Message from the Coordinator

The main event in March for our DYSCO network is the 2009 Benelux Meeting in Systems and Control, to be held in Spa from 16 to 18 March. The meeting will be attended by 220 participants, which shows the attractivity and dynamism of our field in the Benelux countries.

The promotors will shortly prepare our Spring study day. You will be informed as soon as a date and place will be fixed.

Finally, let me draw your attention to the Graduate School course on Observers and fault detection, that is organized in April, and which will be presented by Michel Kinnaert (ULB) and Gildas Besançon (INP Grenoble). I advise that you register as soon as possible: see this Newsletter and the Graduate School webpage for details.

Michel Gevers
DYSCO coordinator

Staff Movements and Visitors

UCL

Roland Hildebrand (Laboratoire Jean Kuntzmann - Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble) visited us from 16 to 27 February to work with M. Gevers and his team on the topic Joint optimal input design over controller and input power spectrum for closed-lopp identification.

Gabriel Solari (Tenaris R&D, Dalmine, Italy) visited CESAME on 26 and 27 February to work with Michel Gevers and Roland Hildebrand on an input design problem.

Vladimir Protassov (Moscow State University) will stay at CESAME from 2 to 30 March. He will work with Y. Nesterov and the Large Graphs and Networks research team on the issue Convex analysis, switching systems, optimization methods.

Antonio Cicone, PhD student from the University of l’Aquila (Italy), will work with R. Jungers from March 9 until May 29 on the subject Spectral radius of family of matrices, theory and applications. He is invited by Prof. V. Blondel.

Nicola Mastronardi, from the Instituto per le applicazioni del Calcolo, Sede di Bari (Italie), will work with P. Van Dooren on the theme Numerical methods for structured problems in systems and control between March 9 and April 3.

VUB-ELEC

Erliang Zhang (Université de Technologie de Compiègne, LRM (UMR CNRS 6253)): from March 1 until March 21, 2009

ULg-SYST

We welcome Professor Eric BULLINGER ( http://www.eee.strath.ac.uk/~eric/index.shtml ) as a new professor in systems biology in the research unit Systmod (Ulg). Eric Bullinger was selected by the Francqui Foundation as one of the two laureates 2008 "Chargé de cours Francqui" and then appointed Chargé de cours at the University of Liege on March 1, 2009. His position includes no undergraduate teaching and a research grant of 30,000 euros from the Foundation for the first three years of his appointment.

FPMs

On December 31st, 2008, Dr Fabien Rogister left the TCTS lab.

Dr Thierry Castermans joined the lab on January 19th, 2009, as a collaborator of the Biomanufacturing platform. This project aims at the development of an intelligent lower limb prosthesis driven by a new brain computer interface (BCI) technology.

On February 28th , 2009, Dr KimCheng Kith left the TCTS lab.

Theses Defences

KUL 1

On February 25, 2009 Tina Theys defended her PhD entitled Modelling the (boundaries of) growth in structured media: effect of pH, water activity and gelatin on the growth of Salmonella Typhimurium.

Eva Van Derlinden will defend her PhD thesis on March 13, 2009 at 14:00 (Thermotechnische Instituut, Kasteelpark Arenberg 41, 3001 Heverlee). Her thesis is entitled Quantifying microbial dynamics as a function of temperature: towards an optimal trade-off between biological and model complexity.

Seminars

UCL
  • March 3, 2009 - 14.00 - Bât. Euler

Nicolas Gillis (CORE), New variants of nonnegative matrix factorization for sparsity improvement and maximum biclique finding.

  • March 6, 2009 - 11.00 - Bât. Euler

Tom Karki (ULg), Repetition-freeness of partial words.

  • March 10, 2009 - 14.00 - Bât. Euler

Daniel Coutinho (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), An LMI approach for uncertain nonlinear systems.

  • March 20, 2009 - 11:00 - Bât. Euler

Leonid Gurvits (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Van der Waerden/Schrijver-Valiant like Conjectures and Stable Homogeneous Polynomials: One Theorem for all.

  • March 24, 2009 - 14.00 - Bât. Euler

Emile Simon (CESAME), LMI formulation for Optimal Control of coal fired Power Plants.

  • March 31, 2009 - 14.00 - Bât. Euler

Marco Dorigo (IRIDIA/ULB), The Swarm-bot Experience in Swarm Robotics.

KUL 1

March 6, 2009 (14:00-16:00) - PW 01.06 (BioTeC, Willem de Croylaan 46, 3001 Heverlee)

  • Estimating distributions from censored microbiological contamination data for use in quantitative risk assessment by Pieter Busschaert.
  • Basic principles of Individual-based modelling and its application in predictive food microbiology by Anke Verhulst.

March 27, 2009 (14:00-16:00) - PW 01.06 (BioTeC, Willem de Croylaan 46, 3001 Heverlee)

  • Optimizing the design and the sustainable performance of onsite individual wastewater treatment systems by Nina Moelants.
  • MBR sludge characteristics versus (synthetic) influent composition by Rob Van den Broeck.

March 4, 2009 : 11:30, Room ESAT 00.62, SISTA seminar : Advances in Total Least Squares with multiple right-hand sides by Diana Sima.

March 11, 2009 : 11:00, Room ESAT 00.62, SISTA Seminar : Multichannel signal processing techniques by Bogdan Mijovic.

March 18, 2009 : 11:30, Room ESAT 00.62, SISTA seminar : The power of computer-aided biosignal processing in neonatal brain diagnostics.

Papers produced by the IAP Network

UCL

Nicolas Gillis, François Glineur, Using underapproximations for sparse nonnegative matrix factorization, submitted, 2009.

A. Favache, D. Dochain, Analysis and Control of the Exothermic Control Stirred Tank Reactor: the Power-Shaping Approach, submitted to CDC'09.

Favache A., V. Dos Santos, D. Dochain and B. Maschke, Some Properties of Conservative Port Contact Systems, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, to appear.

Rapaport A., D. Dochain and J. Harmand, Long run coexistence in the chemostat with multiple species, to appear in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.

Harmand J., A. Rapaport, D. Dochain and J.J. Godon, Observers for the Estimation of Functional Groups of the Anaerobic Digestion, Proc. MathMod 09, 1576-1581.

Dochain D., M. Perrier and M. Guay, Extremum Seeking Control and its Application to Process and Reaction Systems: A Survey, Proc. MathMod 09, 31-45.

KUL 1

F. Logist, P.M. Van Erdeghem, I.Y. Smets and J.F. Van Impe, Optimal design of dispersive tubular reactors at steady-state using optimal control theory, Journal of Process Control, 2009, Accepted.

F. Logist, P.M. Van Erdeghem and J.F. Van Impe, Efficient deterministic multiple objective optimal control of (bio)chemical processes, Chemical Engineering Science, 2009, Accepted.

Barjas Blanco T., De Moor B., Robust MPC based on symmetric low-complexity polytopes, Internal Report 09-16, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009.

Aubert A.E., Vandeput S., Beckers F., Liu J., Verheyden B., Van Huffel S., Complexity of cardiovascular regulation in small animals, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, vol. 367, no. 1892, Apr. 2009, pp. 1239-1250.

Sima D., Osorio Garcia M.I., Poullet J., Suvichakorn A., Antoine J.-P., Van Huffel S., van Ormondt D., Lineshape estimation for MRS signals: self-deconvolution revisited, Internal Report 09-18, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009.

Suykens J.A.K., Extending Newton's law from nonlocal-in-time kinetic energy, Internal Report 09-20, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. Accepted for publication in Physics Letters A.

Saerens B., Vandersteen J., Persoons T., Swevers J., Diehl M., Van den Bulck E., Minimization of the fuel consumption of a gasoline engine using dynamic optimization, Internal Report 09-21, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. Accepted for publication in Applied Energy.

Van den Broeck L., Diehl M., Swevers J., Performant design of an input shaping prefilter via embedded optimization, Internal Report 09-22, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. Accepted for publication in Proceedings of the 2009 American Control Conference.

Verschuere D., Diehl M., De Schutter J., Swevers J., Recursive log-barrier method for on-line time-optimal robot path tracking, Internal Report 09-23, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. Accepted for publication in Proceedings of the 2009 American Control Conference.

Verschuere D., Diehl M., De Schutter J., Swevers J., On-line time-optimal path tracking for robots, Internal Report 09-24, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. Accepted for publication in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Kobe, Japan, May 12-17, 2009.

Diehl M., Walther A., Bock H.G., Kostina E., An adjoint-based SQP algorithm with quasi-newton Jacobian updates for inequality constrained optimization, Internal Report 09-25, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. Accepted for publication in Optimization methods and software.

Shimizu Y., Ohtsuka T., Diehl M., A real-time algorithm for nonlinear receding horizon control using multiple shooting and continuation/Krylov method, Internal Report 09-26, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. Accepted for publication in International Journal of robust and nonlinear control.

Diehl M., Mombaur K., Noll D., Stability optimization of hybrid periodic systems via a smooth criterion, Internal Report 09-27, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. Accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.

Verschuere D., Demeulenaere B., Swevers J., De Schutter J., Diehl M., Practical time-optimal trajectory planniing for robots : a convex optimization approach, Internal Report 09-28, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. Accepted for publication in IEEE Transaction on Automatic Control.

Vanbiervliet J., Vandereycken B., Michiels W., Vandewalle S., Diehl M., The smoothed spectral abscissa for robust stability optimization, Internal Report 09-29, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. Accepted for publication in SIAM Journal on Optimization.

Gujrathi M.L., Homer J., Clarckson V.L., Cendrillon R., Moonen M., A detection guided normalised least mean squares adaptive partial crosstalk canceller for multi-user DSL environments, Internal Report 09-30, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. IEE Signal Processing Letters.

De Lathauwer L., A Survey on Tensor Methods, Internal Report 09-34, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. Accepted for publication in Proc. 2009 IEEE Int. Symp. on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS 2009), Taipei, Taiwan, May 24-27, 2009.

Schoukens J., Suykens J.A.K., Ljung L., Benchmark on nonlinear system identification: Wiener-Hammerstein case study, Internal Report 09-35, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009. Accepted for publication in 15th IFAC Symposium on System Identification (SYSID 2009).

Tsiaflakis P., Necoara I., Suykens J.A.K., Moonen M., An improved dual decomposition approach to DSL dynamic spectrum management, Internal Report 09-37, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009.

Spriet A., Objective evaluation of feedback reduction techniques in hearing aids, Internal Report 09-38, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009.

Luts H., Eneman K., Wouters J., Schulte M., Vormann M., Buechler M., Dillier N., Houben R., Dreschler W. A., Froehlich M., Puder H., Grimm G., Hohmann V., Leijon A., Lombard A., Mauler D., Spriet A., Multicenter evaluation of signal enhancement algorithms for hearing aids, Internal Report 09-39, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009.

Vangorp J., Moonen M., Optimal Spectrum Balancing in Multi-User SIMO xDSL Networks, Internal Report 09-40, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009.

Le Nir V., van Waterschoot T., Moonen M., Duplicy J., Spectral monitoring and parameter estimation for ZP-OFDM signals, Internal Report 09-41, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009.

Bertrand A., Moonen M., Distributed adaptive node-specific MMSE signal estimation in sensor networks with a tree topology, Internal Report 09-42, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2009.

UGent-SYSTeMS

Jonathan A. Rogge, Dirk Aeyels, A Strategy for Exploration with a Multi-robot System In: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol. 24: Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, ISBN 978-3-540-85639-9.

Gert De Cooman, Erik Quaeghebeur, Exchangeability for sets of desirable gambles, submitted to ISIPTA '09 conference.

VUB-ELEC

Gerd Vandersteen, Yves Rolain, Koen Vandermot, Rik Pintelon, Johan Schoukens and Wendy Van Moer, Quasi-Analytical Bit-Error-Rate Analysis Technique Using Best Linear Approximation Modeling, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Vol. 58, No. 2, February 2009, pp. 475-482.

Wendy Van Moer and Yves Rolain, An Improved Broadband Conversion Scheme for the Large-Signal Network Analyzer, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Vol. 58, No. 2, Februari 2009, pp. 483-487.

Carine Neus, Wim Foubert, Y. Rolain, J. Maes, L. Van Biesen, Feasibility and challenges of DSL loop make-up identification via single-ended line tests, Metrology and Measurement Systems, Vol. XV., No. 4, November 2008, pp. 473-484.

KUL 2

E. Rosseel and S. Vandewalle, S., Iterative solvers for the stochastic finite element method, SIAM journal on scientific computing, 2009, submitted.

C. Mendez-Barrios, W. Michiels and S.-I. Niculescu, Further remarks on stabilizing chains of integrators by using network delays, Proceedings of the 2009 European Control Conference, Budapest, Hungary, submitted.

D. Huybrechs, On the Fourier extension of non-periodic functions, Internal report, TW534, Department of Computer Science, K.U.Leuven, 2009.

ULB

T. Delwiche, L. Catoire, S. Torfs and M. Kinnaert, Friction compensation based on a disturbance observer in the presence of parametric uncertainties, Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.

Graduate School in Systems, Optimization, Control and Network.

  • Some topics in combinatorial optimization, by Santanu Dey and Marco Di Summa (CORE, UCL)

Dates : the course is be held on alternate Wednesdays starting from February 4th, 2009 (Feb 4, Feb 18, March 4, March 18, April 1, April 15) Schedule : 2 PM - 5 PM

This course will take place at the CORE, room D.360, Voie du Roman Pays 34, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Belgium

  • Linear and nonlinear observers with applications to fault detection and isolation, by Michel Kinnaert (ULB, Belgium) and Gildas Besançon (INP Grenoble, France)

Dates : April 20, 22, 24, 27, 29, 30 Schedule : 9:15 - 12:15

This course will take place at ULB, Campus du Solbosch CP 165/55, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, 1050 Brussels

For more details, see : Graduate School

You can register electronically by filling in this form.

Study Days, Workshops and Summer Schools

The 28th Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control will be held in the Domain Sol Cress, Spa, Belgium, on March 16-18, 2009.

KUL 2

Francqui chair Philippe Toint
Prof. Philippe Toint holds the Francqui chair 2009 at the K.U.Leuven. He will teach a course on Advanced Algorithms in Nonlinear Optimization which will take place between Tuesday April 21st and Thursday April 30th (5 lectures) :

  • Tuesday, April 21st, 2-4pm : Trust region methods for unconstrained problems.
  • Thursday, April 23rd, 2-4pm : Derivative free optimization and other interesting developments in trust-region methods.
  • Monday, April 27th, 2-4pm : Convex constraints and interior-point methods.
  • Tuesday, April 28th, 2-4pm : The use of problem structure for large-scale applications.
  • Thursday, April 30th, 2-4pm : Cubic and quadratic regularization methods: a path towards nonlinear step control.

If you wish to attend the course, please register via the website http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/cs/alg-info/evenementen/cursussen/francquileerstoel2009.shtml

On Monday April 20th, at 16:00, Prof. Toint will give an inaugural lecture, intended for a broad audience. You are cordially invited to this lecture, followed by a reception which will take place in the Auditorium De Tweede Hoofdwet, Thermotechnisch Instituut, Heverlee. For registration for the inaugural lecture and reception, please send an email to info@eng.kuleuven or register via www.eng.kuleuven (from March 1st).

Miscellaneous

Job opportunity

The University of Liège (ULg) invites applications for two full-time tenure-track or tenured faculty positions in Computer Science in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Institut Montefiore), to be filled by October 1st, 2009. The targeted subareas of computer science are:

  • Distributed systems and security
  • Algorithms for complex systems

The University of Liège : founded in 1817, the Université de Liège offers a complete range of university courses at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. It is divided into nine faculties and schools: Philosophy and Letters; Law and School of Criminology; Sciences; Medicine; Applied Sciences; Veterinary Medicine; Psychology and Educational Sciences; HEC Management School-ULg; and the Institute for Human and Social Sciences.

The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Institut Montefiore) : qithin the Faculté des Sciences appliquées (school of engineering), the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science offers several programs to undergraduate and graduate students. Teaching and research areas include electrical engineering, computer science and biomedical engineering.

Duties

The new faculty member will develop research in computer science with a focus on one of the targeted areas. He/she will also take part in the teaching activities of the department, both at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Qualifications

  • A Dr or PhD degree
  • A high-level research experience in computer science
  • A strong commitment to research and interest for teaching
  • A working knowledge of the French language

Target starting date: October 1st, 2009

Application procedure :

For fullest consideration, applications should be sent by registered mail to the Rector of the University of Liège (Place du 20-Août, 7, B-4000 Liège, Belgium), by March 31st, 2009. However, the positions will remain open until filled.

Applications should specify one or both of the targeted areas being applied for and include :

  • A curriculum vitae and a complete list of publications,
  • A short document presenting the candidate’s five most significant publications, together with a brief description of their contribution,
  • A copy of all publications.

A copy of the application should also be sent to Professor P. Wolper, at the Institut Montefiore, University of Liège, Sart Tilman B 28, B-4000 Liège, Belgium. Please contact him for further information. See also the official call for applications (in French)

The selected candidate will be,

  • either appointed for fixed terms not cumulatively exceeding 5 years, after which a tenured appointment will be possible; or
  • directly appointed with tenure.

IAP Contact Persons

UCL-INMAIsabelle Hisette
KUL 1Ida Tassens, Kristel Bernaerts
UGent-SYSTeMSMargot Roels
VUB-ELECAnn Pintelon
KUL 2Wim Michiels, Jan Swevers
ULg-SYSTRodolphe Sepulchre
ULBMichel Kinnaert
FPMsAlain Vande Wouwer

Useful links : UCL | KUL | UGent | VUB | ULg | UMons | UNamur | Stanford | Princeton | MIT