Postgraduate Research Award PhD Scholarship
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University.
Developing a Smart Demand Side Management Support System
The Project
Demand Side Management aims at reducing the demands for electricity and energy
sources, hence helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A specific goal to change
customer demands for energy through means such as financial incentives and
education in order to reduce peak loads.
The development of a smart demand side management support system is very
important which provides a technology that enables the energy providers and
consumers to make informed energy supply and use decisions taking consideration
environmental, social and economic circumstances. The smart demand side
management support system will utilize intelligent modeling, control and
optimization technologies to integrate energy supply models, consumer energy usage
models and energy economics models, giving rise to an interactive demand side
management support tool. The innovative technology will be trialed in the green
building environment.
The successful candidate will develop the smart demand side management support
system framework with associated intelligent algorithms and implement it into a
prototype software platform.
The Research Team
This project is part of a multi-disciplinary team lead by Prof. Xinghuo Yu and Dr.
Caspar Ryan and involves the School of CS & IT, School of Electrical and Computer
Engineering and School of Business IT & Logistics.
The primary supervisor for this PhD project is Professor Xinghuo Yu. This project is
funded by part of the Victorian State Government and Siemens Company Greener
Government Buildings Initiative.
Professor Yu is the Foundation Director of RMIT's Platform Technologies Research
Institute. Professor Yu's research interests include variable structure and nonlinear
control, complex and intelligent systems, industrial electronics and smart grids. He
has published over 450 refereed papers in technical journals, books and conference
proceedings. Professor Yu has served as an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions
on Circuits and Systems Part I, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics, and several other scholarly journals. He
received a number of awards for his achievements, including the 2013 IEEE IES Dr.Ing. Eugene Mittlemann Achievement Award, 2012 IEEE Industrial Electronics
Magazine Best Paper Award, a Chang Jiang Scholar (Chair Professor) Award from
the Ministry of Education of China in 2009, and the 1995 Central Queensland
University Vice Chancellor's Award for Research. Professor Yu has been VicePresident for Publications (2012/2013) and an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE
Industrial Electronics Society. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers,
Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society, and a Graduate of the
Australian Institute of Company Directors. Professor Yu was Past Chair of Technical
Committee on Smart Grids of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.
The PhD Project
A PhD Scholarships is available for a dynamic, independent individual with expertise
in one or more of the areas of intelligent systems engineering, energy systems,
electrical engineering, mathematical modeling and optimization, and an interest in
energy conservation and building automation.
The successful candidate will work on the specifics of the demand side management
support system described above as part of a multi-disciplinary team of 3 PhDs. The
other two PhD students will work on energy informatics and information systems to
facilitate behavioral change using economic, social and other behavioural incentives,
and development of develop metrics, models and service-based software
infrastructure to support automated and intelligent demand response in green
buildings, respectively.
Selection Criteria
The successful applicant should:
• Demonstrate excellent undergraduate academic performance in a field related to the
proposed research such as electrical engineering, intelligent systems engineering,
computer science, and mathematical modeling and optimisation.
• Have completed a Masters degree or Honors degree (with a minor thesis or research
component) with distinction.
• Demonstrate the ability to organise and work independently as well as part of a
team.
What does the scholarship provide?
• Tax-free stipend of $30,000 per annum over 3.5 years and an RTS place for
Australian citizens or permanent residents in a doctoral degree within the School of
Electrical and Computer Engineering. A fee waiver may be available for outstanding
international applicants.
• Applicants should discuss their eligibility with project leader Professor Xinghuo Yu
from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering before applying:
x.yu@rmit.edu.au, phone +61 3 9925 5317
http://www.set.rmit.edu.au/~xinghuo