[Raise-faculty] ME + RAISE Distinguished Speaker Itinerary Signup: Francesco Bullo, Feb 26

[erfan.nozari at ucr.edu]

Dear Colleagues,

The ME Department and RAISE Institute are co-hosting *Dr. Francesco
Bullo* *from
UCSB this Thursday, Feb 26th*. Francesco is a Distinguished Professor and
endowed Chair of Mechanical Engineering at UCSB, a past President of the
IEEE Control Systems Society, and a Fellow of ASME, IEEE, IFAC, NetSci, and
SIAM. His research interests include contraction theory, mathematical
neuroscience, and neural networks. More information about his talk can be
found below and in the attached flyer.

I hope Francesco's talk will be of interest to many of you and you are able
to attend his seminar. If interested *please use this link
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BcLDcHRro03UOU-nPq4HTm2CSZBLX4DyTQStB6tvtro/edit?usp=sharing>
to
sign up for a one-on-one meeting* with him and/or join us for lunch or
dinner. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out.

*Seminar Title: Biologically Plausible Computing: Navigating Energy
Landscapes*

*Seminar Abstract:* Deep learning models, despite their power, lag behind
the biological brain in interpretability, energy efficiency, and physical
plausibility. This presentation explores the mathematical design principles
of biological neural circuits -- building upon the classic concept that
neural activity is fundamentally driven by cost minimization and energy
landscapes.
We demonstrate a direct mathematical equivalence between the firing
dynamics of recurrent neural networks and "proximal gradient descent," a
novel dynamical system used to solve optimization problems. This framework
provides a top-down explanation for how biological networks process
information, illustrated through examples such as sparse signal
reconstruction in the visual cortex and decision-making via the free energy
principle. Finally, we extend these concepts to complex
excitatory-inhibitory circuits, modeling neurons as players in a
mathematical game. We conclude by briefly discussing how these biological
insights can inspire next-generation analog and neuromorphic computing.

*Speaker Bio:* Francesco Bullo is a Distinguished Professor and Mosher
Chair of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Santa
Barbara. He was previously with the University of Padova (Laurea degree,
Italy), the California Institute of Technology (Ph.D. degree), and the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include
contraction theory, mathematical neuroscience, and neural networks. He is
the author or coauthor of Geometric Control of Mechanical Systems
(Springer, 2004), Distributed Control of Robotic Networks (Princeton,
2009), Lectures on Network Systems (KDP, 2024), and Contraction Theory for
Dynamical Systems (KDP, 2026). He served as IEEE CSS President and SIAG CST
Chair. He is a Fellow of ASME, IEEE, IFAC, NetSci, and SIAM.

Thanks,
Erfan

---
Erfan Nozari
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department of Bioengineering
Neuroscience Graduate Program
University of California, Riverside
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