System, Models, Control Home Page

Bart De Moor

ESAT
Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, bus 2446, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
office: B04.10
phone: +32 16 32 17 15
fax: 2 19 70

email: .@esat.kuleuven.be
www: Personal homepage

Research:

Teaching and Research

Scientific discipline: numerical linear algebra, dynamical systems theory and modelling, advanced control theory, datamining and bioinformatics
Courses: Computer Aided Control System Design and Dynamical Systems
Research group: currently promoter of ten PhD students and six postdocs
Past thesis advisor of seventy PhD students, all worldwide active in academia, industry, government agencies
Co-published more than 400 scientific papers and contributed to ten books
Coordinator of research projects, financed by regional, Belgian and European funding agencies, many of them with colleagues from other disciplines (micro-climate simulations, riverbasin control, industrial process control, bioinformatics, genomics, proteomics, oncology, gynaecology, intensive care (see www.bartdemoor.be for publications))
Regularly member of PhD jury’s in Belgium and abroad and invited speaker at international congresses
Scientific director of the Future Health Department of the Flanders Strategic Research Institute iMinds (software for genomics applications and clinical decision support systems)
Co-founder of KU Leuven SCORES and BioSCENTer
Co-founder of 6 ‘spin-off’ companies, 4 of which still active: IPCOS (industrial process control), TML (traffic modelling and consulting), D-square (datamining in the process industry), Cartagenia (genomics data analysis)
Co-holder of several patents

Current research team:

Laura Alonso Padula, Alexandre Arnould, Lola Botman, Pieter Caris, Yamini Chitale, Marc Claesen, Fernando Crema Garcia, Sarthak De, Femke De Backere, Jaldert François, Bram Geelen, Axel Geysels, Sibren Lagauw, Oliver Lauwers, Benoit Legat, Bart Motmans, Giulia Rinaldi, Zahrasadat Sajjadifar, Vincent Scheltjens, Konstantinos Theodorakos, Yoeri Uyttendaele, Hans Van Rooij, Thomas Vanhemel, Lukas Vanpoucke, Nico Verbeeck, Christof Vermeersch, Sem Viroux, Lyse Naomi Wamba Momo, Wanqiu Zhang

Biography:

Positions

2000-now: Full Professor, Dept. Electrical Engineering, KU Leuven, Belgium
2016-now: Guest Professor, Dept. Information Engineering & Mathematics, Universita Di Siena, Italy
2010-2015: Scientific Director Department Medical IT, Strategic Research Center iMinds, Flanders
2009-2013: Vice-rector International Policy, KU Leuven
2007-2009: Head Socio-Economical Cabinet, Minister-President Flanders Region (Y. Leterme)
1994-1999: Main Science Advisor, Minister-President Flanders Region (L. Van den Brande)
1992: Visiting Research Associate, University of Minneapolis, USA
1991-1992: Head of Cabinet, Federal Minister of Science Policy (W. Demeester), Brussels
1990-1999: Senior Research Associate, Scientific Research Foundation (FWO), Flanders
1988-1990: Research Associate at Stanford University (depts. Electrical Engineering (Thomas Kailath) and Computer Science (Gene Golub))
1983-1988: PhD Grant IWONL (Institute for Scientific Research in Industry and Agriculture)

Fellowships, Awards, Honors

2020: Commander in the Order of King Leopold I, granted by King Filip of Belgium
2020: ERC Advanced Grant ‘Back to the roots’
2018-now: Co-holder KU Leuven Chair ‘Health Care Systems Quality and Accessibility’, endowed by Health Insurance Organisation CM
2017: Fellow SIAM for ‘Contributions to numerical multilinear algebra’
2010: Excellence Award of the Flanders Research Foundation, by King Albert II of Belgium
2003: Fellow IEEE for ‘Contributions to algebraic/numerical methods for systems and control’
1999: IEEE Signal Processing Society Award
1996: Automatica Award, International Federation of Control (IFAC)
1994: Bi-annual Siemens Award by the Flanders Research Foundation
1992: Laureate of the Royal Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts
1990: Guillemin-Cauer Award IEEE Transactions Circuits and Systems
1989: Leslie Fox Prize, Cambridge, UK
1986: Leybold-Heraeus Prize

Research Activities

Scientific Disciplines:

Numerical (multi-) linear algebra and algebraic geometry (generalized singular value decompositions, multi-dimensional SVD, generalized linear complementarity problems, quantum information theory, numerical linear algebra approach to rooting sets of polynomial equations)
Dynamical System Theory and Identification, data science, machine learning (subspace identification, support vector machines)
Advanced Control Theory (observers, computer aided control system design)

Application Areas:

Industry 4.0: Subspace system identification and control of the synthesis section of a Urea plant, of the dipping section of a capsule manufacturing process, data driven identification of several Belgian river basins (flood avoidance), forecasting models for indoor CO2 concentration, modelling (prevention of) flutter for airplane wings, model-based data assimilation for microclimate air-quality forecasting, smart grid Belgian electrical load forecasting (3000 transformers, sampled every 15 min during 5 years)
Medical decision support systems (DSS): Belgian health insurance prescription records analysis, automation of intensive care DSS, algorithms for automated PCR analysis, hospital prediction of duration stay software

Publications: Books, papers, other

See www.bartdemoor.be
Search engine on https://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~sistawww/cgi-bin/pub.pl
Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=qws2WIMAAAAJ

Bibliometry

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=qws2WIMAAAAJ: 86 675 citations; H-index 124;
Web of Science: H-index 72; Total cited: 21 482 (without self-citation: 20 904)
Ranked 15th all-time top PhD advisors in mathematics (https://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/extrema.php)
Ranked 76th worldwide and ranked 1st for Belgium in top H-index for Computer Science and Electronics (http://www.guide2research.com/scientists/)

Mentorship:

1991-now: Promotor of 82 PhD theses (see Mathematical Genealogy), all worldwide active in academia (30%), industry (60%), government agencies (10%)
1991-now: Host to 46 postdoctoral researchers and visiting professors
1991-now: Promotor of 200+ master theses in masters mathematical engineering, statistics, artificial intelligence, bioengineering, electrical engineering

Coordinator of and contributor to numerous research projects, funded by regional, Belgian and European funding agencies and third parties (full list www.bartdemoor.be)

Reviews:

Regular reviewer for journals of IEEE, SIAM, IFAC and their major conferences, regular proposal reviewer for Belgian and European Funding Agencies and jury member

Science Outreach

2019: Co-founder of Math popularizing website
2016-now: patron of STEM Training Website
2015-now: Founder & Chairman Board of Health House (high-tech health experience center)
2015-2017: Member of the Flanders STEM Platform
2009-now: Patron STEM Olympiad
2009-now: Trustee of the RVO-Society
2005 & 2015: Teacher KU Leuven Children’s University
2002-now: Regular guest appearances in science outreach programs on national radio and television
1992-now: Co-founder interdisciplinary philosophical think-tank Worldviews

Organisation of Scientific meetings

1997: Program Chairman of European Control Conference, Brussels, 750 attendees, 2004
2004: Chair of the Conference of Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems, Leuven, 600 attendees
2019: Organizer of the Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, Houthalen, 150 attendees,
At numerous occasions: Member of the organizing/program committees of the Conference on System Identification (SYSID), European Control Conference (ECC), Benelux meeting on Systems and Control, …

Technology Transfer

My contribution to our university KU Leuven being ranked 7th in the Thomson-Reuters ranking of most innovative universities in the world (1st in Europe), has been the creation of 10 spinoff/start-up companies:

www.ipcos.com (industrial process control, management buy-out)
www.tmleuven.be (traffic modelling and consulting)
Data4s (fraud detection (mobile phones, credit cards, tax evasion), acquired by Norkom next by BAE Systems
Silicos (drug discovery, closed-down)
www.trendminer.com (data mining in the process industry, acquired by Software AG)
Cartagenia (genomics data analysis, acquired by Agilent)
www.ugentec.com (automated PCR analysis)
www.lindacare.com (patient tele-monitoring)
https://www.aspect-analytics.com (software for mass spectrometry imaging).
https://www.timeseer.ai (monitoring time series in the process industry)

Patents: Co-holder of several patents

Member of the Advisory Committee of the Capricorn Health-tech Investment Fund

Institutional Responsibilities

2021-present: Member of the Board of ‘Ignatius in Beweging’ (Jesuit School Network)
2020-present: Chairman of the Board of Capricorn Digital Growth Fund (CDGF, venture capital)
2019-present: Member of the Board of UCSIA (Jesuit Academic Foundation)
2017-present: Founding Chairman of Health House (high-tech health experience center)
2015-present: Member Steering Group Leuven Mindgate
2014-present: Member of the Board of Officenter
2009-present: Chairman Alamire Foundation (Center for the Study of Polyphonic Music)
2009-2014: Founding Board member Leuven International School
2009-2013: Chairman Committee Internationalisation & Development Cooperation Flemish University Council
2009-2013: Member of the Board KU Leuven
2007-2015: Chairman Industrial Research Fund KU Leuven
2007-2011: Board member iMinds (merged since 2017 with imec)
2007-2015: Chairman Board Hercules Foundation (scientific infrastructure funding agency, merged in 2015 with FWO)
2000-2005: Board member Belgian Nuclear Research Center, Belgium
1999-now: Secretary Board (till 2015), Member Scientific Committee of Technopolis (Flanders Children’s Science Experience Center)
1995-now: Member Board, remuneration, investment, strategic committees: Flanders Biotech Research Institute

Commission of Trust

2018-present: Scientific architect and coordinator of Flanders AI Program (32 mio €/year), involving universities, research institutes and industry
2020-present: Chairman of the Board of FAIA (Flanders AI Academy)
2018-present: Member ESGAB (European Statistical Governance Advisory Board, nominated by the European Council decision 18/12/2017 (2017/C 439/03))
2017-2018: ‘Sherpa’ for Belgium in the European High Performance Computing Initiative
2016-2018: Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Science Europe
2016-present: Member Int. Scientific Advisory Board of Wallenberg Autonomous Systems Program, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
2014-present: Member Board AstraZeneca Foundation
2013-present: Member Board Trustees Danish National Research Foundation

Assessments:

2021: Member of the assessment committee of KTH, Stockholm
2020-2021: Chairman of the assessment committee of the Electrical Engineering Institute Nicola Tesla
2015-2019: Chairman University Research Policy Assessment Committee, Finish Academy of Sciences
2016-2019: Member committee of the Villum Young Investigator Grants of the Velux Foundation, Denmark
2015-present: Member of committees in the Swedish, Norwegian, Irish and Luxembourg Science/Research Councils
2013-2020: Member Panel Starters Grant Computer Sciences European Research Council
2013-2014: Member National Tenure Track Commission for Control and Automation in Italy
2010-2012: Chairman of the Education Assessment Panel (for NVAO) as well as the Research Assessment Panel of Electrical Engineering University Departments in The Netherlands
2006-2008: Selection Committees member for Linnaeus Centers of Excellence (Sweden) and UNIK (Denmark)

Memberships of Societies

Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers
Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Member of the American Mathematic Society
Member of the International Federation of Automatic Control
Elected member Royal Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts
Member of VIRA (Organisation of Belgian diplomates and international representatives)
Member of ie-net (Flanders Engineering Association)
Member of ‘Academische Stichting Leuven’

Active Projects:

Publications

View the publications list of B. De Moor.

Awards:

Best Paper Award at the IEEE International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Health - 2023
IFAC Fellow Award
For contributions to numerical multi-linear algebra, systems theory and systems identification, with applications in process control and bioinformatics
Fellow SIAM (2017)
Excellentieprijs FWO
Dagkrant
Promotor for an honorary degree awarded to Prof. Dr. Lennart Ljung
IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award
IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award (1999) (joint with Johan Suykens, Joos Vandewalle), awarded at the 25th IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, June 2000, Istanbul, Turkey http://icassp2000.sdsu.edu for the paper: NLq theory: checking and imposing stability of recurrent neural networks for nonlinear modelling, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (special issue on neural networks for signal processing), Vol.45, No.11, pp. 2682-2691, Nov. 1997.
Tri-annual best paper award of Automatica
Tri-annual best paper award of Automatica (1996), a journal of the International Federation of Automatic Control (joint with Peter Van Overschee) for the paper: Subspace algorithms for the identification of combined deterministic-stochastic systems, Automatica 30 (1), pp.75-94, January 1994; The award citation reads: With deep insight, this paper develops a most useful and efficient method for multivariable system identification. The presentation covers numerical, statistical and implementation issues, and has had an immediate impact on best practice in identification applications. Published in Automatica
Bi-annual Siemens prize
Bi-annual Siemens prize (1994), joint with Peter Van Overschee, for the paper: Graphical User Interface Software for System Identification (Available as ESAT/SISTA TR 1994-06, Department of Electrical Engineering, Katholieke Universiteite Leuven, Belgium, awarded at a Prize Ceremony, October 17 1994, NFWO/FNRS, Brussels
Promotor for an honorary degree awarded to Prof. Dr. Gene Golub
Promotor for an honorary degree awarded to Prof. Dr. Gene Golub, Stanford University, at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, December 1992
Laureate of the Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences
Laureate of the Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences (1992), first prize, with the paper: Numerical Algorithms for State Space Subspace System Identification, Published in Academia Analecta, Klasse der Wetenschappen, Koninklijke Akademie voor Wetenschappen, Jaargang 55, nr.5, 1993
Guillemin-Cauer Best Paper Award
Guillemin-Cauer Best Paper Award (1990) of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, joint with Lieven Vandenberghe en Joos Vandewalle for the paper:The Generalized Linear Complementarity Problem Applied to the Complete Analysis of Resistive Piecewise Linear Circuits. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, November 1989, Volume 36, Number 11, pp.1382-1391
The Leslie Fox Prize
The Leslie Fox Prize (1989), first prize, (17 international candidates, 7 finalists) for the paper presentation: The restricted singular value decomposition: Properties and applications. Cambridge University, England, September 5, 1989; Published as: De Moor B., Golub G.H. The restricted singular value decomposition: properties and applications. Siam Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications, Vol.12, no.3, July 1991, pp.401-425.
Leybold-Heraeus Prize
Leybold-Heraeus Prize (1986) for a report on the 1986 position of Belgium in comparison with Japan and the United States with respect to scientific research and technological innovation

Editorship:

Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
Journal A (Systems and Control Journal for Benelux branch of IFAC)
Systems and Control Letters
Applied and Computational Control, Signals and Circuits
The Journal of the Franklin Institute
'Onze Alma Mater'

Membership:

2020 Laureate of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts (KVAB) in the Class of Technical Sciences
Ondervoorzitter Algemene Vergadering Flamenco
Voorzitter Industriel Onderzoeksfonds
Voorzitter Herculesstichting
Raad van Bestuur : Alamire Stichting, VIB, VCBT, Center Leo Apostel
Bestuurslid : Worldviews, EUCA, BIRA, VILv, ERCIM
Lid : VRT Adviescommise O&I, KVAB (klasse technische wetenschappen), Roger Van Overstraeten Society, Vlaanderen in Actie (Coördinatie comité), Club of Rome, Center Leo Apostel, CAWET, IFAC, IEEE technical Committee on Robust Control, The American-Europea
Jury Member : Abilitazione Commission Italy (2013), Chairman Onderzoeksvisitatie Nederland, Member International Committee of Danish Centers of Excellence
Peterschap : Vlaamse Technologie Olympiade en Vlaamse Jeugd Technologie Olympiade
Scientific advisory committee of Technopolis, the Flemish Children Science and Technology Center (www.technopolis.be)
Research Policy Council of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Honours:

Order of Leopold I
Bart De Moor honoured as Commander in the Order of Leopold I by King Filip

The order of Leopold I is the oldest and highest order of Belgium and rewards meritorious services to the Kingdom of Belgium based on the career path of the recipient.
ERC Advanced Grant