Dr. Yuri Shardt, an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow from University of Duisburg-Essen, will give a talk on Developing Soft Sensors for Process Control on Monday, February 3, 2014 at 10:00 in room no. 641.

Abstract: In many chemical industries, the measurement of key quality variables, such as concentration and density, can be difficult. Although various online sensors exist, their ability to provide precise and accurate measurements under all operating conditions is often limited, especially when dealing with various nonideal fluids, such as slurries or thick oil mixtures. In these cases, the best measurements are provided by manual laboratory analysis, which not only takes time to perform, but cannot be performed as frequently as required. Therefore, soft sensors have been developed that can take all available process information, even if the sampling rates are different, and provide a single consistent estimate for the desired variables. In this presentation, based on the author’s experience in industry, the methods and approaches to designing a soft sensor for bitumen content prediction will be examined to illustrate the general approach for soft sensor development. As well, the challenges in using industrial data, such as missing data, process changes, and uncertain operating conditions will be considered. Finally, some problems in using soft sensors for process control will be examined and the optimal soft sensor configuration will be considered to obtain the best control performance.

Bio: Dr. Yuri Shardt is currently an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow working at the University of Duisburg-Essen investigating the effects of system identification and soft sensor development on fault detection and diagnosis. He completed his doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in process control under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Biao Huang at the University of Alberta in 2012. His doctorate focused on developing methods for automating the process of extracting useful historical data for use in soft sensor development. During the course of his doctorate, he held the prestigious Alexander Graham Bell Graduate Scholarship. His undergraduate degree was in Chemical Engineering with a concentration in Computer Process Control and was obtained in 2008 from the same university. In addition, to his academic research, he has worked in the oil and gas, as well as the ceramics, industries applying his process control knowledge to improve the safety and economics of different processes.