The Center for Energy Systems of Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) has launched a new and unique course: Mathematical Analysis of Internet and Power Systems, starting September this year.
This course introduces mathematical tools to model, design, and analyze cyber-physical networks such as the Internet and power systems. It first summarizes basic control mechanisms on the Internet and basic principles of three-phase alternate-current power networks. It then focuses on congestion control on the Internet and optimal power flow problems in electricity networks. The emphasis is on applying key ideas in convex optimization and duality theory, control and dynamical systems theory, semidefinite programming, and queueing theory to understand and optimize these cyber-physical systems. The course is mathematical and focuses on structural properties rather than computation. The subject matter is very important and the lecture course is unique in the world. The course was well attended not only by the Skoltech students but also by researchers and faculty!
Professor Steven Low, who is Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences and Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) that is considered a top technical university in the world, was invited to lead this course in the framework of Skoltech-Caltech collaboration. Professor Low is one of the most respected researchers in the world in the area of control of networks systems. He is the editor or a member of editorial boards of a number of top world journals. He has widely published and has h-index of 62 (extremely high) with over 20 000 citations.