Dear DISC members,
We hope that you had a wonderful summer break and that you were able to refil your battery so that you can enjoy every minute from the upcoming academic year 2024-2025!
We are proud to present the new DISC course program 2024-2025. Please find the link in the next item.
Further we announce the Beneluxmeeting on Systems and Control 2025, which will be held from 18-20 March 2025 in Egmond aan Zee (NL)! We booked a very nice location near the beach and in the coming months the organizing comite will do its utmost to compose a very interesting program for you. In the course of next months we will fill the website www.beneluxmeeting.nl with all information needed, including the way of registration. We look very much forward to meeting you there! Save the date!
We are also pleased to share a great news on the recognition of our discipline in the upcoming code of disciplines in NWO. Specifically, the Mathematics domain will include the sub-discipline of Control Theory, and the Mechanical Engineering domain will include the sub-discipline of Systems & Control. It is a recognition to the importance of our discipline in the landscape of science and technology in the Netherlands and we would like to thank the efforts of many DISC members in this endeavor.
On 11 July Bayu Jayawardhana handed over the floating throphy and the certificate to Max van Meer (TU/e) as winner of the Best Junior Presentation Award 2024 during the Beneluxmeeting this Spring in Blankenberge. Congratulations Max!
Per 1 July 2024 the membership of three Board members of DISC ended:
-Jan Willem Polderman, University Twente, retired (chair)
-Karel Keesman, Wageningen University & Research
-Hans Zwart (University Twente)
At the same time we welcome new Board member Simon van Mourik from Wageningen University & Research. In the near future other new members will be selected and will join the DISC Board. We will inform you in due course.
We thank Jan Willem, Karel and Hans very much for their expertise and their time invested in DISC, to bring DISC where it is now. We are most grateful to you and wish you the very best for future. We also wish Simon a pleasant membership from the DISC board and thank you for your contribution.
Last but not least: we would like to invite you to send us proposals for the DISC Winter School 2025-2026 (this academic year 24-25 no DISC Winter School will take place). You can find an example of an earlier topic on Fall course 2021 – DISC (tudelft.nl)
You can ask the DISC office for a template for a proposal by sending an e-mail to secr-disc-me@tudelft.nl
In case you have any questions, remarks or tips for the DISC office and/or DISC board, please feel most welcome to share them with us (secr-disc-me@tudelft.nl).
We wish you all a good start of the new academic year 2024-2025!
Bayu Jayawardhana, scientific director DISC
Maaike Kraeger-Holland, office manager DISC
You can find the DISC course program 2024-2025 and the course descriptions on DISC Course Program 2024-2025. You are most welcome to register for these course(s) as registration is now possible! The first course (Numerical Optimal Control) will start on Monday 7 October 2024. Please keep a close eye on the DISC website for further detailed information on the courses, the lecturers, the timetable and way of registration. Thank you for registering in time! The courses of the DISC course program 2024-2025 are:
2024_Numerical Optimal Control
2025_Data Driven Control
2025_Mathematical Models of Systems
2025_Nonlinear Control Systems
2025_Model Predictive Control
2025_Design Methods for Control Systems
2025_DISC_OptimalControl
The DISC courses will be lectured in the city of Utrecht, at only 10 minutes walking distance from Utrecht Central Station:
Cursus- en Vergadercentrum Domstad
Koningsbergerstraat 9
3531 AJ Utrecht
Route description: Routebeschrijving – Cursus- en vergadercentrum Domstad (accommodatiedomstad.nl)
Eindhoven University of Technology
Name: Ruth David
Function: Post-doctoral researcher
Email: r.r.k.david@tue.nl
Group: TUe/Mechanical Engineering, Dynamics & Control
Project: Cooperative automated driving and vehicle dynamics
I’m Ruth David and I was born in 1991. I received my BSc in Applied Mathematics and Statistics in 2013 and my MSc in Industrial Engineering in 2015 from Curtin University, Australia. I’m currently pursuing my PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, which I will soon complete. My PhD research focuses on developing machine-learning based models for systems with structural changes. This includes developing models for the estimation of driving behaviors/ intentions in various contexts for the improvement of driving assistance systems. The research also focuses on the estimation of battery degradation in different operating conditions. I will be starting as a Postdoctoral researcher at the Dynamics and Control group with the focus on cooperative automated driving and vehicle dynamics. The research will entail the application of control and machine learning approaches in various driving scenarios.
Name: Jarne van Gemert
Starting date: 15/4/2024
Function: PhD candidate
Email: j.j.h.v.gemert@tue.nl
Group: TUe/Control Systems group
Supervisor: Valentina Breschi, Mircea Lazar
Project: Water distribution networks (WDNs) provide drinking water all around the world. Although some countries like the Netherlands lose only 2% of their drinking water, other countries lose up to 45% due to leakages or unknown sources. To solve this problem, certain challenges must be addressed, such as unknown network structures, undetectable leakages, and locating leakages. While many theories in academia offer potential solutions, my project aims to connect and adapt these theoretical approaches to solve these challenges for WDNs. This research is carried out at the University of Technology in Eindhoven, in collaboration with Wetsus, the European centre of excellence for sustainable water technology in Leeuwarden.
I’m Jarne, and I’ve lived in Eindhoven for the past seven years. I started my my academic journey with a Bachelor’s in Mechatronics at Fontys Eindhoven. After that, I moved on to the University of Technology to do my pre-master and master’s in Systems and Control. For my master’s graduation project, I had the chance to work at the Control Systems group, and now I’m excited to continue my journey here as a PhD student.
Outside of academics, I’m an active member of the Hajraa student volleyball association. Currently I am part of the so called “burger team”, which consists of former students. When I’m not studying or playing volleyball, I love cooking, reading, and getting outdoors for some walking, running, or biking.
Name: Tim van Geel
Starting date: 6 June 2024
Function: PhD Candidate
Email: t.a.j.j.v.geel@tue.nl
Group: TUe/Control Systems Technology
Supervisor: Lennino Cacace
Project: SEMI-XOM
Hello, my name is Tim van Geel. I have recently started my PhD in the Design for Precision Engineering (DPE) section of the CST group. At the end of March I concluded my graduation project titled: “Novel algorithm and detector architecture for high-speed single-beam 3-degree of freedom interferometry” at the TU/e. During my PhD, I will work on the optomechatronic design of a sub-module for a dark-field Digital Holographic Microscope (df-DHM) for ASML. I am excited about this new challenge and looking forward to the coming years! In my spare time I like to golf and ride my motorcycle (if I am not fixing it), and tinker in my workshop. I am looking forward to meeting you all soon!
Name: Ramachandran Anantharaman
Starting date: 01-08-2024
Function: Post doc
Email: r.chittur.anantharaman@tue.nl
Group: TUe/Control Systems – EE
Supervisor: Leyla Özkan
Project: THIO
Hi, I’m Ramachandran, and I am excited to join TU/E as a Postdoc in Dr. Leyla Ozkan’s group on the THIO project. I will be working on modeling of fouling in heat exchanger networks. I completed my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, where I worked on nonlinear Boolean dynamics. Following that, I was a postdoc at the University of Namur in Belgium, working on identifying nonlinear networks through the Koopman operator framework. My research mainly revolves around developing data-driven models for analysis and control of nonlinear systems.
Name: Diego Fernández Zapico
Starting date: 01/09/2024
Function: PhD Student
Email: d.fernandez.zapico@tue.nl
Group: TUe/CST
Supervisor: Assistant Professor Mauro Salazar
Project: Optimal Congestion-aware Control and Design of Charging Energy Hubs
My name is Diego Fernández Zapico, I graduated with a bachelor of Industrial Engineering from Polytechnic University of Madrid and a master of Statistics and Data Science from KU Leuven. For my master thesis, I developed a controller based on Reinforcement Learning for a left ventricular assist device used in patients with heart failure. I also worked at Gnarum, a software company that develops forecasting tools for the Electricity sector. I will join the CST group in September to work on a project on Energy Hubs titled: Optimal Congestion-aware Control and Design of Charging Energy Hubs. The project is supervised by Professor Theo Hofman and Assistant Professor Mauro Salazar. I look forward to meeting you all and doing research within your group.
Delft University of Technology
Name: Amala Mary Vincent
Starting: 1 July 2024
Function: Post-doctoral researcher
Email: a.m.vincent@tudelft.nl
Group: TUD/DCSC, Bart de Schutter
Project: Seaclear 2.0
My name is Amala Mary Vincent, and I am from India. I recently joined the DCSC as a post-doctoral researcher, working on underwater object detection using meta-learning as part of the SeaClear 2.0 project led by Prof. Bart De Schutter. I completed my Ph.D. in Machine Learning from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India, where my research focused on hyperparameter optimization in image classification. My area of expertise includes data analytics and machine learning, with proficiency in Python, SQL, and various ML frameworks. My academic background also includes a master’s degree in computational mathematics and a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
On a personal note, I consider myself a positive soul who embraces new experiences with enthusiasm and a cheerful outlook. I enjoy going out with friends, playing board games and having movie nights. I also love taking long walks, which help me unwind and stay connected with nature.
Name: Tristan Crumpton
Starting: 15 July 2024
Function: PhD
Email: t.j.crumpton@tudelft.nl
Group: TUD/DCSC
Supervisor: Jan-Willem van Wingerden
Project: Wind turbine wake control
Alright troops, hows it going? I am Tristan. Originally from Scotland I have been working in Oxford as a research engineer with the Hypersonics research group mainly experimenting on the aerothermodynamics of spacecraft entry into planetary atmospheres. I obtained my MSc from the Open University in Space Science and Technology in collaboration with the University of Oxford by investigating the spectra of 7 km/s shock waves in Martian atmospheric conditions. I am an older PhD at 42, but my kids encouraged me to dedicate my time to research before they and I get too old and they inspired me to translate my knowledge and skills to a more real world application of aerodynamics that will benefit them in the future. Finding myself captivated by the aerodynamics and aeroelastic effects of wind turbines and wind farms I was fortunate to secure a PhD in wind turbine wake control with Prof. Van Wingerden.
When I am not playing with my 3 kids and our daft dog I love motorcycle racing and flying my kite. I used to love mountains, but I cant seem to find any around here!
Name: Maria de Neves de Fonseca
Starting: 15 July 2024
Function: PhD
Email: m.denevesdefonseca@tudelft.nl
Group: TUD/DCSC
Supervisor: Matin Jafarian
Project: energy-based control methods for brain interface devices
Hi everyone! My name is Maria and I will, hopefully, be part of the DCSC for the next 4
years. So exciting! I am Portuguese, 23 years old, and I have recently started my PhD in
energy-based control methods for brain interface devices under the supervision of
Matin Jafarian.
Before my PhD, I did the Systems and Control master program at TU Delft, from which I
graduated quite recently. Now that I have started my PhD, I am really looking forward to
see where this journey takes me!
In my free time, I enjoy doing more artsy activities like pottery or drawing, listening to
music, and playing video games. I find myself a very outgoing and quite an extrovert
person, but I also value a lot my alone time. I love traveling and visiting new places and
cultures.
With this, I hope to establish good and long-lasting connections during my PhD and to
leave my contribution to science!
Name: Charlotte Croucher
Starting: 1st August 2024
Function: Researcher
Email: c.s.croucher@tudelft.nl
Group: TUD/Cognitive Robotics, Georgios Papaioannou
Project: Researcher Exploration of VR-based methods for comfortable use in automated vehicles
Hello all, I just wanted to introduce myself briefly. My name is Charlotte Croucher, and I will be joining the department (Start date -1st August) as a researcher in the role of “Researcher Exploration of VR-based methods for comfortable use in automated vehicles” working with Georgios Papaioannou and the rest of the team. I’ve just submitted my PhD focused on Exploration in Virtual Reality, and my background is in Computer Games Technology.
Outside of work, I’m often either playing video or board games, listening to music or painting.
I’m really looking forward to joining the team! I can’t wait to get to know everyone, and I’m more than happy to grab a coffee at any time!
Name: Federico Scarì
Function: Researcher Engineer
Email: f.scari@tudelft.nl
Group: TUD/Cognitive Robotics, Dr. Chen Quan, and under the supervision of Dr. Arkady Zgonnikov and Dr. Nitin Myers.
Project: Human-in-the-loop system design for automated driving
Hello everyone, My name is Federico Scarì, and I am excited to join the CoR at TU Delft as a Researcher Engineer. My research will focus on human-in-the-loop system design for automated driving, where I aim to develop signal processing algorithms and interfaces to incorporate human driver in the sensing loop of automated driver assistance systems.
I will primarily be working with Dr. Chen Quan, under the supervision of Dr. Arkady Zgonnikov and Dr. Nitin Myers. I am eager to collaborate with such a distinguished group of researchers and contribute to our shared goals. I’m even more happy to join the CoR team since I already wrote my thesis at CoR and I will see many of you again.
Outside of work, I enjoy playing and watching sports, especially football, tennis and Formula 1.
Name: Roel Horeman
Function: PhD
Email: r.horeman@tudelft.nl
Group: TUD/Cognitive Robotics
Supervisor: David and Micah
Project: Position System and Control medical robotics
Dear colleagues,
Let me please introduce myself. I am joining the Cognitive Robotics group as a PhD student “Position System and Control medical robotics”. Originally receiving my degrees across the road at Applied Physics, I have worked the past years as a software engineer. Working my way into robotics, I left my last job with Fleet Robotics located at RoboHouse to join CoR for this amazing opportunity. My supervisors are David and Micah, but I look forward to working with all of you.
My main hobbies are skiing in the winter and surfing in the summer. Join me for a coffee and I’ll tell you the rest.
Name: Ahmad Gazar
Function: Postdoc researcher
Email: a.gazar@tudelft.nl
Group: TUD/Cognitive Robotics, Javier Alonso-Mora
Project: Risk-Aware Autonomous Navigation for adaptive motion planning of robotic systems under uncertainty
Ahmad got his PhD degree in stochastic predictive control for legged robots in December 2023 from the University of Tübingen, Germany. He was affiliated with the Max-Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, and the Machines in Motion laboratory at New York University. Currently, he is joining the Autonomous and Mobile Robots lab as a Postdoc researcher in the department of ME-CoR-LAC advised by Javier Alonso-Mora. His research will focus on Risk-Aware Autonomous Navigation for adaptive motion planning of robotic systems under uncertainty. Specifically, he is interested in studying the dual problem of prediction and planning using tools from optimal control, reinforcement learning and game-theory. In his free time, Ahmad enjoys reading, playing tennis and cooking.
Candidate: Tomas Meijer
Group: TUe/ME CST, group Heemels
Thesis: Estimation and Control, for Discrete-Time Parameter-Varying and Descriptor Systems
Promotor: prof.dr.ir. W.P.M.H. Heemels
Date: 14 June 2024
Location: TU/e, Atlas 0.710
Time: 13.30 hrs
Candidate: Leontine Aarnoudse
Groep: TUe/ME CST, group Oomen
Thesis: Data-driven randomized and non-lineair learning for control
Promotor: prof.dr.ir. W.A.E. Oomen
Date: 19 June 2024
Location: TU/e, Atlas 0.710
Time: 16.00 hrs
Candidate: Jeroen Verbakel
Groep: TUe/ME CST, group Etman
Thesis: Control of Dynamic Traffic Management Systems
Promotor: W.J. Fokkink
Date: 24 June 2024
Location: TU/e, Atlas 0.710
Time: 16.00 hrs
Candidate: Torbe Beernaert
Groep: TUe/ME CST, group Etman
Thesis: The Power of Integration
Promotor: dr.ir. M.R.D. Baar
Date: 8 July 2024
Location: TU/e, Atlas 0.710
Time: 16.00 hrs
Candidate: Max Bolderman
Group: TUe/Control Systems group
Thesis: Physics-Guided Neural Networks For High-PrecisionMechatronics; Applications to feedforward control and commutation
Promotor: Dr. Mircea Lazar
Date: 11 September 2024
Location: Atlas 0.710 TU/e
Time: 13.30 hrs
Candidate: Paul Tacx
Group: TUe/ME CST, group Oomen
Thesis: Identification and Control of Overactuated Mechatronic Systems
Promotor: prof.dr.ir. T.A.E. Oomen
Date: 18 September 2024
Location: TU/e, Atlas 0.710
Time: 16.00 hrs
Candidate: Amey Vasulkar
Group: TU Delft, Mathematical Physics
Thesis: Arctic Sea Ice in Tide Models
Promotor: Prof.dr.ir. M. Verlaan en Prof.dr.ing. R. Klees
Date: 19 September 2024
Location: Senaatszaal, Aula TU Delft.
Time: 12.30 hrs
Candidate: Nick Paape
Groep: TUe/ME CST, group Reniers
Thesis: Design space exploration of meat processing systems
Promotor: dr.ir. M.A. Reniers
Date: 1st October 2024
Location: TU/e, Atlas 0.710
Time: 16.00 hrs
Candidate: Koen Classens
Groep: TUe/ME CST, group Oomen
Thesis: Robust Fault Diagnosis for Control Systems – with Application to Precision Mechatronics
Promotor: prof.dr.ir. T.A.E. Oomen
Date: 4 October 2024
Location: TU/e, Atlas 0.710
Time: 13.30 hrs
Candidate: Yorick Broens
Group: TUe/Control Systems group
Thesis: Precision Control of Position Dependent Dynamics of Moving-Magnet Planar Actuators
Promotor: Prof.dr.ir. Roland Toth , 2nd promotor: Prof.dr.ir. Hans Butler
Date: 8 October 2024
Location: Atlas 0.710 TU/e
Time: 11.00 hr.
Candidate: Duo Xu
Group: TUe/Control Systems group
Thesis: Model predictive control of high-precision power amplifiers for nanometer positioning systems
Promotor: Dr. Mircea Lazar, 2nd promotor: Prof.dr. Siep Weiland
Date: 11 October 2024
Location: Atlas 0.710 TU/e
Time: 11.00 hr.
Candidate: Sven Nouwens
Groep: TUe/ME CST, group Heemels
Thesis: Estimation and Control for Magnetic Resonance-guided Hyperthermia Cancer therapies
Promotor: prof.dr.ir. W.P.M.H. Heemels
Date: 30 October 2024
Location: TU/e, Atlas 0.710
Time: 16.00 hrs
Candidate: Prasoon Garg
Groep: TUe/ME CST, group Willems
Thesis: Intelligent Data-driven Control Calibration for Automotive Powertrains
Promotor: F.P.T. Willems
Date: 6 November 2024
Location: TU/e, Atlas 0.710
Time: 16.00 hrs
Candidate: Koen Scheres
Groep: TUe/ME CST, group Heemels
Thesis: To send or not to send. Networked Communication and Control
Promotor: prof.dr.ir. W.P.M.H. Heemels
Date: 8 November 2024
Location: TU/e, Atlas 0.710
Time: 16.00 hrs
Candidate: ir. M.J. (Maarten) Jongeneel
Group: TUe/Robotics
Thesis: Impact-Aware Robotics: Model-Based Motion Prediction in Logistics Applications
Promotors: Dr.ir. A. Saccon, Prof.dr.ir. N. van de Wouw
Date: 12 November 2024
Location: TU/e Atlas 0.710
Time: 13.30 hrs
Candidate: Fabio Paparella
Groep: Groep: TUe/ME CST, group Hofman
Thesis: Electric Autonomous Mobility- on-demand: Models and Algorithms for Ride-pooling and Fleet Design
Promotor: dr.ir. T. Hofman
Date: 5 December 2024
Location: TU/e, Atlas 0.710
Time: 13.30 hrs
ERC Starting Grant for Cosimo Della Santina
(TU Delft/faculty Mechanical Engineering, Learning and Autonomous Control
Cosimo Della Santina has received an ERC Starting Grant to advance the intelligence of soft robots. His research will focus on having robots interacting with their environment via multiple complex large-area contacts, similar to how an elephant wraps its trunk around a branch.
Domain-Independent Dynamic Programming for Combinatorial Optimization
The CS Distinguished Seminar Series features an upcoming talk on dynamic programming and combinatorial optimization, which may be of interest to you given its relevance to our research.
Speaker: J. Christopher Beck (University of Toronto)
Title: Domain-Independent Dynamic Programming for Combinatorial Optimization
Time: 25 September 2024, 12:45-13:45
Place: Echo-ARENA
Link: https://www.tudelft.nl/ewi/over-de-faculteit/afdelingen/intelligent-systems/events/cs-dsl/christopher-beck
Dynamic Programming is a powerful problem solving approach developed primarily through problem-specific algorithms in Computer Science and Operations Research Domain-Independent Dynamic Programming (DIDP) is a novel a model-and-solve framework where problems are specified as dynamic programs in a declarative modeling language and then solved by a general-purpose solver. In this talk, I will introduce DIDP,show examples of problem modeling, discuss our heuristic search-based solver, and present numerical results showing strong performance compared to mixed integer programming and constraint programming on a variety of combinatorial optimization problems in area such as routing and scheduling.
Graduate School in Systems, Optimization, Control and Networks (SOCN) – Study Day
As member of the SOCN community, you are cordially invited to the SOCN Study Day that will take place in Louvain-la-Neuve on Tuesday 29 October 2024.
A preliminary program is available, featuring plenary talks by Masoud Ahookhosh (UAntwerp) and Fulvio Furni (University of Cambridge), as well as several activities such as poster presentations, reviews of influential papers, open problems, and short talks.
Please register as soon as possible, and by the end of this month at the latest. Registration is free but mandatory.
The next issue of this Newsletter will appear in October 2024.
We encourage everyone involved in Systems and Control 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: secr-DISC-ME@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 Secr-DISC-ME@tudelft.nl.
