Welcome

Photo of UCSD campus

About me

Hello, my name is Steven Nguyen and I am currently a 3rd-year PhD student at UC San Diego (UCSD) studying control theory, advised by Professors Boris Kramer and Jorge Cortes. My research is related to topics like data-driven control design, reachability, and control theoretic perspectives for design optimization of aircraft. Before coming to UCSD, I received my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara, where I pursued undergraduate research studying monomial observables for Koopman operator theory.

Research Interests
  • Data-driven control design
  • Lifting controllers for reduced order models to full order models
  • Reachability theory for aircraft
  • Control theoretic metrics for deisgn optimization
Recent News


October 2025

I submitted some of my recent work on reachability metrics in design optimization to ACC!

August 2025

In August, I got to visit the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. This was part of a trip to the Air Force base there, where I presented on some of my recent research.

Air Force Museum F-117 Nighthawk at the museum Bockscar at the museum

March 2025

I gave a talk at SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE 25). Read more about the talk here.

Fun Facts

Outside of research, I play trombone with La Jolla Symphony and the Finest City Winds/Brass ensembles. I also like to play ultimate frisbee and frequently play in various leagues around San Diego. Lastly, I enjoy going to theaters in my free time and watch plenty of movies (follow me on Letterboxd).

Picture from Finest City Brass ensemble Picture from a recent performance I had with the Finest City Brass!