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UCSB “Dynamical Systems” – Course Syllabus
ME 103, Fall 2025
Instructor: Francesco Bullo
SYLLABUS
This is the syllabus for the UCSB course ME 103 “Dynamical Systems”, Fall
2025.
This information is always available and updated at the URL
http://motion.me.ucsb.edu/ME103-Fall2025/syllabus.html.
Textbooks and Reading Material
I will follow my weekly notes, listed below. I will cover one slide deck
per week (essentially one chapter per week), with the exceptions of
Chapters 4 and 5 which are longer.
I might update the slides before lecture. If so in any case, the latest
version of the slides for each week will be always available on this
website.
For additional reading I recommend:
Dynamical Systems
K. Ogata
4th edition, Pearson, 2003, ISBN 0131424629
Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems
G. F. Franklin, J. D. Powell, and A. Emami-Naeini
8th edition, Prentice Hall, 2018, ISBN 1-292-27452-2
Feedback Systems: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers
K. J. Åström and R. M. Murray
2nd edition, Princeton University Press, 2021, ISBN 0691193983
PDF available here
How to turn in homework + late homework policy
Homework is submitted via Gradescope.
No late homework will be accepted without prior approval. Approval is
automatic the first three times you ask: to announce late homework you
must send email to the lead TA Abed Musaffar by midnight the day before
<abed@engineering.ucsb.edu>.
Beginning with the second late homework, late homework will automatically
lose 20% of the grade and no late homework will be accepted after 11:59pm
two business days after the deadline.
Homework formatting
One Exercise Per Page: For clarity, please answer each exercise on a
separate page. Gradescope allows you to associate each page with the
corresponding question, which will help streamline the grading process for
the TAs.
Box Your Final Answers: Be sure to draw a box around your final
answers. Last year, it was sometimes challenging for the TAs to determine
your final answers, which made grading more difficult. Clearly marking your
final answers will help avoid confusion and help the TAs give you partial
credit.
How to request a clarification about homework grades
If you have any concerns or clarification requests about a grade you
received, you must submit the re-grade request within 1 week from the
moment the grade is made available.
Please include a careful explanation and all relevant dates and facts: send
a single email to the lead TA and Professor Bullo.
No homework/midterm re-grade requests will be considered during and after
the final exam week.
Week 1: Mon Sep 29 and Wed Oct 1
Reading Assignment: FB Chapter #1: handouts/DynSys-Chp01-2025-09-21.pdf
Homework Assignment #1, due on Wednesday Week 2, at 11:59pm, on gradescope:
E1.8 “Finding typos in Python code”,
E1.9 “Matching phase portraits to dynamics”,
E1.10 “Understanding phase portraits”, and
E1.11 “One-dimensional phase portrait”
Week 2: Mon Oct 6 and Wed Oct 8
Reading Assignment: FB Chapter #2: handouts/DynSys-Chp02-2025-10-05.pdf
Homework Assignment #2, due on Wednesday Week 3, at 11:59pm, on gradescope:
E2.3 “Mechanical modeling of a muscle”,
E2.7 “Rigid and flexible foundations in vibration isolation”,
E2.8 “Equations of motion for the roll dynamics of a ship”, and
E2.11 “Gear train with three gears in contact”
Week 3: Mon Oct 13 and Wed Oct 15
Reading Assignment: FB Chapter #3: handouts/DynSys-Chp03-2025-10-12.pdf
Homework Assignment #3: due on Wednesday Week 4, at 11:59pm, on gradescope:
E3.1 “Heat transfer problems in surfing”,
E3.4 “Heat and fluid flow in a water heater”,
E3.5 “Linearization of a mass-spring-damper system with a nonlinear spring”, and
E3.6 “Equilibrium points and linearization of the water tank dynamics with input”
Week 4: Mon Oct 20 and Wed Oct 22
Reading Assignment: FB Chapter #4: handouts/DynSys-Chp04-2025-10-19.pdf
Homework Assignment #4-a on Section 4.1 and Section 4.2: Exercises
E4.3 “Laplace transforms 3”,
E4.4 “Inverse Laplace transforms 1”, and
E4.5 “Inverse Laplace transforms 2”
Week 5: Mon Oct 27 and Wed Oct 29
Monday (and possibly Wednesday) of Week 5 dedicated to Chapter 4.
Homework Assignment #4-b on Section 4.3, Section 4.4 and Section 4.5: Exercises
E4.8 “Solving a differential equation via the Laplace transform 3”,
E4.9 “Solving a differential equation via the Laplace transform 4”, and
E4.11 “Free response of undamped harmonic oscillator”
Reading Assignment: FB Chapter #5: handouts/DynSys-Chp05-2025-09-21.pdf
Midterm on day November 5th
Midterm Week 6: Mon Nov 3 and Wed Nov 5
Week 7: Mon Nov 10 and Wed Nov 12
Homework Assignment #5: due on Wednesday Week 8, at 11:59pm, on gradescope:
E5.1 “poles to TF”,
E5.6 “poles to ode”,
E5.7 “pendulum-tuned mass damper”,
E5.9, “oscillatory aircraft”,
E5.13 “building system”
Week 8: Mon Nov 17 and Wed Nov 19
Reading Assignment: FB Chapter #6: handouts/DynSys-Chp06-2025-09-21.pdf
Homework Assignment #6: due on Wednesday Week 9 at 11:59pm. We will accept without penalty by Monday Week 10 (Monday December 2nd) at 11:59pm, on gradescope:
E6.1 “Low-pass and high-pass filters”,
E6.2 “Mass-spring-damper system connected to a moving point”,
E6.3 “undamped vibration absorber”,
E6.6 “Beating in weakly-coupled identical harmonic oscillators”
Thanksgiving Week 9: Mon Nov 24 and Wed Nov 26
Online lectures on Monday and Wednesday
Online office hour by Francesco on Tuesday
Reading Assignment: FB Chapter #7: handouts/DynSys-Chp07-2025-09-21.pdf
Homework Assignment #7: due on Wednesday Week 10, at 11:59pm, on gradescope:
E7.3 “Closed-form of first-order system with proportional and integral control”,
E7.4 “Properties of integral control”,
E7.5 “Integral control of first order systems”,
E7.7 “An example block diagram”
(Thursday Nov 28 is Thanksgiving)
Week 10: Mon Dec 1 and Wed Dec 3
Final's Week
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