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 Invited Session at NOLTA2006
 2.2 Wider Range of Newsletter Items Requested

3. Conferences
 3.1 ICINCO 2006 3rd International Conference on Informatics in Control,
     Automation and Robotics,  Setubal,Portugal, August 1 - 5, 2006
 3.2 ASCC2006 The 6th Asian Control Conference,	Bali,Indonesia, July 18
     - 21, 2006
 3.3 MMAR 2006, 12th IEEE International Conference on Methods and Models in
     Automation and Robotics, Miedzyzdroje,Poland, August 28 - 31,
     2006
 3.4 ETFA 2006, 11th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies
     and Factory  Automation, Prague, Czech Republic, September 20
     - 22, 2006
 3.5 DESDes'06 3rd International IFAC Workshop on Discrete-Event System
     Design, Rydzyna Castle, Poland, September 26 - 28, 2006
 3.6 17th Australasian Workshop on Combinatorial Algorithms, Uluru
     (Ayres Rock), Northern Territory, July 12 - 16, 2006

4. Journals
 4.1 Selections from IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics - Part A: Systems and
     Humans, Volume: 36 Issue: 2, March 2006
 4.2 Selections from IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 32,
     No. 2, February 2006
 4.3 Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, Volume 16, Number 1, January 2006
 4.4 Selections from Control Engineering Practice, Volume 14, Issue 6,
     June 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:

Welcome to the March edition of the newsletter.  I hope you are finding
the DESTC newsletter useful.  Please feel free to forward a copy to
anyone that you think might also like to subscribe.  There were several
addresses in the mailing list that I was given that were out of date
and have since been removed.  It may be possible that your colleague is
unaware of the newsletter starting up again.

Ryan

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

INVITED SESSION AT NOLTA2006

We are planning to organize an invited session on analysis and control 
of hybrid systems using discrete-event systems approaches at the 
forthcoming 2006 International Symposium on Nonlinear Theory and its 
Applications (NOLTA 2006), which is organized by IEICE.
The aim of the invited session is to present new results from both the 
theoretical and the application-oriented research field of hybrid 
systems including, but not limited to, modeling, analysis, supervisory 
control, and failure diagnosis. We would like to invite you to submit
 a paper to this invited session.

The NOLTA 2006 will be held in Bologna, Italy on September 11 - 14, 
2006 and will be chaired by Gianluca Setti (Univ. of Ferrara) and 
Toshimitsu Ushio (Osaka Univ.).
The web page of  NOLTA 2006 is located at:
http://ushiolab.sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp/nolta2006/

Please note that each contributed paper will not be reviewed 
individually (only the session proposal) and the deadline for the 
session proposal is April 23, 2006.
Further submission information can be found at:
http://ushiolab.sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp/nolta2006/author.html

We would appreciate you letting us know about your interest in 
participating and contributing a paper at your earliest convenience so 
that we can initiate the submission process. Please send an e-mail to 
one of the organizers to express your interest.
We are looking forward for your contribution to this invited session.

Best regards,

Shigemasa Takai (Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan, 
takai@dj.kit.ac.jp)
Naly Rakoto (Ecole des Mines de Nantes, France, rakoto@emn.fr)

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

WIDER RANGE OF NEWSLETTER ITEMS REQUESTED

At the moment, most of the newsletter items are conference/workshop
announcements, and abstracts from DES related journal papers. 

I'd like to encourage people to submit a wider range of items. The
newsletter welcomes announcements for DES related books, job
opportunities, research positions available, and personals for DES
researchers (e.g. change of address).

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

ICINCO 2006 3RD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INFORMATICS IN CONTROL,
AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS
Setubal,Portugal
August 1 - 5, 2006

SCOPE

The purpose of the 3rd International Conference on Informatics in 
Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO) is to bring together 
researchers, engineers and practitioners interested in the application 
of informatics to Control, Automation and Robotics. Three simultaneous 
tracks will be held, covering Intelligent Control Systems, 
Optimization, Robotics, Automation, Signal Processing, Systems 
Modeling and Control.

Informatics applications are pervasive in many areas of Control, 
Automation and Robotics; This conference intends to emphasize this 
connection, therefore, authors should highlight the benefits of 
Information Technology (IT) in these areas. Ideas on how to solve 
problems using IT, both in R&D and industrial applications, are 
welcome. Papers describing advanced prototypes, systems, tools and 
techniques and general survey papers indicating future directions are 
also encouraged. Papers describing original work are invited in any of 
the areas listed below. Accepted papers, presented at the conference 
by one of the authors, will be published in the Proceedings of ICINCO, 
with an ISBN. Acceptance will be based on quality, relevance and 
originality. Both full research reports and work-in-progress reports 
are welcome. There will be both oral and poster sessions. 

Special sessions, dedicated to case-studies and commercial 
presentations, as well as tutorials dedicated to technical/scientific 
topics are also envisaged: companies interested in presenting their 
products/methodologies or researchers interested in holding a tutorial 
or organizing a workshop are invited to contact the conference 
secretariat. Additional information can be found at 
http://www.icinco.org/. 


CONFERENCE AREAS

Each of these topic areas is expanded in the call for papers (see 
website) but the sub-topics list is not exhaustive. Papers may address 
one or more of the listed sub-topics, although authors should not feel 
limited by them. Unlisted but related sub-topics are also acceptable, 
provided they fit in one of the following conference areas: 
Intelligent Control Systems and Optimization 
Robotics and Automation 
Signal Processing, Systems Modeling and Control 

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Hojjat Adeli, The Ohio State University, U.S.A. 
Oleg Gusikhin, Ford Research & Adv.Engineering, U.S.A.
Gerard T. McKee, University of Reading, U.K.
William J OConnor, University College Dublin, Ireland 
Mihaela Ulieru, The University of New Brunswick, Canada 
Mark d'Inverno, University of Westminster, U.K.
Norihiro Hagita, ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Labs, Japan


TUTORIALS

Industrial Agent Technologies delivered by Mihaela Ulieru, The 
University of New Brunswick, Canada


SPECIAL SESSIONS

There is an open invitation to submit special sessions proposals. 
Please see details on how to submit a special session proposal at 
http://www.icinco.org/Special_Sessions.htm


WORKSHOPS

International Workshop on Multi-Agent Robotic Systems (MARS 2006)
International Workshop on Artificial Neural Networks and Intelligent 
Information Processing (ANNIIP 2006) 
International Workshop on Biosignal Processing and Classification (BPC 
2006)



PAPER SUBMISSION

Authors should submit a paper in English of up to 8 A4 pages, 
carefully checked for correct grammar and spelling, using the on-line 
submission procedure indicated below. 
The guidelines for paper formatting provided at the conference web 
site must be strictly used for all submitted papers. The submission 
format is the same as the camera-ready format. Please check and 
carefully follow the instructions and templates provided. 
The program committee will review all papers and the contact author 
(the author who submits the paper) of each paper will be notified of 
the result, by e-mail. 
Each paper should clearly indicate the nature of its 
technical/scientific contribution, and the problems, domains or 
environments to which it is applicable.

Submission procedure: 
A "double-blind" paper evaluation method will be used. To facilitate 
that, the authors are kindly requested to produce and provide the full 
paper, WITHOUT any reference to any of the authors. The manuscript 
must contain, in its first page, the paper title, an abstract and a 
list of keywords but NO NAMES OR CONTACT DETAILS WHATSOEVER are to be 
included in any part of this file. 
The web submission facility automatically sends an acknowledgement, by 
e-mail, to the contact author. Please contact the secretariat if no 
acknowledgement is received. 

If the author is unable to use the web-based procedure then he/she can 
send the paper by e-mail to the secretariat attaching an additional 
file containing: the title, author(s), affiliation(s), contact 
details, a list of keywords and an abstract. Authors must also 
indicate the conference area (including the topics) or the workshop, 
to which the paper is submitted. 


PUBLICATIONS

All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings, 
under an ISBN reference, in paper and in CD-ROM support. A book 
including a selection of the best conference papers will be edited and 
published by Springer. 
The International journal Integrated Computer-Aided Engineering and 
the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems will also 
publish a selection of ICINCO 2006 best papers. 


IMPORTANT DATES

Full Paper Submission: 27th February, 2006
Authors Notification: 17th April, 2006
Final Paper Submission and Registration: 8th May, 2006


SECRETARIAT

ICINCO Secretariat 
Address: Av. D.Manuel I, 27A 2ºesq.
2910-595 Setúbal - Portugal
Tel.: +351 265 520 185
Fax: +351 265 520 186
Email: secretariat@icinco.org
Web: http://www.icinco.org

Web site: click here

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

ASCC2006 THE 6TH ASIAN CONTROL CONFERENCE
Bali,Indonesia
July 18 - 21, 2006

The Asian Control Conference (ASCC) is a biennial event and a major 
control event held in Asia. 
ASCC2006 provides researchers, engineers, and professional worldwide 
with excellent opportunities to get together and exchange their 
findings and views. 

Invitation 
Prospective authors are invited to submit full papers electronically 
at the conference website by the due date of January 31, 2006. All 
submissions will be reviewed and those accepted will be included in 
the conference proceedings. Papers should only be submitted if	you 
are planning on attending the conference. Papers should be submitted 
in PDF format and need to be no longer than 9 A4 pages and must be 
written in English. Please check the website for detailed formatting 
instructions. Or if you are familiar with the IEEE CDC formatting 
guidelines please use these instructions when preparing your paper.

Scope
Topics of interest are in the broad area of control and automation and 
include but not limited to:

System Theory
PID Control
Nonlinear Control
Hybrid Systems
Mechatronics
Aerospace
Maritime
Linear Control
Robust Control
Fault Detection
Signal Processing
Power Systems
Control Education
Predictive Control
Adaptive Control and Tuning
Multivariable Control
Bio-technology and Bio-engineering
Fuzzy and Neural Systems
Supervisory Control
GA and Evolutionary Computing
Information Technology 
Guidance and Navigation
Process and Chemical Systems
Measurement and Sensing
Control in Business and Management
Automotive Control
Network Control
Quantum Control
Optimal Control and Optimization
Intelligent and Learning Control
Discrete Event Systems
Real-Time Systems
Simulation and Control CAD
Robotics and Motion Control
Manufacturing Systems
Environmental and Agriculture
Large Scale Systems
Human-Machine Systems
Transportation Systems
AI and Expert Systems
Web Based Control
Identification and Estimation 

Paper Writing Guideline
Paper writing guidelines are available from the conference website. 

Important Dates
Submissions Due : January 31, 2006
Notification of Acceptance : April 1, 2006
Camera Ready Papers Due : May 1, 2006 

Download Call For Papers
Call for Papers in PDF format is available from the conference website.

Contact   
Secretariat of The ASCC2006 
Department of Engineering Physics 
Institut Teknologi Bandung 
Jl. Ganesha 10 Bandung, 40132 
Indonesia 
Phone  : +62-22-250 4424 
Fax  : +62-22-250 6281 
Email  : secretariat@ascc2006.com 
Site  : http://www.ascc2006.com

Web site: click here

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

MMAR 2006, 12TH IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON METHODS AND MODELS IN
AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS
Miedzyzdroje,Poland
August 28 - 31, 2006

Welcome
The Conference will be a good opportunity for highlighting the new 
results and directions of Automatic Control theory, technology and 
applications. As such, it mainly will concentrate on the following key 
points:
- Emphasis on invited lectures including plenaries,
- Industry participation promotion,
- Attract young people to study and work in the field.

The participants of the 12th IEEE *) International MMAR Conference 
will have the opportunity to take part in the wide spectrum of 
categories for technical presentations, including plenary lectures, 
regular papers of both lecture and poster session types, and panel 
discussion.

The Conference will be held in Miedzyzdroje. Miedzyzdroje is a popular 
charming seaside holiday resort located on the Wolin Island in the 
north-western corner of Poland (ca. 100 km north of Szczecin, ca. 250 
km north-east of Berlin, and ca. 600 km north-west of Warsaw) between 
the Wolin National Park Forest and a broad and sandy beach with a 
steep cliff shoreline. The beauty of Miedzyzdroje lies in its fine 
architecture and natural environment. Together with the adjoining 
National Park, which houses one of the very few bison reserves in the 
world, and offers a series of aweinspiring hiking trails, it is a 
place of unique scenic, cultural and tourist value. The meeting will 
take place in Amber Baltic Hotel located a few meters from the Baltic 
beach at walking distance from the Wolin National Park.

Scope of the Conference
The objective of the Conference is to bring together scientists and 
engineers to present and discuss recent developments in the area of 
mathematical methods, modeling, simulation and identification in 
automation and robotics. This Conference is the twelfth in a 
continuing series, which started in 1994.

Main Topics
1. Control and system theory
2. Control engineering
3. Control and networks
4. Robotics
5. Identification and measurement
6. Modeling, computing and simulation
7. Integration in manufacturing
8. Industrial safety
9. Artificial intelligence

T. Kaczorek (PL) Chairman
K. Kozowski (PL) Co-Chairman
S. Banka (PL) Secretary

Scientific Co-Sponsors
IEEE Robotics & Automation Society
Committee of Automation and Robotics,
Committee of Metrology and Instrumentation,
Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
Technical Co-Sponsor
IEEE Control Systems Society

Submission of papers and proposals for Invited Sessions
Authors of regular papers should submit a structured draft paper being 
equivalent to maximum of 10 double-spaced A4 pages.
The cover page should contain the title, author's name, affiliation, 
postal and e-mail addresses, fax and telephone numbers of each author, 
an abstract and three keywords (keywords should be chosen from the 
official IEEE - keywords list, which can be found at 
http://www.ieee.org/organizations/pubs/ani_prod/keywrd98.txt).
In case of joint authorship, the first name mentioned will be used for 
all correspondence, unless otherwise requested.
All papers chosen for presentation will appear in the Conference 
Proceedings. At least one author per paper is required to register at 
the time of the submission of the camera-ready paper.
Detailed instructions on preparation of the final version will be sent 
to authors of accepted papers.

Persons wishing to organize an invited session related to the main 
topics of the Conference should submit a proposal stating the topic of 
the session, briefly describing its scope and justifying its inclusion 
in the Conference Program.
The proposal should contain the title, a short abstract with three 
keywords for each contribution, the name, affiliation, postal and e-
mail addresses, fax and telephone numbers of each proposed speaker.

Both draft papers and proposals for invited sessions should be e-
mailed (preferably as a non-encrypted PDF document, or else as a 
MSWord DOC file) to the Conference Secretariat by the deadline shown.

Paper preparation
The detailed information about preparation of your papers will be 
given at the Conference website.

Poster Sessions
The area available for the poster presentation is the rectangle of 
80cm (width) and 100cm (height).

Young Author Prize
The Prize consists of a certificate and a monetary award to be split 
among the authors of the winning paper.
A selection committee will nominate candidates.
The criteria are high technical quality and a good presentation of 
results.
All authors must be a postgraduate students under 30 years of age from 
July 1st 2006.
Eligible authors wishing their papers to be considered for this prize 
should indicate it in the Registration Form.

Language
The official language of the Conference is English.

DEADLINES
15 March 2006 Submission of draft papers (oral or poster presentation) 
and proposals for invited sessions (extended)
4 May 2006 Notification of acceptance of contributed papers
19 June 2006 Registration
26 June 2006 Submission of camera-ready manuscripts
15 July 2006 Distribution of the conference program
28 - 31 August, 2006 Conference

Web site: click here

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

ETFA 2006, 11TH IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
AND FACTORY AUTOMATION
Prague, Czech Republic
September 20 - 22, 2006

CALL FOR PAPERS
ETFA 2006
11th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and 
Factory  Automation
September 20-22, 2006, Prague, Czech Republic 
Conference web site:  http://www.action-m.com/etfa2006/

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 2006 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 pages: http://www.action-
m.com/etfa2006/
and http://www.action-m.com/etfa2006/submission/index.html


AUTHOR'S SCHEDULE
	Deadline for submission of full papers:      March 31, 2006
	Notification of papers acceptance:	     May 25, 2006
	Final manuscripts due:			     July 1, 2006


ETFA 2006 GENERAL CO-CHAIRS
	Vladimir Marik, Czech Technical University in Prague,
	Czech Republic
	Richard Zurawski, ISA Corp., USA


ETFA 2006 PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS
	Josep Fuertes,	University of Catalonia, Spain
	Hans-Michael Hanisch, University of Halle, Germany
	Jiri Lazansky, Czech Technical University in Prague,
	Czech Republic


ETFA 2006 PANEL &  PUBLIC SESSIONS CO-CHAIRS
       Armando Colombo, Schneider-Electric, Germany
       Luis Gomes, Uninova Institute, Portugal
       Martin Wollschlaeger, Technical University of Dresden, Germany

Web site: click here

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

DESDES'06 3RD INTERNATIONAL IFAC WORKSHOP ON DISCRETE-EVENT SYSTEM
DESIGN
Rydzyna Castle, Poland
September 26 - 28, 2006

DESDes'06 Announcement and CALL FOR PAPERS

	    3rd International IFAC Workshop on Discrete-Event System 
				   Design
			  Rydzyna Castle, Poland
			     26-28 September 2006

				 Sponsored by
		     IFAC TC on Computers for Control
 
				 Co-Sponsored by
       Polish Society for Measurement, Automatic Control and Robotics 
				   (POLSPAR)
 
				 Organized by
		   Institute of Computer Engineering and Electronics, 
			  University of Zielona Gora, Poland
 
 
DESDes'06 - the International IFAC Workshop is the third workshop on 
Discrete-Event System Design organized by University of Zielona Gora, 
Poland. It continues experience of fruitful international co-operation 
in the subject with the view of extending the scope and fields of 
interests. The aim of the Workshop is to bring together researchers 
from universities and industry and provide a platform to report and 
discuss new topics in digital system design and digital signal 
processing. The Workshop is devoted to subjects concerning design, 
analysis and implementation of discrete-event systems, formal design 
methodology, digital signal processing and related topics.


Scope:
    The topics to be covered include, but are not limited to:
	* Logic Controller Design
	* Programmable Logic
	* Formal Methods in Digital Design
	* Hardware Description Languages (HDLs)
	* Petri Net-Based Digital Design
	* Hardware-Software Co-Design
	* Safety Critical Computer Control Applications
	* Real-Time System Programming
	* Microprocessor Systems
	* UML in Digital Design
	* System-on-Chip (SoC)
	* Web Engineering in Digital Design
	* Modelling and Control of Biomedical Systems


International Programme Committee:
    Workshop Chair:
	Marian Adamski
	    University of Zielona Gora
	    Institute of Computer Engineering and Electronics
	    ul. Podgorna 50
	    65-246 Zielona Gora, Poland
	    Phone:  (+48 68) 328 2219
	    Fax:    (+48 68) 324 4733
	    E-mail: M.Adamski@iie.uz.zgora.pl
 
    Co-Chairs:
	Luis Gomes
	    Universidade Nova de Lisboa
	    Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia
	    Departamento de Engenharia Electrotecnica
	    2829-516 Monte de Caparica, Portugal
	    Phone:  (+351) 212948545 (secr.) or (+351) 212948336 
(direct)
	    Fax:    (+351) 212948532 or (+351) 212941253 (CRI)
	    E-mail: lugo@uninova.pt
	Marek Wegrzyn
	    University of Zielona Gora
	    Institute of Computer Engineering and Electronics
	    ul. Podgorna 50
	    65-246 Zielona Gora, Poland
	    Phone:  (+48 68) 328 2484
	    Fax:    (+48 68) 324 4733
	    E-mail: M.Wegrzyn@iie.uz.zgora.pl
 
    IFAC Representative:
	Ricardo Sanz, Spain
 
    Members:
	Juan Jose Rodriguez Andina, Spain
	Alexander Barkalov, Poland
	Piotr Bibilo, Belarus
	Martin Bolton, United Kingdom
	Matjaz Colnaric, Slovenia
	Carlos Couto, Portugal
	Erik Dagless, United Kingdom
	Vaclav Dvorak, Czech Republic
	Wolfgang Fengler, Germany
	Antonio Ferrari, Portugal
	Vladimir Hahanov, Ukraine
	Wolfgang Halang, Germany
	Edward Hrynkiewicz, Poland
	Leandro Soares Indrusiak, Germany
	Lech Jozwiak, Netherlands
	Hana Kubatova, Czech Republic
	Grzegorz Labiak, Poland
	Tadeusz Luba, Poland
	Norian Marranghello, Brasil
	Joao L. Monteiro, Portugal
	Andrzej Napieralski, Poland
	Marek Perkowski, United States
	Alberto Proenca, Portugal
	Henry Selvaraj, United States
	Zbigniew Skowronski, Poland
	Jerzy Soldek, Poland
	Janusz Szajna, Poland
	Ryszard Tadeusiewicz, Poland
	Heinrich T. Vierhaus, Germany
	Wieslaw Winiecki, Poland
	Arkadzi Zakreuski, Belarus
	Janusz Zalewski, United States
	Mark Zwolinski, United Kingdom
	Andrej Zemva, Slovenia
 
 
National Organizing Committee:
    Chair: 
	Grzegorz Labiak
	    University of Zielona Gora
	    Institute of Computer Engineering and Electronics
	    Zielona Gora, Poland
	    Phone:  (+48 68) 328 26 16
	    Fax:    (+48 68) 324 47 33
	    E-mail: G.Labiak@iie.uz.zgora.pl
 
    Members:
	Arkadiusz Bukowiec
	Katarzyna Gajda 
	Kamil Mielcarek 
	Jacek Tkacz 
	Agnieszka Wegrzyn 
	Remigiusz Wisniewski 
 
 
Location:
    The Castle of Rydzyna; please check our web page: 
	http://www.desdes.uz.zgora.pl
 
 
Submission Details:
    The authors are asked to submit, with their papers, the following 
information: 
	* Paper Title 
	* Author's Name 
	* Contact Address & Email 
	* Abstract (150-200 words)
	* Keyword list


    Submissions:
	The submission of full papers with up to 6 pages is invited. 
They should address topics as outlined above and focus on insights and 
lessons gained from recent researches and practical experiences. 
Position papers describing new ideas, promising approaches, and work 
in progress are considered particularly appropriate. These papers 
should outline the contribution that the authors intend to make at the 
Workshop. The papers need to be submitted as PDF files through our WWW 
server: http://www.desdes.uz.zgora.pl	   


    Final Papers:
	The final papers must be prepared according to the Author's 
Kit Instructions (http://www1.elsevier.com/homepage/saf/ifac/site/IPV%
20overview.htm). A corresponding LaTeX2e style file can be downloaded 
from our WWW server. To illustrate the style of papers required for 
IFAC meetings, sample pages are available in Word and PDF formats. 
Accepted papers must be presented in person at the Workshop.


    Correspondence: 
	All correspondence should be addressed to the Workshop 
address:  	DESDes@iie.uz.zgora.pl


    Language: 
	English will be the working language of the workshop and will 
be used for the proceedings, the presentations and discussions. No 
simultaneous translation will be provided.
 
 
Important Dates:
    Draft papers submission: 15. April 2006	
    Notification of acceptance: 15. June 2006
    Early Registration: 30. June 2006
    Camera-ready papers: 31. July 2006
    Deadline for registration: 15. August 2006
    Workshop: 26.-28. September 2006
 
 
Copyright Conditions:
    The material submitted for presentation at an IFAC meeting 
(Congress, Symposium, Conference, Workshop) must be original, not 
published or being considered elsewhere. All papers accepted for 
presentation will appear in the Preprints of the meeting and will be 
distributed to the participants. Papers duly presented at the 
Congress, Symposia and Conferences will be archived and offered for 
sale, in the form of Proceedings, by Elsevier Ltd, Oxford, UK. In the
case of Workshops, papers duly presented will be archived by IFAC and
 may be  offered for sale, in the form of Proceedings, by Workshop 
organizers. The presented papers will be further screened for possible
 publication in the IFAC Journals (Automatica, Control Engineering 
Practice, Annual Reviews in Control, Journal of Process Control , 
Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, and Mechatronics),
 or in IFAC affiliated journals. All papers presented will be recorded
 as an IFAC Publication. Copyright of material presented at an IFAC
 meeting is held by IFAC. Authors will be sent a copyright transfer 
form. The IFAC Journals and, after these, IFAC affiliated journals 
have priority access to all contributions presented. However, if the
 author is not contacted by an editor of these journals within three
 months after the meeting, he/she is free to re-submit the material 
for publication elsewhere. In this case, the paper must carry a 
reference to the IFAC meeting where it was originally presented.
 
 
For more detailed information see the WWW-Server:
	      http://www.desdes.uz.zgora.pl

Web site: click here

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

17TH AUSTRALASIAN WORKSHOP ON COMBINATORIAL ALGORITHMS
Uluru (Ayres Rock), Northern Territory
July 12 - 16, 2006

[Editor: this is more an interesting related conference than a DES
specific conference.]

The Seventeenth Australasian Workshop on Combinatorial Algorithms
(AWOCA 2006) will be held at Uluru (Ayres Rock) 12-16 July.  Uluru 
is listed as a World Heritage Site both for its cultural value
 and spectacular natural setting.

The workshop will follow the style of its predecessors:
problem-oriented
papers and an emphasis on informal discussions.

AWOCA is one of three meetings focussed on discrete mathematics and
computing being held in close space and time proximity:

	# 31ACCMCC (31st Australasian Conference on Combinatorial
Mathematics
	  & Combinatorial Computing), Alice Springs, 8-12 July
	# AWOCA, Uluru, 12-16 July
	# Dry & Discrete, King's Canyon, 16-18 July

Registration in either AWOCA or Dry & Discrete includes registration in
both.

AWOCA topics include (but are not limited to) the following:

# Algorithms and Data Structures
# Complexity Theory
# Graph Theory & Combinatorics
# Cryptography & Information Security
# Algorithms on Strings & Graphs
# Graph Drawing
# Computational Algebra & Geometry
# Computational Biology
# Communications Networks
# Probabilistic & Randomised Algorithms
# New Paradigms of Computation

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++
+  Any early indication of interest to attend would help us in planning
the  +
+  workshop and would be very much appreciated by the Organising
Committee.  +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++

INVITED SPEAKERS 
----------------

# Amihood Amir, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
# Pino Caballero, University of La Laguna, Spain
# Charlie Colbourn, Arizona State University, USA
# Derek Corneil, University of Toronto, Canada
# Diane Donovan, University of Queensland, Australia
# Martin Grttmller, Universitt Rostock, Germany
# Kunsoo Park, Seoul National University, Korea 

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
-----------------

# Mirka Miller, University of Ballarat, Australia (Co-Chair) 
# Bill Smyth, McMaster University, Canada & Curtin University,
Australia
(Co-Chair)
# Edy Tri Baskoro, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia 
# Ljiljana Brankovic, The University of Newcastle, Australia
# Francis Y.L. Chin, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong
# Jackie Daykin, Royal Holloway College, UK
# Graham Farr, Monash University, Australia
# Sndor Fekete, Technical University, Braunschweig, Germany
# Rob Irving, Glasgow University, UK
# Andrei Kelarev, University of Tasmania, Australia
# Arnfried Kemnitz, Technical University, Braunschweig, Germany
# Thierry Lecroq, University of Rouen, France
# Paulette Lieby, NICTA, Australian National University, Australia
# Anna Llado, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
# Paul Manuel, Kuwait University, Kuwait
# Prabhu Manyem, University of Ballarat, Australia
# Laurent Mouchard, University of Rouen, France
# Rajeev Raman, University of Leicester, UK
# Ian Roberts, Charles Darwin University, Australia
# Joe Ryan, University of Ballarat, Australia
# Jamie Simpson, Curtin University, Australia
# Jozef Sirn, University of Auckland, New Zealand
# Kathleen Steinhfel, King's College London, UK
# Thanasis Tsakalidis, University of Patras, Greece
# Ian Wanless, Charles Darwin University, Australia

SUBMISSION 
----------

Electronic submissions are required.  Submitted papers should be
e-mailed on
or before Monday 29 May 2006 (Melbourne time) in postscript or PDF
format to: 

	     awoca2006@ballarat.edu.au 

Simultaneous submission to other conferences with published proceedings
is not allowed.  Notifications to authors will be sent by Friday 16
June. 
Final versions of accepted papers are due by Friday 23 June.

PUBLICATION
-----------

Submitted papers will be refereed and accepted papers will appear in
the
proceedings.  Authors of accepted papers must guarantee that their
paper
will be presented at the conference.  After the workshop, authors of
selected papers will be invited to submit substantial extensions of
their
AWOCA contributions to a special issue of Fundamenta Informaticae,
where
they will be rerefereed according to FI's editorial standards.

For further information, see

	    http://www.ballarat.edu.au/conferences/awoca2006

or contact one of the following:

	    Mirka Miller (m.miller@ballarat.edu.au)	    
	    Ian Roberts (ian.roberts@cdu.edu.au)
	    Bill Smyth (smyth@mcmaster.ca)

Web site: click here

Contributed by: Emanuel Almeida <almeidae@umich.edu>

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE SYSTEMS, MAN AND CYBERNETICS - PART A: SYSTEMS AND
HUMANS
VOLUME: 36 ISSUE: 2
MARCH, 2006

1) Deadlock-Free Scheduling and Control of Flexible Manufacturing 
Cells Using Automata Theory

Golmakani, H.R.; Mills, J.K.; Benhabib, B.

Abstract
This paper presents a novel method for the scheduling and control of 
flexible manufacturing cells (FMCs). The approach employs automata, 
augmented by time labels proposed herein, for the modeling of 
machines, transportation devices, buffers, precedence constraints, and 
part routes. Ramadge-Wonham's supervisory-control theory is then used 
to synthesize a deadlock-free controller that is also capable of 
keeping track of time. For a given set of parts to be processed by the 
cell,$ A^ast$search algorithm is subsequently employed using a 
proposed heuristic function. Three different production configurations 
are considered: Case 1) each part has a unique route; Case 2) parts 
may have multiple routes, but same devices in each route; and Case 3) 
parts may have multiple routes with different devices. The proposed 
approach yields optimal deadlock-free schedules for the first two 
cases. For Case 3, our simulations have yielded effective solutions 
but in practice, optimal deadlock-free schedules may not be obtainable 
without sacrificing computational time efficiency. One such nontime-
efficient method is included in this paper. The proposed approach is 
illustrated through three typical manufacturing-cell simulation 
examples; the first adopted from a Petri-net-based scheduling paper, 
the second adopted from a mathematical-programming-based scheduling 
paper, and the third, a new example that deals with a more complex FMC 
scenario where parts have multiple routes for their production. These 
and other simulations clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the 
proposed automata-based scheduling methodology. 

2)Decentralized Failure Diagnosis of Discrete Event Systems

Qiu, W.; Kumar, R.

Abstract
By decentralized diagnosis we mean diagnosis using multiple 
diagnosers, each possessing its own set of sensors, without involving 
any communication among diagnosers or to any coordinators. The notion 
of decentralized diagnosis is formalized by introducing the notion of 
codiagnosability that requires that a failure be detected by one of 
the diagnosers within a bounded delay. Algorithms of complexity 
polynomial in the size of the system and the nonfault specification 
are provided for: 1) testing codiagnosability, 2) computing the bound 
in delay of diagnosis, 3) offline synthesis of individual diagnosers, 
and 4) online diagnosis using them. The notion of codiagnosability and 
the above algorithms are initially presented in a setting of a 
specification language (violation of which represents a fault) and are 
later specialized to the case where faults are modeled as the 
occurrences of certain events. The notion of strong codiagnosability 
is also introduced to capture the ability of being certain about both 
the failure as well as the nonfailure conditions in a system within a 
bounded delay.

Web site: click here

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

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
VOL. 32, NO. 2
FEBRUARY, 2006

1) Runtime Analysis of Atomicity for Multithreaded Programs

Liqiang Wang and Scott D. Stoller

Abstract: 

Atomicity is a correctness condition for concurrent systems.
Informally,
atomicity is the property that every concurrent execution of a set of
transactions is equivalent to some serial execution of the same
transactions. In multithreaded programs, executions of procedures (or
methods) can be regarded as transactions. Correctness in the presence
of
concurrency typically requires atomicity of these transactions. Tools
that automatically detect atomicity violations can uncover subtle
errors
that are hard to find with traditional debugging and testing
techniques.
This paper describes two algorithms for runtime detection of atomicity
violations and compares their cost and effectiveness. The
reduction-based algorithm checks atomicity based on commutativity
properties of events in a trace; the block-based algorithm efficiently
represents the relevant information about a trace as a set of blocks
(i.e., pairs of events plus associated synchronizations) and checks
atomicity by comparing each block with other blocks. To improve the
efficiency and accuracy of both algorithms, we incorporate a
multilockset algorithm for checking data races, dynamic escape
analysis,
and happen-before analysis. Experiments show that both algorithms are
effective in finding atomicity violations. The block-based algorithm is
more accurate but more expensive than the reduction-based algorithm.

Web site: click here

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

DISCRETE EVENT DYNAMIC SYSTEMS
VOLUME 16, NUMBER 1
JANUARY, 2006

1) Diagnosability of Discrete Event Systems with Modular Structure

Olivier Contant, Stephane Lafortune, Demosthenis Teneketzis

Abstract

The diagnosis of unobservable faults in large and complex discrete
event systems modeled by parallel composition of automata is considered. A
modular approach is developed for diagnosing such systems. The notion
of modular diagnosability is introduced and the corresponding necessary
and sufficient conditions to ensure it are presented. The verification of
modular diagnosability is performed by a new algorithm that
incrementally exploits the modular structure of the system to save on
computational effort. The correctness of the algorithm is proved.
Online diagnosis of modularly diagnosable systems is achieved using only local
diagnosers.

2) Hierarchical Fault Diagnosis for Discrete-Event Systems under Global
  
   Consistency
	
R. Su and W. M. Wonham

Abstract

In previous work the authors proposed a distributed diagnosis approach
consisting of two phases - preliminary diagnosis in each local diagnoser
and inter-diagnoser communication. The objective of communication is to
achieve either global or local consistency among local diagnoses, where
global consistency is captured by the equilibrium concept of supremal
global support. To achieve this equilibrium, an algorithm called
Computational Procedure for Global Consistency (CPGC) was proposed. But
it turns out that CPGC has high time complexity and weak scalability.
To rectify these shortcomings, we propose a hierarchical computational
procedure. A further advantage of this procedure is demonstrated, based
on multiresolutional diagnosis. With the latter, fault detection is
conducted at each hierarchical level, so that computation can be
confined to those modules likely to possess faults, while fault-free
modules are safely disregarded. A simplified industrial example is
provided in illustration.

3) Optimal Routing in Two Parallel Queues with Exponential Service 
   Times 

Bruno Gaujal, Emmanuel Hyon, Alain Jean-Marie

In this paper we investigate the problem of the effective computation
of
the optimal routing sequence in a queuing system made of two parallel
queues with exponential service times. We first show that the optimal
policy (minimizing the expected waiting time) is a Sturmian sequence
and we establish several qualitative properties of this policy
(monotonicity, continuity, convexity). Then, we propose an algorithm to
compute the optimal routing sequence efficiently. We address the issues
of time complexity as well as numerical stability of this algorithm. We
then run an extensive set of experiments which show several interesting
features of the optimal policy with apparent discontinuities and a
fractal behavior and we provide several good approximations by using
fast heuristics.

4) Infinitesimal Perturbation Analysis and Optimization for 
   Make-to-Stock Manufacturing Systems Based on Stochastic Fluid 
   Models

Christos Panayiotou and Christos G. Cassandras

Abstract

In this paper we study Make-To-Stock manufacturing systems and seek
on-line algorithms for determining optimal or near optimal buffer
capacities (hedging points) that balance inventory against stockout
costs. Using a zStochastic Fluid Model (SFM), we derive sample
derivatives (sensitivities) which, under very weak structural
assumptions on the defining demand and service processes, are shown to
be unbiased estimators of the sensitivities of a cost function with
respect to these capacities. When evaluated based on the sample path of
discrete-part systems, we show that these estimators are greatly
simplified. Thus, they can be easily implemented and evaluated on line.
Though the implementation on discrete-part systems does not necessarily
preserve the unbiasedness property, simulation results show that
stochastic approximation algorithms that use such estimates do converge
to optimal or near optimal hedging points.

5) Approximating the Minimal Sensor Selection for Supervisory 
   Control
Kurt R. Rohloff, Samir Khuller, Guy Kortsarz

Abstract

This paper discusses the problem of selecting a set of sensors of
minimum cost that can be used for the synthesis of a supervisory
controller. It is shown how this sensor selection problem is related to
a type of directed graph st-cut problem that has not been previously
discussed in the literature. Approximation algorithms to solve the
sensor selection problem can be used to solve the graph cutting problem
and vice-versa. Polynomial time algorithms to find good approximate
solutions to either problem most likely do not exist (under certain
complexity assumptions), but a time efficient approximation algorithm
is shown that solves a special case of these problems. It is also shown
how to convert the sensor selection problem into an integer programming
problem.

Web site: click here

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

SELECTIONS FROM CONTROL ENGINEERING PRACTICE
VOLUME 14, ISSUE 6
JUNE, 2006

1) Diagnosis of timed automata: Theory and application to the DAMADICS 
   actuator benchmark problem

P. Supavatanakul, J. Lunze, V. Puig and J. Quevedo

Abstract

This paper concerns the problem of fault diagnosis in discrete-event
systems which are represented by timed automata. The diagnostic
algorithm for timed automata detects and identifies faults in the
system based on the investigation whether the measured input and output
sequences are consistent with the timed automaton. This diagnostic
approach can be applied spontaneously to the discrete-event system
since no a priori information about the initial state of the system is
required. It is shown in the paper how the timed automaton which
represents the DAMADICS actuator can be obtained and how the diagnostic
algorithm based on the timed automaton is applied to detect and
identify actuator faults. A representative diagnostic result is presented and
discussed to illustrate the effectiveness of the method.

Web site: click here