9th Elgersburg School 2017 (March 26 - April 1, 2017)
Topics
The school is on two topics of current interest in the field of systems and control theory and its applications. Each topic is presented by a leading expert in the field. In addition to the lectures there will be example classes. Participants will attend both courses.
For more information about the current courses click on "Courses".
Who can attend?
The school is open to international PhD and advanced undergraduate students from engineering sciences or mathematics. A background in systems and control theory or related fields will be required.
Scholarships
A limited number of scholarships will be available. These scholarships will in general cover the full travel and lodging expenses. Because of the restricted number of such scholarships, we ask that students preferentially use funds available at their home institutions.
Participants will attend both courses.
Arrival: Sunday, March 26, 2017
Departure: Saturday, April 1, 2017
Deadline for applications:
Please make sure that Achim Ilchmann receives a CV from the applicant and
a short letter of recommondation from the supervisor, both by email.
Accomodation

The workshop takes place in the Hotel "Am Wald" in Elgersburg (Thuringia).
The cost for the hotel including full board (including Sunday evening March 26 and
Saturday morning April 1) is EUR 510,- for a single room and EUR 410,- for a double room per person.
The costs will be covered for participants receiving scholarships.
More detailed information about the hotel and about Elgersburg can be found at the following web pages:
Courses
Control theory of digitally networked dynamic systems
Jan Lunze (U Bochum)
Modern means of communication make it easy to connect system components like sensors, actuators or even whole subsystems whenever information links may contribute to improving the overall system performance. Due to this flexibility, a new challenge for control theory is to elaborate systematic ways for the selection of the information structure that are suitable for a given control task.
The lectures deal with important lines of research in the new field of networked dynamic systems starting from the new research questions raised by the availability of digital communication networks and the closer integration of communication and control theory. Algebraic graph theory is used as the foundation for novel analysis and design methods for multi-agent systems, for event-based control, and for self-organised networked control. Several examples and experimental results illustrate important phenomena found in networked systems and the applicability of the methods explained.
Suggested reading: J. Lunze (Ed.): "Control Theory of Digitally Networked Dynamic Systems", Springer-Verlag 2014
Optimal control techniques
Matthias Gerdts (Bundeswehr U München)
Optimal control problems appear in various applications in the engineering sciences, economical sciences, or natural sciences. The common task in these applications is
to control a dynamic system in such a way that a given performance measure is
minimized taking into account control or state constraints. The lectures deal with
theoretical foundations of optimal control in terms of necessary conditions and in particular with discretization techniques for solving optimal control problems numerically. Links to related subjects like model-predictive control techniques are being discussed and numerical experiments will be conducted, in which vehicles and robots are controlled in an optimal way.
Suggested reading: M. Gerdts: "Optimal Control of ODEs and DAEs", DeGruyter, Berlin, 2011.
Participants
Name | University |
---|---|
Dimitri Morgenstern | ITWM (Kaiserslautern, GER) |
Karetyna Sapozhnikova | FH Erfurt (GER) |
Karim Cherifi | U Baugara of Boumerdes (Algeria) |
Hoang Lê Huy | U Hamburg (GER) |
Marc Puche | U Hamburg (GER) |
Ines Dorschky | U Hamburg (GER) |
Lia Strenge | TU Berlin (GER) |
Raja Vadamalu | TU Darmstadt (GER) |
Adnan Jafar | GIK Institute (Pakistan) |
Liudmyla Vyhivska | NAS (Ukraine) |
Iryna Denega | NAS (Ukraine) |
Björn Baran | MPI Magdeburg (GER) |
Amin Aghababaei | Ruhr U Bochum (GER) |
Manuela Hund | MPI Magdeburg (GER) |
Felix Petzke | TU Chemnitz (GER) |
Jonas Witschel | TU Ilmenau (GER) |
Daniel Bankmann | TU Berlin (GER) |
Bruno Morabito | OvGU Magdeburg (GER) |
Andreas Himmel | OvGU Magdeburg (GER) |
Janine Matschek | OvGU Magdeburg (GER) |
Ferdinand Küsters | ITWM Kaiserslautern (GER) |
Maximilian Gaukler | FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg (GER) |
Simon Pirkelmann | U Bayreuth (GER) |
Andreas Rott | CvOU Oldenburg (GER) |
Kai Schenk | RU Bochum (GER) |
Thomas Göhrt | TU Chemnitz (GER) |
Michael Schwung | RU Bochum (GER) |
Klaus Albert | TU München (GER) |
Matthias Schlöder | U Heidelberg (GER) |
Frédéric Haller | U Hamburg (GER) |
Seyed Mostafa Abdolkhaleghzadeh | U Mashhad (Iran) |
|
Lecturers
- Jan Lunze
(U Bochum) - Matthias Gerdts
(Bundeswehr U München)
Assistants
- Philipp Welz
(U Bochum) - Bjoern Martens
(Bundeswehr U München)
Organizers
Achim Ilchmann
(TU Ilmenau)
Timo Reis
(U Hamburg)
Fabian Wirth
(Universität Passau)
Programme
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
08:30 | Jan Lunze | Matthias Gerdts | Jan Lunze | Matthias Gerdts Opt. Control | Jan Lunze |
10:00 | Coffee & Tea | ||||
10:30 | Matthias Gerdts | Jan Lunze Networked Systems | Matthias Gerdts | Jan Lunze | Matthias Gerdts |
12:00 | Lunch | ||||
14:30 | Work on ex. sheet NS | Work on ex. sheet OC | 13:30 Train | Work on ex. sheet OC | Work on ex. sheet NS |
15:45 | Discussion ex. sheet NS | Discussion ex. sheet OC | 15:30 Coffee 16:15 Guided tour ctd. ![]() | Discussion ex. sheet OC | Discussion ex. sheet NS |
16:45 | Coffee & Tea | Coffee & Tea | |||
17:15 | Work on ex. sheet OC | Work on ex. sheet NS | Work on ex. sheet NS | Work on ex. sheet OC | |
18:30 | Discussion ex. sheet OC | Discussion ex. sheet NS | Discussion ex. sheet NS | Discussion ex. sheet OC | |
19:30 | Dinner |
Registration
Confirmation notice
The number of participants is strictly limited to 40 due to the size of the workshop hotel. If more than 40 registrations are received, the organizers will rank registrations according to expertise in systems and control and invite the first 40 of this list. Confirmation notices will be sent out before ...
- A CV of the applicant is required and an e-mail of the supervisor is required including
- Recommendation of the applicant for the summer school.
- Declaration whether the applicant needs financial support.
- A statement whether the applicant would be able to come if no financial support can be provided.
Please send this e-mail to Achim Ilchmann
Travel

Elgersburg can be reached via local trains from Erfurt, which is connected to the German high speed train network.
Trains from Erfurt to Elgersburg (destination Ilmenau) run every hour.
The nearest airport is Leipzig, which has few international connections.
From the major airports in Frankfurt and Berlin, Erfurt can be reached by train in 2-3 hours.
Frankfurt has the advantage, that there are direct trains between the airport and Erfurt.