Christopher R. Laughman

Christopher R. Laughman
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  • Biography

    Christopher's interests lie in the intersection of the modeling of physical systems and the experimental construction and testing of these systems, including simulation, numerical methods, and fault detection. He has worked on a variety of multi-physical systems, such as thermo-fluid systems and electromechanical energy conversion systems.

  • Recent News & Events

    •  NEWS    MERL researchers present 8 papers at ACC 2026
      Date: May 26, 2026 - May 29, 2026
      Where: New Orleans, USA
      MERL Contacts: Scott A. Bortoff; Vedang M. Deshpande; Stefano Di Cairano; Christopher R. Laughman; Jordan Leung; Hongtao Qiao; Zhaolin Ren; Abraham P. Vinod; Yebin Wang
      Research Areas: Control, Dynamical Systems, Optimization, Robotics
      Brief
      • MERL researchers presented 8 papers at the recently concluded American Control Conference (ACC) 2026 in New Orleans, USA. The papers covered a wide range of topics including robust controllable set computation, vapor compression cycle calibration, task-reasoning LLM agents, Minkowski-cost stable MPC, polynomial chaos approximation, invariant-set motion planning, heat-pump MPC architectures, and relaxed barrier-function MPC. Additionally, Zhaolin Ren was an invited speaker at Multi-Agent Dynamic Games workshop, and Abraham Vinod served as a panelist at the Professional Development and Career Advice for Young Professionals session.

        As a sponsor of the conference, MERL maintained a booth for open discussions with researchers and students, and hosted a special session to discuss highlights of MERL research and work philosophy.
    •  
    •  NEWS    MERL Researchers at NeurIPS 2025 presented 2 conference papers, 5 workshop papers, and organized a workshop.
      Date: December 2, 2025 - December 7, 2025
      Where: San Diego
      MERL Contacts: Petros T. Boufounos; Anoop Cherian; Radu Corcodel; Stefano Di Cairano; Chiori Hori; Christopher R. Laughman; Suhas Lohit; Pedro Miraldo; Saviz Mowlavi; Kuan-Chuan Peng; Arvind Raghunathan; Abraham P. Vinod; Pu (Perry) Wang
      Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Computational Sensing, Computer Vision, Control, Data Analytics, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Optimization, Robotics, Signal Processing, Speech & Audio
      Brief
      • MERL researchers presented 2 main-conference papers and 5 workshop papers, as well as organized a workshop, at NeurIPS 2025.

        Main Conference Papers:

        1) Sorachi Kato, Ryoma Yataka, Pu Wang, Pedro Miraldo, Takuya Fujihashi, and Petros Boufounos, "RAPTR: Radar-based 3D Pose Estimation using Transformer", Code available at: https://github.com/merlresearch/radar-pose-transformer

        2) Runyu Zhang, Arvind Raghunathan, Jeff Shamma, and Na Li, "Constrained Optimization From a Control Perspective via Feedback Linearization"

        Workshop Papers:

        1) Yuyou Zhang, Radu Corcodel, Chiori Hori, Anoop Cherian, and Ding Zhao, "SpinBench: Perspective and Rotation as a Lens on Spatial Reasoning in VLMs", NeuriIPS 2025 Workshop on SPACE in Vision, Language, and Embodied AI (SpaVLE) (Best Paper Runner-up)

        2) Xiaoyu Xie, Saviz Mowlavi, and Mouhacine Benosman, "Smooth and Sparse Latent Dynamics in Operator Learning with Jerk Regularization", Workshop on Machine Learning and the Physical Sciences (ML4PS)

        3) Spencer Hutchinson, Abraham Vinod, François Germain, Stefano Di Cairano, Christopher Laughman, and Ankush Chakrabarty, "Quantile-SMPC for Grid-Interactive Buildings with Multivariate Temporal Fusion Transformers", Workshop on UrbanAI: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Smart Cities (UrbanAI)

        4) Yuki Shirai, Kei Ota, Devesh Jha, and Diego Romeres, "Sim-to-Real Contact-Rich Pivoting via Optimization-Guided RL with Vision and Touch", Worskhop on Embodied World Models for Decision Making

        5) Mark Van der Merwe and Devesh Jha, "In-Context Policy Iteration for Dynamic Manipulation", Workshop on Embodied World Models for Decision Making

        Workshop Organized:

        MERL members co-organized the Multimodal Algorithmic Reasoning (MAR) Workshop (https://marworkshop.github.io/neurips25/). Organizers: Anoop Cherian (Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories), Kuan-Chuan Peng (Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories), Suhas Lohit (Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories), Honglu Zhou (Salesforce AI Research), Kevin Smith (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Joshua B. Tenenbaum (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
    •  

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  • Internships with Chris

    See All Internships at MERL

  • MERL Publications

    •  Zinage, S., Dixit, V., Chakrabarty, A., Qiao, H., Laughman, C.R., Bilionis, I., Deshpande, V.M., "Sequential Model Calibration of Vapor Compression Cycles using Approximate Bayesian Computation", American Control Conference (ACC), May 2026.
      BibTeX TR2026-061 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Zinage2026may,
      • author = {Zinage, Shrenik and Dixit, Vaibhav and Chakrabarty, Ankush and Qiao, Hongtao and Laughman, Christopher R. and Bilionis, Ilias and Deshpande, Vedang M.},
      • title = {{Sequential Model Calibration of Vapor Compression Cycles using Approximate Bayesian Computation}},
      • booktitle = {American Control Conference (ACC)},
      • year = 2026,
      • month = may,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2026-061}
      • }
    •  Vaziri, A., Qiao, H., Laughman, C.R., Fang, H., "Modular Deep Learning Framework for Vapor-Compression HVAC Systems: Scalable, Efficient, and Physically Consistent Modeling", Applied Thermal Engineering, May 2026.
      BibTeX TR2026-058 PDF
      • @article{Vaziri2026may,
      • author = {Vaziri, Ali and Qiao, Hongtao and Laughman, Christopher R. and Fang, Huazhen},
      • title = {{Modular Deep Learning Framework for Vapor-Compression HVAC Systems: Scalable, Efficient, and Physically Consistent Modeling}},
      • journal = {Applied Thermal Engineering},
      • year = 2026,
      • month = may,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2026-058}
      • }
    •  Zhai, H., Qiao, H., Mansour, H., Laughman, C.R., "Scalable Physics-Informed Neural Differential Equations and Data-Driven Algorithms for HVAC Systems", arXiv, April 2026.
      BibTeX arXiv
      • @article{Zhai2026apr,
      • author = {Zhai, Hanfeng and Qiao, Hongtao and Mansour, Hassan and Laughman, Christopher R.},
      • title = {{Scalable Physics-Informed Neural Differential Equations and Data-Driven Algorithms for HVAC Systems}},
      • journal = {arXiv},
      • year = 2026,
      • month = apr,
      • url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.18438}
      • }
    •  Hutchinson, S., Vinod, A.P., Germain, F.G., Di Cairano, S., Laughman, C.R., Chakrabarty, A., "Quantile-SMPC for Grid-Interactive Buildings with Multivariate Temporal Fusion Transformers", Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) Workshop on UrbanAI, December 2025.
      BibTeX TR2026-001 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Hutchinson2025dec,
      • author = {{{Hutchinson, Spencer and Vinod, Abraham P. and Germain, François G and Di Cairano, Stefano and Laughman, Christopher R. and Chakrabarty, Ankush}}},
      • title = {{{Quantile-SMPC for Grid-Interactive Buildings with Multivariate Temporal Fusion Transformers}}},
      • booktitle = {Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) Workshop on UrbanAI},
      • year = 2025,
      • month = dec,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2026-001}
      • }
    •  Park, Y.-J., Germain, F.G., Liu, J., Wang, Y., Koike-Akino, T., Wichern, G., Azizan, N., Laughman, C.R., Chakrabarty, A., "Probabilistic Forecasting for Building Energy Systems using Time-Series Foundation Models", Energy and Buildings, DOI: 10.1016/​j.enbuild.2025.116446, Vol. 348, pp. 116446, December 2025.
      BibTeX TR2026-030 PDF
      • @article{Park2026mar,
      • author = {Park, Young-Jin and Germain, François G and Liu, Jing and Wang, Ye and Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Wichern, Gordon and Azizan, Navid and Laughman, Christopher R. and Chakrabarty, Ankush},
      • title = {{Probabilistic Forecasting for Building Energy Systems using Time-Series Foundation Models}},
      • journal = {Energy and Buildings},
      • year = 2026,
      • volume = 348,
      • pages = 116446,
      • month = mar,
      • doi = {10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.116446},
      • issn = {0378-7788},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2026-030}
      • }
    See All MERL Publications for Chris

  • Software & Data Downloads

  • Videos

  • MERL Issued Patents

    • Title: "System and Method for Data-Driven Control of an Air-Conditioning System"
      Inventors: Qiao, Hongtao; Chakrabarty, Ankush; Laughman, Christopher; Wang, Yebin
      Patent No.: 12,632,016
      Issue Date: May 19, 2026
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling a Vapor Compression System with Safe Actuator Changes"
      Inventors: Chakrabarty, Ankush; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 12,516,840
      Issue Date: Jan 6, 2026
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling an Operation of a Vapor Compression Cycle"
      Inventors: Deshpande, Vedang; Chinchilla, Raphael; Chakrabarty, Ankush; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 12,510,278
      Issue Date: Dec 30, 2025
    • Title: "System and Method for Monitoring an Operation of a Vapor Compression Cycle"
      Inventors: Laughman, Christopher; Deshpande, Vedang
      Patent No.: 12,366,395
      Issue Date: Jul 22, 2025
    • Title: "System and Method for Calculation of Thermofluid Properties using Saturation Curve-Aligned Coordinates"
      Inventors: Laughman, Christopher; Bortoff, Scott A.; Qiao, Hongtao
      Patent No.: 11,739,996
      Issue Date: Aug 29, 2023
    • Title: "Method and System for Circuiting in Heat Exchangers"
      Inventors: Raghunathan, Arvind U; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 11,704,447
      Issue Date: Jul 18, 2023
    • Title: "Controlling Vapor Compression System Using Probabilistic Surrogate Model"
      Inventors: Chakrabarty, Ankush; Laughman, Christopher; Bortoff, Scott A.
      Patent No.: 11,573,023
      Issue Date: Feb 7, 2023
    • Title: "Extremum Seeking Control with Stochastic Gradient Estimation"
      Inventors: Chakrabarty, Ankush; Danielson, Claus; Bortoff, Scott A.; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 11,467,544
      Issue Date: Oct 11, 2022
    • Title: "System and Method for Power Optimizing Control of Multi-Zone Heat Pumps"
      Inventors: Bortoff, Scott A.; Burns, Daniel J; Laughman, Christopher; Qiao, Hongtao
      Patent No.: 10,895,412
      Issue Date: Jan 19, 2021
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling Refrigerant in Vapor Compression System"
      Inventors: Laughman, Christopher; Qiao, Hongtao; Burns, Daniel J; Bortoff, Scott A.
      Patent No.: 10,830,515
      Issue Date: Nov 10, 2020
    • Title: "System and Method for Thermal Comfort Control"
      Inventors: Bortoff, Scott A.; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 10,767,887
      Issue Date: Sep 8, 2020
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling Vapor Compression Systems"
      Inventors: Burns, Daniel J; Laughman, Christopher; Bortoff, Scott A.
      Patent No.: 10,495,364
      Issue Date: Dec 3, 2019
    • Title: "Coordinated Operation of Multiple Space-Conditioning Systems"
      Inventors: Laughman, Christopher; Qiao, Hongtao; Burns, Daniel J; Bortoff, Scott A.
      Patent No.: 10,234,158
      Issue Date: Mar 19, 2019
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling Multi-Zone Vapor Compression Systems"
      Inventors: Burns, Daniel J; Di Cairano, Stefano; Bortoff, Scott A.; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 10,174,957
      Issue Date: Jan 8, 2019
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling of Vapor Compression System"
      Inventors: Burns, Dan; Jain, Neera; Laughman, Christopher; Di Cairano, Stefano; Bortoff, Scott A.
      Patent No.: 9,625,196
      Issue Date: Apr 18, 2017
    • Title: "Method For Reconstructing 3D Scenes From 2D Images"
      Inventors: Ramalingam, Srikumar; Taguchi, Yuichi; Pillai, Jaishanker K; Burns, Dan; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 9,595,134
      Issue Date: Mar 14, 2017
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling Vapor Compression Systems"
      Inventors: Burns, Dan; Laughman, Christopher; Bortoff, Scott A.
      Patent No.: 9,534,820
      Issue Date: Jan 3, 2017
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling Temperature and Humidity in Multiple Spaces using Liquid Desiccant"
      Inventors: Laughman, Christopher; Burns, Daniel J; Bortoff, Scott A.; Waters, Richard C.
      Patent No.: 9,518,765
      Issue Date: Dec 13, 2016
    • Title: "Adaptive Control of Vapor Compression System"
      Inventors: Burns, Dan J.; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 9,182,154
      Issue Date: Nov 10, 2015
    • Title: "Controlling Operation of Vapor Compression System"
      Inventors: Nikovski, Daniel N.; Laughman, Christopher; Burns, Dan J.
      Patent No.: 8,793,003
      Issue Date: Jul 29, 2014
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling Operations of Vapor Compression"
      Inventors: Bortoff, Scott A.; Burns, Dan J.; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 8,694,131
      Issue Date: Apr 8, 2014
    See All Patents for MERL