Christopher Nielsen, PEng

Dr. Christopher Nielsen is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Nielsen’s research focuses on nonlinear control systems, motion control for nonlinear systems, methods for stabilizing sets in the state space of a system, output feedback control, geometric control, and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) for nonlinear controllers. His research is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Dr. Nielsen has authored or co-authored numerous journal articles published in prestigious journals, including IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Automatica, and the SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, among others.

• Nonlinear control systems

• Motion control

• Geometric control

• Multi-agent systems

• Mechatronics & Control

• Advanced robotics

• Controls and precision tooling

• Autonomous vehicles

• 2009, Doctorate Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Ontario

• 2004, Master's Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Ontario

• 2002, Bachelor's Electrical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Ontario

• ECE 380 - Analog Control Systems
  • Taught in 2020, 2025
• ECE 484 - Digital Control Applications
  • Taught in 2021
• ECE 682 - Multivariable Control Systems
  • Taught in 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025
• ECE 688 - Nonlinear Systems
  • Taught in 2023, 2025
• MATH 213 - Signals, Systems, and Differential Equations
  • Taught in 2020
• SE 380 - Introduction to Feedback Control
  • Taught in 2020

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Gonzalez G.A., Nielsen C., and Bortoff Z., Attractivity of unstable equilibria for a controlled Chen system via small output feedback, Chaos, Solitons and Fractals, Volume 127, Argentina, 2022.

• Wang Y.F., Nielsen C., and Smith S.L., A Pursuit Evasion Approach for Avoiding an Inattentive Human in the Presence of a Static Obstacle, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Volume 127, 4627-4633, Canada, 2022.

• Lovi A., Fidan B., and Nielsen C., Multiple Model Reference Adaptive Tracking Control of Multivariable Systems with Blending, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Volume 127, 1362-1367, Canada, 2022.

• Dubay S., Melek W., and Nielsen C., Path Following Control for Human-Robot Collaborative Tasks, 2022 17th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision, ICARCV 2022, 931-936, Canada, 2022.

• D'Souza R.S., and Nielsen C., An exterior differential characterization of single-input local transverse feedback linearization, Automatica, Volume 127, Canada, 2021.

• McCarthy P.J., and Nielsen C., Global Sampled-Data Regulation of a Class of Fully Actuated Invariant Systems on Simply Connected Nilpotent Matrix Lie Groups, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Volume 67, 436-442, Canada, 2022.

• D'Souza R.S., Louwers R., and Nielsen C., Piecewise Linear Path following for a Unicycle Using Transverse Feedback Linearization, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Volume 29, 2575-2585, Canada, 2021.

• D'Souza R.S., and Nielsen C., Path Following Control Design for a Gliding Missile, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Volume 58, 485-495, Canada, 2022.

• Mccarthy P.J., and Nielsen C., Global Synchronization of Sampled-Data Invariant Systems on Exponential Lie Groups, IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, Volume 7, 1080-1089, Canada, 2020.

• D'Souza R.S., and Nielsen C., Piecewise-Linear Path Following for a Unicycle using Transverse Feedback Linearization, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Volume 127, 5250-5255, Canada, 2020.