KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Prof. Andrew Ball
University of Huddersfield, UK
Prof. Andrew Ball is Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise and Professor of Diagnostic Engineering at the University of Huddersfield.
Graduating from the University of Leeds in 1987, Andrew attained a first class honours in Mechanical Engineering, his degree having been sponsored by BICC Electronic Cables. Andrew went on to work for Ruston Gas Turbines and then gained a sponsorship from WM Engineering and the Royal Navy, enabling him to join the Total Technology Scheme at the University of Manchester, from which he graduated in 1991 with a PhD in Machinery Condition Monitoring.
Andrew then took the Shell sponsored lectureship in Maintenance Engineering at the University of Manchester; he was promoted to Professor of Maintenance Engineering in 1999, and was the Head of School of the Manchester School of Engineering from 2003 to 2004. In 2005 he became Dean of Graduate Education and in late-2007 he moved to the University of Huddersfield as Professor of Diagnostic Engineering and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise.
Prof. Ruqiang Yan
Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
Prof. Ruqiang Yan is a Full Professor and Director of International Machinery Center at the School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. His research interests include data analytics, AI, and energy-efficient sensing for the condition monitoring and health diagnosis of large-scale, complex, dynamical systems.
Dr. Yan is a Fellow of IEEE (2022) and ASME (2019). His honors and awards include the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society Distinguished Service Award in 2022 and Technical Award in 2019, and the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Award in 2023.
Dr. Yan is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society and served as the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement (2022–2024). He is now serving as the EiC of IEEE Systems Journal.
Prof. Mingming Zhang
Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), China
Prof. Mingming Zhang is a leading talent of the National “Ten Thousand Talents Program” and a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. He serves as Vice Director of the Wind Energy Special Committee of the China Renewable Energy Society and Vice Chairman of the Guangdong Engineering Thermophysics Society.
He has long been engaged in basic and technical research on wind energy. He has hosted over 40 research projects, including the Ministry of Science and Technology’s 863 Program, Key R&D Program, International Cooperation Program, and projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, such as the Excellent Young Scientists Fund and Key Program.
Prof. Zhang has published over 90 SCI-indexed articles. He has received more than 10 awards, including the First Prize of China Energy Innovation, the Second Prize of Beijing Science and Technology Award, and the Second Prize of China Electric Power Science and Technology Progress Award.
Prof. Zhipeng Feng
University of Science and Technology Beijing, China
Prof. Zhipeng Feng received the B.S. degree in automotive engineering from Jilin University in 1997, the M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Kunming University of Science and Technology in 2000, and the Ph.D. degree in power machinery engineering from Dalian University of Technology, China, in 2003.
From 2003 to 2005, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Department of Precision Instruments and Mechanology, Tsinghua University, China. From 2006 to 2007, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada.
Currently, Prof. Feng is a Professor with the School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, China. His research interests include machinery fault diagnosis, signal processing, electromechanical system dynamics, and artificial intelligence. He was awarded the 2024 China Machinery Industry Science and Technology Award, the 2020 Natural Science Prize by the Ministry of Education of China, and the 2014 Best Paper Award by Renewable Energy.
Prof. Luc Thevenaz
École Polytech-nique Fédérale de Lausanne, SUI
Prof. Luc Thévenaz received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. In 1988, he joined the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), where he is now an Emeritus Professor, having led a research group specializing in photonics. His research interests include fiber sensors, slow and fast light phenomena, nonlinear fiber optics, and laser spectroscopy in gases.
He is widely recognized for his pioneering contributions to the application of stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fibers, particularly for his innovative concepts that have advanced the frontiers of distributed fiber sensing. Throughout his career, he has held visiting positions at Stanford University, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Tel Aviv University, the University of Sydney, and the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
In 2000, Prof. Thévenaz co-founded Omnisens, a company dedicated to developing and commercializing advanced photonic instrumentation based on distributed fiber sensing technologies. He has actively contributed to the organization of leading international conferences, serving on the Steering and Technical Committees of events such as OFS, ECOC, CLEO-Europe, and APC.
He has also served as Associate Editor for IEEE Photonics Technology Letters and the Journal of Lightwave Technology, and is currently Co-Executive Editor-in-Chief of Light: Science & Applications (Nature Publishing Group). He is a Fellow of IEEE and Optica, formerly OSA, and a Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.
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