Keynote Speaker

Our Keynote presentations for WCIPT11-2023 explore the overarching theme:-

Game-changing IPT..  Pushing the envelope – IPT advances for multi-component processes.

Many modern processes are used to manufacture high specification products, perhaps for personal daily use by billions of human beings in our developed world, or to supply the massive range of materials and activities that enable our modern society, for example for building and structural materials and pharmaceutical compounds. Our processes transform multiple raw materials, physically and/or chemically. They require energy to heat, cool, mix, or separate components at various stages.

The overarching aim for our IPT research and World Congress meetings from ~2000 was to supercharge progress over a 30+ year horizon to grow major economic and environmental impact in such processes, recently assessed (Fischedick et al, 2014) as responsible for ~30% of climate-change carbon.  To sense and gain information for such processes we require detailed multi-dimensional information, including material identification.  Such information can deliver major benefits. For example, a recent (2022) IPT application adopted, by a major Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) manufacturer, projects annual 200kT CO2 reductions (equivalent to emissions from about 200k vehicles), attainable within 4 years. 

Our WCIPT Keynote Speakers Professors Chao Tan (in work with Professor Feng Dong) from Tianjin University, China, and Professor Manuch Soleimani from Bath University, UK, have been pushing the envelope to deliver game-changing benefits.

Reference: Fischedick M., et al., 2014: Industry. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, USA.

Keynote 1 – Ultrasonic process tomography: towards spectrum and phased array

Abstract: Ultrasonic sensors have attracted increasing interest from process sectors, due to their inherit advantages of radiation-free, rich process information, and easy installation at the simplest in clamp-on sensors for pipes. Ultrasonic process tomography (UPT), as one of the most sophisticated sensors, has also been paid growing attention to develop new functions to meet various practical measurement and monitoring demands. This talk introduces recent development of UPT in Tianjin University from the basic single frequency UPT, to the wideband UPT that incorporates the ultrasonic spectrum to demodulate more information of the process (phase separation and droplet sizing), and the phased array UPT to provide a higher resolution and flexible imaging strategies and sensor configurations to fit much wider applications. The sensing strategy, imaging algorithm and system design of each type of UPT will be introduced and discussed to provide an insight to the further development of UPT for prospective applications in process monitoring. 

Keynote presenter: Chao Tan received his Bachelor, Master and PhD in Control Science and Engineering, and is a Professor and Dean of the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin University. He also directs the Tianjin Key Laboratory of Process Measurement and Control, and the Tianjin Joint Research and Development Center for Process Imaging and Measurement. Professor Tan is a Fellow of the ISIPT and Senior Member IEEE and has published ~100 international journal papers and more than 40 patents. His research interests include industrial process tomography, process parameter and multiphase flow measurement and instrumentation, biomedical imaging, and multi-sensor/data fusion.

 

Keynote 2 – Multi-modality and Spectral data for industrial process tomography

Abstract: Industrial process tomography (IPT) tools provide unique insights into many complex manufacturing functions. This done for wide range of industries spanning for pharmaceutical industries to metal processing industries.  IPT tools are becoming critical components for Industry 4.0 and digita transformation that is undertaken in many sectors.  To maximise the information obtained from a live process often it is required to enrich the IPT data set by combining two or more imaging modalities.  In this talk we discuss various methods and applications of multi-modality IPT tools. This includes the synchronised data collection as well as imaging algorithm for information fusion. Another area of potential data enrichment is through spectroscopic tomography data. For example, in electrical tomography a wide range frequency impedance measurement may help revealing characteristics of the process that cannot be derived from a single frequency data measurement.  While the spectroscopic approach has been advocated for IPT applications for many years we discuss challenges for such a development.

 

Keynote presenter: Manuch Soleimani is a Professor of Tomographic Imaging at the University of Bath, UK.  He is an active member of the ISIPT community and has contributed in several previous WCIPT meetings, including Chair and host of the highly successful WCIPT9 in 2018.  Professor Soleimani’s research includes sensor design and mathematical aspects of IPT modalities such as electrical and electromagnetic tomography (MIT), ultrasound tomography (UST) and X-ray CT (XCT). In XCT Prof Soleimani’s team has developed and released (together with the project’s sponsor CERN) a widely used open source GPU based image reconstruction toolbox called TIGRE. He contributed to the introduction of several multi-modality IPT combinations, presenting the case for combined modalities such as MIT-ECT, UST-EIT and XCT-EIT. His recent research interests are in data driven tools based on modern Machine Learning algorithms, as well as investigating the use case for spectral tomography in IPT applications.