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 NASA Post-Doc opening at JPL/NASA in Machine learning, Signal/Image
     Processing, Controls, AI

3. Conferences
 3.1 MED'07 - 15th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation,
     Athens, Greece, June 27 - 29, 2007
 3.2 Fifth International Conference on Industrial Automation, Montreal,
     Canada, June 11 - 13, 2007
 3.3 Control and Applications 2007 - CA 2007, Montreal, Canada, May 30 -
     June 1, 2007
 3.4 CPN'06 - Seventh Workshop and Tutorial on Practical Use of Coloured
     Petri Nets and CPN Tools, Aarhus, Denmark, October 24 - 26,
     2006
 3.5 FAIM 2007 - The 17th International Conference on Flexible Automation
     and Intelligent Manufacturing, Philadelphia, USA, June 18 -
     20, 2007
 3.6 1st International Conference on Language and Automata Theory and
     Applications (LATA 2007), Tarragona, Spain, March 29 - April
     4, 2007

4. Journals
 4.1 Selections from IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part
     A, Volume: 36, Issue: 5, September 2006
 4.2 Selections from IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Volume: 51,
     Issue: 9, 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:

Welcome to the Sept. 2006 edition of the newsletter,

Ryan

Contributed by: Ashit Talukder <Ashit.Talukder@jpl.nasa.gov>

NASA POST-DOC OPENING AT JPL/NASA IN MACHINE LEARNING, SIGNAL/IMAGE
PROCESSING, CONTROLS, AI

NASA Post-Doctoral Fellow Opening at Jet Propulsion Laboratory / NASA 

CONTACT: Dr. Ashit Talukder, Jet Propulsion Lab/NASA	
Email: Ashit.Talukder@jpl.nasa.gov

DESIRED STARTING DATE & DURATION: Immediate opening (8/2006); 
Duration of 3 years or more 

CITIZENSHIP REQUIREMENTS: U.S. Citizen, U.S. Permanent resident 
(green card), or J-1 visa

LOCATION: Jet Propulsion Laboratory / NASA, Los Angeles, California

RESEARCH TOPICS SUMMARY: Machine learning, Pattern recognition, 
Signal Processing, Image & Video Processing, Wavelets, Control 
Theory, Optimization, Resource Allocation & Management, Artificial 
Intelligence, Mathematics, Statistics, Data Mining, Sensor Networks, 
Networks and Wireless Communications (MANETS), RF circuit design

Degree Requirements: Ideal candidate should have a Ph.D. degree with 
a core CS, EE, ECE, Mathematics, Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering, 
Systems Engineering, or related field.

DESCRIPTION OF RESEARCH 
The NASA Post-Doc will develop new in-situ pattern recognition & 
control capabilities for multiple remote and in-situ sensors that 
will enable multisensor fusion and significantly improve the ability 
to make autonomous decisions for science, defense based on such 
distributed, disparate observations. Such capability will allow 
better, faster, and more accurate detection and tracking of maritime 
and terrestrial events on Earth, and will enable sensor webs for 
space observation systems in the future. The NASA Post-Doc will work 
on ongoing efforts in the R&D areas of:
*	Novel distributed sensor fusion machine learning, pattern 
recognition, and image processing algorithms for spatio-temporal 
event detection and tracking from multiple sensors
*	Alg. development of co-registration techniques for 
distributed remote and in-situ sensory observations
*	Coordinated event detection, adaptive communication and 
networking for mobile ad-hoc networks 
*	Distributed control and resource management techniques of 
autonomous sensor webs for terrestrial and maritime observations 
using Model Predictive Control and Markov Decision Process AI 
solutions 
*	Circuit design & development of new RF microcontroller-based 
nodes with adaptive bandwidth, frequency
 
The Post-Doc Fellow will actively publish in peer-reviewed journals, 
attend PI meetings on current funded projects to understand NASA and 
DoD needs in autonomous systems, and present research seminars at JPL 
and international peer reviewed science and technology conferences. 
Candidate will also participate in educational outreach efforts to 
academia and the general community. 

Post-Doc Research Skills Required: 
Candidates should be knowledgeable in image and signal processing, 
pattern recognition, and machine learning, control systems, resource 
allocation, optimization theory, networking theory, and AI. Should 
have a strong background in mathematics, linear algebra, optimization 
theory, and statistics. Should be familiar with all/most of these 
topics through courses, projects, research, and industrial experience 
if applicable. Should have strong fundamental knowledge of control 
theory, nonlinear control, and optimization theory, including linear 
programming, quadratic programming, gradient descent techniques, 
Genetic Algorithms, etc.  Knowledge of Markov Decision Processes, 
decision trees, and AI in general is a plus. 

Additional Skills Desired: Experience programming in C/C++, MATLAB, 
Java on PC and Unix environments.  Experience with embedded systems, 
handheld programming using embedded Visual C++, and real-time OS 
programming is desirable. Knowledgeable in circuit theory including 
analysis and synthesis with practical background in board-level 
design for embedded system applications. Experience with RF, micro-
power, digital and analog circuits with emphasis on design, analysis 
and testing of circuits for readout of low-level analog signals in a 
remote environment. Experience with circuit building, PCBs, including 
soldering, etc. Familiarity with RF circuits, RF theory, and Orcad 
schematic capture for implementation of custom designs as part of a 
sensor monitoring and modeling platform. The candidates may apply 
these tools for implementation of custom hardware designs.

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

MED'07 - 15TH MEDITERRANEAN CONFERENCE ON CONTROL AND AUTOMATION
Athens, Greece
June 27 - 29, 2007

The 15th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, MED'07, 
will be held for the first time in Athens, Greece, at the Divani 
Caravel Hotel. Athens is a metropolitan and cosmopolitan city, the 
capital of Greece, the birth place of Democracy, the city with the 
worldwide known "Acropolis and Parthenon", with the world famous 
Theater of Herodes Atticus and the "marble stadium" where the first 
modern times Olympic Games took place in 1896, home of Socrates, 
Plato, Pericles (Golden Age), and home of the very successful 2004 
Olympic Games. Athens is both an "ancient" and a "modern" city, in 
which visitors can walk safely and enjoy the rich - almost 5,000 year 
old - history it has to offer. The conference, through its technical 
program, will provide a unique opportunity for the academic and 
industrial community to address new challenges, share solutions and 
discuss future research directions. A broad range of topics is 
proposed, following current trends of combining control/systems 
theory with software/communication technologies, as well as new 
developments in robotics and mechatronics, with the goal of 
strengthening cooperation of control and automation scientists with 
industry. 

For information about MED'07, visit http://med07.rasip.fer.hr. For 
information about Greece, see: http://www.gnto.gr.

WORKSHOPS/TUTORIALS: Workshops and Tutorials will be presented on 
Tuesday, June 26
PLENARY SPEAKERS: To be decided.
TECHNICAL CO--SPONSORS: Mediterranean Control Association, IEEE CSS, 
IEEE RAS
TOPICS: Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:


Adaptive control 
Aerospace control 
Agents and agent-based systems 
Biologically inspired systems, control 
Computational Intelligence 
Computer controlled systems 
Computing and communications 
Decentralized control 
Discrete event systems 
Distributed systems 
Education and training 
Embedded control systems 
Fuzzy systems 
Genetic and evolutionary computation 
Hybrid systems 
Image processing 
Industrial automation, manufacturing 
Intelligent control systems 
Intelligent transportation systems 
Linear systems 
Marine control 
Modeling and simulation 
Neural networks 
Non-linear systems 
Optimization 
Petri Nets 
Power systems 
Predictive control 
Process control 
Real-time control 
Robotics 
Robust control 
Spectral estimation 
Swarms 
Unmanned Systems 
Virtual reality 

IMPORTANT DATES: The Program Chairs are soliciting contributed 
technical papers for presentation at the Conference and publication 
in the Conference Proceedings, as well as proposals for invited 
sessions/papers/talks by topic of interest.
January 15, 2007: Contributed, papers, invited session proposals, 
Workshop / Tutorial proposals, Due. 
March 10, 2007: Notification of Acceptance/Rejection.
March 31, 2007: Final, Camera Ready Papers, Due.

PAPER SUBMISSION: Papers must be submitted electronically by January 
15, 2007, via the Web upload system only. The guidelines are given at 
the MED'07 Web site: http://med07.rasip.fer.hr.

Papers should be submitted in standard IEEE Transactions format. The 
first page of the paper, centered on the top below the top margin, 
should include the paper title, the authors' names and their 
affiliations, an abstract, and keywords. Six pages are allowed for 
each paper. Up to two additional pages will be permitted for a charge 
of $125 per additional page. Illustrations and references are 
included in the page count. Submitted papers will undergo a peer 
review process, coordinated by the Program Chairs and the IPC. 
Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by March 10, 
2007. Accepted papers in final form must be received by the 
Publication Chair no later than March 31, 2007.

Invited Sessions-Workshops/Tutorials: Proposals for invited sessions 
and workshops - tutorials should contain the title of the session, a 
list of four to five speakers, and extended summaries (2000 words) of 
their presentations. Proposals must be sent by e-mail to the 
corresponding Chairs by January 15, 2007.

For more information about the Conference feel free to contact the 
Program Chair.

web site: click here

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

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION
Montreal, Canada
June 11 - 13, 2007

Fifth International Conference on Industrial Automation
June 11-13, 2007 Montreal,CANADA

CALL FOR PAPERS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ORGANIZED BY and VENUE
Universite du Quebec, Ecole de technologie superieure 
Ecole de technologie superieure (ETS), Montreal
Association Internationale pour l'Automatisation Industrielle (AIAI)

COLLABORATION
Centre de Recherche en Automatique de Nancy, France(CRAN)
Pratt and Whitney,Canada
Institut Royal Belge de Regulation et d'Automatisme (IBRA)
The Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society (ISA)
Ecole Superieure des Sciences et Technologies de l'Ingenieur de Nancy 
(ESSTIN)
National Research Council of Canada - NRC-IRAP

---------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE
C.Gargour, Canada  
M. Robert, France  
M. Saad, Canada  
D. Wolf, France  
G.E. Shuzhi, Singapore
 M.Elhamamsy,Egypt  
J.R. Gomez, Spain  
C. Mascle, Canada  
J-M. Ory, France
 H. Seoud, Canada
F. F.Awad,Canada
H.Moustapha,Canada  
E. Ravina, Italy  
J-M. Thiriet,France 

SCOPE
The purpose of this conference is to present the research in the 
following fields as well as their applications: 
Information and Communication Technology
for industrial automation 
Process Control 
Instrumentation/Sensing and Computer Vision 
Modeling/Simulation and Virtual Reality 
Linear and non-linear Control 
Micro Computer Applications 
Distributed Integrated Systems 
Dependable Systems 
Robotic 
Man/Machine Interface 
Optimization and Identification 
Signal and Image Processing 
Expert Systems/Artificial Intelligence 
Power Systems 
Fault Detection Diagnosis 
CAD/CAM 
Education/Technology Transfer 

----------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTRUCTIONS
Summary: 600 words and specifiyng one of the above fields of 
application :  1st November 2006 
Notifications of authors :  15 January 2007 
Final paper :  1st March 2007 
Language :  English or French 
The organizing committee reserves the right to publish accepted 
papers appearing in the conference proceedings 
Cost : 
Exhibitor :  CA $ 550.00				   
Speaker : CA $ 550.00 ( including banquet and proceedings) 
Student (non-speaker): CA $ 100.00		  
Participant : CA $ 550.00 ( including banquet and proceedings) 

ADDRESS
For correspondence, submission of abstracts and papers: 
Chairman of the organizing committee.
DR. GUY BOGDADI, Ing.
Ecole de technologie superieure (Universite du Quebec), 1100 Notre-
Dame Ouest
Montreal (Quebec), Canada H3C 1K3
Tél.: (514) 396-8875, Fax :(514) 396-8878
guy.bogdadi@etsmtl.ca

web site: click here

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

CONTROL AND APPLICATIONS 2007 - CA 2007
Montreal, Canada
May 30 - June 1, 2007

The Ninth IASTED International Conference on 
Control and Applications 
CA 2007
May 30 - June 1, 2007 
Montreal, Quebec, Canada


CALL FOR PAPERS
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) 


Scope
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 
 

International Program Committee
Click here for a list of the program committee for CA 2007.

Submission
Initial Papers
Submit your paper via our website at: 
www.iasted.org/conferences/submit-568.html.
All submissions should be in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. The IASTED 
Secretariat must receive your paper by January 15, 2007. Receipt of 
paper submission will be confirmed by email.

Complete the online initial paper submission form designating an 
author who will attend the conference and providing four key words to 
indicate the subject area of your paper. At least one of the key 
words must be taken from the list of topics provided under Scope. 
Initial paper submissions should be approximately six pages. 
Formatting instructions are available at: www.iasted.org/formatting-
initial.htm.

Authors are responsible for having their papers checked for style and 
grammar prior to submission to IASTED. Papers may be rejected if the 
language is not satisfactory.

Notification of acceptance will be sent via email by February 15, 
2007. Final manuscripts are due by March 15, 2007. Registration and 
final payment are due by April 1, 2007. Late registration fees or 
paper submissions will result in the papers being excluded from the 
conference proceedings. 

Final Papers
Send your final manuscripts via email to: finalpapers@iasted.org. The 
subject line for the final manuscript submission must include your 
six-digit paper number. The formatting instructions can be found at: 
www.iasted.org/formatting-final.htm and must be strictly followed. 
The page limit for final papers is six single-spaced pages in 10 
point Times New Roman font. Only one paper of up to six pages is 
included in the regular registration fee. There will be an added 
charge for extra pages and additional papers.

Tutorials
Proposals for three-hour tutorials should be submitted online by 
January 15, 2007. Tutorials are to be submitted via the following 
website address:
www.iasted.org/conferences/tutorialsubmit-568.html. A tutorial 
proposal should clearly indicate the topic, background knowledge 
expected of the participants, objectives, time allocations for the 
major course topics, and the qualifications of the instructor(s).

Special Sessions
Persons wishing to organize a special session should email a proposal 
to calgary@iasted.org by January 15, 2007. Proposals should include a 
session title, a list of the topics covered, and the qualifications 
and brief biography of the session organizer(s). Papers submitted to 
the special session must be received by January 15, 2007, unless 
otherwise stipulated by the Special Session Organizer. A minimum of 
five papers must be registered and fully paid in order for this 
session to be included in the conference program. More information on 
special sessions is available at: 
www.iasted.org/conferences/specialsession-568.html. 

Journals
Expanded and enhanced versions of papers published in the conference 
proceedings can also be considered for inclusion in one of the IASTED 
journals. Information on the submission of papers to journals is 
available at www.actapress.com/SubmissionInfo.aspx. 

Whole proceedings as well as single papers can now be purchased 
online. Please visit ACTA Press: www.actapress.com. 

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

CPN'06 - SEVENTH WORKSHOP AND TUTORIAL ON PRACTICAL USE OF COLOURED
PETRI NETS AND CPN TOOLS
Aarhus, Denmark
October 24 - 26, 2006

Call for Papers and Participation

CPN'06
Seventh Workshop and Tutorial on Practical Use of 
Coloured Petri Nets and CPN Tools 
October 24-26, 2006
Organised by the CPN group at 
University of Aarhus, Denmark 

Deadline for submissions: August 15, 2006 
Notification of acceptance: September 15, 2006 
Deadline for final papers: October 5, 2006 
Deadline for registration: October 2, 2006 

Further information: 
URL: http://www.daimi.au.dk/CPnets/workshop06/ 
E-mail: CPNworkshop@daimi.au.dk 

Invited Lecture: Inside LoLA - Experiences from Building a State 
Space Tool for Place Transition Nets 
Karsten Wolf, University of Rostock, Germany  

Coloured Petri Nets and CPN Tools are now used by 4000 users in 123 
different countries. The purpose of this event is to bring together 
some of the users and in this way provide a forum for those who are 
interested in the practical use of Coloured Petri Nets and CPN Tools. 

The workshop takes place at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and it 
is open for engineers, researchers and students at all levels. Aarhus 
is situated at the East coast of Jutland (the main land of Denmark). 
It is easily accessible by plane, train and car. The workshop will 
present a number of applications of Coloured Petri Nets and their 
tools. The programme will consist of: 
- Presentations of projects in which Coloured Petri Nets and CPN Tools 
  have been put to practical use. 
- Presentations of improvements and extensions of CPN Tools. 
- Tutorials on new features of CPN Tools, including: 
- Facilities for drawing of state spaces. 
- Facilities for graphical animation of simulation models. 
- One or more sessions in which participants can give a brief 
  presentation of one of their CPN models and get feedback from other 
  participants and members of the CPN group. 
- Discussion of proposals and plans for the future development of CPN 
  Tools. 
- Presentations of a number of new CPN projects at the University of 
  Aarhus. 

Submissions
We hereby solicit submissions for the workshop. Each submission 
should present a CPN project, a CPN Tools improvement/extension, or 
other materials relevant for the workshop. It must have the form of a 
10-20 page paper, provided either as a PostScript file or a PDF 
document. Submissions should be sent to: CPNworkshop@daimi.au.dk 
before August 15, 2006. 

The workshop proceedings will appear as a technical report of the 
Department of Computer Science, University of Aarhus. It will also be 
available in electronic form via the CPN web pages at the University 
of Aarhus. Finally, we plan to publish the best papers in a high-
quality international journal (after an additional round of 
reviewing). 

The submissions will be evaluated by an international programme 
committee with the following members: 
Wil M. P. van der Aalst, Netherlands 
Joao Paulo Barros, Portugal 
Jonathan Billington, Australia 
Joerg Desel, Germany 
Joao M. Fernandes, Portugal 
Jorge de Figueiredo, Brazil 
Monika Heiner, Germany 
Kurt Jensen, Denmark (chair) 
Ekkart Kindler, Germany 
Lars M. Kristensen, Denmark 
Johan Lilius, Finland 
Tadao Murata, USA 
Daniel Moldt, Germany 
Laure Petrucci, France 
Robert Valette, France 
Rüdiger Valk, Germany 
Lee Wagenhals, USA 
Jianli Xu, Finland 
Karsten Wolf, Germany 

Submissions for presentations of CPN models
As mentioned above there will be one or more sessions in which 
participants can give a brief presentation of one of their CPN models 
and get feedback from other participants and members of the CPN 
group. Submissions for presentation of CPN models should be sent to 
CPNworkshop@daimi.au.dk before October 1. They must contain a 3-5 
page description of the modelling project (with a few typical modules 
from the model). The presentation at the conference can be combined 
with a poster or a short paper which will be distributed to the 
participants.

web site: click here

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

FAIM 2007 - THE 17TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FLEXIBLE AUTOMATION
AND INTELLIGENT MANUFACTURING
Philadelphia, USA
June 18 - 20, 2007

FAIM 2007  Announcement and Call for Abstracts

June 18-20, 2007 - Philadelphia, USA

http://www.faim2007.org/   or	http://faim2007.ssglobal.org/

Abstracts Due:	November 20, 2006

The 17th International Conference on Flexible Automation and 
Intelligent Manufacturing (2007 FAIM) focuses on current research, 
best practices and future trends within the areas of global 
competitiveness, and rapidly advancing technologies in flexible 
automation, information management, and intelligent manufacturing. 
The conference provides a forum for both researchers and 
practitioners in the above fields to share the latest research, 
developments and practices in the areas of the conference scope.  

Topics include, but are not limited to:
-     Simulation 
-     Manufacturing Systems 
-     Manufacturing Processes and Technology 
-     Bio. Engineering 
-     Medical Equipment and Healthcare Systems 
-     Product Development and Concurrent Engineering 
-     Business Process Management and Re-Engineering 
-     Global Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Logistics 
-     Lean and Agile Manufacturing, and Best Practices 
-     Manufacturing Enterprise Computing and Integration 
-     Industrial Automation and Process Control 
-     Production Planning and Scheduling 
-     MES/CAD/CAM/FMS/CIM 
-     Robotics and Factory Systems 
-     Sensor-Based Process Monitoring and Remote Control 
-     Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing 
-     Quality Control and Total Quality Management 
-     IT and Internet Applications and E-Manufacturing 
-     Human Factors and Workforce in Manufacturing 
-     Environmental, Health and Safety Engineering 
-     Sustainability, Education, and Training 
-     Rapid Prototyping 
-     Materials Technology 
-     Services Science, Management, and Engineering 
-     Other Relevant Topics 

Conference Chair:  Professor Robin G. Qiu, Penn State, USA
Email:	robinqiu@psu.edu


Co-chairs:  Professor William G. Sullivan, Virginia Polytechnic 
Institute & State University; Professor Munir Ahmad, University of 
Teesside, Middlesbrough, U.K.; Professor Richard Wysk, Pennsylvania 
State University; Professor David Russell, Penn State Great Valley.  


Conference Secretaries:  Elayna McReynolds, exm148@psu.edu; Jean 
Stefanski, jos12@psu.edu; Betty McAdams, bxm28@psu.edu; Ursula 
Thompson, umt1@psu.edu 


Special sessions are welcome. Please contact Prof. Gina Tang at 
tang@rowan.edu or Prof. Kathryn Jablokow at kwl3@psu.edu.


Tutorials and workshops are welcome. Please contact Jeff Tew at 
jeffrey.tew@gm.com or J.B. Zhang at jbzhang@SIMTech.a-star.edu.sg.


Other inquiries, please contact the General Chair: Prof. Robin Qiu at 
robinqiu@psu.edu.


Important Dates:

Nov. 20, 2006	  Deadline for submission of paper abstracts. Email 
to: admin@faim2007.org 

Jan. 20, 2007	  Deadline for submission of full papers. Email to: 
admin@faim2007.org

Mar. 20, 2007	  Acceptance/Rejection notification

Apr. 20, 2007	  Final camera-ready papers due

web site: click here

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

1ST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE AND AUTOMATA THEORY AND
APPLICATIONS (LATA 2007)
Tarragona, Spain
March 29 - April 4, 2007

AIMS:

LATA 2007 intends to become a major yearly conference in theoretical 
computer science and its applications. As linked to the International 
PhD School in Formal Languages and Applications that is being 
developed at the host institute since 2001, it will reserve 
significant room for young computer scientists at the beginning of 
their career. LATA 2007 will aim at attracting scholars from both 
classical theory fields and application areas (bioinformatics, 
systems biology, language technology, artificial intelligence, etc.).

SCOPE:

Topics of either theoretical or applied interest include, but are not 
limited to:

- words, languages and automata
- grammars (Chomsky hierarchy, contextual, multidimensional, 
unification, categorial, etc.)
- grammars and automata architectures
- combinatorics on words
- language varieties and semigroups
- algebraic language theory
- computability
- computational, descriptional, communication and parameterized 
complexity
- patterns and codes
- regulated rewriting
- trees, tree languages and tree machines
- term rewriting
- graphs and graph transformation
- power series
- fuzzy and rough languages
- cellular automata
- DNA and other models of bio-inspired computing
- quantum, chemical and optical computing
- biomolecular nanotechnology
- automata and logic
- automata for verification
- automata, concurrency and Petri nets
- parsing
- weighted machines
- foundations of finite state technology
- grammatical inference and learning
- symbolic neural networks
- text retrieval and pattern recognition
- string and combinatorial issues in computational biology and 
bioinformatics
- mathematical evolutionary genomics
- language-based cryptography
- compression
- circuit theory and applications
- language theoretic foundations of artificial intelligence and 
artificial life

STRUCTURE:

LATA 2007 will consist of:

- 3 invited talks (to be announced in the second call for papers)
- 2 tutorials (to be announced in the second call for papers)
- refereed contributions
- open sessions for discussion in specific subfields
- young sessions on professional issues

PROGRAMME COMMITTEE:

Francine Blanchet-Sadri (Greensboro)
Paola Bonizzoni (Milan)
Henning Bordihn (Potsdam)
John Brzozowski (Waterloo)
Erzsebet Csuhaj-Varju (Budapest)
Carsten Damm (Goettingen)
Nachum Dershowitz (Tel Aviv)
Pal Domosi (Debrecen)
Manfred Droste (Leipzig)
Zoltan Esik (Tarragona, co-chair)
Joerg Flum (Freiburg, Germany)
Jozef Gruska (Brno)
Tero Harju (Turku)
Colin de la Higuera (Saint-Etienne)
Markus Holzer (Munich)
Lucian Ilie (London, Canada)
Masami Ito (Kyoto)
Jarkko Kari (Turku)
Andre Kempe (Grenoble)
Jetty Kleijn (Leiden)
Satoshi Kobayashi (Tokyo)
Martin Kutrib (Giessen)
Thierry Lecroq (Rouen)
Stuart Margolis (Ramat Gan)
Carlos Martin-Vide (Tarragona, co-chair)
Risto Miikkulainen (Austin)
Victor Mitrana (Tarragona, co-chair)
Claudio Moraga (Dortmund)
Kenichi Morita (Hiroshima)
Mark-Jan Nederhof (Groningen)
Mitsunori Ogihara (Rochester)
Alexander Okhotin (Tarragona)
Friedrich Otto (Kassel)
Holger Petersen (Stuttgart)
Wojciech Rytter (Warsaw)
Kai Salomaa (Kingston, Canada)
Magnus Steinby (Turku)
Shuly Wintner (Haifa)
Detlef Wotschke (Frankfurt)
Hsu-Chun Yen (Taipei)
Sheng Yu (London, Canada)

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

Madalina Barbaiani
Gemma Bel-Enguix
Cristina Bibire
Carlos Cruz Reyes
Adrian Horia Dediu
Szilard Zsolt Fazekas
Maria Adela Grando
Mihai Ionescu
M. Dolores Jimenez-Lopez
Alexander Krassovitskiy
Guangwu Liu
Remco Loos
Carlos Martin-Vide (chair)
Tsetsegkhand Namsrai
Anthonath Roslin Sagaya Mary
Sherzod Turaev

SUBMISSIONS:

Authors are invited to submit papers presenting original and 
unpublished research. Papers should not exceed 12 pages and should be 
formatted according to the usual LNCS article style. One .pdf or 
postscript file containing the submission is what the organizers 
expect to receive at carlos.martin@urv.cat (with 'LATA 2007 
submission' at the subject box).

PUBLICATION:

A volume of pre-proceedings will be available by the time of the 
conference. It is expected that a refereed volume of selected 
proceedings will be published soon after it in the LNCS Springer 
series.

REGISTRATION:

The period for registration will be since January 9 to March 29, 
2007. Details about how to register will be provided through the 
website of the conference.

Early registration fees: 200 euros
Early registration fees (PhD students): 50 euros
Registration fees: 300 euros
Registration fees (PhD students): 75 euros

FUNDING:

40 grants covering partial-board accommodation in the university 
hostel will be available for nonlocal PhD students. To apply, the 
candidate must e-mail her/his CV together with a copy of the document 
proving her/his condition as a PhD student.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Paper submission: November 30, 2006
Application for funding (PhD students): December 15, 2006
Notification of funding acceptance or rejection: December 31, 2007
Notification of paper acceptance or rejection: January 31, 2007
Early registration: February 15, 2007
Final version of the paper for the pre-proceedings: February 28, 2007 
Starting of the conference: March 29, 2007
Submission to the proceedings volume: May 15, 2007

FURTHER INFORMATION:

carlos.martin@urv.cat

http://www.grlmc.com

ADDRESS:

LATA 2007
Research Group on Mathematical Linguistics
Rovira i Virgili University
Plaza Imperial Tarraco, 1
43005 Tarragona, Spain
Phone: +34-977-559543
Fax: +34-977-559597

web site: click here

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

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS, MAN AND CYBERNETICS, PART
A
VOLUME: 36, ISSUE: 5
SEPTEMBER, 2006

1) Extending the decision field theory to model operators' reliance on 
   automation in supervisory control situations

 Ji Gao; Lee, J.D.

Abstract:
Appropriate trust in and reliance on automation are critical for safe
and efficient system operation. This paper fills an important research
gap by describing a quantitative model of trust in automation. We
extend decision field theory (DFT) to describe the multiple sequential
decisions that characterize reliance on automation in supervisory
control situations. Extended DFT (EDFT) represents an iterated decision
process and the evolution of operator preference for automatic and
manual control. The EDFT model predicts trust and reliance, and
describes the dynamic interaction between operator and automation in a
closed-loop fashion: the products of earlier decisions can transform
the nature of later events and decisions. The simulation results show
that the EDFT model captures several consistent empirical findings,
such as the inertia of trust and the nonlinear characteristics of trust
and reliance. The model also demonstrates the effects of different
types of automation on ttrust and reliance. It is possible to expand
the EDFT model for multioperator multiautomation situations.

2) Approximation Capabilities of Hierarchical Hybrid Systems

Zeng, X.-J.; Keane, J.A.

Abstract:

This paper investigates the approximation capabilities of hierarchical
hybrid systems, which are motivated by research in hierarchical fuzzy
systems, hybrid intelligent systems, and modeling of model partly known
systems. For a function (system) with known hierarchical structure
(i.e., one that can be represented as a composition of some simpler and
lower dimensional subsystems), it is shown that hierarchical hybrid
systems have the structure approximation capability in the sense that
such a hybrid approximation scheme can approximate both the overall
system and all the subsystems to any desired degree of accuracy. For a
function (system) with unknown hierarchical structure, Kolmogorov's
theorem is used to construct the hierarchical structure of the given
function (system). It is then shown that hierarchical hybrid systems
are universal approximators.

web site: click here

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

SELECTIONS FROM IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATIC CONTROL
VOLUME: 51, ISSUE: 9
SEPTEMBER, 2006

1) Deadlock-Freeness Analysis of Continuous Mono-T-Semiflow Petri Nets
 
 Julvez, J.; Recalde, L.; Silva, M.

Abstract:

Most verification techniques for highly populated discrete systems
suffer from the state explosion problem. The “fluidification” of
discrete systems is a classical relaxation technique that aims to avoid
the state explosion problem. Continuous Petri nets are the result of
fluidifying traditional discrete Petri nets. In continuous Petri nets
the firing of a transition is not constrained to the naturals but to
the non-negative reals. Unfortunately, some important properties, as
liveness, may not be preserved when the discrete net model is
fluidified. Therefore, a thorough study of the properties of continuous
Petri nets is required. This paper focuses on the study of
deadlock-freeness in the framework of mono-T-semiflow continuous Petri
nets, i.e., conservative nets with a single repetitive sequence
(T-semiflow). The study is developed both on untimed and timed systems.
Topological necessary conditions are extracted for this property.
Moreover, a bridge relating deadlock-freeness conditions for untimed
and timed systems is established.

2)  Compositional Contraction Analysis of Resetting Hybrid Systems

Rifai, K.E.; Slotine, J.-J.E.

Abstract: 

This note develops sufficient conditions for exponential convergence of
resetting hybrid nonlinear dynamical systems. Using nonlinear
contraction theory, the analysis first develops a unified formulation
of continuous-time and discrete-time nonlinear dynamics based on a
differential transition matrix. This yields enhanced dwell-time based
conditions for stability of such systems analogous to those existing
for switched systems. It turns out that such dwell-time based
conditions, unlike their counterparts for switched systems, include
arbitrary stability conditions as a special case, and are less
conservative and much simpler to verify.

web site: click here