John Thistle, PEng
Biography
Dr. John Thistle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is a member of the Waterloo Formal Methods (WatForm) research group, which focuses on applying formal methods to hardware design and software engineering.
Dr. Thistle’s research interests include the control of discrete event systems, as well as the formal synthesis and verification of such systems, and applications to software development. He is particularly focused on the decidability and complexity of synthesizing both centralized and distributed controllers. His work has applications in traditional control engineering as well as in the design of distributed software systems.
Dr. Thistle’s research interests include the control of discrete event systems, as well as the formal synthesis and verification of such systems, and applications to software development. He is particularly focused on the decidability and complexity of synthesizing both centralized and distributed controllers. His work has applications in traditional control engineering as well as in the design of distributed software systems.
Research Interests
- Control of discrete event systems, Formal synthesis, verification of discrete event systems, software development, Communication & Information Systems, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure integrity
Education
- 1991, Doctorate PhD, University of Toronto, Ontario
- 1985, Master's MASc, University of Toronto, Ontario
- 1982, Bachelor's BSc, Queen's University, Ontario
Teaching*
- BME 356 - Control Systems
- Taught in 2022, 2023, 2024
- ECE 108 - Discrete Mathematics and Logic 1
- Taught in 2020
- ECE 208 - Discrete Mathematics and Logic 2
- Taught in 2020, 2021, 2023
- ECE 380 - Analog Control Systems
- Taught in 2025
- MATH 213 - Signals, Systems, and Differential Equations
- Taught in 2021
- MTE 481 - Mechatronics Engineering Design Project
- Taught in 2023, 2024
- MTE 482 - Mechatronics Engineering Project
- Taught in 2025
* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.
Selected/Recent Publications
- Zibaeenejad, Mohammad Hadi and Thistle, John G, Deadlock analysis of generalized parameterized discrete event systems with ring topology, IFAC Proceedings Volumes, 370, 2014
- Zibaeenejad, Mohammad Hadi and Thistle, John G, Weak invariant simulation and its application to analysis of parameterized networks, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 2024, 2014
- Nazari, Siamak and Thistle, John G, Blocking in fully connected networks of arbitrary size, IEEE Transactions on Automatic control, 1233, 2012
- Thistle, John G and Lamouchi, HM, Effective control synthesis for partially observed discrete-event systems, SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, 1858, 2009
- Thistle, John G and Su, R, On effective computation of supremal local supports, IEEE transactions on automatic control, 1429, 2007
Graduate studies
- Currently considering applications from graduate students. A completed online application is required for admission; start the application process now.