지능제어 시스템 연구실 (Intelligent Control and Systems)

연구실 소개

The steel industry has led Korea's economic growth along with the automobile and electronics industries, and its impact on other industries, especially as a key industry, has been very significant. To enable the steel industry to play a leading role in economic development, continuous research and development was essential. Meanwhile, POSCO, the core of the Korean steel industry and a world-class company, needed active research into innovative steel process development and new steel products to maintain its top position in a global steel environment where latecomers like China and India are rapidly catching up. In particular, as the steel industry is a representative capital-intensive industry, the importance of measurement, control, and system technology has increased to achieve high-quality product production, improved productivity, pollution-free steelworks in preparation for rising environmental regulations, and accident-free steelworks. However, due to the stereotype that the main actors in steel technology must be metallurgy majors, there were many difficulties in attracting excellent minds specializing in control and measurement. To solve these problems, POSCO held a joint meeting with POSTECH's Department of Electrical Engineering in November 1994 and proposed the establishment of a center. Subsequently, after mutual coordination with POSCO, the Steel Control Research Center was established on July 1, 1995, and Professor Won Sang-chul of the Department of Electrical Engineering was inaugurated as its director. The center aims to establish a practical industry-academia-research cooperation system, through which it fosters excellent high-level human resources in the electrical engineering field with expertise in steel control and measurement, and conducts long-term, continuous research on fundamental technologies in the measurement, control, system, and automation fields related to steel processes, ultimately contributing to the advancement of Korea's steel processes and the sophistication of its products. In its first year, 1994, it received steel-related projects from POSCO, and about 10 professors carried out these projects. Since then, it has contributed to research exchange among researchers in related fields and technology exchange in the steel sector by holding annual joint workshops with the Daegu-Gyeongbuk branch of ICASE (Korean Institute of Intelligent Control, Robotics and Automation) and inviting seminars by experts in control and measurement. In 2004, Professor Won Sang-chul, the director of the center, was appointed as the chairman of the Mining, Mineral, and Metal processing technical committee under the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), strengthening international R&D cooperation and participating in related international conferences under IFAC. It also identifies international research trends in steel control through research exchange agreements with steel control research institutes and universities worldwide. From 2001 to 2015, six professors from the Department of Electrical Engineering participated, conducting 35 related projects with research funds of approximately 4.6 billion KRW. The center's activities are divided into research on fundamental technologies in the measurement and control fields related to steel processes and an education sector for fostering human resources in this area. Its motto is to ultimately contribute to the advancement of steelmaking processes by conducting goal-oriented and long-term research on measurement, control, and process automation within an industry-academia-research cooperation framework. Key research areas include large-scale distributed control systems and real-time control PLC and VME systems, electronic switches and power compensators for AC power, motor drive control, sensor and measurement technology for process automation, and factory automation networks. Annually, the center selects about 5 graduate students in steel control through the same general admission process as the Department of Electrical Engineering, granting them master's degrees upon graduation. In the master's program, students are educated to acquire the latest theories and fundamental technologies in steel control and related fields, enabling them to play a pivotal role in advancing domestic steel control technology and upgrading steel products. The curriculum and credits are identical to those of the Department of Electrical Engineering graduate program. The center has organized and participated in various domestic and international conferences since its establishment to promote international research exchange. In 1996, it hosted the Korean Automatic Control Conference (KACC), and in 1997, to facilitate efficient research activities, it signed agreements with excellent steel control-related centers in 16 countries, including the UK, Germany, and Japan, and hosted the ASI conference. With the trend of globalization, efforts for international joint research and activities for exchanging the latest information have increased daily, and the center has consistently strived to pursue efficient educational research in similar academic fields. Furthermore, to promote a significant improvement in the technical level of domestic control automation systems, it has held international joint conferences with China, Australia, and the UK. In 2001, it organized invited lecture sessions at the SICE/ICASE joint workshop and the IFAC MMM symposium. The Mining, Mineral, and Metal processing technical committee under the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), led by Professor Won Sang-chul, sponsors various IFAC events annually. Domestically, since 1998, it has actively supported academic activities, including organizing annual joint academic conferences with the Steel Control Technology Research Group and the Daegu-Gyeongbuk branch under ICASE (Korean Institute of Intelligent Control, Robotics and Automation). An operating committee is placed under the director to discuss and decide on all matters, and the operating committee is divided into three sections for task distribution: academic affairs, research, and administration. Academic affairs handle educational tasks such as recruiting industry-academia scholarship students, admissions, graduation, and short-term courses. The research section handles all research activities, including selecting research projects and organizing academic conferences related to steel measurement and control. The administrative section handles administrative tasks such as center operation, planning, and public relations.