Inria · Paris-Saclay · Head of the BOOST team

Taous-Meriem
Laleg

Research Director at Inria — control theory & signal processing.

Building estimation methods and algorithms that reveal the hidden state of physical systems — and turn that insight into control and monitoring strategies for real engineering and bioengineering problems.

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About

Taous-Meriem Laleg is a Research Director at Inria, the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology, based in Paris-Saclay, where she leads the BOOST project team.

From 2011 to 2021 she was an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Applied Mathematics at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). There she founded and led the Estimation, Modeling, and Analysis (EMAN) research group, was affiliated with the Bioengineering Program and the Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), and contributed to the KAUST Smart Health Initiative.

Her research sits at the meeting point of control theory and signal processing. The common thread is estimation: developing methods and algorithms to understand physical systems, extract hidden information, and design advanced control and monitoring strategies — always driven by concrete problems in engineering and bioengineering.

Dr. Laleg is actively involved in the scientific community. She currently serves as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control and IEEE Transactions on Network Systems, and as Editor for the International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control. She is a member of the IEEE Control Conference Editorial Board (CEB) and of the EURASIP Technical Area Committee on Theoretical and Methodological Trends in Signal Processing (TMTSP), and serves as Vice-Chair for Social Media of the IFAC Technical Committee on biological and medical systems (TC 8.2) — see the full list of editorial activities below.

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Research focus

Theory & methods

Control theory & estimation

Estimation and observer design for nonlinear ODEs, PDEs and fractional-order systems — spanning asymptotic observers with prescribed-time convergence, non-asymptotic algebraic methods based on modulating functions, and, more recently, learning-based estimation combining observer theory with machine learning, including KKL observers with deep learning, physics-informed neural networks, and contraction-based analysis.

Signals

Signal processing

A quantum-inspired signal and image analysis method built on the spectral properties of the Schrödinger operator, extended to noise reduction, image contrast enhancement, MR spectroscopy and biomedical signal classification.

Impact

Health & sport

Cardiovascular and cerebral signal modeling and monitoring, with a current focus on brain-heart interaction — including stress assessment in athletes — alongside blood pressure and arterial stiffness from PPG and prediction of vulnerable carotid plaques from medical imaging — applied to health and to performance and wellbeing in sport.

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News

Journal · Accepted

Paper accepted in IEEE Reviews in Biomedical Engineering

“Modeling Brain-Heart Interaction: A Review of Mechanistic Dynamical Models” (S. N. Sadoun, A. Boutin, F. Cottin, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati).

Journal · Accepted

Paper accepted in Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation

“Image contrast enhancement based on the Schrödinger operator spectrum” (J. M. Vargas, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati).

Conference · IFAC World Congress 2026

Three papers accepted to the IFAC World Congress 2026

“Signal-Based Monitoring for Tissue Oxygenation & Diabetes Characterization” (A. Guir, C. French, D. Robbins, D. Gordon, M. Gernigon, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati); “CT-Based Classification of Symptomatic vs. Asymptomatic Carotid Plaques Using Schrödinger Spectrum Features” (J. M. Vargas Garcia, L. Wang, A. Piedelièvre, G. Goudot, J. M. Davaine, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati); and “State and Unknown Input Estimation Using a Left-Invertibility Constrained Neural Estimator in Delayed Autonomic Cardiac Dynamics” (S. N. Sadoun, G. A. D’Inverno, A. Boutin, F. Cottin, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati).

Conference · ECC 2026 · Reykjavík

Two papers accepted to the European Control Conference (ECC) 2026

Physics-Informed Bank of Estimators for Joint Estimation of States and Parameters for Nonlinear Disturbed Systems” (M. Boukaf, Z. Belkhatir, M. Chadli, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati) and “Physics-Informed Neural Estimation of State and Unknown Input in Autonomic Cardiac Dynamics with Left-Invertibility Constraints” (S. N. Sadoun, G. A. d’Inverno, A. Boutin, F. Cottin, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati).

Conference · CDC 2026

Two papers accepted to CDC 2026

“Neural Contraction Metrics for Observer-Based Trajectory Tracking with ISS Guarantees” (M. Boukaf, Y. Marani, I. J. Santos Filho, M. Chadli, Z. Belkhatir, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati) and “An Explicit Surrogate for Gaussian Mixture Flow Matching with Wasserstein Gap Bounds” (E. Rostami, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati, H. Tembine).

Conference · EUSIPCO 2026

Two papers accepted to EUSIPCO 2026

“SpaTeoGL: Spatiotemporal Graph Learning for Interpretable Seizure Onset Zone Analysis from Intracranial EEG” (E. Rostami, A. Einizade, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati) and “A Non-Separable Spectral Image Representation Based on the Semi-Classical Schrödinger Geometry” (J. M. Vargas, I. J. Santos Filho, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati).

Journal · Accepted

Paper accepted in Automatica

Journal · Accepted

Paper accepted in IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control

Conference · 2024

Paper accepted at the American Control Conference (ACC) 2024

Conference · 2024 · Orlando

Three papers presented at IEEE EMBC 2024

Conference · 2023 · Yokohama

Six papers accepted at the IFAC World Congress 2023, Japan

Conference · San Diego

Two papers accepted at the American Control Conference (ACC)

Conference · CCTA

PhD student Yasmine Marani presents two papers at CCTA

Drone Reference Tracking in a Non-Inertial Frame Using Sliding Mode Control Based Kalman Filter with Unknown Input” (Y. Marani, K. Telegenov, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati) and “A Deep-Learning-Based Observer for State Estimation of Direct Contact Membrane Distillation” (Y. Wang, Y. Marani, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati).

Conference · IEEE BHI-BSN

Two papers accepted at IEEE BHI-BSN

Spectrogram image-based machine learning for carotid-to-femoral pulse wave velocity from PPG (J. M. Vargas Garcia, M. Bahloul, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati), and a self-adaptive epileptic spike detection mechanism (P. Li, M. Castillo, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati).

Conference · IEEE CDC

Two papers accepted at IEEE CDC

Accelerating extremum-seeking convergence via Richardson extrapolation (J.-H. Metsch, J. Neuhauser, J. Jouffroy, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati, J. Reger), and high-gain observer design for nonlinear systems with delayed output measurements (A. Adil, I. N'Doye, T.-M. Laleg-Kirati).

View full list of publications
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Editorial & scientific service

Editorial activities in journals

  • Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control2026–present
  • Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Network Systems2024–present
  • Technical Area Committee member, EURASIP — Theoretical and Methodological Trends in Signal Processing (TMTSP)2024–2026
  • Vice-Chair for Social Media, IFAC Technical Committee TC 8.22024–2026
  • Editor, International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control2021–present
  • Associate Editor, IEEE Systems Journal2021–2024
  • Associate Editor, IEEE Access2020–2023

Editorial activities in international conferences

  • Member, IEEE Control Conference Editorial Board (CEB)2019–present — ACC, CDC
  • Associate Editor, IFAC World Congress 20232023
  • Associate Editor, IEEE MTNS2022–2023
  • Associate Editor, IEEE European Conference Editorial Board2020–2025
  • Technical Committee member, IFAC — Biological & Medical Systems (TC 8.2)ongoing

Get in touch

Contact

Inria, Université Paris-Saclay
Bâtiment Alan Turing
Campus de l'École polytechnique
1 rue Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves
91120 Palaiseau, France
taous-meriem.laleg@inria.fr
© Taous-Meriem Laleg Inria Paris-Saclay — BOOST team