Dear all,
These are difficult times for all of us. The corona virus is impacting all aspects of our daily life. A lot of our DISC activities have been cancelled and we may have to cancel more in the coming months.
From March 10-12 we were able to meet up at Hotel Mennorode for 39th edition of the Benelux Meeting but it will probably be a while before we can have any kind of meeting in person.
In the meantime we wish you and your loved ones the best and hope that you will all stay well.
Best wishes,
Henk Nijmeijer
Scientific director
Martha Otte
DISC secretariat
Due to the corona virus the meetings in Utrecht have been cancelled until further notice. The course System Identification has been cancelled and will be postponed to academic year 2020-2021.Linear Matrix Inequalities in Control will start on March 30 as an online course. More courses may have to cancelled, check the DISC website and Course Platform for updates.
For the full list of courses for 2019-2020 see: https://disc.tudelft.nl/education/course-program/2019-2020-course-program/
Register on the DISC course platform.
Unfortunately we have had to cancel the DISC Winter Course on Numerics and Control.
We will reschedule, so check the website if you are interested. DISC PhD’s will also receive an email when new dates have been planned.
At the moment there is much uncertainty with regard to all activities that have been scheduled within the next six months. For now we are going ahead with the organisation of the Summer School.
Javier Alonso Mora and Ming Cao have the pleasure to invite you to participate in the DISC Summer School “Planning, Learning and Control for Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems”, which is scheduled to take place from June 30-July 3, 2020, at Centerparcs Zandvoort, Zandvoort, The Netherlands.
Multi-robot and Multi-agent Systems
In the (near) future fleets of autonomous cars will coordinate to provide on-demand transportation while making our roads safer; mobile robots will coordinate in manufacturing and logistic processes; and teams of aerial robots will provide automated inspection and surveillance. These applications require novel methods and theoretical developments in the systems and control field that account for the interaction and coordination with other agents in complex environments.
In this summer school, we will present recent developments towards the endeavour of pervasive multi-robot and multi-agent systems. The lectures and tutorials will cover the concepts of communication-based coordination (consensus, distributed optimization and formation control), interaction (decision-making in multi-agent systems), motion planning and learning. The lectures contain both recent control theoretical development, as well as, application within the robotics field. Additional, we are hoping that this summer school will serve to partially bridge the gap between controls and AI research for multi-robot and multi-agent systems
Lecturers
The main program will consist of a number of international and national speakers. Keynote lectures will be given by:
Complemented by talks given by DISC lecturers:
Registration
The registration fee, which includes full board and lodging, is
For more information please refer to the website: https://disc.tudelft.nl/education/summer-school/disc-summer-school-2020/
From March 10-12, 2020 the 39th edition of the Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control took place at Hotel Mennorode, Elspeet, The Netherlands.
The organisers were Erjen Lefeber (Eindhoven University of Technology), Raffaella Carloni (University of Groningen) and Bayu Jayawardhana (University of Groningen).
Thomas Schon (Uppsala University) gave a mini course on “Learning nonlinear dynamics using sequential Monte Carlo”. Ming Cao (University of Groningen) and Marcel Heertjes (Eindhoven University of Technology) both gave invited lecturers. Kristin Pettersen (NTNU) unfortunately had to cancel but Henk Nijmeijer and Paul Van den Hof stepped up to fill the slots with interesting lectures.
Best Junior Presentation Award
The Benelux Meeting wouldn’t be complete without the Best Junior Presentation Award! Julien Hendrickx (UC Louvain); Bart Besselink (University of Groningen) and Manon Kok (Delft University of Technology) acted as jury. They called the top six finalists to the stage:
Camiel Beckers (Eindhoven University of Technoology)
Henk van Waarde (University of Groningen)
Oscar de Groot (Delft University of Technology)
Clara Menzen (Delft University of Technology)
Jaap Eising (University of Groningen)
Farhad Merhdifar (UC Louvain)
Clara Menzen was announced as the winner! Congratulations Clara!
The DISC Best Thesis Award 2019 was won by Stefan Heijmans for his thesis titled “Exploring the Uncharted Territories of Networked Control Systems by Scavenging for Structure in Dynamics and Communication ”. Stefan completed his thesis under supervision of prof. Maurice Heemels at Eindhoven University of Technology.
The Best Thesis Jury was formed by Karel Keesman (WUR), Tom Oomen (TU/e) and Jens Kober (TUD).
Karel announced the winner during the Benelux Meeting and handed him his certificate.
There were four nominations for the Best Thesis 2019:
Stefan Heijmans (TU/e), Exploring the Uncharted Territories of Networked Control Systems by Scavenging for Structure in Dynamics and Communication; supervised by Prof. M. Heemels
Ruben Merks (TU/e), Towards Control Relevant System Design and Constrained Order Controller Synthesis with a Thermal Control Application in Immersion Lithography . Supervised by Prof. S. Weiland & Prof. H. Butler
Arman Sharifi Kolarijani ((TUD), Applications of Trajectory-Based Analysis in Optimization and Control . Supervised by Dr. T. Keviczky & dr. P. Mohajerin Esfahani
Mingming Shi (RUG) , Coordination Networks under Noisy Measurements and Sensor Biases. Supervised by Prof. C. De Persis & dr. P. Tesi
Once a year, during the Benelux Meeting, we give out DISC certificates during a short ceremony. Since January 2020 students need 21 ECTS (instead of 27) to obtain a certificate. This led to a great increase in the number of certificates: 38 this year! No everyone could be there in person but there were a lot of people on the stage.
Jaap Eising (RUG)
Sumon Hossain (RUG)
Koorosh Shomolzadeh (RUG)
Paul Wijnbergen (RUG)
Muhammad Zaki Almuzakki (RUG)
Carmen Chan-Zheng (RUG)
Rafael Cunha (RUG)
Tabitha Esteves Rosa (RUG)
Mark Jeeninga (RUG)
Ningbo Li (RUG)
Emin Martirosyan (RUG)
Mohamad Agung Prawira (RUG)
Marco Augusto Vasquez Beltran (RUG)
Mattia Bianchi (TUD)
Carlos Samuel Mendez-Blanco (TU/e)
Tom Steentjes (TU/e)
Sebastiaan van den Eijnden (TU/e)
Fahim Shakib (TU/e)
Quentin Voortman (TU/e)
Not on the stage but also entitled to a certificate are:
Alessandro Luppi (RUG)
Monica Rotula (RUG)
Mehran Shakarami (RUG)
Andrew Berry (TUD)
Giuseppe Belgioso (TU/e)
Amritan Das (TU/e)
Feye Hoekstra (TU/e)
David van den Hurk (TU/e)
Shengling Shi (TU/e)
Alex Andriën (TU/e)
Roy Cobbenhagen (TU/e)
Daniel Deenen (TU/e)
Yanick Douven (TU/e)
Enzo Evers (TU/e)
Leroy Hazeleger (TU/e)
Timo Ravensbergen (TU/e)
Azka Muji Burohman (RUG)
Weijia Yao (RUG)
Delft University of Technology
Name: Oscar de Groot
Starting date: 17-3-2020
Function: PhD
Group:CoR
Supervisor: Laura Ferranti & Javier Alonso Mora
I am Oscar de Groot. I recently finished my MSc Systems & Control on the TU Delft working on multi-robot passivity-based control. I have an Electrical Engineering bachelor and was Chief Electronics of the Formula Student Team Delft in 2016-2017. I am now starting my PhD on autonomous motion planning with Assistant Prof. Laura Ferranti and Assistant Prof. Javier Alonso-Mora, working closely together with the Intelligent Vehicle group.
I am passionate about music and guitar and like to do hobby engineering projects.
Name: Osama Mazhar
Starting date: 17-3-2020
Function: Postdoc
Group:CoR
Supervisors: Jens Kober and Prof. Robert Babuska
My name is Osama Mazhar. I am a robot vision researcher and have lately defended my PhD on “Vision-based human gestures detection for human-robot interaction” from Université de Montpellier, France. I studied Biomedical engineering for my bachelors and for my masters, I studied Mechatronics and Computer Vision. I plan to work as a postdoc on AI based robot perception and cognition with Assoc. Prof. Jens Kober and Prof. Robert Babuska at 3mE TU Delft.
I love machines and am currently building my own 3D-printed quadruped as a leisure activity (not a good idea to spend your free time working as well). I occasionally do photography too.
Eindhoven University of Technology
Name: Lars Janssen
Starting date: 01-03-2020
Function: PhD student
Email: l.a.l.janssen@tue.nl
Group: D & C
Supervisor: Nathan van de Wouw
My name is Lars Janssen, I will be starting my PHD this March under Professor Nathan van der Wouw.
I have studied Mechanical Engineering where I did both my bachelor and master at the TU Eindhoven. I recently graduated from the Dynamics and Control group when I finished my thesis under Professor Ines Lopez on a project where I looked into the application of using microphone arras in condition monitoring and fault detection. This project made me realize that I really enjoy the type of work and that I would like to continue doing research at the DC group.
I will be working on the TTW project Digital Twin. More specifically, the Model Reduction project titled “Compositional framework for complexity management of multi-disciplinary digital twins” where I will have the task to develop methods for the overall reduction of model complexity within the project.
Name: Prasoon Garg
Starting date: 01-01-2020
Function: PhD student
Email: p.garg.1@tue.nl
Group: Controls Systems Technology (CST)
Supervisor: Frank Willems and Emilia Silvas
Project: AI-based control development for future automotive powertrains (P-AI2: PowertrAIn BrAIn)
Hello, my name is Prasoon Garg and I am 27 years old. I was born and raised up in India. I did my Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from India. Last year, I completed my MSc in Automotive Technology from TU/e and during my graduation project, I worked on development of a virtual NOx sensor for heavy-duty state-of-the-art diesel engines. I will start my PhD with CST group at TU/e from March. My research in the PhD will focus on investigating the use of artificial intelligence for reducing calibration effort of the automotive powertrains. This research is important due to increasing complexity of powertrains.In my free time, I love to go on long rides on my road bike.
Name: S.A.N. Nouwens
Starting date: 01-03-2020
Function: PhD student
Email: s.a.n.nouwens@tue.nl
Group: CST
Supervisor: Maurice Heemels
Project: Model Predictive Control for hyperthermia in cancer treatments
Introduction: Hi, my name is Sven Nouwens, 26 years old and starting my PhD project this March at the CST group in Eindhoven. I’ve also completed both my pre-master and masters at the TU/e. My graduation projected was on the optimal thermal actuator design for mirrors. The goal was to design a small number of actuators used to satisfy temperature constraints while being perturbed by a large set of load cases. For my PhD I’ll be working on applying Model Predictive Control for hyperthermia in cancer treatments.
Name: Leontine Aarnoudse
Starting date: 01-02-2020
Function: PhD student
Email: l.i.m.aarnoudse@tue.nl
Group: CST
Supervisor: Tom Oomen
Project: machine learning for control
My name is Leontine Aarnoudse and I’m a PhD student in the Control Systems Technology (CST) group as of February 1st. I finished my BSc and MSc degrees in Mechanical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology, during which I developed an interest in control technology. During my internship at the University of Michigan, I worked on an application of iterative learning control in micro-additive manufacturing. After that, I did my master’s project in the CST group on spatial iterative learning control with intermittent data, which I applied to piezo-stepper actuators in collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific. I’m excited to continue working on learning control in the coming years.
Name: P.J.M.M. Tacx
Starting date: 15-02-2020
Function: PhD student
Email: p.j.m.m.tacx@tue.nl
Group: CST
Supervisor: Tom Oomen
Project: system identification for control of advanced motion systems
My name is Paul Tacx and I am a new PhD-student in the Control Systems Technology group under supervision of Tom Oomen. I started in 2013 with my bachelor mechanical engineering at the TU/e after which I did my master’s mechanical engineering also at the TU/e. During my graduation project, I focused on system identification for control of advanced motion systems. The PhD project is essentially a continuation of the graduation project.
Eindhoven University of Technology
Candidate: Dhruv Khandelwal
Group: CS
Thesis: Automating Data-driven Modeling of Dynamical Systems. An Evolutionary Computation Approach.
Promotor: Roland Tóth
Co-promotor: Maarten Schoukens.
Date: 04-03-2020
Candidate: Dr.ir. R. Beerens
Group: Dynamics & Control
Thesis: Reset Control and Control Allocation for High-precision Motion Systems
Promotor: Prof.dr.ir. N. van de Wouw & prof. H. Nijmeijer.
Co-promotor: Prof. M. Heemels
Date: 02-03-2020
Location: TU/e Atlas 0.710
The next issue of this Newsletter will appear in April 2020.
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
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