The 2024 FrontSeat Summer School, aligned with the objectives of the FrontSeat project, was organized by Prof. Gabriele Pannocchia’s group at the Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa, Italy.

The second edition of the FrontSeat Summer School offered a 5-day program combining theoretical lectures, hands-on workshops, and social activities. The lectures covered a variety of topics, including optimal control problem formulation and solution, numerical optimization, model predictive control, moving horizon estimation, and system identification techniques using both traditional and machine learning methods. The practical implementation of the lecture content was carried out during the accompanying workshops, utilizing open-source software tools such as CasADi, acados, MPCCode, SIPPY, and Neural Networks with PyTorch.

There was also plenty of time to get to know the other participants, providing an opportunity to network within the research community and beyond. To this end, a joint social program was organized, featuring visits to the famous Piazza dei Miracoli and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and rounding off the day with a pleasant social dinner.

The final sessions were dedicated to working in small groups on individual application projects centered around optimization-based control, utilizing the methods and software covered during the course. The Summer School concluded with project presentations and the awarding of certificates.

Overall, the second edition of the FrontSeat Summer School offered an excellent opportunity to both expand research horizons and build new connections with scientists from different countries. Further details and impressions can be found at https://frontseat.stuba.sk/.

Overview