Revised: February 10, 2015

Curriculum Vitae

MAKHIN THITSA

CONTACT INFORMATION

I Address: EGC Suite 223F, Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, USA 31207

I Phone Number: +1-478-301-2213 (office), +1-757-927-1366 (cell)

I Email: thitsa m@mercer.edu

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

Nonlinear system and control theory: interconnection of analytic nonlinear systems, com-

binatorics and control. Control applications: System theoretic methods for analysis and

control of photonic and laser dynamical systems such as Q-switched lasers, optical amplifiers

and upconversion processes in laser materials.

EDUCATION

I Ph.D. Electrical and Computer Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2011.

Dissertation Title: On the Radius of Convergence of Interconnected Analytic Nonlinear

Systems

Dissertation Advisor: Prof. W. S. Gray

I M.S. Electrical Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2007.

Thesis Title: Band Gap Engineering of Two Dimensional Silicon Photonic Crystals by

Oxidation and Etching

Thesis Advisor: Prof. S. Albin

I B.S. Electrical Engineering, Old Dominion University, 2005.

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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

I 2013-present Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer-

ing, Mercer University, Macon, Georgia.

I 2011-2013 Research and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Systems Research Laboratory,

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Old Dominion University, Norfolk,

Virginia.

I 2009-2011 Graduate Research Assistant, Systems Research Laboratory, Electrical and

Computer Engineering Department, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.

I 2005-2009 Graduate Research Assistant, Photonic and Microelectronic Laboratory,

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Old Dominion University, Norfolk,

Virginia.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

I Gradute courses: ECE 691 ‘Nonlinear Control Systems’, ECE 661 ‘Linear Control

Systems’, ECE 691 ‘Multivariable Control Systems’.

I Undergraduate courses: EGR 244 ‘Electrical Engineering Fundamentals’, ECE 311

‘Electronics I’.

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

1. W. S. Gray, L. A. Duffaut Espinosa and M. Thitsa,“Left Inversion of Analytic Nonlinear

SISO Systems via Formal Power Series Methods,”Automatica, vol. 50, 2014, pp. 2381-

2388.

2. M. Thitsa and W. S. Gray, “On the Radius of Convergence of Interconnected Analytic

Nonlinear Input-Output Systems,” SIAM Journal of Control and Optimization, vol. 50,

2012, pp. 2786-2813.

3. W. S. Gray and M. Thitsa, “A Unified Approach to Generating Series for Cascaded

Nonlinear Input-output Systems,” International Journal of Control, vol. 85, 2012,

pp. 1737-1754.

4. M. Thitsa, Y. Song, and S. Albin, “Effect of Oxidation, Etching and Thin-Film Depo-

sition on Silicon Photonic Crystals,” Journal of Electrochemical Society, vol. 155, 2008,

H351-H356.

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CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS1

1. M. Thitsa and T. Q. Ta , “Determining upconversion parameters and invertibility of

nonlinear dynamical systems,” Proc. Material Research Society, Boston, Massachusetts,

2014, to appear.

2. W. S.Gray, and M. Thitsa,L. A. Duffaut Espinosa “Pre-Lie Algebra Characterization of

WISO Feedback Invariants,” Proc. Conference on Decision and Control, Los Angeles,

California, 2014, pp. 4807-4813.

3. W. S. Gray, M. Thitsa and E. I. Verriest,“Functional Series Expansions for Nonlinear

Input-Output Systems with Delay,”Proc. 19th World Congress of the International

Federation of Automatic Control, Cape Town, South Africa, 2014, pp. 6794-6799.

4. W. S. Gray and M. Thitsa, “System Interconnections and Combinatorial Integer Se-

quences,” Proc. 45th IEEE Southeastern Symposium on System Theory, Waco, Texas,

2013, pp. 135-140..

5. M. Thitsa andW. S. Gray, “Controlling Actively Q-switched Laser Output by Nonlinear

State Feedback,” Proc. 223rd Electrochemical Society Meeting, Toronto, Canada, 2013,

vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 151-160, 2013.

6. W. S. Gray, M. Thitsa, and L. A. Duffaut Espinosa, ‘Left Inversion of Analytic SISO

Systems via Formal Power Series Methods,’ Proc. 15th Latin American Control Con-

ference, Lima, Peru, 2012.

7. M. Thitsa and W. S. Gray, “On the Radius of Convergence of Mixed Cascades of

Analytic Nonlinear Input-Output Systems,” Proc. 44rd IEEE Southeastern Symposium

on System Theory, Jacksonville, Florida, 2012, pp. 231-236.

8. M. Thitsa and W. S. Gray, “Volterra Series Analysis of Semiconductor Optical Am-

plifiers,” Proc. 46th Conference on Information Sciences and Systems, Princeton, New

Jersey, 2012.

9. L. A. Duffaut Espinosa, W. S. Gray, and M. Thitsa, “Cascaded Fliess Operators with

Rough Path Inputs,” Proc. 20th International Symposium on the Mathematical Theory

of Networks and Systems, Melbourne, Australia, 2012.

10. L. A. Duffaut Espinosa, W. S. Gray, and M. Thitsa, “Cascaded Analytic Nonlinear

Systems Driven By Rough Path Inputs,” Proc. 51st IEEE Conference on Decision and

Control, Maui, Hawaii, 2012, pp. 1259-1264.

1underlined co-authors are Mercer student co-authors

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11. M. Thitsa and W. S. Gray, “On the radius of convergence of cascaded analytic nonlinear

systems,” Proc. 50th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and European Control

Conference, pp. 3830-3835, Orlando, Florida, 2011 (invited).

12. M. Thitsa and W. S. Gray, “On the Radius of Convergence of Cascaded Analytic Non-

linear Systems,” Proc. 43rd IEEE Southeastern Symposium of System Theory, pp. 32-38,

Auburn, Alabama, 2011.

13. W. S. Gray and M. Thitsa, “On the Radius of Convergence of Self-excited Feedback

Connected Analytic Nonlinear Systems,” Proc. 49th IEEE Conference on Decision and

Control, pp. 7092-7098, Atlanta, Georgia, 2010.

14. W. S. Gray and M. Thitsa, “On the Radius of Convergence of Self-Excited Feedback

Connected Analytic Nonlinear Systems: The Local Case,” Proc. 42nd IEEE Southeast-

ern Symposium of System Theory, pp. 116-121, Tyler, Texas, 2010.

15. M. Thitsa, T. Nguyen, and S. Albin, “Multiple Defect Modes in Diamond Photonic

Crystal,” ECS Transactions, vol 16, pp. 71-77, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2009.

16. M. Thitsa and S. Albin, “Band Gap Tuning of Macro-Porous Si Photonic Crystals by

Thermally Grown SiO2 Interfacial Layer,” ECS Transactions, vol. 11, pp. 1-9, Wash-

ington DC, 2008.

17. M. Thitsa and S. Albin, “Enhanced Band Gap and Defect Structure of Low Dielec-

tric Photonic Crystals Using ALD Coatings,” ECS Transactions, vol. 16, pp. 321-327,

Honolulu, Hawaii, 2008.

18. M. Thtisa, D. Gu, H. Baumgart, and S. Albin, “Tuning the Absolute Band Gap of

Silicon Photonic Crystals by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) Interfacial Layers,” ECS

Transactions, vol. 11, pp. 259-267, Washington DC, 2007.

19. M. Thitsa, H. Ali, F. Wu, K. Peters, and S. Albin, “Modeling the Effect of Oxidation

and Etching of Silicon Photonic Crystals,” Multiscale Modeling of Materials, Material

Research Society Symposium Proceedings, 978E, Boston, Massachusetts, 2007.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS WITHOUT PUBLICATIONS

1. “On Nonlinear System Interconnections and Integer Sequences,” Mini-Symposium: Al-

gebraic Tools for Nonlinear Control, SIAM Conference on Control and its Applications,

Denver, Colorado, 2009 (invited).

2. “On the Radius of Convergence of Interconnected Analytic Nonlinear Systems,” Work-

shop on Rough Paths and Combinatorics in Control Theory, University of California

San Diego, San Diego, California, 2011. Support provided by NSF grant DMS 0960589.

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3. “On the Radius of Convergence of Interconnected Analytic Nonlinear Systems and the

Lambert W-function,” Workshop on Dyson-Schwinger Equations and Faa di Bruno

Hopf Algebras in Physics and Combinatorics, Institut de Recherche Mathematique

Avancee and CNRS at the University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France, 2011.

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GRANTS APPLIED FOR

1. NASA Langley Research Center (with W. S. Gray and O. R. Gonzalez), $680, 478,

2012-14, Loss of Control as a Function of Precursor Events.

2. National Science Foundation (with W. S. Gray and L. A. Duffaut Espinosa), $295, 391,

2013-16, Exact Inversion for Ecological Monitoring and Control Systems.

3. National Science Foundation (with W. S. Gray), $295, 393, 2013-16, Nonlinear Anal-

ysis and Feedback for Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers and Q-switched Lasers.

HONORS AND AWARDS

1. Best Graduate Teaching Assistant Award, Old Dominion University, 2008.

2. International Student Scholarship, Old Dominion University, 2003-2005.

UNDERGRADUATE ADVISEES

1. Ms. Lameka Booker, junior in electrical engineering, “Modeling Q-switched Laser Dy-

namics by State Space Methods”.

2. Mr. Ikechukwu Ume, senior in electrical engineering, “Simulation Studies in Parametric

Sensitivity of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers”.

DEPARTMENT SERVICE

Member of Masters Thesis Committee: “Configuration Studies of Electrostatic and Magneto-

static Active Space Radiation Shielding,” Mr. Trac K. Nguyen, Masters of Science Electrical

Engineering, Old Dominion University.

REFERENCES

1. Prof. W. Steven Gray, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 231-K

Kaufman Hall, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA, 23529-0246

Phone: +1-757-683-4671, Email: sgray@odu.edu

2. Prof. Oscar R. Gonzalez, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 231-B

Kaufman Hall, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA, 23529-0246

Phone: +1-757-683-4966, Email: ogonzale@odu.edu

3. Prof. Helmut Baumgart, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Applied

Research Center, Old Dominion University, 12050 Jefferson Avenue, Suite 721, Newport

News, Virginia 23606

Phone: +1-757-269-7710, Email: hbaumgar@odu.edu

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4. Prof. Shirshak K. Dhali, Professor and Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer

Engineering, 231-O Kauffman Hall, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA,

23529-0246

Phone: +1-757-683-3744, Email: sdhali@odu.edu

5. Dr. Luis A. Dauffaut Espinosa, School of Engineering and Information Technology,

University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Room 119,

Building 15, Northcott Drive, Canberra 2600, Australia

Phone: +61-02-626-89535, Email : L.DuffautEspinosa@adfa.edu.au

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