Archived newsletters can be found here.

Congratulations to Bixing Qiao for the acceptance of his paper by SIAM Journal of Control and Optimation (a top journal in control theory): Set Values of Dynamic Nonzero Sum Games and Set-Valued Hamiltonians, co-authored with Jianfeng Zhang!

A nonzero sum game typically has multiple values, and it was proposed to study the set of all values which is by nature unique. Bixing's work provides a full characterization of the set value of the game through the set-valued Hamiltonian and thus enable us to study games through PDEs, a popular approach for stochastic control problems. In particular, in some settings, Bixing transformed the game problem into a control problem, which simplifies the problem greatly and is very helpful for further study of the games.

With several papers completed, we hope you will continue to advance the research in your field, Bixing!

We would also like to give a shoutout to current PhD students (Gabrielle Abato, Chris Chang, Ben Gillen, and Inga Girshfeld) for serving in the Graduate Panel at the SC Math Club!

Please view our department's home page for the weekly calendar of seminars and colloquia.

As many of you may know, Dornsife is implementing a plan to restructure academic support staff into academic hubs instead of academic departments, resulting in mass layoffs and significant changes to the roles and responsibilities for those who remain at USC. Thank you to faculty and students for the outpouring of support during these challenging times. Our staff are the heart of our department, this loss will be felt by all of us over the coming weeks.

Please be aware that staff members might be out of the office as they take time off for their mental health and personal plans. Note that there will be no regular staff available this Friday, October 31st. Please keep these circumstances in mind if you have time-sensitive matters that require assistance from staff.

Our staff have always given exemplary service to our department, and they will continue to do so while they are here. We will all have a steep learning curve under the new hub model, and we will do our best to support one another both through the abrupt transition and the months that follow.