Mireille Broucke

Also known as Mireille Esther Broucke

Mireille Broucke is a control theorist at the University of Toronto whose research spans autonomous vehicles, drones and control-theoretic models of the cerebellum. She worked in industry on computer-aided control design, served as program manager at PATH from 1993 to 1996, completed a Berkeley PhD on hybrid systems in 2000, and joined Toronto in 2001. In 2017, her team's work included an adaptive cruise control and a parallel-parking algorithm for autonomous vehicles, and she worked with Angela Schoellig on drones as a testbed for path planning. In 2019, she proposed an oculomotor model built on adaptive internal models, and in 2022 she presented the cerebellum as a system whose primary function is disturbance rejection. She is a professor of electrical and computer engineering there, and in 2026 she published a disturbance-observer model of visuomotor adaptation in PLOS Computational Biology and posted an arXiv paper on continuous-time model identification.

Now at: University of Toronto
Works: 153
Citations: 4,022
h-index: 24
Badges: Loyal

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

1984–1987

Degrees at Texas and Berkeley

She earns a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, with highest honors, at the University of Texas at Austin in 1984. In 1987, she earns a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.
1993–1996

Program manager at PATH

She works for six years in industry on computer-aided control design, at firms including Texas Instruments, General Dynamics and Lockheed. From 1993 to 1996, she is program manager and researcher at Partners for Advanced Transportation and Highways (PATH), part of the Institute for Transportation Studies at Berkeley.
1998–2001

A Berkeley PhD in hybrid systems

In 1998 and 1999, she is a visiting researcher at PARADES in Rome. In 2000, she completes her Berkeley PhD, whose dissertation on qualitative analysis, model checking and controller synthesis of hybrid systems is supervised by Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli. From 2000 to 2001, she is a postdoctoral researcher in the Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory of Berkeley's Department of Mechanical Engineering.
2001

Joining the University of Toronto

She joins the University of Toronto as a professor in 2001. Her research interests there include mathematical system theory, hybrid systems, control theory for complex specifications and geometric control.
2007–2008

Visiting professor in Bologna

In 2007 and 2008, she is a visiting professor at the Center for Research on Complex Automated Systems (CASY) at the University of Bologna in Italy.
2017

Control algorithms for self-driving robots

In 2017, her team's control algorithms for autonomous vehicles include an adaptive cruise control, created with her students, that speeds up or slows down to match the car in front, and a parallel-parking algorithm that parks in two movements. She collaborates with Angela Schoellig of UTIAS on drones that serve as a testbed for path-planning algorithms.
2019–2022

Control theory of the cerebellum

In January 2019, she posts an arXiv paper that proposes a new model of the oculomotor system, built on adaptive internal models, that recovers behaviors from more than 15 oculomotor experiments. In November 2022, she gives a talk at GERAD's Informal Systems Seminar proposing that the primary function of the cerebellum is disturbance rejection.
As of October 2026

Professor and the DO Model

She is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto. In February 2026, she and four coauthors publish a PLOS Computational Biology paper that models visuomotor adaptation around a disturbance observer, called the DO Model. In June 2026, she posts an arXiv paper with Fatima Ghadieh on continuous-time model identification that adheres to the tenets of neuromorphic computation and uses adaptive observers.