Prof. Zenghui Wang (Electrical and Mining Engineering: CSET) is one of the recipients of the 2012 Principal’s Award for Excellence in Research. He will receive his award during this year’s Research and Innovation Week (11–15 March).
By investing in various facets of research such as cutting-edge technology, the new science hub on its Florida Campus in Johannesburg, and further developing its academics and postgraduate students, Unisa is well on its way to becoming an even more prestigious university renowned for research and innovation.
“For me, Unisa is the best institute to work at because its academic environment is conducive for excellent research to take place and I feel really fortunate to work at this university,” said Professor Zenghui Wang from the Department of Electrical and Mining Engineering in the School of Engineering.
He was speaking to eNews during this year’s Research and Innovation Week (11–15 March), as he is one of the recipients of the 2012 Principal’s Award for Excellence in Research. He will receive this award at a gala dinner that acknowledges the university’s outstanding and innovative researchers who contribute to the development of South Africa and the continent. The main objectives are for Unisa to expand research collaborations with research-intensive organisations and BRICS countries and also to provide a platform for institutions to display their innovation initiatives. The week is designed to encourage Unisa staff to enhance their ability and effectiveness to engage in research.
Investing in innovative research
With Unisa commemorating 140 years of shaping futures in Africa, the university continues to transform, looking to its future where it aims to be a leading global centre of excellence in science and research. Attracting a high calibre of academic staff and investing in innovative research is vital to this goal. Having graduated in 2006 with a doctoral degree in Control Theory and Control Engineering at Nankai University, China, Wang is one such academic and so is his research. He obtained a Y2 NRF Rating in 2012 and has over 40 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications. His research interest is in the fields of evolutionary optimisation, adaptive control and predictive control for nonlinear systems, cryptography, and complex network.
In 2012, Wang conducted research on the design and development of intelligent systems. Intelligent systems research specialises in the theory and application of systems that perceive, reason, learn, and act intelligently. The aim of this research, said Wang, is to create intelligent systems to make life and the work environment more comfortable than it currently is.
“In this, there are several research topics. One of these is automatic control. Automatic control is everywhere. It is a truly ubiquitous technology without which modern life will not be possible. In general, it includes two parts – control theory and control engineering. Control theory is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering and mathematics that deals with the behaviour of dynamical systems. The usual objective of control theory is to calculate solutions for the proper corrective action from the controller that result in system stability, that is, the system will hold the set point and not oscillate around it.
Control engineering or control systems engineering is the engineering discipline that applies control theory to design systems with predictable behaviours. Multidisciplinary in nature, control systems engineering activities focus on implementation of control systems mainly derived by mathematical modeling of systems of a diverse range. Moreover, there is a concept called ‘intelligent control’ which also belongs to control theory and control engineering and is a class of control techniques that use various artificial intelligent computing approaches like neural networks, fuzzy logic, machine learning, evolutionary computation and genetic algorithms.”
Research benefits for South Africa and Africa
Explaining why this sort of research is important for South Africa and the continent, Wang said this research is not only theoretic research but it is also related to engineering applications such as robotics, aerospace flight, washing machines, air-conditioners, and so on. “Some research results such as ultrasonic measurement, control algorithms, and optimisation algorithms can be applied in the areas of industry, which can benefit the economy of South Africa.
This year Wang embarks on another two innovative research projects on intelligent systems. Currently in the planning phase, the one project is about the design and development of intelligent robots and the second project is on the design and development of the autonomous navigation vehicles. “This research is necessary for comfortable life in the future. Intelligent robots can be used to do research about artificial intelligence, control theory and control engineering and signal processing. The relevant research can make the robots be more ‘smart’ to serve human beings. The research about autonomous navigation vehicles can make the drivers safer and more comfortable during the journey.”
On his award, Wang said it is a great honour to be awarded the Principal’s prize and it propels him to work harder to achieve more research outputs.
