Acknowledgments

My deepest gratitude and appreciation go to my advisor, Professor Tryphon Georgiou, for his continuous academic support as well as financial assistance over the past five years. I am greatly honored to work with him. His passion for science, great insights, and incredible knowledge made him a role model in research and an exemplary mentor. I am indebted to him for the freedom he gave me in my research, the constructive feedbacks he provided me with, and of course his patience! I hope to run a Marathon with him someday! Tryphon, thank you so much for everything! I wish to express my most sincere appreciation to Professor Gary Balas, the chairman of my dissertation committee. I enjoyed the System Identification and Robust Control classes thought by him and I was fortunate to complete my master degree in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics under his supervision. I am also most grateful to Professor Tom Luo for his time and effort to serve on my examining committee. His class on Convex Optimization was one of the most valuable experiences during my years in Minnesota. Many thanks go to Professor Mihailo Jovanovic whose presence in the department amazingly energizes the control group. He has been a great teacher during the lectures on Distribute