Congratulations Esteban!
– for receiving the best PhD thesis award at GdR MACS
Esteban won the best PhD thesis award of the Control Systems division of the EEA Club and the GdR MACS from the French CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research). We talked to Esteban about his background, his research and his goals for the future.
Hi! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your research?
"Hello! I'm Colombian, and I got my BSc degree in Mechatronics engineering jointly from EIA University, Envigado, Colombia and from ENSAM, Paris, France, in 2017."
"I then got my MSc in Robotic Systems Engineering from ENSAM, Paris, France, in 2018, receiving the Silver Medal honorary distinction. In November 2021, I acquired a PhD degree in Automatic Control at the University Paris-Saclay, France."
"Since January 2022, I have been a post-doctoral researcher at The Division of Decision and Control Systems under the supervision of Dimos Dimarogonas. My research interests include multi-agent systems and nonlinear control with application to autonomous robots and aerospace systems."
What does this nomination mean to you and your research?
"The GDR MACS is a well-known research group from the french CNRS focusing on Modeling, Analysis and Control of dynamic systems. It is a great honour to receive this award as it means recognising my work as a significant contribution to my field."
"It also puts me closer to achieving my goal of being accepted for a long-term research position at the CNRS, which is a very prestigious research institution in France."
What impact will your research have on society?
"My research is focused on the control of multi-agent systems and applies mainly to the robotics field."
"Multi-robot systems have gained much attention in recent years since they are highly versatile and cost-efficient. The systems can be used in many applications going from exploration and infrastructure inspection to search-and-rescue missions."
"Therefore, my research and, in general, multi-robot systems can significantly contribute to the development of, for example, safe and autonomous operations in dangerous environments or intelligent systems like autonomous vehicles."
"Also, as part of the research during my postdoc, I will work on applying elements from multi-agent- and control-systems theory to study the immune system. The aim is to understand better how it works and ultimately "control" it to deal with diseases and health conditions."