On September 3, 2025, the 16th Automation Academic Forum of the School of Automation Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, was held in Lecture Hall 501 of the Duxing Building. The keynote speaker was Professor Alessandro Astolfi from Imperial College London, an IEEE Fellow and the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.
The forum was chaired by Professor Feiqi Deng, organized by Professor Xueyan Zhao and Director Lianzhi Qiao. Representing the school’s Party and administrative leadership, Party Committee Secretary Wenjie Zheng attended and delivered an opening speech. Professor Alessandro Astolfi presented an academic report entitled “Moments of Nonlinear Systems: From Model Reduction to Identification and Circuits Theory”.
Professor Alessandro Astolfi delved into the theoretical framework of moment analysis for nonlinear systems and its important applications in various fields such as model reduction, system identification, and circuit theory. Drawing on cutting-edge research findings, he eloquently explained how the moment method provides effective tools for the analysis and control of complex nonlinear systems and shared his team’s latest progress in this direction.
Professor Alessandro Astolfi pointed out that the notion of moment for linear systems is generalized to nonlinear, possibly time-delay, systems and to general classes of signal generators(i.e. interpolation points). It is shown that this notion provides a powerfull tool for the solution of model reduction problems, for the identification of reduced order model from input-output data and for the analysis of power electronic circults. ln particular, it is shown that moments yield a generallization of the so-called phasor transform to circuits with power electronics components
Professor Alessandro Astolfi’s report was highly professional and thought-provoking, generating significant interest among the attending experts and scholars. Participants asked questions actively, all of which Professor Astolfi answered carefully and from a highly professional perspective. The atmosphere was lively, with a strong academic vibe.
The successful hosting of this academic forum provided faculty and students of SCUT with a valuable opportunity for face-to-face communication with a top international expert, broadening our academic horizons and generating an enthusiastic response. the School of Automation Science and Engineering will continue to organize high-level academic activities to promote international cooperation and the cultivation of innovative talents.
