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DYSCO I - Dynamical systems, control and optimization

From 01-01-2007 to 31-03-2012
Website: http://www.inma.ucl.ac.be/DYSCO/

Description

The proposed network is a continuation of an existing IAP network (IAP V/22) which has taken as objective to structure and coordinate the research and the graduate training in « systems and control » (in a very broad sense) in Belgium. In the new network, we shall therefore continue to pursue a double objective:
•    produce research results that are at the forefront of international research in our areas of excellence within the discipline of “systems and control”
•    provide the best possible environment for the training of our PhD students and post-docs.

One of the features of the “systems and control” discipline is that it is an interdisciplinary research area with some specific features and methodologies of its own. The systems approach and the ever-present notion of feedback are two such features. Over the last decade, the progress accomplished by the “systems and control” community in solving many of the core problems of systems and control theory (nonlinear dynamics, modelling, identification, model-predictive control, robust control, optimal control, etc) has led to a spectacular expansion of the tools of our discipline into an ever growing number of other disciplines: environmental systems, communication systems, robotics, networks, graph theory, computer science, biological and bio-chemical systems, biomedical engineering, etc. Each of these fields comes with its own models and hence its own theoretical problems, towards the solution of which systems and control can provide important contributions. In fact, systems and control has become nowadays the single unifying discipline that allows engineers and other scientists to understand the application fields we have mentioned in terms of dynamical systems. However, to achieve significant results in any one of these disciplines requires an in-depth study of their specific models and methods and extensive interactions with the experts of these fields.

The size of our network (about 200 researchers in IAP V/22, about 220 in the proposed network), the presence of several of the leaders of our field including a strong team of internationally renowned experts in applied mathematics, and our specific ways of collaboration allow us to make significant contributions not only in our core discipline of systems and control (including modelling, identification, computation and optimization) but also in several of these neighbouring disciplines in which we have created a critical mass of competent researchers (biological and bio-chemical systems, networks and graphs, traffic systems, biomedical systems, etc).

We plan to use the collaborative tools of our network, and the distinguishing presence in our network of top level applied mathematicians (a feature noted by the evaluation panel) to

-    pursue fundamental research in the core disciplines of systems and control in which we have leading expertise: optimization, numerical solutions of systems and control problems, modelling and identification, networks of nonlinear systems, distributed parameter systems.

-    create or develop critical mass of collaborative experts in several disciplines in which systems and control tools can provide significant contributions: chemical and bio-chemical systems, networks and graphs, traffic and transportation problems, motion and coordination problems, biological systems, biomedical engineering.

On the training side, we plan to continue and strengthen the mechanisms for scientific collaboration and for postgraduate training that we have successfully developed in the previous IAP phases: graduate school in systems and control (which we started in 1991, well before the creation of other graduate schools in Belgium), regular study days, specialized workshops, co-supervision of PhD students by members from different teams, invitation of high level international visitors, focused research groups across teams. The basic goal here is to create a most exciting scientific environment for our PhD students and post-docs.