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/

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Contents:

1. Editorial

2. Announcements
 2.1 Electrical/Nuclear Engineering Employment Opportunity
 2.2 Change of Address: Joerg Raisch
 2.3 45th IEEE CDC: Pre Conference Workshops
 2.4 Faculty: TU Delft, Netherlands

3. Conferences
 3.1 Automation 2007, Taipei, Taiwan, June 13 - 15, 2007
 3.2  The Ninth IASTED International Conference on Control and Applications
     (CA 2007), Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 30 - June 1, 2007

4. Journals
 4.1 Selections from IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 32,
     No. 7, July 2006
 4.2 Selections from IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology,
     Volume: 14, Issue: 5, September 2006
 4.3 Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, Volume 16 Number 3, September 2006

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

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

Personal note from the editor:

Welcom to the August 2006 edition of the newsletter,

Ryan

Contributed by: Idaho National Laboratory <Denis.Asay@inl.gov>

ELECTRICAL/NUCLEAR ENGINEERING EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Electrical/Nuclear Engineer

Idaho National Laboratory is seeking qualified candidates to fill a 
staff research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) position.  The 
successful candidate will develop and demonstrate solutions to a 
variety of moderately large and/or complex problems related to systems 
technologies, including modeling and simulation, through the general 
use and application of design/development practices, theories, and 
techniques. Typical RD&D areas of interest may include, but not 
necessarily be limited to, sensor networks/systems, dynamic 
surveillance and detection, instrumentation and control, control 
system security, Reactor/Balance-Of-Plant (BOP) integration issues, 
decision systems, and on-line conditioning monitoring and anomaly 
detection and interpretation techniques with diagnostic/prognostic 
capabilities.  Additional R&D activities may involve the development 
of process and operations models, data acquisition and supervisory 
systems, and embedded sensory networks and interfaces. Main 
application areas are national security and nuclear energy systems.

Potential candidates must hold a PhD or equivalent in Electrical 
Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, or related fields.  Strong expertise 
or/and experience in systems technologies and in dynamic modeling, and 
analysis and application is desirable.	The position requires a highly 
motivated individual with the ability to work effectively in a team 
and under minimal supervision.	The candidate will participate and 
provide leadership in the development and testing of engineered 
solutions using current and emerging systems technologies and have 
expertise .  

We are approximately 150 miles from Sun Valley, 100 miles from Jackson 
Hole, Wyoming, and Yellowstone National Park, three of the world’s 
most sought after resort vacation destinations.  INL offers a 
competitive salary and exceptional benefits package, including 
Health/Dental/Life, retirement, vacation, tuition reimbursement, 
relocation assistance and much more.

Please apply on line at http://www.inl.gov/careers for job reference 
#002757.  For questions, send e-mail message to Denis Asay at 
Denis.Asay@inl.gov.

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

CHANGE OF ADDRESS: JOERG RAISCH

I have taken up a new position at the Technical University of Berlin.
My new
address is: 

Joerg Raisch
Technische Universitaet Berlin
Fachgebiet Regelungssysteme (Control Systems Group)
Sekretariat EN11
Einsteinufer 17,
D-10587 Berlin, Germany
Tel.: +49-30-314-22945
Fax.: +49-30-314-21137
email: raisch@control.tu-berlin.de

I will continue to coordinate the activities of the Systems and Control
Theory  
Group at MPI Magdeburg. The address there is:

Joerg Raisch
Max-Planck-Institut fuer Dynamik komplexer technischer Systeme
Systems and Control Theory Group
Sandtorstr. 1, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
email: raisch@mpi-magdeburg.mpg.de

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

45TH IEEE CDC: PRE CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

Trajectory-Tracking, Path-Following, and Formation Control of
Autonomous Vehicles

 A. Pedro Aguiar, Antonio M. Pascoal, Technical
University of Lisbon, Portugal and Joao P. Hespanha, University of
California, Santa Barbara. 

The workshop focuses on the theme of motion
control of autonomous systems (underwater vehicles, surface craft,
wheeled mobile robots, aircraft, helicopters, spacecraft). It consists
of tutorial presentations encompassing heoretical and new developments
in the area of motion control of autonomous vehicles, with an emphasis
placed on coordinated motion control of multiple autonomous vehicles
illustrated by significant applications. The presentations
are organized around the following themes: Point-stabilization,
trajectory-tracking and path-following of autonomous vehicles, and
coordinated/cooperative control of groups of autonomous vehicles.


Model Predictive Control for Fast Nonlinear Systems: Existing
Approaches, Challenges and Applications 

Rolf Findeisen, University of Stuttgart, Germany. 

Over the recent years, significant progresses have
been made toward the application of nonlinear model predictive control
(NMPC) to nonlinear systems characterized by fast dynamics, fostered by
specific formulations that allow a fast (approximate) solution of the
underlying optimal control problem. The purpose of this workshop is
twofold: The main objective is to provide an in depth review of the
existing approaches for the application of nonlinear MPC to fast
systems. The second objective is to present practically relevant
control examples from various areas such as automotive systems,
aerospace systems, or fast chemical processes.


High-Confidence Embedded Systems

Eric Klavins, University of Washington.

The workshop addresses the specification, design and verification of
complex distributed embedded systems that combine communications,
computation and control in dynamic, uncertain and adversarial
environments. Although such systems are becoming more and more
commonplace, the cost of designing and verifying them is overwhelming.
Furthermore, the problem of designing and verifying systems to be
robust against mission-ending and catastrophic failures is poorly
understood. A primary goal for the workshop is to present 
the fundamental limitations of current methods with respect to these
problems, and to point the way toward a research agenda that addresses
them.


Hybrid Systems Biology

John Lygeros, University of Patras, Greece, and Giancarlo
Ferrari-Trecate, University of Pavia, Italy.

Mathematical models that describe gene and protein interactions in a
precise and unambiguous manner can play an instrumental role in shaping
the future of biology. The recognition that hybrid discrete-continuous
dynamics can play an important role in biochemical systems has led a
number of researchers to investigate how methods developed for hybrid
systems in other areas can be extended to biological systems. The
workshop will highlight recent developments in this area, and outline
the exciting research directions to which they give rise. The workshop
will expose the participants to the state of the art in the use of
hybrid systems for understanding, modeling and analyzing the
biochemical processes behind the function of a variety 
of organisms, from bacteria to mammalian and human cells.


Modeling, Optimization and Software in Air Traffic Management

Banavar Sridhar, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA.

This workshop will describe the characteristics of Air Traffic
Management (ATM) from a control engineer's viewpoint, discuss problem
areas in the current system, and point out opportunities for improving
the system behavior using methods and technology based on systems and
control concepts. A special emphasis of the workshop will be on
software and database that provide realistic simulation environments to
validate solutions to the problem. The workshop, led by experts from
academia, industry and government, introduces the control expert to a
complex engineering application and provides interaction with leading
researchers in ATM.


Robust Hybrid Systems: Theory and Applications

Andrew R. Teel, Ricardo G. Sanfelice, University of California, Santa
Barbara.

The aim of the workshop is to present recent advances in the theory of
hybrid systems, specifically addressing topics such as modeling,
stability, robustness, and hybrid control. Applications include
sample-data control systems, networked control systems, and numerical
simulations of hybrid systems. The workshop is designed for researchers
and graduate students that are both experts and newcomers to the area
of hybrid systems. The minimum requirement is basic background in the
theory of continuous and discrete time nonlinear systems.

Main CDC website:
http://www.ieeecss.org/CAB/conferences/cdc2006/index.php

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

FACULTY: TU DELFT, NETHERLANDS

Within the faculty 3mE (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)
there is an open position for a

Full professor "Hybrid control and intelligent transportation systems"

The Chair is intended to strengthen the research and educational
activities in the interplay between systems and control engineering and
transportation technology, and is positioned as a bridge between two
departments of the 3mE Faculty of Delft University of Technology: the
Delft Center for Systems and Control (DCSC) and the department of
Marine and Transport Technology (MTT).

Domain of research
The domain of research concerns the development of systematic and
efficient methods for model based control of discrete event and hybrid
systems. The application domain focuses on intelligent and new
generation transportation systems such as traffic networks, logistic
networks, freight transport systems. The Chair is expected to develop
both the necessary new theory and the corresponding control design
algorithms and tools. The chair is expected to participate in the
Transport Research Center Delft, as well as the national
research schools TRAIL (Netherlands Research School for Transport,
Infrastructure and Logistics) and DISC (Dutch Institute of Systems and
Control). In this respect a link will also be established with the
activities on Transportation and Planning at the TUD Faculty of Civil
Engineering and Geosciences. The aim is to strengthen the
interdisciplinary character of the research and educational activities,
and to promote interaction between the control aspects of
transportation systems and the domain-specific and implementation aspects.

Job description
The professor will teach and coordinate teaching activities in the BSc
and MSc programs in control and transportation and in the postgraduate
programs of the national research schools DISC and TRAIL. The new
professor will also supervise staff and PhD students and contribute to
management and other organizational tasks.

Requirements
The candidate for the new Chair is expected to have an excellent
scientific, educational, and organizational track record, and should be
an internationally recognized expert in the fields of hybrid control
and control of transportation systems, as evidenced by international
publications and citations, research projects and supervised PhD
student projects. The candidate should be able to define new research
lines and expand them, in both theory and applications.

Additional information
For more information about the job and the procedure you can visit our
website: www.vacaTUresinDelft.nl/international

APPLICATION DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 5, 2006

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

AUTOMATION 2007
Taipei, Taiwan
June 13 - 15, 2007

Conference Scope: 
Automation 2007, the ninth international conference on automation 
technology, is a biannual event sponsored by Chinese Institute of 
Automation Engineers (CIAE). In 2007, this conference will be held in 
cooperation with e-Manufacturing Symposium 2007 that sponsored by 
Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA). The objective of 
the conference is to facilitate close dialogues among experts on 
issues relating to research and technological development in advanced 
automation technology. Contributors from the world, especially from 
Asia, will be welcomed to provide new developments on this area.

Date: 
June 13(Wed) - June 15 (Fri), 2007 

Conference Site: 
The Howard Plaza Hotel Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan

Conference Web Page 
http://automation2007.nfu.edu.tw 

Important Dates 
Deadline of submission: 	December 10, 2006 
Notification of acceptance:	January 15, 2007 
Final camera-ready paper due:	February 10, 2007 

Publication in Journals: 
Some selected papers (about 120) will be published in the following 
journals: 
(1) Journal of the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineers 
(2) International Journal of Electronic Business Management 
(3) International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. 

An additional fee US$250 for each selected paper will be charged. 
Each accepted paper must be presented at the conference and the 
manuscript must be accompanied by a paid registration. 

Main Theme: 
Advanced Robot Technology 

Papers with new research results in all aspects of automation are 
encouraged for submission. This conference is aimed to promote strong 
interactions among researchers and to disseminate high quality 
research results. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to 
the followings: 
Robotics 
Mechatronics Sensing and Control 
Opto-Mechatronic Technology for Automation 
MEMS/ NEMS 
CAD/CAM/CIM 
e-Diagnostics and e-Maintenance 
e-Automation and e-Factory 
e-Business Integration 
Device Technology for Automation 
Equipment and Process Technology for Automation 
System Integration Technology for Automation 
Industrial Information Technology 
Machinery for Automation 
Others 

Conference Secretariat: 
Professor Wenyuh Jywe, Jing-Chung Shen
Department of Automation Engineering,
National Formosa University, 
Huwei, Yunlin, 632, Taiwan
Tel: +886-5-6315402, 6315406, 6315370 
Fax: +886-5-6311500, 6314486 
E-mail: jywe@nfu.edu.tw, jcshen@ nfu.edu.tw

web site: click here

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

THE NINTH IASTED INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONTROL AND APPLICATIONS
(CA 2007)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
May 30 - June 1, 2007

Sponsors

- The International Association of Science and Technology for
Development (IASTED)

Purpose

The IASTED International Conference on Control and Applications (CA
2007) will be a major forum for international researchers and
practitioners interested in all areas of control and applications. It
will be an opportunity to present and observe the latest research,
results, and ideas in these areas. All papers submitted to this
conference will be peer evaluated by at least two reviewers. Acceptance
will be based primarily on originality and contribution.

CA 2007 will be held in conjunction with the IASTED International
Conference on:
- Modelling and Simulation (MS 2007)
- Antennas, Radar, and Wave Propagation (ARP 2007)
- Wireless and Optical Communications (WOC 2007) 

Topics will include, but are not limited to:

    * Control Theory
    * Stability
    * Linear Control
    * Non-Linear Control
    * Optimization
    * Identification and Estimation
    * Intelligent Control
    * Adaptive Control
    * Predictive Control
    * Fuzzy Control
    * Control using Neural Networks
    * Genetic Algorithms
    * Process Control
    * Re-Configurable Control Systems
    * Stochastic Control
    * Robust Control
    * Variable Structure Control
    * Virtual Reality in Control
    * Robotics
    * Real Time Systems
    * Fault Detection
    * Modelling and Simulation
    * Control Education
    * Discrete Events and Hybrid Systems
    * Mechatronics
    * Bio-Engineering
    * Environmental Systems
    * Vehicles and Transportation Systems
    * Power Systems Applications
    * Control of Distributed Parameter Systems

IMPORTANT DEADLINES
- Submissions due		January 15, 2007
- Notification of acceptance	February 15, 2007
- Camera-ready manuscripts due	March 15, 2007
- Registration deadline 	April 1, 2007

web site: click here

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

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
VOL. 32, NO. 7
JULY, 2006

1) Performance Modeling and Evaluation of Distributed Component-Based
Systems Using Queueing Petri Nets

Samuel Kounev

Abstract: 

Performance models are used increasingly throughout the phases of the
software engineering lifecycle of distributed component-based systems.
However, as systems grow in size and complexity, building models that
accurately capture the different aspects of their behavior becomes a
more and more challenging task. In this paper, we present a novel case
study of a realistic distributed component-based system, showing how
Queueing Petri Net models can be exploited as a powerful performance
prediction tool in the software engineering process. A detailed system
model is built in a step-by-step fashion, validated, and then used to
evaluate the system performance and scalability. Along with the case
study, a practical performance modeling methodology is presented which
helps to construct models that accurately reflect the system
performance and scalability characteristics. Taking advantage of the
modeling power and expressiveness of Queueing Petri Nets, our approach
makes it possible to model the system at a higher degree of accuracy,
providing a number of important benefits.

2) TCTL Inevitability Analysis of Dense-Time Systems: From Theory to
Engineering

Farn Wang

Abstract: 

Inevitability properties in branching temporal logics are of the syntax
\forall\diamondsuit \phi, where \phi is an arbitrary (timed) CTL
(Computation Tree Logic) formula. Such inevitability properties in
dense-time logics can be analyzed with the greatest fixpoint
calculation. We present algorithms to model-check inevitability
properties. We discuss a technique for early decision on greatest
fixpoint calculation which has shown promising performance against
several benchmarks. We have experimented with various issues which may
affect the performance of TCTL inevitability analysis. Specifically,
our algorithms come with a parameter for the measurement of
time-progress. We report the performance of our implementation with
regard to various parameter values and with or without the non-Zeno
computation requirement in the evaluation of greatest fixpoints. We
have also experimented with safe abstraction techniques for
model-checking TCTL inevitability properties. The experiment results
help us in deducing rules for setting the parameter for verification
performance. Finally, we summarize suggestions for configurations of
efficient TCTL inevitability evaluation procedure.

web site: click here

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

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY
VOLUME: 14, ISSUE: 5
SEPTEMBER, 2006

1) Formal Verification of Statecharts Using Finite-State Model Checkers

 Zhao, Q.; Krogh, B.H

Abstract: 

This brief concerns the formal verification of properties of
statecharts, a hierarchical state machine formalism for designing
control-system logic. Various semantics have been defined for
statecharts in terms of the microsteps that determine the transitions
between statechart configurations. We show how computation tree logic
(CTL) specifications for a statechart can be verified using a
finite-state model checker such as SMV. The inputs to the model checker
are a model and an associated expansion of the CTL formula that reflect
the semantics. A Kripke structure with marked states provides the
formal relationship between the expanded model and the original
statechart structure and CTL specification. The results apply to a
general class of semantics and statecharts with bounded behaviors. The
approach is illustrated with a small example.

web site: click here

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

DISCRETE EVENT DYNAMIC SYSTEMS
VOLUME 16 NUMBER 3
SEPTEMBER, 2006

1) Centralized Modular Diagnosis and the Phenomenon of Coupling, 
   p. 311
  
E. Garcia Moreno, A. Correcher Salvador, F. Morant Anglada, E. Quiles
Cucarella, R. Blasco Gimenez

2) Extremal Throughputs in Free-Choice Nets, p. 327  

Anne Bouillard, Bruno Gaujal, Jean Mairesse

3) Dynamic Control with Indistinguishable Events, p. 353  

X. Briand

4) Comparison with a Standard via All-Pairwise Comparisons, p. 385  

E. Jack Chen

5) The Equivalence between Ordinal Optimization in Deterministic
   Complex Problems and in Stochastic Simulation Problems, p. 405  

Yu-Chi Ho, Qing-Shan Jia, Qian-Chuan Zhao

web site: click here