Curriculum Vitae

I received my Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tuzla in 2015 and my Master's degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the Technical University of Munich in 2018. I received a DAAD scholarship for my master's studies. My PhD was supervised by Prof. Moritz Diehl. I started my PhD in 2018 as an external industrial PhD student at Siemens Technology Munich, in the Autonomous Systems and Control research group. In October 2021, I moved to the University of Freiburg. Together with my co-authors, I received the IEEE Control Systems Letters Outstanding Paper Award for 2022. I successfully defended my PhD (summa cum laude) in November 2023, and was a finalist for the 2024 European Systems & Control PhD Thesis Award. For a brief overview of my research, please take a look at my interview in the IEEE Control Systems Magazine. 

I am spending the summer semester of 2025 at the Institute for Mathematical Optimization at TU Braunschweig as an interim professor.

Research Interest 

My current research focuses on developing numerical methods for the optimal control of hybrid and nonsmooth dynamical systems. This includes systems described by ODEs with discontinuous vector fields (e.g., Filippov systems, switched systems, and dynamic complementarity systems), as well as systems with state jumps, and systems with mixed-integer control inputs. I am particularly interested in real-time optimization methods applicable to broad classes of such systems, which are essential for model predictive control. I also take an active interest in robust optimization and control theory. I am also involved in applying these methods to real-world systems, with a focus on robotics and renewable energy.

For more details about my work see the lecture slides of the Summer School on Direct Methods for Optimal Control of Nonsmooth Systems or the Winter School on Numerical Methods for Optimal Control of Nonsmooth Systems. 

For publications, check out the list below or my Google Scholar page. 

Preprints

• An Efficient Mixed-Integer Formulation and an Iterative Method for Optimal Control of Switched Systems Under Dwell Time Constraints - Ramin Abbasi-Esfeden, Armin Nurkanović, Moritz Diehl, Panagiotis Patrinos, Jan Swevers
• A Globally Convergent Method for Computing B-stationary Points of Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints - Armin Nurkanović, Sven Leyffer 
• A Comparative Study of MINLP and MPVC Formulations for Solving Complex Nonlinear Decision-Making Problems in Aerospace Applications - Andrea Ghezzi, Armin Nurkanović, Avishai Weiss, Moritz Diehl, Stefano Di Cairano
  
   

Teaching

Summer semester 2025

• Dynamic Optimization (at TU Braunschweig)
• Computerlab Optimization (in Julia)  (at TU Braunschweig)

Winter semester 2024\2025

• Winter School on Numerical Methods for Optimal Control of Nonsmooth Systems

Winter semester 2023\2024

• Numerical optimization (exercises)

Summer semester 2023 

• Summer School on Direct Methods for Optimal Control of Nonsmooth Systems 

• Numerical optimal control (exercises)

   

Software

The implementation of all of my methods and reformulations are publicly available in the open-source packages nosnoc and nosnoc_py.

For collaborators 

If you are from industry or academia and interested in collaboration, please feel free to contact me. I am always open to engaging in exciting academic or application-oriented collaborations.

For students 

I am open to supervising talented and ambitious Bachelor's and Master's students of mathematics, engieneering and computer science for their theses. You are welcome to propose a topic, or I can help identify one that aligns with both our interests. If you are interested in working with me, please send an email outlining your area of interest, and attach your CV and a recent transcript of records to your email. 

Currently available master theses: 

• The Time-Freezing Reformulation for Contact-Rich Optimal Control