This volume presents developments and advances in modelling passive and active control systems governed by partial differential equations. It emphasizes shape analysis, optimal shape design, controllability, nonlinear boundary control, and stabilization. The authors include essential data on exact boundary controllability of thermoelastic plates with variable transmission coefficients.

Top researchers in optimization and control from around the world gathered in Detroit for the 18th annual IFIP TC7 Conference on Systems Modelling and Optimization held in July 1997. The papers offered in this volume were selected from among the 250 plenary, invited, and contributed works presented at the conference. The editors chose these papers to represent the myriad and diverse range of topics within the field -in theory and applications-and to disseminate important new results.
The editors have organized the book into seven sections:

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