IEEE CONTROL SYSTEMS SOCIETY TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
ON DISCRETE EVENT SYSTEMS

    Ryan J. Leduc
    Chair, IEEE CSS Technical Committee on DES
    Dept. of Computing and Software
    McMaster University
    1280 Main Street West
    Hamilton, Ontario
    Canada L8S 4K1

    Phone: (905) 525-9140 Ext. 27962
    Fax: (905) 524-0340
    e-mail: leduc@mcmaster.ca
    WWW: http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/~leduc/

DESTC Web Page: http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/destc/

To subscribe/unsubscribe to the newsletter, please go here.

To submit news items and articles to this newsletter, go here.

It is the responsibility of the contributor to ensure that they have the necessary permissions/clearance required for the transmittal of their news item.

Contents:

1. Editorial

2. Announcements
 2.1 Etfa 2007: Extended Submission Deadline

3. Conferences
 3.1 VALUETOOLS 2007 - 2nd. Int. Conf. on Performance Evaluation
     Methodologies and Tools, Nantes, France, October 23 - 25, 2007
 3.2 DASD 2007 5th Symposium on Design, Analysis, and Simulation of
     Distributed Systems, San Diego, California, USA, July 15 - 18,
     2007

4. Journals
 4.1 Selections from International Journal of Control, Volume 80, Issue
     5, May 2007

Welcome to the newsletter of the IEEE Control Systems Technical Committee on Discrete Event Systems!

See http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/destc/ for information on the DESTC.

Personal note from the editor:

Welcome to the April 2007 edition of the DESTC newsletter,

Ryan

Contributed by: Mariagrazia Dotoli <dotoli@deemail.poliba.it>

ETFA 2007: EXTENDED SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Etfa 2007: Extended Submission Deadline
----------------------------------------------------------------------
12th IEEE Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory  Automation 
September 25-28, 2007  -  Patras, Greece
ETFA 2007
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Conference web site:  http://www.etfa2007.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aim: 

The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers and 
practitioners from the industry and academia and provide them with a 
platform to report on recent advances and developments in the newly 
emerging areas of technology, as well as actual and potential 
applications to industrial and factory automation.


Solicited Papers:

Research papers reporting on new developments in technological 
sciences 
Industry and development papers reporting on actual developments of 
technology, products, systems and solutions 
Tutorial and survey papers 
Work-in-progress papers
In addition, ETFA 2007 solicits special session proposals to 
stimulate in-depth discussions in special areas relevant to the 
conference theme.
Please consult the conference web page for more details.


Topics & Tracks list:

Information Technology in Automation 
Industrial Communication Systems 
Real-Time and (Networked) Embedded Systems 
Intelligent Sensors and Sensor Networks 
Automated Manufacturing Systems and Enterprise Integration 
Continuous Automation Systems 
Distributed Intelligent Control for Flexible Manufacturing 
Computational Intelligence in Automation 
Intelligent Robots & Systems 
Emerging Issues

----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUBMISSION OF PAPERS
Papers are to be submitted electronically. For further details, 
please consult the conference web page: 
http://www.etfa2007.org

----------------------------------------------------------------------
AUTHOR'S SCHEDULE
       Deadline for submission of full papers:	    April 27, 2007
       Notification of papers acceptance:	     June 15, 2007
       Final manuscripts due:				 July 16, 2007

======================================================================

ETFA 2007 GENERAL CO-CHAIR
       James C. Hung, University of Tennessee, USA
       Stavros Koubias, University of Patras, Greece

----------------------------------------------------------------------

ORGANIZING CHAIR
       Richard Zurawski, ISA Group, USA

----------------------------------------------------------------------

ETFA 2007 PROGRAM CO-CHAIR
       Dimitrios Serpanos, University of Patras, Greece
       Hans-Michael Hanisch, University of Halle, Germany
       Lucia Lobello, University of Catania, Italy

----------------------------------------------------------------------

ETFA 2007 SPECIAL SESSIONS CHAIR
      Luis Gomes, UNINOVA, Portugal
      Kleantis Thraboulidis, University of Patras, Greece

----------------------------------------------------------------------

ETFA 2007 PANEL DISCUSSION CHAIR
      Orazio Mirabella, University of Catania, Italy

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
ETFA SERIES STEERING COMMITEE
      R. Zurawski  (Chair), ISA Corporation, USA
      E. Dekenuvel, University of Nice, France
      J Fuertes, University Politecnica de Catalunia, Spain
      L. Gomes, UNINOVA, Portugal
      H. Fujita, University of Tokyo, Japan
      F. Harashima, University of Tokyo, Japan
      J. C. Hung, University of Tennessee, USA
      C. J. Kim, UCLA, USA
      K. Lee, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
      V. Marik, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
      O. Mirabella, University of Catania, Italy
      J-M. Proth, INRIA Lorraine, France
      A.C. Weaver, University of Virginia, USA

Contributed by: Mariagrazia Dotoli <dotoli@deemail.poliba.it>

VALUETOOLS 2007 - 2ND. INT. CONF. ON PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
METHODOLOGIES AND TOOLS
Nantes, France
October 23 - 25, 2007

Sponsored by Create-net, ICST, INRIA, University of Rennes 1, France 
Telecom. In technical cooperation with ACM SIGMETRICS and SIGSIM

_________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT DATES

Full papers due:       March 30, 2007
Author notification:  June 20, 2007
Final version due:    July 20, 2007

_________________________________________________________

SCOPE AND TOPICS

In recent years, a range of performance evaluation methodologies
and tools has been developed within disparate research communities
for the purposes of evaluation, design, and model reduction. The aim
of the Performance Evaluation Methodologies and Tools conference is
to build bridges between these communities, bringing theory and
practice together in order to:

- compare and debate the complete range of performance evaluation
   methodologies and their implementation into tools;

- promote interdisciplinary flow of technical information among
   industry systems designers and researchers.

The keynote talk will be given by Bruce Hajek, 
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Performance evaluation techniques will draw from the following:
- Network calculus
- Advanced simulation tools
    - Simulation of rare events
    - Parallel/distributed simulations
    - Variance reduction techniques
    - Large deviations
    - Hybrid system simulation
- Stochastic processes
    - Stochastic geometry
    - Long-range dependence
    - Self-similarity
    - Point processes
    - Traffic models and measurements
-Discrete event systems
    - Petri nets
    - Max-plus algebra
    - Supervisory control and optimization
-Queueing theory
    - Analytical models
    - Approximation methods
    - (In)sensitivity
    - Dynamic fluid models
    - Diffusion models
    - Dam processes
    - Perturbation approaches
    - Control of queues

Envisaged applications are drawn from, but are not restricted to,
the following areas:
- Networking
- Distributed Systems
- Computer Systems
- Manufacturing Systems
- Communication Systems
- Call Centers
- Reliability / Performability
- Road Traffic and Transportation Systems
- Optimization (including game theory and convex optimization)
- Graph Theory (including random graphs)
- Interdisciplinary Methodologies (economic,
   biological and social models) in the above areas

_________________________________________________________

WORKSHOPS

Valuetools 2007 features four co-located workshops:

- GameComm,  http://www.game-comm.org/
   Game theory in Communication networks
   Workshop date: October 22, Submission deadline: May 5

- NSTools,  http://www.nstools.org/
   First International Workshop on Network Simulation Tools
   Workshop date: October 22, Submission deadline: April 30

- Inter-Perf,  http://www.inter-perf.org/
   Workshop on interdisciplinary systems approach in performance
   evaluation and design of computer & communication systems
   Workshop date: October 26, Submission deadline: April 30

- SMCtools,  http://www.smctools.org/
   International Workshop on Tools for solving Structured Markov 
Chains
   Workshop date: October 26, Submission deadline: May 10

_________________________________________________________

PAPER SUBMISSION

Authors are invited to submit original papers of up to 10 pages
in ACM conference proceedings format through COCUS
(http://cocus.create-net.it).

_________________________________________________________

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Conference language is English. Prospective authors are encouraged
to submit a PDF version of the full paper in ACM conference 
proceedings format, which are limited to 10 two-column pages in a 
font no smaller than 10-points. All paper submissions will be handled 
electronically.
Please visit the submission page 
http://www.valuetools.org/submission.shtml
for detailed submission requirements and procedures.

_________________________________________________________

PUBLICATION

All submitted papers will go through a peer review process. All 
accepted papers will be included in the VALUETOOLS 2007 Conference 
Proceedings.
All accepted papers will be made available in Association for 
Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library, as well as indexed by EI 
and ISI Index.

Selected papers will be published in a special issue of Performance
Evaluation and others considered for fast track publication in
Discrete Event Dynamic Systems (DEDS).

________________________________________________________

General Chair:
Peter Glynn (Stanford University, US)

Vice Chair:
Bruno Tuffin (IRISA- INRIA, France)

Keynote Speaker:
Bruce Hajek (UIUC, US)

Steering Committee Co-Chairs:
I. Chlamtac (CREATE-NET, Italy)
E. Altman (INRIA, France)

Steering Committee:
L. Lenzini (Univ. Pisa, Italy)
D. Miorandi (CREATE-NET, Italy)
S. Meyn (University of Illinois, US)

Technical Program Co-Chairs:
Ch. Cassandras	(Boston Univ., US)
A. Proutière (France Telecom R&D, France)
K. Trivedi (Duke University, US)

Workshops Chair:
T. Jimenez (Univ. Avignon.,France.)

Finance Chair:
K. Decker (ICST, US)

Conference coordinator:
Z. Rosza (ICST, US)

Sponsors Chair:
G. Rubino (IRISA-INRIA, France)

Publicity Chair:
A. Zimmermann (TU Berlin, Germany)

Publication Chair:
S. Alouf  (INRIA, France)

Local Organization Committee:
E. Lebret (IRISA-INRIA, France)
B. Tuffin (IRISA- INRIA, France)
L. Truffet (Ecole d. Mines de Nantes)

Technical Program Committee:
J. Aguilar (Univ. de Los Andes, Venez.)
M. Akian (INRIA, France)
S. Alouf (INRIA, France)
M. Baykal-Gursoy (Rutgers Univ., USA)
S. Balsamo (Univ. Ca' Foscari Venezia)
M. Calzarossa (University of Pavia, Italy)
X. Cao (Hong Kong U. Science Techn.)
Wai Ki Ching (Univ. of Hong Kong)
Y. Dallery (Ecole Centrale Paris, France)
P. Dube (IBM, USA)
R. El Azouzi (Univ. of Avignon, France)
S. Foss (Heriot-Watt University, UK)
B. Fourestie (France Telecom, France)
B. Gaujal (INRIA, France)
W. Gong (Univ. of Massachusetts, USA)
H. Kameda (Univ. of Tsukuba, Japan)
A. Alam Kherani (IIT Delhi, India)
D. Kofman (ENST, France)
I. Kontoyiannis (Brown University, USA)
A. Kumar (IISC Bangalore, India)
P. L'Ecuyer (Univ. of Montreal, Canada)
J. Mairesse (CNRS, France)
E. Mingozzi (University of Pisa, Italy)
J. Misic (Univ. of Manitoba, Canada)
S. Molnar (BUTE, Hungary)
E. Morozov (Petrozavodsk U., Russia)
P. Mosterman (Mathworks, USA)
E. Moulines (ENST, France)
H. Okamura (Hiroshima Univ., Japan)
Ch. Panayiotou (Univ. of Cyprus)
I. Papamichail (Techn. Univ. Crete)
V. Ramaswami (AT&T, USA)
R. Righter (UC Berkeley, USA)
M. Sereno (Unversity of Torino, Italy)
L. Shi (Univ. Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
G. Stea (University of Pisa, Italy)
V. Manuel Sune Socias (UPC, Spain)
R. Szechtman (Naval Postgr. Sch., USA)
T. Takine (University of Osaka, Japan)
C. Touati (INRIA, France)
B. Tuffin (IRISA/INRIA, France)
Y. Wardi (Georgia Tech, USA)
B. Zwart (Georgia Tech, USA)

web site: click here

Contributed by: Mariagrazia Dotoli <dotoli@deemail.poliba.it>

DASD 2007 5TH SYMPOSIUM ON DESIGN, ANALYSIS, AND SIMULATION OF
DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
San Diego, California, USA
July 15 - 18, 2007

Goal and Topics of DASD 2007
****************************

The 2007 Summer Simulation Multiconference (SummerSim'07) and the 
Summer Computer Simulation Conference (SCSC'07) will feature the 5th 
conference on Design, Analysis, and Simulation of Distributed Systems 
(DASD 2007). 
The conference is devoted to distributed and complex systems.

The goal of the conference is to encourage innovation in design, 
analysis and simulation of distributed systems. This includes new 
technologies as well as new methodologies, new concepts and 
experience reports. DASD 2007 will promote a high quality exchange of 
ideas and information between universities, industry, and national 
laboratories supporting the development in the design, analysis and 
simulation area of next generation distributed systems which can 
provide solutions to current scientific and technological challenges.


Special Areas of Interest (but not limited to)
**********************************************

     * Modeling, Simulation and Evaluation
	   o Modeling and performance evaluation of hardware and 
             software
	   o Petri nets, Markov chains, queuing theory, UML
	   o Formal concepts and methods for validation and testing
	   o System on chip, multicore systems and embedded systems
	   o Reconfigurable systems and complex systems
	   o Numerical methods for performance approximation
	   o Traffic estimation for communication networks of
	     distributed systems
	   o Applications, tools, simulation languages

     * Self-Organization and Distributed Systems
	   o Scalability and load balancing
	   o Data management, distributed file systems
	   o Self-Stabilization and learning in distributed systems
	   o Fault tolerance, trust and security
	   o Structuring and topological aspects
	   o Strategy learning and benchmarking
	   o Network building games and strategies

     * Pervasive System Concepts
	   o P2P, cluster and grid computing approaches for simulation
	   o Semantic Web and P2P KM systems
	   o Resource management, search and location
	   o Protocols, algorithms and techniques to support
	     semantic interoperability
	   o Role of ontologies
	   o Location- and context-aware environments
	   o Mobile and ubiquitous P2P




Submission and Publication
**************************

      Full papers		      April 20, 2007 (extended 
                                      deadline)
      Notification of acceptance      May 25, 2007
      Full Camera-ready papers	      June 22, 2007
      Conference		      July 15 - July 18, 2007


All prospective authors are invited to submit full papers of up to 8 
pages describing their (previously unpublished) work and achievements 
to DASD 2007. All submitted  papers will be subject to a peer-
reviewing process by at least 3 program committee members. All 
accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings and 
archived in both the SCS digital library and the ACM Digital Library. 
Final version of all the papers must comply with the SCS conference 
format as given in http://www.scs.org/PDFs/formattingkit.pdf
Authors of accepted papers are expected to attend the conference and 
present their work.

The best contributed paper will be given an award. A selected group 
of full papers will be published in the special issue of Simulation 
Journal (SCS).

Please submit papers in PDF or PostScript with the authors' complete 
addresses, phone, fax, and e-mail for consideration. Papers should be 
submitted electronically to

		  http://www.softconf.com/scs/SCSC07

by indicating DASD in the workshop/track list.



International Program committee (to be completed)
*************************************************


Khalid Al-Begain, University of Glamorgan, United Kingdom
Vladimir Anisimov, GlaxoSmithKline, United Kingdom
Gilbert Babin, HEC Montreal, Canada
Kirstie Bellman, Aerospace Corporation, USA
Arndt Bode, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
Mark Burgin, University of California Los Angeles, USA
Pranay Chaudhuri, University of the West Indies, Barbados
Mario A. R. Dantas, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil
Wolfgang Fengler, Technische Universitaet Ilmenau, Germany
Markus Fiedler, University of Karlskrona/Ronneby, Sweden
Juergen Foag, Rohde & Schwarz, Germany
Ricardo Fricks, Motorola Inc., USA
Stefania Gnesi, ISTI-CNR, Italy
Martin Griebl, Universitaet Passau, Germany
Hans-Michael Hanisch, Universitaet Halle, Germany
Olaf Kluge, BMW AG, Germany
Bora I. Kumova, Izmir Institute of Technology, Turkey
Pierre Kuonen, Univ. of Applied Science Fribourg, Switzerland
Victor Larios, University of Guadalajara, Mexico
Ulrike Lechner, Universitaet der Bundeswehr Muenchen, Germany
Axel Lehmann, Universitaet der Bundeswehr Muenchen, Germany
Paulo Maciel, Universidade de Pernambuco, Brazil
Shikharesh Majumdar, Carleton University, Canada
Ricardo Marcelin-Jimenez, UAM-I Mexico City, Mexico
Tiziana Margaria, Universitaet Potsdam, Germany
Martin Middendorf, Universitaet Leipzig, Germany
Jogesh K. Muppala, HKUST, Hong Kong
Hassan Rajaei, Bowling Green State University, USA
Detlef Schoder, Universitaet Koeln/Cologne, Germany
Michael Shin, Texas Tech University, USA
Sabine Wittevrongel, Ghent University, Belgium
Wlodek M. Zuberek, Memorial University of Nfld, Canada


Contact
*******

More information about DASD 2007, and the Society for Modeling and 
Simulation can be found on the conference web page at:

	      http://www.fernuni-hagen.de/KN/DASD

If you have any problems with electronic submission please contact 
either

  DASD 2007
  SCS, P.O. Box 17900
  San Diego, CA 92177
  Tel.: + (858) 277-3888
  Fax: + (858) 277-3930
  Email: gwainer@sce.carleton.ca

or one of the chairs of DASD:

Dietmar Tutsch, General Chair
dietmart@cs.tu-berlin.de, phone +49 30 314-73618

Peter Kropf,	Co-Chair
peter.kropf@unine.ch, phone +41 32 718-2707

Herwig Unger,	Co-Chair
herwig.unger@fernuni-hagen.de, phone +49 2331 987-1154

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc At mcmaster dOt ca>

SELECTIONS FROM INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONTROL
VOLUME 80, ISSUE 5
MAY, 2007

1) Reachability and optimal control for linear hybrid automata: a
quantifier elimination approach

Y. Pang;  M. P. Spathopoulos; Hao Xia

Abstract: 

This paper considers an optimal control problem for linear hybrid
automata (LHA). First, we present a controller synthesis algorithm
based on reachability analysis. The algorithm computes the maximal
initial set from which the controller drives the system to a given
target set. It is shown that, using quantifier elimination (QE), an
under-approximation of the maximal reachable set can be derived. Next,
a weighted time-optimal control problem is solved by transforming it
into a constrained optimization problem whose constraints are a set of
inequalities with quantifiers. Quantifier elimination (QE) techniques
are employed in order to derive the quantifier free inequalities that
are shown to be linear. Thus, the optimal cost is obtained using linear
programming. For any state belonging to the maximal initial set the
optimal switching times and the optimal continuous control inputs are
computed. These are used in order to derive a hybrid controller which
is optimal with respect to the cost function. Our results are applied
to an air traffic management example which is of practical interest.

web site: click here