Recently the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) announced the approved projects during the concentrated reception period in 2020. “Theory and Application of Operational Optimal Control of Urban Sewage Disposal Systems”, the project led by Prof. QIAO Junfei from the Faculty of Information Technology, was awarded Science Fund for Creative Research Groups by NSFC. This is the third time that a BJUT project has been awarded this fund. The previous awarded projects were “Control over Seismic-Resistance and Shock-Absorption of Major Engineering Structures” in 2014 and “Ecological Materials and Preparation Project” in 2016.

With a focus on the national strategy of developing an ecological civilization and the major needs of water pollution control and management across China, the awarded team is devoted to the research on theoretical methods and key technologies about operational optimal control of urban sewage disposal process. Supported with the grants from National Natural Science Fund for Major Program, Key National Projects for Water Pollution Control, and National R & D Program for Major Research Instruments, the team has attained multiple innovative achievements via scientific research into urban sewage treatment, including the biochemical reaction mechanism of activated sludge, real-time detection of process parameters, self-organization control of key variables, dynamic optimization of the whole process, and integration of optimal control systems.

The awarded team is led by Prof. QIAO Junfei, and the core members include Academician PENG Yongzhen, Prof. HAN Honggui, Researcher WANG Pu, Prof. YANG Qing, and Prof. GU Ke. The crew has also won Beijing Academic Innovation Team Award, Beijing Science and Technology Strategic Talent Team Award, and CAA (Chinese Association of Automation) Automation and Artificial Intelligence Innovation Team Award among the first batch of winners.