This article presents experimental evidence of the ability of a single automated vehicle acting as a controller to effectively dissipate stop-and-go waves in real traffic. The automated vehicle succeeded in stabilizing the speed profile by reducing oscillations in time and speed variations between vehicles during rush hour on I-24 in the Nashville area. We detail the control design, deployment and results obtained in this experiment, conducted as part of the CIRCLES consortium’s “MegaVanderTest” 2022, which involved a total of 100 automated vehicles.

Quantum computing is a fascinating interdisciplinary research field that promises to revolutionize computing by efficiently solving previously intractable problems. Recent years have seen tremendous progress on both the experimental realization of quantum computing devices and the development and implementation of quantum algorithms. However, realizing the computational advantages of quantum computers in practice remains a widely open problem due to numerous fundamental challenges. Interestingly, many of these challenges are connected to performance, robustness, scalability, optimization, or feedback, all of which are central concepts in control theory. <p xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">This article provides a tutorial introduction to quantum computing from the perspective of control theory. We introduce the mathematical framework of quantum algorithms ranging from basic elements, including quantum bits and quantum gates, to more advanced concepts, such as variational quantum algorithms and quantum errors. The tutorial only requires basic knowledge of linear algebra and, in particular, no prior exposure to quantum physics. Our main goal is to equip readers with the mathematical basics required to understand and possibly solve (control-related) problems in quantum computing. In particular, beyond the tutorial introduction, we provide a list of research challenges in the field of quantum computing and discuss their connections to control.

As the official means of communication for the IEEE Control Systems Society, IEEE Control Systems publishes interesting, useful, and informative material on all aspects of control system technology for the benefit of control educators, practitioners, and researchers. With this mission statement in mind, IEEE Control Systems encourages submissions, both feature articles and columns, on all aspects of control system technology. A feature article typically provides an in-depth treatment of either an application of control technology, a tutorial on some area of control theory, or an innovation in control education. IEEE Control Systems publishes a variety of columns. "Applications of Control" columns are industrially oriented summaries of innovations in control technology. "Focus on Education" typically describes some aspect of education such as novel control experiments. "Lecture Notes" can be theoretical in nature as long as they have clear tutorial value and intent. See recent issues for examples of these and other types of columns. Authors are encouraged to contact the editor-in-chief about the suitability of potential columns.

Great controls researchers are good at solving problems. But, once you reach a certain level, raw analytical skills and problem-solving chops become almost commodities. What this means is that problem-solving by itself is not all that constitutes good research. In fact, when I look around our field and think about which researchers I really admire, my appreciation is rarely based on them being better at solving problems. It is that they have better problems in the first place.

In this issue of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">IEEE Control Systems</i>, we speak with Huanshui Zhang, who is a distinguished professor at Shandong University of Science and Technology/Shandong University, Shandong, China, and with Moritz Mathias Diehl, who heads the Systems Control and Optimization Laboratory at the University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.