Wolfgang Birk

About me

Brief information

I am Professor of Automatic Control at the Automatic Control Group External link. at the dvision for Signals and Systems and research the boundary between theory and application where limitations and challenges of using advanced methods in an industrial context are of great interest.

Currently, I am on leave of absence to support my spin-off company in an intense growth phase, see www.predge.se External link. 

My research intrests are:

• Structural properties of multivariable and complex systems.
• Control structure selection and interaction in multivariable systems
• Multivariable and decentralized control
• Estimation and prediction of sytem behaviour (mainly in the context of condition monitoring and condition-based maintenance)
• Modelling and simulation of complex dynamic systems

Application areas:

• Process Control (process industries)
• Transport systems (Railway)
• Energy systems (renewables, district heating and cooling, data centers, buildings)

My publication list including citation information can be found in my Google Scholar External link. profile

Teaching Activities and Supervision

Responsible for the courses (more information on the respective course homepage):

• R0005E - Measurement and control
• R7014E - Advanced Control Systems

Supervisor for the following third cycle students:

• Amirreza Zaman

Third cycle students that have graduated:

• Miguel Castaño (2012)
• Ulf Andersson (2013)
• Roland Hostettler (2014)
• Dennis Kleyko (2018)
• Ali Khadim (2018)
• Johan Simonsson (2024)
• Sebastian Fredriksson (discontinued)

Supervisor for Post doctoral fellows:

• Maryam Razi (2020-2022)
• Martin Haller (2019-2022)
• Roland Hostettler (2014-2015)
• Miguel Castaño (2016-2017)
• Khalid Atta (2015-2017)

Research Projects

ECO-Qube - Artificial-Intelligence-Augmented Cooling System for Small Data Centres. Project funded by H2020 Framework Program. 2020-2024.Web site External link. 

Flexi-Sync -  Flexible energy system integration using concept development, demonstration and replication. ERA-Net SES Project. 2019 - 2022.

Wooddee - Efficient Wood Drying Post-doc project funded by SIP PiiA (VINNOVA) 2020-2022. Coordinated by LTU

SimBerry (CloudBerry) - Flexible Simulation of thermal grids. A sub project of ClourBerry Data Centers. Energy Agency. 2018-2022.Coordinated by LTU

PiiA-WARP - Reconfigurable process control systems using wireless components, Post-doc project funded by SIP PiiA (VINNOVA), 2016-2017. Coordinated by LTU.

OPTi - Optimization of district heating and cooling systems, Research and Innovation Action within Horizon 2020, 2015-2017. LTU is coordinating.

PI-SKALP - Process Integration - Scale-able Platform, Research project funded by SIP PiiA (VINNOVA), 2015-2017. Swerea Mefos AB is the coordinator.

SCOPE-II - Structural Control Optimization and Paper Quality Estimation in Pulping, Collaborative framework for the pulp- and paper industry within ProcessIT Innovations External link., 2007-2013. The project is concluded. The consortium continues their efforts to start new research projects. 

iRoad - Intelligent Road, Research and development project in cooperation with GEVEKO, Swedish Road Administration and Eistec, 2008-2013. The project is concluded and the product development based on the results is on-going.

EQoRef - Energy and Quality Oriented Control of Refiners, Research and development project within the SCOPE consortium, 2012-2013.

PrOSPr - ProMoVis Open Source Project, Knowledge transfer project funded by VINNOVA and the SCOPE consortium, 2012. The project is concluded and has lead to the release of the Open Source Software ProMoVis External link..

MeSTA - Methods for structural control optimisation in pulping, Research project financed by VINNOVA (Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems),  SCOPE consortium and Hjalmar Lundbohm Research Centre, 2007-2011. The project is concluded and has lead to the release of the Open Source Software ProMoVis External link..

WSAN4CIP - Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks for the Protection of Critical Infrastructures, EU FP7 project, 2009-2011. The project is concluded. Read more...

Awards

Henry Ford Technology Awardfor the development of Volvo Cars Driver Alert jointly with Mattias Brännström, Daniel Levin och Lena Westervall, 18th september 2007, Dearborn, USA.

The Donald Julius Groen Prize 2007for the journal article "A Driver-Distraction-Based Lane Keeping Assistance System" together with Jochen Pohl and Lena Westervall. The prize is awarded by IMechE.

Curriculum vitae

I grew up in Beckingen (Saar) External link. in the region Saarland External link., Germany and I am a german and swedish citizen. During my engineering studies in electrical engineering at Universität des Saarlandes External link. I was an exchange student at Luleå University of Technology between Jan 1994 and June 1995.
I received my MSc in Electrical Engineering in 1997 and moved to Luleå to start my PhD studies in Automatic Control. In 1999, I started the joint stock company SafeCont AB together with my colleagues Andreas Johansson and Alexander Medvedev. The company has been started as an outlet for commercialization of the results of a research project on reliable control.
In 2002 I received my PhD in Automatic Control and thereafter I joined the Active Safety Functions group at Volvo Car Corporation in Gothenburg. There I was responsible for the development of preventive safety systems focusing on driver awareness. Additionally, I was a system developer for collision avoidance and mitigation systems, where my focus was threat assessment and the related information fusion process. I am one of the inventors of the Volvo Cars Driver Alert system.
In 2006 I left Volvo Car  Corporation for my current assignment. In the beginning of 2009 I have started the company SafeMobility in Gothenburg (renamed to Sentient+ External link.) together with former colleagues which develops functions and features for vehicles from a vehicle dynamics and safety perspective. In 2012 I was promoted to Associate Professor in automatic Control and  during 2013-2016 I was Director of the Third Cycle Studies at the Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering. As of 2015 I am promoted to full professor in Automatic Control and during 2017-2019 I was member of the board of LTU.