Category: People

Michele Cucuzzella joins DPTA group as Associate Professor

Dr. Michele Cucuzzella has recently joined the Discrete Technology & Production Automation (DTPA) group within ENTEG as associate professor. His research will mainly focus on the design and analysis of nonlinear control systems with application to the energy domain and smart complex systems such as power systems, district heating, etc., contributing to the development of a more efficient and sustainable energy system.

Michele received the M.Sc. degree (Hons.) in Electrical Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Systems and Control from the University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, in 2014 and 2018, respectively. From 2021 to 2024 he was Assistant Professor of Systems and Control at the University of Pavia and guest Researcher at the University of Groningen. Since 2023 he is visiting Associate Professor at the Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan. From 2017 until 2020, he was a Postdoc at the University of Groningen.

Bayu Jayawardhana new scientific director of DISC

Bayu Jayawardhana is appointed as of 1 January 2024 as scientific director of Dutch Institute of Systems and Control (DISC), the interuniversity research institute and graduate school that unites all university groups in the Netherlands that are active in systems and control theory and engineering. He succeeds Henk Nijmeijer (emeritus TU Eindhoven) who has himself been a graduate of the University of Groningen. Furthermore, Stephan Trenn has replaced Jacquelien Scherpen as the University of Groningen representative at the DISC board.

Jacquelien Scherpen first FSE Director of Engineering

The Faculty Board of the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) has decided to create the position of FSE Director of Engineering. As from July 1, 2022, Prof. Jacquelien Scherpen will be the first to hold this position. The main responsibilities of the FSE Director of Engineering will be to strengthen research collaboration in the area of engineering in the full width of the faculty, to set up new collaborations between FSE and the engineering industry, and to represent FSE in regional and national initiatives and discussions on engineering. Many of these activities are conducted through the Groningen Engineering Center, which is led by the FSE Director of Engineering.

Ming Cao appointed director of Jantina Tammes School

The Board of the University has appointed Ming Cao as Director of the Jantina Tammes School, the interdisciplinary platform that focuses on digital innovation, artificial intelligence, and technological progress. The School represents an important new instrument for interacting with, and contributing to, society. It will provide a place where the various academic disciplines can meet and join forces to conduct research projects, teach, and generally smooth the way for dialogue with and about society. Ming Cao, Professor of Networks and Robotics, is looking forward to stimulating interdisciplinary collaboration. ‘The Jantina Tammes School brings together all of the interested parties in the up-and-coming digital society, allowing them to get the maximum benefits from and make the maximum contribution to digitization, digital technology, and artificial intelligence. We are preparing our students, staff, and partners for a promising, but challenging, future.’

Henk van Waarde joins SCO group as Assistant Professor

Dr. Henk van Waarde has joined the SCO group as Assistant Professor for Data-driven control in January 2022. Henk received his PhD degree (cum laude) in Systems and Control from the University of Groningen in 2020 and was awarded with the 2020 DISC Best PhD Thesis. During his PhD he was a visiting researcher at University of Washington, Seattle, in the lab of Mehran Mesbahi. After that he was a postdoctoral researcher, first at Cambridge University under supervision of Rodolphe Sepulchre, and later at ETH Zürich where he worked with Florian Dörfler. His research interests are in data-driven modeling and control as well as applications to networked systems and neuronal dynamics.

IEEE LCSS outstanding paper award

Henk van Waarde, Claudio De Persis, Kanat Camlibel and Pietro Tesi have received the 2021 IEEE Control Systems Letters Outstanding Paper Award for their paper “Willems’ Fundamental Lemma for State-space Systems and its Extension to Multiple Datasets”, published in the IEEE Control Systems letters. The annual award recognizes an outstanding paper published in the letters in the preceding two calendar years. The selection criteria are originality, potential impact on the theoretical foundations of control, importance and practical significance in applications, and clarity.

Ming Cao awarded IEEE Fellow

Prof. Ming Cao has been elevated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to the grade of IEEE Fellow for his contributions to multi-agent control systems for sensor, robotic and social networks.

Becoming an IEEE Fellow is IEEE’s highest honor. Yearly, a select group of IEEE members is recognized as IEEE fellow. The institute awards the honour to less than 0.1 percent of its members. The Fellow title is recognized by the international engineering community as a prestigious honour and achievement. The grade of Fellow is being awarded since 1912.

The total number of IEEE Fellows in the Jan C. Willems center now stands at six: Jan C. Willems† (awarded 1980), Ruth Curtain† (awarded 1991), Arjan van der Schaft (awarded 2002), Harry Trentelman (awarded 2015), Jaqcuelien Scherpen (awarded 2021) and Ming Cao (2022).