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About us

Welcome to the Process Control Group at UNSW, led by Prof Jie Bao.

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Exterior of the Chemical Sciences building on the UNSW Kensington campus

We work on process systems engineering, including dynamic process modelling, control and analysis. Our research is focused on:

Advanced control theory development, including:

  • Process control based on dissipativity theory.
  • Process control based on behavioral systems theory.
  • Process control based on big-data.
  • Nonlinear process control for flexible manufacturing.
  • Distributed control (including distributed model predictive control and economic model predictive control).
  • Integration of process design and control.
  • Fault detection and tolerant control systems.
  • Modelling and control of collective dynamics.

Process control applications, including:

  • Advanced control of aluminium reduction cells.
  • Control of flow batteries.
  • Control of coal handling and preparation processes.

  • Group leader

    Professor Jie Bao

    Professor Jie Bao is an expert in dissipativity/passivity based process control. He leads the Process Control Research Group and is also the Director of ARC Research Hub for Integrated Energy Storage Solutions. He has been awarded more than $12M (excluding ARC LIEF projects)  competitive research grants including 11 ARC Discovery Projects/large grants, 1 CSIRO National Flagship Research Cluster Project and a number of major industrial projects. He published extensively in major process control and chemical engineering journals. He is an Associate Editor of Journal of Process Control (an International Federation of Automatic Control affiliated journal) and Digital Chemical Engineering (an IChemE affiliated journal).

    School of Chemical Engineering
    The University of New South Wales
    UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052
    Australia

    Room 301, Science and Engineering Building (SEB)
    Telephone: +61 (2) 9385 6755
    Facsimile: +61 (2) 9385 5966
    :J.Bao@unsw.edu.au
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    Professor Barry Welch

    Professor Barry Welch is a renowned expert in electrochemistry and non-ferrous metallurgy, recognised for his significant contributions in both academia and industry. He has held prestigious roles, including Director of Research Centre of Surface and Materials Science and Head of Department, Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Auckland (1981-1998), after serving as an Associate Professor at UNSW (1964-1980). Currently, he is an Adjunct Professor at UNSW, Emeritus Professor at the University of Auckland, and Director of Welbank Consulting Ltd, advising major aluminium smelters globally. A recipient of numerous awards such as the CHEMECA Medal (2012) and AIME James Douglas Gold Medal (2014), Prof. Welch has been honoured with the title of Honorary Life Fellow by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society - The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, and Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. His outstanding contributions were celebrated at a dedicated Honorary Symposium at TMS 2023.

    Researchers

    Dr. Lai Wei

    Postdoctoral Fellow

    Dr. Lai Wei received his B.E in Electrical Engineering and Automation from the Tianjin University in 2016. He completed his M.E. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Melbourne with a First-Class Honours and two Dean’s Lists. He finished his PhD in 2022 entitled “discrete-time contraction analysis and controller design for nonlinear processes” at UNSW, Sydney. Lai is currently a postdoctoral research fellow with the School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW, Sydney, Australia. He is involved in nonlinear control theory development for ARC Discovery Projects, Vanadium battery energy management system design and designing smart sensor for a major aluminium smelter in the world. His current focus lies in the development of approaches to flexible process control using contraction theory, dissipativity theory and machine learning techniques.

    Level 3
    Science and Engineering Building (SEB)
    UNSW

    :lai.wei1@unsw.edu.au

    Dr. Choon Jie Wong

    Postdoctoral Fellow

    Choon Jie Wong finished his B.E. (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from the Brunei Technological University and University of New South Wales in 2018 with a University Medal, a First-Class Honours, and two Dean's Awards. He completed his PhD in 2022 working on advanced mass/energy modelling and management of aluminium smelter cells. Currently, as part of the Australian Research Council Research Hub (ARC IESS Hub), his research direction is to use high-temperature aluminium smelting cells as virtual batteries to smoothen the mismatch between energy supply and demand while enabling flexible manufacturing. With skills and experience in heat and mass transfer in high temperature systems, phase change in aluminium electrolytic cells, and applied estimation and control technologies, he actively works with a major aluminium smelter in the world in three industrial projects worth over A$2M in total.

    Level 3
    Science and Engineering Building (SEB)
    UNSW

    :choonjie.wong@unsw.edu.au
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    Dr. Yitao Yan

    Postdoctoral Fellow

    Yitao Yan received his B.E. (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2015. He completed his PhD in 2019 at UNSW on the behavioural approach to distributed control of large-scale interconnected systems. His research interests include behavioural systems theory, dissipativity theory and contraction theory, as well as their applications to distributed control. His current focus is on the development of a big-data-driven distributed control framework for plantwide systems using behavioural systems theory and machine learning techniques.

    Level 3
    Science and Engineering Building (SEB)
    UNSW

    :y.yan@unsw.edu.au

  • Postgraduate Research Students

    Adam Larkin

    Power Modulation of Aluminium Smelters

    Supervisors:
    Prof. Jie Bao, Prof. Emer. Maria Skyllas-Kazacos, Prof. Emer. Barry Welch

    Level 3
    Science and Engineering Building (SEB)
    UNSW

    Phone: +61 4 2992 8252
    :a.larkin@student.unsw.edu.au

    Bing Shu

    Advanced Control and Grid Integration of Vanadium Redox Flow Battery

    Supervisors:
    Prof. Jie Bao, Dr. Ke Meng, Prof. Emer. Maria Skyllas-Kazacos

    Level 3
    Science and Engineering Building (SEB)
    UNSW

    :b.shu@student.unsw.edu.au

    Jun Wen Tang

    Big Data-Driven Control of Nonlinear Chemical Processes

    Supervisors:
    Prof. Jie Bao, Prof. Biao Huang, Dr. Yitao Yan

    Level 2
    Science and Engineering Building (SEB)
    UNSW

    Phone: +61 4 1293 9932
    :jun.tang@student.unsw.edu.au

    Lai Wei

    Big Process Data-By Integrating Machine Learning Techniques with Control Theory

    Supervisors:
    Prof. Jie Bao

    Level 3
    Science and Engineering Building (SEB)
    UNSW

    Phone: +61 4 3282 5174
    :lai.wei1@student.unsw.edu.au

    Luning Ma

    Virtual Batteries

    Supervisors:
    Prof. Jie Bao, Prof. Emer. Maria Skyllas-Kazacos, Prof. Barry Welch

    Level 3
    Science and Engineering Building (SEB)
    UNSW

    :luning.ma@unsw.edu.au

    Mengjie Zhao

    A Big Data-Driven Control Approach for Chemical Processes

    Supervisors:
    Prof. Jie Bao, Prof. Wei Wang, Dr. Yitao Yan

    Level 3
    Science and Engineering Building (SEB)
    UNSW

    Phone: +61 4 6727 0102
    :mengjie.zhao@student.unsw.edu.au

    Shail Godiwala

    Management and Control of Vanadium Flow Batteries

    Supervisors:
    Prof. Jie Bao, Assoc. Prof. Chris Menictas, Emeritus Prof. Maria Skyllas-Kazacos

    Level 3
    Science and Engineering Building (SEB)
    UNSW

    Phone: +61 4 2236 9755
    :s.godiwala@unsw.edu.au

    Shuangyu Han

    A Big Data-Driven Control Approach for Nonlinear Chemical Processes in a System Behavioural Framework

    Supervisors:
    Prof. Jie Bao, Prof. Biao Huang

    Level 3
    Science and Engineering Building (SEB)
    UNSW

    :shuangyu.han@student.unsw.edu.au