Welcome

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
I submitted some of my recent work on reachability metrics in design optimization to ACC!
August 2025In 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.

I gave a talk at SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE 25). Read more about the talk here.
Fun FactsOutside 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 a recent performance I had with the Finest City Brass!
