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Michael Garstka

michael@garstka.org
GPG Public Key
linkedin.com/in/michaelgarstka
github.com/migarstka

About me

I have a DPhil (PhD) in Optimisation from Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford working with Paul Goulart and Mark Cannon in the Control Group. I am associated with Trinity College and was supported by the Clarendon Scholarship. I am currently the Head of Science at Qogita.

Research interests

I am interested in model predictive control and optimization. My DPhil project investigated ADMM algorithms to solve convex conic programs. I especially focused on improving solver performance using chordal decomposition techniques and acceleration methods. I am also interested in applications of (convex) optimisation such as Portfolio Optimisation, Machine Learning, Optimal Control and Graph Theory.

Following the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak in the spring of 2020, I joined the OxVent team to work on the control and software for a new rapidly deployable low-cost ventilator for COVID-19 patients. Our work has been recognized with an E&T Innovation Award in the category Small Idea, Big Impact: Global Challenge.

Software

COSMO.jl : An ADMM-based solver for convex conic problems. Supports any combination of quadratic cost function and constraints with standard cones. Supports automatic chordal decomposition and clique merging of structured SDPs. A number of example problems can be found here. A Python interface is also available.

COSMOAccelerators.jl : Provides an AbstractAccelerator interface type to write COSMO-compatible acceleration methods. Implementation of various Anderson acceleration methods that are used inside COSMO.

Notes

News

  • Our conference paper “Safeguarded Anderson acceleration for parametric nonexpansive operators” [Manuscript] got accepted for the European Control Conference 2022 in London. (February 28, 2022)
  • Our paper about the conic solver COSMO got published in the Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications [Open Access Link]. (August 28, 2021)
  • I am happy to share that I passed my DPhil viva 🎉. (July 21, 2021)
  • My JuliaCon talk “What’s new in COSMO?” happens from 13:00 - 13:30 UCT on 28th July 2021 and will be available as a stream on YouTube [Video]

Background

Talks

Publications

Journal Articles

2022

  • OxVent: Design and evaluation of a rapidly-manufactured Covid-19 ventilator
    R. Beale, J. B. Rosendo, C. Bergeles, A. Beverly, L. Camporota, A. A. Castrejón-Pita, D. C. Crockett, J. N. Cronin, T. Denison, S. East, C. Edwardes, A. D. Farmery, F. Fele, J. Fisk, C. V. Fuenteslópez, M. Garstka, P. Goulart, C. Heaysman, A. Hussain, P. Jha, I. Kempf, A. S. Kumar, A. Möslein, A. C. J. Orr, S. Ourselin, D. Salisbury, C. Seneci, R. Staruch, H. Steel, M. Thompson, M. C. Tran, V. Vitiello, M. Xochicale, F. Zhou, F. Formenti, and T. Kirk
    eBioMedicine, pp. 103868, 2022
    Manuscript 
    @article{Beale_2022,
  author = {Beale, Richard and Rosendo, Jacqueline Beddoe and Bergeles, Christos and Beverly, Anair and Camporota, Luigi and Castrejón-Pita, Alfonso A. and Crockett, Douglas C. and Cronin, John N. and Denison, Timothy and East, Sebastian and Edwardes, Chantal and Farmery, Andrew D. and Fele, Filiberto and Fisk, James and Fuenteslópez, Carla V. and Garstka, Michael and Goulart, Paul and Heaysman, Clare and Hussain, Azad and Jha, Prashant and Kempf, Idris and Kumar, Adhithya Senthil and Möslein, Annika and Orr, Andrew C.J. and Ourselin, Sebastien and Salisbury, David and Seneci, Carlo and Staruch, Robert and Steel, Harrison and Thompson, Mark and Tran, Minh C. and Vitiello, Valentina and Xochicale, Miguel and Zhou, Feibiao and Formenti, Federico and Kirk, Thomas},
  journal = {eBioMedicine},
  title = {OxVent: Design and evaluation of a rapidly-manufactured Covid-19 ventilator},
  year = {2022},
  pages = {103868},
  doi = {10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103868},
  url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352396422000524}
}

2021

  • COSMO: A Conic Operator Splitting Method for Convex Conic Problems
    M. Garstka, M. Cannon, and P. Goulart
    Springer, Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Vol. 190, no. 3, pp. 779–810, 2021
    Manuscript 
    @article{Garstka_2021,
  author = {Garstka, Michael and Cannon, Mark and Goulart, Paul},
  journal = {Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications},
  title = {{COSMO}: A Conic Operator Splitting Method for Convex Conic Problems},
  year = {2021},
  number = {3},
  pages = {779--810},
  volume = {190},
  doi = {10.1007/s10957-021-01896-x},
  publisher = {Springer},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10957-021-01896-x}
}

Conference Proceedings

2022

  • Safeguarded Anderson acceleration for parametric nonexpansive operators
    M. Garstka, M. Cannon, and P. Goulart
    20th European Control Conference (ECC), 2022
    Manuscript 
    @inproceedings{Garstka_2023,
  author = {Garstka, Michael and Cannon, Mark and Goulart, Paul},
  booktitle = {20th European Control Conference (ECC)},
  title = {Safeguarded Anderson acceleration for parametric nonexpansive operators},
  year = {2022},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/pdf/2208.02847}
}

2020

  • A clique graph based merging strategy for decomposable SDPs
    M. Garstka, M. Cannon, and P. Goulart
    IFAC-PapersOnLine, Vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 7355-7361, 2020
    @inproceedings{Garstka_2020a,
  author = {Garstka, Michael and Cannon, Mark and Goulart, Paul},
  title = {A clique graph based merging strategy for decomposable {SDPs}},
  year = {2020},
  note = {21th IFAC World Congress},
  number = {2},
  pages = {7355-7361},
  volume = {53},
  doi = {10.1016/j.ifacol.2020.12.1255},
  issn = {2405-8963},
  journal = {IFAC-PapersOnLine}
}

2019

  • COSMO: A conic operator splitting method for large convex problems
    M. Garstka, M. Cannon, and P. Goulart
    18th European Control Conference (ECC), pp. 1951-1956, 2019
    Manuscript 
    @inproceedings{Garstka_2019a,
  author = {Garstka, Michael and Cannon, Mark and Goulart, Paul},
  booktitle = {18th European Control Conference (ECC)},
  title = {{COSMO}: A conic operator splitting method for large convex problems},
  year = {2019},
  pages = {1951-1956},
  doi = {10.23919/ECC.2019.8796161},
  url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8796161}
}

Theses

2021

  • Operator splitting methods for large convex conic programs
    M. Garstka
    University of Oxford, Aug. 2021
    Manuscript 
    @phdthesis{Garstka_2022,
  author = {Garstka, Michael},
  school = {University of Oxford},
  title = {Operator splitting methods for large convex conic programs},
  year = {2021},
  month = aug,
  type = {phdthesis},
  url = {https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:4da7b882-f4d2-45d8-80a8-c13a480e7038}
}

Teaching

Hilary 2019 Demonstrator - 3rd year Laboratory Control Systems
Hilary 2019 Demonstrator - 2nd year Laboratory Instrumentation and Control
Michelmas 2018 Tutor - 3rd year Tutorials Control Systems
Hilary 2018 Demonstrator - 3rd year Laboratory Control Systems
Hilary 2018 Demonstrator - 2nd year Laboratory Instrumentation and Control