Personal Description:

Dr. Wei Qiao joined the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) as an assistant professor in August 2008. Currently, he holds the position of UNL Harold and Esther Edgerton Assistant Professor.

Dr. Qiao’s research interests cover broad areas of electric power and energy systems, including renewable energy systems (wind, solar, etc.), smart grids, microgrids, power system control and optimization, condition monitoring and fault diagnosis, energy storage systems, power electronics, electric machines and drives, FACTS devices, and computational intelligence for electric power and energy systems. His research has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Transportation (DOT), Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research (NCESR), and industry.

Professor Qiao is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, the Chair of the Technical Thrust of Sustainable Energy Sources of the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS), and the Chair of the Task Force on Intelligent Control for Wind Plants of the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES). He is the Technical Program Co-chair of the 2012 IEEE Symposium on Power Electronics and Machines in Wind Applications (PEMWA2012) and was the Technical Program Co-chair and Finance Co-chair of the PEMWA2009.

Professor Qiao was the recipient of a 2010 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the 2010 IEEE Industry Applications Society Andrew W. Smith Outstanding Young Member Award, the 2011 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Harold and Esther Edgerton Junior Faculty Award, and the 2011 UNL College of Engineering Edgerton Innovation Award. He has also received two best paper awards from the IEEE Industry Applications Society and IEEE Power & Energy Society.

Education:

• Ph.D., 2008 Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
  
• M.S., 2003 Singapore-MIT Alliance, National University of Singapore
  
• M.Eng., 2002 Zhejiang University, China
  
• B.Eng., 1997 Zhejiang University, China

Research Interests:

• Renewable energy systems (wind, solar, etc.)
• Smart grids
• Microgrids
• Stability, control, and optimization of electric power grids
• Condition monitoring and fault diagnosis
• Energy storage systems
• Power electronics
• Electric machines and drives
• Computational intelligence for electric power and energy systems

Publications:

Ph.D. Dissertation:

• Integrated Control of Wind Farms, FACTS Devices and the Power Network Using Neural Networks and Adaptive Critic Designs, Georgia Institute of Technology, July 2008.

Book Chapters:

1. W. Qiao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Venayagamoorthy, "Adaptive-critic-design-based intelligent coordinating control for wind energy generation and grid integration," in Intelligent Techniques for Power System Generation, G. K. Venayagamoorthy, R. G. Harley, O. P. Malik, and K. Lee, Eds., John Wiley and Sons, to appear.
2. W. Qiao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Venayagamoorthy, "Computational intelligence for missing-sensor-fault-tolerant control of FACTS devices," in Intelligent Techniques for Power System Transmission, G. K. Venayagamoorthy, N. Hingorani, and R. G. Harley, Eds., John Wiley and Sons, to appear.
3. W. Qiao, “Chapter 8: swarm intelligence for power system control and optimization,” in Evolutionary Computing for Intelligent Power System Optimization and Control, Nova Science Publishers, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-61728-031-3.
4. W. Qiao, “Power electronics for renewable energy,” in The Electric Power Engineering Handbook, CRC Press, 2011, to appear.

Refereed Journal Papers:

1. L. Qu and W. Qiao, “Constant power control of DFIG wind turbines with supercapacitor energy storage,” IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 359-367, Jan/Feb 2011.
2. F. Li, W. Qiao, H. Sun, H. Wan, J. Wang, Y. Xia, Z. Xu, and P. Zhang, “Smart transmission grid: vision and framework,” IEEE Trans. Smart Grid, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 168-177, Sept. 2010.
3. J. Liang, W. Qiao, and R. G. Harley, “Feed-forward transient current control for low-voltage ride-through enhancement of DFIG wind turbines,” IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 836-843, Sept. 2010.
4. W. Qiao, L. Qu, and R. G. Harley, “Control of IPM synchronous generator for maximum wind power generation considering magnetic saturation,” IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 1095-1105, May/June 2009.
5. W. Qiao, G. K. Vanayagamoorthy, and R. G. Harley, "Missing-sensor-fault-tolerant control for SSSC FACTS device with real-time implementation," IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 740-750, Apr. 2009.
6. W. Qiao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Vanayagamoorthy, "Coordinated reactive power control of a large wind farm and a STATCOM using heuristic dynamic programming," IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 493-503, June 2009.
7. W. Qiao, G. K. Venayagamoorthy, and R. G. Harley, "Real-time implementation of a STATCOM on a wind farm equipped with doubly fed induction generators," IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 98-107, Jan./Feb. 2009.
8. W. Qiao, W. Zhou, J. M. Aller, and R. G. Harley, "Wind speed estimation based sensorless output maximization control for a wind turbine driving a DFIG," IEEE Trans. Power Electronics, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 1156-1169, May 2008.
9. W. Qiao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Venayagamoorthy, "Fault-tolerant optimal neurocontrol for a static synchronous series compensator connected to a power network," IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 74-84, Jan./Feb. 2008.
10. W. Qiao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Vanayagamoorthy, "Fault-tolerant indirect adaptive neurocontrol for a static synchronous series compensator in a power network with missing sensor measurements," IEEE Trans. Neural Networks, vol. 19, no. 7, pp. 1179-1195, July 2008.
11. W. Qiao, G. K. Venayagamoorthy, and R. G. Harley, "Optimal wide-area monitoring and nonlinear adaptive coordinating neurocontrol of a power system with wind power integration and multiple FACTS devices," Neural Networks (Elsevier), vol. 21, no. 2-3, pp. 466-475, Mar.-Apr. 2008.
12. W. Qiao, Z. Gao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Vanayagamoorthy, "Robust neuro-identification of nonlinear plants in electric power systems with missing sensor measurements," IFAC Journal: Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence (Elsevier), vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 604-618, June 2008.
13. W. Qiao and R. G. Harley, "Indirect adaptive external neuro-control for a series capacitive reactance compensator based on a voltage source PWM converter in damping power oscillations," IEEE Trans. Industrial Electronics, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 77-85, Feb. 2007.
14. W. Qiao, Z. N. Chen, and K. Wu, "UWB monopole antenna with a top-hat sleeve," International Journal of Microwave and Optical Technology, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 17-27, June 2006.

Refereed and Invited Conference Papers:

1. T. Dai and W. Qiao, “Optimal participation of wind power in the liberalized power market,” to be presented at the 18th IFAC World Congress, Milano, Italy, Aug. 28-Sept. 2, 2011 (Invited Paper).
2. B. Dong, S. Asgarpoor, and W. Qiao, “ANN-based adaptive PI control for wind turbine with doubly fed induction generator,” in Proc. 43rd North American Power Symposium, Boston, MA, USA, Aug. 4-6, 2011.
3. W. Qiao, A. Sharma, J. L. Hudgins, E. Jones, and L. Rilett, “Wind/solar hybrid generation-based roadway microgrids,” in Proc. IEEE PES General Meeting 2011, Detroit, MI, USA, July 24-29, 2011 (Invited Paper).
4. J. Zeng and W. Qiao, “Short-term solar power prediction using an RBF neural network,” in Proc. IEEE PES General Meeting 2011, Detroit, MI, USA, July 24-29, 2010, to appear.
5. W. Qiao, J. Liang, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Venayagamoorthy, “Computational intelligence for control of wind turbine generators,” in Proc. IEEE PES General Meeting 2011, Detroit, MI, USA, July 24-29, 2011 (Invited Paper).
6. J. Mitra, M.-Y. Chow, S. Kamalasadam, W. Qiao, A. K. Srivastava, S. K. Srivastava, and G. K. Venayagamoorthy, “Intelligent methods for smart microgrids,” in Proc. IEEE PES General Meeting 2011, Detroit, MI, USA, July 24-29, 2011 (Invited Paper).
7. J. Zeng and W. Qiao, “Support vector machine-based short-term wind power forecasting,” in Proc. 2011 IEEE PES Power System Conference & Exposition, Phoenix, AZ, USA, March 20-23, 2011.
8. T. Kim, W. Qiao, and L. Qu, “Series-connected reconfigurable multicell battery,” in Proc. 2011Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, Fort Worth, TX, USA, Mar. 6-10, 2011.
9. X. Gong, W. Qiao, and W. Zhou, “Incipient bearing fault detection via wind generator stator current and wavelet filter,” in Proc. 36th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Phoenix, AZ, USA, Nov. 7-10, 2010, pp. 2615-2620.
10. T. Kim, W. Qiao, and L. Qu, “Series-connected reconfigurable multicell battery: A novel design towards smart batteries,” in Proc. IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition 2010, Atlanta, GA, USA, Sept. 12-16, 2010, pp. 4257-4263.
11. X. Yang, X. Gong, and W. Qiao, “Mechanical sensorless maximum power tracking control for direct-drive PMSG wind turbines,” in Proc. IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition 2010, Atlanta, GA, USA, Sept. 12-16, 2010, pp. 4091-4098.
12. X. Gong, X. Yang, and W. Qiao, “Wind speed and rotor position sensorless control for direct-drive PMG wind turbines,” in Proc. IEEE IAS 45th Annual Meeting, Houston, TX, USA, Oct. 3-7, 2010.
13. Q. Hui, J. Shen, and W. Qiao, “Dynamic security analysis of electric power systems: passivity-based approach and positive invariance approach,” in Proc. 2010 ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Cambridge, MA, USA, Sept. 13-15, 2010.
14. X. Gong and W. Qiao, “Simulation investigation of wind turbine imbalance faults,” in Proc. 2010 International Conference on Power System Technology (POWERCON2010), Hangzhou, China, Oct. 24-28, 2010.
15. W. Qiao and Q. Hui, “Energy-based hybrid excitation control for synchronous generators,” to be presented at the IEEE PES General Meeting 2010, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, July 25-29, 2010.
16. D. J. Gardels, W. Qiao, X. Gong, "Simulation studies on imbalance faults of wind turbines," to be presented at the IEEE PES General Meeting 2010, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, July 25-29, 2010.
17. L. Qu and W. Qiao, "Constant power control and fault-ride-through enhancement of DFIG wind turbines with energy storage," in Proc. IEEE IAS 44th Annual Meeting, Houston, TX, USA, Oct. 4-8, 2009.
18. W. Qiao, X. Gong, and L. Qu, "Output maximization control for DFIG wind turbines without using wind and shaft speed measurements," in Proc. IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition 2009, San Jose, CA, USA, Sept. 20-24, 2009, pp. 404-410.
19. Z. Jiang, F. Li, W. Qiao, H. Sun, H. Wan, J. Wang, Y. Xia, Z. Xu, and P. Zhang, "A vision of smart transmission grids," in Proc. IEEE PES General Meeting 2009, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, July 26-30, 2009.
20. J. Liang, W. Qiao, and R. G. Harley, "Direct transient control of wind turbine driven DFIG for low voltage ride-through," in Proc. 2009 IEEE Symposium on Power Electronics and Machines in Wind Applications, Lincoln, Nebraska, June 24-26, 2009.
21. B. Dong, S. Asgarpoor, and W. Qiao, "Voltage analysis of distribution systems with DFIG wind turbines," in Proc. 2009 IEEE Symposium on Power Electronics and Machines in Wind Applications, Lincoln, Nebraska, June 24-26, 2009.
22. W. Qiao, "Echo-state-network-based real-time wind speed estimation for wind power generation," in Proc. 2009 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, Atlanta, GA, USA, June 14-19, 2009, pp. 2572-2579.
23. Q. Hui and W. Qiao, "Stabilization of multimachine power systems via hybrid control," in Proc. 2009 American Control Conference, St. Louis, MO, USA, June 10-12, 2009, pp. 2110-2115.
24. W. Qiao, "Dynamic modeling and control of doubly fed induction generators driven by wind turbines," in Proc. 2009 IEEE PES Power Systems Conference and Exposition, Seattle, WA, USA, Mar. 15-18, 2009.
25. W. Qiao and R. G. Harley, "Grid connection requirements and solutions for DFIG wind turbines," IEEE Energy 2030 Conference, Atlanta, GA, USA, Nov. 17-18, 2008.
26. W. Qiao and R. G. Harley, "Improved control of DFIG wind turbines for operation with unbalanced network voltages," in Proc. IEEE IAS 43rd Annual Meeting, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, October 5-9, 2008.
27. W. Qiao and R. G. Harley, "Effect of grid-connected DFIG wind turbines on power system transient stability," in Proc. IEEE PES 2008 General Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, July 20-24, 2008.
28. W. Qiao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Venayagamoorthy, "Computational intelligence for control and grid integration of DFIG wind turbines," in Proc. 7th International Workshop on Large Scale Integration of Wind Power into Power Systems as well as on Transmission Networks for Offshore Wind Farms, Madrid, Spain, May 26-27, 2008.
29. W. Qiao, L. Qu, and R. G. Harley, "Control of IPM synchronous generator for maximum wind power generation considering magnetic saturation," in Proc. IEEE IAS 42nd Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, USA, Sept. 23-27, 2007, pp. 1265 - 1272.
30. W. Qiao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Venayagamoorthy, "Dynamic modeling of wind farms with fixed-speed wind turbine generators," in Proc. IEEE PES 2007 General Meeting, Tampa, FL, USA, June 24-28, 2007.
31. W. Qiao and R. G. Harley, "Power quality and dynamic performance improvement of wind farms using a STATCOM," in Proc. 38th IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference, Orlando, FL, USA, June 17-21, 2007, pp. 1832-1838.
32. W. Qiao, G. K. Venayagamoorthy, and R. G. Harley, "DHP-based wide-area coordinating control of a power system with a large wind farm and multiple FACTS devices," in Proc. 2007 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, Orlando, Florida, USA, Aug. 12-17, 2007, pp. 2093-2098.
33. W. Qiao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Venayagamoorthy, "Neural-network-based intelligent control for improving dynamic performance of FACTS devices," in Proc. IREP Symposium 2007 – Bulk Power System Dynamics and Control - VII, Charleston, SC, USA, Aug. 19-24, 2007.
34. W. Qiao, G. K. Venayagamoorthy, and R. G. Harley, "Real-time implementation of a STATCOM on a wind farm equipped with doubly fed induction generators," in Proc. IEEE IAS 41st Annual Meeting, Tampa, FL, USA, Oct. 8-12, 2006, pp. 1073-1080.
35. W. Qiao and R. G. Harley, "Fault-tolerant optimal neurocontrol for a static synchronous series compensator connected to a power network," in Proc. IEEE IAS 41st Annual Meeting, Tampa, FL, USA, Oct. 8-12, 2006, pp. 642-649.
36. W. Qiao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Venayagamoorthy, "Effects of FACTS devices on a power system which includes a large wind farm," in Proc. IEEE PES Power Systems Conference and Exposition, Atlanta, GA, USA, Oct. 29-Nov. 1, 2006, pp. 2070-2076.
37. W. Qiao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Venayagamoorthy, "Fault-tolerant control for SSSC using neural networks and PSO," in Proc. IEEE PES Power Systems Conference and Exposition, Atlanta, GA, USA, Oct. 29-Nov. 1, 2006, pp. 952-958.
38. W. Qiao, G. K. Venayagamoorthy, and R. G. Harley, "Design of optimal PI controllers for doubly fed induction generators driven by wind turbines using particle swarm optimization," in Proc. 2006 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, Vancouver, BC, Canada, July 16-21, 2006, pp. 1982-1986.
39. W. Qiao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Venayagamoorthy, "A fault-tolerant P-Q decoupled control scheme for static synchronous series compensator," in Proc. IEEE PES 2006 General Meeting, Montreal, QC, Canada, June 18-22, 2006.
40. Z. Gao, W. Qiao, T. G. Habetler, and R. G. Harley, "Online compensation of detuning effects in vector control based on adaptive sensorless rotor thermal model identification," in Proc. 37th IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference, Jeju, Korea, June 18-22, 2006.
41. B. Lu, W. Qiao, T. G. Habetler, and R. G. Harley, "Solving induction motor equivalent circuit using numerical methods for an in-service and nonintrusive motor efficiency estimation method," in Proc. CES/IEEE 5th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference, Shanghai, P. R. China, Aug. 13-16, 2006.
42. W. Qiao and R. G. Harley, "Optimization of radial basis function widths using particle swarm optimization," in Proc. 2006 IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, May 12-14, 2006, pp. 55-60.
43. S. Mohagheghi, Y. del Valle, W. Qiao, G. K. Venayagamoorthy, R. G. Harley, D. M. Falcao, G. N. Taranto, and T. M. L. Assis, "Steady state and transient behaviour of a fuzzy-based controlled STATCOM optimally placed in a 45 bus Brazilian power system," in Proc. X SEPOPE Symposium of Specialists in Electric Operational and Expansion Planning, Florianopolis, SC, Brazil, May 21-25, 2006.
44. W. Qiao and R. G. Harley, "An indirect adaptive external neuro-controller for series capacitive reactance compensator in damping power oscillations," in Proc. 13th International Conference on Intelligent Systems Application to Power Systems, Washington DC, USA, Nov. 6-10, 2005, pp. 234-239.
45. W. Qiao and R. G. Harley, "Indirect adaptive internal neuro-control for a static synchronous series compensator (SSSC) connected to a power system," in Proc. IEEE Industrial Electronics Society 31st Annual Conference, Raleigh, NC, USA, Nov. 6-10, 2005, pp. 50-55.
46. W. Qiao, Z. Gao, and R. G. Harley, "Continuous on-line identification of nonlinear Plants in power systems with missing sensor measurements," in Proc. 2005 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, July 31-Aug. 4, 2005, pp. 1729-1734.
47. W. Qiao and R. G. Harley, "On-line identification of series capacitive reactance compensator in a multi-machine power system using a radial basis function neural network," in Proc. Inaugural IEEE PES 2005 Conference and Exposition in Africa, Durban, South Africa, July 11-15, 2005, pp. 287-292.
48. G. K. Venayagamoorthy, Y. del Valle, S. Mohagheghi, W. Qiao, S. Ray, R. G. Harley, D. M. Falcao, G. N. Taranto, and T. M. L. Assis, "Effects of a STATCOM, a SCRC and a UPFC on the dynamic behavior of a 45 bus section of the Brazilian power system," in Proc. Inaugural IEEE PES 2005 Conference and Exposition in Africa, Durban, South Africa, July 11-15, 2005, pp. 305-312.
49. W. Qiao, R. G. Harley, and G. K. Venayagamoorthy, "On-line identification of static synchronous series compensator in a power system using a RBF neural network," in Proc. 6th International Conference on Power Systems Operation and Planning, Praia, Cabo Verde, May 22-26, 2005, pp. 267-271.
50. S. Mohagheghi, W. Qiao, G. K. Vanayagamoorthy, and R. G. Harley, "Supervisory level identifier for a multimachine power system using radial basis function neural networks," in Proc. 6th International Conference on Power Systems Operation and Planning, Praia, Cabo Verde, May 22-26, 2005, pp. 134-138.

Current Research Projects:

• CAREER: Stochastic Optimization and Coordinating Control for the Next-Generation Electric Power System with Significant Wind Penetration, National Science Foundation (NSF), 08/15/2010-07/31/2015, $399,999.
• A Roadway Wind/Solar Hybrid Power Generation and Distribution System: Toward Energy-Plus Roadways, Department of Transportation (DOT)-Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), 04/13/2010-06/12/2013, $999,504 (plus $364,948 cost share).
• Online Nonintrusive Condition Monitoring and Fault Detection for Wind Turbines, Department of Energy (DOE), 11/01/2009-02/29/2012, $380,398 (plus $117,014 cost share).
• Intelligent Optimal Mechanical Sensorless Control of Variable-Speed Wind Energy Systems Considering System Uncertainties, NSF, 08/01/2009-07/31/2012, $214,755.
• Rotor Position/Speed Sensorless Control for Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines, Phoenix International Corporation, 04/04/2011-12/31/2012, $75,000.
• Directed Research – Power Electronics Software, Phoenix International Corporation, 05/16/2011-11/15/2011, $23,590.
• Directed Research – Power Electronics Software II, Phoenix International Corporation, 08/15/2011-04/15/2012, $17,560.
• Online Nonintrusive Wind Turbine Fault Diagnosis, Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) through Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research (NCESR), 01/01/2010-12/31/2011, $139,728.
• A Nationwide Consortium of Universities to Revitalize Electric Power Engineering Education by State-of-the-Art Laboratories, DOE (Subcontract from the University of Minnesota), 08/01/2010-07/31/2013, $25,000.
• UNL College of Engineering Edgerton Innovation Award, UNL College of Engineering, $20,000.

Open Positions:

I am seeking self-motivated students who are interested in pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the area of electric power and energy systems. If you want to apply for a Ph.D. position, you are encouraged to email me a copy of your resume including education background, a list of in-major courses and grades, overall GPA, relevant research/working experience, relevant publications, GRE score, TOEFL score (for international applicants). In your email, please use “Graduate Applicant – Your Name” as the subject. For all positions, previous experience in one or more of the following subjects is highly desired:

For all positions, previous experience in one or more of the following areas is highly desired:

• Renewable energy (wind, solar, etc.)
• Smart grids and microgrids
• Power system dynamics, control, and optimization
• Power system reliability
• Condition monitoring and fault diagnosis
• Power electronics
• Electric machines and drives
• System, control, and optimization
• High-performance computing
• Energy storage

In order to be considered for admission by the Department of Electrical Engineering, you need to send a formal and complete application to UNL Office of Graduate Studies. Please follow the guidelines on http://engineering.unl.edu/academicunits/electricalengineering/graduate/ to submit your application.

Post-Doctoral Researcher Openings:

I am also seeking self-motivated post-doctoral researchers in electric power and energy systems. Stipend may vary depending on qualification. If you are interested in a post-doctoral position, please email me a copy of your resume including education background, relevant research/working experience, relevant publications, etc. In your email, please use “Postdoc Applicant - Your Name” as the subject.

For all positions, previous experience in one or more of the following areas is highly desired:

• Renewable energy (wind, solar, etc.)
• Smart grids and microgrids
• Power system dynamics, control, and optimization
• Power electronics
• Electric machines and drives
• System, control, and optimization