Message of the Coordinator

The start of an academic year often goes along with changes. Our previous co-coordinator, Vincent Blondel, was elected rector of the Université catholique de Louvain, for which I warmly congratulate him. Because of this new challenge he agreed with the promoters of DYSCO to transfer his responsibility of coordinator to me. Many new members also joined our network and I wish to welcome them. I hope that they will find our network an inspiring environment to develop and expand their research interests.

The activities mentioned in this newsletter show that there are indeed plenty of opportunities for this. In particular, I wish to draw your attention to the IAP study day that will be hosted by our partner from the University of Gent on November 12th, 2014. Take note of this date already : it will be the ideal opportunity to hear more about queuing systems which is one of the new themes of our expanded DYSCO network.

I wish all of you an excellent academic year !


Paul Van Dooren
Coordinator of DYSCO


Newsletter subscription

The newsletter Dysco News is the monthly newsletter of the Belgian Interuniversity Attraction Pole "Dynamical systems, control and optimization" (DYSCO) funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office. The DYSCO network includes partners at UCL, KUL, UGent, VUB, ULg, UMons, UNamur, and international partners at Stanford, Princeton and MIT. Subscription is free and open to anyone: subscribe here, or unsubscribe.


An important petition for the IAP Programme

We are all aware that the driving force behind the creation of our Belgian network in Dynamical Systems, Control, and Optimization was the Interuniversity Attraction Poles of the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO). If you want to support the continuation of this Programme on the Belgian federal level, we invite you to sign the petition made available to us by the IAP-Taskforce.

Staff Movements and Visitors

UCL

On September 1, 2014 we will welcome :

  • Frédéric Crevecoeur, Postdoc, host P. Lefèvre. His research theme is "Arm-hand Coordination for Feedback Control during Object Manipulation".
  • Matthieu Genicot, PhD student, supervisor P-A Absil. He will work on matrix factorization techniques for big data analysis in biomedicine.
  • Wen Huang, Postdoc, host P-A Absil. His research theme is "Riemannian optimization : theory and applications".
  • Luc Rocher, trainee from ENS Lyon, who will join us for a 4-months internship (until 31/01/2015). His supervisor is J. Hendrickx and his research theme is mathematical analysis of privacy.
KUL

Personnel :

  • 01/09/2014 : Gorana Nikolic : PhD, promotor Bart De Moor
  • 01/09/2014 : Peter Roelants : PhD, promotor Bart De Moor
  • 01/09/2014 : Maira Rodrigues Ribeiro : Postdoc, promotor Bart De Moor
  • 01/09/2014 : Yasser Alnakhli : PhD, promotor Bart De Moor
  • 01/09/2014 : Xian Mao : PhD, promotor Bart De Moor
  • 15/09/2014 : Martijn Boussé : Promotor Lieven De Lathauwer
  • 22/09/2014 : Lynn Houthuys : PhD, promotor Johan Suykens

Visitors :

  • Alberto Torres : 01/09/2014-31/10/2014 (promotor Johan Suykens)
  • Maryam Odabee : 16/09/2017-02/10/2014 (promotor Sabine Van Huffel)
VUB

Visitor :

  • Tadeusz Dobrowiecki, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, 26-29 August 2014.
UMons
  • Prof. Alejandro Vargas is in sabbatical stay at UMons from the 1st August to the 15th October. Prof. Vargas will work on modeling, identification and observation of nonlinear systems with applications to biological systems.
UNamur

Staff :

  • Yerali Carolina Gandica Lopez, Postdoc, host: Timoteo Carletti (01/06/2014)
  • Daniel Casanova Ortega, Postdoc, host: Anne Lemaître (01/07/2014)

Visitor :

  • Med Elarbi Achhab, Université Chouaïb Doukkali, Faculté des Sciences El Jadida, Département de Mathématiques, El Jadida, Maroc. He will work with J. Winkin on "feedback stabilization of infinite dimensional systems with state constraints" (August 15 - September 14, 2014).

Theses defenses

UGent
  • Abhishek Dutta, Design and Certi cation of Industrial Predictive Controllers, public defense on Wednesday September 24, 2014 at 9am in the Aula Ceremonial Hall in Voldersstraat 9, Gent 9000. Supervisors : Prof. dr. Robin De Keyser and Dr. Clara Ionescu. The invitation to this event is available here (PDF).
VUB
  • Ebrahim Louarroudi, Frequency Domain Measurement and Identification of Weakly Nonlinear Time-Periodic Systems : public presentation of PhD on September 5, 2014 - 16:00 at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, promotiezaal D.2.01. Supervisors : Prof. R. Pintelon & Dr. J. Lataire.

Seminars

UCL
  • September 26, 2014 – 11:00, Euler seminar room
    Raj Rao Nadakuditi (University of Michigan), On the power of (even a little) Flexibility in Dynamic Resource Pooling
ULg

Systmod weekly seminars normally take place on each Friday, 11am. They are announced on this webpage.

UNamur

Unless otherwise stated, naXys weekly seminars take place on each Tuesday, 1pm, in the Salle de Conférence (room E25), Department of Mathematics, 2nd floor of the Faculté des Sciences Economiques, Sociales et de Gestion building, Rempart de la Vierge 8, Namur. They are announced on this webpage.

Graduate School in Systems, Optimization, Control and Networks

The SOCN Graduate School 2014-2015 programme is currently being drawn up.

Study Days, Workshops and Summer Schools

PAI DYSCO Study Day: Gent, November 12, 2014

The program of this day can be found here.

TCMM 2014 : International workshop on technical computing for machine learning and mathematical engineering

September 8-12, 2014 - Leuven, Belgium

Recent advances have seen the proliferation of GPUs and multicore computers as well as the development of new libraries that fully exploit the new hardware capabilities. On the algorithmic side, the increased demand for processing large-scale and structured datasets has stimulating the development of new solutions as well as leading to the revival of old scalable and distributed algorithms, including proximal, stochastic and generalized Frank-Wolfe methods.

The workshop will provide a venue for researchers and practitioners to interact on the latest developments in technical computing in relation to machine learning and mathematical engineering problems and methods (including also optimization, system identification, computational statistics, signal processing, data visualization, deep learning, compressed sensing and big-data). A special attention will be paid to implementations on high-level high-performance modern programming languages suitable for large-scale, parallel and distributed computing and capable to efficiently handle structured data. The emphasis is especially on the open-source alternatives, including but not limited to Julia, Python, Scala and R.

The 3 days main event (8-10 September) will consist of invited and contributed talks as well as poster presentations. It will be followed by a 2 days additional event (11-12 September) including software demos and hands-on tutorials on selected topics. Attendees can register to the main event only or to the full workshop.

Workshop homepage: TCMM 2014

Awards

UCL

Householder Award

The Alston Householder Award, for the best PhD dissertation in numerical linear algebra submitted in 2011-2014 was shared between Nicolas Gillis (UCL, Belgium) with a thesis entitled Nonnegative matrix factorization : complexity, algorithms and applications and Yuji Nakatsukasa (University of Tokyo, Japan) with the thesis entitled Algorithms and Perturbation Theory for Matrix Eigenvalue Problems and the Singular Value Decomposition. The Householder Award is given every three years. It was established at the 1969 Gatlinburg Symposium (now renamed the Householder Symposium) to recognize the outstanding contributions of Alston S. Householder (1904-1993) to numerical analysis and linear algebra.

IFAC Congress Applications Paper Prize

The paper Control of a Multi-Stage Continuous Fermentor for the study of the wine fermentation by C. Casenave, D. Dochain, J. Harmand, M. Perez, A. Rapaport, J-M Sablayrolles received the IFAC Congress Applications Paper Prize at the XIXth IFAC World Congress that took place in August 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa.

KUL

The paper Extending a novel class of predictive models to describe the effect of pH on microbial growth by S. Akkermans, E. Noriega, F. Logist and J.F.M. Van Impe received the best paper award at FOODSIM'2014 (The Simulation in Food and Nutrition Conferences), Brest, June 23-25, 2014.

Papers produced by the IAP Network

UCL

Guay, Martin; Dochain, Denis, A time-varying extremum-seeking control approach. In: Automatica, (2014). (accepted). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/145587

Absil, Pierre-Antoine; Amodei, Luca; Meyer, Gilles, Two Newton methods on the manifold of fixed-rank matrices endowed with Riemannian quotient geometries. In: Computational Statistics, Vol. 29, no. 3-4, p. 569-590 (2013). doi:10.1007/s00180-013-0441-6. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/133029

Hendrickx, Julien; Shi, Guodong; Johansson, Karl H. Finite-time consensus using stochastic matrices with positive diagonals. In: IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, (2014). (accepted). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/147285

Absil, Olivier; Mawet, Dimitri; Delacroix, Christian; Forsberg, Pontus; Karlsson, Mikael; Habraken, Serge; Surdej, Jean; Absil, Pierre-Antoine; Carlomagno, Brunella; Christiaens, Valentin ; et al., The VORTEX project: first results and perspectives. SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014 (Montréal, Quebec, Canada, 22/06/2014 - 27/06/2014). In: Proceedings SPIE 9148: Adaptive Optics Systems IV, 2014. doi:10.1117/12.2055702. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/147289

Michael Azzam, S. Easter Selvan, Augustin Lefèvre, P.-A. Absil, Mixed integer programming to globally minimize the economic load dispatch problem with valve-point effect, Technical report UCL-INMA-2014.08, submitted, 2014.

KUL

S. Akkermans, E. Noriega, F. Logist, J.F.M. Van Impe, Extending a novel class of predictive models to describe the effect of pH on microbial growth. Proceedings of FOODSIM’2014, The Simulation in Food and Nutrition Conferences, Brest, June 23-25, 2014, pp. 11-17.

M. Baka, E. Noriega, L. Mertens, E. Van Derlinden, J. Van Impe, Protective role of indigenous Leuconostoc carnosum against Listeria monocytogenes on vacuum packed Frankfurter sausages at suboptimal temperatures, Food Research International, 2014 (Accepted for publication).

K. Boons, E. Noriega, R. Van den Broeck, C.C. David, J. Hofkens and J.F. Van Impe, Effect of microstructure on population growth parameters of Escherichia coli in gelatin-dextran systems. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2014 (Accepted for publication).

Estefanía Noriega, Eirini G. Velliou, Eva Van Derlinden, Laurence Mertens, Jan F. M. Van Impe, Role of growth morphology in the formulation of NaCl-based selective media for injury detection of Escherichia coli, Salmonella Typhimurium and Listeria innocua. Food Research International 64: 402 - 411, 2014 (Accepted for publication).

D. Vercammen, F. Logist and J. Van Impe, Dynamic estimation of specific fluxes in metabolic networks using non-linear dynamic optimization. BMC Systems Biology, 2014 (Accepted for publication).

G. Gins, J. Vanlaer, P. Van den Kerkhof, J.F.M. Van Impe, The RAYMOND simulation package — Generating RAYpresentative MONitoring Data to design advanced process monitoring and control algorithms. Computers and Chemical Engineering 69: 108–118, 2014.

Vanneste J., Peumans W.J., Van Damme E.J.M., Darvishmanesh S., Bernaerts K., Geuns J.M.C. Van der Bruggen B., Novel natural and biomimetic ligands to enhance selectivity of membrane processes for solute-solute separations: beyond nature's logistic legacy. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 89 (3): 354-371, 2014.

Haddis, A., De Geyter, A., Smets, I., Van der Bruggen, B., Wastewater management in Ethiopian higher learning institutions: functionality, sustainability and policy context. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 57 (3): 369-383, 2013.

R. Quirynen, B. Houska, M. Vallerio, D. Telen, F. Logist, J. Van Impe and M. Diehl, Symmetric Algorithmic Differentiation Based Exact Hessian SQP Method and Software for Economic MPC. 53rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control [CDC, Los Angeles, December 15-17,2014] (Accepted for oral presentation).

M. Vallerio, D. Vercammen, J. Van Impe, F. Logist, Expanding the Exploration of the Criterion Space for Multi-Objective Optimal Control Problems. Proceedings of the 14th European Control Conference (ECC) : 1236-1241 [14th European Control Conference, Strasbourg, June 25-27, 2014].

D. Vercammen, F. Logist, J. Van Impe, Estimation of Specific Fluxes in Metabolic Networks using Non-linear Dynamic Optimization. Proceedings of the 24th European Symposium of Computer Aided Process Engineering: 289-294 [ESCAPE 24, Budapest (Hungary), June 15-18, 2014].

M. Vallerio, D. Claessens, F. Logist and J. Van Impe, Multi-objective and robust optimal control of a CVD reactor for polysilicon production. Proceedings of the 24th European Symposium of Computer Aided Process Engineering: 571-576 [ESCAPE 24, Budapest (Hungary), June 15-18, 2014] .

D. Telen, I. Stamati, M. da Silva, F. Logist, J. Van Impe, Optimal experiment design for model discrimination of nonlinear biochemical systems using the sigma point method. Proceedings of the 24th European Symposium of Computer Aided Process Engineering: 1189-1194. [ESCAPE 24, Budapest (Hungary), June 15-18, 2014].

D. Telen, D. Vercammen, F. Logist, J. Van Impe, Robust optimal experiment design for nonlinear dynamic systems. Proceedings of the 22nd Mediterranean Conference on Control & Automation : 930-935 [MED, Palermo, June 16-19, 2014].

I. Tack, F. Logist, E. Noriega Fernandez, J. Van Impe, An individual-based model for anaerobic dynamics of Escherichia coli colonies. FOODSIM'2014: 18-25 [FOODSIM'2014, Brest, June 23-25, 2014].

S. Akkermans, E. Noriega, F. Logist, J.F.M. Van Impe, Extending a novel class of predictive models to describe the effect of pH on microbial growth. Proceedings of FOODSIM'2014: 11-17 [FOODSIM'2014, Brest, June 23-25, 2014].

T. A. Cao, G. Van De Staey, I.Y. Smets, Integrating activated sludge floc size information in MBR fouling modeling. Proceeding of IWA Specialist Conference on Advances in Particle Science and Separation: from mm to nm scale and beyond : 387-399 [IWA Specialist Conference on Advances in Particle Science and Separation: from mm to nm scale and beyond, Saporo, Japan, 15-18 June, 2014].

Sorber L., Data fusion : Tensor factorizations by complex optimization, PhD thesis, Faculty of Engineering, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), May 2014.

Hunyadi B., Learning from structured EEG and fMRI data supporting the diagnosis of epilepsy, PhD thesis, Faculty of Engineering, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), Jun. 2014, 216 p.

Installé A., Clinical Data Miner. Towards more efficient clinical study support, PhD thesis, Faculty of Engineering, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), Jun. 2014.

Langone R., Clustering evolving data using Kernel-based methods, PhD thesis, Faculty of Engineering, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), Jul. 2014.

Mall R., Jumutc V., Langone R., Suykens J.A.K., Representative Subsets For Big Data Learning using kNN graphs, Internal Report 14-118, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2014.

Novak M., Alzate C., Langone R., Suykens J.A.K., Fast kernel spectral clustering based on incomplete Cholesky factorization for large scale data analysis, Internal Report 14-119, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2014.

Novak M., Alzate C., Langone R., Suykens J.A.K., KSC-ICD Package User's Manual, Internal Report 14-120, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2014.

Huang X., Shi L., Suykens J.A.K., Solution Path for pin-SVM Classifiers with Positive and Negative tau Values, Internal Report 14-123, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2014.

Bruynseraede Y., De Moor B., Swaelens B., Tambuyzer E., Vandamme E., Vander Sloten J., Vansteenkiste E., Van Vaerenbergh I., Verdonck P., MEDische TECHnologie als motor voor innovatieve gezondheidszorg, Standpunt Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten, Klasse Technische Wetenschappen, Jun. 2014, pp. 1-14.

Shang C., Huang X., Suykens J., Huang D., Enhancing Dynamic Soft Sensors based on DPLS: a Temporal Smoothness Regularization Approach, Internal Report 14-126, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2014.

Signoretto M., Frandi E., Karevan Z., Suykens J. A. K., High Level High Performance Computing for Multitask Learning of Time-varying Models, Internal Report 14-127, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2014.

Wernerman J., Desaive T., Finfer S., Foubert L., Furnary A., Holzinger U., Hovorka R., Joseph J., Kosiborod M., Krinsley J., Mesotten D., Nasraway S., Rooyackers O., Schultz M.J., Van Herpe T., Vigersky R.A., Preiser J.C., Continuous glucose control in the ICU: report of a 2013 round table meeting, Critical Care, vol. 18, no. 226, Jun. 2014, pp. 1-10.

Van Herpe T., De Moor B., Van den Berghe G., Mesotten D., Modeling of effect of glucose sensor errors on insulin dosage and glucose bolus computed by LOGIC-Insulin, Internal Report 14-129, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2014. Accepted for publication in Clinical Chemistry, pp. 1-27.

Mall R., Langone R., Suykens J.A.K., Ranking Overlap and Outlier Points in Data using Soft Kernel Spectal Clustering, Internal Report 14-137, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2014.

UGent

Zhifei Zhang, Alain Sarlette and Zhihao Ling, Synchronization of Kuramoto oscillators with non-identical natural frequencies: a quantum dynamical decoupling approach, accepted for the IEEE Conference on Decision & Control 2014.

F. Ticozzi, L. Mazzarella and A. Sarlette, Symmetrization for quantum networks: a continuous-time approach, Proceedings of the 2014 workshop on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS), July 2014.

E. De Cuypere, K. De Turck and D. Fiems, Coupled inventory management with perishable goods, abstract, First European Conference on Queueing Theory (ECQT), Ghent, August 20-22, 2014.

VUB

Anna Marconato, Maarten Schoukens, Koen Tiels, Widanalage Dhammika, Amjad Abu-Rmileh, Johan Schoukens, Comparison of several data-driven non-linear system identification methods on a simplified glucoregulatory system example, IET Control Theory and Applications: accepted for publication.

D. Ugryumova, R. Pintelon, G. Vandersteen, Frequency response function estimation in the presence of missing output data, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement: accepted for publication.

Vanbeylen, L., A. Van Mulders, A. Abu-Rmileh, Identification of a nonlinear model for a glucoregulatory benchmark problem, Biomedical Signal Processing and Control 13 (9), pp. 168-173.

Ertveldt, J., J. Lataire, M. M. Lone, R. Pintelon, S. Vanlanduit, On-line monitoring and flutter speed prediction based on identification of a time-varying system, 29th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, St. Petersburg (Russia), Sept. 7-12, 2014. 2 pages.

Ertveldt, J., R. Pintelon, J. Schoukens, S. Vanlanduit, Design and validation of a forced motion variable stiffness aerolastic wind tunnel set-up, 29th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, St. Petersburg (Russia), Sept. 7-12, 2014. 2 pages.

Egon Geerardyn, Tom Oomen, Johan Schoukens, Improving the H-infinity gain estimate of an Active Vibration Isolation System using Local Rational Models, Proceedings of the ISMA2014 International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering, Leuven (Belgium), Sept. 15-17, 2014.

Louarroudi, E., J. Lataire, and R. Pintelon, Measurement of the best linear time-invariant approximation of linear time-periodic systems, Proceedings of the ISMA2014 International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering, Leuven (Belgium), Sept. 15-17, 2014.

M.Vaes, J. Schoukens, Y. Rolain, J. Pattyn, Experimental driven demystification of system identification for nonlinear mechanical systems, Proceedings of the ISMA2014 International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering, Leuven (Belgium), Sept. 15-17, 2014.

Markovsky, I., and R. Pintelon, Consistent estimation of autonomous linear time-invariant systems from multiple experiments, Proceedings of the ISMA2014 International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering, Leuven (Belgium), Sept. 15-17, 2014.

Vanbeylen, L. and A. Van Mulders, Motivation and interpretation of a block-oriented nonlinear model in structural mechanics, Proceedings of the ISMA2014 International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering, Leuven (Belgium), Sept. 15-17, 2014.

Johan Schoukens, Identification of structured models for nonlinear systems, plenary lecture at ERNSI 2014, European Research Network on System Identification, Oostende, Belgium, September 21-24, 2014.

UMons

A. Vande Wouwer, P. Saucez, C. Vilas, Simulation of ODE/PDE models with MATLAB®, OCTAVE and SCILAB, in Scientific and Engineering Applications, Springer, 2014, XV, 406 p.

M. Sbarciog, D. Coutinho, A. Vande Wouwer, A simple output-feedback strategy for the control of perfused mammalian cell cultures, accepted for publication in Control Engineering Practice.

UNamur

M. E. Achhab, J. J. Winkin, Stabilization of Infinite Dimensional Systems by State Feedback with Positivity Constraints, 21st International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS 2014), pp. 379-384.

Ch. Beauthier, J.J. Winkin, D. Dochain, Input/state invariant LQ-optimal control: application to competitive coexistence in a chemostat, submitted.

Timoteo Carletti, Floriana Gargiulo, Renaud Lambiotte, Preferential attachment with partial information, submitted.

J-Ch Delvenne, R. Lambiotte, L.E. Rocha, Lifetime of transient dynamics on networks, 21st International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS 2014).

Renaud Lambiotte, Vsevolod Salnikov and Martin Rosvall, Effect of memory on the dynamics of random walks on networks, Journal of Complex Networks (2014).

Martin Rosvall, Alcides V. Esquivel, Andrea Lancichinetti, Jevin D. West, and Renaud Lambiotte, Memory in network flows and its effects on spreading dynamics and community detection, Nature Communications 5, 4630 (2014).

Marco Villani, Alessandro Filisetti, Alex Graudenzi, Chiara Damiani, Timoteo Carletti, Roberto Serra, Dynamics of growing and dividing protocells, submitted.

IAP Contact Persons

UCLIsabelle Hisette
KULIda Tassens
UGentMargot Roels
VUBAnn Pintelon
ULgSophie Cimino
UMonsLaurent Dewasme
UNamurJoseph Winkin

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