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. Conferences
 2.1 American Control Conference 2010, Baltimore, Maryland, June 30 -
     July 2, 0

3. Journals
 3.1 Selections from IEEE Transactions on  Systems, Man, and Cybernetics,
     Part B: Cybernetics,  Volume: 39,  Issue: 4, August 2009

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 June DESTC newsletter,

Ryan

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

AMERICAN CONTROL CONFERENCE 2010
Baltimore, Maryland
June 30 - July 2, 0

Call for Papers

The 2010 American Control Conference (ACC) will be held Wednesday
through Friday, June 30 – July 2, 2010 at the Baltimore Marriott
Waterfront in Baltimore, Maryland. The ACC is the annual conference of
the American Automatic Control Council (AACC). The 2010 ACC, held in
cooperation with IFAC, will present a technical program consisting of
new developments in theory and practice in the area of automatic control. 

The technical program will consist of papers in regular technical
sessions, invited sessions, special sessions, education/tutorial
session, and pre-conference workshops. Special themes for the 2010 ACC
include: Control in Medicine, Control of Robotic Systems, and Control
of Green Energy Systems.

Baltimore, home of the Orioles and Ravens, has a beautiful Inner Harbor
with a scenic and popular waterfront. Baltimore is also rich with
history, as the place where Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics to “The
Star-Spangled Banner” as he watched soldiers of Fort McHenry defend
Baltimore from the Royal Navy in the War of 1812. Other attractions
include the Baltimore Aquarium, the Maryland Science Center, and a wide
variety of other museums. Baltimore also hosts a wealth of famous
restaurants and outdoor entertainment such as street entertainers,
fireworks, cruise boats, and open-air theatres.

Submissions for the 2010 ACC program are invited. Contributors are
encouraged to consult the conference website and contact appropriate
organizing committee members for more information.

Contributed papers can be submitted in regular or short paper
categories. Regular papers are intended to be complete descriptions of
finished work. Short papers are intended to present novel ideas or
preliminary results.  Invited session proposals should present topics
from multiple viewpoints with unifying themes. Each proposal should
consist of a summary statement and six regular papers.  Special session
proposals should address emerging research areas, industry and
government initiatives, and other topics of broad interest. 
Education/Tutorial session proposals should address state-of-the-art
control theory and industrial applications.  Tutorials are encouraged
to have panel discussions. 

Pre-conference workshop proposals addressing topics of current interest
to the controls community are invited. We also invite exhibit proposals
related to control theory, practice, and education. The ACC exhibit
area typically features booths by book publishers, local and national
organizations, and suppliers of software and hardware systems.

Please visit http://www.a2c2.org/conferences/acc2010/ for complete
conference information. You may also contact the
General Chair, Glenn Masada ( masada AT austin.utexas.edu), or the
Program Chair, Richard Braatz (braatz aT illinois.edu).

Glenn Masada, General Chair 2010 ACC
Richard Braatz, Program Chair 2010 ACC

Key Dates:
Deadline for all submissions and proposals: September 15, 2009
Notification of acceptance/rejection: January 31, 2010
Final manuscript submission deadline: March 15, 2010

web site: click here

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

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS, MAN, AND CYBERNETICS,
PART B: CYBERNETICS
VOLUME: 39, ISSUE: 4
AUGUST, 2009

1) Toward the Formal Verification of a Unification System $^{ast}$

Liu, H.; Zhao, J.; Lu, R.

Abstract:

Unification grammars are widely used for encoding human knowledge. For
unification systems, one major difficulty is the debugging of rules. In
this paper, the authors suggest a novel method based on model checking
to theoretically verify a complex grammar system for a
unification-based parser. We propose the modeling method of the grammar
and, more importantly, the abstraction method to compress the state
space. We apply partial Kripke structures to model the rules. We prove
that the state space can be reduced by several orders of magnitude
while still keeping the behaviors of a noncompressed one. Practical
verification issues are discussed, including the restrictions on
specifications, the properties to check, etc. The proposed method will
contribute to the effective debugging and application of unification
grammars.

2) Analysis of Authentication Protocols in Agent-Based Systems Using
Labeled Tableaux

Ji Ma; Orgun, M.A.; Sattar, A.

Abstract:

The study of multiagent systems (MASs) focuses on systems in which many
intelligent agents interact with each other using communication
protocols. For example, an authentication protocol is used to verify
and authorize agents acting on behalf of users to protect restricted
data and information. After authentication, two agents should be
entitled to believe that they are communicating with each other and not
with intruders. For specifying and reasoning about the security
properties of authentication protocols, many researchers have proposed
the use of belief logics. Since authentication protocols are designed
to operate in dynamic environments, it is important to model the
evolution of authentication systems through time in a systematic way.
We advocate the systematic combinations of logics of beliefs and time
for modeling and reasoning about evolving agent beliefs in MASs. In
particular, we use a temporal belief logic called TML+ for establishing
trust theories for authentication systems and also propose a labeled
tableau system for this logic. To illustrate the capabilities of TML+,
we present trust theories for several well-known authentication
protocols, namely, the Lowe modified wide-mouthed frog protocol, the
amended Needham-Schroeder symmetric key protocol, and Kerberos. We also
show how to verify certain security properties of those protocols. With
the logic TML+ and its associated modal tableaux, we are able to reason
about and verify authentication systems operating in dynamic environments.

web site: click here