The IEEE Industrial Electronics Society has just announced the 2022 recipients of the society’s awards! Congratulations to them!
IES would also like to express great appreciations to the IES Awards & Honors Committee chaired by Hiromasa Haneda.

Dr.-Ing. Eugene Mittelmann Achievement Award

Recipient: Huijun Gao

Harbin Institute of Technology, China

Citation: For outstanding contributions to advanced control theory and industrial applications.

Prof. Huijun Gao received the Ph.D. degree in control science and engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China, in 2005. From 2005 to 2007, he carried out his postdoctoral research with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada. Since November 2004, he has been with HIT, where he is currently a Chair Professor. He is the founder and the director of the Research Institute of Intelligent Control and Systems, HIT.

Prof. Gao’s research interests include intelligent and robust control, robotics, mechatronics, and their engineering applications. He has published more than 300 papers in international journals and has been authorized for over 100 patents of invention. He is also a highly-cited researcher since 2014.

Prof. Gao is a member of Academia Europaea, an IEEE Fellow, a Vice-President of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES), and a Council Member of IFAC. He was a Co-Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Trans. Industrial Electronics. He is also the Editor-in-Chief Elect of IEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatronics, and an Associate Editor of Automatica, IEEE Trans. Industrial Informatics, IEEE Trans. Cybernetics, IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Systems, etc. He was a recipient of the IEEE IES J. David Irwin Early Career Award in 2013.

Anthony J. Hornfeck Service Award

Recipient: Victor K. L. Huang 

Sage Technology Resources, USA

Citation: For dedicated services of over 45 years with exceptional contributions to standardization promotion, dissemination, and industrial and new initiatives creation activities.

Dr. Victor Huang, IEEE Life Fellow, is a long-standing member of IEEE (since 1966), and IES (since 1975), he has contributed significantly to the society over the years. Citing a few notable accomplishments, he dedicated 10 years in building up IES standards activities and its TC into a viable standards-producing entity for IEEE. To date, it has over 30 development projects for a variety of standards in IES Fields of Interest, and has delivered three IEEE standards.  He encourages cooperation and collaboration with other IEEE societies and industry partners (most notably the US National Institute of Standards and Technology–NIST). He initiated and developed the IES INTEROP Plugfests at major IES flagship conferences, showcasing standards development, interoperability possibilities encouraging inter-group collaboration.  He initiated the Centers of Expertise (CoE) – these are standards-based platforms  of IES entities – that offer collaborative technology partnerships with industry, with results exhibited at the INTEROP Plugfests. The CoE is a unique activity instigated by IES. It has a website for the CoE Consortium, linking its various CoEs worldwide.

Victor is a senior level executive seasoned in high technology industrial management, having served as VP Engineering in 5 separate startups in Silicon Valley, as Deputy Director of the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) Singapore, and as Technical Manager at AT&T Bell Laboratories.  His experience spans the telecommunications industry and electronic mobility, wireless, consumer products, and VLSI microprocessor chip design.  He holds four international patents.

He is presently a Partner in Sage Technology Resources, a technology and business consulting services firm serving investment, early stage, growth stage and Global 1000 companies, where he specializes in IT-Automotive sector – Electric Vehicles and infrastructure industry, and connected and autonomous vehicles. He has served on the Board of Directors of several present and past startup companies in Silicon Valley.

In mid-1970s to early 1980s, Victor’s work at AT&T Bell Labs involved VLSI microprocessor and chip design, resulting in deployment of 32-bit microprocessors to AT&T 3B telecommunications switches. In early 1990s he contributed to the startup of Singapore’s Institute of Microelectronics, where he was its Deputy Director and Business Manager.  From the late 1990s to 2010, he was VP Engineering for several startups engaged in product development of portable e-mobility products (PDAs, e-tablets, e-books, smart phones), multi-hop wireless networks, and portable 3G base-stations, all with deployments in Europe, Asia and Africa. During early to late 2010s, he was VP Engineering and executive consultant of an EV company developing EVs and EV Chargers in China.

Dr. Huang is an IEEE Life Fellow, and has served in many leadership capacities in IES administration, publications and conferences. He is a Life Administrative Committee (AdCom) member of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES) (since 1988), Vice Chair and past Chair (2011-2020) of IES Standards Technical Committee, and the IES representative to the IEEE Standards Board. He has served as a past IES vice president (1985-86). He is a recipient of the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Medallion for exception contributions to standards development.

In IES conferences, he has served in numerous conferences (ICIT, ICPS, ISIE, INDIN, IECON and others) as conference chairs/co-chairs – general, program, technical track, session, tutorials, etc. He was the General Chair for IECON 1988 and IECON 1999. He has contributed continuously as an organizer/co-organizer of the IES Industry Forums since its inception (2009 – 2022).  He has also been a speaker at several of these conferences. He is on the advisory board of ONCON.com, IES’ first online conference.

In Publications, Victor is an Associate Editor for the Industrial Electronics Magazine (since 2014) and serves as its associate editor for the Industry Activities News column, and Associate Editor for the Transactions of Industrial Electronics (since 2017). He had been the Editor of the IEEE MICRO Journal from 1983-89, and 1992 – 1994.  He was a guest editor for IEM (September 2021) and IEEE MICRO (August 1986, August 1989). He was the IES Newsletter Editor for many years (1977-82) which preceded the Industrial Electronics Magazine.

Dr. Huang holds a MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia, and a BS (EE) from the Virginia Military Institute.

IEEE J. David Irwin Early Career Award

Recipient: Tomislav Dragičević

Technical University of Denmark, Denmark

Citation: For outstanding research contributions and applications of novel control, design and diagnostics solutions in industrial electronic systems.

Tomislav Dragičević  has received the M.Sc. and the industrial Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Zagreb, Croatia, in 2009 and 2013, respectively. From 2013 until 2016, he was a Postdoctoral researcher at Aalborg University, Denmark. From 2016 until 2020 he was an Associate Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark. He also made a guest professor stay at Nottingham University, UK during 2018.  Currently, he is a Professor at the Technical University of Denmark, where he also founded a Smart Converter lab.

His research and innovation interests are in application of advanced control, optimization and artificial intelligence inspired techniques to provide innovative and effective solutions to emerging challenges in design, control and diagnostics of power electronics intensive electrical systems (including but not limited to electric vehicles, EV charging stations, water flow networks, electrolyzer systems, microgrids and electrical distribution systems at large). He has authored and co-authored more than 350 technical publications (more than 150 of them are published in international journals, mostly in IEEE), 10 book chapters and a book in this field, as well as filed for several patents. His works have been cited more than 13.500 times according to Google Scholar. He has a broad collaboration with industry, while his research has been generously sponsored by various research foundations in Denmark, EU and worldwide – among others, he has received DFF Sapere Aude starting grant (Danish ERC StG equivalent) for a project called MAGIC.

Recipient: Hui Zhang

Beihang University, China

Citation: For outstanding contributions to advanced control and signal processing techniques with industrial applications in automotive electronics and wearable systems.

Hui Zhang received the B.Sc. degree in mechanical design manufacturing and automation from the Harbin Institute of Technology at Weihai, Weihai, China in 2006, the M.Sc. degree in automotive engineering from Jilin University, Changchun, China in 2008, and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada in 2012. He is currently a full professor of Beihang University, Beijing China.   

His research interests include autonomous vehicles, vehicle dynamics and control, mechatronics, robust control and filtering, networked control systems, and signal processing. He is an author / co-author of over 130 peer-reviewed papers on journals and conference proceedings. 

Dr. Zhang is a recipient of 2017 IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems Outstanding Paper Award, 2018 SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, IEEE Vehicular Technology Society 2019 Best Vehicular Electronics Paper Award, and 2019 SAE International Intelligent and Connected Vehicles Symposium Best Paper Award. He is a member of SAE International, a senior member of IEEE and a member of ASME. Dr. Zhang has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Journal of The Franklin Institute, SAE International Journal of Vehicle Dynamics, Stability, and NVH, SAE International Journal of Connected and Automated Vehicles, and ASME Transactions Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control; Board member of International Journal of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing.

IEEE Bimal Bose Award for Industrial Electronics Applications in Energy Systems

Recipient: Sheldon S. Williamson 

Ontario Tech University, Canada

Citation: For contributions to electric energy storage systems for transportation electrification.

Sheldon S. Williamson (Fellow, IEEE) received the B.E. (Hons.) degree in electrical engineering from the University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India, in 1999, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees (Hons.) in electrical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA, in 2002 and 2006, respectively.

He is currently a Professor with the Department of Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering and the Director of Smart Transportation Electrification and Energy Research (STEER) Group, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, ON, Canada.

His current research interests include advanced power electronics, electric energy storage systems, and motor drives for transportation electrification. He holds the prestigious NSERC Canada Research Chair in electric energy storage systems for transportation electrification.

IEEE Rudolf Chope Research & Development Award

Recipient: Xu She

Lunar Energy, USA

Citation: For outstanding contributions to innovative power electronics system designs in industry.

Xu She (S’08-M’13-SM’15) received B.S. degree and M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2007 and 2009 respectively, and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University in 2013. From 2013 to 2022, he held multiple progressive engineering roles at General Electric and Carrier corporation. Since 2022 he is the director of engineering at Lunar energy, working on innovative home electrification products

Dr. Xu She contributed to multiple groundbreaking technologies and products in renewable energy, energy storage and HVAC industries. He has more than 70 papers and 40 patent families to his credit. He received many recognitions from IEEE and industry, including 2017 IEEE Industry Application Society Andrew W. Smith Outstanding Young Member Achievement Award, 2018 GE Whitney Technical Achievement Award, 2021 IEEE Region 1 Industry Technological Innovation Award and 2022 IEEE Rudolf Chope Research & Development Award.

Dr. Xu She is a passionate volunteer of IEEE.  He is the associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics and IEEE Transactions on Industry Application. He regularly serves as organizing committee member of IEEE ECCE. He is also the vice chair of IEEE Power Electronics Society standard committee and IEEE P3105 standard working group.

Recipient: Dong Yue

Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China

Citation: For contributions to network-based control and optimization technologies and their applications to power system.

Dong Yue, IEEE Fellow, received the Ph.D. degree in Control Science and Control Engineering from the South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, in 1995. From 1995 to 1997, he was Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, China, where he was appointed as Associate Professor in 1997 and Professor in 2000. From August 2000 to August 2001, he was with Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea, as Senior Scientist. From August 2003 to October 2003, he was Visiting Professor at Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Qld., Australia. From March 2004 to March 2005, he was Research Fellow with the Central Queensland University. From January 2007 to February 2007, supported by the Royal Society of the U.K., he was Visiting Professor at Brunel University, Uxbridge, U.K. He is currently Professor and Dean of the Institute of Advanced Technology and College of Automation & Artificial Intelligence, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunication, China.

His interests are in the fields of Network-based Control and Multi-objective Optimization and its Applications to Smart Grid. Up to now, he has published more than 400 international journals, including more than 130 papers in IEEE Transactions and Automatica, also 4 monographs in Springer and 1 monograph in Chinese Science Press. He was a Highly Cited Researcher and his research achievements in smart grids have had a lasting industry impact. A total of 120 invention patents have been authorized. In 2009, he was awarded Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholars. Since 2017, he was awarded three first prizes from Jiangsu of China and Chinese Association of Automation and four second prizes from Jiangsu, Shanghai and Shandong of China. His review paper was awarded Norbert Wiener Review Award by IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica in 2020 and a paper was awarded the Best paper award of IEEE Systems Journal in 2022. He has served as the Associate Editor of IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Systems, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, Journal of the Franklin Institute and International Journal of Systems Sciences.

IEEE IES Best Chapter Award

Western Australia IES Chapter 

Citation: For recognition of Outstanding Chapter Activity in 2021

Chair: Harry McDonald

IEEE IES Best Student Branch Chapter Award

Kerala Technological University SBC, India

Citation: For recognition of Outstanding Student Branch Chapter Activity in 2021