Saber Jafarpour

Research Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
University of Colorado Boulder
Email: saber.jafarpour@colorado.edu

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Representative Papers:

neuralnetwork NeurIPS SemiContraction SIREV
Efficient Interaction-aware Interval Analysis for Neural Network Feedback Loops, TAC, 2024, (pdf) Robust Implicit Networks via Non-Euclidean Contractions, NeurIPS, 2021, (pdf) Weak and Semi-Contractions for Network Systems and Diffusively-Coupled Oscillators, TAC, 2021, (pdf) Flow and Elastic Networks on the n-Torus, SIREV, 2021, (pdf)


Selected Research Papers:

The following papers are in reverse chronological order. For most of them, I have also included the arXiv version which might be slightly different from the published version. The asterisk * means these authors contributed equally.

Under review papers:
  1. A. Nadali, A. Trivedi, M. Zamani, and S. Jafarpour, Monotone Neural Barrier Certificates, Submitted, May. 2024.

  2. Z. Liu, S. Jafarpour, and Y. Chen, Safety Verification of Nonlinear Stochastic Systems via Probabilistic Tube, Submitted, April. 2025. [arXiv]

  3. F. Galarza-Jimenez, M. Zamani, and S. Jafarpour, Trajectory-based Barrier Certificates for Monotone Systems, Submitted, March. 2025.

  4. C. Xu, S. Jafarpour, C. Zhao, Z. Shi, and J. Chen, Geometric Reachability for Attitude Control Systems via Contraction Theory, Submitted, Feb. 2025. [arXiv]

  5. Z. Liu, S. Jafarpour, and Y. Chen, Probabilistic Reachability of Discrete-time Nonlinear Stochastic System, Submitted, Aug. 2024.

Journal/CS-conference papers:
  1. S. Jafarpour*, Z. Liu*, and Y. Chen, Probabilistic Reachability Analysis of Stochastic Control Systems, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, To apear, April 2025. [arXiv]

  2. Z. Liu, S. Jafarpour, and Y. Chen, Safety Verification of Stochastic Systems: A Set-Erosion Approach, IEEE Control Systems Letters, 8:2859-2864, Dec. 2024. [Journal Version]

  3. S. Jafarpour and S. Coogan, Monotonicity and Contraction on Polyhedral Cones, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 70(2):1200-1207, 2025. [Journal Version] [arXiv]

  4. S. Jafarpour*, A. Harapanahalli* and S. Coogan, Efficient Interaction-Aware Interval Analysis of Neural Network Feedback Loops, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control To apear, July 2024. [Journal version][arXiv]

  5. M. Pirani* and S. Jafarpour*, Network critical slowing down: Data-driven detection of critical transitions in nonlinear networks, IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems , 11(2):573-585, 2024. [Journal Version][arXiv]

  6. S. Jafarpour, A. Davydov, and F. Bullo, Non-Euclidean Contraction Theory for Monotone and Positive Systems, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 68(9):5653-5660, 2023. [Journal version][arXiv]

  7. A. Harapanahalli, S. Jafarpour, and S. Coogan Forward Invariance in Neural Network Controlled Systems, IEEE Control Systems Letters, vol. 7, pp. 3962 - 3967, 2023. [Journal version]

  8. A. Davydov, S. Jafarpour, and F. Bullo, Non-Euclidean Contraction Theory for Robust Nonlinear Stability, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 67(12): 6667-6681, 2022. [Journal version][arXiv]

  9. S. Jafarpour, V. Purba, S. V. Dhople, B. Johnson, and F. Bullo, Singular Perturbation and Small-signal Stability for Inverter Networks, IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, 9 (2):979-992, 2022. [Journal version][arXiv]

  10. K. D. Smith, S. Jafarpour, A. Swami, and F. Bullo, Topology Inference with Multivariate Cumulants: The Mobius Inference Algorithm, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 30(5): 2102-2116, 2022 [Journal version][arXiv]

  11. S. Jafarpour*, A. Davydov*, A. V. Proskurnikov, and F. Bullo, Robust Implicit Networks via Non-Euclidean Contractions, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), 34: 9857-9868, 2021. [OpenReview][poster]

  12. S. Jafarpour, P. Cisneros-Velarde, and F. Bullo, Weak and Semi-Contraction for Network Systems and Diffusively-Coupled Oscillators, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 67(3):1285-1300, 2021. [Journal version][arXiv]

  13. S. Jafarpour, E. Y. Huang, K. D. Smith, and F. Bullo, Flow and Elastic Networks on the n-torus: Geometry, Analysis, and Computation, SIAM Review (Research Spotlight), 64(1):59-104, 2021. [Journal version][arXiv]

  14. P. Cisneros-Velarde, S. Jafarpour and F. Bullo, Distributed and time-varying primal-dual dynamics via contraction analysis, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 67(7): 3560-3566, 2021. [Journal version][arXiv]

  15. X. Duan, S. Jafarpour, and F. Bullo, Graph-Theoretic Small-Gain Theorems for Metzler Matrices and Monotone Systems, SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, 59(5):3447-3471, 2021. [Journal Version][arXiv]

  16. A. Silva, F. Kocayusufoglu, S. Jafarpour, A. Swami, F. Bullo, and A. K. Singh, Combining Physics and Machine Learning for Network Flow Estimation, 9th International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) , Virtual Seminar, May 2021. [OpenReview]

  17. K. D. Smith, S. Jafarpour, and F. Bullo, Transient Stability of Droop-Controlled Inverter Networks with Operating Constraints, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 67(2): 633-645, 2021. [Journal version]

  18. V. Purba, B. Johnson, S. Jafarpour, F. Bullo, and S. V. Dhople. Dynamic Aggregation of Grid-tied Three-phase Inverters , IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 35(2): 1520-1530, 2020. [Journal version]

  19. S. Jafarpour and F. Bullo, Synchronization of Kuramoto Oscillators via Cutset Projections, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 64(7):2830-2844, 2019. [Journal version][arXiv]

  20. S. Jafarpour, E. Y. Huang, and F. Bullo, Synchronization of Kuramoto Oscillators: Inverse Taylor Expansions, SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, 57(5):3388-3412, 2019. [Journal version]

  21. S. Jafarpour, On Small-time Local Controllability, SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, 58(1):425-446, 2019. [Journal version][arXiv]

  22. M. George, S. Jafarpour, and F. Bullo, Markov Chains with Maximum Entropy for Robotic Surveillance, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 64(4):1566-1580, 2019. [Journal version]

  23. V. Purba, S. V. Dhople, M. Rodriguez, S. Jafarpour, F. Bullo, and B. Johnson, Reduced-order Aggregate Model for Parallel-connected Single-phase Inverters, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, 34(2):824-837, 2019. [Journal version]

  24. S. Jafarpour and A. D. Lewis, Locally Convex Topologies and Control Theory, Mathematics of Control, Signals and Systems, 28(4):1-46, 2016. [Journal version]

Refereed Conference papers:
  1. S. Jafarpour and S. Coogan, A contracting dynamical system perspective toward interval Markov decision processes, 62nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), to appear, Dec. 2023 [arXiv]

  2. A. Harapanahalli and S. Jafarpour and S. Coogan, Contraction-Guided Adaptive Partitioning for Reachability Analysis of Neural Network Controlled Systems, 62nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), to appear, Dec. 2023 [arXiv]

  3. S. Jafarpour*, A. Harapanahalli*, S. Coogan, Interval Reachability of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems with Neural Network Controllers, 5th Annual Learning for Dynamics and Control Conference (L4DC), PMLR, 211:1-14, 2023. [PMLR][arXiv]

  4. A. Davydov*, S. Jafarpour*, M. Abate, F. Bullo, S. Coogan, Comparative Analysis of Interval Reachability for Robust Implicit and Feedforward Neural Networks, 61th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Dec. 2022. [Proceeding version] [arXiv]

  5. A. Davydov*, S. Jafarpour*, A. V. Proskurnikov, and F. Bullo, Non-Euclidean monotone opera- tor theory with applications to recurrent neural networks, 61th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Dec. 2022. [Proceeding version] [arXiv]

  6. S. Jafarpour*, M. Abate*, A. Davydov*, F. Bullo, and S. Coogan, Robustness Certificates for Implicit Neural Networks: A Mixed Monotone Contractive Approach , Learning for Dynamics and Control Conference, Oral Presentation (Top 10% of the submissions), Stanford University, June 2022. [Proceeding version][arXiv]

  7. S. Jafarpour and S. Coogan, Resilience of Input Metering in Dynamic Flow Networks, 2022 American Control Conference , Atlanta, June 2022. [Proceeding version][arXiv]

  8. F. Bullo, P. Cisneros-Velarde, A. Davydov, and S. Jafarpour. From contraction theory to fixed point algorithms on Riemannian and non-Euclidean spaces, 60th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Dec. 2021. (Invited Tutorial Session) [arXiv]

  9. E. Y. Huang, S. Jafarpour, and F. Bullo, Synchronization of Coupled Oscillators: The Taylor Expansion of the Inverse Kuramoto Map , 57th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control , Miami, Florida, Dec. 2018. [arXiv][Proceedings version]

  10. V. Purba and S. V. Dhople and S. Jafarpour and F. Bullo and B. Johnson, Network-cognizant Model Reduction of Grid-tied Three-phase Inverters , 55th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing , Monticello, Illinois, Oct. 2017. [Proceedings version]

  11. V. Purba and S. Jafarpour and B. Johnson and F. Bullo and S. V. Dhople, Reduced-order Structure-preserving Model for Parallel-connected Three-phase Grid-tied Inverters , 18th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics , Stanford, California, July 2017. [Proceedings version]

  12. S. Jafarpour and A. D. Lewis, The Classical and Tautological Orbit Theorems, 22nd International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems, Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 2016. [Pdf]

  13. S. Jafarpour and A. D. Lewis, Real Analytic Control Systems, 53th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Los Angeles, California, Dec. 2014. [Pdf] [Proceedings version]
Books and Preprints:
  1. S. Jafarpour and A. D. Lewis, Time-varying Vector Fields and Their Flows, SpringerBriefs in Mathematics, Springer-Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-319-10139-2. [Pdf] [Springer version]

  2. S. Jafarpour, Local and Global Holomorphic Extensions of Time-varying Real Analytic Vector Fields, Preprint, 2016. [arXiv]

  3. S. Jafarpour and A. D. Lewis, Local Reachability of Control Systems in Étalé Lie Groupoids, Preprint, 2014. [Pdf]
PhD Thesis
  1. On the Role of Regularity in Mathematical Control Theory , PhD Thesis, Queen's University, Mar. 2016. [Pdf] [Slides]