Special Sessions

Time: 7:30 - 8:30 am

Location: Pier 2

Graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and early career researchers are warmly invited to a special breakfast session designed to kick off the first full day of the conference in a friendly and informal setting. This breakfast will be a perfect opportunity to meet new peers and to make a game plan for your conference agenda. It is also a chance to meet members of the newly formed NextCom committee within the Control Systems Society and learn about upcoming resources, workshops, and networking opportunities aimed at supporting early career members of our community.

Time: 10 - 11:30 am

Location: Dockside 1

This family-friendly session will consist of showing a STEM-related short story intended to be enjoyable by both older and younger audiences, followed by STEM-related games. This content will last approximately 30 minutes, repeated 3 times so that people can come through to enjoy it or repeat it. The age range being targeted will be preschool/pre-K to early elementary age range, though older audiences are also welcome and may enjoy the events. Parents or guardians are required to be present and supervise their children at all times.

Time: 11 am - 12:30 pm

Location: Pier 2

The National Science Foundation (NSF) offers multiple funding opportunities for investigators working in the field of controls, both within disciplinary programs in Engineering and other directorates, and through foundation-wide cross-cutting initiatives. This presentation will describe opportunities that are relevant to the robotics, dynamics and controls communities. The presentation will also describe programs targeted toward junior investigators, as well as guidelines for proposal preparation and NSF’s Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts criteria. A question-and-answer session will follow the presentation.

Time: 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Location: Queen's Quay 1

A guide to publishing within Elsevier's control and systems portfolio of journals for early career researchers. The session will elaborate on the most efficient ways of submitting a paper and give Early Career Researchers tips and tricks to ensure their research is more likely to be accepted. It will also include a 'Meet the Publisher' event where researchers can ask their publishing questions one-on-one with the publisher on-site. 

Time: 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Location: Dockside 2

A panel on "Social Justice and Control Theory" can provide a platform for discussing the intersection of control theory, engineering, and societal concerns related to equity, fairness, and social justice. The panel features experts from various fields, including control theory, engineering, ethics, and social justice advocacy. The objective is to help bridge the gap between the technical aspects of control theory and the ethical and societal considerations needed to ensure that control systems and technology contribute to a more equitable and just society. Furthermore, it should inspire collaboration and encourage engineers and technologists to integrate social justice in their work.

Time: 11:30 am - 1 pm

Location: Bay

This 1.5-hour session will feature three informal tutorials (30 minutes each) that highlight the capabilities of prominent open-source software packages for posing and solving control problems in Python and Julia, namely NeuroMANCER, Gekko, and InfiniteOpt. 

These each will be led by a core developer of each package. In the context of control, NeuroMANCER provides a differentiable programming library for parametric model-based optimal control, Gekko provides optimization and machine learning methods for rigorous nonlinear model predictive control, and InfiniteOpt provides a flexible optimization interface for posing optimal control problems with uncertainty and novel modeling objects.

Time: 12 - 1:30 pm

Location: Pier 4 and Pier 5

The Women in Control Committee (WiC) is dedicated to empowering and promoting gender diversity in the Control Systems Society (CSS) by facilitating the development of mentoring and programs to promote the retention, recruitment, and growth of women CSS members. The WiC luncheon at ACC 2024 in Toronto, Canada provides the opportunity to network, discuss women's roles in CSS, inspire the next generation of female leaders, and foster collaborations to advance women's leadership.
This special session will provide female researchers and professionals with the invaluable opportunity to network, seek guidance, and engage with senior faculty members and industry leaders.

Time: 5:30-7:30 pm

Location: Metro W

The Student Networking special session aims to provide all interested students attending ACC 2024 the opportunity to receive valuable career advice from experts in industry, academia, and national laboratories. Moreover, it seeks to enhance student engagement in the conference and promote awareness of the benefits of involvement in the control community by offering a platform that facilitates connections with peers and the attending professionals. In the first 25 minutes of this structured event, the invited professionals will present their backgrounds and areas of interest.

This will be followed by 3 rounds of rotating round-table conversations where, in each round, 7-8 students will have the opportunity for open discussion with a professional for 20 minutes before moving to another table. The final 30 minutes are reserved for open social networking to allow students to connect with peers and the remaining invited professionals with whom they did not interact during the round-table discussions. An assortment of snacks will be provided!

The event will be open to the first 125 students, registered using the link (available from Monday, 17th June, 8:00 am EST): https://forms.office.com/r/qJJjpu9JAN

Time: 8 - 11 pm (boarding begins at 7:30 pm)

Students, postdoctoral scholars, and other early-career researchers are invited to join CSS NextCom for an evening of celebration, networking, music, and sightseeing aboard a two-deck yacht! Light food options will be provided. To sign up for a chance to join, please fill out the form.

Please note that the boat space is presently limited to 60 attendees. In case there is more interest than space, the first 15 sign-ups will be guaranteed a spot and the rest of the attendees be selected via a random lottery, with additional priority given to first-time ACC attendees. Information about the meeting point will be communicated directly to the attendees via provided e-mail address.

Time: 7:30 - 8:30 am

Location: Dockside 1

Students and early-career researchers are warmly invited to special breakfast sessions on Thursday and Friday. Sponsored by the Technical Committee on Security and Privacy, the student-organized sessions will explore a new landscape of cyber-physical systems (CPS) research by bringing together young scholars working on the security and privacy of CPS and their applications in diverse areas. In addition to technical presentations, this student-organized workshop features a panel discussion and experience-sharing mixer on academic job-seeking and career development. The primary objective of these sessions is to engage early-career researchers from multiple topical areas in control society and create a vibrant and sustainable research thrust dedicated to the security, privacy, and resiliency of the next-generation cyber-physical systems.

Time: 11:30 am - 1:15 pm

Location: Bay

So, you think you have a great research idea, now how do you get funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to do the work? A well-scoped and written proposal is instrumental to successful submission. This session targets junior faculty and researchers who might be new to NSF and describes detailed guidelines and practical advice for proposal preparation. The presenter will go over NSF review process and Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts criteria, as well as share most common mistakes made by the Primary Investigators when submitting a proposal. Question-and-answer session will follow the presentation.

Time: 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Location: Queen's Quay 1

This session will aim to bring together students and researchers from industry and academia to discuss ideas on how we can promote Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (JEDI) in the control field, as a way to foster representation and a sense of belonging for all members of the controls community. The session will involve a panel composed of researchers, who will share their experiences in promoting JEDI initiatives. All members of the ACC community, including underrepresented minorities, and welcome to attend this event.

Time: 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Location: Dockside 1

This session will discuss the use of film in STEM outreach. We will cover our experience with topics such as: 1) how to start such a film; 2) how to see if the film is “working”; 3) how to move into the animation process (even if you are not an artist). We will discuss potentially useful software as well as aspects of the editing process. We will focus on filmmaking in the case of wanting to tell a story where STEM plays a role in the plot, but the film is not directly a tutorial on STEM concepts (i.e., indirect teaching of STEM through the plot and characters).

Time: 12 - 1:15 pm

Location: Queen's Quay 2

As a leading global aerospace company, Boeing develops, manufactures and services commercial airplanes, defense products and space systems for customers in more than 150 countries. As a top U.S. exporter, the company leverages the talents of a global supplier base to advance economic opportunity, sustainability and community impact. Boeing's diverse team is committed to innovating for the future, leading with sustainability, and cultivating a culture based on the company's core values of safety, quality and integrity. Join our team and find your purpose at boeing.com/careers.

Boeing wants to get to know you and what legacy you want to create that will change the world. Come to the Boeing special session and meet the team!”

Time: 12 - 1:15 pm

Location: Pier 2

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) is a leading research organization that conducts fundamental research for industrially motivated problems. MERL is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, a global manufacturer of a wide range of products including robots, automotive, HVAC, factory automation, electrical systems, and space systems. MERL researchers collaborate with corporate laboratories and academic partners from around the world to develop novel solutions to challenging problems.

In this talk we present an overview of research activities at MERL, including fundamental research in control and its application to a variety of future products. We discuss fundamental research including model predictive control and control of constrained systems, estimation and motion planning for autonomous systems, real-time optimization and integration of learning and control. Then, we describe how these fundamental research areas have impacted real world applications and products such as automated vehicles, drones, spacecraft, robots and navigation systems.

Students and faculty interested in collaborations are ideas exchange are encouraged to attend

Time: 7:30 - 8:30 am

Location: Dockside 1

Students and early-career researchers are warmly invited to special breakfast sessions on Thursday and Friday. Sponsored by the Technical Committee on Security and Privacy, the student-organized sessions will explore a new landscape of cyber-physical systems (CPS) research by bringing together young scholars working on the security and privacy of CPS and their applications in diverse areas. In addition to technical presentations, this student-organized workshop features a panel discussion and experience-sharing mixer on academic job-seeking and career development. The primary objective of these sessions is to engage early-career researchers from multiple topical areas in control society and create a vibrant and sustainable research thrust dedicated to the security, privacy, and resiliency of the next-generation cyber-physical systems.

Time: 10:15 am - 1:15 pm

Location: Dockside 1

In this session, attendees will be able to watch a full-length film being created by Dr. Helen Durand called “Independence.”

The film is a science fiction adventure. Dr. Lucas is at ethical odds with a number of colleagues due to his experiments in finding ways to mark the offenses of individuals against programmed moral standards, supposedly to improve their lives. Dr. Lucas’ research ideas at the intersection of science and morality have caused Dr. Fuertes serious issues. He is living a life of deception to avoid nearing death, trying to find some way to make up for his past and become free.

This film may be appropriate for teenagers and above due to scientific discussions (with significant artistic liberty) and also violence in plot points, including murder, harm, and peril.

This is an initial version of the script that will be presented in stop motion or storyboard format and is in the development stage. Your feedback is welcome.

Get ready for moral values meets eigenvalues.

Time: 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Location: Bay

The dynamic landscape of innovation, research, and product delivery continuously evolves, presenting us with valuable lessons and insights. This special session aims to explore how one's perspective and priorities are influenced by the role they play in the innovation ecosystem: corporate, academic, or startup. The speaker/s will delve into the positive aspects, the challenges, and the less glamorous realities associated with each of these roles. Additionally, strategies for striking a balance between these perspectives will be discussed, to foster a more efficient and effective society. 

Key topics of discussion include: shifting perspectives in problem perception and definition, decision-making dynamics in these different contexts, and roadmaps towards productive societal innovation.

Time: 11:30 am - 1 pm

Location: Queens Quay 2

Over the years, researchers based in Canada have consistently made  substantial contributions to the field of systems and control. This session aims to highlight the recent theoretical and technological breakthroughs achieved by these Canadian scholars and professionals in areas such as control, mechatronics, data analytics, intelligent systems, and automation. Beyond showcasing these innovations, our goal is to foster a platform for Canadian researchers to engage with and gain insights from their peers across institutions. We also hope to stimulate discussions among Canadian experts and their global counterparts, paving the way for potential collaboration.

Time: 11:30 am - 1 pm

Location: Queen's Quay 1

Extreme weather events, such as heat waves, cold waves, wildfires, and storms, are increased in intensity, frequency and duration and can have significant impacts on human health, infrastructure (such as power grid) and the environment. Power grids are undergoing massive transformation through large-scale integration of renewable energy resources, and distributed energy resources, while having to be more resilient during extreme weather events. 

Control and learning methods, not only have contributed to the operation and planning practices of power grids as we know them today, but also can play even a bigger role in shaping the decarbonized and resilient grid of the future. This session will bring together a group of diverse experts to discuss the opportunities for and challenges of developing and integrating advanced control and learning technologies in the operation and planning of power grid.

Time: 12 - 1:15 pm

Location: Pier 2

This presentation will discuss various methodologies, challenges, and lessons learned related to teaching an engineering curriculum in an asynchronous fashion (aka a ‘flipped classroom’). This format has demonstrated significant benefits such as increased student engagement, greater flexibility in learning, and broadened impact/reach but simultaneously presents unique challenges such as additional instructor overhead and effort. Presenter will discuss how to encapsulate information and use social media platforms such as YouTube to build an online teaching presence that can be leveraged by students both inside and outside your home university. The discussion will also highlight how MATLAB and Simulink facilitate the teaching of various engineering topics such as controls, flight mechanics, and simulation. It will also discuss the application of these concepts/tools to industry problems. This session strives to provide educators with tools and processes to increase their teaching impact and enable knowledge sharing across a global population.