Message of the Coordinator

I take the opportunity to remind you all about the IAP study day organized by the ULiège team in Colonster on May 18th. The full program can be found here and promises to be very interesting. This is an ideal opportunity to hear more about such diverse topics as machine learning, robotics, networks and optimization. I hope to see many of you there.

Paul Van Dooren


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.


Staff Movements and Visitors

UCL
  • Staff
    • Vladimir Gusev, Postdoc, host R. Jungers, April 2015 - April 2016.
    • Ankit Rathore, Intern, supervisor P.-A. Absil, May 5, 2015 - July 15, 2015.
  • Visitors
    • Miguel Atencia (Universidad de Málaga), April 20, 2015 - May 20, 2015. Prof. Atencia has interests in neural networks, analysis of eye movements and hand-eye coordination, among others. Host : P.-A. Absil.
    • Vladimir Protasov (Moscow State University), May 24, 2015 - June 12, 2015. Host : R. Jungers.
    • Ray Essick (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), May 18, 2015 - June 21, 2015. Host : R. Jungers.
VUB
  • Visitors
    • Keith Worden, The University of Sheffield, 6-9 May, 2015.

Theses defenses

KUL
  • Milica Milosevic, Automated detection of epileptic seizures in pediatric patients based on accelerometry and surface electromyography. May 4, 2015 at 13h30, Auditorium C, Dept. ESAT, Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, Heverlee.
VUB
  • Maarten Schoukens, Identification of Parallel Block-Oriented Models starting from the Best Linear Approximation, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, May 4, 2015 at 16:00, building D, room D.2.01.

Seminars

UCL
  • May 5, 2015 – 14:00, Euler seminar room
    Ivan Markovsky (VUB), System identification in the behavioral setting.
KUL
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 available here : http://sites.uclouvain.be/socn/

The next course is entitled Matrix-Free Methods for Smooth Optimization. It will be given by Dominique Orban (Ecole Polytechnique, Montréal) on June 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 2015 at UCL, Bâtiment Euler, 4 av. Georges Lemaître, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (room A002, ground floor).

More information about this course : http://sites.uclouvain.be/socn/Courses/Courses2014-4

On-line registrations are welcome via this form.

Study Days, Workshops and Summer Schools

IAP DYSCO Study Day : Monday May 18, 2015 - Château de Colonster, Liège

The programme of this study day can be found here.

Third Workshop on Tensor Decompositions and Applications (TDA 2016) : January 18-22, 2016 - Leuven, Belgium

Higher-order tensor methods are intensively studied in many disciplines nowadays. The developments gradually allow us to move from classical vector and matrix based methods in applied mathematics and mathematical engineering to methods that involve tensors of arbitrary order. This step from linear transformations, quadratic and bilinear forms to polynomials and multilinear forms is relevant for the most diverse applications. Furthermore, tensor methods have firm roots in multilinear algebra, algebraic geometry, numerical mathematics and optimization.

This workshop will bring together researchers investigating tensor decompositions and their applications. It will feature a series of invited talks by leading experts and contributed presentations on specific problems. TDA 2016 is held in cooperation with the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and has been endorsed by the International Linear Algebra Society (ILAS). Part of the workshop is supported by the ERC Advanced Grant BioTensors.

More info: http://www.esat.kuleuven.be/stadius/TDA2016/index.php

Tensor Decompositions and Blind Signal Separation : January 15-16, 2016 - Leuven, Belgium

This course is intended to be a short introduction to tensor decompositions and their applications. The course will consist of 4 lectures (of 2 hours each, lecturer: Lieven De Lathauwer) and 4 exercise sessions (also of 2 hours each).

The course will be followed by the Workshop on Tensor Decompositions and Applications (TDA 2016).

More info: http://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~sistawww/winterschool16/index.php

Vacancies

Open Faculty Position in Systems and Control at the University of Liège

The University of Liège (ULg) invites applications for a full-time tenure-track faculty position in "Systems and Control" in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Montefiore Institute), to be filled by October 1st, 2015.

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 eleven faculties: Philosophy and Letters; Law, Political Science and Criminology; Sciences; Medicine; Applied Sciences; Veterinary Medicine; Psychology and Education; HEC Management School, Human and Social Sciences, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, and Architecture.

The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Institut Montefiore)

Within the Faculty of Applied Sciences, the Montefiore Institute offers several programmes to undergraduate and graduate students. Since the end of the 19th century, it has developped a leading edge tradition in teaching and research in electrical/electronics engineering, applied mathematics and computer science and engineering, and it targets its efforts to contribute in application fields of societal importance, such as biomedical engineering, materials, energy systems, information systems, robotics, and transportation. The department has a long standing tradition of international recruitment at the Faculty level, and organize all its Master's programmes in 'full English'.

Description of the position

The new faculty member will develop research in systems and control, preferably with a focus on one or several of the following areas: biomedical engineering, robotics, electrical power systems. He/she will also take part in the teaching activities of the department, both at the bachelor's and master's levels, in the domain of systems modelling and control theory.

Qualifications

1. A Dr or PhD degree.
2. A high-level research experience in systems and control theory, and its applications, for example in biomedical engineering, robotics, and/or electrical power systems.
3. A strong commitment to research and interest for teaching.

The applicant will further be expected to acquire a basic knowledge of the French language during the first two years of his employment.

Target starting date: 1st of October 2015

Application procedure

For fullest consideration, applications should be sent to Professor Albert Corhay, Rector, University of Liège, Place du 20 Août, 7 (Bât. A1), 4000 Liège, with reference "Charge à temps plein en systèmes et contrôle", before May 31st, 2015. However, the position will remain open until filled.

The application should include a cover letter, a research plan for the next three years (max. 3500 char.), a description of the applicant's teaching approach (max. 3500 char.), a resume with a complete list of publications, a copy and a description of the five most significant publications, and the name and address of three international experts, not at the University of Liège, for reference.

A copy of the application should also be sent to Professor Guy Leduc (Department Chair), at the Institut Montefiore, University of Liège, Sart Tilman B 28, B-4000 Liège, Belgium. Please contact him for further information (Guy.Leduc@ulg.ac.be).

The selected candidate will be appointed for a 3-year tenure-track, with a possible extension to 5 years, and a first possibility of tenuring after 3 years.

Papers produced by the IAP Network

UCL

De Teran, Fernando; Dopico, Froilan M.; Van Dooren, Paul. Matrix polynomials with completely prescribed eigenstructure. In: SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications, Vol. 38, no. 1, p. 302-328 (2015). doi:10.1137/140964138. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/154026

Beauthier, Charlotte; Winkin, Joseph; Dochain, Denis. Input/State Invariant LQ-Optimal Control: Application to Competitive Coexistence in a Chemostat. In: Evolution Equations and Control Theory, Vol. 4, no.2 (June 2015). (Accepted). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/158383

Gevers, Michel; Bazanella, Alexandre S.; Coutinho, Daniel F.; Dasgoupta, Soura. Identifiability and Excitation of Linearly Parametrized Rational Systems. In: Automatica, (2015). (Accepted). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/158590

Hildebrand, Roland; Gevers, Michel; Solari, Gabriel. Closed-loop Optimal Experiment Design: Solution via Moment Extension. In: IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, (2015). doi:10.1109/TAC.2015.2400662 (Accepted). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/158588

Protasov, Vladimir; Jungers, Raphaël M., Resonance, marginal instability, and sublinear growth of switching systems. In: Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems, (2015). (Accepted). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/158614

Gerencser, Balazs; Hendrickx, Julien; Van Dooren, Paul. Spectral gap of Markov chains on a cycle. European Control Conference (Linz, Austria, July 15-17, 2015). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/158598

Dochain, Denis; MacLean, Heather. Identification of simple mass balance models for plant growth - Evolving yields and incorporating developmental stages. MED 2015 (Torremolinos, Spain, June 2015). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/158600

KUL

Sauwen N., Sima D., Van Cauter S., Veraart J., Leemans A., Maes F., Himmelreich U., Van Huffel S., Hierarchical non-negative matrix factorization to characterize brain tumor heterogeneity using multi-parametric MRI, Internal Report 15-52, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2015.

Jumutc V., Suykens J.A.K., Reweighted Stochastic Learning, Internal Report 15-53, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2015.

Debals O., De Lathauwer L., Stochastic and Deterministic Tensorization for Blind Signal Separation, Internal Report 15-54, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2015.

Matic V., Neonatal EEG signal processing, PhD thesis, Faculty of Engineering, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), Mar. 2015, 218 p.

Willemen T., Biomechanics based analysis of sleep, PhD thesis, Faculty of Engineering, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), Feb. 2015, 200 p.

Markovsky I., Debals O., De Lathauwer L., Sum-of-Exponentials Modeling and Common Dynamics Estimation Using Tensorlab, Internal Report 15-58, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2015.

Castro-Garcia R., Tiels K., Schoukens J., Suykens J.A.K., Incorporating Best Linear Approximation within LS-SVM-Based Hammerstein System Identification, Internal Report 15-60, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2015.

De Cooman T., Van de Vel A., Ceulemans B., Lagae L., Vanrumste B., Van Huffel S., Online Detection of Tonic-Clonic Seizures in Pediatric Patients using ECG and Low-Complexity Incremental Novelty Detection, Internal Report 15-61, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2015.

van Ormondt D., Graveron-Demilly D., Sima D., Van Huffel S., Williams S., Time domain methods for quantifying MR spectra, Internal Report 15-62, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2015. Accepted for publication in book of Wiley.

Varon C., Mining the ECG: Algorithms and Applications, PhD thesis, Faculty of Engineering, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), Apr. 2015, 290 p.

Vukov M., Embedded Model Predictive Control and Moving Horizon Estimation for Mechatronics Applications, PhD thesis, Faculty of Engineering, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), Apr. 2015, 222 p.

Sauwen N., Sima D., Van Huffel S., Biopsy targeting based on perfusion and diffusion MR related parameters, Proc. of the 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2014), Beijing, China, May 2014.

Sauwen N., Sima D., Van Cauter S., Veraart J., Leemans A., Himmelreich U., Van Huffel S., Hierarchical non-negative matrix factorization using multi-parametric MRI to assess tumor heterogeneity within gliomas, Proc. of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2015 (ISMRM 2015), Toronto, Canada, Jun. 2015.

Claesen M., De Smet F., Gillard P., Mathieu C., De Moor B., Learning Classifiers to Predict the Start of Glucose-Lowering Pharmacotherapy Using Belgian Health Expenditure Data, Internal Report 15-72, ESAT-SISTA, KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), 2015.

UGent

Kevin Bockstael, Dirk Aeyels, Mia Loccufier, The consequences of general boundary conditions for flexible multibody systems, Conference on advances in vibrations 2015, Porto, 31 March 2015.

VUB

Egon Geerardyn, Mikaya Lumori, John Lataire, FRF Smoothing to Improve Initial Estimates for Transfer Function Identification, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation & Measurement: accepted for publication.

J.P. Noël, L. Renson, C. Grappasonni, G. Kerschen, Identification of nonlinear normal modes of engineering structures under broadband forcing, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, in press.

Markovsky, I., System identification in the behavioral setting, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, accepted for publication.

Markovsky, I. and R. Pintelon, Identification of linear time-invariant systems from multiple experiments, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, accepted for publication.

Pintelon, R., E. Louarroudi, and J. Lataire, Time-variant frequency response function measurement on weakly nonlinear, arbitrarily time-varying systems excited by periodic inputs, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation & Measurement, accepted for publication.

UMons

Guilherme Araujo Pimentel, Micaela Benavides, Laurent Dewasme, Daniel Coutinho, Alain Vande Wouwer, An Observer-based Robust Control Strategy for Overflow Metabolism Cultures in Fed-Batch Bioreactors, 9th International Symposium on Advanced Control of Chemical Processes, Whistler, 7-11 June, 2015.

Sofia Fernandes, Anne Richelle, Zakaria Amribt, Laurent Dewasme, Philippe Bogaerts, Alain Vande Wouwer, Extended and unscented Kalman filter design for hybridoma cell fed-batch and perfusion cultures, 9th International Symposium on Advanced Control of Chemical Processes, Whistler, 7-11 June, 2015.

Jean-Sebastien Deschenes, Alain Vande Wouwer, Dynamic Optimization of Biomass Productivity in Continuous Cultures of Microalgae Isochrysis galbana through Modulation of the Light Intensity, 9th International Symposium on Advanced Control of Chemical Processes, Whistler, 7-11 June, 2015.

Edmundo Rocha-Cózatl, Mihaela Sbarciog, Laurent Dewasme, Alain Vande Wouwer, State and Input Estimation of an Anaerobic Digestion Reactor using a Continuous-discrete Unknown Input Observer, 9th International Symposium on Advanced Control of Chemical Processes, Whistler, 7-11 June, 2015.

Guilherme Araujo Pimentel, Alain Rapaport, Alain Vande Wouwer, Nonlinear Model Predictive Control of a Wastewater Treatment Process Fitted with a Submerged Membrane Bioreactor, 9th International Symposium on Advanced Control of Chemical Processes, Whistler, 7-11 June, 2015.

IAP Contact Persons

UCLMarie-Christine Joveneau
KULIda Tassens
UGentMargot Roels
VUBAnn Pintelon
ULgSophie Cimino
UMonsLaurent Dewasme
UNamurJoseph Winkin

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