The authors have chosen a mode of exposition that is largely based on illustrative examples rather than on the abstract theorem-proof format because the systematic study of hybrid systems is still in its infancy. The examples are taken from many different application areas, ranging from power converters to communication prools and from chaos to mathematical finance. Subjects covered include the following: definition of hybrid systems; description formats; existence and uniqueness of solutions; special subclasses (variable-structure systems, complementarity systems); reachability and verification; stability and stabilizability; control design methods. The book will be of interest to scientists from a wide range of disciplines including: computer science, control theory, dynamical system theory, systems modeling and simulation, and operations research.