Contract theory for linear control systems
B. M. Shali · 2023
This thesis is the culmination of a long and enriching journey, and I owe its existence to the support and contributions of many people.In the following, I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude to all of those who have played important roles in my personal and professional development.First and foremost, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisors, Bart Besselink and Arjan van der Schaft.Bart, your unwavering support over the course of four years has been immeasurable.Your availability for discussions and your enthusiasm for my research, no matter how underwhelmed I sometimes felt, were constant sources of motivation.Perhaps more importantly, your approachability and understanding created an environment where I felt comfortable sharing my ideas and concerns, thus fostering a collaborative and enriching experience.Arjan, although our interactions were less frequent, I always had confidence in your wisdom and readiness to assist when I needed your help.Your quick and gracious responses, especially during those last-minute requests, were greatly appreciated.I also want to express my gratitude to the members of my reading committee, Harry Trentelman, Antoine Girard, and Siep Weiland, for their thorough reading of my thesis and the valuable feedback they provided.Incidentally, I have had the pleasure of attending courses taught by each one of you; various bachelor and master level courses by Harry Trentelman, the EECI course on formal methods by Antoine Girard, and the DISC course on linear matrix inequalities by Siep Weiland.I have thoroughly enjoyed all of these courses, due in no small part to your enthusiasm and excellent teaching skills.My heartfelt thanks extend to Anne-Men Huijzer and Armin Pirastehzad for accepting the role of my paranymphs.Anne-Men, our academic journey began when we were just bachelor students, and I deeply cherish the camaraderie we have shared ever since.Although our paths may now diverge, I am optimistic that our friendship will endure.Armin, you joined our group during the height of the pandemic, which presented unique challenges for us to get to know each other.As if to compensate for that, we had the opportunity to spend more than a week together in Stockholm, creating lasting memories and forging what I hope will be a lifelong friendship.vi I want to express my sincere appreciation of Kanat Camlibel and Harry Trentelman, whose inspiration during my bachelor's and master's studies played a pivotal role in my decision to pursue a PhD degree.Similarly, I am thankful to Henk van Waarde for his invaluable mentorship throughout the last five years; as a master thesis supervisor at first, as a senior colleague later, and as a postdoc supervisor now.You have truly been a role model to me.My PhD journey would not have been as fulfilling without my wonderful colleagues in the SCO (SCAA) group at the Bernoulli Institute.In particular, I am grateful to my current and former office mates, Armin, Yongzhang, Mark, and Jaap, for transforming our office into a dynamic space where the boundary between serious scientific discussions and lighthearted banter often became quite murky.I am also grateful to Amir, Hamin, Koorosh and Radu for being such great company during our afternoon walks.To all current, former, and temporary members of the SCO group, including Azka, Di, Juan, Huayuan, Junjie, Jiajia, Jiwei, Marieke, Paul, Stephan, Sumon, Sutrisno, Teke, and Zepeng, I am grateful for the many joyful moments during group lunches, board game evenings, pub quizzes and other fun activities.I also want to thank my colleagues from EnTeG for all the fun times at DISC courses and conferences.I had the pleasure of experiencing the most exciting presentation session together with Carmen at the Benelux workshop in Rotterdam.I also cherish the playful, although sometimes brutal, banter with Kathinka, both during train rides to Utrecht and our trip to Mexico.In addition, I want to acknowledge Jasper and Wouter, who are (still) part of the Bourbaki 2.0 group that originated during our master's studies.We shared numerous pleasant dinners back then, and I hope there will be opportunities to recreate those in the future.Finally, I want to thank my friends in the Netherlands for making my stay here so pleasant, and my friends and family in Bulgaria for their unwavering support and confidence in my success.