Speaker Prof. Lacra Pavel
System Control Group and Photonics Group,
University of Toronto, Canada
Date｜Time Feb 20 (Friday), 2026｜08:00
Zoom https://snu-ac-kr.zoom.us/my/jingyu.lee
Abstract
In this talk we focus on the role played by passivity theory in analysis and design of learning dynamics and algorithms in games. We start by reviewing basic concepts and results in dissipativity/passivity theory and its use in stability analysis of feedback-interconnected systems. We follow with an introduction to the learning in games framework, with the emphasis on learning dynamics in matrix games.
We then show that some popular dynamics can be cast as instances of a feedback interconnection between a dissipative/passive dynamical system and some game mapping. Once this is done, stability analysis of learning dynamics and convergence to a Nash equilibrium follows from standard passivity theory, based on simple and concise arguments. We also discuss how passivity-inspired ideas can be used to design novel equilibrium-seeking algorithms and learning dynamics. Higher-order learning dynamics parallel higher-order algorithms in optimization, such as accelerated or optimistic gradient methods. We follow with discussion of higher-order learning dynamics designed based on passivity, and show how they can overcome limitations of standard-order learning dynamics.
Biography
Lacra Pavel is a Professor in the Systems Control group, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada. She received the Diploma of Engineer in Automatic Control from Technical University Iasi, Romania and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University, Canada.
She joined University of Toronto in 2002, after a postdoctoral stage at the National Research Council and four years of working in the communication industry. Her research interests are in game theory and distributed optimization in networks, with emphasis on dynamics and control methods. She is the author of the book Game Theory for Control of Optical Networks (Birkhäuser-Springer Science). She is an IEEE Fellow, currently acting as the Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems and as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.
