Resume

Education

2011.9-2015.8, Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong

• Researched on fundamental limits and tradeoffs of feedback systems and networked feedback systems, as well as their implications in control and estimation systems, using information theory

• Advisor: Professor Jie Chen

• Thesis: Towards Integrating Information and Control Theories: From Information-Theoretic Measures to System Performance Limitations (Link)

2008.9-2011.6, M.S. in Control Theory and Control Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

• Researched on new topological structures of networked control systems (e.g., tele-operation with scattering transformation), and how the performance limitations under conventional feedback structures can thereby be overcome

• Advisor: Professor Shaoyuan Li

• Thesis: Dynamic Performance Analysis of Networked Control Systems Inserted with Scattering Transformation, Outstanding Master’s Thesis of Shanghai

2004.9-2008.6, B.S. in Automation, Shandong University, Jinan

• Developed neural networks algorithms for red tide prediction in Bo Sea for final year project

Experience

2019.9-2021.8, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New York University

• Advisor: Quanyan Zhu

• Interplay of systems and control theory, information theory, and learning theory

2018.4-2019.9, Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology 

• Advisors: Professor Karl Henrik Johansson and Professor Mikael Skoglund; also with Professor Henrik Sandberg

• Researched on the interaction of information theory (coding theory) and control theory (estimation/prediction theory)

2017.2-2018.2, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Computer Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology

• Advisor: Professor Hideaki Ishii

• Researched on characterization of (algebraic) Riccati equations using analytical function theory

2016.2-2017.1, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong

2016.9, Visiting Researcher, Department of Computer Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology

2015.9-2016.1, Research Assistant, Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong

2013.1-2013.4, Visiting Student Researcher, Department of Computational Intelligent and Systems Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology

2011.4-2011.6, Research Intern, Real-Time Controls and Instrumentation Lab, GE Global Research, Shanghai

• Developed algorithms for the modeling (system identification) and control (model predictive control) of complex industrial systems

Publications

Google Scholar

Book

• Song Fang, Jie Chen, Hideaki Ishii. Towards Integrating Control and Information Theories: From Information-Theoretic Measures to Control Performance Limitations. Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, Springer, 2017. (Link)

  • This book is an attempt towards bridging control theory and information theory to characterize the fundamental limitations of generic feedback systems; in particular, we aim to develop an information-theoretic framework to analyze the performance bounds and design trade-offs that are prevalent in all possible feedback systems. 

  • Towards this end, the book introduces new entropic measures compatible with the analysis of feedback control systems and studies various classes of performance limitation relations. In addition, we examine the implications of the results in the context of state estimation and correspondingly obtain generic bounds on estimation errors. 

  • It is also worth mentioning that, thanks to the information-theoretic analysis, the aforementioned performance limits are valid for arbitrary causal controllers or estimators, whether they be designed using conventional approaches or, say, machine learning methods (learning-in-the-loop control).

Journal Papers

• Jie Chen, Song Fang, Hideaki Ishii. Fundamental limitations and intrinsic limits of feedback: An overview in an information age. Annual Reviews in Control, 47, 2019.

• Song Fang, Jie Chen, Hideaki Ishii. Power gain bounds of MIMO networked control systems: An entropy perspective. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. 64(3), March 2019.​

• Song Fang, Jie Chen, Hideaki Ishii. Design constraints and limits of networked feedback in disturbance attenuation: An information-theoretic analysis. Automatica, 79, May 2017.

• Song Fang, Hideaki Ishii, Jie Chen. Tradeoffs in networked feedback systems: From information-theoretic measures to Bode-type integrals. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 62(3), March 2017.

• Song Fang, Ning Li, Shaoyuan Li. “Periodically-active phenomenon” of DIS-NCS with scattering transformation. International Journal of Control, 84(8), August 2011.

• Song Fang, Shaoyuan Li. “Staircase phenomenon” in delay-independently stable networked control system’s dynamic response. IET Control Theory & Applications, 4(12), December 2010.

Conference Papers

• Song Fang, Quanyan Zhu. Fundamental limits of obfuscation for linear Gaussian dynamical systems: An information-theoretic approach. American Control Conference, 2021.

• Song Fang, Quanyan Zhu. Information-theoretic performance limitations of feedback control: Underlying entropic laws and generic L_p bounds. American Control Conference, 2021.

• Song Fang, Quanyan Zhu. A connection between feedback capacity and Kalman filter for colored Gaussian noises. IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2020.

• Song Fang, Quanyan Zhu. Fundamental limitations in sequential prediction and recursive algorithms: L_p bounds via an entropic analysis. Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS), 2020.

• Song Fang, Quanyan Zhu. Generic bounds on the maximum deviations in sequential prediction: An information-theoretic analysis. IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP), 2019.

• Song Fang, Mikael Skoglund, Karl Henrik Johansson, Hideaki Ishii, Quanyan Zhu. Generic variance bounds on estimation and prediction errors in time series analysis: An entropy perspective. IEEE Information Theory Workshop (ITW), 2019.

• Song Fang, Karl Henrik Johansson, Mikael Skoglund, Henrik Sandberg, Hideaki Ishii. Two-way coding and attack decoupling in control systems under injection attacks. Workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems Security and Resilience (CPS-SR), Extended Abstract, 2019.

• Song Fang, Karl Henrik Johansson, Mikael Skoglund, Henrik Sandberg, Hideaki Ishii, Two-way coding in control systems under injection attacks: From attack detection to attack correction. ACM/IEEE International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (ICCPS), 2019.

• Song Fang, Hideaki Ishii, Jie Chen, Karl Henrik Johansson. A frequency-domain characterization of optimal error covariance for the Kalman-Bucy filter. IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2018.

• Song Fang, Jie Chen, Hideaki Ishii. Fundamental limitations of feedback and networked feedback systems: An information-theoretic analysis. International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS), Extended Abstract, 2018.

• Song Fang, Hideaki Ishii, Jie Chen. An integral characterization of optimal error covariance by Kalman filtering. American Control Conference, 2018.

• Song Fang, Jie Chen, Hideaki Ishii. Fundamental error bounds in state estimation: An information-theoretic analysis. IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2017.

• Song Fang, Jie Chen, Hideaki Ishii. Intrinsic limits of power reduction in MIMO networked control systems. IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2017.

• Song Fang, Jie Chen, Hideaki Ishii. Power gain bounds of networked feedback systems: An information-theoretic approach. SICE International Symposium on Control Systems, Position Paper, 2017.

• Song Fang, Hideaki Ishii, Jie Chen. Trade-offs in information-limited feedback systems: MIMO Bode-type integrals and power allocation. IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2015.

• Song Fang, Hideaki Ishii, Jie Chen. Control over additive white Gaussian noise channels: Bode-type integrals, channel blurredness, negentropy rate, and beyond. IFAC World Congress, 2014.

• Song Fang, Ning Li, Shaoyuan Li. “Staircase phenomenon” in delay-independently stable networked control system’s dynamic response: Discrete-time case. Asian Control Conference, 2011.

Miscellaneous Writings

• Song Fang, Quanyan Zhu. Relativistic rocket control (relativistic space-travel flight control): Feedback control of relativistic dynamics propelled by ejecting mass, 2020. (Link)

• Song Fang, Quanyan Zhu. Relativistic control: Feedback control of relativistic dynamics. 2019. (Link)

Peer Review

• IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control

• Automatica

• SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization

• IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems

• IEEE Conference on Decision and Control

• IFAC World Congress

• American Control Conference

• IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

• IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory 

• IEEE Information Theory Workshop

Talks

• Security and Stealth: Fundamental Limits and Implications in Adversarially Robust Regression. 2020 IEEE CDC Workshop: Learning and Security for Multi-agent Systems. (Link)

• Security and Stealth: Fundamental Limits. ECE Seminar Series, New York University. (Link)

• Towards Integrating Information and Control Theories for Networked Control: Information Constraints and Fundamental Limits. Hong Kong CityU-PolyU Joint Seminar Series on Complex Systems, Networks, Control and Applications (Link)

Teaching Assistant 

• Linear Systems and Signal Analysis / Signals and Systems / Fundamentals of Industrial Electronics: City University of Hong Kong

• Linear Systems: The University of Michigan - Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute