Laboratory for Information & Decision Systems: LIDS
The Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) is an interdepartmental laboratory for research and education in systems, control, optimization, communication, networks, and statistical signal processing. These disciplines, which span the domain of the analytical information and decision sciences, play a critical and pervasive role in science, engineering, and society. LIDS provides a melting pot of disciplines that share a common approach to problems, a common mathematical base, and an energized environment. This kind of milieu not only fosters inspired thinking and research but also encourages and enables students to build disciplinary depth and interdisciplinary understanding essential for research and engineering leadership. Research opportunities are available at LIDS for both graduate and undergraduate students.
LIDS is staffed by faculty, research scientists and graduate students primarily from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Mathematics Department, Operations Research Center and the School of Management. Presently LIDS has 14 full-time and 2 half-time faculty members, a professional staff consisting of 3 research scientists, 12 post-doctoral associates, 30 research affiliates, visiting scientists and scholars, and approximately 75 graduate students from several departments contributed to the research projects carried out at LIDS. The core areas of study are:
Communications and Networks
Research in this area includes fundamental work on networks, information theory and communication theory. The work extends to applications in satellite, wireless and optical communications, and data networks. The objective is to develop the scientific base needed to design data communication networks that are efficient, robust and architecturally clean. Wide-area and local-area networks, high-speed networks, and point-to-point and broadcast communication channels are of concern. Topics of current interest include network architectures at all layers; power control; multiple antenna techniques; network coding; media access control protocols; routing in optical, wireless and satellite networks; quality of service control; failure recovery; topological design; and the use of pricing as a mechanism for efficient resource allocation.
Control and System Theory
The control systems group deals with problems related to complete systems analysis design. These include learning and system identification, controller design and optimization, and analysis of phenomena resulting from large-scale systems. Theoretical research quantifies the fundamental limitations and capabilities of learning and feedback control for various classes of systems in the presence of dynamic uncertainty. Application-oriented work includes control architectures for single and multiple unmanned aerial vehicles and controllers for piloting epitaxy in semiconductor manufacturing. The control group is also involved in a research effort focusing on modeling he nervous system, conducted in collaboration with other laboratories.
Optimization
Work in this area looks at analytical and computational methods for solving broad classes of optimization problems arising in engineering and operations research. It has applications in communication networks, control theory, power systems and computer-aided manufacturing. In addition to traditional subjects in linear, nonlinear, dynamic, convex and network programming, there is an emphasis on the solution of large-scale problems, including the application of neurodynamic programming methods.
Statistical Signal Processing
This group analyzes complex systems, phenomena and data subject to uncertainty and statistical variability. Research spans the spectrum from broadly applicable basic theory, methodologies and algorithms to challenging applications in a broad array of fields. Recent applications for this research include multisensor data assimilation for oceanography; hydrology and meteorology; biomedical image analysis; object recognition and computer vision; and coordinated sensing and processing of large, distributed arrays of microsensors.
Research staff are listed on the LIDS homepage. Faculty members associated with the laboratory include Professors R. Berwick, D. Bertsekas, M.A. Dahleh, D. Forney, E. Frazzoli, J. How, P. Jaillet, A. Megretski, S.K. Mitter, E. Modiano, A. Ozdaglar, P. Parrilo, D. Shah, J.N. Tsitsiklis, A. Willsky, M. Win. See the People section of the LIDS website for a complete list of faculty and researchers.
Some Related Areas for UROPs:
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Aeronautics and Astronautics & Mathematics.
UROP for Credit:
Arranged through the faculty supervisor's academic department.
