Newsletter November 2018

Message from the DISC office

Dear all,

In March the yearly Benelux Meeting will take place, so mark your calender’s for that! A lot of our PhD’s are going to defend their thesis in the coming two months so we wish them all the best of luck!

With best regards,

Henk Nijmeijer,
scientific director

Martha Otte,
DISC secretariat

Upcoming DISC courses

In January 2019 the following classes will start:

Mathematical Models of Systems
J. Polderman, K. Camlibel and H. Trentelman

Input Design and Parameter Estimation for Non-linear Systems
H. Stigter and K. Keesman

The courses are taught at cursus en vergadercentrum Domstad in Utrecht, location Koningsbergerstraat 9. For more information see their website.

Benelux Meeting 2019

The 38th Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control will be held from March 19-21, 2019 at Centerparcs Vossemeren, Lommel, Belgium.

15th IFAC Symposium on Large Scale Complex Systems: Theory and Applications (IFAC LSS 2019)

The 15th IFAC Symposium on Large Scale Complex Systems: Theory and Applications (IFAC LSS 2019) wil take place from May 26-28, 2019 in Delft, The Netherlands.

The Symposium is to discuss new developments in methodologies and techniques useful in handling complexity in analysis, modelling, control and optimization of large-scale complex systems. A number of application areas will be addressed. Special attention will be paid to large-scale complex systems that are closely connected with smart industry and technology-enhanced daily lives, such as robotic and automated processes, urban traffic systems, autonomous systems, water systems, environmental systems, power supply systems, complex bio-medical processes and other emerging topics.

Important dates:
01-01-2019: Submission Deadline
01-03-2019: Notice of acceptances
15-04-2019: Final papers due

Refer to the website for more information and for the first Call for Papers: https://www.dcsc.tudelft.nl/LSS19

2019 Spring School on Data-driven Model Learning of Dynamic Systems

The Spring School will be organized on the campus of the Ecole Centrale de Lyon from 1 to 4 April 2019.
The school consists of a series of lectures and of exercise sessions aiming at covering both the fundamentals of system identification as well as more advanced topics. The school is thus mainly aimed at an audience of PhD students, but is also open to any other persons interested in the topic.

More information on this doctoral school (registration fees, accommodation, …) can be found at the following link :
https://spring-id-2019.sciencesconf.org/
The deadline for registration is 31 January 2019.

Prof. Gleb Vdovine and Temitope Agbana (TUD-DCSC) get awarded NWO Open Mind

tope prizeAfrican Animal Trypanosomiasis is a parasitic infection, spread mainly by the bite of infected tsetse flies. It is prevalent in 37 sub-Saharan countries and Ethiopia and has become the major constraint of livestock production.

PhD researcher Temitope Agbana and Professor Gleb Vdovine from the 3ME faculty have developed a novel technique, which utilizes optical analysis of patient blood samples using automated smart algorithms integrated into a potentially low-cost multispectral optical imaging platform. With this technique, they aim at the development of a portable, field compatible, affordable smart optical diagnostic instrument for early detection of African Animal Trypanosomiasis and other Hemoparasitic infection in animals. A smart parasite detector for animals: automated, rapid reliable diagnosis which requires minimal human intervention.

New people

Eindhoven University of technology

Hi, my name is Mannes, 24 years old and I’ll start my PhD project this november at the Control Systems group in Eindhoven. I will investigate the effects of taking samples in dynamic networks on system identification. I also did both my bachelor’s and master’s in Eindhoven in Automotive and Systems & Control, respectively. My graduation project was on optimal sampled-data controller synthesis using hybrid system theory and generalised disturbance and performance channels. This approach allows a generalised plant formulation for sampled-data systems and can be solved using linear matrix inequalities. Next to my interest in technology I like to spend my time speed skating, cycling and travelling.

My name is Patrick Koelewijn and I am 23 years old. I received my BSc-degree in 2016 in Automotive Technology at Eindhoven University of Technology. Recently, I received my MSc-degree in Systems and Control. During my Master’s degree I worked for three months at the Control Systems group of the Hamburg University of Technology on LPV control of a gyroscope with an inverted pendulum attachment under the supervision of prof. dr.-ing. Herbert Werner. For my graduation project I worked on the topic of nonlinear tracking and rejection using LPV control at the Control Systems at Eindhoven University of Technology under the supervision of dr. ir. Roland Tóth. During my PhD I will do research on the topic of LPV modelling for controller synthesis, also under the supervision of dr. ir. Roland Tóth.

Hi, my name is Myrthe Plaisier and I just started working as a postdoc on a project together with Astrid Kappers. In this project we will develop haptic communication interfaces to help people with deaf-blindness during daily activities.

I got into researching haptic perception during my PhD at Utrecht University (Astrid was actually my promotor). During my PhD project I investigated how efficiently humans can process haptic information. After finishing my PhD in 2010, I got a Rubicon grant and moved to Bielefeld University in Germany. Later I obtained a VENI grant and moved back to the Netherlands to work at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. During these projects I mainly investigated how visual and haptic information are combined in order to perceive a single object. For instance, large objects feel lighter than smaller objects that have the same mass. This means that a book inside a large box will feel lighter than the book by itself. Don’t take my word for it, try it for yourself!

About a year ago I decided that I wanted to do something completely new and started working as a data scientist at a large pension provider. Analysing big sets of data can be fun and challenging, but I soon found out that I really missed performing experiments. So this is how I found my way back to haptic research.
Some other things I  like doing are baking cakes and watching time-travel movies.

Delft University of Technology

My name is Yanggu Zheng.I was born in Beijing, China and obtained my B.Sc. degree there, at Tsinghua University. As an enthusiast of cars, I studied on in the direction of vehicle control during the M.Sc. program at TU Delft and was luckily admitted as a Ph.D. candidate here, under supervision of Barys Shyrokau. I will continue to focus on the control of autonomous vehicles, with a specific interest in comfort-oriented coordination of multiple actuators.

In the spare time, I enjoy several adventurous sports like snowboarding and scuba diving and I am also good at driving go-karts.

University of Groningen

Guopin Liu received the B.S. degree in automation from Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, China, in 2014, where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in control theory and control engineering.His current research interests include nonlinear control systems and switched systems.

Backgroud: Chu Wu received the B.S. degree in Automation from the Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China, in 2015. He is currently working towards the Ph.D. degree in Control Science and Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China.His research focuses on distributed control of multi-agent systems, distributed optimization, and cooperation of mobile manipulators.

Mehran Shakarami received his M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran, in 2014, and the B.Sc. and A.Sc. degrees from Shamsipour College, Tehran, Iran, in 2011 and 2009, respectively. His previous research areas include nonlinear control, adaptive control, robust control, and system identification. He is currently doing his doctorate at the University of Groningen and working on control of dynamical networks.

Recently, there has been a rise of interest in synthesizing distributed controllers for dynamical networks to steer them to an optimal steady state. This will assist in stabilizing the network while achieving an optimal steady state such that some cost functions are optimized.
This project is aimed at controlling complex networks with dynamical agents. The interplay between physics of the agents and economic aspects including cost minimization, utility maximization, and competitive games will be investigated. Distributed algorithms steering the network to a desired operating point will be developed, and the robustness of these algorithms to model uncertainties and communication failures will be examined.

Xu, Teke (RUG 2018)Name: Teke Xu
Starting Date: 01-12-2018
Function: PhD
Email: T.Xu@rug.nl
Group: BI- System, Control and Applied analysis
Supervisor: Alden Waters, Stephen Trenn
Project: Modelling and control of blood flow in aortic arch modelling for cardiac deficiencies

Hi guys, I am a new PhD student in applied mathematics group, at University of Groningen. I work with Alden Waters as my first supervisor and Stephen Trenn as my second supervisor.  I achieved Master Degree from Northwestern University, USA, in 2017 and Bachelor Degree from Zhejiang University, China, in 2015, with a background of Electrical Engineering. I am so excited to have the opportunity to study in Netherlands, to have a new experience both in knowledge and the life here. Looking forward to meeting you and share our views!

PhD defences November / December

Delft University of Technology

Candidate: Ivan Koryakovskiy
Group: CoR
Thesis: Safer reinforcement learning for robotics
Promotor: Prof.dr.ir. H. Vallery and Prof.dr. R. Babuska
Date: 03-12-2018
Location: Aula, TU Delft
Time: 15:00

Candidate: Kasper van der El
Group: AE
Thesis:How Humans use Preview Information in Manual Control
Promotor: Prof.dr.ir. M. Mulder
Date: 6-12-2018
Location: Aula, TU Delft
Time: 15:00

Candidate: Jaime Junell
Group: AE
Thesis: An empirical approach to reinforcement. Learning for Micro Aerial Vehicles
Promotor: Prof.dr.ir. M. Mulder
Date: 10-12-2018
Location: Aula, TU Delft
Time: 10:00

Candidate: Ewoud Smeur
Group: AE
Thesis: Incremental Control of Hybrid Micro Air Vehicles
Promotor: prof. dr. ir. J.M. Hoekstra
Date: 5-11-2018
Location: Aula, TU Delft
Time: 15:00

Candidate: Deniz Yilmaz
Group: AE
Thesis: Identification of manual control behaviour to assess rotorcraft handling qualities
Promotor: Prof.dr.ir. M. Mulder
Date: 2-11-2018
Location: Aula, TU Delft
Time: 15:00

Eindhoven University of Technology

Candidate: Harm Weerts
Group: CS
Thesis: Identifiability and identification methods for dynamic networks
Promotor: prof. dr. ir. P. Van den Hof
Date: 7-11-2018
Location: Aula
Time: 13:30

University of Groningen

Candidate: Xiaodong Cheng
Group: ENTEG (DPTA)
Thesis: Model Reduction of Network Systems with Structure Preservation
Promotor: Prof. dr. J.  Scherpen en prof. dr. M. Cao
Date: 2-11-2018
Location: Aula Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen
Time:11:00

Candidate: Xiaoshan Bai
Group: ENTEG (DPTA)
Thesis: Cooperative Task Assignment for Multiple Vehicles
Promotor: Prof. dr. J.  Scherpen en prof. dr. M. Cao
Date: 12-11-2018
Location: Aula Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen
Time: 12:45

Candidate: Tjerk Stegink
Group: ENTEG /BI
Thesis: Energy-based analysis and control of power networks and markets. Port-Hamiltonian modeling, optimality and game theory
Promotor: prof De Persis en prof van der Schaft
Date:7-12-2018
Location: Aula Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen
Time:12:45

Candidate: Shuai Feng
Group: ENTEG (SMS)
Thesis: Resilient Control under Denial-of-Service Attacks
Promotor: Prof. dr. C. De Persis
Date: 26-11-2018
Location: Aula Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen
Time: 09:00

Candidate: Danial Senejohnny
Group: ENTEG (SMS)
Thesis: Resilience of coordination networks: data availability and integrity
Promotor: Prof. dr. C. De Persis
Date: 30-11-2018
Location: Aula Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen
Time: 11:00

Wageningen University

Candidate: Nik Grubben
Group: Biobased Chemistry & Technology
Thesis: Modelling ventilated potato bulk storage facilities
Promotor: Prof dr ir KJ Keesman
Date: 19-12-2018
Location: Aula, Wageningen University
Time: 11:00

Next issue of the newsletter

The next issue of this Newsletter will appear in December 2018.
We encourage the contributors to provide newsworthy information. In principle, we intend to publish any message offered. However, we reserve the right to edit certain parts of a submission.
Please send your contributions to: m.w.otte@tudelft.nl

You receive this newsletter because you are a member of DISC.  If you want to be removed from the mailing list, please let us know by sending an email to m.w.otte@tudelft.nl