Optimal and Distributed Control in Animals 

Lisa (Jing Shuang) L
Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
University of Michigan, College of Engineering
Abstract: In this talk, I will describe the role of optimal and distributed control in both behavioral and implementation models of animal sensorimotor control. In some sense, animals behave like an optimal controller - but how is this optimal controller implemented in the brain and body of the animal, and what are the additional theory developments needed to adequately model this? Neurons do not communicate the same way that transistors do - this translates to communication delays and constraints that play a significant role in shaping the physiological implementation of biological controllers.
Bio: Jing Shuang (Lisa) Li received a Bachelors of Applied Science from the University of Toronto and a PhD in Control and Dynamical Systems from Caltech. She joined the University of Michigan in Fall 2023. Her research focuses on distributed control theory with applications to neuroscience, biology, and large-scale systems.