Add some salt and pepper to your optimizer with quasi-random numbers generators — Many computer programs rely on random numbers to work. This is the case of global optimization algorithms, which belong to a branch of applied mathematics and numerical analysis that studies how to efficiently find the global minima/maxima of a function f(x) on a given optimization hyper-space. In every global optimization…

Introducing the algorithm that ruled the adaptive flight control system of the first manned hypersonic aircraft, the North American X-15. — We live in a world where control engineering is more important than ever. In the last 10 years, we have seen how cars are able to drive autonomously, how the cost to access space has drastically decreased thanks to reusable rockets that can re-enter the atmosphere and land vertically, and…

Squeezing the most out of past and present information to improve any adaptive controller convergence speed — Today, countless industrial and technological applications have benefited from the latest advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). From mobile applications, that put you in the shoes of Robert Downey Jr. …

An introduction to the “MIT rule”, the adaptation algorithm that ruled the adaptive flight control system of the first manned hypersonic aircraft, the North American X-15. — We live in a world where control engineering is more important than ever. In the last 10 years, we have seen how cars are able to drive autonomously, how the cost to access space has drastically decreased thanks to reusable rockets that can re-enter the atmosphere and land vertically, and…

A performance booster for any global optimizer — In a previous article, I introduced one of a kind method to boost any Global Optimizer using low-discrepancy sequences. This simple hack is equivalent to giving the optimizer a good shot of “steroids” pills. …

In case you “feel the need for speed” — I still remember the wonderful feeling when I joined the aerospace industry and started to code in Matlab. It felt so easy to write in a few seconds a function that would have taken me at least twice the effort in FORTRAN 77. Yes, you are reading right, that old-school…

Unveiling some of the unique technologies that have shaped the most iconic stealth bomber, the B-2 Spirit — Conceived and developed to perform the USAF’s vital penetration missions deep into enemy territory, the B-2 is capable of evading the most advanced radars and defense systems up to date and deploy its ordnance — which could include nuclear weapons — to highly sensitive and strategic targets.

This is the North American X-15, a legend, a pioneer, an engineering marvel born to boost the scientific research which helped to put men on the moon — It was a sunny morning in the Rogers Dry Lake on October 7, 1967. Only the sound of wind and dust dared timidly to break the silence. Suddenly, a big “bang” came out of the blue. It was the “sonic-boom” of the North American X-15, soaring high at an incredible…

From multitasking tricks to shortcuts that will save you precious time, here you have my Top-5 functions and aliases for those “Bash-days” — Bash is a powerful command-line interface, but in my opinion, many times its syntax is way too cumbersome. For the newcomers, it’s common to get stuck trying to remember what was the correct spelling of that “magical” but odd command to do a specific task. Honestly, when I started using…