On October 29th, at the invitation of the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin University, Chai Tianyou, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, an expert in control theory and control engineering, and Professor of Northeastern University, visited Tianjin University and guested on a lecture titled “The challenge of smart manufacturing process to artificial intelligence” at Beiyang Lecture Hall. Prof. Wang Chao, the vice dean of the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, hosted the lecture. Over 130 teachers and students attended, from the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Division of Intelligence and Computing, or the School of Precision Instruments & Opto-Electronics Engineering.
Firstly, Chai introduced the characteristics and goals of discrete industry and process industry based on practical engineering applications, summarized the current situation of the manufacturing process information system, and explained some unresolved problems in manufacturing process with several specific cases. Subsequently, he focused on the meaning and prospect of smart manufacturing process. Taking as an example the outlook of human-machine cooperative intelligence-optimized decision-making system, also he emphasized control systems must be designed with a vision, with novel functions and as a long-term research objective. Finally, Chai cited many examples to introduce the challenge of smart manufacturing process to artificial intelligence in the fields of perception, cognition and decision-making, and vividly explained the meaning of artificial intelligence in the context of control discipline, pointing out that artificial intelligence is not a single technology, but a collection of technologies that apply to a particular task.
Chai’s lecture lasted one and a half hours. Attendees had in-depth exchanges and discussions with him over issues related to artificial intelligence.
Chai is an expert in control theory and control engineering, IEEE Fellow and IFAC Fellow. He was a Technical Board member of International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) and IFAC Coordinating Committee Chair of manufacturing and instrumentation technology. He is currently the director of the Academic Committee of Northeastern University, the vice chairman of the Chinese Association of Automation, and the editor-in-chief of ACTA AUTOMATICA SINICA. Academician Chai has long been engaged in research on complex industrial process control, optimization and integrated automation. He has published more than 110 papers, in IFAC journals and IEEE journals combined, and has been invited to deliver more than 30 speeches in IFAC and IEEE international conferences held in the United States, Britain, Canada, Japan, etc. In 2007, he received Industry Award for Excellence in Transitional Control Research from the IEEE Multiple-conference on Systems and Control. In 2017, he was awarded the Wook Hyun Kwon Education Award from Asian Control Association.
By: Wang Fangzhou, School of Electrical and Information Engineering
Editors: Qin Mian and Keith Harrington
