This event is part of Digital Twins View Details

Optimal Control and Decision Making Under Uncertainty for Digital Twins

October 27 — 31, 2025

Description

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This workshop addresses the “virtual-to-physical” leg of the DT framework, in which the updated model is used as a basis for optimal control of the physical system or otherwise informs decisions. As with the data assimilation/inverse problem leg of DTs, quantifying uncertainties is crucial. This manifests as forward models that are characterized by random parameters, leading to optimal control problems that take the form of stochastic optimization problems that are governed by (usually PDE) models with random parameters. Specific challenges include: (1) when the random parameters are high dimensional (as in discretizations of infinite dimensional fields), and the models are sufficiently complex, solution of PDE-constrained stochastic optimization problems with conventional algorithms becomes prohibitive; (2) for critical societal problems, the objective of the optimization problem must be risk averse, rather than the risk neutral; while risk measures that quantify tail risk are available, they typically lead to non-differentiable objective functions when discretized, complicating the use of efficient optimization methods; (3) the real-time nature of DTs presents enormous challenges for optimal control of systems described by PDEs; (4) the sequential nature of the control problems can be exploited to construct algorithms that are dynamically adaptive; and (5) the sensors/observations themselves can be controlled as the physical system evolves, to better learn about the state/parameters of the system; this leads to an outer optimization problem (for control of the observing system) wrapped around a coupled data assimilation/optimal control problem, a daunting task.

Funding

All funding has been allocated for this workshop.

Poster Session

This workshop will include a poster session for early career researchers (including graduate students). In order to propose a poster, you must first register for the workshop, and then submit a proposal using the form that will become available on this page after you register. The registration form should not be used to propose a poster.

The deadline for proposing has been extended to Sunday, September 21, 2025. If your proposal is accepted, you should plan to attend the event in-person.

Organizers

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G S
Georg Stadler Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University
M D
Moritz Diehl Universität Freiburg
M H
Matthias Heinkenschloss Rice University
X H
Xun Huan University of Michigan
C S
Claudia Schillings Freie Universität Berlin

Speakers

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A A
Alen Alexanderian NC State University
M A
Mihai Anitescu University of Chicago & Argonne National Lab
H A
Harbir Antil George Mason University
T C
Tommie Catanach Sandia Livermore
Y C
Ying Cui University of California, Berkeley
A G
Alex Gorodetsky University of Michigan
T H
Tapio Helin LUT University, Finland
B H
Boris Houska Shanghaitech University
D K
Drew Kouri Sandia Albuquerque
B K
Boris Kramer University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
K K
Karl Kunisch Graz University and Radon Institute, Austria
K M
Krithika Manohar University of Washington
T R
Tom Rainforth Oxford University
B v B W
Bart van Bloemen Waanders Sandia Albuquerque
B V P
Bart Van Parys CWI Amsterdam
K W
Karl Worthmann Ilmenau University of Technology
S W F
Samy Wu Fung Colorado School of Mines
D X
Dongbin Xiu The Ohio State University
V Z
Victor Zavala Unviersity of Wisconsin
E Z
Enrique Zuazua University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

Schedule

Monday, October 27, 2025
8:30-8:50 CDT
Breakfast/Check-in
8:50-9:00 CDT
Welcome
9:00-9:45 CDT
Data Driven Modeling for Scientific Discovery and Digital Twins

Speaker: Dongbin Xiu (Ohio State University)

9:45-9:50 CDT
Q&A
9:50-10:30 CDT
Coffee Break
10:30-11:15 CDT
Jacobian Free Backpropagation for High-Dimensional Optimal Control with Implicit Hamiltonians

Speaker: Samy Wu Fung (Colorado School of Mines)

11:15-11:20 CDT
Q&A
11:20-11:35 CDT
Break
11:35-12:20 CDT
TBA

Speaker: Enrique Zuazua (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)

12:20-12:25 CDT
Q&A
12:25-13:35 CDT
Lunch Break
13:35-14:20 CDT
TBA

Speaker: Bart Van Parys (CWI Amsterdam)

14:20-14:25 CDT
Q&A
14:25-14:40 CDT
Tech Break
14:40-17:00 CDT
Lightning talks, followed by Poster Session and Social Hour
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
8:30-9:00 CDT
Breakfast/Check-in
9:00-9:45 CDT
Novel information criteria in Bayesian experimental design

Speaker: Tapio Helin (LUT University, Finland)

9:45-9:50 CDT
Q&A
9:50-10:30 CDT
Coffee Break
10:30-11:15 CDT
TBA

Speaker: Karl Kunisch (Graz University and Radon Institute, Austria)

11:15-11:20 CDT
Q&A
11:20-11:35 CDT
Break
11:35-12:20 CDT
An Inexact Trust-Region Method for Nonsmooth and Risk-Averse PDE-Constrained Optimization

Speaker: Drew Kouri (Sandia Albuquerque)

12:20-12:25 CDT
Q&A
12:25-13:35 CDT
Lunch Break
13:40-14:25 CDT
Digital Twins: A PDE–Constrained Optimization Perspective

Speaker: Harbir Antil (George Mason University)

14:25-14:30 CDT
Q&A
14:30-15:00 CDT
Coffee Break
15:00-15:45 CDT
TBA

Speaker: Tommie Catanach (Sandia Livermore)

15:45-15:50 CDT
Q&A
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
8:30-9:00 CDT
Breakfast/Check-in
9:00-9:45 CDT
Control-oriented optimal sensor placement for inverse problems governed by PDEs

Speaker: Alen Alexanderian (NC State University)

9:45-9:50 CDT
Q&A
9:50-10:30 CDT
Coffee Break
10:30-11:15 CDT
Sparse Sensor Optimization Under Uncertainty

Speaker: Krithika Manohar (University of Washington)

11:15-11:20 CDT
Q&A
11:20-11:35 CDT
Break
11:35-12:20 CDT
Stochastic Optimization with Superquantile Constraints: A Fast Computational Approach

Speaker: Ying Cui (University of California, Berkeley)

12:20-12:25 CDT
Q&A
12:25-13:35 CDT
Lunch break
13:40-14:25 CDT
Control-oriented reduced-order models for digital twins

Speaker: Boris Kramer (University of California, San Diego (UCSD))

14:25-14:30 CDT
Q&A
14:30-15:00 CDT
Coffee Break
15:00-16:00 CDT
Roundtable discussion: Challenges and Opportunities for Optimization/Design in Digital Twins
Thursday, October 30, 2025
8:30-9:00 CDT
Breakfast/Check-in
9:00-9:45 CDT
A stochastic trust region approach to multi-fidelity optimization under uncertainty

Speaker: Alex Gorodetsky (University of Michigan)

9:45-9:50 CDT
Q&A
9:50-10:30 CDT
Coffee Break
10:30-11:15 CDT
TBA

Speaker: Tom Rainforth (Oxford University)

11:15-11:20 CDT
Q&A
11:20-11:35 CDT
Break
11:35-12:20 CDT
A Graph-Theoretic Perspective on Optimization: Theory, Modeling, Algorithms, and Applications

Speaker: Victor Zavala (Unviersity of Wisconsin)

12:20-12:25 CDT
Q&A
12:35-13:35 CDT
Lunch Break
13:40-14:25 CDT
Predictive control using data-driven Koopman surrogate models

Speaker: Karl Worthmann (Ilmenau University of Technology)

14:25-14:30 CDT
Q&A
14:30-15:00 CDT
Coffee Break
15:00-16:30 CDT
Communication/Presentation workshop for early career participants, offered by Sam Hansen (IMSI)
Friday, October 31, 2025
8:30-9:00 CDT
Breakfast/Check-in
9:00-9:45 CDT
TBA

Speaker: Boris Houska (Shanghaitech University)

9:45-9:50 CDT
Q&A
9:50-10:05 CDT
Break
10:05-10:50 CDT
Hyper-Differential Sensitivity Analysis for Updating Optimal Control Solutions

Speaker: Bart van Bloemen Waanders (Sandia Albuquerque)

10:50-10:55 CDT
Q&A
10:55-11:30 CDT
Coffee Break
11:30-12:15 CDT
Exponential Decay of Sensitivity in Control and Other Graph-Indexed Optimization Problems and Consequences for Digital Twins.

Speaker: Mihai Anitescu (UChicago & Argonne NL)

12:15-12:25 CDT
Q&A

Registration

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