9th Workshop on Optimization and Inverse Problems in Electromagnetism (OIPE), Sorrento

Citation

Martone, R. and Formisano, A. (2007), "9th Workshop on Optimization and Inverse Problems in Electromagnetism (OIPE), Sorrento", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 26 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/compel.2007.17426baa.001

9th Workshop on Optimization and Inverse Problems in Electromagnetism (OIPE), Sorrento

Sorrento, Italy, 13-15 September 2006

It is a real honour and a great pleasure to introduce the special section of this COMPEL issue, devoted to publish a selection of contributions presented during the 9th Workshop on Optimization and Inverse Problems in Electromagnetism (OIPE, Sorrento), held in Sorrento, Italy on 13-15 September 2006.

OIPE workshops provide one of the wider and most relevant forums for the lively community of scientists active in the challenging field of optimization and inverse problems in electromagnetism. In fact, the main aim of OIPE is to discuss recent developments in optimization and inverse methodologies and their applications to the design and operation of electromagnetic devices. Therefore, the workshop presents a stimulating occasion to scientists working in various fields (e.g. mathematics, physics, engineering, etc.) to exchange information of potential relevance for the innovation in electromagnetic methods and applications.

The OIPE series was established in 1989 (Pavia, Italy) on the basis of the strategic importance of optimization and inverse problems in electromagnetic research. These initials aims were continued and further developed through a series of biennial events held in Warsaw, Poland (1992), Geneva, Switzerland (1994), Brno, Czech Republic (1996), Jyvaskyla, Finland (1998), Torino, Italy (2000), Lodz, Poland (2002), Grenoble, France (2004) until the most recent held in Sorrento (2006).

Among the guidelines of the OIPE philosophy a prominent role is given to the interdisciplinary. The idea is quite simple while effective. Researchers working in optimization and inverse problems in electromagnetism need quite complex and innovative mathematical tools. In addition, they know that the most innovative ideas for high performance function analysis come from nature (from disciplines including sociology, ethology, genetics, thermodynamics and so on). Therefore, the people who first established the OIPE workshops aimed for a deep and stable cooperation with other scientific communities, that seemed very promising in terms of effectiveness, innovation capability and, in general, the exchange of new cultural ideas.

In addition, they also realized that electromagnetism is a very challenging and attractive scientific field for other research communities. Electromagnetism continues to propose new challenging questions from both conceptual and applicative points of view in several directions including communications, human and animal health, technical compatibility, energy conversion and transportation and so on.

As a consequence a scientific alliance was promoted among different cultural sectors aimed at exchanging experience and achieving new goals in the innovative sector of optimization and inverse problems methods, algorithms and applications.

Today after about 20 years, the figures showing the cooperative capabilities of these communities seems very encouraging. The scientific program of OIPE, Sorrento (organized by Raffaele Martone and Alessandro Formisano, Chairman and Organizer of the Secretariat, respectively) included more than 100 contributions, selected by means of a peer review process among more than 120 submitted contributions. The internationality of OIPE 2006 is illustrated by more than 250 authors, coming from 24 countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America.

The call for papers for OIPE, Sorrento was based on the following main topics:

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  Theoretical aspects and formulations, including fundamental mathematical theory, issues on existence and uniqueness, regularisation techniques, etc.

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  Algorithms and numerical techniques, including traditional and new techniques (swarm, ant colony, immune algorithms, etc.), multi-objective optimization, design sensitivity, uncertainties treatment, etc.

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  Devices and applications, including electrical and electronic engineering (magnets, electrical machines, power and distribution systems, etc.), non destructive diagnostics, testing and evaluation (eddy current, magnetography, tomographic techniques, etc.), nano and micro systems, bio-medical systems, etc.

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  Software methodologies and tools, including optimization environment, soft computing (neural networks, fuzzy systems, artificial intelligence, etc.), parallel and distributed algorithms, etc.

As anticipated, in OIPE Sorrento a two-stage peer reviewing procedure was undertaken. The first step was to select the papers to be presented at the workshop from the submitted abstracts. The second step was to select the best papers to be published in the international journal COMPEL (The International Journal for Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering) and those to be published in the journal IJAEM (International Journal of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics). The OIPE Sorrento Editorial Board consisted of 24 well known scientists from nine different countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas with the conviction that their service was the essential in consolidating the high standards of the conference.

The scientific community produced a wide-ranging set of significant and interesting papers, covering the main themes in the area. Moreover, if the content of the papers submitted to OIPE are carefully considered, future tendencies and areas of research in this sector can be anticipated.

The first major point of interest of the papers is that the collective algorithms specialized for global searching (including genetic, evolutionary, immune and fuzzy systems, neural network) retain the full interest of the community. However, such interest seems particularly oriented to face with vectorial search (multiobjective optimization problems, often studied by means of Pareto approaches) or to suitably reduce the impact of ill-posedness or of uncertainties (both for optimization and inverse problems). Particular attention seems to be reserved to the optimized design of the overall system for inverse problems, from the optimal choice of the representation basis to the optimal allocation of the probe set.

The second point of interest regards the range of applications, where, among traditional ones, particular attention is given to two emerging fields: biomedicine and energy management in the context of caring for the environment. Several papers dealt with applications in the field of electromechanics (e.g. optimal design and fault diagnostics), in non destructive testing (in the classical industrial applications as well as in the new applications in civil engineering), in power and signal electronics (e.g. circuit design, passive and active shielding, filter optimization), and many of these papers appear to be very interesting and full of innovative ideas. However, an increasing number of papers were focused on biomedical applications including magneto-pneumology, electro-encephalography, nerves system and brain studies, electro-thermal ablation, resonance imaging and so on. A significant number of contributions dealt with energy management, including optimization of power plants, wind turbines and solar plants studies, cogeneration system optimization, and so on.

These emerging research directions seem to confirm the importance of cooperation among different research groups which has been of the main aim of the OIPE community since its conception. It is consequently easy to foresee for the near future a new, deepened, cooperation across fields, including specialized fields such as medicine, thermodynamics, mechanics, air pollution, as well as in the general expertise of the protection of the environment.

The positive results achieved by the 9th OIPE Workshop are mainly due to the support received from several institutions (in particular Seconda Università di Napoli, Italy and Consorzio CREATE, Italy), from the enthusiastic work given by senior and junior colleagues (including the members of the International Steering Committee, of the Editorial Board, of the Local Steering Committee and a number of PhD students of Seconda Università di Napoli) and from the encouragement and the fruitful cooperation given by the scientific journals COMPEL and IJAEM.

By way of conclusion, we wish to share with readers the firm belief that the lively scientific community gathering around OIPE workshops, deep-rooted inside the wider international electromagnetism community and linked collaboratively with other subject areas, will provide a useful contribution to the development of scientific competencies in this area.

Raffaele Martone and Alessandro FormisanoGuest Editors