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 the ADHS'06
 2.2 2006 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics

3. Conferences
 3.1 FM'06: 14TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON FORMAL METHODS, McMaster
     University, Hamilton, Ontario,, August 21 - 27, 2006
 3.2 Sixth International Conference on Application of Concurrency to System Design
     (ACSD 2006), bo Akademi University, Turku, Finland, June 27 - 30,
     2006
 3.3 ICARCV 2006 - 9th International Conference on Control Automation Robotics and
     Vision, Singapore, December 5 - 8, 2006
 3.4 International Conference on Hybrid Systems and Applications, Lafayette,
     LA, USA, May 22 - 26, 2006

4. Journals
 4.1 Selections from Automatica, Volume 42, Issue 1, January 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 November edition of the newsletter. This will be the first one
delivered by Mailman, so hopefully it will go off without a hitch! I'm
sending this newsletter out a bit earlier than normal as a few of the
announcements are time sensitive.

Ryan Leduc

Contributed by: Maria Pia Fanti <fanti@deemail.poliba.it>

INVITED SESSION AT THE ADHS'06

Invited session on
HYBRID AND CONTINUOUS PETRI NETS: THEORY AND APPLICATIONS
at the ADHS'06 conference

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We are organizing a special session on Hybrid and Continuous Petri nets, 
including theoretical and application results, at the Conference on Analysis 
and Design of Hybrid Systems, Alghero, Sardinia, Italy - June 7-9, 2006.

Although the deadline for submitting the paper is January 5, 2006, the 
special sessions must be planned in advance. If you intend to submit a 
contribution to this special session you should inform any of us immediately 
and send a title and a short abstract of your paper by November 15, 2005.
Please, find enclosed some information on the invited session and find 
attached the pdf file of the conference call of paper.

Hoping to hear soon from you, best regards.

Maria Pia Fanti

Laura Recalde


=====================================================================
Invitation to the Special Session on
HYBRID PETRI NETS: THEORY AND APPLICATIONS

The aim of this session is presenting original approaches for modelling, 
analysing and controlling hybrid systems using nets. In particular, the 
session will focus on Hybrid and Continuous Petri net approaches to hybrid 
control, performance analysis and design of industria supervisory control 
systems. Moreover, the session will include contributions on applications of 
Hybrid and Continuous Petri nets in various fields, such as manufacturing, 
transport systems, traffic networks, communication, networks, ... .

INSTRUCTIONS:
Interested contributors please e-mail your paper information (title, 
authors, 100 words short abstract, and contact author e-mail address, phone 
and fax numbers) to the following organizers by November 15, 2005.

ORGANIZERS
Maria Pia FANTI
Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica ed Elettronica
Politecnico di Bari
Via Re David 200-
70125 Bari Italy
tel. +39-080-5963643 fax. +39-080-5963410
e-mail: fanti@deemail.poliba.it 

Laura RECALDE
Departamento de Informatica e Ingenieria de Sistemas
Centro Politecnico Superior
Universidad de Zaragoza
Mara de Luna, 1
500018 Zaragoza, Spain
tel. +34 976 762338 fax. +34 976 761914
e-mail: lrecalde@unizar.es

DEADLINES
Title and short abstract: November 20, 2005
Paper submission deadline: January 5, 2006
Notification of acceptance: March 1, 2006
Final version due: April 1, 2006

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
To stay informed about ADHS'06, refer to the conference
web-page: http://www.diee.unica.it/adhs06/index.html

Contributed by: Maria Pia Fanti <fanti@deemail.poliba.it>

2006 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SYSTEMS, MAN, AND CYBERNETICS

Call for paper of the Special Session on
Petri Nets and Discrete Event Systems
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2006 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics
Oct. 8 - Oct. 11, 2006. The Grand Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan
Conference web site: http://ins.cn.nctu.edu.tw/smc2006/
===================================================
Petri nets were introduced by C. A. Petri in his seminal work in 1964.
Since then Petri nets have been applied in several areas for modeling and
analysis of Discrete Event Systems. The aim of the invited session is to
present original approaches for the modeling, analysis, simulation, and
control of discrete event systems. Topics include, but are not limited to,
the following:
 - Petri nets
 - Discrete event systems
 - System modeling and simulation
 - Supervisory control
 - Performance evaluation and optimization
 - Planning and scheduling
 - Fault detection, isolation, and diagnostics
 - Error recovery
 - Applications: manufacturing systems, factory automation,
transportation systems, computer and communication networks, e-commerce,
and supply chains
 - Practical experience and industrial trial
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMPORTANT DATES:
January 25, 2006 Submission of paper information to the organizers
March 1, 2006 Deadline for submission of papers (full papers only)
May 15, 2006 Notification of acceptance
July 1, 2006 Final camera-ready papers due

INSTRUCTIONS:
Interested contributors please e-mail your paper information (title,
authors, abstract, and contact inf.) to BOTH of the following organizers by
January 25, 2006.

Prof. Maria Pia Fanti
Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica ed Elettronica
Politecnico di Bari
Tel: +39-080-5963643
Fax: +39-080-5963410
Email: fanti@deemail.poliba.it

Dr. Jin-Shyan Lee
Computer & Communications Research Labs
Industrial Technology Research Institute
Tel: +886-3-5917337
Fax: +886-3-5820042
Email: jinshyan_lee@itri.org.tw

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

FM'06: 14TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON FORMAL METHODS
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario,
August 21 - 27, 2006

                   ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS


FM'06 is the fourteenth in a series of symposia organized by Formal
Methods Europe, http://www.fmeurope.org, an independent association whose
aim is to stimulate the use of, and research on, formal methods for
software development.  The symposia have been notably successful in
bringing together innovators and practitioners in precise mathematical
methods for software development, industrial users as well as
researchers.  Submissions are welcomed in the form of original papers on
research and industrial experience, proposals for workshops and
tutorials, entries for the exhibition of software tools and projects, and
reports on ongoing doctoral work.

FM'06 welcomes all aspects of formal methods research, both theoretical
and practical.  We are particularly interested in the experience of
applying formal methods in practice.  The broad topics of interest of
this conference are:

* Tools for formal methods: tool support and software engineering,
  environments for formal methods.

* Theoretical foundations: specification and modelling, refining, static
  analysis, model-checking, verification, calculation, reusable domain
  theories.

* Formal methods in practice: experience with introducing formal methods
  in industry, case studies.

* Role of formal methods: formal methods in hardware and system design,
  method integration, development process.


TECHNICAL PAPERS
Full papers should be submitted via the web site.  Papers will be
evaluated by the Program Committee according to their originality,
significance, soundness, quality of presentation and relevance with
respect to the main issues of the symposium.  Accepted papers will be
published in the Symposium Proceedings, to appear in Springer's Lecture
Notes in Computer Science series, http://www.springeronline.com/lncs .
Submitted papers should have not been submitted elsewhere for
publication, should be in Springer's format, (see Springer's web site),
and should not exceed 16 pages including appendices.  A prize for the
best technical paper will be awarded at the symposium.

INDUSTRIAL USAGE REPORTS
One day will be dedicated to sharing the experience -- both positive and
negative -- with using formal methods in industrial environments.  The
Industry Day is organized by ForTIA, the Formal Techniques Industry
Association, http://www.fortia.org .  This year's Industry Day
investigates the use of formal methods in security and trust.  Invited
papers on organizational and technical issues will be presented.
Inquiries should be directed to the Industry Day Chairs; see the web site
for details.

WORKSHOPS
We welcome proposals for one-day or one-and-a-half-day workshops related
to FM'06.  In particular, but not exclusively, we encourage proposals for
workshops on various application domains.  Proposals should be directed
to the Workshop Chair.

TUTORIALS
We are soliciting proposals for full-day or half-day tutorials.  The
tutorial contents can be selected from a wide range of topics that
reflect the conference themes and provide clear utility to practitioners.
Each proposal will be evaluated on importance, relevance, timeliness,
audience appeal and past experience and qualification of the instructors.
Proposals should be directed to the Tutorial Chair.

POSTER AND TOOL EXHIBITION
An exhibition of both research projects and commercial tools will
accompany the technical symposium, with the opportunity of holding
scheduled presentations of commercial tools.  Proposals should be
directed to the Poster and Tools Exhibition Chair.

DOCTORAL SYMPOSIUM
For the first time, FM'06 will feature a doctoral symposium.  Students
are invited to submit work in progress and to defend it in front of
"friendly examiners".  Participation for students who are accepted will
be subsidized.  Submissions should be directed to the Doctoral Symposium
Chair.

SUBMISSION DATES
Technical Papers, Workshops, Tutorials: Friday, February 24, 2006
Posters and Tools, Doctoral Symposium: Friday, May 26, 2006

NOTIFICATION DATES
Technical Papers: Friday, April 28, 2006
Workshops, Tutorials: Friday, March 10, 2006
Posters and Tools, Doctoral Symposium: Friday, June 9, 2006

ORGANIZATION
General Chair: Emil Sekerinski (McMaster)
Program Chairs: Jayadev Misra (U. Texas, Austin), Tobias Nipkow (TU Munich)
Workshop Chair: Tom Maibaum (McMaster)
Tutorial Chair: Jin Song Dong (NUS)
Tools and Poster Exhibition Chair: Marsha Chechik (U. Toronto)
Industry Day Chairs: Volkmar Lotz (SAP France), Asuman Suenbuel (SAP US)
Doctoral Symposium Chair: Augusto Sampaio (U. Pernambuco)
Sponsorship Chair: Juergen Dingel (Queens U.)

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Jean-Raymond Abrial (ETH Zurich)
Alex Aiken (Stanford U.)
Keijiro Araki (Kyushu U.)
Ralph Back (Abo Akademi)
Gilles Barthe (INRIA)
David Basin (ETH Zurich)
Ed Brinksma (U. Twente)
Michael Butler (U. Southampton)
Rance Cleaveland (U. Stony Brook)
Jorge Cuellar (Siemens)
Werner Damm (U. Oldenburg)
Frank de Boer (U. Utrecht)
Javier Esparza (U. Stuttgart)
Jose Fiadeiro (U. Leicester)
Susanne Graf (VERIMAG)
Ian Hayes (U. Queensland)
Gerard Holzmann (JPL)
Cliff Jones (U. Newcastle)
Gary T. Leavens (Iowa State U.)
Rustan Leino (Microsoft)
Xavier Leroy (INRIA)
Dominique Mery (LORIA)
Carroll Morgan (UNSW)
David Naumann (Stevens)
E.-R. Olderog (U. Oldenburg)
Paritosh Pandya (TIFR)
Sriram Rajamani (Microsoft)
John Rushby (SRI)
Steve Schneider (U. Surrey)
Vitaly Shmatikov (U. Texas, Austin)
Bernhard Steffen (U. Dortmund)
P.S. Thiagarajan (NUS)
Axel van Lamsweerde (U. Louvain)
Martin Wirsing (LMU Munich)
Pierre Wolper (U. Liege)

LOCAL ORGANIZATION
Publicity: Wolfram Kahl, Alan Wassyng, Jeff Zucker
Tools, Posters, Book Exhibition: Spencer Smith
Social Events: Ridha Khedri
Local Arrangements:: William Farmer, Mark Lawford
Events Co-ordinator: Ryszard Janicki

Web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <leduc AT mcmaster DoT ca>

SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON APPLICATION OF CONCURRENCY TO SYSTEM DESIGN
(ACSD 2006)
bo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
June 27 - 30, 2006

          *** Deadline for paper submission: 1 december 2005 ***


Dates and Venue

  27-30 june 2006, bo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

  Co-located with the International Conference on Application and Theory of
  Petri Nets (http://www.cs.abo.fi/atpn2006)

Conference Focus

  The International Conference on Application of Concurrency to System
Design (ACSD) serves as a forum for disseminating theoretical results
and advanced methods and tools for the design of complex concurrent
systems. While there are already quite a few success stories in the
field, there is still a strong need to bring theory and practice
closer together. The conference aims at cross-fertilizing both types
of research on the following topics:

  * Methods for design of synchronous or asynchronous systems based on
    models of concurrency (data-flow, communicating automata, Petri
    nets, process algebras, statecharts, MSCs etc.).

  * Correct-by-construction design methods and integration of
    verification techniques with the design process.

  * Synchronous / asynchronous design and communication interfaces:
    Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous systems.

  * Hardware / software co-design from common specifications.

  * Concurrency issues in Systems on Chips (in particular, use of formal
    methods for communication protocol design and verification).

Chairs

  Kees Goossens (Philips, The Netherlands), programme committee co-chair
  Johan Lilius (TUCS and bo Akademi University, Finland), general chair
  Laure Petrucci (Universit Paris 13, France), programme committee co-chair

Steering Committee

  Alex Yakovlev (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK), Chair
  Benot Caillaud (IRISA, France)
  Jordi Cortadella (Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain)
  Jrg Desel (Katholische Universitt Eichsttt-Ingolstadt, Germany)
  Alex Kondratyev (Cadence, USA)
  Luciano Lavagno (Politecnico di Torino, Italy)
  Antti Valmari (Tampere University of Technology, Finland)

Programme Committee

  Kees Goossens (Philips, The Netherlands), co-chair
  Laure Petrucci (Universit Paris 13, France), co-chair

  Twan Basten (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands)
  Jonathan Billington (University of South Australia, Australia)
  Marius Bozga (VERIMAG, France)
  Franck van Breugel (York University, Canada)
  Manfred Broy (Technische Universitt Mnchen, Germany)
  Benot Caillaud, (IRISA, France)
  Paul Caspi (VERIMAG, France)
  Werner Damm (Universitt Oldenburg, Germany)
  Jrg Desel (Katholische Universitt Eichsttt-Ingolstadt, Germany)
  Heiko Drr (DaimlerChrysler Research, Germany)
  Stephen Edwards (Columbia University, USA)
  Radu Grosu (SUNY at Stony Brook, USA)
  Thomas Henzinger (EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland)
  Ryszard Janicki (McMaster University, Canada)
  Kurt Jensen (University of Aarhus, Denmark)
  Mark Josephs (London South Bank University, England)
  Gabriel Juhas (Slovak University of Technology, Slovakia)
  Sri Kanajan (General Motors Research, USA)
  Faraydon Karim (ST Microelectronics, USA)
  Michael Kishinevsky (INTEL, USA)
  Victor Khomenko (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England)
  Erwin de Kock (Philips Research, The Netherlands)
  Fabrice Kordon (University Paris 6, France)
  Charles Lakos (University of Adelaide, Australia)
  Johan Lilius (TUCS and bo Akademi University, Finland)
  Ricardo Machado (Universidade do Minho, Portugal)
  John Moondanos (INTEL, USA)
  Enric Pastor (Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain)
  Doron Peled (University of Warwick, England)
  Wojciech Penczek (Polish Academy of Science and Univ. of Podlasie, Poland)
  Jean-Franois Raskin, (Universit Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
  Anders Ravn (Aalborg University, Denmark)
  Yosinori Watanabe (Cadence, USA)
  Alex Yakovlev (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England)
  Tomohiro Yoneda (National Institute of Informatics, Japan)
  Wlodek Zuberek (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)

Proceedings

  Proceedings will be published by IEEE Computer Society Press.

Papers

  Submitted papers should be in IEEE CS Press 2-column format (see links
  below), with no more than 10 pages. The cover page should include the
  corresponding author physical and e-mail addresses, phone, FAX numbers
  and a 60-word abstract. The deadline for submissions is *1 december 2005*.
  Paper submission will be handled electronically. More information will be
  available on the conference web-pages.

  Accepted papers will appear in the conference proceedings, published by
  IEEE Computer Society Press.

Tool Demos

  Submissions for tool demonstration should be no more than 2 pages (IEEE
  format) and sent to Jerker Bjrqvist (Jerker.Bjorqkvist@abo.fi) by 1 march
  2006.

Organizing Committee

  Johan Lilius (general chair)
  Jerker Bjrqvist (tool demo chair)
  Xinrong Zhou (workshop chair)
  Christel Engblom (secretary)
  Ulf Tigerstedt (technical support)

Sponsoring and Cooperation

  TBA

Important Dates

  - Deadline for paper submission: 1 december 2005
  - Deadline for tool demonstration submission: 1 march 2006
  - Notification of acceptance: 13 march 2006
  - Deadline for final version: 7 april 2006
  - Conference: 27-30 june 2006

Links

  * ACSD 2006 web page: http://www.cs.abo.fi/acsd2006
  * IEEE CS Press 2-column format:
    ftp://pubftp.computer.org/Press/Outgoing/proceedings/instruct.pdf

Web site: click here

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

ICARCV 2006 - 9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONTROL AUTOMATION ROBOTICS AND
VISION
Singapore
December 5 - 8, 2006

The 9th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and 
Vision, ICARCV 2006, will be held in Singapore from 5 - 8 December 2006. The 
conference is organised by the School of Electrical and Electronic 
Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Institution of 
Engineers, Singapore. The technical sponsors are IEEE Control Systems 
Society, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and IEEE Systems, Man and 
Cybernetics Society. The conference focuses on both theory and applications 
mainly covering the topics of control, automation, robotics and vision. In 
addition to the technical sessions, there will be invited sessions, 
tutorials and keynote addresses.

The Proceedings of ICARCV are indexed by ISI Proceedings, EI Compendex and 
included in the IEEE Xplore.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to: 

CONTROL: Adaptive control; Robust control; Process control; Complex systems; 
Identification and estimation; Nonlinear systems; Intelligent systems; 
Discrete event systems; Hybrid systems; Networked control systems; Delay 
systems; Neural networks; Fuzzy systems; Control of biological systems; 
Precision motion control; Control applications; Control engineering 
education.

AUTOMATION: Man-machine interactions; Process automation; Intelligent 
automation; Factory modelling and simulation; Home, laboratory and service 
automation; Network-based systems; Planning, scheduling and coordination; 
Nano-scale automation and assembly; Instrumentation systems; Biomedical 
instrumentation and applications.

ROBOTICS: Modelling and identification; Robot control; Mobile robotics; 
Mobile sensor networks; Perception systems; Micro robots and micro-
manipulation; Visual servoing; Search, rescue and field robotics; Robot 
sensing and data fusion; Localization, navigation and mapping; Dexterous 
manipulation; Medical robots and bio-robotics; Human centred systems; Space 
and underwater robots; Tele-robotics; Mechanism design and applications.

VISION: Image/video analysis; Feature extraction, grouping and segmentation; 
Scene analysis; Pattern recognition; Learning in vision; Human-computer 
interaction; Tracking and surveillance; Biometrics; Biomedical Image 
analysis; Activity/behaviour recognition; Applications.

BEST PAPER AWARD:
Selection of the best paper will be made at the Conference based on both the 
technical content and presentation. The winner will be chosen by the 
Technical Program Committee in consultation with the International Advisory 
Committee.

PAPER SUBMISSION:
Papers must be written in English and should describe original work in 
detail. Please download the template from the conference website and submit 
the full papers online by 1 April, 2006. Upon acceptance, authors will be 
required to register and present their papers.

INVITED SESSIONS:
The Technical Program Committee is soliciting proposals for invited sessions 
focusing on topics of ICARCV 2006. Prospective organisers should submit 
proposals to the Invited Session Chairman eericsung@ntu.edu.sg by 1 March, 
2006. Invited sessions are to provide a forum for focused discussions on new 
topics, or innovative applications of established approaches.

Important Dates 
Full Paper Submission Deadline: 1 April 2006 
Notification of Acceptance: 1 July 2006 
Camera-Ready Manuscript Submission Due: 1 September 2006 
Author's registration: 1 September 2006

Web site: click here

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

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HYBRID SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS
Lafayette, LA, USA
May 22 - 26, 2006

Here is the second  announcement of the International Conference on Hybrid 
Systems and Applications. See the following webpage for the second 
announcement and updated future announcements

http://www.fit.edu/AcadRes/math/ichsa/

If  you like to get the updated information and invitation to participate in 
the conference, Please send your address and email address to:

Ms. Sally R. Ellingson
Editorial/Technical Assistant
Journal of Nonlinear Analysis
Editor-in-Chief Dr. V. Lakshmikantham
Florida Institute of Technology
Department of Mathematical Sciences
sellings@fit.edu

Web site: click here

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

SELECTIONS FROM AUTOMATICA
VOLUME 42, ISSUE 1
JANUARY, 2006

1) Advances in Dynamic Games, Applications to Economics, Finance,
Optimization, and Stochastic Control: A.S. Nowak, K. Szajowski (Eds.);
Birkhauser, Boston, 2005, ISBN 0-8176-4362-1

Hyeong Soo Chang

Abstract: Book review

Web site: click here