What’s New in Control and CSS

Pleasures of CSS presidency start early … in fact as President Elect.  It is late October 2008 as I write, and I am in-flight, returning from a trip to Bucharest and Brussels.  The meeting in Brussels was organized by a member of our Board of Governors, Alkis Konstantellos of the European Commission’s Information Society and Media Directorate-General, to start the planning for future controls projects under the Commission’s Framework Programme 7.  Two days of stimulating presentations and discussions, and the prospect of participating in more of the same as planning continues, is more than enough compensation for nine cramped hours in the back of a widebody!

A question came up at the meeting that merits reflection:  What will be the next major topics in control?  Research doesn’t proceed by buzzwords, of course, but, as I look back over the last decade plus of development in our field, a sequence of catchphrases come to mind that represent contributions to research breakthroughs and to application impact (perhaps not as much of the latter as we would like, but that’s a topic for a future column … watch this space).

Here’s my personal list of recent-past-to-current “hot topics” in controls research, in rough chronological order of their emergence as such:
• model-predictive control
• intelligent control
• hybrid systems
• software-enabled control
• embedded systems
• networked control

Of course, you’ll find these topics well represented in our journals and conferences even today—we have hardly exhausted their potential—but what’s next?  This question is not, or not mainly, to be viewed as a marketing exercise.  The intent is to succinctly capture new focus areas and directions that build on the strong foundation and edifice of our field, while helping us be relevant to solving major challenges facing our society and environment—of which there is no shortage these days, unfortunately, from the financial meltdown to climate change to global terrorism.

If you have any suggestions, whether in the form of specific topics or discussions of the state and future of control, be sure to drop me a line.  I’ll compile responses and forward to Alkis, and depending on the response we could revisit the topic in a future column or in the correspondence section of CSM.

* * *

Let me turn next to an initiative within CSS.  In 2008 we convened a task force on outreach activities with a charter to develop recommendations in two specific areas, namely, outreach to industry and outreach through the Web/Internet.  In both of these areas I expect our members to broadly agree that the Society needs to improve.  On the industry engagement front—and as a CSS member from industry I can attest to this—our relevance to the practice of control engineering in industry is often questioned.  For those of us who would like to see CSS as the home society for all controls engineers involved in R&D, this perception is a cause for concern. 

Second, I won’t bore you with the details of our attempts at establishing a Web presence that is in keeping, in terms of presentation as well as content, with our mission and ambitions.  As vice president of publications a few years ago I was responsible for the most recent such initiative.  If you’re charitably inclined you could say that the outcome is a site that is functional in a basic sort of way.

The outreach task force, which I cochair along with another BoG member, Gary Balas of the University of Minnesota, has discussed several ideas, in meetings at conferences and over e-mail.    Final recommendations should be approved by the time you read this issue—these approvals are expected during the Society’s BoG meeting at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) in December.  Among the ideas we have been considering are the following:
• Developing recommendations for controls curricula, especially from the perspective of preparing students for industry
• Holding a workshop on industry/university/government collaboration in control systems
• A revitalized Website for CSS with Web 2.0 features
• Non-English Web presence for CSS, starting with Mandarin
• Institutionalizing an award for industry/university collaboration for innovative control applications

I hope to update you on progress on most, perhaps even all, of these in future columns this year.

A trip to Bucharest enabled Tariq Samad (center) to maintain his longstanding goal of visiting at least one new country each year.  This photograph, with Honeywell colleagues Cornel Cobianu (left) and Lucian Petrisor (right), is from Caru’ cu Bere, a century-old restaurant and landmark.

CSS provides many opportunities for our members—that’s you—to further their intellectual and professional interests while helping the Society (this is what we call a win-win situation!).  CSS leaders are always seeking suggestions for initiatives and members interested in being involved with any of the various aspects of our operations.  To direct your volunteer spirit, a brief guide to the main offices and organizations of CSS, including the incumbent Executive Committee members, appears below.  Contact details and additional information can be found at ieeecss.org.
• CSS conferences and our involvement with other conferences are overseen by the Vice President for Conference Activities, a role served by Maria Elena Valcher.  Queries related to specific conferences should always be directed to appropriate members of the conference’s operating or organizing committee, but you can get in touch with Elena if you are interested in being involved with our conferences in some capacity, to request CSS cosponsorship for an event you’re organizing, or with other questions. 
• Publication oversight responsibilities rest with CSS Vice President for Publication Activities Eduardo Misawa.  The editor or editor-in-chief of the publication should be the first recourse for matters related to one of our transactions, this magazine, or the e-letter, but general publication topics should be addressed to Eduardo.
• Our various technical committees fall under the Vice President for Technical Activities Shuzhi Sam Ge.  Chairs of technical committees are always looking for new members and activities and can be contacted directly.  In addition, we are always open to forming new technical committees where there is critical mass and enthusiasm; Sam can provide more details.
• The Vice President for Member Activities for 2009 is Shinji Hara.  The Member Activities organization includes the CSS Distinguished Lecturer program, the CSS chapters around the globe, the Awards program, and the International Affairs, Student Activities, and Women in Control committees—among others.  Our Website lists chairs and leaders for all of these, and you are also welcome to contact Shinji.
• For completeness, here is the rest of the 2009 Executive Committee:  Eyad Abed, vice president for financial activities; David Castañón, past president; Roberto Tempo, president elect; Mario Sznaier, executive director.

And don’t hesitate to treat me as the recourse of first or last resort.  I’ve also become quite proficient at catching up on e-mails in aircraft cabins!