About

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, advised by Prof. Mahnoosh Alizadeh. My research focuses on safe learning and control with energy systems applications. This includes work on online optimization, bandit learning and adaptive control, as well as applications to pricing design in the electric grid.

I am also fortunate to have done an internship at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) in summer 2025, where I worked on stochastic model predictive control with deep forecasting models for energy systems.

View my publications or download my CV.

Selected Publications

• S. Hutchinson and M. Alizadeh, “Constrained Online Convex Optimization with Polyak Feasibility Steps,” International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2025. proceedings.mlr.press/v267/hutchinson25a.html
• S. Hutchinson, B. Turan, and M. Alizadeh, “Directional Optimism for Safe Linear Bandits,” International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS), 2024. proceedings.mlr.press/v238/hutchinson24a.html
• S. Hutchinson, B. Turan, and M. Alizadeh, “Safe Pricing Mechanisms for Distributed Resource Allocation with Bandit Feedback,” IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems (TCNS), 2024. doi.org/10.1109/TCNS.2024.3372143