AAME2024 Keynote Speakers (Listed by alphabetical order of family name)

Prof. Ben M. Chen
Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Hong Kong
Fellow of IEEE / Fellow of Academy of Engineering, Singapore

Ben M. Chen is currently a Professor of Mechanical and Automation Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Before joining CUHK in 2018, he was a Provost's Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore, where had worked for 25 years. He was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA, in 1992–1993, and was a Software Engineer at South China Computer Corporation, China, 1983–1986. His current research interests are in unmanned systems and their applications.
Professor Chen is an IEEE Fellow and Fellow of Academy of Engineering, Singapore. He has authored/co-authored hundreds of journal and conference articles, and ten research monographs in control theory and applications, unmanned systems and financial market modeling. He has served on the editorial boards of a dozen international journals including Automatica and IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. He is currently serving as an Editor-in-Chief of Unmanned Systems and an Editor of International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control.  

Title of Speech: Advanced Unmanned and AI Systems for Infrastructure Inspection and Management 

Abstract: In this talk, we aim to present the recent development of some unconventional unmanned systems and a fully autonomous infrastructure inspection and information management system with advanced AI and UAS technologies. The autonomous inspection system includes sophisticated unmanned hardware platforms and software systems for automatic flight control, task and motion planning, and AI techniques for RGB image and infrared data processing for defect detections. Topics on building information modeling (BIM) and management system integrated with detailed geographical information systems (GIS) and digital twin (DT) technologies will also be highlighted. Compared with the manual inspection, the autonomous inspection system that we have developed has the advantages of being more economical, safer, flexible and efficient. It can also be adopted for other industrial applications, including smart ocean and smart cities.  

 

Prof. Yuehong Qian
Soochow University, China

After the bachelor degree in aero-engine from the Beijing University of aeronautics and astronautics, Dr. Yuehong Qian obtained his PhD in physics from Ecole Normale Superieure in and fluid mechanics from Uinersity Pierre et Marie Curie. He spent some times at the Institute of CFD in Tokyo, then he went to work at Princeton University and Columbia University as research staff member and assistant professor in applied mathematics and computational physics. He started his scientific works on lattice gas models for hydrodynamics, then he pioneered in lattice Boltzmann method since 1980s. He had worked as the principal scientist at the Exa Corp (now purchased by Dassault Systemes) for developping the commercial code PowerFLOW, which is widely used for solving aeroacoustic problems in automobile and aeronautical industries.  

 

Prof. Xin Zhang
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
Swire Professor of Aerospace Engineering

Zhang Xin is the Swire Aerospace Engineering and a chair professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He serves as the director of the Aerodynamics and Acoustics facility at HKUST. He holds a PhD from Cambridge University and is a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers. Zhang Xin is mainly engaged in research and development in the fields of aerodynamics and noise of aircraft, aero engines, and unmanned air systems. He served as the Airbus Professor of Aircraft Engineering and was Director of the Airbus Aircraft Noise Technology Center from 2008 to 2015. He joined the HKUST in 2015. His research team (https://aantc.ust.hk/ ) maintains close cooperation with aerospace industry. He also conducts research in racing cars and sports aerodynamics. He has worked closely with the F1 racing industry and developed the world's first MSc course in racing aerodynamics at the University of Southampton, UK. In the field of sports science and technology, especially aerodynamics, his team collaborates with national, professional sports teams, and sports industries to engage in sports science and technology research. In addition, he also serves as the director of the HKUST-Hong Kong Sports Institute Joint Center for Sports Technology and the HKUST Sports Engineering Research Center at HKUST.  

Title of Speech: The Noise Impact of Urban Air Mobility 

Abstract: Urban air mobility (UAM) is an emerging transportation system that uses flying vehicles to transport passengers and goods in cities and suburbs. It aims to improve the traffic congestion problem in urban settings. Development of electric propulsion, batteries, and autonomous flight technologies has led to the emergence of various UAM concepts and prototypes. However, noise pollution is a key factor limiting the development of UAM and will affect the public's acceptance of transport mode. UAM aircraft has a rich variety of noise sources. This talk outlines a systematic work to develop a UAM noise assessment platform, including computational aeroacoustics simulation on a large computing platform, boundary element method for noise scattering effects, Gaussian beam tracking combining atmospheric flow and flight motion for efficient calculation of long-distance noise propagation, terrain modeling, and low-noise route planning, etc. This platform can be used to guide the design of low-noise UAM aircraft, realize low-noise emission path planning, and contribute to the sustainable development of low-altitude flight in green cities.