---
title: "Co-Design of Complex Systems: From Autonomy to Future Mobility Systems"
authors:
  - "Gioele Zardini"
year: 2023
venue: "PhD thesis, ETH Zurich"
arxiv: null
doi: "10.3929/ethz-b-000648075"
source: "https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000648075"
topics:
  - "co-design"
  - "applied-category-theory"
  - "compositionality"
seed_rank: 959
seed_batch: "user-add-2026-08-13"
reviewed: "2026-08-13"
pool: "maths-foundations"
relevance_score: 8
lineage: categorical-deep-learning
cites:
  - title: "Applied Compositional Thinking for Engineering"
    url: "https://applied-compositional-thinking.engineering/"
    year: 2024
see:
  - "960-applied-compositional-thinking-for-engineering"
---

# Co-Design of Complex Systems: From Autonomy to Future Mobility Systems

## One-sentence takeaway

Zardini's ETH dissertation (Diss. No. 29820) develops a monotone theory of co-design: design problems as trade-offs between functionality and resources, composed with applied category theory so autonomy platforms and mobility systems can be optimized together rather than separately.

## Why it matters here

This is why Zardini is on Weaves: co-design plus ACT, not just ML diagrams. Anoptic-shaped 'compose the system' thinking — hardware, software, control, and operations as interconnected design problems instead of a single loss.

## Key ideas

- Examiners Emilio Frazzoli, Andrea Censi, Marco Pavone. Open-access ETH Research Collection DOI `10.3929/ethz-b-000648075`.
- A design problem maps required functionality to resource/cost trade-offs; compositionality and functorial solution schemes let you interconnect those problems without flattening them into one optimizer.
- Applications run from embodied-intelligence platforms and AV hardware/control up to transportation networks and mobility-service design.
- Textbook sibling is Censi–Lorand–Zardini *Applied Compositional Thinking for Engineers*.

## Caveats

## Links

- DOI: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000648075
- ETH record: https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/items/d7c08dd5-bf96-4c1f-a744-5e751f0f44a5