ep44 - Mario di Bernardo: From Circuits to Cells and Swarms — Control meets Complexity

Outline
00:00 - Intro
01:30 - Origin story: Naples, electrical engineering, and the fascination with chaos
08:00 - What is chaos?
15:00 - DC-DC converters and discontinuity-induced bifurcations
22:00 - Piecewise-smooth dynamical systems
26:55 - Complex networks, synchronization, and pinning control
40:30- Synthetic biology: from gene regulatory networks to multicellular control
58:00 - COVID-19: a network epidemic model for Italy
1:02:00 - Multiscale control, statistical mechanics, and physics-informed control
1:19:10 - State of the field and the IEEE CSS
1:26:35 - Advice to young researchers
1:29:00 - Outro

Links
Mario's website: https://sites.google.com/site/dibernardogroup/home
Scuola Superiore Meridionale: https://www.ssm.unina.it/
Chaos by James Gleick: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos:_Making_a_New_Science
Control of chaos:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_chaos
Erasmus programme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_Programme
An Adaptive Approach to the Control and Synchronization of Continuous-time Chaotic Systems: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218127496000254
Piecewise-smooth Dynamical Systems: Theory and Applications: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-708-4 
Bifurcations in nonsmooth dynamical systems: https://doi.org/10.1137/050625060 Controllability of complex networks via pinning:
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.75.046103 
Criteria for global pinning-controllability of complex networks: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.automatica.2008.07.007
Controllability of complex networks: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10011
Controlling complex networks with complex nodes: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-023-00566-3
Analysis, design and implementation of a novel scheme for in-vivo control of synthetic gene regulatory networks: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.automatica.2011.01.073
In-vivo Real-time Control of Protein Expression from Endogenous and Synthetic Gene Networks: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003625
A network model of Italy shows that intermittent regional strategies can alleviate the COVID-19 epidemic: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18827-5
A Continuification-Based Control Solution for Large-Scale Shepherding: 
https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.04791
Shepherding control and herdability in complex multiagent systems: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.L032012
Nonreciprocal field theory for decision-making in multi-agent control systems: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-63071-4

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Acknowledgments and sponsors
This episode was supported by the National Centre of Competence in Research on «Dependable, ubiquitous automation» and the IFAC Activity fund. The podcast benefits from the help of an incredibly talented and passionate team. Special thanks to L. Seward, E. Cahard, F. Banis, F. Dörfler, J. Lygeros, ETH studio and mirrorlake . Music was composed by A New Element.