Hello! I’m a researcher fascinated by the mathematics of collective behavior and distributed and biologically inspired computation, including human and animal social decision-making, pattern formation in networked and spatiotemporal systems, self-organization in swarms, and reservoir computing. My focus is on nonlinearity and how it shapes emergent collective and computational properties shared by systems across different contexts. I use a combination of tools from nonlinear dynamics, control theory, network science, data-driven equation discovery, and machine learning to study real-world and artificially intelligent systems and to design decentralized control strategies for autonomous teams.
I am on the job market for an assistant professor position. I am open to positions in engineering, applied math, and related fields. My research program is aimed at the development of new, mathematically sound methods for the biologically inspired design of algorithms for control and learning, with a special focus on multi-agent systems and distributed computation.
In October 2022 I started my current postdoctoral position with the AI Institute in Dynamic Systems at the University of Washington, working with Professors Steve Brunton and J. Nathan Kutz. If you would like to explore potential collaboration at some intersection of collective behavior, swarm intelligence, control, distributed learning, equation discovery, and nonlinear systems, please reach out to me at anabiz [at] uw [dot] edu.
Before joining the University of Washington, I received my Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in September 2022. At Princeton my research on nonlinear dynamics of collective decision-making and belief formation was supervised by Professor Naomi Ehrich Leonard. My dissertation research was distinguished with the Princeton School of Applied Science and Engineering Award for Excellence. You can read my Ph.D thesis here. Prior to my Ph.D. I earned a B.A. in Physics with a minor in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2016.
News
03/29/204: I am giving an invited virtual talk on “Nonlinear dynamics of beliefs over social networks” in the Virginia Commonwealth University Biomath seminar.
03/05/2024: I am giving an invited talk at the APS March Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in session Session G31: Physics Approaches for Modeling Human Social Systems
02/21/2024: I am attending the AI Institute in Dynamic Systems workshop on the Common Task Framework for Science and Engineering at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.
02/09/2024: I spent a week visiting the Santa Fe Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A recording of my seminar on “Nonlinear Dynamics of Beliefs over Social Networks” is available on YouTube!
12/10/2023: I am visiting Singapore on December 10-15! First, I am giving an invited talk titled “Design of fast and flexible decisions in multi-agent systems, leveraging bifurcations” in the Workshop on Geometrically Guided Analysis and Design in Optimization and Control at the Nanyang Technological University. Next, I am attending the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control where I will present a poster in the Faculty Candidate Poster Session on 12/13.
11/28/2023: An advance version of our review paper on “Fast and flexible multiagent decision-making” is available online in Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems with expected final publication date in May 2024. This paper, led by my Ph.D. advisor Naomi Ehrich Leonard, describes ideas central to my thesis research in Princeton done in close collaboration with Naomi and with Alessio Franci.
11/16/2023: I am visiting Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana! During my visit I am giving a talk titled “Model reduction of nonlinear feedback systems by data-informed balancing, with an application to RNNs” in the Applied Math Seminar and a hands-on tutorial on forecasting time series with echo state neural networks in the graduate AI seminar. The code for the tutorial is available in a python language Colab notebook.
11/07/2023: A preprint on “Active risk aversion in SIS epidemics on networks” is now available! This work was done in collaboration with Marcela Ordorica, Yunxiu Zhou, Simon Levin, and Naomi Ehrich Leonard.
10/31/2023: An article I wrote summarizing our recent work on modeling belief formation in social systems is featured in the October edition of the SIAM DSWeb magazine.
10/27/2023: I am visiting Princeton University for a two-day workshop I co-organized, titled Creative Convergence: At the Crossroads of the Arts, Ecology, Neuroscience, and Control Engineering.
10/10/2023: I was featured in a spotlight interview about my experience participating in the Network Dynamics and Control ELLIIT Focus Period at Linköping University in Sweden!
10/04/2023: I am presenting an invited seminar on “Nonlinear dynamics of collective belief formation” at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.
09/25/2023: I am presenting an invited seminar on “Nonlinear dynamics of collective belief formation” at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden.
09/04/2023: I am in residence at Linköping University in Sweden for the Network Dynamics and Control ELIIT Focus Period, from September 4 to October 6. I will present a seminar talk titled “Nonlinear dynamics of collective belief formation” on September 8 and a second seminar talk titled “Active risk aversion in SIS epidemics over networks” on September 29.
08/28/2023: I am presenting a virtual talk on “Nonlinear dynamics of collective belief formation” in the MathBio Seminar at the University of Iowa, hosted by Professor Zahra Aminzare.
08/07/2023: A preprint on “Multi-topic belief formation through bifurcations over signed social networks” is now available! This work was done in collaboration with Alessio Franci and Naomi Ehrich Leonard.
07/13/2023: I am presenting an invited talk on “Nonlinear dynamics of collective belief formation” in the Dynamical Systems in the Life Sciences Satellite Workshop at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
06/21/2023: I am presenting a contributed poster on “Nonlinear dynamics of collective decision-making on multiple options” in the Collective Intelligence: Foundations + Radical Ideas Symposium at the Santa Fe Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
06/02/2023: I am presenting a talk on our invited session paper “Sustained oscillations in multi-topic belief dynamics over signed networks” at the 2023 American Control Conference in San Diego, California.
05/25/2023: I was featured by the IEEE Control Systems Magazine in a PhDs in Control spotlight interview!
05/14/2023: I am presenting an invited talk on “Nonlinear dynamics of collective belief formation” in a minisymposium on Dynamics of Decisions and Behavior in Social Systems at the SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems in Portland, Oregon.
05/01/2023: I am presenting a poster and a short talk on “Nonlinear dynamics of collective decision-making on multiple options” at the workshop “From individual to group decision making”, Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
01/03/2023: I am a co-instructor for ME 565, Mechanical Engineering Analysis at the University of Washington. This graduate course covers vector calculus, partial differential equations, and transform methods, with an emphasis on engineering applications.
12/09/2022: I am presenting an invited paper on “Switching transformations for decentralized control of opinion patterns in signed networks” at the 2022 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control in Cancún, Mexico.
11/21/2022: I am leading a tutorial on dynamical system modeling of cognitive control at the 3rd Workshop on Mental Effort at the Carney Institute for Brain Science at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. You can follow my tutorial in this python language Colab notebook.
10/01/2022: I started a postdoctoral fellow position at the University of Washington in Seattle with the AI Institute in Dynamic Systems!
08/30/2022: I successfully completed my Final Public Oral examination for the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. My Ph.D. was conferred on September 24, 2022.
11/18/2021: I received the Princeton School of Applied Science and Engineering Award for Excellence, awarded annually to “advanced graduate students who have performed at the highest level as scholars and researchers”.