Ricardo G. Sanfelice

Ricardo G. Sanfelice is Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), within the Baskin School of Engineering. He is also Director of the Cyber-Physical Systems Research Center and the CITRIS Aviation Initiative.

Education:

• Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007
• M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2004
• B.S., Electronic Engineering, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2001

His research focuses on modeling, stability, robust control, and observer design for nonlinear and hybrid systems, with applications in robotics, aerospace, power systems, and biological systems. He leads the Hybrid Systems Lab at UCSC and has contributed significantly to the theoretical foundations and practical implementations of hybrid feedback control and cyber-physical systems.

The most recent publications highlight a strong trend toward computation-aware control, hybrid model predictive control, and set-valued methods for safety-critical systems. His work bridges theoretical rigor with real-world applications, particularly in autonomous vehicles and networked control systems.

Scientific Awards and Honors:

• Fellow of IEEE
• ACM Test-of-Time Award (HSCC Conference)
• SIAM Control and Systems Theory Prize
• NSF CAREER Award
• Air Force Young Investigator Award (YIP)
• IEEE Control Systems Magazine Outstanding Paper Award
• Educator of the Year for Higher Education
• Multiple plenary and semiplenary speaking invitations
• Blavatnik National Award Campus Nominee
• ASEE Air Force Summer Faculty Fellow
• Senior Member of IEEE

Prof. Sanfelice has advised several graduate students, including Jun Chai and Dawn Hustigs-Schultz, and has been involved in significant research grants and initiatives such as the AFOSR Center of Excellence and CITRIS Aviation Prize. He is Associate Editor for Automatica and has led the IEEE Technical Committee on Hybrid Systems.

He leads the Hybrid Systems Lab at UCSC, which focuses on theoretical and applied aspects of hybrid dynamical systems, including simulation tools like SHARC (Simulator for Hardware Architecture and Real-time Control).