Plenary Lectures Abstracts
Plenary Lecture 1.
Tales of Computer and Systems Theory
Paul Cull
Computer Science, Kelley Engineering Center, Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
ABSTRACT
Were computers invented so that Norbert Wiener would not have to compute ballistic tables? Could a theoretical mapping between analysis and algebra allow scientists to turn animals inside out? What do Euclid and Lewis Carroll have to do with computer aided systems theory? These are some of the improbable ques- tions we will explore in anecdotal history of computers and systems theory. This is not formal history, rather these are tales that are passed between colleagues and from teachers to students.
Among the questions we would like to answer are: Is EVERYTHING possible? Might the IMPOSSIBLE still be PRACTICAL? Does theory drive practice or does practice drive theory?
In the end we may be left with more questions than answers.
SHORT CV: Paul Cull is a long time contributor to EUROCAST. He has been attending since the 1990’s. His background is in mathematical biology and computer science. He did his graduate studies with Nicolas Rashevsky’s group at the University of Chicago. His Ph.D. thesis, under the direction of Luigi Ricciardi, was on the use of linear algebra for the analysis of neural nets. In 1970, he joined the faculty of Oregon State University as one of the founding members of the Computer Science Department. After many years of teaching and research, he is now Professor Emeritus.
Plenary Lecture 2.
Promises and Challenges of Automated Vehicles
Christoph Stiller
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT, Germany
ABSTRACT
This talk discusses the state-of-the-art and a potential evolution of self-driving cars. It will outline approaches and challenges for achieving full autonomy for self-driving cars and elaborate the potential of cooperativity for automated driving. The talk will look at homologation issues and how these are approached by different stakeholders.
We will look at many examples, including the DARPA and GCDC Challenges.
The talk will draw on lessons learned and challenges to be overcome from the perspective of the German Research Priority Program "Cooperative Interactive Automobiles".
SHORT CV: Christoph Stiller studied Electrical Engineering in Aachen, Germany and Trondheim, Norway, and received the Diploma degree and the Dr.-Ing. degree (Ph.D.) from Aachen University of Technology in 1988 and 1994, respectively. He worked with INRS-Telecommunications in Montreal, Canada for a post-doctoral year in 1994/1995 and with Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany from 1995 - 2001. In 2001 he became Chaired Professor and Director of the Institute for Measurement and Control Systems at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.
Dr. Stiller serves as Senior Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles (2015-ongoing) and as Associate Editor for the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine (2012-ongoing). He served as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine (2009-2011). His automated driving team AnnieWAY has been finalist in the Darpa Urban Challenge 2007 as well as first and second winner of the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge in 2011 and 2016, respectively. He has served is several positions for the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society including being its President 2012-2013.
Plenary Lecture 3.
Automated Mathematical Invention: Would Gröbner Need a PhD Student Today?
Bruno Buchberger
Research Institut for Symbolic Computation (RISC)
Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria
ABSTRACT:
Wolfgang Gröbner (1899 – 1980) was my PhD advisor back in 1964 at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. The problem he posed to me had been formulated, in a slightly different form, by Paul Gordan in 1899 and was still open in 1964. Roughly, the problem asks for an algorithmic canonical simplifier for the congruence relations w.r.t. multivariate polynomial ideals. I solved the problem in 1965 in my PhD thesis by introducing what I later called the theory and method of “Gröbner bases”. The theory and method found numerous applications both inside mathematics and in basically all areas of science and technology in which non-linear polynomial systems play a role (e.g. robotics, cryptography, computer-aided design, software verification, systems theory, etc.)
In this talk I will, first, give an easy and practical introduction to the theory and method of Gröbner bases for those with no or only little background in this area. My main emphasis, however, will be on my recent research on automating mathematical invention. For this, I will take the theory of Gröbner bases as my main example. I will show how, by recent progress in automated reasoning and, in particular, my method of “Lazy Thinking” for the automated invention and proof of mathematical theorems and algorithms, my theory and method of Gröbner bases today could be “invented” completely automatically. In other words, cum grano salis, Professor Gröbner today would not need any more a PhD student for solving his problem.
From this, I will draw some conclusions on the future of mathematics.
SHORT CV: Bruno Buchberger is Professor emeritus of Computer Mathematics at RISC (Research Institute for Symbolic Computation), Johannes Kepler University (JKU) in Linz, Austria.
Founding editor (1985 - 2000) of the Journal of Symbolic Computation.Founding chairman (1987 – 2000) of RISC.Founder and director (1989 – 2013) of the JKU Softwarepark Hagenberg, the first Softwarepark as such, a world leading concept.
Author of the theory of Gröbner bases, established in his PhD thesis 1965 and expanded later in his publications. Since then, the theory has been a subject of over 20 textbooks, over 3000 publications, and of a larger number of citations.
His current main research interest is on automated mathematical theory exploration (the "Theorema Project”).
Awards and honors:
- Herbrand Award for Automated Reasoning 2018 (CADE, Oxford)
- ACM Kanellakis “Theory and Practice” Award 2007 (San Francisco),
- member of the Academy of Europe 1991
- six honorary doctorates from international universities
- over 150 invited keynotes at international conferences
- Austrian of the Year 2010 and many other Austrian honors.