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Dr. Zahra Marvi

Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Virginia Commonwealth University

Email:marviz(at)vcu.edu
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About me

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. My research focuses on control systems and reinforcement learning, with an emphasis on developing safe, scalable, and learning-enabled control frameworks for complex dynamical systems, with applications in energy systems and robotics.
Prior to joining VCU, I was a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. I received my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University, as well as my M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees from K. N. Toosi University of Technology.

Academic Updates

PhD Opportunities in My Research Group
I am looking for highly motivated students interested in control systems, reinforcement learning, and energy-aware autonomous robotics. If interested, please send your CV along with a brief cover letter describing your research interests and future career goals to marviz(at)vcu.edu

2026 Aug. : I joined Virginia Commonwealth University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

2026 Aug. : Our paper, “Discrete Control Barrier Proximal Dynamics: Quantized Multi-Actuator and Sampled-data Systems, ” has been published in Automatica. This is joint work with Francesco Bullo and Andrew Alleyne.

2026 July : Our paper, “Barrier Proximal Controlled Systems: Safety and Closed-Loop Contractivity,” has been accepted to the Conference on Control and Decision (CDC) 2026. This is joint work with Francesco Bullo and Andrew Alleyne.

2026 May : I will be attending the 2026 American Control Conference. Our paper, “Safe Control of Sampled-Data Systems via Discretized Parametric Contracting Dynamics”, co-authored with Francesco Bullo and Andrew Alleyne, will be presented in the session Set-Based Methods in Dynamic Systems and Control I (Paper WeA20.2) on May 27 from 10:45–11:00 AM in Churchill B2.

2026 Mar. : Our paper, “Air-cooled Battery Pack Thermal Management via Control Barrier Proximal Dynamics,” has been accepted to IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. This is joint work with Francesco Bullo and Andrew Alleyne.

2026 Jan. : Our paper, “Safe Control of Sampled-Data Systems via Discretized Parametric Contracting Dynamics,” has been accepted to the American Control Conference (ACC). This is joint work with Francesco Bullo and Andrew Alleyne.

2026 Jan. : Seminars at UC Irvine and UCSB.