This volume covers a wide variety of papers on learning, control and hybrid systems. The papers are the proceedings of the Bangalore Workshop held in January 1998, that honoured the 50th birthdays of Mathukumalli Vidyasagar and Bruce Allen Francis. The 27 papers, written by international specialists in the field, cover a variety of interests. The editors have grouped these into the following 4 categories: a) Learning and Computational Issues b) Hybrid Systems c) Modeling, Identification and Estimation d) Robust Control. The research areas are diverse and comprehensive, giving the reader a unique opportunity to explore a variety of fields in which control/system theorists will be interested. Specific topics include: learning in dynamical systems, randomized algorithms in robust control design, identification of systems, digital signal processing, robust and H-infinity control, control of hybrid systems and supervisory control. This book will also provide readers with an insight into future directions in control and system theory, as they are predicted by experts from around the world. Readers will also benefit from being able share with the participants in the exciting new approaches to control and system theory that were discussed at the workshop. Future directions are predicted by experts from around the world.

This Festschrift, published on the occasion of the sixtieth birthday of Yutaka - mamoto ('YY' as he is occasionally casually referred to), contains a collection of articles by friends, colleagues, and former Ph.D. students of YY. They are a tribute to his friendship and his scienti?c vision and oeuvre, which has been a source of inspiration to the authors. Yutaka Yamamoto was born in Kyoto, Japan, on March 29, 1950. He studied applied mathematics and general engineering science at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Physics of Kyoto University, obtaining the B.S. and M.Sc. degrees in 1972 and 1974. His M.Sc. work was done under the supervision of Professor Yoshikazu Sawaragi. In 1974, he went to the Center for Mathematical System T- ory of the University of Florida in Gainesville. He obtained the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, both in Mathematics, in 1976 and 1978, under the direction of Professor Rudolf Kalman.