Contributed by: Frank Allgower

Announcement and Call for Contributed Papers:


           WORKSHOP ON NONLINEAR MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL -
                   ASSESSMENT AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

                            June 3 - 5, 1998
                          Ascona,  Switzerland


With this workshop we want to bring together internationally recognized
researchers from all parts of the world working on nonlinear model
predictive control. Since research in this field is still at its early
stage, we consider it crucial and timely to assess the current status and
to discuss future research directions. We hope that this will lead to an
open and critical exchange of research ideas and possibly the creation of
new research directions, and will lay the foundation for future
international collaboration.

The workshop will cover three main topic areas: Theory, computation and
application, and future research directions. The main focus is on
discussions concerning the critical assessment of the state of the art and
future directions in this field. Topics include, but are not limited to,
problem formulation, computation, algorithms, estimation, stability and
robustness, and application. In addition to a number of invited keynote and
main speakers, there is room for a limited number of contributed papers.

Participants are expected to arrive on June 2, 1998 in the afternoon. The
workshop will end on Saturday, June 6, 1998 after breakfast. The workshop
will take place in the

Centro Stefano Franscini
Monte Verita
CH-6612  Ascona
Switzerland.

The Centro is located very beautifully in the hills above Ascona and the
Lago Maggiore in one of Switzerland's most beautiful regions. Participants
will stay at the Centro during the workshop and will have all meals there
together. Ascona can be conveniently reached by train. The closest airports
are Milano, Italy, and Zurich, Switzerland, which are both roughly 2 1/2
hours by train from Ascona.

The workshop is sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation plus a
number of other sponsors. We can therefore offer participation at a highly
subsidized rate of SFr. 400.- (approximately US $ 270.- ) including full
board (all meals) and accommodation for the whole duration. There will be
no additional registration fee. It is also worth noting that the workshop
takes place directly before the DYCOPS-5 meeting in Corfu (June 7 - 10,
1998).

Conference proceedings will be published in book form by Birkhauser-Verlag,
Basel.

For further information, including a list of the plenary keynote speakers,
see the www-page: http://www.aut.ee.ethz.ch/NMPCworkshop/ .

If you are interested in participating in the workshop, please send an
e-mail or letter indicating your interest to one of the organizers
immediately and the latest by March 4, 1998. If you want to present a
paper, please send in addition a title and an abstract (approx. 1 page).
Authors will be notified of the acceptance decision by March 10, 1998.


Organizers:

Frank Allgower                             Alex Zheng
Automatic Control Laboratory               Chemical Engineering
ETH Zentrum                                University of Massachusetts
CH-8092 Zurich                             Amherst, MA 01003-31210
Switzerland                                U.S.A.

Tel.: +41-1-632-3557                       Tel.: +1-413-545-2916
Fax:  +41-1-632-1211                       Fax:  +1-413-545-1647
E-mail: allgower@aut.ee.ethz.ch            E-mail: zzheng@ecs.umass.edu