Modeling, Identification and Control at Telemark University College

AbstractMaster studies in process automation started in 1989 at what soon became Telemark University College,and the 20 year anniversary marks the start of our own PhD degree in Process, Energy and Automa-tion Engineering. The paper gives an overview of research activities related to control engineering atDepartment of Electrical Engineering, Information Technology and Cybernetics.Keywords: modeling, simulation, identi cation, control, sensor technology 1 Introduction The Norwegian research journal MIC was initiated bylate Professor Jens Glad Balchen, with the rst issuepublished in 1980. MIC has played a central role inNorwegian cybernetics research, as it coincided with adramatic growth in the number of PhD students andgave these an arena to publish. Telemark UniversityCollege (HiT) salutes the journal, and those who madethe journal possible.The master studies in engineering at HiT started in1988, and the initial board was led by Finn Lied andincluded Inge Johansen and Sven G. Terjesen, all cen-tral people in the engineering community of Norwayin the last part of the 20th century. The leader of theengineering studies was May-Britt Hagg, now professorat The Norwegian University of Science and Technol-ogy (NTNU). In 1989, a study in Process Automationstarted; this study was planned by Terje Hertzberg,Steinar Sˆlid, Gudolf Kjˆrheim, Sven G. Terjesen,Ivar Loe, Jens I. Ytreeide, and Rolf Ergon. Later,Ytreeide became professor in these studies, while Loewas adjunct professor for many years. The Process Au-tomation study was led by Rolf Ergon, now professoremeritus. In 1994, these studies became part of HiT,organized under Faculty of Technology (HiT-TF).From the start, the MSc studies in Porsgrunn hadtheir accreditation from the Ministry of Education andResearch, while the PhD study was formally a degreeat NTNU, where HiT-TF operated almost as a facultyunder NTNU. In April 2009, the Ministry of Educa-tion and Research gave HiT the right to give our ownPhD-degree, in Process, Energy, and Automation En-gineering.The current MSc studies are in Process Technol-ogy, Systems and Control Engineering, and Energyand Environmental Technology, and they are taughtin English. Initially, the strong position of the re-gional process industry shaped the process automationstudy, which had a strong emphasis on modeling of dy-namic systems, numeric methods, process chemistry,separation technology, thermodynamics, etc. Controlengineering was also important, with topics in multi-variable control, optimal and predictive control, stateestimation, and control structures for industrial pro-cesses. Instrumentation technology and process safetywere core topics, and laboratory exercises widely used.With a compact group of teachers in close touch withthe students, this enabled necessary changes in pacewith the developments in the regional and nationalindustry, and today, the core topics are modeling ofdynamic systems, model based control, model based