Yuhang Mei's General Exam
Yuhang Mei's General Exam, Interplay of Generative Modeling and Stochastic Optimal Control, Committee
Amirhossein Taghvaei (Chair), Mehran Mesbahi, Karen Leung, Bamdad Hosseini, Avin Vijay
Abstract
This work develops a bidirectional interplay between stochastic optimal control (SOC) and generative modeling, organized around two complementary themes: control for generative modeling and generative modeling for control. The unifying mathematical object is the controlled diffusion process together with its time-reversal. In the first direction, we consider the problem of fine-tuning diffusion models via gradient-based methods, where the SOC arises naturally as the principled framework for steering stochastic systems toward desirable behavior, but it also introduces significant computational challenges. The Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation becomes intractable in high dimensions due to the curse of dimensionality, while the adjoint process arising from the stochastic maximum principle is governed by a…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Guggenheim Hall (GUG). Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/92469319841. Campus room: 211D. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Wednesday, June 3, 2026, 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM.
A&A Faculty Meeting
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Guggenheim Hall (GUG). Campus room: 211D. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Meetings.
Thursday, June 4, 2026, 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM.
Po Huang's MS Thesis Defense
Po Huang's MS Thesis Defense, Preview LPV and μ controller design and wind tunnel validation for aeroservoelastic gust load alleviation, Committee
Livne, Eli (Chair), Morgansen, Kristi
Abstract
This research presents synthesis, simulation and wind tunnel test of a preview control sys- tem for Gust Load Alleviation (GLA) at various dynamic pressure via H∞-based Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) and μ methods. The dynamic pressure variation is treated as the modeling uncertainty so that the system gain can be bounded by computing μ. The tests were conducted using a low cost semi-wing/tail aeroservoelastic model, MARGE-I, and a gust generation system in the University of Washington’s 3ft by 3ft wind tunnel. Frequency domain behavior and margins are analyzed and the time domain responses are compared between the simulation and experiment. The correlation between multi-loop mar- gins, wing-root strain, μ value, dynamic pressure, and preview length are disccussed. The simulation results showed good multiloop margins…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Guggenheim Hall (GUG). Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/94078087721?pwd=jRG7syjATrsLngeOnny2631ktUcdsF.1. Campus room: 211D. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Thursday, June 4, 2026, 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM.
Govind Chari's Ph.D. Defense
Govind Chari's PhD Dissertation Defense, Structure-Exploiting and Accelerated Methods for Convex Optimization, Committee
Behcet Acikmese (Chair), Mehran Mesbahi, Danylo Malyuta, Bobby Wilson
Abstract
Convex optimization has matured into a reliable technology, with efficient algorithms and software available for most problem classes. Despite this maturity, developing solvers that are faster on small problems and capable of scaling to larger ones remains important. Latency-sensitive applications such as real-time trajectory optimization, real-time control, and portfolio backtesting demand fast solves on smaller problems, and applications in supply chain optimization, machine learning, and signal processing require solvers that scale to very large problems. This dissertation presents three main contributions toward these goals, two practical and one theoretical. First, we present QOCOGEN, a custom solver generator for quadratic-objective second-order cone programs (SOCPs). QOCOGEN autocodes a primal-dual…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Guggenheim Hall (GUG). Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/94140093477. Campus room: 211D. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Friday, June 5, 2026, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
Kenneth Wiersema's MS Thesis Defense
Kenneth Wiersema's MS Thesis Defense, RANS CFD Based Analysis of Low Speed Wind Tunnel Tare and Interference and Wall Corrections for Supersonic Aircraft Configurations, Committee
Eli Livne (Chair), Chet Nelson
Abstract
RANS CFD simulations were used to analyze the low speed wind tunnel corrections that were applied to the wind tunnel tests of a proposed commercial supersonic transport aircraft. The wind tunnel data used as reference and comparison for the CFD simulations was generated from the UW SCALOS program's testing at the University of Washington's Kirsten Wind Tunnel. Three different configurations were studied, a cranked delta wing, and two full 3-surface configurations: a low tail and a T-tail. A series of simulations with the wind tunnel models in free air were performed to provide a baseline comparison between the fully corrected wind tunnel data and the free air simulations. The CFD simulations had difficulty simulating high angles of attack where regions of large flow separation and vortex lift…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Aerospace and Engineering Research Building (AER). Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/6953683078. Campus room: 130. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Friday, June 5, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM.
Spring Quarter Exams
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Saturday, June 6, 2026 – Friday, June 12, 2026.
A&A Graduation
See the latest info on our A&A Graduation page.
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Ceremonies.
Tuesday, June 9, 2026.
Navid Daneshvaran's PhD Defense
Navid Daneshvaran's PhD Dissertation Defense, Numerical Investigation of Ram Accelerator Operation with Axisymmetric Projectiles, Committee
Carl Knowlen (Chair), Robert Breidenthal, Antonio Ferrante, Marco Salviato, John Kramlich, Pascal Bauer
Abstract
The ram accelerator is a hypervelocity chemical propulsion device capable of accelerating massive projectiles throughout the velocity range of 0.5 km/s to 6.0 km/s. Its propulsion cycle is similar to that of an in-tube ramjet operating with subsonic, supersonic, and/or mixed mode combustion processes that are dependent on in-tube Mach number and projectile geometry. The projectile carries no onboard propellant and has no moving parts. Ram accelerator was originally successfully developed with finned-projectiles in smooth-bored tube. More recently, however, new configurations are being developed to operate with axisymmetric projectiles in baffled and railed tubes to implement more practical setup for various applications. First, a review of theoretical and…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Guggenheim Hall (GUG). Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/3812442757. Campus room: 305. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Tuesday, June 9, 2026, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
Samet Uzun's Ph.D. Defense
Samet Uzun's Ph.D. Dissertation Defense
Modeling and High-Performance Algorithms for Mission-Constrained Trajectory Optimization, Committee
Behcet Acikmese (Chair), Mehran Mesbahi, Maryam Fazel, Aleksandr Aravkin, Eli Livne
Abstract
This dissertation develops modeling frameworks and high-performance algorithms for autonomous guidance. It studies how rich mission requirements can be represented in a mathematically precise and optimization-compatible way, and how the resulting nonconvex trajectory-generation problems can be solved reliably and efficiently. In particular, it develops smooth and exact models for mission-level specifications, with an emphasis on continuous-time signal temporal logic, and introduces prox-convex, a structure-preserving sequential convex programming algorithm for the resulting composite optimization problems. These modeling and algorithmic ingredients are integrated in a range of trajectory-optimization applications, including continuous-time signal temporal logic examples,…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Guggenheim Hall (GUG). Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/92893094936. Campus room: 211D. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Friday, June 12, 2026, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
UW Commencement
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Saturday, June 13, 2026.
Juneteenth Holiday
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Friday, June 19, 2026.
Independence Day Holiday
Event interval: Single day event. Accessibility Contact: aafrontdesk@uw.edu. Event Types: Academics.
Saturday, July 4, 2026.