Laurent Lessard
Associate Professor,
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Affiliated Faculty,
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Affiliated Faculty,
Khoury College of Computer Sciences
Core Faculty,
Institute for Experiential AI
Office
- 205 SN
- 617.373.8039
Research Focus
Control theory, linear systems, optimization algorithms, machine learning
About
Laurent Lessard’s research interests include control theory, large-scale/distributed systems, optimization, and machine learning. Prior to joining Northeastern in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering department, he was a Charles Ringrose Assistant Professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Lessard was born in Toronto, Canada. He completed his B.A.Sc. in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto, and received the MS and PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University. He also did postdocs at Lund University (Sweden) and at Berkeley. He is a recipient of the Hugo Schuck best paper award and the NSF CAREER award.
Education
- PhD, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, 2011
- MS, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, 2005
- BASc, Engineering Science, Aerospace Option, University of Toronto, 2003
Honors & Awards
- Gerald Holdridge Teaching Excellence Award, UW-Madison, 2019
- National Science Foundation CAREER award, 2018
- AACC O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award, 2013
Professional Affiliations
- AIAA
- ASME
- IEEE
- SIAM
- INFORMS
Research Overview
Control theory, linear systems, optimization algorithms, machine learning
Selected Research Projects
- Cognitive Distributed Sensing in Congested Radio Frequency Environments
- – co-Principal Investigator, U.S. Army Research Laboratory
- A Control-Theoretic Approach to Distributed Optimization
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Analysis and Design of Decentralized Control Systems in the Presence of Uncertain Latency
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- CAREER: Automated Analysis and Design of Optimization Algorithms
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
Research Centers and Institutes
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- A. Sundararajan, B. Van Scoy, L. Lessard, Analysis and Design of First-Order Distributed Optimization Algorithms Over Time-Varying Graphs,
IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, 2020, 1-1 - B. Hu, P. Seiler, L. Lessard, Analysis of Biased Stochastic Gradient Descent Using Sequential Semidefinite Programs, Mathematical Programming, 2020, 1-26
- L. Lessard, X. Zhang, X. Zhu, An Optimal Control Approach to Sequential Machine Teaching, International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics, 2019
- B. Hu, L. Lessard, Dissipativity Theory for Nesterov’s Accelerated Method, International Conference on Machine Learning, 2017
- L. Lessard, B. Recht, A. Packard, Analysis and Design of Optimization Algorithms Via Integral Quadratic Constraints, SIAM Journal on Optimization, 2016
Jan 31, 2025
2024 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2% of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above. The list below includes those who published a paper in 2024 or later.
May 24, 2023
Kostas Research Institute Receives $13M U.S. Army Contract for Wireless Research
The Kostas Research Institute (KRI) at Northeastern University has been awarded $13 million by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory for foundational research into Cognitive Distributed Sensing in Congested Radio Frequency Environments. KRI and five partner institutions will conduct innovative research to enable technologies in distributed machine learning, signal processing algorithms, and computational, sensing, and communication hardware infrastructure for distributed sensing and communication.
Feb 08, 2022
Mastering Puzzle Strategies
MIE Associate Professor Laurent Lessard has developed a strategy to win games like Wordle. Here’s how to win at Wordle, every time Main photo: Laurent Lessard, associate professor in the […]
Sep 02, 2020
New Faculty Spotlight: Laurent Lessard
Laurent Lessard joins the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering department in August 2020 as an Associate Professor.