Professor Wuqiang Yang (FIEEE, FIET, FInstMC, CEng) received his BEng (Distinction) 1982, MSc 1985 and PhD (Distinction) 1988, from Tsinghua University. After 3 years as a Lecturer at Tsinghua University, he joined UMIST in 1991 and became Professor in 2005. Currently, he is Director of Business Engagement and Innovation in the Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. His research is focused on electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) and industrial applications. He has published 400 papers and two books "Sensor Array" and "Imaging Sensor Technoligies and Applications", and holds 10 patents, including 2 WO patents. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Trans. IM and IET Sci. Meas. Technol. and editorial board member of 7 other journals, including Meas. Sci. Technol. and Sensor Review, and reviews papers for >50 journals. He has been invited by many universities and research institutions worldwide and international conferences to give lectures/seminars/keynotes. From 2010 to 2016, he was an IEEE IMS Distinguished Lecturer. He is a visiting professor at 8 universities, including Tsinghua University. In 2006 he received Global Research Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering and took sabbatical leave at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in USA as a visiting professor. He is one of key organisers of IEEE International Conference on Imaging Systems and Techniques. He organised many special issues as a Guest Editor for IEEE Trans. IM, Meas. Sci. Technol., Sensors and other journals. In 2016 he stayed at Chiba University in Japan as a JSPS Invitation Fellow. He will visit Chiba University again as a JSPS Bridge Fellow. He is recognised by International Center for Scientific Research (France), as one of top 30 technology researchers in the world, and Intota as an expert. His biography has been included in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Science and Engineering and Who's Who in America since 2002. In 2019, he set up a joint research lab for touch sensors for domestic robots between University of Manchester and Beijing Tashan Co. Ltd. 

BEng, MSc, PhD (Tsinghua University), FIEEE, FIET, FInstMC, CEng

Professional membership

• Fellow of IEEE
• Fellow of IET
• Fellow of InstMC
• Chartered Engineer

Panel member

• Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellowship
• Natural Science Foundation of China
• Ministry of Science and Technology (China)
• Chinese Academy of Sciences

• Electrical capacitance tomography, including hardware design, image reconstruction algorithms and industrial applications
• Multiphase flow measurement, including gas/oil/water flows, powder flows and pharmaceutical fluidised beds
• Sensors and instrumentation, including touch sensors for domestic robots

Possible PhD projects

(1) Low-cost ECT device

We have been leading in ECT and developed the AC-based ECT system, which has the highest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) (>73 dB), and can generate images at a speed of >100 frames per second. Because of the market demanding, we intend to develop a new low-cost ECT device, based on capacitance-to-digital converters (CDC) and a type of microprocessor. This device will have market in the power generation, semiconductor manufacturing and other industries. This work will be supported by two companies. 

(2) Gas/oil/water flow meter based on ECT/ERT dual modality

Gas/oil/water flow meters are highly demanded by the oil industry. Currently, all gas/oil/water flow meters rely on radiation. Based on our many years experience, we intend to develop a type of non-radiation gas/oil/water flow meter based on ECT/ERT dual modality. This PhD project will be supported by Schlumberger Gould Research in Cambridge and Schlumberger Singapore.

(3) Pharmaceutical powder flow meter based on ECT and microwave resonant cavity sensor

In the pharmaceutical industry, batch processing are currently adopted for production. While many companies intend to adopt continuous processing to enhance operation efficiency, the bottle-neck is the lack of powder flow meters. We intend to develop a new online powder flow meter based on ECT and microwave resonant cavity sensor, plus electrostatic cross correlation for velocity measurement. This work will be supported by AstraZeneca and GEA Pharma Systems. 

Current research students

• Haoyu Zhao, working on capacitance-based touch sensor
• Jingqian Hong, working on image reconstruction software

Former students

• Dimitrios Georgakopoulos, Senior Scientist, National Measurement Institute, Australia
• Nas Chondronasios, Electronics Department Manager, EmDoT SA, Greece
• Qian Xie, Owner and CEO, Eazytec Ltd, China
• Faisal Bukhari, Head of Dept. of Computer Eng., Sir Syed University of Eng. and Technol., Pakistan
• Min Yang, Owner and CEO, Sound Dragon Electronics and Acoustics Ltd, China
• Alejandro Gonzalez-Nakazawa, Research Associate, University of Durham, UK
• Bin Cheng, Manager, ARM (China)
• Yi Li, Associate Professor, Tsinghua University Shenzhen Graduate School, China
• Idris Ismail, Associate Professor, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia
• Xiaohui Hu, Owner and CEO, Wuhan Kangda Electrical Co., Ltd, China
• Abdulgader Mohamed Hwili, Member of Parliament, Libya
• Jiangtao Sun, Associate Professor, Beihang University, China
• Zhen (Daisy) Ren, Research Associate, Chicago University, USA
• Mimi Faisyalini Ramli, Lecturer, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
• Wenbin Tian, Research Associate, Beihang University, China
• Khursiah Zainal Mokhtar, Malaysia
• Marco A. Rodriguez, UK

Academic visitors for sabbatical leave

• Prof. Huaxiang Wang, Tianjin University, China
• Prof. Shi Liu, Head of School of Control and Computer Engineering, North China Electric Power University, China
• Prof. Haigang Wang, Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Dr Shengmin Ge, Associate Professor, Harbin Institute of Technol., China
• Prof. Lihui Peng, Tsinghua University, China
• SK Strandos, Bergen University, Norway
• Dr Zhaotian Zhang, Director of Information Department, Natural Science Foundation of China
• Dr Yanjuan Yang, Associate Professor, South China University of Technology, China
• Jimmy Kjaersgaard-Rasmussen, Technical University of Denmark
• Prof. Yan Han, Vice President of North University of China
• Prof. Dixiang Chen, National University of Defence Technololgy, China
• Dr Xiang Deng, Associate Professor, Beijing Jiaotong University, China
• Prof. Hongwei Bian, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
• Prof. Tiemei Yang, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, China
• Dr Ying Tang, National University of Defence Technology, China
• Dr Junpu Wang, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China
• Dr Yongfeng Fu, Hangzhou University of Technology, China
• Dr Fernando Rangel de Sousa, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil
• Dr Jun Long, Beijing Institute of Control Engineering, China
• Dr Lingke Zhou, Nanjng University of Science and Technology, China

• Distinction Graduate of Tsinghua University, 1982
• Award from Chinese National Meas. Standard Bureau for final year project, 1982
• Distinction PhD Thesis of Tsinghua University, 1988
• 1st Prize of 6th Ministry of Industry of China for a major national project (as a team member), 1988
• Prize from Navigation journal for a paper, 1991
• 1997 IEE/NPL (Institution of Electrical Engineers/National Physical Lab) Wheatstone Meas. Prize
• 1997 Honeywell Prize from Institute of Meas. and Control (InstMC) for Best Article of the Year, published in Meas. + Control journal
• 2000 IEE Ayrton Premium for Best Paper of the Year, published in IEE Proc.-Sci. Meas. and Technol. journal
• Two prizes from Henan Province, China for a journal paper, 2004, 2006
• Most successful British Council Link with China, 2005
• Global Research Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), 2006
• Best Paper at 5th International Symposium on Process Tomography in Poland, 2008
• IEEE Outstanding Organisation Award, 2008, 2012, 2014
• Highly Recommended Paper at IEEE Int. Workshop on Imaging Systems and Techniques, 2009
• IET Innovation Award Finalist, 2009
• Valued Reviewer of Sensors and Actuators A journal, 2009
• Outstanding Reviewer of Sensor Review journal, 2010
• Award in recognition of contribution from Senate of Technical University of Lodz, Poland, 2012

MACE10492: Electric energy supply and circuits

• Associate Editor of IEEE Trans. on Instrum. and Meas., 2012-
• Associate Editor of IET Science, Measurement and Instrumentation
• Editorial board member of Meas. Sci. Technol.
• Editorial board member of Sensor Review
• Honorary Chairman of IEEE Int. Conference on Imaging Systems and Techniques (IST), 2009-2019
• Local Chair of IEEE IST’2012, Manchester, UK
• Local Chair of 2013 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Manchester, UK
• Co-Chair of 2017 IEEE Int. Instrum. and Meas. Technol. Conference, Torino, Italy
• IET Assessment Committee member, 2013-
• Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Invitation Fellow, 2016
• Qualified expert with Intota (USA), 2000- (expert ID: 721911)

External PhD examiner for

• University of Cape Town (South Africa), 2002
• Indian Institute of Technol. Madras (India), 2007
• Telemark University College (Norway), 2008
• Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Germany), 2008
• Liverpool University (UK), 2010
• City University (UK), 2014
• University of Kent (UK) 2014, 2019
• University of British Columbia (Canada), 2014
• India Institute of Technol., Kharagpur (India), 2014
• University of Bath (UK), 2014
• Indian Institute of Technol. (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad Dhanbad (India), 2017
• Sheffield University (UK), 2018
• Cardiff University (UK), 2018
• Savitribai Phule Pune University (India), 2018
• Kunming University of Science and Technology (China), 2019

 Refereeing funding proposals for

• West Virginia University (USA), 2003
• National Research Foundation (South Africa), 2004, 2009
• Austrian Science Fund, 2008, 2012
• Natural Science Center (Poland), 2014-2016
• King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (Saudi Arabia), 2014-2016
• University of Gent (Belgium) 2014

 Overseas professorship appointment committee member for

• King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (Saudi Arabia), 2005
• University Malaysia Science, 2006
• University of Greenwich (UK), 2015
• University Malaysia Technol., 2016
• Petroleum Institute (UAE), 2017