Welcoming message from the Chair

Distributed Parameter Systems (DPSs) are dynamical systems whose state depends not only on time, but also on spatial coordinates. For the past forty years they have occupied an important place in control and systems theories. This position has grown in relevance due to the ever-expanding classes of engineering systems which are distributed in nature, and for which estimation and control are desired. DPSs, or more generally, infinite-dimensional systems, are now an established area of research with a long list of journal articles, conference proceedings and several textbooks to its credit, so the field of potential applications could hardly be considered complete.

Welcome to the homepage of the IEEE CSS Technical Committee on Distributed Parameter Systems. This TC was set up in 2003 as part of the IEEE activities devoted to applications of systems and control theories to the analysis and design of complex dynamic systems described by partial differential and delay equations. I do hope that all members of this TC and the members of the control community will contribute to the successful fulfilment of our mission. We have already succeeded in organizing an interest group of applied mathematicians, control theorists and engineers within the IEEE Control Systems Society and attracted participants from outside this membership in various workshops and invited sessions of the CDC, ACC, MTNS and ECC conferences. We are planning, among other things, to edit special issues of IEEE journals and extend activities to promote research in this increasingly popular and extremely important field.

Michael Demetriou