E-LETTER on Systems, Control, and Signal Processing ISSUE No. 39, 7 March 1991 Editors: Bradley W. Dickinson bradley@princeton.edu or bradley@pucc.bitnet Eduardo D. Sontag sontag@hilbert.rutgers.edu or sontag@pisces.bitnet Welcome. We remind you that items for posting can be emailed to either of the editors. PLEASE SEND CONTRIBUTIONS, since the eletter can only be useful if everyone participates. A REQUEST: It would be useful if articles are already sent in the format that we use, starting with a "Contributed by:..." and a title centered in the next line. In addition, please provide a 60-character title for the Contents. Thanks! NOTE: if you are using an editor to read this mailing and if at any point you wish to skip to the next article, you can accomplish this by searching for the string: *.** Contents Changes to mailing list Personals: People on the move Awards and Recognitions Journals: MCSS, vol. 4, no. 3 (1991) Conferences: Neural Networks for Ocean Engineering (papers due April 1) Aug 15-17, 1991, Washington, DC 7th MDSP Workshop (abstracts due March 15) Sept 23-25, 1991, Lake Placid NY Intelligent Control & Instrumentation, Singapore, Feb18-21,1992 World Congr.Nonlinear Analysts, Melbourne, FL, Aug 19-26, 1992 New Directions in Computing: Analytic, Intelligent & Database Computing, Univ.of Illinois at Chicago, April 7 and 8, 1991 MTNS Preconference, Hangzhou, China, June 1991 Positions Available: Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne Grad Assts, Automation and Robotics Research, UT/Arlington Reports: Recent SYCON (Rutgers Center for Systems and Control) Reports *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** Contributed by the Editors: Changes/Additions to mailing list. Changes and Updates: ------------------- cooley@orca.ele.uri.edu (Jim Cooley, Univ. of Rhode Island, Kingston) issccc@nusvm.bitnet (Chung-Chih Chen, National Univ. of Singapore) miyaji@homxb.att.com (Wendell Miyaji, AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ) gersho@abacus.ucsb.edu (Allen Gersho, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) pam@ece.arizona.edu (Pamela Nielsen, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson) therrien@ece.nps.navy.mil (Charles W. Therrien, Naval Postgraduate School) seborg@engrhub.ucsb.edu (Dale Seborg, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) perry@eesun4.ecen.okstate.edu (Matt Perry, Oklahoma State Univ, Stillwater) albertv@btvvmofs.iinus1.ibm.com (A.V. Ferris-Prabhu, IBM, Essex Junction, VT) rotea@gus.ecn.purdue.edu (Mario Rotea, Purdue Univ., W. Lafayette, IN) flewis@arrirs03.uta.edu (Frank Lewis, Univ. of Texas, Arlington) Additions: --------- francois@eedsp.gatech.edu (Francois J. Malassenet, Georgia Tech, Atlanta) LAKSHMANAN@ecs.umass.edu (Sridhar Lakshmanan, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst) marcg@rascals.stanford.edu (Marc Goldburg, Stanford Univ.) lane@phoenix.princeton.edu (Steve Lane, Princeton Univ.) iouditsk@irisa.fr (Anatolij Juditsky, IRISA/INRIA, Rennes, France) modiano@cspl8.src.umd.edu (Eytan Modiano, Univ. of Maryland, College Park) moskowit@itd.nrl.navy.mil (Ira Moskowitz, Naval Research Lab., Washington) jeffhorn@uiuc.edu (Jeffrey Horn, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) pjf%vaxua@relay.eu.net (Paulo Jorge S.G. Ferreira, Univ. de Aveiro, Portugal) pjf@inesca.pt (Paulo Jorge S.G. Ferreira, Univ. de Aveiro, Portugal) witaksz@dutinfh.tudelft.nl (Krzysztof Szajowski, Delft U. of Tech. until 7/91) szajow@plwrtu11.bitnet (Krzysztof Szajowski, Tech. Univ. Wroclaw, Poland) dhw@tweety.lanl.gov (David Wolpert, Los Alamos National Lab., New Mexico) loureiro@cs.ubc.ca (Antonio A.F. Loureiro, Univ. of British Columbia, Canada) zzvonar@lynx.northeastern.edu (Zoran Zvonar, Northeastern Univ., Boston) fuchs@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Andreas Fuchs, Clarkson Univ., Potsdam, NY) alex@hot.caltech.edu (Alex Ip, Caltech) heij@hroeur5.bitnet (Christiaan Heij, Econometric Inst. Rotterdam, Netherlands) kaufman@ecse.rpi.edu (Howard Kaufman, Rennselaer Polytechnic Inst.) schwarzs@hilbert.rutgers.edu (Renee Schwarzschild, Rutgers Univ.) FLIESS@frese51.bitnet (Michel Fliess, ESE/CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France) cbs@rice.edu (Cheryl B. Schrader, Rice Univ.) torkel@isy.liu.se (Torkel Glad, Linkoping Univ., Sweden) mahmut@caen.engin.umich.edu (Mahmut Reyhanoglu, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor) kasinski@f6.n480.z2.fidonet.org (Andrzej Kasinski, Poznan Univ., Poland) kmp@arrinext.uta.edu (K. M. Przyluski, Univ. of Texas, Arlington) mukherr@odin.control.utoronto.ca (Raja Mukherji, Univ. of Toronto) *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** Contributed by the Editors -- PERSONALS ********** PEOPLE ON THE MOVE ************ Jim Cooley has joined the faculty of the University of Rhode Island. James W. Cooley Room 105A, Kelly Annex, Department of Electrical Engineering University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, 02881 Tel: (401) 792-5597 email: cooley@orca.ele.uri.edu New address for Mario A. Rotea School of Aeronautics and Astronautics Purdue University West Lafayette, IN 47907 Tel (313) 494-6212 Fax (313) 494-0307 email: rotea@gus.ecn.purdue.edu ********** PEOPLE GOING UP ************ ********** AWARDS AND RECOGNITION ************ Contributed by Gene Golub Congratulations to Prof J-L Lions who has been selected as the Laureate of the 1991 Japan Prize in the category of Applied Mathematics. He will be presented the prize in Tokyo on April 25 in the presence of the Emperor and Empress. ******* send us more information for the gossip column!!! ******* *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** Contributed by the editors MCSS Advance Table of Contents, Vol. 4, No. 3, 1991 Rational Approximation of a Class of Infinite Dimensional Systems II: Optimal Convergence Rates of L_infinity Approximants K. Glover, J. Lam, J.R. Partington The Stability Robustness Determination of State Space Models with Real Unstructured Perturbations L. Qiu and E.J. Davison Aproximations for Discrete-Time Adaptive Control: Construction of epsilon-Optimal Controls W.J. Runggaldier and O. Zane A Local Feedback-Synthesis of Time-Optimal Stabilizing Controls in Dimension Three H. Schattler An Efficient Algorithm for Checking the Robust Stability of a Polytope of Polynomials A. Sideris REMINDER: The cumulative Table of Contents for MCSS can be obtained from sontag@hilbert.rutgers.edu by e-mail. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** Contributed by Rui J.P. deFigueiredo CONFERENCE ON NEURAL NETWORKS FOR OCEAN ENGINEERING WASHINGTON D.C. AUGUST 15-17, 1991 The Conference on Neural Networks for Ocean Engineering, (CNNOE), is sponsored by the IEEE Ocean Engineering Society in cooperation with the IEEE Neural Networks Council. Neural networks are having a very large impact on several aspects of the ocean engineering environment in areas such as passive transient sonar signal classification, low-frequency active acoustic sonar signal processing, ocean surveillance, adaptive beamforming, underwater acoustic communication, and many more. This conference will, for the first time, bring the international community together in one meeting to discuss these significant advances. Organizing Committee Honorary Chair: Barbara L. Yoon, DARPA General Chair: Rui J.P. deFigueiredo, UC Irvine Co-Chair: Ferial El-Hawary, Tech. Univ. of Nova Scotia Program Chair: Patrick K. Simpson, General Dynamics Electronics Finance: Gordon Raisbeck, Ocean Engineering Consultant Program Committee Chair: Patrick K. Simpson Committee: Daniel Alspach, Rui J.P. deFigueiredo, James Stark Draper, Robert L. Field, Filson Glanz, Lloyd Griffiths, Alain Lemer, Stephen A. Luse, Thomas McKenna, Patrick Moore, Paul Patrick, Michael Rousseau, Dov Shazeer, Leon Sibul, James C. Solinsky, Donald F. Specht, Charles E. Stuart, Terry Thompson, Bernard Widrow GENERAL INFORMATION Conference Setting The Conference on Neural Networks for Ocean Engineering will be held August 15-17, 1991, at the Loews L'enfant Plaza, in Washington, D.C. Further information regarding room reservations will be published in a later brochure. Registration Fees A discount is allowed to all current IEEE members. Member I.D. Number is required. This discount does not apply to tutorials. IEEE Member Registration Fees: Before May 1, 1991 $135 Before July 1, 1991 $185 Before August 9, 1991 $240 Student $ 60 Non-Member Registration Fees: Before May 1, 1991 $190 Before July 1, 1991 $245 Before August 9, 1991 $300 Student $120 Tutorial Registration Fees Only registered conference participants may register for the tutorials. One Tutorial .................. $150 Two Tutorials ................. $250 Further Information For further information, call or write: Meeting Management 5665 Oberlin Drive, Suite 110 San Diego, CA 92121 Telephone: (619) 453-6222 FAX: (619) 535-3880 SCHEDULE Thursday, August 15,1991 8:00am-5:00pm Tutorials 7:00pm-9:00pm Plenary Session Opening Remarks: Bernard Widrow, Stanford University Industry Perspectives: Daniel Alspach, President Orincon Corporation Government Perspectives: Rear Admiral William C.Miller Chief of Naval Research United States Navy __________________________________________________________________________ Friday, August 16, 1991 8:00am-5:00pm Parallel Sessions Passive Sonar Signal Processing Chairs: Tom Mckenna, ONR James C. Solinsky, SAIC Ocean Monitoring and Modeling Chairs: Lloyd Griffiths, USC Robert L. Field, NOARL Active Sonar Signal Processing Chairs: Donald F. Specht, Lockheed Charles E. Stuart, DARPA Fisheries and Oil Applications Chairs: Paul Patrick Ontario Hydro Research 7:00pm-9:00pm Plenary Session Panel Session: Neural Networks for Ocean Applications Chair: Rui J.P. deFigueiredo, UC Irvine _____________________________________________________________________________ Saturday, August 17, 1991 8:00am-5:00pm Parallel Sessions AUV and ROV Applications Chairs: James Stark Draper, KTDAAN Filson Glanz, UNH Underseas Communication Chairs: Michael Rousseau, NUSC Leon Sibul, Penn State ARL Bioacoustics Chairs: Patrick Moore, NOSC Terry Thompson, Orincon Corporation Underwater Image Processing Chairs: Alain Lemer, Thomson Sintra ASM Dov Shazeer, Draper Lab CALL FOR PAPERS Members of the ocean engineering and neural network communities are cordially invited to submit papers for consideration to this exciting conference. Only accepted papers will be published in the IEEE OES Neural Networks for Ocean Engineering Proceedings, expected to be available at the conference for distribution to all conference registrants. Send papers to: CNNOE Meeting Management 5665 Oberlin Drive, Suite 110 San Diego, CA 92121 Phone: (619) 453-6222 FAX: (619) 535-3880 The Program will include technical sessions on: * Passive Sonar Signal Processing * Active Sonar Signal Processing * Ocean Monitoring and Modeling * Bioacoustics * Fisheries and Oil Industry Applications * AUV and ROV Applications * Underseas Communication * Underwater Image Processing PAPERS MUST BE RECEIVED BY APRIL 1, 1991. Papers received after April 1, 1991 will be returned unopened. International authors should submit their work via Air Mail or express courier so as to ensure timely arrival. All submissions will be acknowledged by mail, and accepted papers will be published as submitted. Five (5) copies of the paper are required (one original and four copies), and the paper must be completed within 8 pages, including figures, tables and references. There will be a charge of $50 per page for papers exceeding 8 pages. Papers must be submitted camera-ready on 8 1/2 x 11 inch white paper with 1 inch margins on all four sides. They should be prepared by typewriter or letter-quality printer in one column format, single spaced in Times or similar type style, 10 points or larger, and printed on one side of the paper only. All text, figures, captions and references must be clean, sharp, readable, and high contrast. FAX submissions are not acceptable. Centered at the top of the first page should be the complete title, author name(s), affiliation(s) and mailing address(es), followed by the abstract. In an accompanying letter, include the following: 1) full title of the paper; 2) name of corresponding author with mailing address and telephone and FAX numbers; 3) your choice of ONE technical session from the above list. CALL FOR TUTORIALS * This conference will include a day of tutorials. The Program Chair is seeking qualified instructors who can present clear, highly understandable, and succinct tutorials that are approximately four hours in length. * Send tutorial proposals to: Patrick K. Simpson, Program Chair Conference on Neural Networks for Ocean Engineering General Dynamics Electronics Division Mail Zone 7202-K 5011 Kearny Villa Road; Bldg. 70 San Diego, CA 92186-5310 Tutorials are being sought for all aspects of neural networks and ocean engineering, especially in the following areas: * Introduction to Neural Networks * Neural Networks for Signal Processing * Neural Networks for Image Processing * Neural Networks for Communication * Neural Networks for Control * Neural Networks for System Modeling * Animal Sonar Systems and Neural Networks TUTORIAL PROPOSALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY MARCH 1, 1991. Tutorial proposals received after March 1, 1991 will be returned unopened. Tutorial presenters will be offered a modest honorarium, but they will not receive travel expenses. Any overlap between tutorial materials and conference paper presentations is strongly discouraged and will receive minimal consideration. Tutorials in areas that are applicable to the workshop but not mentioned in the above list are also requested. All tutorial instructors will be required to produce typeset camera-ready viewgraphs 60 days prior to the meeting. Tutorial materials should be fresh, original, clean, sharp, readable, and of high contrast. Handwritten materials will not be allowed. Interested individuals must submit a 500-word tutorial abstract and a 200-word biography of the presenter(s), an outline for a four-hour tutorial, a curriculum vitae, and any supporting material considered to be useful to the evaluation process. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** Contributed by Faramarz Azadegan Seventh Multidimensional Signal Processing Workshop September 23-25, 1991, Lake Placid, NY The objective of the workshop is to provide a forum for the discussion of new theoretical developments in multidimensional signal processing and applications to real-world problems. The workshop will consist of plenary sessions giving an overview of important research areas and parallel poster sessions where each participant will make a presentation and participate in the discussions. A preliminary list of topics is: > The Theory of Multidimensional (M-D) Signals and Systems > Signal Processing for Advanced TV Applications > Image and Video Coding > Image Sequence Processing and Motion Estimation > Psychovisual Aspects of Image Processing and Display > Image Enhancement and Restoration > Multirate/Multiresolution Image Processing > Parallel Algorithms and Architectures for Image Processing > Signal Processing Aspects of Image Analysis and Computer Vision > Applications of Image Reconstruction and Processing in Medicine and Remote Sensing including Radar, Sonar, Geophysics, and Astronomy > M-D Spectral Analysis including Higher-Order Spectral Techniques > Sensor Array Processing The workshop will be held at Whiteface Inn located in a secluded, rustic setting on the shore of Lake Placid just outside the Village of Lake Placid. The resort has sport facilities for golf, tennis, and boating. The area is famous for its view of the fall foliage. The attendance at the Workshop will be both by invitation and application. In order to preserve the informal nature of the Workshop, attendance will be limited and preference will be given to active participants. The deadlines are: Abstract due date ............................... March 15, 1991 Notification of acceptance ...................... April 15, 1991 *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** Contributed by: Mansour Eslami C A L L F O R P A P E R S SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT CONTROL AND INSTRUMENTATION _________________________________ Hilton International Singapore Feb 18 - 21, 1992 The conference is organised by the IEEE Singapore Section, Control Chapter and co-sponsored by the Computer Chapter, Industrial Electronics Chapter and the Instrumentation and Control Society, Singapore (National Member Organisation of IFAC). The Conference will be concerned with the state-of-the-art in design, theory and application of Intelligent Control and Instrumentation in Robotics, Automation, Control, Manufacturing and related fields. Topics includes, but are not limited to: * Adaptive Control * Neural Network in Control * Robust Control * Intelligent Process Planning * Robotics * Distributed Control Systems * Real-Time Systems * Fault Diagnostics and Detection * Intelligent Control * Intelligent Instrumentation * Discrete Event Control * Communications in Control * System Identification * CAD * Optimal Control * Large Scale Systems * Expert Systems * Motion Control INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE K. J. Astrom Sweden F. Harashima Japan Y. C. Ho USA L. Gerhardt USA T. Fukuda Japan H. Kimura Japan G. A. Bekey USA N. H. McClamroch USA G. B. Andeen USA I. Postlethwaite UK M. G. Rodd UK M. H. Rashid USA A. C. Sanderson USA Y. Sunahara Japan M. Vidyasagar India M. Mansour Switzerland Brian Lee Singapore C. C. Hang Singapore M. Tomizuka USA James C. Hung USA S. Yamamoto Japan B. H. Krogh USA B. K. Bose USA G. C. Goodwin Australia Joseph Chen Singapore P. C. Sen Canada H. A. El-Maraghy Canada Tony Woo USA S. Sankaran Australia K. W. Lim Australia Authors are invited to submit 4 copies of 800-words abstracts of the papers headed by the title, author's name(s), address(es), telephone, facsimile and telex numbers to: Prof C. C. Hang Technical Programme Chairman SICICI '92 IEEE Singapore Section 200 Jalan Sultan #11-03 Textile Centre Singapore 0719 E-Mail: FENGHCC@NUS3090.BITNET Abstracts must be received by 15 June 1991. Notification of acceptance will be sent by 2 September 1991. Proposals for tutorials are also invited. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** Contributed by: Donald W. Fausett WORLD CONGRESS OF NONLINEAR ANALYSTS Melbourne, Florida USA August 19-26, 1992 FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT: The Global Scientific Advisory Committee (GSAC) is pleased to announce that the First World Congress of Nonlinear Analysts will be held from Wednesday, August 19 through Wednesday, August 26, 1992 at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, USA. The interest in mathematical analysis of nonlinear phenomena has led to increased interdependency and cooperation among scientists across traditional disciplinary barriers, and this collaboration has proved to be rewarding and stimulating. Also, industrial recognition of using nonlinear mathematical models for solving problems of technology is increasing because of the fast development of large-scale computers. It is, therefore, clear that the attempt to understand the nonlinear world will dominate large parts of mathematics in most areas of science and technology in future years. Thus, there is a definite need to have a forum, on a global basis, to forge unity in diversity and for bringing more cooperation and collaboration into the world community of nonlinear analysts. It is with this spirit we feel that it is desirable to have, periodically, a world congress. GLOBAL SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE: K.J. Arrow, F.E. Browder, K.C. Chang, R. Conti, K.V. Frolov, J. Hale, K. Ito, W. Jager, T. Kato, M.A. Krasnoselskii, J. Kurzweil, O. Ladyzenskaya, V. Lakshmikantham, J.L. Lions, Li Ta-Tsien (Li Da-Qian), G.I. Marchuk, V.M. Matrosov, Yu. A. Mitropolsky, L. Nirenberg, C. Olech, I. Prigogine, P.A. Samuelson, A.A. Samarsky and M.P. Singh. SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM: There will be approximately 20 invited expository addresses covering recent developments in major areas of Nonlinear Analysis and about 120 invited lectures divided into the following six main sections that will have subsections: 1. Nonlinear Operators 2. Calculus of Variations and Optimization; Control Theory; and Systems Analysis 3. Numerical and Computational Aspects; Mathematical Modelling 4. Dynamic Systems 5. Stochastic Analysis and Applications 6. Real-World Applications There will be opportunity to present short communications, organize informal seminars and propose special seminars. All invited lectures will be published in the proceedings of WCNA-92. More details concerning location, travel facilities, social events, preregistration, accommodations, submission of abstracts, scientific program and invited lectures will be provided in the second announcement. If you desire to receive the second announcement, kindly print your name and permanent address on a card and mail it to: Professor V. Lakshmikantham Chairman, GSAC Florida Institute of Technology Department of Applied Mathematics Melbourne, Florida 32901 USA Telephone: (407) 768-8000 ext. 8091 or 7412 FAX: (407) 984-8461 Internet: gsac@zach.fit.edu *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** Contributed by: grossman@wagner.lac.math.uic.edu (Bob Grossman) The NASA Ames - University of Illinois at Chicago Symposia in Computation and Control 91 New Directions in Computing: Analytic, Intelligent and Database Computing University of Illinois at Chicago April 7 and 8, 1991 Traditionally, computers have been used for numerical simulations of physical processes, while the modeling and analysis were done off line. Today computers are used not only for numerical studies, but also to derive better models, more accurate algorithms, and to automate many of the computations that were formerly done by hand. This conference will explore three areas: analytic computing, or the application of symbolic and numeric algorithms to nonlinear systems; intelligent computing, or combining symbolic and numeric techniques with methods incorporating knowledege of science and mathematics; and database computing, or using databases as an integral part of the computing environment. The speakers are: Hal Abelson, MIT "Intelligence in Scientific Computing" Robert Grossman, University of Illinois at Chicago "Analytic Computing" John Guckenheimer, Cornell University "Computing and Dynamical Systems" Leo Joskowicz, IBM T. J. Watson Laboratory and Elisha Sacks, Princeton University "Automating Scientific and Engineering Reasoning" Jack A. Orenstein, Object Design Inc. "Object Oriented Databases" Arie Shoshani, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory "Scientific Databases" Richard Zippel, Cornell University "Integrating Numeric and Symbolic Computing" The workshop is sponsored by: NASA Ames; The Software Technologies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago; and the Laboratory for Advanced Computing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. To register, contact: Dr. Winifred Lyday, Software Technologies Research Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, Mail Code 454, Suite 226, 2201 West Campbell Park Drive, Chicago, IL 60612, phone: (312) 996-5203, fax: (312) 413-3029, email: scc91@wagner.lac.math.uic.edu. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** Contributed by: Michiel Hazewinkel CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT and CALL for PAPERS MTNS Preconference, Hangzhou, China There will be a preconference in the week before the MTNS in Kobe, Japan in Hangzhou, China. Of the place Hangzhou it has been said: "Below there is the earth, and up there is heaven, but meanwhile there is Hangzhou". True, I was there this summer. I have undertaken to try to arrange for a special session, as described below. The general theme of the preconference is system and control theory with special emphasis on adaptive and stochastic aspects. The organizer of the preconference is Chen, Shu-ping. The way to get there is via Shanghai; transport to and from Shanghai will be arranged (taking account of being in time for the MTNS in Kobe). More details from the undersigned via e-mail request (mich@cwi.nl), including a leaflet if desired. People interested in presenting a paper in the special session that I am arranging together with Juergen Pothoff (Baton Rouge, potthoff@mmdehn.dnet.lsu.edu) are suggested to contact me soonest. A description (a rough one) of the special session follows immediately below. Draft description for a special session on Stochastic partial differentail equations, white noise analysis, random fields, and applications The three topics mentioned in the title of the proposed special session have narrow interrelations. One could add to this the topics of "Multiple Wiener Integrals", "Malliavin calculus" ("Stochastic variational calculus"), "Multiple Markov processes", "n-D stochastic system theory". On the part of the systems control community there is interest in Malliavin calculus, Nonlinear filtering which leads to a stochastic partial differential equation for an unnormalized version of the conditional density, n-D system theory which as soon as n>1 forces the consideration of stochatic calculus techniqyes for infinite dimensional processes, image processing using random fields, and stochastic boundary value problems. For all of these topics white noise analysis and Hida distributions can be a valuable tool. The purpose of the session is twofold: on the one hand to acquaint the wna specialist with this range of application areas, and on the other hand to introduce the systems and control theory specilists to the powerful techniques which have been developed in wna. The session could consist of; - General introductin to white noise analysis - WNA and stochastic variational calculus. A survey. - assorted contributed papers. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** Contributed by: bonvinc@elia.epfl.ch (Dominique Bonvin) ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERAL DE LAUSANNE (EPFL) INSTITUT D'AUTOMATIQUE POST-DOCTORAL POSITION Postdoctoral Position in Control Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. The Institut d'Automatique is engaged in school- wide teaching and research which results in a highly multidisciplinary approach to control. A postdoctoral fellow with a strong theoretical background and proven for communication is sought to lead selected areas of research that include adaptive and robust control, state estimation and nonlinear filtering, and control of DEDS. The initial appointment is for one year, but the position can be renewed or even turned into a permanent senior position. The position has a highly competitive salary. Please send application and inquiries to: Prof. D. Bonvin Institut d'Automatique DME-IA-EPFL 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Phone number: 41-21-693-3843 FAX number: 41-21-693-2525 e-mail: bonvin@elia.epfl.ch. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** Contributed by: flewis@arrirs03.uta.edu (Frank Lewis) ASSISTANSHIPS, AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS, TEXAS/ARLINGTON Applications are invited for GRA's in control and robotics at the Automation and Robotics Research Institute of the University of Texas at Arlington. Ph.D. students are needed in basic controls research, digital control, and robot control. Send resume to Dr. F. L. Lewis, Moncrief-O'Donnell Professor, ARRI, The Univ. of Texas at Arlington, 7300 Jack Newell Blvd, Ft. Worth, TX 76118. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** Contributed by: E.Sontag RECENT TECHNICAL REPORTS SYCON -- Rutgers Center for Systems and Control [91-01]* "On the stabilizability of multiple integrators by means of bounded feedback controls," H.J. Sussmann and Yudi Yang, Feb.91 (i+10pp). [91-02]* "Limits of highly oscillatory controls and the approximation of general paths by admissible trajectories," H.J. Sussmann and Wensheng Liu, Feb.91 (19pp). Electronic abstracts and/or copies of reports can be requested from sycon@fermat.rutgers.edu (A complete list of abstracts is available by e-mail from the same address) **NOTE**: for reports marked (*), an electronic version (TeX or LaTeX) is available by e-mail. For these, there will be a small charge if hardcopies are requested, to cover reproduction and mailing costs. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.** End of E-Letter 39. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.**