Jason R. Marden
University of California, Santa Barbara
I work on the design and analysis of distributed multiagent systems, with a particular interest in how game-theoretic methods can transform engineering practice. My research blends control theory, mechanism design, and learning to coordinate large-scale autonomous systems — from robot swarms and sensor networks to power grids and adversarial resource allocation.
About
I am a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC Santa Barbara, where I have been a faculty member since 2015. Before UCSB, I held an Assistant Professorship at the University of Colorado Boulder (2010–2015) and was a Junior Fellow at Caltech's Social and Information Sciences Laboratory (2007–2009). I received my PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from UCLA in 2007 under the supervision of Jeff S. Shamma.
My research is motivated by a simple observation: as engineered systems grow more distributed and autonomous, the agents within them increasingly behave less like obedient subroutines and more like strategic actors with their own information, objectives, and incentives. This shift demands new tools — and game theory, when reframed from a descriptive lens into a prescriptive design discipline, offers exactly that.
I was named an IEEE Fellow in 2023 for contributions to game-theoretic methods for control of distributed multiagent systems. My work has been recognized by the Donald P. Eckman Award, the SIAG/CST Best SICON Paper Prize, the ONR and AFOSR Young Investigator Awards, and the NSF CAREER Award.
Research
My research develops the theoretical and algorithmic foundations for coordinating systems of strategic agents. The work spans six interlocking threads — click any card for detail, or visit the full research page.