S. (Saeed) Ahmed, PhD

Biosketch

As an Assistant Professor of Systems and Control at the University of Groningen (RUG), I am affiliated with the Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen (ENTEG) and the Jan C. Willems Center for Systems and Control. Before joining this position, I held a postdoctoral position at the University of Groningen with Jacquelien Scherpen and another at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern (now RPTU), Germany. I completed my Ph.D. at Bilkent University, Turkey. During my Ph.D., I was a visiting scholar at CentraleSupélec, France. My Ph.D. was supervised by Frederic Mazenc and Hitay Ozbay. I also collaborated with Micheal Malisoff during my Ph.D.

My research interests span various topics in systems and control engineering. From an application point of view, I am interested in designing intelligent control algorithms for autonomous vehicles, district heating systems, energy systems, mechanical systems, and medical devices. From a theoretical point of view, I am interested in feedback optimization, observer design, stability and control, nonlinear and hybrid (switched and impulsive) systems, dissipativity and passivity analysis, robust control, LPV systems, and time-delay systems. I have over 35 international peer-reviewed journal and conference publications at top venues.  I received several awards, including the best presentation in the Control/Robotics/Communications/Network category at the IEEE Graduate Research Conference 2018 held at Bilkent University, Turkey, and the Outstanding Reviewer Award from the European Journal of Control.

Editorial Services and Technical Committees Memberships

I am an associate editor of Systems and Control Letters and a member of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Technical Committees on Networked Systems, Non-linear Control Systems, and Distributed Parameter Systems.

Research interests

My research interests span various topics in systems and control engineering. From an application point of view, I am interested in designing intelligent control algorithms for autonomous vehicles, district heating systems, energy systems, mechanical systems, and medical devices. From a theoretical point of view, I am interested in feedback optimization, observer design, stability and control, nonlinear and hybrid (switched and impulsive) systems, dissipativity and passivity analysis, robust control, LPV systems, and time-delay systems. 

Teaching

I am passionate about teaching and innovation. In 2023, I received my University Teaching Qualification (UTQ) from the University of Groningen. I coordinate and teach courses on Mechatronics, Signals and Systems, Master Integration Projects, and Complex Networks. The list of the courses I taught previously is as follows:

As Coordinator and Lecturer:

• Master Integration Project (University of Groningen, 2023-24, 2024-25)
• Modeling and Analysis of Complex Networks (University of Groningen, 2022-23, 2023-24)
•  Signals and Systems (University of Groningen, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25)
•  Mechatronics (University of Groningen, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25)
• Learning-based Control (TU Kaiserslautern, 2021) 
• Control Theory (TU Kaiserslautern, 2020, 2021)
• Control Systems (COMSATS University, 2019-20)
• Probability Methods in Engineering (COMSATS University, 2019)

As a teaching assistant:

• Basics of Signals and Systems (Bilkent University, 2014)
• Modeling and Control of Complex Nonlinear Engineering Systems (RUG, 2022)
• Feedback Control Systems (Bilkent University, 2012-13, 2013-14)
• Probability and Statistics (Bilkent University, 2013)
• Engineering Mathematics I (Bilkent University, 2014-15)
• Engineering Mathematics II (Bilkent University, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
• Robust Feedback Theory (Bilkent University, 2015-16)
• Advanced Signal Processing (Bilkent University, 2015-16)
• Nonlinear Systems (Bilkent University, 2017-18)

Previous positions

• Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Groningen (01-October-2021 → 30-Nov-2022)

• Postdoctoral Researcher, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (15-Feb-2020 → 30-Sept-2021)

• Postdoctoral Researcher, Bilkent University (1-Aug-2018 → 31-Oct-2018)

• Research Assistant, Inria, Paris-Saclay University, Palaiseau (1-Jan-2016 → 31-Dec-2017)