Activities
Main Sponsored Events
- IFAC Conference on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC). NMPC2024, Kyoto, Japan, 21-24 August 2024.
- IFAC Workshop on Control Applications of Optimization (CAO). CAO2022, Gif sur Yvette, France, 18-22 July 2022.
- IFAC Conference on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC). NMPC2021, Bratislava, Slovakia, 11-14 July 2021.
- IFAC Workshop on Control Applications of Optimization (CAO). CAO2018, Yekaterinburg, Russia, 15-19 October 2018.
- IFAC Conference on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC). NMPC2018, Madison, WI, USA, 19-22 August 2018.
Co-sponsored events
2024
- 5th IFAC Workshop on Cyber-Physical Human - CPHS 2024, Antalya, Türkiye, December 12-13, 2024
- Symposium on Systems Theory in Data and Optimization - SYSDO2024, Stuttgart, Germany, September 30 - October 4, 2024
- 7th Workshop on Mining, Mineral and Metal Processing - MMM 2024, Rio de Brisbane, Australia, September 4-6, 2024
- Advanced Control of Chemical Processes - 12th ADCHEM 2024 Symposium, Toronto, Canada, July 14-17, 2024
- Advances in Control and Optimization of Dynamical Systems - ACODS 2024, Delhi-NCR, India, March 12-15, 2024
2022
- Cyber-Physical and Human Systems - 4th CPHS 2022 Workshop, Houston TX, USA, 1.12.22-2.12.22
- Robust Control Design - 10th ROCOND 2022 Symposium, Kyoto JAPAN, 30.08.22-02.09.22
- Automatic Control in Aerospace - 22nd IFAC Symposium, Mumbai INDIA, 22.08.22-26.08.22
2021
- Mining, Mineral and Metal Processing - 6th MMM 2021 Workshop, Nancy FRANCE, 1.09.21-3.09.21
- Engine and Powertrain Control, Simulation and Modeling - 6th E-COSM 2021 Conference, Tokyo JAPAN, 23.08.21-25.08.21
2019
- Control, Optimization and Automation in Mining, Mineral and Metal Processing - 18th MMM 2019 Symposium, Stellenbosch SOUTH AFRICA, 28.08.19-30.08.19
- Control of Systems Governed by Partial Differential Equations - 3rd CPDE 2019 Workshop, Oaxaca MEXICO, 22.05.19-24.05.19
2018
- Engine and Powertrain Control, Simulation and Modeling - 5th E-COSM2018 Conference, Changchun CHINA 20.09.18-22.09.18
- Robust Control Design - 9th ROCOND 2018 Symposium, Florianópolis BRAZIL, 03.09.18-05.09.18
Chinese Model Predictive Control School 2023
Chinese Model Predictive Control School 2023
July 17, 2023—July 22, 2023
Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT)
http://chinese.mpcschool.online/index.html
Registration will open on April 15, 2023
The Chinese Model Predictive Control (MPC) School 2023 will be held in a virtual format from July 17, 2023 to July 22, 2023. The Chinese MPC School is organized by Saša Raković, Yuanqing Xia and Li Dai from BIT, and is endorsed by the Predictive Control and Intelligent Decision Committee of the Chinese Automation Association and also the Technical Committee 2.4 on Optimal Control of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC TC 2.4).
The Chinese MPC School will enable up to 300 participants (university graduate and postgraduate students as well as interested researchers and control practitioners) from a cross-cutting set of disciplines in engineering, science, and applied mathematics to receive advanced education and training in the theory, implementation and applications of MPC. The instructors are international experts and leading researchers with a diversity of backgrounds and disciplines in engineering, science and applied mathematics.
The main topics of the Chinese MPC School 2023 are:
- Lars Grüne: Deterministic and Economic MPC
- Gabriele Pannocchia: State Estimation and System Identification for MPC
- Sebastien Gros: Optimization and Learning for MPC
- Eric Kerrigan: Numerical Methods for Embedded Processors
- Saša Raković: Tube MPC
- Marco Campi: Scenario-based and Data Driven MPC
- Ricardo Sanfelice: MPC for Hybrid Dynamical Systems
- Karl Johansson: Receding Horizon Control Under Temporal Logic Constraints
- Li Dai: Distributed MPC
- Yugeng Xi and Shu Lin: MPC for Urban Traffic Control and Optimization
- Yang Shi: A Robust Model Predictive Control Framework for Autonomous Intelligent Mechatronic Systems
The Chinese MPC school will provide a carefully crafted overview of the theoretical fundamentals of MPC and state-of-the-art numerical methods and software for implementing the advanced MPC methods on difficult and challenging examples and industrial applications.
Registration: The online registration is available at http://chinese.mpcschool.online/registration.html and opens on April 15, 2023. Those interested in attending the Chinese MPC School should register at their earliest convenience. (Early registration is encouraged due to places limitations.)
Additional information: Further updated information about the Chinese MPC School 2023 is available at http://chinese.mpcschool.online/index.html.
Programme for Virtual Seminar 13 February 2023
Date: February 13th 2023, 13h00 – 15h30 (CET)
Location: Zoom join here; Webinar-ID: 943 0597 4700; Passcode: 728375,
If you have issues with the above link, please copy-paste the full address at the bottom of this page. If you wish to add the event to your calendars, you can do so via the (public) LinkedIn event page here.
Schedule:
|
Time (CET) |
Title and Speaker |
|
13h00 |
Welcome |
|
13h05 |
TBD |
|
13h50 |
Online Learning for Control: Bringing Sequential Decision Making in the Loop Andrea Ianelli, University of Stuttgart, Germany |
|
14h35 |
Towards learning for safety and coordination in uncertain dynamical systems |
|
15h20 |
Closing |
Organizers:
- Timm Faulwasser, TU Dortmund, Germany; timm.faulwasser@tu-dortmund.de
- Thulasi Mylvaganam, Imperial College London, UK; mylvaganam@imperial.ac.uk
Zoom meeting link & passcode:
https://tu-dortmund.zoom.us/j/94305974700?pwd=cTBESzdNVW9TRXpKRUlhRWNqMkU5dz09
Webinar-ID: 943 0597 4700, Passcode: 728375
Programme for Virtual Seminar 27June 2022
Virtual Seminar – IFAC TC on Optimal Control
Trends in software and tools for optimal and predictive control
Date: June 27th 2022, 15h30 – 17h20 (CEST)
Location: Zoom join here; Passcode: 735867; Webinar-ID: 981 5139 7340
If you have issues with the above link, please copy-paste the full address at the bottom of this page. If you wish to add the event to your calendars, you can do so via the (public) LinkedIn event page (see here)https://www.linkedin.com/events/virtualseminarifactconoptimalco6942533654896111616/about/https://www.linkedin.com/events/virtualseminarifactconoptimalco6924680709718609920/about/.
Schedule:
|
Time (CET) |
Title and Speaker |
|
15h30 – 15h35 |
Welcome |
|
15h35 – 16h25 |
A software framework for nonlinear model predictive control on embedded hardware (GRAMPC) |
|
16h25 – 17h10 |
Exponential Decay of Sensitivity in Graph-Structured Nonlinear Programs Victor Zavala, University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA |
|
17h15 – 17h20 |
Discussions/Closing |
Organizers:
- Timm Faulwasser, TU Dortmund, Germany; timm.faulwasser@tu-dortmund.de
- Thulasi Mylvaganam, Imperial College London, UK; mylvaganam@imperial.ac.uk
Virtual Seminar Series – IFAC TC on Optimal Control
This is the fourth event of the Virtual Seminar series of the IFAC TC on Optimal Control. The series consists of two-three events per year, with each event dedicated to a specific area within optimal control and including talks by distinguished members of our community, as well as discussion sessions.
For further details please contact
- Thulasi Mylvaganam, Imperial College London, UK; mylvaganam@imperial.ac.uk
- Timm Faulwasser, TU Dortmund, Germany; faulwasser@tu-dortmund.de
Zoom meeting link & passcode: https://tu-dortmund.zoom.us/j/98151397340?pwd=ZWFwNk9KeFhYZy9Lb1FkVDM5dklmQT09
Programme for Virtual Seminar 18 May 2022
Virtual Seminar – IFAC TC on Optimal Control
Trends in software and tools for optimal and predictive control
Date: May 18th 2022, 15h00 – 17h30 (CEST)
Location: Zoom join here; Passcode: 182424, Webinar-ID: ID: 961 3844 9039
If you have issues with the above link, please copy-paste the full address at the bottom of this page. If you wish to add the event to your calendars, you can do so via the (public) LinkedIn event page here.
Schedule:
|
Time (CET) |
Title and Speaker |
|
15h00 – 15h05 |
Welcome |
|
15h05 – 15h40 |
Distributed optimization and control with ALADIN |
|
15h50 – 16h25 |
Embedded optimization and MPC for next-gen controls in industrial production Gionata Cimini, ODYS S.r.l., Italy |
|
16h35 – 17h10 |
Operator splitting methods and software for convex optimization Paul Goulart, University of Oxford, UK |
|
17h15 – 17h30 |
Discussions |
Organizers:
- Timm Faulwasser, TU Dortmund, Germany; timm.faulwasser@tu-dortmund.de
- Thulasi Mylvaganam, Imperial College London, UK; mylvaganam@imperial.ac.uk
Virtual Seminar Series – IFAC TC on Optimal Control
This is the third event of the Virtual Seminar series of the IFAC TC on Optimal Control. The series consists of two-three events per year, with each event dedicated to a specific area within optimal control and including talks by distinguished members of our community, as well as discussion sessions.
For further details please contact
- Thulasi Mylvaganam, Imperial College London, UK; mylvaganam@imperial.ac.uk
- Timm Faulwasser, TU Dortmund, Germany; faulwasser@tu-dortmund.de
Zoom meeting link & passcode:
https://tu-dortmund.zoom.us/j/96138449039?pwd=Wk9jeXBtZm5KZmkyTEZZNVpPMlM2UT09 ; Passcode: 182424
Chinese Model Predictive Control School 2022
Chinese Model Predictive Control School 2022
July 18, 2022—July 30, 2022
Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT)
http://chinese.mpcschool.online/index.html
Registration will open on April 15, 2022
The Chinese Model Predictive Control (MPC) School 2022 will be held from July 18, 2022 to July 30, 2022. The Chinese MPC School is organized by Saša Raković, Yuanqing Xia and Li Dai from BIT, and is endorsed by the Predictive Control and Intelligent Decision Committee of the Chinese Automation Association and also the Technical Committee 2.4 on Optimal Control of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC TC 2.4).
The Chinese MPC School will enable up to 300 participants (university graduate and postgraduate students as well as interested researchers and control practitioners) from a cross-cutting set of disciplines in engineering, science, and applied mathematics to receive advanced education and training in the theory, implementation and applications of MPC. The instructors are international experts and leading researchers with a diversity of backgrounds and disciplines in engineering, science and applied mathematics.
The main topics of the Chinese MPC School 2022 are:
- Lars Grüne: Deterministic and Economic MPC
- Gabriele Pannocchia: State Estimation and System Identification for MPC
- Sebastien Gros: Optimization for MPC
- Saša Raković: Tube MPC
- Marco Campi: Scenario-based and Data Driven MPC
- Li Dai: Distributed MPC
- Karl Johansson: Receding Horizon Control Under Temporal Logic Constraints
- Yugeng Xi and Shu Lin: MPC for Urban Traffic Control and Optimization
- Yang Shi: A Robust Model Predictive Control Framework for Autonomous Intelligent Mechatronic Systems
The Chinese MPC school will provide a carefully crafted overview of the theoretical fundamentals of MPC and state-of-the-art numerical methods and software for implementing the advanced MPC methods on difficult and challenging examples and industrial applications.
Registration: The online registration is available at http://chinese.mpcschool.online/registration.html and opens on April 15, 2022. Those interested in attending the Chinese MPC School should register at their earliest convenience. (Early registration is encouraged due to places limitations.)
Additional information: Further updated information about the Chinese MPC School 2022 is available at http://chinese.mpcschool.online/index.html.
Programme for Virtual Seminar 9 December 2021
Virtual Seminar – IFAC TC on Optimal Control
Data-driven Methods in Control
Date: December 9th 2021, 13h00 – 15h30 (CET)
Location: Zoom join here; Passcode: 470478
If you have issues with the above link, please copy-paste the full address at the bottom of this page.
Schedule:
|
Time (CET) |
Title and Speaker |
|
13h00 – 13h40 |
On the Certainty-Equivalence Approach to Direct Data-Driven LQR Design |
|
13h40 – 14h20 |
Safe Adaptive Learning-based Control for Constrained Linear Quadratic Regulators with Regret Guarantees |
|
14h20 – 14h30 |
Coffee break |
|
14h30 – 15h10 |
Data-Enabled Predictive Control Florian Dörfler, ETH Zürich, Switzerland |
|
15h10 – 15h30 |
Discussions |
Organizers:
- Timm Faulwasser, TU Dortmund, Germany; timm.faulwasser@tu-dortmund.de
- Thulasi Mylvaganam, Imperial College London, UK; t.mylvaganam@imperial.ac.uk
Virtual Seminar Series – IFAC TC on Optimal Control
This is the second event of the Virtual Seminar series of the IFAC TC on Optimal Control. The series consists of two events per year, with each event dedicated to a specific area within optimal control and including talks by distinguished members of our community, as well as discussion sessions.
For further details please contact
- Thulasi Mylvaganam, Imperial College London, UK; t.mylvaganam@imperial.ac.uk
- Timm Faulwasser, TU Dortmund, Germany; faulwasser@tu-dortmund.de
Zoom meeting link & passcode:
https://tu-dortmund.zoom.us/j/92158972707?pwd=SUJRUDBvV3RSS09SRUJDS2hMcVAzZz09 ; Passcode: 470478
Call for hosting NMPC 2024
IFAC Technical Committee 2.4 Optimal Control is pleased to open a call for hosting the 8th IFAC Conference on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) in 2024. This follows the NMPC 2021 event held in Bratislava, Slovakia.
The main criteria that are adopted for the selection of NMPC 2024 are summarized as follows (without a priority):
- General activity in the field of model predictive control in the proponent country.
- Availability of an appropriate infrastructure and facilities for setting up a conference of the size of the last few NMPC conferences.
- Proposing team, possibly with their activity within IFAC.
- Geographical distribution of the Conference in earlier years.
- Moderate registration fees and availability of some inexpensive accommodation.
The timetable and guidelines for the selection procedure are as follows:
- Deadline for the submission of proposals: 31 October 2021. The proposals must be sent by email to the chair of TC 2.4 (see below). The proposal should consist of a document describing the candidature with special regards to the criteria specified above. The whole proposal must be limited to 2 pages, size A4, font Times Roman 11pt.
- The TC Chair will send out the received proposals to TC 2.4 members by 7 November 2021. Members can request for clarifications and additional information about the proposals. Additional information requests must be transmitted to the Chair of TC 2.4 who will forward them to the specific proponents. All the members will be kept informed about the requests and the answers. Deadline for requests of additional information: 30 November 2021.
- If only one proposal has been received, then this proposal will automatically be deemed as successful with no need for voting.
- Should there be more than one proposal, then each proposing team is to prepare a video presentation not longer than 5 min. Deadline: 7 January 2022. Distributed to TC members by 14 January 2022.
- Voting will be open to all IFAC TC 2.4 members and organised via an electronic system to be confirmed closer the date. Deadline: 31 January 2022.
The voting rules are as follows:
- All TC 2.4 members have a right to vote except those from the proposal countries.
- The TC 2.4 Chair is excluded from voting, except in the case to break a tie.
- The voting is considered valid with at least 10 votes. In case the quorum is not reached, a different democratic selection procedure will be decided.
- If more than two proposals are evaluated, two voting stages will be set up. In the first stage, the two proposals that have obtained the higher number of votes will be identified. The second stage will be a simple majority vote between these two. In the possible second stage, members of countries excluded in the first stage have right to vote. Deadline for second stage: 18 February 2022.
For additional information:
Eric Kerrigan
TC 2.4 Chair
e.kerrigan@imperial.ac.uk
Programme for Virtual Seminar 8 July 2021
IFAC_Seminar_0721.pdf
— 214.9 KB
Virtual Seminar Series on Optimal Control
The CoViD-19 pandemic continues to jeopardize many conference activities. At the same time, all of us have also experienced successful editions of online events. Hence, the IFAC TC on Optimal Control is happy to announce its virtual seminar series comprising of 2-3 events per year. Each virtual seminar will be dedicated to a specific topic within optimal control and will include talks by distinguished researchers, as well as discussion sessions.
For further details contact Thulasi Mylvaganam (t.mylvaganam@imperial.ac.uk) or Timm Faulwasser (timm.faulwasser@tu-dortmund.de)
The inaugural event will be on data-driven methods in control and is organized by Timm Faulwasser and Karl Worthmann. It will take place on July 8th 2021, 14h00 – 17h30 (CET). See the full schedule and joining instructions.
How to get involved?
In order to render the virtual seminar series a success, TC members are encouraged to get involved in the organisation of future events by proposing topics and suggesting speakers. If you have any thoughts or suggestions regarding this, please email Thulasi and Timm. Suggestions and topics will be approved by the TC Chair and Vice Chairs.
Bids for NMPC 2021
Bids for NMPC and revised versions.zip
Q&A for NMPC bids
Japan
Question: Will there be an attempt be made to raise industrial or government support, and if so and successful, what will the funds be used for? That request is not needed for the other two proposals, since their local costs are probably low, but high-cost countries like Japan should consider raising industrial or government support to increase the chance that their country is selected (some TC members will tend to choose lower cost countries).
Answer: The National Organizing Committee (NOC) will try to get sponsorships from industry and grants from public organizations and foundations. The NOC Chair has served as the Exhibits and Sponsorship Chair for the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control in 2015 and has connections with many companies through collaborative researches on NMPC. The Industrial Vice-Chairs from MathWorks and Cybernet Systems, which owns Maplesoft, also have connections with companies in various industrial fields. At a moderate estimate, sponsorships of several thousand dollars would be anticipated. The NOC will also apply for grants from Kyoto City (max 1,800USD), Kyoto University (max 9,000USD), and other foundations. The extra income from sponsorships and grants could be used for, e.g., free lunches for participants and enriching the social program and coffee breaks.
China
Question: The Chinese bid is missing much of the information needed in a bid, such as the meeting registration fee and hotel fees in Euro or USD.
Answer: We can keep the registration costs below 310 USD / person, as suggested in my revised bid [uploaded with original above]. However, as we have a number of possibilities here in Shanghai to raise additional funding or convince local industrial sponsors to support the event, this number should be interpreted as a worst-case upper bound on the registration cost. If the conference is happening in 2021, there is still plenty of time to write proposals for additional funds to support the conference (deadlines for such proposals are on Jan 15, 2019 or, alternatively, Jan 15, 2020, which would both be in time).
Slovakia
Question: The Bratislava bid lists IPC chairs/co-chairs but the NMO does not propose or select the IPC chairs/cochairs - the latter are chosen by the IFAC TC in charge of the meeting (that is, the IFAC TC Chair selects the IPC Chair based on input from his/her Vice Chairs). The NMO should not select the IPC Chair/Co-chair, to avoid a massive conflict of interest. Normally the TC Chair does not serve as an IPC Chair, since the TC Chair has oversight of the work of the IPC Chair and all symposia organized by the TC (also, the IPC Chair has normally already served as an IPC Chair, and so the new IPC Chair positions go to other people so that the TC has a pipeline of people to become future TC Vice Chairs and then TC Chair). Having an IPC Vice Chair serve as an IPC Chair is not a conflict of interest and is good practice if the person has not yet served as an IPC Chair and has a good chance of potentially becoming the IPC Chair. That is, you want multiple people within the TC who have served as IPC Chair so that you have a pool of individuals who are well prepared to serve as future TC Chair who will have oversight of IFAC symposia.
Answer: We admit we didn't know about the formal procedure of selection of IPC chairs/cochairs. What we wanted to indicate in the proposal is that high-profile TC members have agreed to work in conjunction with the NMO in organizing the conference from the technical program point of view. We feel that for a successful conference such a symbiosis is vital. Needless to say, we fully respect the TC autonomy in selecting IPC chairs/cochairs. We know most of the TC vice chairs personally and most of them would be a good pick.
CAO 2018
Plenary Lecture by Felix L. Chernousko at CAO 2018
The link address is: https://youtu.be/snX1rvDidAQ