Angela Fontan

Angela Fontan is an Assistant Professor at the Division of Decision and Control Systems, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. She specializes in networked systems and nonlinear dynamics with applications to social networks and cyber-physical-human systems.

Her educational background includes:

• B.Sc. in Information Engineering (2013) from the University of Padova, Italy
• M.Sc. with honors in Automation Engineering (2016) from the University of Padova, Italy
• Ph.D. in Automatic Control from Linköping University (2021), with dissertation titled "Collective decision-making on networked systems in presence of antagonistic interactions"

Dr. Fontan's research focuses on networked systems and nonlinear dynamics over networks, particularly examining how antagonistic interactions affect collective decision-making processes. Her work spans signed networks theory and cyber-physical-human systems (CPHS), with applications to smart cities and Live-in Laboratories. She investigates how social networks influence individual decisions and how these dynamics can be leveraged to promote sustainable behaviors in areas like food choices and building occupancy. Her methodological approach combines control theory, graph theory, and behavioral science to develop mathematical models of complex socio-technical systems.

Her recent publications demonstrate a clear trajectory from theoretical foundations in signed network dynamics toward applied research addressing societal challenges. Early work focused on consensus algorithms and stability properties of signed Laplacian systems, while more recent publications apply these theoretical insights to sustainability challenges in food systems, building energy use, and social behavior change. This evolution shows her commitment to translating theoretical control concepts into practical solutions for societal-scale problems, particularly in the domains of sustainability and human-system interaction.

Dr. Fontan has contributed to significant collaborative efforts, including the "Control for Societal-Scale Challenges: Roadmap 2030" initiative through the IEEE Control Systems Society. Her work has been presented at major conferences including IEEE CDC, IFAC World Congress, and European Control Conference.

She is actively involved in mentoring and research leadership, recently announcing PhD positions in "Learning and control for networked cyber-physical-human-systems." Dr. Fontan has also organized and participated in numerous workshops, including the Stockholm Workshop on Emerging Topics in Systems and Control and the IEEE CSS Workshop on Control for Societal-Scale Challenges.

Her research is conducted within the context of the KTH Live-In Lab, a unique facility that functions as a "Live-in Laboratory" for studying human interaction with cyber-physical systems in real building environments. She collaborates with interdisciplinary teams to investigate how technology can support sustainable behaviors in urban settings.