FOCAPO and CPC have individually been the premier conferences in their respective areas of computer-aided process operations and chemical process control. Recognizing that, particularly from an industrial manufacturing perspective, these areas have a tremendous overlap, the motivation of the first joint FOCAPO 2012/CPC-8 was to bring the two communities together, thereby fostering interesting interactions and collaborations. The post-conference survey overwhelmingly supported another joint conference format. FOCAPO / CPC 2017 aims to further strengthen collaboration between the two communities.

Meeting Scope and Format

The conference will kick-off with registration and parallel workshops on Sunday afternoon. The workshop will provide solid technical foundations for the conference so that participants can be introduced to technologies such as model predictive control, supply chain operations and enterprise wide optimization as they are being applied today. The conference will then begin with a joint plenary session followed by a common welcome reception Sunday evening. The remainder of the conference will have a parallel/joint conference format, with two morning sessions and an early afternoon session for each conference on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday running in parallel. A joint session in the late afternoon on those days will be held for topics of mutual interest. Joint poster sessions will occur on the evenings of Monday and Tuesday. Thursday morning will be dedicated to a joint session to identify future research directions for both communities. Thursday afternoon is set aside for social events and networking.

Conference Objectives

• Exploiting the Internet of Things and Big Data across the domains of control, process operations, and supply chain management
• Identify emerging technologies, new areas of research and nontraditional application domains
• Integrating strategic, tactical, and operational decisions through modeling, optimization and control
• Education and workforce development

Contributed Poster Presentations

Two poster sessions will showcase recent developments for both academic and industrial participants. All papers submitted for poster presentation will be peer reviewed. Some papers will be chosen for publication in a special issue of Computers and Chemical Engineering that will be devoted to this joint conference. A few papers will also be selected to be presented in a special oral presentation in the conference on Monday. Young faculty are encouraged to submit papers and will be given special consideration.

Education and Workforce Training Session

The application of academic research to industrial problems continues to be a challenge that limits the commercial impact of new technical developments. A joint session is planned to explore the needs of industry regarding new hire education and workforce training in support of the application of advanced process systems engineering applications.

Future Research Directions

The conference will end with a presentation, panel type discussion and reports from work groups. The aim of this session is to define the current status of the PSE field and stake out promising directions for research. The presentations and discussions will be recorded and form the basis for a white paper to be submitted for publication in Computers and Chemical Engineering and shared with relevant funding agencies. The discussions will be structured and facilitated.

Joint Conference Speakers