Dr. Jing (Jin) Jiang is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Western Ontario (also known as Western, Western University, or UWO), in London, Ontario, Canada. He has held an NSERC/UNENE Senior Industrial Research Chair in the field of control, instrumentation, and electrical systems for nuclear power plants (NPPs) since 2003.

Dr. Jiang has wide range of research interests, including

• Control, instrumentation and electrical systems in nuclear power plants.
• Control and integration of distributed renewable energy sources in microgrids and/or intelligent distributions systems.
• Advanced signal processing for performance monitoring and fault diagnosis of technical processes.
• Industrial wireless sensor networks and fieldbus systems for industrial applications.
• The theory and applications of fault-tolerant controls in safety-critical systems.

Prof. Jiang has published extensively in all the above areas. His publication record include over one hundred and twenty peer-reviewed journal articles, two patents, over one hundred and fifty conference papers, and six books and book chapters, including a book on active fault-tolerant control systems. He has also contributed on the editorial boards of several journals and in numerous international conference organizing committees. Prof. Jiang’s research has also earned him a number of institutional, national and international recognitions and awards.

Prof. Jiang has established a research team, known as the Control, Instrumentation and Electrical Systems (CIES) group, at Western University. He is currently supervising a team of researchers in this group that include research engineers, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students. The main focus of its research has been advanced control systems for NPPs, integration of renewable energy sources in the form of microgrids, and plant and environment monitoring using wireless technologies.

Prof. Jiang has also established two state-of-the-art research labs, referred to as the NPP I/C research lab, and the distributed generation (DG) research lab. The NPP I/C lab houses facilities to carry out research and training with advanced I&C systems used in NPPs. Current research in this area includes NPP reactor modeling and simulation; smart sensors/transducers with fault diagnosis capabilities; predictive shut down systems; innovative approaches to safety and control systems with safety-grade programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and distributed control systems (DCSs); network-based control systems; and wireless sensor network systems for plant equipment condition and radiation level monitoring. Equipment housed in the NPP I&C lab includes:

• A CANDU NPP simulator
• A custom-made physical simulator that mimics the major processes in a NPP, using physical media (water, compressed air) and industrial grade sensors and actuators
• A number of different control systems (including DCS) such as ABB, Siemens, DeltaV and Honeywell
• Safety PLC systems from Tricon and HF Controls
• Industrial wireless sensor network systems, including ZigBee, WirelessHART, and ISA 100.lla
• Test equipment, such as spectrum analyzers, signal generators, and oscilloscopes
• Data acquisition (NI) and analysis software tools, such as Matlab and LabView

Prof. Jiang works closely with both the Canadian nuclear industry and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to develop state-of-the-art of instrumentation and control systems for NPPs.

The DG lab provides facilities for research on control and integration of renewable energy resources in distributed power systems in the form of a microgrid. Current research in the DG lab encompasses modeling, simulation, advanced power electronics control, smart devices, and grid connection of renewable energy resources. Equipment housed in the DG lab includes:

• A reconfigurable microgrid with simulated and physical energy sources
• Physical roof-top photovoltaic (PV) panels and a wind turbine generator
• Matching desk-top PV simulators and wind simulators
• A fuel cell power module and multiple energy storage devices
• AC/DC, DC/DC, and grid-tied inverters
• dSpace power electronic control development systems
• Grid-synchronization and connection systems
• An isolated grid simulator and electronic controllable loads
• DC-motor driven synchronous generators
• Power system design and simulation software packages, such as PSCAD, SimPowerSystems™

Research on microgrids has led to collaborations with several local power utility companies. The lab has developed a reputation for excellence in prototyping and performance evaluation of advanced microgrid control systems involving multiple energy sources.

Dr. Jiang is also a passionate teacher. He successfully completed a Technical and Vocational Instructor’s Certification program at Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1989, and is a certified technical instructor. He has won several teaching awards over the years. In 2021, Dr. Jiang was honoured by The Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) with the Award for Outstanding Graduate Mentorship at the national level.