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 Postdoctoral Position - Peking University
 2.2 Faculty Positions at Peking University
 2.3 Faculty Positions in Management Science

3. Conferences
 3.1 19th International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and
     Systems (MTNS 2010), Budapest, Hungary, July 5 - 9, 2010
 3.2 IFAC Workshop on Discrete Event Systems (WODES2010), TU Berlin,
     Germany, August 30 - September 1, 2010

4. Journals
 4.1 Selections from IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and
     Engineering, Volume: 6,  Issue: 4, October 2009
 4.2 Selections from IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 35,
     No. 5, October 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 October newsletter,

Ryan

Contributed by: Guangming Xie <xiegming@mech.pku.edu.cn>

POSTDOCTORAL POSITION - PEKING UNIVERSITY

Several Postdoctoral Fellows are being recruited at the Center for 
Systems and Control, College of Engineering, Peking University, 
in the general areas of control systems, robotics, systems/industrial 
engineering and applications. The appointment is for a period 
of two years. The ideal candidate is one who has recently completed, 
or is about to finish, his/her PhD. The themes of research are, 
but not limited to, robotics, networked control systems, multi-agent 
systems, hybrid systems, computational intelligence, systems 
engineering, cognitive and brain science.

Interested candidates should send their CV to Professoor Guangming 
Xie at xiegming@pku.edu.cn or Professor Long Wang at  
longwang@pku.edu.cn

Contributed by: Long Wang <longwang@pku.edu.cn>

FACULTY POSITIONS AT PEKING UNIVERSITY

	


Founded in 1898, Peking University (PKU) is the first national 
university in Chinese modern history, with a high reputation in and 
outside China (More information about the university can be found at: 
www.pku.edu.cn). The Department of Industrial Engineering and 
Management, at College of Engineering, Peking University, invites 
applicants for full-time faculty positions at assistant/associate/full 
professor ranks. The successful candidates should meet the following 
qualifications: 

Qualifications: 
-	Ph.D. degree in Control, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, 
Systems or Industrial Engineering
-	Applications are particularly sought from individuals who have 
knowledge and experience in one or more of the following areas: 
Systems and Control, Game Theory, Complex Networks, Operations 
Research, Multi-agent Systems, Robotics, Process Automation, 
Engineering Optimization
-	Demonstrated excellent research and teaching abilities

Benefit: We offer highly competitive salary and start-up package.

Application Procedure: 
To ensure full consideration, candidates should submit by email 1. 
Extended Curriculum Vitae (with complete list of publications), 2. 
Statement of research interests, 3. Statement of teaching philosophy, 
4. Selected reprints of recent papers, and 5. The names and full 
contact information of at least three references. Please send 
application to: 

Ms. Liu Wen
College of Engineering, Yan-Nan Yuan #60,
Peking University, Beijing, China 100871,
Phone: 86-10-62756992, 
Email: liuwen@pku.edu.cn 

Review of applications will continue until the positions are filled.

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <ca Dot mcmaster dOt Leduc>

FACULTY POSITIONS IN MANAGEMENT SCIENCE

Fudan University
School of Management

The Department of Management Science, at School of Management, Fudan
University, invites applicants for a faculty position at
assistant/associate/full professor ranks. Strong candidates, regardless
of area of specification, are encouraged to apply. An ideal candidate
should have (or near the completion of) a Ph.D. degree in Operations
Management, Operations Research, or related fields, and be committed to
high-quality research. We offer highly competitive remuneration
package, and the salary will be commensurate with qualifications and
experience. 

Fudan University is a top tier university in mainland China. More
information about the department can be found at:
http://www.fdsm.fudan.edu.cn/EN/department/glkx/index.aspx 

To ensure full consideration, candidates should submit by email a
detailed curriculum vita, statements of research and teaching
interests, and copies of two sample research papers to: 
Professor Yifan Xu, Head 
Department of Management Science, 
School of Management, Fudan University, 
Shanghai 200433, P.R. China. 
yfxu@fudan.edu.cn 
86-021-25011167

before Dec 15, 2009. Applications after the due date will be considered
only if the post has not been filled. 

Applicants who will attend INFORMS Annual Meeting in San Diego should
send their application packages before the meeting to ensure on-site
interview. Requests for on-site interviews should be directed before
Oct 5, 2009, to: 
Professor Jianqiang Hu, Professor Weixin Shang
Department of Management Science, 
School of Management, Fudan University, 
hujq@fudan.edu.cn, shagnwx@fudan.edu.cn 
617-697-6333

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <ca Dot mcmaster dOt Leduc>

19TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF NETWORKS AND
SYSTEMS (MTNS 2010)
Budapest, Hungary
July 5 - 9, 2010

The 19th International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and
Systems (MTNS 2010) will take place at ELTE - University Congress
Center, in Budapest, Hungary, between 5-9 July 2010.

The Symposium is hosted by the Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE) and MTA
SZTAKI (Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences).


MTNS 2010 is a prime conference in the general area of mathematical
system theory.  The symposium is interdisciplinary and attracts
mathematicians, engineers and researchers working in any aspect of
system theory and its applications.  MTNS traditionally covers areas
involving a wide range of research directions in mathematical systems,
networks and control theory, with emphasis on new challenges and
potential applications.  A prime objective of the MTNS 2010 Symposium
is to explore and present mathematics as a key technology for the 21st
century.  


Extended abstracts submission  	15 December, 2009
Notification of authors 	15 February, 2010
Submission of full papers 	15 May, 2010
Early registration 	        15 May, 2010
MTNS 2010 	                5-9 July, 2010 


Prof. Gyorgy Michaletzky
General Chair of MTNS 2010

Prof. Laszlo Gerencser
IPC Chair of MTNS 2010

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <ca Dot mcmaster dOt Leduc>

IFAC WORKSHOP ON DISCRETE EVENT SYSTEMS (WODES2010)
TU Berlin, Germany
August 30 - September 1, 2010

The 10th International Workshop on Discrete Event Systems will be held
on the campus of TU Berlin, August 30 - September 1, 2010.

It will provide researchers from different fields (control
theoreticians and control engineers, software engineers and computer
scientists, operations research specialists) with an opportunity to
exchange information and new ideas, and to discuss new
developments in the field of DES theory and applications.

Prospective authors are invited to submit full papers and proposals for
special sessions by March 31, 2010. The Proceedings of
WODES 2010 will be hosted on-line on the IFAC-PapersOnLine website.

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <ca Dot mcmaster dOt Leduc>

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
VOLUME: 6, ISSUE: 4
OCTOBER, 2009

1) A First-Order Hybrid Petri Net Model for Supply Chain Management

Dotoli, M.; Fanti, M.P.; Iacobellis, G.; Mangini, A.M.

Abstract: 

A supply chain (SC) is a network of independent manufacturing and
logistics companies that perform the critical functions in the order
fulfillment process. This paper proposes an effective and modular model
to describe material, financial and information flow of SCs at the
operational level based on first-order hybrid Petri nets (PNs), i.e.,
PNs that make use of first-order fluid approximation. The proposed
formalism enables the SC designer to choose suitable production rates
of facilities in order to optimize the chosen objective function. The
optimal mode of operation is performed based on the state knowledge of
the obtained linear discrete-time, time-varying state variable model in
order to react to unpredictable events such as the blocking of a supply
or an accident in a transportation facility. A case study is modeled in
the proposed framework and is simulated under three different
closed-loop control strategies.

web site: click here

Contributed by: Ryan Leduc <ca Dot mcmaster dOt Leduc>

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
VOL. 35, NO. 5
OCTOBER, 2009

1) Using Stochastic State Classes in Quantitative Evaluation of
Dense-Time Reactive Systems

Enrico Vicario, Luigi Sassoli, Laura Carnevali

Abstract: 

In the verification of reactive systems with nondeterministic densely
valued temporal parameters, the state-space can be covered through
equivalence classes, each composed of a discrete logical location and a
dense variety of clock valuations encoded as a Difference Bounds Matrix
(DBM). The reachability relation among such classes enables qualitative
verification of properties pertaining events ordering and
stimulus/response deadlines, but it does not provide any measure of
probability for feasible behaviors. We extend DBM equivalence classes
with a density-function which provides a measure for the probability of
individual states. To this end, we extend Time Petri Nets by
associating a probability density-function to the static firing
interval of each nondeterministic transition. We then explain how this
stochastic information induces a probability distribution for the
states contained within a DBM class and how this probability evolves in
the enumeration of the reachability relation among classes. This
enables the construction of a stochastic transition system which
supports correctness verification based on the theory of TPNs, provides
a measure of probability for each feasible run, enables steady-state
analysis based on Markov Renewal Theory. In so doing, we provide a
means to identify feasible behaviors and to associate them with a
measure of probability in models with multiple concurrent generally
distributed nondeterministic timers.

web site: click here