Employment

07/2004 – present: Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee

12/2006 - present: Consultant for Building Efficiency Research Group, Johnson Controls, Inc.

08/1996 – 05/2004: Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, Purdue University

08/1994 – 07/1996: Graduate Research Assistant, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Canada

08/1992 – 07/1994: Assistant Research Engineer, Inner Mongolia Microcomputer Research Institute (Star Computers), Inc., Hohhot, China.

Research Interests

Mechatronics; Control, Optimization, and Health Monitoring of Electro-mechanical Systems; Extremum Seeking Control; HVAC Control Systems; Power Management of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles; Wind Energy Systems; Underwater Robot and Autonomous Observation Systems; Wireless Process Control; Active and Semi-Active Control of Sound and Vibration

Current & Recent Research Topics

• Extremum Seeking Control of Energy Systems
• Dynamic Modeling of Building HVAC Systems Using Modelica
• Nearly Globally Optimal Power Management of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles Based on Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Underwater Hexapod Walking Robot for Underwater Exploration
• Control and Health Monitoring of Wind Turbine Systems
• Wireless Control for HVAC Systems
• On-Line System Identification Based on Orthogonal Basis Functions
• Data-Driven Surge Map Modeling for Centrifugal Air Compressors
• Robust Smith Predictor Based Control for Inlet Guide Vane
• Flex-roll Process Monitoring for Strap Breaking Prevention

Selected Publications

1. Li, P., Li, Y. and Seem, J.E. “Dynamic Modeling and Self-Optimizing Control of Air-Side Economizers,” submitted to Modelica 2008.
2. Creaby, J. and Li, Y. "Maximizing power output of wind turbines Using Multi-variable Extremum Seeking Control," submitted to WindPower 2008.
3. Gong, Q., Li, Y. and Peng, Z.-R. “Nearly Globally Optimal Power Management of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles with Advanced Traffic Modeling”. Submitted to IFAC 2008.
4. Gong, Q., Li, Y. and Peng, Z.-R. “Trip Based Optimal Power Management of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles with Two-scale Dynamic Programming”. Proceedings of 2007 Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC'07), September 9-12, 2007, Arlington, TX.
5. Gong, Q., Li, Y. and Peng, Z.-R. “Optimal Power Management of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles with Intelligent Transportation Systems”. Proceeding of 2007 International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics.
6. Wu, X., Li, Y. and Consi, T. R. “Gait Synthesis of Hexapod Robot for Observation on Corrugated Surfaces”. Proceedings of 2007 Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology Symposium (UUST'07), August 2007, Durham, NH
7. Wu, X., Li, Y. “Computationally Efficient Data-driven Surge Map Modeling for Centrifugal Air Compressors”. Proceedings of 2007 American Control Conference.
8. Ji, Y., Li, Y., Lee, J. “Boring Tool Monitoring via Kautz Function Based Transient Modeling”. Proceedings of 2007 American Control and Conference.
9. Sodemann, A., Li, Y., Lee, J., Qiu, H. M., Rucker, M., Lancaster, R. and Carnagie, J., Inman, A. and Stebbins, B. “Data-driven Surge Map Modeling for Centrifugal Air Compressors”.  Proceedings of 2006 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Expo (IMECE 2006), Paper No. IMECE-13103. Accepted by Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing.
10. Sodemann, A., Li, Y., Wu, X., Lee, J., Qiu, H. M., Rucker, M., Lancaster, R. and Carnagie, J., Inman, A. and Stebbins, B. “Robust Smith Predictor Control of Inlet Guide Vane for Centrifugal Air Compressors”.  Proceedings of 2006 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Expo (IMECE 2006), Paper No. IMECE-13101.
11. Li, Y., Rotea, M., Chiu, G. T.-C., Mongeau, L. G. and Paek, I.-S. “Extremum Seeking Control of Tunable Thermoacoustic Cooler”. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Vol. 13, No. 4, 527- 536, July 2005.
12. Li, Y. and Chiu, G. T.-C. “Control of Loudspeakers Using Disturbance-Observer Type Velocity Estimation”. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 10 (1), 111 – 117, 2005.
13. Li, Y., Chiu, G. T.-C. and Mongeau, L. G. “Robust Repetitive Control: Acoustic Impedance Matching for Dual-Driver Standing Wave Tube”, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Vol. 12, No. 6, pp. 869-880, November 2004.
14. Li, Y., Minner, B. L., Chiu, G. T.-C., Mongeau, L. G. and Braun, J. E. “Adaptive Tuning of an Electrodynamically Driven Thermoacoustic Cooler”. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 111, No. 3, 1251-1258, March 2002.

Honor & Award

• 2007 Honda Initiation Grant: Trip Based Optimal Power Management for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles
• Cummins Fellowship, Purdue University, 2003
• Donnan Fellowship, Purdue University, 2002
• Graduate Teaching Fellowship, University of Saskatchewan, 1995
• Chinese National Highschool Chemistry Olympic Competition, Third Class Prize, China Chemistry Association, Beijing, 1987

Teaching

• ME 479: Control and Design of Mechatronic Systems (Fall 2004, Spring 2005, Fall 2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2006, Fall 2007)
• ME 474: Introduction to Control Systems (Fall 2006)
• ME/EE 574: Intermediate Control Systems (Fall 2005)
• ME/EE 718: Nonlinear Control Systems (Spring 2007)
• ME/EE 816: Linear Optimal and Robust Control (Spring 2006)
• ME/EE 819: Adaptive Control (Fall 2007)

Sponsors

• Johnson Controls, Inc.
• Honda America R&D
• WE Energies
• Toyota Motors Manufacturing in Kentucky
• Milwaukee Journal & Sentinel

Collaborators

• Dr. John E. Seem and Dr. Timothy I. Salsbury (Johnson Controls)
• Prof. Zhong-Ren Peng (University of Florida at Gainesville)
• Mr. Yosuke Ishikawa (Honda America)
• Prof. David Yu and Prof. Adel Nasiri (UWM EE Department)
• Dr. Thomas R. Consi (UWM Great Lakes Water Institute)
• NSF I/UCRC Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems

Postdoctoral Researcher

• Dr. Yang Bin

Full-Time Graduate Students

• Xin Wu (Ph. D.)
• Qiuming Gong (Ph. D.)
• Pengfei Li (Ph. D.)
• Chuanfeng Wang (Ph. D.)
• Quan Chen (Ph.D.)
• Xiao Li (Ph.D.)
• Peng Lei (Ph.D.)
• Justin Creaby (M. S.)

Part-Time Graduate Students

• Edward Byaliy (Ph. D.)
• Bin Chen (Ph. D.)
• Tony Rousseau (M. S.)
• James Stahl (M. S.)

Former Students

• Angela Sodemann (M. Sc. June 2006, now Ph. D. student at Georgia Tech)
• Eric Fritz (B. Sc. May 2006, now with Boston Scientific)
• Robert Brummond (B. Sc. December 2006, now with Harley-Davidson Product Development Center)
• Yun Lei (M. Sc. December 2006, now with Siemens Water Technology, Waukesha, WI)