Introduction to Degree Program in Control Science and Engineering

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I. Brief Introduction to the Discipline

1.                Orientation and Goal

Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) is one of the oldest universities to conduct teaching and academic research in Control Science and Engineering (CSE) in China. The very first activity in this field can be traced back to the 1940s with the major of Railway Signal Control. In the 1960s the major of railway automation was established, and graduate education was initiated in 1978. In 2010, CSE was authorized to confer doctoral degrees as a first-level discipline. CSE is also one of the key disciplines of Sichuan province, to which the School of Electrical Engineering, the School of Transportation and Logistics, the School of Information Science and Technology, and the Intelligent Control and Simulation Engineering Research Center contribute in different second-level disciplines.

Focusing on the area of traffic automation and intelligent traffic control and the associated great demand from the aspects of high-speed railway, heavy haul railway and urban rail transit, the discipline of CSE aims to perform studies on basic theory and innovation technology, to cultivate technology leaders and engineering talents, serve the society actively, and guide the direction of the development of traffic automation and intelligent traffic control.

2.                Advantages and Features

1.1       Well-complemented and Prominent Faculty

CSE of SWJTU possesses an academic team of decent construction. Among the 67 falculty members, there are 42teachers holding a Ph.D. degree. The faculty team is very young with 42members younger than 45 years. A good part of the faculty staves (32.8%) have experiences of working (more than 10 months) or studying in overseas. Four professors are selected into the “One Hundred Talents Program” launched by Sichuan province, which is the top-level program for leading academics in the province.

1.2       Advanced Scientific Researches

Tremendous engineering problems raised in the traffic field have been solved by virtue of advanced control theories and simulation technologies, which strongly promote the technical progress of railway transport of China. A couple of examples are listed as follows:

(1)      Simulation technology for large-scale and complex devices is a major strength of CSE in SWJTU. A series of simulation training systems of rail transit operation have been developed, which meet the urgent demands of railway transport in a systematic manner. These important researches and products including traffic flow simulation, train simulation, train automatic control and automation driving simulation, have dominated the major market in China, and won the First Prize of the Scientific and Technological Progress Award of Sichuan province in 2012.

(2)      Adhesion control is a vital technology for high-speed and heavy-load trains. A fuzzy system identification method that possesses the characteristic of structural self-adaptation was proposed to deal with the significant problems in adhesion control of electric locomotives. More importantly, equipment designed for adhesion control were developed. Compared with the similar products provided by the international companies, e.g., Siemens and Alstom, the superiority has been proven by applying them into high-power electric locomotives made in China.

(3)      Innovation has been achieved in energy management and optimization of hybrid power systems, motion control of railway systems, and re-generation of braking energy. With the proposal of green transport systems, these energy-saving and environmental technologies are successfully applied in certain equipment manufacturing enterprises and designing institutes.

(4)      Advanced control and fault diagnosis methods for rail transit are also strength of CSE in SWJTU. For traction drive control, we have built the function space model and comprehensive analysis method for digital control systems of multiple sampling rates. The first monograph that focuses on digital control systems of multiple sampling rates in China has been published by our team. Considering the security monitoring of high-speed train’s serving characteristics, we proposed a method of fault prediction based on reflection of system state, and novel schemes for network control and diagnosis of train systems.

(5)      To address the extensibility and maintainability problems of rail transit comprehensive monitoring, we extended the key technical theory of autonomous decentralized train dispatching and controlling system, and also proposed the theory of satisfactory optimization, which forms the basic theory and method to describe the satisfactory optimization principle of the ITS command system. In addition, certain complex-system-based optimization methods have been adopted to resolve the difficulties in large-scale combination of transport systems.

3.                First-class Wide-Ranging Facilities and Platforms

The construction of the discipline of CSE is supported by a series of high-level research and teaching platforms, such as the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education in Maglev Technology and Maglev Train, the National Basic Experimental Centre of Electrical Engineering, the National Experimental Centre of Virtual Simulation for Electrification and Automation of Rail Transportation, the National Engineering Practice Education Centre of SWJTU-Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., the Key Laboratory of Maglev Train and Magnetism Application of Sichuan Province, the Research Centre of Intelligent Control and Simulation Engineering, etc. Meanwhile, the joint laboratories constructed together with Rockwell, Schneider Electric, Freescale, B&R, etc. also provide strong support for the development of the discipline of CSE.

4.                Graduates with High Prestige

The majors associated with the discipline of CSE include Electrical Engineering and Its Automation, and Electronic and Information Engineering, etc., which belong to the categories of national key or distinctive majors, as well as the training majors for outstanding engineer. They have passed the corresponding authentication of national engineering education, which attract abundant attention from outstanding students. In 2014, two teaching achievement prizes, one is state-level and the other one is provenience-level, have been awarded. Moreover, each year training is provided for 200-300 personnel from rail transportation enterprises, which clearly improves the professional skills of railway engineers.

5.                Set-ups of Discipline

The first-level discipline of CSE consists of four second-level sub-disciplines, namely, Control Theory and Control Engineering, Detection Technology and Automation Devices, Pattern Recognition and Intelligent Systems, and Systems Engineering.

6.                Impacts

The faculty members are very active in academic communication. Many professors are holding important positions in international and domestic academic organizations, such as the Discipline Appraisal Group under the State Council, National Education Steering Committee.  -Besides, many professors participated in the national inspection for security of high-speed railways. Supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Workshop on the Development Strategy of Control Theory was held in SWJTU in 2012, the Second Asian Conference on Membrane Computing was organized by SWJTU in 2013. Currently the 35th Chinese Control Conference (CCC2016) in under preparation with more than 2000 participants from all over the world expected. In the last 4 years, members of CSE attended international conferences for more than 100 times, some of them took the positions of IPC members, session chairs, and so on. In particular, our staff was offered the IEEE ICCA Best Presentation Award in 2013.

CSE of SWJTU has established long-term cooperation with many academic and technological organizations, such as the Cornell University, the University of Alberta, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Technical University of Munich, University of Wuerzburg, European Association for Standardization of Ethernet, and International Union of Railways, as well as many outstanding international companies, such as Rockwell, Schneider, Freescale, Bernecker, E-TAP. We also provide joint-supervision programs towards postgraduates with Hanoi Jiaotong University.

Ⅱ. Program Objectives

【PhD student】to provide talents who can lead the development of the discipline, who can manage grand scientific and technological challenging projects, and who have the potential to compete with leading international players.

【Master of academic degree】to provide high-level all-round specialized talents in control science and engineering.

【Master of professional degree】to provide excellent engineers to support the development of technology and economic growth.

Ⅲ. Research Areas

1、  Control Theory and Control Engineering

2、  Detection Technology and Automatic Equipment

3、  Pattern Recognition and Intelligent Systems

4、  Systems Engineering

5、  Electrical Drive and Its Control

6、  Renewable Energy System and Its Control

Ⅳ. Curriculum

Note： 1. The courses taught in English language or with textbook are marked with‘＊’.

2. The courses classified as key professional courses are marked with ‘※’.

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