Beyond Linear Dynamical Systems

Governing Body Fellow Professor James Worrell was awarded a £1.6 million grant for his research project entitled BELINDYSYS (Beyond Linear Dynamical Systems) this autumn. Its goal is to achieve a major advance in the algorithmic theory of fundamental dynamical systems arising in program verification, control theory, and related areas.

Dynamical systems pervade the quantitative sciences: for example, recurrence sequences appear across computer science, combinatorics, number theory, economics, and theoretical biology. Characteristically such systems are simple to describe and yet they have a rich algorithmic and mathematical theory.

Over the past ten years, James has studied applications of linear dynamical systems to automata theory, loop termination, and hybrid systems. A major step forward in the BELINDYSYS project involves analysing non-linear models, including conditional branching, non-determinism, external control, and polynomial recursivity. This five-year project will make significant progress on longstanding open problems and will open new lines of research at the boundary of computer science and mathematics.

Professor James Worrell is a Governing Body Fellow of Green Templeton College and a member of the Academic Committee. He is Professor of Computer Science at the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford.

Green Templeton congratulates James on this award.