weiss

George Weiss

Department of Electrical Engineering - Systems

Ramat Aviv 69978
Israel
Phone: +972-3-6405164
e-mail: gweiss@eng.tau.ac.il

Profile on Google Scholar

Book:
Observation and Control for Operator Semigroups
Published by Birkhauser in March 2009

Power Electronics for Renewable Energy Lab

Control Teaching Lab

Short Curriculum Vitae

Higher education and degrees

PhD in Applied Mathematics, The Weizmann Institute, Israel, 1989.
MEng in Control and Computer Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, 1981.

Current appointment

Professor of Control Engineering, Tel Aviv University, started in October 2007.

Past appointments (starting with the most recent)

Imperial College London (UK, 1998-2007),
Exeter University (UK, 1996-1998),
Ben-Gurion University (Israel, 1991-1996),
The Weizmann Institute (Israel, 1991-1992),
Virginia Tech (USA) (post-doc, 1989-1991),
Brown University (USA) (post-doc, 1988-1989).

Visiting appointments (starting with the most recent)

University of Warwick (as a Visiting Fellow of the Inst. Advanced Study);
University of Exeter (UK) (as a Royal Acad. Eng. distinguished visiting fellow),
University of Lyon (France),
University of Nancy (France) and INRIA Lorraine (many times),
University of Metz (France),
University of Groningen (The Netherlands) (several times),
Texas Tech University, Lubbock (USA).

Associate Editorships

Math of Control, Signals and Systems
Systems and Control Letters
Automatica (until 2014)
ESAIM-COCV
Complex Analysis and Operator Theory
Foundations and Trends in Systems and Control
IEEE Control Systems Letters

Consulting

MST (Solar Energy)

Coriolis (Wind Energy)

Solar Edge (Converters)

Bioness (Medical Devices)

Synvertec (Synchronverters)

Teaching

Current Courses:

Functional analysis (graduate)

Control techniques in power electronics (graduate)
Introduction to control theory (undergraduate)

Teaching laboratory work:

Academic responsible for the Control Teaching Laboratory.

Past and Current PhD students: (year of PhD in bracketts)

Qing-Chang Zhong (robust control of systems with delays) (2004) (now Prof. at the Illinois Inst. of Technology, Chicago)

Bayu Jayawardhana (internal model based control of nonlinear systems) (2006) (now Prof. at the Univ. of Groningen, The Netherlands)

Chen Wang (control of variable speed induction generators) (2008) (now at Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, London, UK)

Xinxin Wang (control of PWM power converters in micro-grids) (2008) (now at a power research institute in the UK)

Xiaowei Zhao (observation and prediction for distributed parameter systems) (2009) (now at the Univ. of Warwick, UK)

Moshe Blau (stability of the power grid, synchronverters) (deceased)

Jyun Lin (virtual infinite capacitors, modular multilevel converters) (now working on his degree)

Zeev Kustanovich (modeling of microgrids, virtual friction) (now working on his degree)

Post-doctoral fellows (past and present):

Dr Jarmo Malinen (now at Aalto Univ., Finland)

Dr Jun Liang (now at the Univ. of Glamorgan, UK)

Dr Peng-Fei Yao (now at the Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Dr Chunmei Feng (now at a power electronics company, UK)

Dr Jian-Hua Chen (now at Hunan University, China)

Dr Vivek Natarajan (now at IIT Bombay, India)

Dr Alex Kushnerov

Dr Huacheng Zhou (now at TAU, Israel)

Marie Curie CTS fellows (past):

Mr Alon Kuperman (2004) (control of PWM converters and induction generators) (now at Ben Gurion University, Israel)

Mr Vitaly Spitza (2005) (control of induction generators and robust internal models based control)

Research Statement

Research interests:

Distributed parameter systems, passive and conservative systems, robust and optimal control, repetitive control, discretization of control systems, functional analysis, control of power converters, distributed power generation, power filtering, signals, sampling, periodic systems, prediction.

George Weiss, together with Qing-Chang Zhong, has developed the concept of a synchronverter that will enable the grid integration of large renewable energy generators. For more technical information, click here. Even better, look up his relevant publications on ResearchGate.

George Weiss was involved in a large project (partly funded by ISF, the Israel Science Foundation) on the control of coupled systems and their application to the suppression of vibrations in wind turbines. For relevant papers click here or here. This research is continued in another project funded by ISF, the internal model based control of complex systems, see for instance here.

Recently, George Weiss has been working with scientists in Exeter (UK) to increase the efficiency of wave energy converters, a possible further source of renewable energy. For more technical information, click here.

Current grants:

"ConFlex'', Innovative Training Network on the control of flexible structures and fluid-structure interactions (PI). Awarded by the European Commission, 4M Euro for a consortium of 10 universities, started in October 2017.

Past grants:

Internal models of high complexity in the control of DC/three-phase power converters (EPSRC, PI, with R. Vinter and T. Green), at Imperial College, 1999-2003.

Analysis and control of Lagrangian Systems (EPSRC, with D. Limebeer (PI), D. Mayne, Eric Yeatman, A. Astolfi, T. Green)

A network to promote research and practical exploitation of deterministic sea wave prediction (EPSRC, with M. Belmont (PI), J. Horwood, E. Morris, A. Pugh etc)

A first deterministic sea wave prediction system for moving ship and fixed site offshore applications (EPSRC, with M. Belmont (PI), J. Horwood, P Shepherd, P. Challenor, A. Pugh, S. Fennick)

Control of distributed parameter systems coupled with finite-dimensional systems (CNRS, France, with M. Tucsnak, mainly to fund mutual visits between London and Nancy)

Portfolio Partnership Control and Power (EPSRC, with D. Limebeer (PI), R. Vinter (PI), T. Green, A. Astolfi, I. Jaimoukha, D. Mayne, several Million Pounds for the control group at Imperial College London).

"Chercheur d'Excellence" grant from the Lorraine region in France, to spend 3 months at the University of Lorraine, Nancy, in 2013, 20,000 Euro.

Control Training Sites, a European network for PhD students and post-docs in control, to enable them to carry out part of their research as visitors at one of the participating universities.

"Conservative and dissipative distributed parameter systems" (Royal Society with National Science Foundation of China, with Peng-Fei Yao, mainly to fund mutual visits).

"Synchronverters - a practical solution for connecting large solar farms to the utility grid", $197,000 from the Israel Strategic Alternative Energy Foundation (San Francisco), 2010-2014, with M. Margaliot.

"Kamin'', for the development of converters for distributed electrical generators, awarded by the Israel Ministry of Trade and Industry, $200,000, 2012 - 2013, with M. Margaliot.

"Internal model based control of distributed parameter systems'', awarded by the Israel Science Foundation, $194,000, 2014 - 2017.

"Analysis and control of coupled systems'', awarded by the Israel Science Foundation, $162,000, 2010 - 2013.

"The virtual infinite capacitor: analysis and design", awarded by the Israeli Ministry of Energy and Water, $217,000, 2014 - 2016, with M. Margaliot.

Journal publications from 2000 to 2015 (for all publications see Google Scholar)

Takeo Takahashi, Marius Tucsnak and George Weiss (2015) Stabilization of a fluid-rigid body system, Journal of Differential Equations, vol. 259, pp. 6459-6493.

Doron Lifshitz and George Weiss (2015) Optimal energy management for grid-connected storage systems, Optimal Control, Applications and Methods, vol. 36, pp. 447-462

Yoni Mandel and George Weiss (2015) Adaptive internal model based suppression of torque ripple in brushless DC motor derives, Systems Science and Control Engineering, vol. 3, pp. 162-176.

Doron Lifshitz and George Weiss (2015) Optimal control of a capacitor-type energy storage system, IEEE Trans. Automatic Control, vol. 60, pp. 216-220.

Jian-Hua Chen and George Weiss (2015) Time-varying additive perturbations of well-posed linear systems, Math. for Control, Signals and Systems, vol. 27, pp. 149-185.

Marius Tucsnak and George Weiss (2015) From exact observability to identification of singular sources, Math. of Control, Signals and Systems, vol. 27, pp. 1-21.

Marius Tucsnak and George Weiss (2014) Well-posed systems - the LTI case and beyond, Automatica, invited survey paper, vol. 50, pp. 1757-1779.

Vivek Natarajan, David Gilliam and George Weiss (2014) The state feedback regulator problem for regular linear systems, IEEE Trans. on Automatic Control, vol. 59, pp. 2708-2723.

Xiaowei Zhao and George Weiss (2014) Strong stabilization of a wind turbine tower model in the plane of the turbine blades, Int. J. Control, vol. 87, pp. 2027-2034.

Chen Wang and George Weiss (2014) LPV control of a DFIG-based wind turbine with primary grid frequency support, Int. J. Robust and Nonlinear Control, vol. 24, pp. 1927-1946.

George Weiss and Olof Staffans (2013) Maxwell's equations as a scattering passive linear system, SIAM J. Control and Optimization, vol. 51, pp. 3722-3756.

Olof Staffans and George Weiss (2012) A physically motivated class of scattering passive linear systems, SIAM J. Control and Optimization, vol. 50, pp. 3083-3112.

Guang Li, George Weiss, Markus Mueller, Stuart Townley, and Mike Belmont (2012) Wave energy converter control by wave prediction and dynamic programming, Renewable Energy, vol. 48, pp. 392-403.

Xiaowei Zhao and George Weiss (2011) Suppression of the vibrations of wind turbine towers, IMA J. Mathematical Control and Information, vol. 28, pp. 377-389.

Xiaowei Zhao and George Weiss (2011) Well-posedness and controllability of a wind turbine tower model, IMA J. Mathematical Control and Information, vol. 28, pp. 103-119.

Cheng-Zhong Xu and George Weiss (2011) Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of semigroup generators obtained from diagonal generators by feedback, Communications in Information and Systems, vol. 11, pp. 71-104.

Xiaowei Zhao and George Weiss (2011) Controllability and observability of a well-posed system coupled with a finite-dimensional system, IEEE Trans. Autom. Control, vol. 56, pp. 1-12.

Qing-Chang Zhong and George Weiss (2011) Inverters that mimic synchronous generators, IEEE Trans. Industrial Electronics, vol. 58, pp. 1259-1267.

Xiaowei Zhao and George Weiss (2010) Well-posedness, regularity and exact controllability of the SCOLE model, Math. of Control, Signals and Systems, vol. 22, pp. 91-127.

Roland Schnaubelt and George Weiss (2010) Two classes of passive time-varying well-posed linear systems, Math. of Control, Signals and Systems, vol. 21, pp. 265-301.

Michael Margaliot and George Weiss (2010) The low-frequency distortion in D-class amplifiers, IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems II, vol. 57, pp. 772-776.

Karim Ramdani, Marius Tucsnak and George Weiss (2010) Recovering the initial state of an infinite-dimensional system using observers, Automatica, vol. 46, pp. 1616-1625.

George Weiss and Xiaowei Zhao (2009) Well-posedness and controllability of a class of coupled linear systems, SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, vol. 48, pp. 2719-2750.

Bayu Jayawardhana and George Weiss (2009) State convergence of passive nonlinear systems with an L² input, IEEE Trans. on Autom. Control, vol. 54, pp. 1723-1727.

Jun Liang, Tim C. Green, Chunmei Feng and George Weiss (2009) Increasing voltage utilization in split-link, four-wire inverters, IEEE Trans. on Power Electronics, vol. 24, pp. 1562-1569.

Chen Wang and George Weiss (2008) Stabiliy analysis of the drive-train of a wind-turbine with quadratic torque control, Int. J. Robust and Nonlinear Control, DOI:10.1002, 2008.

Chen Wang and George Weiss (2008) The iISS property for globally asymptotically stable and passive nonlinear systems, IEEE Trans. on Automatic Control, vol. 53, pp. 1947-1951.

Bayu Jayawardhana and George Weiss (2008) Tracking and disturbance rejection for fully actuated mechanical systems, Automatica, vol. 44, pp. 2863-2868.

George Weiss and Ruth Curtain (2008) Exponential stabilization of a Rayleigh beam using colocated control, IEEE Trans. on Automatic Control, vol. 53, pp. 643-654.

Peng-Fei Yao and George Weiss (2007) Global smooth solutions for a nonlinear beam, SIAM J. Control and Optimization, vol. 45, pp. 1931-1964.

Alon Kuperman, Raul Rabinovici and George Weiss (2006) A shunt inverter-based variable speed wind-turbine generation, Int. J. Electromotion, vol. 13, pp. 67-72.

Ruth Curtain and George Weiss (2006) Exponential stabilization of essentially skew-adjoint systems by colocated feedback, SIAM J. Control and Optimisation, vol. 45, pp. 273-297.

Alon Kuperman, Raul Rabinovici and George Weiss (2006) A shunt inverter-based variable speed wind-turbine generation, Int. J. Electromotion, vol. 13, pp. 67-72.

Jarmo Malinen, Olof Staffans and George Weiss (2006) When is a linear system conservative? Quarterly of Applied Math., vol. 64, pp. 61-91.

Qingchang Zhong, Jun Liang, George Weiss, Chun-Mei Feng and Tim Green (2006) H^∞ control of the neutral point in 4-wire 3-phase DC-AC converters, IEEE Trans. Industrial Electronics, vol. 53, pp.~1594-1602.

George Weiss and Cheng-Zhong Xu (2005) Spectral properties of infinite-dimensional closed-loop systems, Mathematics of Control, Signals and Systems, vol. 17, pp. 153-172.

Alon Kuperman, Raul Rabinovici and George Weiss (2005) Torque and power limitations of a shunt connected inverter based WECS, WSEAS Transactions on Circuits and Systems, vol. 4, pp. 684-690.

Qing-Chang Zhong and George Weiss (2004) A unified Smith predictor based on the spectral decomposition of the plant, International Journal of Control, vol. 77, pp. 1362-1371.

George Weiss, Qing-Chang Zhong, T. Green and J. Liang (2004) H^∞ repetitive control of DC-AC converters in micro-grids, IEEE Trans. on Power Electronics, vol. 19, pp. 219-230.

Olof Staffans and George Weiss (2004) Transfer functions of regular linear systems. Part III: inversions and duality, Integral Equations and Operator Theory, vol. 49, pp. 517-558.

George Weiss (2003) Is the conservative wave equation regular? Open Problems in Mathematical Systems and Control Theory, editors: V. Blondel and A. Megretski, Princeton University Press, Chapter 74.

George Weiss and Marius Tucsnak (2003) How to get a conservative well-posed linear system out of thin air, Part I: well-posedness and energy balance, ESAIM-COCV, vol. 9, pp. 247-274.

Marius Tucsnak and George Weiss (2003) How to get a conservative well-posed linear system out of thin air, Part II: controllability and stability, SIAM J. Control and Opt., vol. 42, pp. 907-935.

Richard Rebarber and George Weiss (2003) Internal model based tracking and disturbance rejection for stable well-posed systems, Automatica, vol. 39, pp. 1555-1569.

George Weiss (2003) Optimal control of systems with a unitary semigroup and with colocated control and observation, Systems and Control Letters, vol. 48, pp. 329-340.

Chris Byrnes, David Gilliam, Victor Shubov and George Weiss (2002) Regular linear systems governed by a boundary controlled heat equation, Journal of Dynamical and Control Systems, vol. 8, pp. 341-370.

Olof Staffans and George Weiss (2002) Transfer functions of regular linear systems. Part II: the system operator and the Lax-Phillips semigroup, Transactions of the Amer. Math. Soc., vol. 354, pp. 3229-3262.

George Weiss and Richard Rebarber (2001) Optimizability and estimatability for infinite-dimensional linear systems, SIAM Journal of Control and Optim., vol. 39, pp. 1204-1232.

Ruth Curtain, George Weiss and Martin Weiss (2001) Stabilization of irrational transfer functions by controllers with internal loop, Systems, Approximation, Singular Integral Operators and Related Topics, edited by A.A. Borichev and N.K. Nikolskii, Birkhauser Verlag, pp. 179-207.

George Weiss, Olof J. Staffans and Marius Tucsnak (2001) Well-posed linear systems - a survey with emphasis on conservative systems, Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, vol. 11, pp. 7-33.

Marius Tucsnak and George Weiss (2000) Simultaneous exact controllability and some applications, SIAM J. Control and Opt., Vol. 38, pp. 1408-1427.

Jonathan Partington and George Weiss (2000) Admissible observation operators for the right-shift semigroup, Mathematics of Control, Signals and Systems, Vol. 13, pp. 179-192

R. Rebarber and G. Weiss (2000) Necessary conditions for exact controllability with a finite-dimensional input space, Systems and Control Letters, Vol. 40, pp. 217-227.

Jacob and Ben at 4 months video (early 2005)
kids pictures (up to 2006)