisation paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8961972

   KKL observer synthesis paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.11655

9. Brian Douglas (Control Engineering in Industry)

   1 april 2026 · 58 min

   Afspelen
   In this episode I got the opportunity to sit down with the fantastic Brian Douglas and talk about what it's like to be a control engineer in industry, common misconceptions he had, and advice for current students. We also discussed his YouTube channel, as well as a few more technical aspects of projects he's been involved with over the years! Lees meer

   You can find the transcript at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gAyIAgd3RzVSSDmJ-As0gzJVekJG3IqU2L-1zJhuKYs/edit?usp=sharing

   Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/

   Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/

   References

   Brian Douglas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-douglas-505b7175/

   Engineering Media (Brian’s company): https://engineeringmedia.com/

   Original YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq0imsn84ShAe9PBOFnoIrg

   MATLAB YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MATLAB

   Co-design podcast episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3upRUgZBy79tqihMy9BDsJ

   Veritasium: https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium

   Smarter every day: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6107grRI4m0o2-emgoDnAA

   Mark Rober: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRober

   Formal verification video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kINfn-ZYiLY

   InControl episode: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/15223020-ep24-brian-douglas-boeing-control-videos-resourcium-map-of-control-theory-cartoons-mathworks

10. Gioele Zardini (Engineering Trade-offs and Co-design)

    1 maart 2026 · 1 uur 10 min

    Afspelen
    In this episode I got to speak with the fantastic Gioele Zardini about his work on the co-design framework, a fascinating framework used to optimise large interconnected systems. We cover the theoretical background of this, intuition behind it, and a ton of different applications where it’s useful, as well as discussing exciting open questions in the field! Lees meer

    Find the transcript at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XPZr9jP4Lphskkw-SiM8h-x1kp7LROqZ243S6zA7EsY/edit?usp=sharing

    Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/

    Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/

    References

    Gioele Zardini: https://zardini.mit.edu/

    PhD thesis: https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/entities/publication/d7c08dd5-bf96-4c1f-a744-5e751f0f44a5

    PhDs in control interview: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10555200

    Emilio Frazzoli: https://idsc.ethz.ch/research-frazzoli/people/person-detail.frazzoli.html

    Andrea Cenci: https://nccr-automation.ch/about/people/andrea-censi

    Marco Pavone: https://profiles.stanford.edu/marco-pavone

    NuTonomy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuTonomy(current site: https://motional.com/)

    Brad Nelson: https://msrl.ethz.ch/the-lab/team/Brad_Nelson.html

    David Sacramuza: https://rpg.ifi.uzh.ch/people_scaramuzza.html

    Yujun Huang: https://zardini.mit.edu/people/yujun-huang/

    Uncertainty in co-design paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.02766

    Background refs on category theory:

    David Spivak: https://dspivak.net/
    Brendan Fong: http://brendanfong.com/

    Gioele's work in progress book: https://storage.zuper.ai/sync/ACT4E/ACT4E/alphubel-prod/build/last/build-public/ACT4E-public.pdf

    YouTube talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmAz6fEPa2o

    Gioele's course: https://zardini.mit.edu/act4ed/

    MIT applied category theory course: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-s097-applied-category-theory-january-iap-2019/

    Seven sketches in compositionality: http://brendanfong.com/fong_spivak_an_invi…

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