1.    Introduction

      The Discipline of Electrical Engineering of the School of Electronic, Information, and Electrical Engineering at SJTU was founded in 1908 and has the longest history among Chinese universities. Currently, the Discipline has four major sub-disciplines, including Electrical Machine and Device, High Voltage and Insulation Technology, Power Systems and Automation, Power Electronics. The Department of Electrical Engineering at SJTU is the supporting unit of the Discipline. It offers doctoral as well as postdoctoral programs in all the four sub-disciplines. Power Systems and Automation is selected as one of the seeded sub-disciplines, with the promise of being promoted to state key sub-discipline recognized by the China Ministry of Education. Among its 92 faculty members, there are 19 professors, 44 associate professors, 2 members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and one “Promising Young Teacher Award” winner. The Discipline has a full-time student population of about 1500, including 150 Ph.D students, 450 MSc students and 800 undergraduates

       Recently, the research capacity of the discipline has been built up very quickly. In 2008, its faculty members attracted 45 millions RMB research funds, topped the other disciplines in the School of EIEE at SJTU. Since 1998, its faculty has received 6 national level Science and Technology Advancement Awards, published 22 monographs, more than 1000 journal papers in which 300 of them are listed by SCI, EI, and ISTP.

       As one of the oldest electrical engineering discipline in China boasting strong capacity both in education and research, the discipline has equipped with a number of excellent teaching and research bases, including a national Advanced High Voltage Laboratory and a Key Laboratory for “Novel Technology of Electric Power” of Ministry of Education. The main research areas of the discipline and the supporting department include FACTS technology, large-scale electric motor design and control, electric power systems design, electrical equipment monitoring, high-voltage digital measurement, high-power electronics, relay protection, automated transformer substation monitoring and control, electric market, electric power quality and electromagnetism compatibility, electrical system stabilization and control as well as information control technology, et al. The Discipline is also under restructure to expand its research areas towards renewable energy, smart grids, etc. 

     The research and education of the electrical engineering discipline at SJTU is closely linked to and has great contribution to the development of China’s power industry modernization. In its one hundred years long history, the education in electrical engineering fostered a number of famous politicians such as Zeming Jiang (Former State Chairman of China), Dingyi Lu (Former vice-Premier of China), entrepreneurs such as An Wang and Zengping Dong, scientists and educators such Wuhua Zhu, Zhongjun Zhang, Yazhu Chen, and Geng Wang. In this aspect, the education of electrical engineering discipline at SJTU well deserves to be called the cradle of Chinese electrical engineers.

2.    Faculty Members

     In the discipline of Electrical Engineering, there are 19 professors, 44 associate professors and 2 members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. CVs of some of the leading professors are briefly introduced below.

 

Rao Fangquan, Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (1934- ): Professor Rao’s major research direction is Electrical Machine and Device. He is one of the top specialists in large and special Electrical Machine design and control in China. He graduated from Harbin Polytechnic University in 1958. He took several important jobs at Harbin Large Electrical Machine Research Institute, Harbin Electrical Machine Factory and Sichuan Oriental Electrical Machine Factory for many years. During that period, he received two second-class China Scientific and Technological Advancement Awards for organizing researches and developments of the Orient 300MW turbo generator and a novel hydraulic cooling generator. He was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1995.

 

Chen Yazhu, Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (1936- ): Professor Chen’s major research direction is High Voltage and Insulation Technology. Engaging herself in the education and research of high-voltage technology at her early age, Professor Chen has made substantial achievements in excessive voltage thunder-proof protection, the design of high-voltage insulation, and electrostatic numerical calculation. Together with Professor Yaozong Tang, she designed a kidney stones smashing machine using electric pulse discharged in liquid, which provides a non-traumatic healing method for kidney stones patients. Professor Chen therefore received a first-class China Scientific and Technological Advancement Award in 1987. She was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1996.

 

Cheng Haozhong(1962- ): Professor Cheng is the key expert responsible for the planning and development of the Electrical Engineering discipline at SJTU. His major research direction is Power System Automation. Professor Cheng received his BSc, MSc and PhD degrees, all in Electrical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1983, 1986 and 1998, respectively. The research group led by Prof Cheng includes most of the youthful professors and researchers in the area of Power System Automation in the Department of Electrical Engineering at SJTU. The research areas include power system planning, power system optimization, voltage stability, power markets, power quality, distribution management system, power system operation and control. He was a visiting scholar at Now there are about 30 Ph. D candidates and 50 postgraduates studying here. He got numerous awards including Excellent Prize of Science and Technology Advance by Shanghai Municipal Government in Dec.2002, Excellent Prize of Young Professor by Education Ministry of China in Dec.2002, Excellent Prize of Baiyulan Science and Technology Talent awarded by Shanghai Association of Science and Technology in Apr.2003, Second-class Excellent Prize of Science and Technology Advance by Shanghai Municipal Government in Dec.2005 and First-class Excellent Prize of Science and Technology Advance by Shanghai Municipal Government in Dec.2008.

 

Jiang Xiuchen(1965 - ): Prof Jiang received his BSc (SJTU), MSc (Tsinghua) and PhD (SJTU) degrees, all in electrical engineering, in 1987, 1992 and 2001, respectively. He has been the Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering from 2002 to 2008 and had been awarded as the New Century Outstanding Scholar of Ministry of China. His major research direction is high-voltage and insulation technology, in which he received 2 NSFC funded research projects, and numerous prime projects from Chinese power industry. In recent years, he published more than 100 papers in which 50 are SCI or EI-cited, and has been awarded 9 China patents.

 

Yan Zheng(1964 - ): Prof Yan received his BSc (SJTU), MSc (Tsinghua) and PhD (Tsinghua) degrees, all in electrical engineering, in 1984, 1987 and 1991, respectively. Currently he is the Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering. Before joining EE Department of SJTU in 2004 as a full Professor, he was an associate Professor at Institute of Systems Science in Beijing (1992-2004). He had been on research cooperation at Ibaraki University in Japan as a visiting scholar (1994-1996), Cornell University in USA as a visiting scientist (1997-2001), Dept. of EEE at University of Hong Kong as a research fellow (2001-2004). His major research direction is power systems and automation, in which he received 2 NSFC funded research projects. His research interests are in application of optimization theory to power systems, voltage stability, transient stability and dynamic security assessment. He has published more than 80 papers in which 40 are SCI or EI-cited.