keynote speakers

We are very honored to invite nine distinguished experts to make keynote speeches at our conference. 


614fe26e7b0d1.jpg

Dr. Ljubo Vlacic

Professor Emeritus, Griffith University, Australia

Editor-in-Chief, IEEE-Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, USA (2017-2022)

Distinguished Visiting Professor, Southeast University, China (2021-2023)

l.vlacic@griffith.edu.au

+61 417 633 501

https://experts.griffith.edu.au/9873-ljubo-vlacic

Title: Co-operative Intelligent Transportation Systems

Abstract: Although simple in their definition, Co-operative Control & Decision Systems are difficult to model and analyse, and extremely difficult to design, develop and deploy. They are however becoming an increasingly important “solution key” to incredibly numerous applications and do foster trans-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary research efforts towards the development of co-operative systems problem solving techniques. Normally, co-operative systems consist of multiple actors (decision makers) each representing either biological or an artificial creature (human being or an artificial being), acting together towards accomplishing mutually agreed objectives.  In addition, decision makers can also try to achieve their local objectives, simultaneously with their effort in achieving the common i.e. shared goals. This talk will elaborate on Co-operative Mobile Robots, Co-operative Self-driving Vehicles and Co-operative Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS). They all are specific embodiments of the Co-operative Control & Decision Systems paradigm.

Biography: Professor Emeritus Ljubo Vlacic is a control systems scientist and practitioner, renowned for his contributions to co-operative self-driving vehicles and intelligent control systems research and development. His research achievements have made news headlines and been broadcast through media outlets throughout the world. He has held a number of leading roles in both industry and academia. In recognitions of his achievements, he has received 22 awards including the IEE Achievement Medal (World-wide), Sir Lionel Hooke Award, Queensland Professional Engineer of the Year Award and the Gold Coast Business Events Ambassador Award. He has organised 12 national and international scientific conferences and symposia. Currently, he is: (i) Editor-in-Chief, IEEE-Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine; (ii) Chair, IET Local Network Queensland; and (iii) General Chair of the 2021 Australian & New Zealand Control Conference. He graduated from the University of Sarajevo in 1973 (Former Yugoslavia - SFRJ) and completed his MPhil and PhD studies in Control in 1976 and 1986 respectively. He also graduated from the Conservatorium of Music, University of Sarajevo and has played violin with philharmonic and symphony orchestras.


614fe279ca8c8.jpg

Dr. Kimon P. Valavanis

John Evans Professor

Fellow, AAAS & Fellow U.K. Institute of Measurement and Control

Director, Research and Innovation

D. F. Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science

University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208

Kimon.Valavanis@du.edu

Title: Modeling and Navigation Controller Design of a Circulation Control Next Gen Fixed-Wing UAV

Abstract: Circulation Control (CC) is an effective technique that allows for increasing lift and improving aerodynamic efficiency of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). CC-based UAVs exhibit enhanced aerodynamic performance in terms of reduced runway for take-off and landing, increased effective payload capability and delayed stall. However, CC introduces changes of the aerodynamic coefficients that are difficult to determine using strict mathematical formulas. This creates a specific type of model uncertainty in the CC-based fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UC2AV), which must be addressed and accommodated for; this is tackled using µ-analysis. A detailed systematic approach to parameter identification of the UC2AV is first required to derive an accurate model, before designing a navigation controller. Then, a novel, robust nonlinear controller for the longitudinal / lateral flight dynamics of a UC2AV is presented, which operates in cascaded fashion and considers changing mass. The controller consists of a dynamic inversion inner-loop and a µ-synthesis outer-loop controller. Results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed control scheme and the ability of the UC2AV to adapt to challenging CC-on-demand scenarios. The proposed controller design can be generalized and applied to a family of nonlinear systems with unstructured uncertainties and time-varying parameters, going beyond addressing uncertainty challenges regarding the aircraft’s aerodynamic coefficients.

Biography: Dr. Kimon P. Valavanis is John Evans Professor, Director of Research and Innovation, Daniel Felix Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Denver, and Director of the Unmanned Systems Research Institute. Since the middle 1990’s, Dr. Valavanis has been Guest Professor in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Department of Telecommunications, University of Zagreb, Croatia. He also was invited through the European Union PhD Research Program in Italy to teach Robotics and Unmanned Systems at the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica, Gestionale e dell’ Automazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy, and through the PhD – Excellence program in Italy to teach an accelerated course in UAV navigation and control at the Politecnico di Torino, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica e Aerospaziale, DIMEAS (2016). He offered the same course at the South China University of Technology (2016). In May 2017, he was invited to offer a series of seminars on navigation and control of UAVs and their integration into the national airspace, on autonomy and on collaborative multi-robot teams at Technion University, Israel. In December of 2017, he was approved by the Academic Senate and the Board of Governors of the Politecnico di Torino, through the Visiting Professors Project 2017, to visit, again, DIMEAS and offer a series of seminars under the PhD program requirements, dedicated seminars in highly specialized topics, and collaborate on projects of common interest to the partner Universities, under the guidelines of the European Research Council (ERC), European Commission, Horizon 2020 Scientific Programme, Part 1 – Excellent Science. He has offered similar courses at the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES), Vittoria, Brazil, and during the 2018 Latin American and Brazilian Robotics Competition in João Pessoa, Brazil.

He has graduated 38 PhD students and more than 100 M.Sc. students. He has attracted and has helped attracting more than $50 M in research funds from Federal and State agencies, industry, and the private sector. While in Europe, he was funded by the Greek Secretariat of Research and Technology, the European Union, industry, and from the Croatian Ministry of Science and Technology. His research interests span Unmanned Systems, Distributed Intelligence Systems, Robotics and Automation. He has published close to 450 book chapters, technical journal/transaction, referred conference papers, invited papers and technical reports. He has authored/co-authored/edited 19 books.

Dr. Valavanis served as Editor-in-Chief of the Robotics and Automation Magazine from 1996-2005, and since 2006, of the Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, Springer. In May of 2019, during the 25-year anniversary meeting for the Robotics and Automation Magazine, he was awarded by IEEE and the Robotics and Automation Society for his 10 years of service as Editor-in-Chief. He also serves as co-chair/chair of the Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Technical Committee since 2008. He founded/launched the International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, which he runs annually.

Dr. Valavanis was a Distinguished Speaker in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, a Senior Member of IEEE, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the U.K. Institute of Measurement and Control, and a Technical Expert of the NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO). He was recently selected, again, to serve as NATO Technical Evaluator for the AVT-353 Workshop on ‘Artificial Intelligence in the Cockpit for UAVs’ that will take place in Torino, Italy, when the situation with the pandemic settles. In August of 2021, he was also appointed to the NATO STO Technical Team of SAS-ET-EX on “Integration of Unmanned Systems into Operational Units” for the duration of the Program of Work. He is also a Fulbright Scholar (Senior Lecturing & Research Award).


614fe2a3ba2f2.jpg

Prof. Hong Liu

Director of Intelligent Robot Open Laboratory, Peking University, China

Vice President of China Artificial Intelligence Society

First Batch of Leading Talents of Scientific and Technological Innovation in the National Ten Thousand Talents Program

Title: New Generation Artificial Intelligence: Main Features and Typical Applications

Abstract: Starting from the research and development hotspots and innovation needs of service robots, we systematically analyze the intelligent direction of the development of human tools, and points out the main characteristics of the new generation artificial intelligence technology. The application demonstration platform of intelligent shopping guide robots is established by organically integrating the new generation AI and public service robot.

Biograpy: Liu Hong, professor and doctoral supervisor of Peking University, selected into the first batch of experts of the National Ten Thousand Talents Program. He is vice president of China Artificial Intelligence Society, vice president of National Intelligent Robot Innovation Alliance, and a member of the Shenzhen CPPCC. He has long been engaged in teaching, scientific research and industrialization in the fields of computer vision and hearing, pattern recognition and image processing, intelligent robot and other fields. He has successively undertaken more than 20 national 863 projects, 973 projects, National Natural Science Foundation of China and other important scientific research projects. He has published more than 200 academic papers in IEEE Transaction on Cybernetics (TCYB), IEEE Transaction on Signal Processing (TSP), IEEE Transaction on Multimedia (TMM), IEEE Transaction on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology(TCSVT), IEEE Transaction on Audio, Speech and Language Processing(TASLP), Pattern Recognition, IJCAI, ACM, ICRA, IROS and other important international journals and academic conferences in recent years. He is the winners of National Aerospace Science and technology Progress Award, Wu Wenjun Artificial Intelligence Science and Technology Award and Geneva International Invention Expo Award, CAAI Best Young Scientific and Technological Achievement Award, Peking University Teaching Excellence Award, Antai Award and "Top Ten Teachers" of Peking University Candidates. He is editor-in-chief of CAAI Transaction on Intelligence Technology (Elsevier Press).


614fe2c36de48.jpg

Prof. Yiguang Hong

Deputy Director of Shanghai Research Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Tongji University, China

IEEE Fellow

CAAI Fellow

CAA Fellow

Title: Analysis and Synthesis of Complex Multi-agent Systems

Abstract: The topic about complex multi-agent systems draws more and more research attention. In this talk, we briefly introduce the background and the complex behaviors resulting from the interactions between agents. Moreover, we introduce some new results on distributed resource allocation, optimization-based control, and distributed game of multi-agent systems.

Biography: Prof. Yiguang Hong received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Department of Mechanics of Peking University, China, and the Ph.D. degree from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China. He is currently a professor and deputy director of Shanghai Research Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. He was a professor of Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, CAS, and serves as the director of the Key Lab of Systems and Control, CAS, and the director of the Information Technology Division, National Center for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, CAS. Also, he is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, and a Fellow of Chinese Association of Automation (CAA). Moreover, he is the chair of Technical Committee of Control Theory (TCCT) of CAA. Additionally, he was a board of governor of IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS), the chair of IEEE CSS membership and public information committee and the chair of IEEE CSS chapter activities committee. His current research interests include nonlinear control, multi-agent systems, distributed optimization and game, machine learning, and social networks. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Control Theory and Technology. He also serves or served as Associate Editors for many journals including the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, and IEEE Control Systems Magazine. Moreover, he is a recipient of the Guan Zhaozhi Award at the Chinese Control Conference, Young Author Prize of the IFAC World Congress, Young Scientist Award of CAS, the Youth Award for Science and Technology of China, and the National Natural Science Prize of China.


615029ea73596.png

Prof. Yaonan Wang

Director of National Engineering Laboratory of Robot Visual Perception and Control Technology, Hunan University

Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering

President of China Society of Image and Graphics

Title: Intelligent Unmanned System: Technology Application and Development Trend

Abstract: Driven by the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, the pattern of military competition is undergoing historic changes, and the form of warfare is accelerating to information-based war. Autonomous Unmanned Systems (AUS) have become an important part of modern warfare. As the product of highly integrated of modern science and technology, AUS is a syntheses of machinery, electronics control, communications, artificial intelligence, etc. Its research represents the highest level of development of a country's scientific and technological strength. In recent years, from air to space, from land to sea, various types of AUS have emerged, playing a crucial role in promoting military innovation, economic development, and even social progress. This talk presents key technical issues and development trends facing by the AUS. At first, we introduce the background and practical significance of the development of AUS, and analyze the definition, characteristics, and connotations of AUS. Then we summarize the latest development status of AUS and point out its current challenges. Then the key technologies of AUS and their applications on typical platforms such as unmanned ship, unmanned aerial vehicle and unmanned ground systems are introduced in detail. Finally, we look ahead the development trend of AUS.

Biography: Prof. Yaonan Wang, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Expert in robotics and intelligent control. He is a funder and Director of National Engineering Laboratory of Robot Visual Perception and Control Technology. He was Dean of College of Electrical and Information Engineering at Hunan University from 2001 to 2020. He is also a founder and Dean of School of Robotics at Hunan University from 2016 to 2020. He was a Senior Humboldt Fellow in Germany from 1998 to 2000. He has also been a chief scientist of the major international cooperation projects under the 5th Framework Convention of the European Union. He was selected into the national "Hundreds, Thousands of Talents Project". He is also a Fellow of the Chinese Society of Automation, Fellow of Chinese Computer Society, Fellow of Chinese Association of Artificial Intelligence. He is an expert of the National 863 Program in the field of intelligent robotic. He is also standing directors of the Chinese Society of Automation and supervisor of the Chinese Association of Artificial Intelligence. He has been a member of the Energy and Transportation Department of the Science and Technology Commission of the Ministry of Education, and the chairman of Hunan Automation Society. His achievements have won four prestigious awards of National Science and Technology Progress and one award of National Technological Innovation. He is also the winner of the highest Award of Industrial Application by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. He has trained more than 70 PhD students (including IEEE Fellow, Recipient of Yangtze River Scholar, Recipient of the National Outstanding Youth Fund, etc.). He has also won numerous honors such as National Excellent Teacher of Institutions of Higher Learning, National Labor Medal, National Outstanding Worker, National Innovation Prize.


614fe30b41c8a.jpg

Prof. Ben M. Chen

Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering

Chinese University of Hong Kong

IEEE Fellow

CAA Fellow

Fellow of Academy of Engineering, Singapore.

Title: On the Applications of Autonomous Unmanned Systems

Abstract: Research and development of autonomous unmanned systems have gained much attention in academic and industrial communities worldwide. Topics such as unmanned aircraft, underwater explorers, satellites, and intelligent robotics are widely investigated as they have potential applications in many domains. Autonomous systems such as unmanned ground vehicles (UGV), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), unmanned surface vehicles (USV) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) are projected to play significant roles in industrial applications such as reconnaissance for search and rescue, environmental monitoring, security surveillance, powerline and pipeline inspection, geographical mapping, tunnel inspection, logistic delivery, warehouse management, and many others in the near future. Given the development of powerful techniques in artificial intelligence and deep learning for data processing, intelligent unmanned systems would become one of the major technological and economic stories of the years to come, due to the wide variety of possible applications and added value related to this potential technology. In this talk, we highlight some key techniques involved and research trends in developing intelligent autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles, which include task and motion planning, flight control systems, perception and data processing. Some industrial application examples will be used as illustrations.

Biography: Ben M. Chen is currently a Professor of Mechanical and Automation Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He was a Provost's Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore, before joining CUHK in 2018. He was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, in 1992–1993. His current research interests are in unmanned systems, robust control and control applications.

Dr. Chen is an IEEE Fellow, CAA Fellow, and Fellow of Academy of Engineering, Singapore. He has authored/co-authored about 500 journal and conference articles, and a dozen research monographs in control theory and applications, unmanned systems and financial market modeling. He had served on the editorial boards of a dozen international journals including Automatica and IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. He currently serves as an Editor-in-Chief of Unmanned Systems and a deputy editor-in-chief of Control Theory and Technology. Dr. Chen has received a number of research awards. His research team has actively participated in international UAV competitions and won many championships in the contests.

 

614fe32d8dc74.jpg

Dr. Keyou You

Doctoral Supervisor

Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, China

Winner of National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars

 

TitleFast DNN-based MPC for Standoff Tracking

Abstract: Model predictive control (MPC) uses a mathematical model of the controlled process to predict its future behavior, based on which the control policy is designed to minimize a given performance index subject to various constraints, and has been successfully applied to a very wide range of applications. However, it needs to solve the on-line optimization problems under real-time constraints, which can be prohibitively difficult for many embedded settings. To avoid the use of online solvers, explicit MPC was introduced to find the control policy explicitly for linear time-invariant (LTI) systems. In addition to that the complexity of the explicit MPC usually increases exponentially with the problem size, it is only limited to LTI systems and is very difficult in extending to other systems. In this talk, we first compute a large number of the MPC optimization problems offline and design a deep neural network to approximate the MPC control policy, which can be fast implemented in the embedded setting via e.g. FPGA. Then, we adopt such a fast DNN-based MPC to solve the standoff tracking problem of a quadrotor UAV to circumnavigate a moving target. Finally, we demonstrate the performance advantages of the embedded MPC.

Biography: Dr. Keyou You received the B.S. degree in Statistical Science from Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, in 2007 and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, in 2012. After briefly working as a Research Fellow at NTU, he joined Tsinghua University in Beijing, China where he is now a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Automation. He held visiting positions at Politecnico di Torino, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, University of Melbourne and etc. His current research interests include networked control systems, distributed optimization and learning, and their applications. Dr. You received the Guan Zhaozhi Award at the 29th Chinese Control Conference in 2010 and the ACA (Asian Control Association) Temasek Young Educator Award in 2019. He received the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars in 2017. He is serving as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, IEEE Control Systems Letters(L-CSS), Systems & Control Letters.


614fe34b154a2.jpg

Prof. Lihua Xie

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Fellows of Academy of Engineering Singapore,

IEEE Fellow

IFAC Fellow

CAA Fellow

 Title: Heterogeneous Sensor Fusion for Unmanned Systems

Abstract: Unmanned systems have applications in many areas such as surveillance, transport, structure inspection, logistics, etc. Localization is a prerequisite for such applications. However, in indoor and many outdoor environments such as urban canon, forest, tunnel, GPS may not be available or unreliable. Hence, there has been a lot of interest in developing technologies and algorithms for localization in such environments. In this talk, we shall discuss graph optimization based sensor fusion and vision-inertial-range sensor fusion for localization and mapping, and their applications in drone based structure inspection and AGV for logistics.

Biography: Prof. Lihua Xie received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Newcastle, Australia, in 1992. He was with the Department of Automatic Control, Nanjing University of Science and Technology from 1986 to 1989. Since 1992, he has been with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where he is currently a professor and Director of Delta-NTU Corporate Laboratory for Cyber-Physical Systems and Center for Advanced Robotics Technology Innovation, both funded by government and industry.  He served as the Head of Division of Control and Instrumentation from July 2011 to June 2014. His research areas include robust control, networked control, localization and unmanned systems. He has published 9 books, over 480 journal articles, and 20 patents and technology disclosures. He has been listed as a highly cited researcher in engineering by Thomson Routers and Clarivate Analytics annually since 2014. He is currently an Editor-in-Chief of Unmanned Systems and has served as an Editor of IET Book Series on Control and Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Automatica, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-II, etc. He was an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer (2011-2014).  Professor Xie is Fellows of Academy of Engineering Singapore, IEEE, IFAC and CAA.


63e24c9182e3a.png

Dr. Hongbo Gao

 

School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China

Director of the Chinese Institute of Command and Control(CICC)

Deputy Chairman of the Youth League Working Committee of CICC


Title: Learning Intelligence for Autonomous Unmanned System Applications

Abstract: Learning intelligence has become very popular for the computer, information science and engineering community in recent years. The reason mainly comes from two aspects: the theoretical advances in related disciplines such as machine learning, deep learning, and reinforcement learning have witnessed great breakthrough; the technical applications for autonomous unmanned system have solved many actual problems and accelerated its development. Companies like Google, Tesla, and Apple all launched their industrial products such as autonomous unmanned vehicle with advanced functions that are made possible due to the development of learning intelligence factors including the information perception, interaction, and intelligent control and learning intelligence, to name just a few. These developments indicate that learning intelligence is playing an unprecedented role in modern automation systems. Nevertheless, there are many challenging issues to explore in the implementation of learning intelligence for a practical automatic system, such as system design, security, robustness, and accessibility.

Biography: Prof. Hongbo Gao received the PH. D. degrees from Beihang University, Beijing, China, in 2016. He is currently a professor with the Department of Automation, School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui Province, China. Dr. Gao is committed to the research, development and industrialization of key technologies of intelligent driving and driver assistance. He presided over 15 projects such as The National Natural Science Foundation of China (key projects and integrated projects), National key research and development plan, et al. He has published more than 60 SCI/EI papers in the last 5 years, with more than 200 single SCI citations and 7 papers selected as ESI highly cited papers. His articles have over 2350 Google Scholar citations and an H-factor of 24. He published 31 regular papers in top JCR region 1 journals and 26 papers with SCI factor >5.0. He has 18 granted invention patents and 2 US patents. He is currently the director of the Chinese Institute of Command and Control(CICC) and the deputy chairman of the Youth League Working Committee, et al. He won more than 10 awards, including first prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of CICC (ranked 1, 2021), one Young Scientist Award (Talent Award, 2020). His academic papers have received 10 best paper awards from international journals and conferences. He has been an editorial board member of IEEE Trans. on Neur. Net. and Lear. Syst. (IF=14.255) and CAAI Trans. on Intell. Techno. (IF=7.985) and EI journals for 7 times, and a subcommittee chair and guest editor for 13 times. He has also participated in more than 10 invited presentations at international and national conferences.


614fe35fa6f34.jpg

Prof. Fei-Yue Wang

 

President of CAA's Supervision Council

Vice President of IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society

Fellow of INCOSE, IFAC, ASME, and AAAS

Title: Parallel Intelligence for Unmanned Systems: From Virtual Twins to Parallel Operations

Abstract: This report introduces the basic framework, key technologies and application practice of parallel driving. Through virtual-real interaction and parallel driving, we can realize intelligent perception and understanding of complex environments and corresponding virtual and real feedback closed loops. In this way, we will achieve the intelligent management and control of autonomous unmanned systems operation, monitoring, and emergency response, which have become the research focus in many fields.

Biography: Prof. Fei-Yue Wang (S'87–M'89–SM'94–F'03) received his Ph.D. degree in computer and systems engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA, in 1990. He joined The University of Arizona in 1990 and became a Professor and the Director of the Robotics and Automation Laboratory and the Program in Advanced Research for Complex Systems. In 1999, he founded the Intelligent Control and Systems Engineering Center at Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) under the support of the Outstanding Chinese Talents Program from the State Planning Council, and in 2002, was appointed as the Director of the Key Laboratory of Complex Systems and Intelligence Science, CAS, and Vice President of Institute of Automation in 2006. In 2011, he became the State Specially Appointed Expert and the Founding Director of the State Key Laboratory for Management and Control of Complex Systems. Dr. Wang has been the Chief Judge of Intelligent Vehicles Future Challenge (IVFC) since 2009 and Director of China Intelligent Vehicles Proving Center (IVPC) at Changshu since 2015. Currently, he is the Director of Intel's International Collaborative Research Institute on Parallel Driving with CAS and Tsinghua University. 

His current research focuses on methods and applications for parallel intelligence, social computing, and knowledge automation. He is a Fellow of INCOSE, IFAC, ASME, and AAAS. In 2007, he received the National Prize in Natural Sciences of China, George N. Saridis Best Paper Award, Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Awards, V. Franklin Best Paper Award, and numerous other best papers awards from IEEE Transactions, and became an Outstanding Scientist of ACM for his work in intelligent control and social computing. He received the IEEE ITS Outstanding Application and Research Awards in 2009, 2011, and 2015, respectively, the IEEE SMC Norbert Wiener Award in 2014, and became the IFAC Pavel J. Nowacki Distinguished Lecturer in 2021.

Since 1997, he has been serving as the General or Program Chair of over 30 IEEE, INFORMS, IFAC, ACM, and ASME conferences. He was the President of the IEEE ITS Society from 2005 to 2007, the IEEE Council of RFID from 2019 to 2021, the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, USA, in 2005, the American Zhu Kezhen Education Foundation from 2007 to 2008, the Vice President of the ACM China Council from 2010 to 2011, the Vice President and the Secretary General of the Chinese Association of Automation from 2008-2018. He was the Founding Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of the International Journal of Intelligent Control and Systems from 1995 to 2000, IEEE ITS Magazine from 2006 to 2007, IEEE/CAA JOURNAL OF AUTOMATICA SINICA from 2014-2017, China's Journal of Command and Control from 2015-2021, and China's Journal of Intelligent Science and Technology from 2019 to 2021. He was the EiC of the IEEE Intelligent Systems from 2009 to 2012, IEEE TRANSACTIONS on Intelligent Transportation Systems from 2009 to 2016, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTATIONAL Social Systems from 2017 to 2020. Currently, he is the President of CAA's Supervision Council and Vice President of IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society.