Mathukumalli Vidyasagar (‘Sagar’) has focused his career on control and system theory, which lies in the intersection of engineering and mathematics. Systems consist of components that make up larger structures — such as individual genes interacting within a cell. His work has profound consequences for designing high-performance aircraft and controlling flexible, lightweight robots.

He has combined mathematics and artificial intelligence to produce an elegant theory of how machines learn from examples. When Sagar was Director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, a defence laboratory in India, his theories were used to design controllers for India’s Tejas fighter. Recently he has been applying machine learning methods to design personalised therapy for cancer patients.

Sagar’s other achievements include being made Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) at the age of 35, and winning the IEEE Control Systems Award and the Rufus Oldenburger Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has published many advanced monographs on a variety of topics, propagating his findings to the research community at large.