Workshop: CDC 2008 Student Travel Support. To be held in Fiesta Americana Hotel, Cancun, Mexico, on December 7-11, 2008.

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System theory plays a critical role in technological advancements in a wide array of applications: from new flight control or guidance systems for airplanes and other aerospace vehicles to advanced manufacturing techniques to systems biology and high-speed communication networks. By providing a better understanding of the underlying models, their limitations as well as their potential, different branches of system theory are emerging as instrumental tools in dealing with new challenges that have emerged especially in the areas of modeling and control of large complex systems. For example, large communication networks and power systems are particularly vulnerable to both deliberate and accidental disturbances. Their interconnected structure implies that isolated events can cascade throughout the network with disastrous effects. The systems view also shows tremendous potential in other important fields such as biology or quantum computing. The IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) has long provided the best scientific forum for such deliberations as it brings researchers from all over the world and facilitates their interaction. This year, and for the first time ever the CDC is being held in Latin America (Cancun, Mexico). We anticipate that CDC 2008 will draw approximately 1300 participants. Many of them will be distinguished members of the scientific community, others will be seasoned researches and practitioners, while others will be graduate students who are about to launch their careers. We are particularly concerned about these younger participants as they constitute our future. Recognizing the importance of this group, the Operating Committee of CDC?08, and the leadership of the Control Systems Society (CSS) would like to support and encourage the participation of graduate students. We have already instituted a special graduate student Registration Fee that is one half that of regular attendees. In this proposal we are asking that NSF continue its long tradition of support of this Conference by providing funds that can be used for graduate student travel support. Intellectual Merit:Given the scope of the conference, its unprecedented international cooperation and breath, its large number of key plenary and semi-plenary lectures as well as tutorial sessions aimed at providing state of the art view to the scientific community on 4 emerging technologies, CDC 08 provides an exceptional intellectual and training opportunity for prospective control faculty and researchers. We believe that the intellectual benefits of attending this conference on student attendees and the future of the control systems research will be quite significant and worthy of substantial support by all interested parties. Broader Impact: Such venues are of special importance for the training of new researchers and graduate students in systems and control. This year, the large number of plenary talks, interactive sessions, tutorials, as well the depth of the international cooperation in staging of the conference will provide students with a unique opportunity for training, far beyond a typical conference. A successful Student Travel Grant will validate the commitment of current CSS leadership in continued support of student activities for future generations of students. The National Science Foundation has consistently supported these activities over the years by providing partial travel support for graduate students participating in the Conference. In this proposal we are asking that NFS continue this long-standing tradition and provide travel support for graduate students who will be participating in the CDC 08.