ME/SE/EC 501 — Fall 2025

Dynamic Systems Theory — State-space linear systems

Professor John Baillieul


Classroom: EPC 209

Course Syllabus html or pdf.

Course Lecture Notes.
Supplemental Material.

Course Text: Roger W. Brockett, Finite Dimensional Linear Systems SIAM, 2015 / xvi + 244 pages / Softcover / ISBN 978-1-611973-87-7. For student discount prices, order according to the instructions given here.

Previous course text: Bernard Friedland, Control System Design: An Introduction to State-Space Methods, McGraw-Hill, 1986. Reissued by Dover Books on Engineering, 528 pages, Dover Publications (March 24, 2005), ISBN-10: 0486442780, ISBN-13:978-0486442785.

Other readings available for download:

Roger W. Brockett, An Wang Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Emeritus, Harvard University, Finite Dimensional Linear Systems, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 471 10585 6, 256 pages (re-issue by SIAM available for purchase per above).

A.S. Morse, Dudley Professor of Electrical Engineering, Yale University, LECTURE NOTES on Linear Algebra, Linear Differential Equations, and Linear Systems.

H. Kwakernaak and R. Sivan, Linear Optimal Control Systems
  Content List and Front Matter Download
  Chapter 1. Elements of Linear System Theory Download
  Chapter 2. Analysis of Linear Control Systems Download
  Chapter 3. Optimal Linear State Feedback Control Systems Download
  Chapter 4. Optimal Linear Reconstruction of the State Download
  Chapter 5. Optimal Linear Output Feedback Control Systems Download
  Chapter 6. Linear Optimal Control Theory for Discrete-Time Systems Download
  References, Author Index and Subject Index Download

Supplemental resources

Obituary of Roger W. Brockett (1938 - 2023) and a memorial lecture given at the Banff International Research Station, June 14, 2023.


Exercises and solutions.

The following Blackboard site will be used for distributing course handouts as well as for collecting homework sets. https://learn.bu.edu/ultra/courses/_264258_1/outline. The site will also be used to return graded homeworks.   Be sure that you know how to create and upload pdf's.

1. Exercise Set 1.

Statespace Control Theory Postscript

Here are some AI-Generated podcasts about current research in systems and control. There is much research nowadays that focuses on connections between optimal control theory (such as covered in introductory Lectures 20-21 above) and current research in machine learning. The podcasts were created with NotebookLM, a Google AI-powered research assistant that can be used to gain insights into user-provided content. The first podcast looks at work by Dimitri Bertsekas and takes a "deep dive" into Rollout Algorithms for Reinforcement Learning. The second podcast describes work I have been doing with a former student, Zexin Sun, on Learning Templates in Nueromimetic Brain Models.

NB: Boston University does not have NotebookLM as part of its Google contract, and you can only access these podcasts from other domains or a non-BU Google account. As a workaround, the podcasts can be downloaded as m4a files:

Rollout Algorithms for Reinforcement Learning.
Templates in Nueromimetic Brain Models.

These will play on any Apple device. For non-Apple operating systems, you might need to convert these to other formats.

(Updated September 2025)