UCSB electrical and computer engineering professor Jason Marden has been elevated to the status of Fellow in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Marden was cited by his IEEE peers for his “contributions to game theory for distributed control systems.” 

“Sharing this designation with so many researchers whom I have followed and admired over the years is incredibly humbling,” said Marden, whose previous honors include an Early CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, and Young Investigator awards from the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. “Professionally speaking, this elevation is a signal that the contributions of my research team are respected and appreciated by my community.”

“Congratulations to Professor Marden on this well-deserved recognition from one of the most influential and significant professional organizations in engineering,” said Umesh Mishra, dean of UCSB’s College of Engineering. “His impactful work has consistently demonstrated the importance of developing foundational tools for the design and control of a wide range of networked systems.”

The total number of fellows selected by IEEE in any given year cannot exceed 0.1% of the total voting IEEE membership. The distinction is reserved for members whose extraordinary accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest merit recognition. Marden, who joined the UCSB faculty in 2015, shared the recognition with the current and former members of his research group.

“I have been so fortunate to be surrounded by so many wonderful students during these past fifteen years,” said Marden. “In my opinion, this honor is more about my students than about myself, because the results that have come out of my lab are direct results of their work ethic, creativity, and ambitions. Without them, none of this would have been possible.”

The general areas of Marden’s research include game theory, systems, and control theory. According to him, game theory is traditionally viewed as a tool for describing the phenomena that emerges when self-interested decision-makers interact, such as in auctions, markets, and transportation systems. On the other hand, control theory involves engineering decision-marking so that the resulting behavior is desirable from a system-level perspective. Marden’s work focuses on engineering desirable behavior in socio-technical systems comprising both engineered components, such as infrastructure, and social components, like human decision-makers

“Game theory transitions from a descriptive tool to a prescriptive tool, where the goal is to design the engineering components, in addition to influencing the social components, so that the resulting collective behavior is desirable,” said Marden.

A new problem that his research group is working on is the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in industrial refrigeration systems. 

“The ever-growing demand for cold storage is incredibly taxing on our electricity markets, and this problem is further exacerbated by the fact that most industrial cold storage facilities are managed by outdated control architectures,” explained Marden. “Working with a local company, we are seeking to capitalize on opportunities to bring big data and AI to this important sector.”

Here is a list of the IEEE’s Class of 2024, which includes 323 newly elevated Fellows.