PhD - Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering

University of California - Santa Barbara

The Dynamic Systems, Control, and Robotics group in the UCSB Mechanical Engineering department maintains strong research interests in dynamic systems utilizing mechanical functions, such as vehicles, flexible structures, robotic arms, electromagnetic actuators, or fluid systems. Both experimental and theoretical work is pursued on several fronts.

Current research projects in this area include:

Dynamics and control of airplane and space structures
Control of building structures due to earthquakes and winds
Control of switched and discontinuous systems
Automotive drive-train control
Chaotic advection in fluid flows, dispersion, reaction and diffusion in chaotic flows, and volume-preserving dynamical systems
Nonlinear geometric control theory
Optimal boundary control of vibrating structures such as plates, composite beams, and composite beams with piezoelectric layers

College of Engineering