  We discuss model reduction for a particular class of quadratic-bilinear (QB)
descriptor systems. The main goal of this article is to extend the recently
studied interpolation-based optimal model reduction framework for QBODEs
[Benner et al. '16] to a class of descriptor systems in an efficient and
reliable way. Recently, it has been shown in the case of linear or bilinear
systems that a direct extension of interpolation-based model reduction
techniques to descriptor systems, without any modifications, may lead to poor
reduced-order systems. Therefore, for the analysis, we aim at transforming the
considered QB descriptor system into an equivalent QBODE system by means of
projectors for which standard model reduction techniques for QBODEs can be
employed, including aforementioned interpolation scheme. Subsequently, we
discuss related computational issues, thus resulting in a modified algorithm
that allows us to construct \emph{near}--optimal reduced-order systems without
explicitly computing the projectors used in the analysis. The efficiency of the
proposed algorithm is illustrated by means of a numerical example, obtained via
semi-discretization of the Navier-Stokes equations.
