Dialogue on General Issues in Systems and Control
漫谈系统与控制
Panelists (By the alphabetic order of their surnames)
➢ Professor Zhengtao Ding, University of Manchester, U.K.
➢ Professor Li Qiu, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Southern University of Science and Technology, China
➢ Professor Xiaohua Xia, University of Pretoria, South Africa
➢ Professor Yun Zou, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China
Chair: Professor Ben M. Chen, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
The 43rd Chinese Control Conference (CCC 2024) proudly presents this plenary panel session to chat on general issues related systems and control. We are honored that four prominent experts and educators in the field will join this panel to share their experience, expertise and visions, and to discuss challenges and opportunities in systems and control in general. Through direct dialog with these renowned panelists, we aim to gain a deeper insight into some fundamental and emerging problems in research and applications. This panel will also serve as a platform for exchanging ideas and debating general issues in systems and control. It offers an opportunity too for the audience, students and junior researchers in particular to hear the opinions and advices of our renowned experts on issues we often face at the early stage of our careers or studies.
Professor Zhengtao Ding received B.Eng. degree from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and M.Sc. degree in systems and control, and the Ph.D. degree in control systems from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Manchester, U.K. After working in Singapore for ten years, he joined the University of Manchester in 2003, where he holds the title Professor of Control Systems. He is carrying out research on optimal operation of renewable energy systems and other methods of achieving Net Zero with CHDER. He has authored/co-authored three books, including the book Nonlinear and Adaptive Control Systems (IET, 2013) and has published over 300 research articles. His research interests include nonlinear and adaptive control theory and their applications, more recently network-based control, distributed optimization and distributed learning, with applications to power systems and robotics. Prof. Ding serves/has served as the Editor in Chief of Drones and Autonomous Vehicles, Subject Chef Editor of Nonlinear Control for Frontiers, and Associate Editor for Scientific Reports, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEEE Transactions on Circuit and Systems II, IEEE Control Systems Letters, Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control, Control Theory and Technology, Unmanned Systems and several other journals. He is a member of IEEE Technical Committee on Nonlinear Systems and Control, IEEE Technical Committee on Intelligent Control, and IFAC Technical Committee on Adaptive and Learning Systems. He was elected as a fellow of The Alan Turing Institute in 2021, the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence.
Professor Li Qiu received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto in 1990. After briefly working in the Canadian Space Agency, the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences (Waterloo), and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (Minneapolis), he joined The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 1993, where he is now a Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering. In 2023, he takes a leave from HKUST to work in Southern University of Science and Technology as a chair professor.
Professor Qiu’s research interests include system, control, optimization theory, and mathematics for information technology, as well as their applications in manufacturing industry and energy systems. He served as an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control and an associate editor of Automatica. He was the general chair of the 7th Asian Control Conference 2009. He was a Distinguished Lecturer from 2007 to 2010 and was a member of the Board of Governors in 2012 and 2017 of the IEEE Control Systems Society. He served as a member of the steering committee and as a vice president of Asian Control Association (ACA). He is now a member of the steering committee of the International Symposiums of Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS). He is the founding chairperson of the Hong Kong Automatic Control Association. He is a Fellow of IEEE and a Fellow of IFAC.
Professor Xiaohua Xia is currently a professor in the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is a Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of South African Academy of Engineering, and member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, He was a Changjiang Chair professor at Wuhan University, China; a distinguished professor at Northeast University, China; the director of the Centre of New Energy Systems, the National Hub for the Postgraduate Program in Energy Efficiency and Demand Side Management, and an A-rated professor by National Research Foundation of South Africa. His theoretical research interests are focused on nonlinear observers, and generally nonlinearity and complexity. He successfully designed a longitudinal control system of the heavy haul trains of Spoornet; effectively tackled the vaccine readiness and therapeutical effectiveness of HIV/AIDS by incorporating systems and control techniques, extensively consulted for the biggest South African industrial companies such as Eskom, Exxaro and AngloGold in their major energy optimisation, usage reduction, and measurement and verification projects, programs and implementations. He was Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Acta Automatica Sinica, an Editor of SAIEE Africa Research Journal, Associate Editors of Automatica, IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, and IEEE Transactions on Circuit and Systems II, is currently sitting at the Editorial Boards of Applied Energy, Advances in Applied Energy and Annual Reviews in Control.
Professor Yun Zou is currently a professor in the School of Automation at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. He received the BSc degree in mathematics from Northwestern University, China, in 1983, and the MEng and PhD degrees in automatic control engineering from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China, in 1987 and 1990, respectively. Professor Zou is an honorary council member of the Chinese Association of Automation, and a life member of the American Mathematical Society. He serves as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of All About Systems and Control, Associate Editor of Control Theory and Applications and Electric Power Engineering Technology, and a reviewer for Mathematical Reviews of the American Mathematical Society (AMS). His current research interests include integrated design theory and methods of systems and control, control theory and technology of wind power generation systems, analysis and synthesis of multi-time scale systems, and systems man and cybernetics.
