Message of the Coordinator

Dear DYSCO members,

BELSPO circulated last week the extended evaluation report of all IAP networks. First, I'd like to mention that DYSCO came out very well from this evaluation. One quote worth mentioning from the panel report is that DYSCO was perceived as "the leading research constellation in Systems and Control in the World". This is definitely something all of us can be proud of. Second, the BELSPO report clearly illustrates that the IAP programme as a whole has a tremendous impact on scientific collaborations and achievements in Belgium and that everything ought to be done to maintain it at a federal level. We can only hope that our politicians will be sensitive to those arguments.

Let me also mention that the date of the next IAP study say was moved to May 12, 2011. It will be held in Colonster (Liège). Please mark that already in your agendas.

Paul Van Dooren
DYSCO coordinator

Staff Movements and Visitors

UCL
  • Claudia Angelini (Instituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo "Mauro Picone", CNR) will visit us to work with P-A Absil and his team from February 28 to April 4.
  • Ingve Simonsen (NTNU Trondheim) will work with the "Large graphs" research group from 7 to 9 March.
  • Qin Xin joined us on February 28 for a postdoctoral stay during which he will work with J-C Delvenne and J. Hendrickx.
KUL 1
  • 01/03/2011 : Mario Zanon (Promotor M. Diehl)
UMONS
  • On February 17, 2011, Ixbalank Torres (master in digital systems from the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico and PhD in automatic systems from the LAAS-CNRS in Toulouse, France) joined our group as a Post-Doc researcher. Ixbalank is working on control and optimization of SMB chromatographic processes under the supervision of Prof. Alain Vande Wouwer.

Seminars

UCL
  • March 1, 2011 - 15:00 - Euler seminar room
    Claudia ANGELINI (Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo "Mauro Picone", CNR) - Analyzing the Whole Transcriptome by RNA-Seq data: Statistical and Computational Challenges.
  • March 8, 2011 - 12:00 - Euler seminar room
    Ingve Simonsen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Physics) - (title to be announced).
  • March 8, 2011 - 15:00 - Euler seminar room
    Dimos DIMAROGONAS (KTH) - Bridging the gap between multi-agent navigation and networked control.
  • March 18, 2011 - 12:00 - Euler seminar room
    Dan Boley (University of Minnesota, Computer Science & Engineering) - (title to be announced).
  • March 22, 2011 - 15:00 - Euler seminar room
    Jean-Jacques ORBAN DE XIVRY (UCL) - Temporal Discounting of Reward and the Cost of Time in Motor Control.
  • March 25, 2011 - 12:00 - Euler seminar room
    Adeline DECUYPER (UCL) - (title to be announced).
  • March 29, 2011 - 15:00 - Euler seminar room
    Jean-Pierre TIGNOL (UCL) - A chain property for cube-scalar matrices of order 3.
KUL 1
  • March 8, 2011 - Aud. Arenberg Castle - 16:00-17:00 - Simon Stevin Lecture
    Gert Lanckriet (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, San Diego), Convex Optimization for Machine Learning with Multi-Modal Data.
  • March 23, 2011 - Room ESAT 00.62 - 10:00-11:00 - SISTA Seminar
    Alexander Caicedo (K.U.Leuven, ESAT-SCD), The use of wavelet transform in Cerebral Autoregulation assessment.
  • March 23, 2011 - Room ESAT 00.62 - 11:00-12:00 - SISTA Seminar
    Bori Hunyadi (K.U.Leuven, ESAT-SCD), Automatic Seizure Detection incorporating structural information.

Papers produced by the IAP Network

UCL

Laurent Demanet, Pierre-David Létourneau, Nicolas Boumal, Henri Calandra, Jiawei Chiu, Stanley Snelson, Matrix probing: a randomized preconditioner for the wave-equation Hessian, submitted, 2011.

Mariya Ishteva, Lieven De Lathauwer, P.-A. Absil, Sabine Van Huffel, Best low multilinear rank approximation of higher-order tensors based on the Riemannian trust-region scheme, SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications, 32(1), pp. 115-135, 2011.

Arnaud Browet, P.-A. Absil, and Paul Van Dooren, Community Detection for hierarchical Image Segmentation, submitted for presentation at the 14th International Workshop on Combinatorial Image Analysis (IWCIA 2011), Madrid, Spain, May 23-25, 2011.

M. Gevers, X. Bombois, R. Hildebrand and G. Solari, Optimal experiment design for open and closed-loop system identification, accepted for publication in Communications in Information and Systems, 2011.

L. Campestrini, D. Eckhard, M. Gevers and A.S. Bazanella, Virtual Reference Feedback Tuning for Nonminimum Phase Plants, accepted for publication in Automatica, 2011.

N. Gillis, R.J. Plemmons, Dimensionality Reduction, Classification, and Spectral Mixture Analysis using Non-negative Underapproximation, Optical Engineering 50, 027001, February 2011.

Boumal Nicolas, Absil Pierre-Antoine, A discrete regression method on manifolds and its application to data on SO(n), accepted for presentation at 18th IFAC World Congress 2011, Milano, Italy, August 2011.

A. Favache, D. Dochain, J.J. Winkin, Power-shaping control: writing the system dynamics into the Brayton-Moser form, accepted for publication in Systems & Control Letters, 2011.

E. Simon, P. Rodriguez-Ayerbe, C. Stoica, D. Dumur, V. Wertz, LMIs-based coordinate descent method for solving BMIs in control design: A short survey & two improvements, accepted for presentation at the 18th IFAC World Congress 2011, Milano, Italy, August 2011.

KUL 1

L. Mertens, T. D. T. Dang, A. H. Geeraerd, A. Vermeulen, E. Van Derlinden, A. M. Cappuyns, J. Debevere, F. Devlieghere and J. F. Van Impe, A predictive model for the growth/no growth boundary of Zygosaccharomyces bailii at 7°C and conditions mimicking acidified sauces, Food and Bioprocess Technology, 2010 (Accepted for publication).

J. Vanlaer, P. Van den Kerkhof, G. Gins, J.F.M. Van Impe, The influence of measurement noise on PLS-based batch-end quality prediction, Accepted for presentation at the 18th IFAC World Congress, Milan, August 28 - September 2, 2011.

Peter M.M. Van Erdeghem, Filip Logist, Christoph Dittrich and Jan F. Van Impe, Detailed steady-state simulation of tubular reactors for LDPE production: plug flow versus cascaded CSTR model, Accepted for presentation at the 18th IFAC World Congress, Milan, Italy, August 28 - September 2, 2011.

F. Logist, M. Vallerio and J. Van Impe, Explicit weight selection procedure for optimal control problems with weighted objectives, Accepted for presentation at the 18th IFAC World Congress, Milan, Italy, August 28 - September 2, 2011.

B. Huyck, F. Logist, J. De Brabanter, J. Van Impe and B. De Moor, Constrained Model Predictive Control on a programmable automation system exploiting code generation: practical considerations, Accepted for presentation at the 18th IFAC World Congress, Milan, Italy, August 28 - September 2, 2011.

R. Toro, C. Ocampo-Martinez, F. Logist, J. Van Impe and V. Puig, Tuning of predictive controllers for drinking water networked systems, Accepted for presentation at the 18th IFAC World Congress, Milan, Italy, August 28 - September 2, 2011.

F. Logist, J. Van Dierdonck, R. Van den Broeck, C. Dotremont, P. Nijskens, T. Mann, I. Smets and J. Van Impe, A geometry based optimal control approach for low pressure filtration processes: a secondary efluent upgrading case study, Accepted for presentation at the 18th IFAC World Congress, Milan, Italy, August 28 - September 2, 2011.

B. Huyck, K. De Brabanter, F. Logist, J. De Brabanter, J. Van Impe and B. De Moor, Identification of a Pilot Scale Distillation Column: A Kernel Based Approach, Accepted for presentation at the 18th World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), Milan, Italy, August 28 - September 2, 2011.

E. Van Derlinden, K. Boons, I. Lule, and J.F. Van Impe, On the influence of the experimental set-up on the heterogeneous heat response of E. coli K12, Accepted for presentation at ICEF 2011 – the 11th International Congress on Engineering and Food, Athens (Greece), May 22-26, 2011.

F. Logist, B. Houska, M. Diehl and J.F. Van Impe, Robust optimal control of a biochemical reactor with multiple objectives, Accepted for presentation at the 21st European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering (ESCAPE 21), Chalkidiki (Greece), May 29 - June 1, 2011.

F. Logist, J. Lauwers, B. Trigaux and Jan F. Van Impe, Model based optimisation of a cyclic reactor the production of hydrogen, Accepted for presentation at the 21st European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering (ESCAPE 21), Chalkidiki (Greece), May 29 - June 1, 2011.

F. Logist, D. Telen, E. Van Derlinden and J.F. Van Impe, Multi-objective optimisation approach to optimal experiment design in dynamic bioprocesses using ACADO toolkit, Accepted for presentation at the 21st European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering (ESCAPE 21), Chalkidiki (Greece), May 28 - June 1, 2011.

D. Degrauwe, C. Verhelst, F. Logist, J. Van Impe and L. Helsen, Multi-objective optimal control of an air-to-water heat pump for residential heating, In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on System Simulation in Buildings, Liège (Belgium), December 13-15, 2010, 14 p.

P. Van den Kerkhof, G. Gins, J. Vanlaer, J.F.M. Van Impe, Fault detection and diagonisis performance assessment for (bio)chemical batch processes, Accepted for presentation at EuroPACT 2011, Glasgow, April 27-29, 2011.

F. Logist, D. Telen, M. Vallerio, P. Van Erdeghem, B. Houska, M. Diehl and J. Van Impe, Multi-objective optimal control of dynamic industrial processes, Accepted for presentation at the 21st International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making, Jyväskylä (Finland), June 13-17, 2011.

Tsiaflakis P., Yi Y., Chiang M., Moonen M., Fair Greening of Broadband Access: Spectrum Management for Energy-Efficient DSL Networks, Internal Report 11-26, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2011.

Alzate C., Suykens J.A.K., Out-of-Sample Eigenvectors in Kernel Spectral Clustering, Internal Report 11-29, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2011.

Langone R., Alzate C., Suykens J.A.K., Modularity-based model selection for kernel spectral clustering, Internal Report 11-30, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2011.

De Lathauwer L., Characterizing Higher-Order Tensors by Means of Subspaces, Internal Report 11-32, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2011.

Segers H., Combaz A., Manyakov N.V., Chumerin N., Vanderperren K., Van Huffel S., Van Hulle M.M., Steady State Visual Evoked Potential (SSVEP) - based Brain Spelling System with Synchronous and Asynchronous Typing Modes, Internal Report 11-33, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2011.

Hunyadi B., De Vos M., Signoretto M., Suykens J.A.K., Van Paesschen W., Van Huffel S., Automatic Seizure Detection Incorporating Structural Information, Internal Report 11-34, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2011.

De Brabanter K., De Brabanter J., Suykens J.A.K., De Moor B., Kernel Regression in the Presence of Correlated Errors, Internal Report 11-35, ESAT-SISTA, K.U.Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2011.

UGent-SYSTeMS

Erik Quaeghebeur, Gert de Cooman, Filip Hermans, Accept & reject statement-based uncertainty models, Submitted to ISIPTA '11.

Ionescu C., Machado J.T., De Keyser R., Modeling of the Lung Impedance using a Fractional Order Ladder Network with Constant Phase Elements, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, DOI 10.1109/TBCAS.2010.2077636, 5(1): 83-89, 2011.

Ionescu C., Hodrea R., De Keyser R., Variable time-delay estimation for anesthesia control during intensive care, IEEE Trans Biomedical Engineering, 58(2), DOI 10.1109/TBME.2010.2088121, 363-369, 2011.

Chirita M., Ionescu C., Effects of constriction in a mechanical model of lung parenchyma, Scientific Study and Research: Chemistry & Chemical Eng, Biotechnology, Food Industry, 12(1): 81-84, 2011.

VUB-ELEC

Kurt Barbé, Rik Pintelon and Gerd Vandersteen, Finite Record Effects of the Errors-in-Variables Estimator for Linear Dynamic Systems, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Vol. 60, No. 2, February 2011, pp. 642-654

KUL 2

Bultheel, Adhemar; González-Vera, Pablo; Hendriksen, Erik; Njåstad, Olav, Natural solutions of rational Stieltjes moment problems, Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, volume 311, issue 2, pages 571-583, 2011.

Debrabant, Kristian, Konsistenz stochastischer Runge-Kutta- und Taylor-Verfahren, January 2011.

Deckers, Karl; Bultheel, Adhemar; Perdomo-Pío, Francisco, Rational Gauss-Radau and rational Szegő-Lobatto quadrature on the interval and the unit circle respectively, Jaen Journal on Approximation, 2011 (Accepted).

Deckers, Karl; Bultheel, Adhemar; Van Deun, Joris, A generalized eigenvalue problem for quasi-orthogonal rational functions, Numerische Mathematik, volume 117, issue 3, pages 463-506, 2011.

Kvaal, Simen; Jarlebring, Elias; Michiels, Wim, Computing singularities of perturbation series, Physical Review A, Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 2011 (Accepted).

Poppe, Koen; Cools, Ronald; De Laet, Tinne; Bruyninckx, Herman, On quasi-Monte Carlo techniques in particle filters for robotics, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 2011 (Submitted).

Saadvandi, Maryam; Meerbergen, Karl; Jarlebring, Elias, On dominant poles and model reduction of second order time-delay systems, TW Reports, volume TW584, 18 pages, Department of Computer Science, K.U.Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, January 2011.

Speleers, Hendrik, Interpolation with quintic Powell-Sabin splines, TW Reports, volume TW583, 21 pages, Department of Computer Science, K.U.Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, January 2011.

Van Liedekerke, Paul; Ghysels, Pieter; Tijskens, Engelbert; Samaey, Giovanni; Roose, Dirk; Ramon, Herman, Mechanisms of soft cellular tissue bruising: a particle base simulation approach, Soft Matter, 2011 (Accepted).

Vandebril, Raf, A unitary similarity transform of a normal matrix to complex symmetric form, Applied Mathematics Letters, volume 24, issue 2, pages 160-164, 2011.

Fritzsche, Bernd; Kirstein, Bernd; Lasarow, Andreas, On a class of extremal solutions of a moment problem for rational matrix-valued functions in the nondegenerate case I, Mathematische Nachrichten, volume 283, issue 12, pages 1706-1735, 2010.

Lasarow, Andreas, On maximal weight solutions in a truncated trigonometric matrix moment problem, Functiones et Approximatio Commentarii Mathematici, volume 43, issue 2, pages 117-128, 2010.

Meerbergen, Karl; Jarlebring, Elias; Michiels, Wim, An Arnoldi method for the delay eigenvalue problem, Mathias, Roy; Kocvara, Michal; Duff, Iain; Gould, Nick; Loghin, Daniel; Spence, Alastair; Strakos, Zdenek; Toint, Philippe (eds.), 2nd IMA Conference on Numerical Linear Algebra and Optimisation, Birmingham, 13-15 September 2010.

Meerbergen, Karl; Vandebril, Raf, A reflection on the implicitly restarted Arnoldi method for computing eigenvalues near a vertical line, Linear Algebra and Its Applications, 2010 (Accepted).

Van Marcke, Philippe; Verleye, Bart; Carmeliet, Jan; Roose, Dirk; Swennen, Rudy, An improved pore-network model for the computation of the saturated permeability of porous rock, Transport in Porous Media, volume 85, issue 2, pages 451-476, 2010.

Vandebril, Raf, Chasing bulges or rotations? A metamorphosis of the QR-algorithm, SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications, 2010 (Accepted).

UMONS

Johan Mailier, Antoine Delmotte, Mathieu Cloutier, Mario Jolicoeur, Alain Vande Wouwer, Sensitivity Analysis and Reduction of a Plant Growth Model, accepted as a contributed regular paper for the 18th IFAC World Congress in Milano, Italy.

Robert David, Denis Dochain, Alain Vande Wouwer, Jean Marie Sablayrolles, Modeling of the aromatic profile in wine-making fermentation: the backbone equations, accepted as a contributed regular paper for the 18th IFAC World Congress in Milano, Italy.

Mihaela Sbarciog, Mia Loccufier, Alain Vande Wouwer, On the Optimization of Biogas Production in Anaerobic Digestion Systems, accepted as a contributed regular paper for the 18th IFAC World Congress in Milano, Italy.

Laurent Dewasme, Guillaume Goffaux, Anne-Lise Hantson, Alain Vande Wouwer, Extended Kalman Filter Design for Acetate Estimation in E. coli Cultures, accepted as a contributed regular paper for the 18th IFAC World Congress in Milano, Italy.

Graduate School in Systems, Optimization, Control and Networks

The SOCN Graduate School 2010-2011 programme is available on-line : http://sites-test.uclouvain.be/socn/.

The next course is entitled "Randomized Algorithms for Systems and Control: Theory and Applications". It will be given by Roberto TEMPO (Politecnico di Torino, Italy) on March 8, 9, 10, 22, 23, 24, 2011 (9:15-12:15) at UCL/CESAME, bâtiment Euler, 4 av. Georges Lemaître, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (room A002).
More information about this course : http://sites-test.uclouvain.be/socn/Courses/Courses2010-3

On-line registrations are welcome via this form.

Study Days, Workshops and Summer Schools

30th Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control

The Benelux Meeting 2011 will be held in the Conference Centre at CenterParcs De Vossemeren, Lommel, Belgium, on March 15-17, 2011.

Vacancies

Université de Liège, Belgium
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Institut Montefiore)

The department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at ULg invites applications for a full-time faculty position in the field of smart grids. The position is sponsored by SPE Luminus, the second largest energy producer and supplier in Belgium.

The new faculty member will develop research in the field of smart grids. He will also take part in the teaching activities of the department, both at the undergraduate and graduate level. Possible research areas include, but are not limited to: planning and operation of electric power generation/transmission/distribution systems under uncertainties and environmental pressure; monitoring, control, and protection of active transmission and distribution grids to support renewable/dispersed generation sources, energy storage systems, and demand side management; integrated management of electric power systems with domestic and industrial heat production systems and with terrestrial person and goods transportation systems.

Applicants should demonstrate a strong commitment to research and teaching.
They should have a doctoral degree, a high-level research experience in at least one of the targeted areas, and a recognized scientific publication record.
Appointment level will depend on the candidates and their records of accomplishment. Applicants should be able to teach in English but are also expected to teach in French, possibly after a transition period.

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.

Within 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. The department has a strong tradition of excellence and is committed to offer an international and attractive environment for research and teaching.

Further information about the positions can be obtained from Professor Rodolphe Sepulchre, Email: r.sepulchre@ulg.ac.be

For fullest consideration, applications should be sent by April 30, 2011. However, the positions will remain open until filled. Applicants are invited to follow the application procedure described at http://www.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/


Researcher in Feedback Entropy, University of Melbourne

The Australian Research Council is funding a project at the University of Melbourne on the topic of Feedback Entropy in Dynamical Systems. This is an emerging area that brings together the disciplines of dynamical systems, automatic control and information theory. As part of this project, the research fellow will study the relationships between entropy, complexity and performance in various classes of feedback control systems. A strong background in dynamical systems and/or control theory is essential, and a solid understanding of entropy is desirable.

This position is available full-time for 2 years. Salary: $77,978 - $92,597 p.a. plus 9% superannuation

To get further information or apply, go to www.jobs.unimelb.edu.au and search for keyword 0025888.
Closing date : 23 March 2011, AEST.

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
UMONSAlain Vande Wouwer

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