It was the first international interdisciplinary conference focusing on
the subject of controlling complex oscillatory dynamical systems, with
emphasis on both theory and applications. The papers from various
scientific fields (mathematics; physics; mechanics; chemistry; mechanical,
electrical and civil engineering, biology, economics, etc.) have been
presented. About 190 papers have been selected by the International
Programme Committee from 246 submissions for inclusion into the final
Programme. More than 170 participants including 73 persons out of Russia
have been registered; 7 plenary, 7 semi-plenary, 89 regular and 49 poster
papers have been presented. Three volumes of Proceedings include 160
papers representing 35 countries. The largest number of papers have been
presented from Russia (89), USA (9), Japan (9), Italy (9), Germany (6),
The Netherlands (4), Ukraine (4), UK (3), P.R.China (3), Argentina (3),
Belarus (3) Brasil (3), The Conference took place in the "Dom Uchenyh"
("House of Scientists") which is the beautiful palace in the historical
center of St.Petersburg next to the Tsar's Winter palace and the Hermitage
museum.
SUMMARY OF THE SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME
The papers from various scientific fields were presented at the
Conference. A lot of papers were devoted to dynamics and control of
systems from the two broad fields: a) mechanical systems (main
applications are motion control and robotics) and b) electrical or
electronic systems (main applications are in communications). It allowed
to bring together and to cross-fertilize ideas from these fields which
have many similarities due to electromechanical analogies. Such a
possibility arised due to support of the Conference by both IEEE and
IUTAM. Also the papers with applications to chemistry, geophysics,
biology, economics; chemical and civil engineering, medicine, etc. have
been presented.
The Conference as a whole has demonstrated the growth of interest in
the analysis and control methods for chaotic motions motivated by
important applications of the control of irregular (chaotic) oscillations.
Much attention has been also paid to the controlled synchronization which
has important applications in vibrational technologies and communications
as well as to the analysis and control of the distributed
(spatio-temporal) systems.
Another goal of the Conference - to get the world scientific community
acquainted with the recent achievements of Russian experts in nonlinear
dynamics and nonlinear control - also was achieved.
The organization novelty of COC'97 was admission of "standby" papers
(submitted after the deadline) which were included into the final
programme instead of existing ones in cases of nonattendance or not
registering. More than 10 standby papers were included. It resulted in the
additional exchange of information and fruitful discussions.
YOUNG AUTHOR CONTEST
The Young Author Contest was organized for authors not older than 35 at
the time of the Conference. Authors wishing to participate in the contest
has indicated it in the submission form. The IPC has selected the
following 5 finalists from 30 papers submitted: M.Di Bernardo (UK),
E.Bollt (USA), C.C.Chu (Taiwan), M.F.Heertes (The Netherlands), G.Kronin
(Russia). The final decision was taken at the Conference according to the
quality of both results and presentation by the special Young Author Prize
Committee including N.E.Barabanov ( Russia, Chairman), V.N.Belykh
(Russia), G.Chen (USA), G.Hu (P.R.China), H.Nijmeijer (The Netherlands).
The award (the Diploma and the book of St.Petersbook sights) was presented
at the Closing Session to C.C.Chu (Taiwan) for the paper "Chaotic Motions
of Simple Power System Models". All the finalists were awarded by
sertificates.
SOCIAL PROGRAMME
The rich Social Programme was organized at the Conference. It included
Sightseeing Tours: survey bus tour of St.Petersburg, waterbus tour "Over
the Neva river". Tours to the Hermitage and the bus tours over suburbs:
"Peterhoff fountains" and "Tsarskoe selo(Pushkin)" were organized before
and after the conference. Additional sightseeing programme for
accompanying persons was organized too. The conference Banquet took place
on Thursday 28 August in the old fashioned Elagin palace located at the
picturesque island in the mouth of Neva river where the emperess
Elisavette lived in the 18th century. The farewell reception was organized
in the House of Scientists after the closing session.
Financially the Conference was a success (no losses). The IUTAM grant
US$1000 for partial reimbursement of travel expenses was distributed to 10
attendees according to the decision taken at the IPC-NOC meeting during
the Conference. IPC-NOC recommended also to organize the next conference
again in St.Petersburg in the year 2000. This suggestion was approved at
the closing plenary session and it was recommended to IPC to continue
their job towards the next Conference.
Address of the Organizing Committee:
St.Petersburg Informatics and Control Society (SPICS)
Institute for Problems of Mechanical Engineering of Russian Academy of Sciences (IPME)