Colin Jones

Colin Jones is an Associate Professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in the Automatic Control Laboratory, School of Engineering. He earned his BASc and MASc in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from the University of British Columbia (1994-2002) and a PhD in Control Theory from the University of Cambridge (2002-2005). Prior to EPFL, he was an assistant professor there and a senior researcher at ETH Zürich.

• Current role: Director of the Robotics, Control, and Intelligent Systems Doctoral Program at EPFL
• Research focus: Optimization-based and model predictive control (MPC) for renewable energy systems, green energy management, and data-driven control methods

His recent work (2023-2025) spans high-speed predictive control, smart grid optimization, and physically consistent neural networks, with applications to buildings, hovercrafts, and power systems. He has secured an ERC Starting Grant for his research on optimal control of building networks. Publications include over 200 papers in journals like Automatica, IEEE Transactions, and Energy and Buildings. Notable article trends include distributed optimization, data privacy in energy systems, and nonlinear MPC for autonomous vehicles.

Scientific Awards:

• ERC Starting Grant for optimal control of building networks

Advising: Supervises 10 current PhD students and has advised 19 past PhD students, including Alessandretti Andrea and Diwale Sanket Sanjay. Grants and projects emphasize smart energy systems, predictive demand response, and nonlinear control.