TC-NCAS 2009-2010 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE IEEE CAS SOCIETY
(July 2010)

During the period 2009-2010 between the ISCAS'2009 in Taiwan and the ISCAS'2010 in Paris, the members of the Nonlinear Circuits and Systems Technical Committee (TC-NCAS) co-edited two books, wrote two book chapters, edited two special issues in CAS related journals, organized/took part in the organization of several conferences and workshops, organized several special and invited sessions, and delivered several invited lectures in numerous major conferences and workshops related to Circuits and Systems.

Written/Edited Books:
  • 1. C. Alpert, D. Mehta, S. Sapatnekar (editors), Handbook of Algorithms for Physical Design Automation, 2010, CRC Press.
  • 2. I. Zelinka, S. Celokocski, H. Richter and G. Chen (editors), Evolutionary Algorithms and Chaotic Systems, Springer, Berlin, January 2010.
    Contributed Book Chapters:
  • 1. P. De Lellis, M. di Bernardo, F. Garofalo, Decentralized Adaptive Control for Synchronization and Consensus of Complex Networks, in "Modelling, Estimation and Control of Networked Complex Systems" edited by A. Chiuso, L. Fortuna, M. Frasca, A. Rizzo, L. Schenato, S. Zampieri, Springer, 2009.
  • 2. Y. Liu, W. K.S. Tang, Adaptive synchronization of chaotic systems and its uses in cryptanalysis, in "Recent Advances in Nonlinear Dynamics and Synchronization: Theory and Applications", edited by K. Kyamakya, W.A. Halang, H. Unger, J.C. Chedjou, N.F. Rulkov, Z. Li, Springer, September 2009.
    Edited Special Issues in CAS-Related Journals:
  • 1. J. Vandewalle, L. Trajkovic, S. Theodoridis, Introduction and outline of the special issue on circuits and systems education: experiences, challenges, and views, IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 27-33, First Quarter 2009.
  • 2. A. S. Elwakil and T. Ueta (Guest Editors), Special Issue on Advances in Oscillator Analysis & Design, J. Circuits Systems & Computers, June 2010, World Scientific.
    Organized Conferences and Workshops:
  • 1. G. Chen, Int. Workshop on Complex Engineering Systems and Design, Hong Kong, May 2009.
  • 2. Y. Uwate (General Secretary), Int. Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics of Electronic Systems (NDES'09), Rapperswil, Switzerland, June 2009.
  • 3. G. Grassi (General Chair), 25th Italian Conference on Electrical Engineering, Lecce, Italy, June 2009.
  • 4. M. di Bernardo, G. Chen, Int. Workshop on Complex Systems and Networks, Bristol, UK, July 2009.
  • 5. G. Chen, 4th Int. Scientific Conference on Physics and Control, Catania, Italy, September 2009.
  • 6. T. Ueta, Y. Nishio (Workshop Co-Organizers), Int. Workshop on Nonlinear Maps and their Applications (NOMA'09), Urbino, Italy, September 2009.
  • 7. M. Ogorzalek (General Vice Co-Chair), G. Chen (Special Session Co-Chair), T. Ueta (Publication Chair), Int. Symposium on Nonlinear Theory and its Applications (NOLTA'09), Sapporo, Japan, October 2009.
  • 8. Y. Nishio (Technical Program Co-Chair), IEEE CASS Shanghai and Shikoku Chapters Joint Workshop on Nonlinear Circuits and Systems (SSJW'09), Shanghai, China, November 2009.
  • 9. G. Chen, 2nd Int. Workshop on Chaos-Fractals Theories and Applications, Shenyang, China, November 2009.
  • 10. C. W. Wu (General Co-chair), IEEE Int. Workshop on Cellular Nanoscale Networks and their Applications, CNNA, Berkeley, USA, February, 2010.
  • 11. Y. Uwate (Publicity Chair), T. Ueta (Publication Chair), RISP Int. Workshop on Nonlinear Circuits and Signal Processing (NCSP'10), Honolulu, USA, March 2010.
    Special sessions organized by members:
  • 1. G. Chen (Co-organizer), Invited Session on Complex Networks: Analysis, Control and Applications, IEEE Int. Symp. Circuits and Systems (ISCAS'2009), Taipei, Taiwan, May 2009.
  • 2. Y. Nishio, Y. Uwate (Organizers), Special Session on "Oscillator Networks", Int. Symposium on Nonlinear Theory and its Applications (NOLTA'2009), Sapporo, Japan, October 2009.
  • 3. Marco Storace (Organizer), Special Session on "Piecewise Linear Circuits and Systems: Bridging Electronics and Control Systems", IEEE Int. Symp. Circuits and Systems (ISCAS'2010), Paris, France, May 2010.
  • 4. M. di Bernardo, J. Lu and G. Chen (Organizers), Special Session on "Complex Networks", IEEE Int. Symp. Circuits and Systems (ISCAS'2010), Paris, France, May 2010.
  • 5. A. J. Lawrance and G. Kolumban (Organizers), Special Session on "Recent theory and new applications in chaos communication" (ISCAS2010), Paris, France, May 2010.
    Invited lectures delivered by members:
  • 1. C. W. Wu (Keynote lecture), Sensor placement and coverage: tools from geometry and image processing, MITACS Workshop on Decision Support, Information Fusion and Sensor Networks, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada, June 2009.
  • 2. Y. Nishio (Invited lecture), Complex Phenomena in Coupled Nonlinear Electronic Circuits, Int. Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics of Electronic Systems (NDES'09), Rapperswil, Switzerland, June 2009.
  • 3. M. di Bernardo (Invited plenary lecture), 2nd IFAC Conference on Analysis and Control of Chaotic Systems, London, UK, June 2009.
  • 4. J. Suykens (Semi-plenary lecture), Support vector machines and kernel-based learning for dynamical systems modelling, 15th IFAC Symposium on System Identification (SYSID'09), Saint Malo France, July 2009.
  • 5. C. W. Wu, Graph Laplacian Matrices and Multipartite Entanglement in Quantum Mechanics, Int. Workshop on Complex Systems and Networks, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom, July 2009.
  • 6. L. Trajkovic (Chair's message and keynote lecture), Mining network traffic data, IEEE Int. Conference on Intelligent Computing and Intelligent Systems (ICIS 2009), Shanghai, China, November 2009.
  • 7. Y. Nishio (Keynote talk), Solving Combinatorial Optimization Problems Exploiting Neural Network and Chaos, Asia Pacific Conference on Postgraduate Research in Microelectronics and Electronics (PrimeAsia'09), Shanghai, China, November 2009.
  • 8. K. Thulasiraman (Invited lecture), Survivability in Layered Networks, India-Taiwan Conference on Discrete Mathematics organized by the National Taiwan University, Taipei, November, 2009.
  • 9. K. Thulasiraman (Inaugural address), the Platinum Jubilee conference of the Indian Mathematical Society held at the Kalasalingam University, India, December 2009.
  • 10. G. Chen (Keynote speech), Flocking control of mobile agents on complex networks, The 5th International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing, Melbourne, Australia, December 2009.
  • 11. C. W. Wu (Keynote lecture), Transformational Hybrid Systems: The Next Generation of System Architecture, IEEE Int. Workshop on Cellular Nanoscale Networks and their Applications (CNNA'10), Berkeley, USA, February 2010.
  • 12. L. Trajkovic (DLP lecture), Mining network traffic data, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, Distinguished Lecturer Program, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, February 2010.
  • 13. M. Ogorzalek (Plenary lecture), Fractals for Solving Nano/Tera Problems, RISP Int. Workshop on Nonlinear Circuits and Signal Processing (NCSP'10), Honolulu, USA, March 2010.
  • 14. J. Suykens (Invited lecture), Kernel spectral clustering for complex networks data, Synchronization in Complex Networks: Theory and Applications in Neuroscience and Climatology, SYNCLINE'10, Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, Germany, May 2010.
    Web site and mailing list:
  • The TC-NCAS web page http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/ljilja/tcncas/ contains links to annual reports, meeting minutes, TC news, and a list of e-mail addresses and web pages of members. The TC-NCAS mailing list address is ncastc-ieee at sfu.ca. The list currently contains 67 e-mail addresses of NCAS Technical Committee members and guests. Members may subscribe or unsubscribe by sending an e-mail to ljilja at cs.sfu.ca.
    TC-NCAS Officers, term ending at ISCAS 2010

    Chair: Zbigniew Galias (galias at agh.edu.pl)

    Past Chair: Chi K. (Michael) Tse (encktse at polyu.edu.hk)

    Chair Elect: Henry Leung (leungh at ucalgary.ca)

    Secretary: Orla Feely (Orla.Feely at ucd.ie)

    Track Chairs for NCAS track at ISCAS 2010:
    Henry Leung (leungh at ucalgary.ca)
    Francis Lau (encmlau at polyu.edu.hk)

    Prepared by Zbigniew Galias, May 2010

    Vision of the Nonlinear Circuits and Systems Technical Committee

    Nonlinear effects in circuits and systems are ubiquitous. As new technologies emerge, and existing technologies are pushed closer to their limits of performance, nonlinear effects will assume greater importance. It is vital that there be a repository of theory and experience which will allow engineers to understand, exploit and control these effects. Fields such as nanoelectronics and systems biology will present us with important new challenges.

    An important trend observed in the area of nonlinear circuits and systems is a rapid growth of interest in the study of large extended nonlinear systems and networks. In particular, the area of complex networks and systems is receiving increasing attention as witnessed by the large number of submissions on this topic to our transactions. In this respect main activities in our field will involve the analysis and design of nonlinear circuits and systems characterized by many interacting systems whose structure and topology will be evolving and adapting in time and space.

    Thinking about future aspects of the nonlinear circuits and systems field, we cannot forget about fundamental theories and their importance in new application domains. A perfect example is the memristor, for which theory was formulated in 1970s, and which was actually built only two years ago. Currently, many new applications based on memristor properties are proposed.

    As a Technical Committee we see worth pursuing the following new research directions:

  • analysis, control and simulation of complex networked systems;
  • analysis and synthesis of bio-inspired circuits and systems, developing nonlinear circuit models for bio-impedance and bio-electrical applications;
  • analysis and design of piecewise-smooth dynamical systems and discontinuous dynamical systems.