Laurent Lessard

(he/him)

Associate Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Affiliated Faculty, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Khoury College Courtesy Appointment

Laurent Lessard
  • Algorithms and theory 
  • Control theory 
  • Machine learning 
  • PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University  
  • MS in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University  
  • BASc in Engineering Science, University of Toronto — Canada 

Laurent Lessard is an associate professor in the College of Engineering and a core faculty member at the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University, based in Boston. He holds a courtesy appointment in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences. 

Lessard studies control systems, or how feedback loops can be used to improve performance or robustness in dynamical systems. Control systems show up in everything from automobile safety to biological processes to anything with an on/off switch, and their ubiquity offers Lessard many avenues for impact in his work. He is particularly interested in dealing with uncertainty during decision-making in large-scale dynamical systems, as well as applications related to multi-agent systems, aerospace systems, and optimization and modeling. 

Lessard joined Northeastern from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020. He was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2018 and won the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award in 2013.  

In his free time, Lessard enjoys playing ultimate, folding origami, and doing recreational math and puzzles.