E-mail:

 

Biography

 

Degrees
BSc (1st Hons), 1972. PhD, 1976. DSc, 1998.

Memberships

FREng, MRIA,  IEEE Fellow, IFAC Fellow, FInstMC

Appointments

• Lecturer, Department of Engineering Mathematics,  University of Technology, Loughborough, England (1976-1980)
• Lecturer (1980), Reader (1987), Professor of Control Engineering (1989), Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, QUB
• Director, Virtual Engineering Centre (2001), QUB
• Research Director, Intelligent Systems and Control (2005 - 2011), School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, QUB
• Interim Research Director, Energy Power and Intelligent Control (2012), School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, QUB
• Research Professor, Energy Power and Intelligent Control (2012-2013), School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, QUB

Research Interests

Prof Irwin's research covered identification, monitoring, and control, including neural networks, fuzzy neural systems and multivariate statistics, much of which involved industrial collaboration. 

He was Technical Director of Anex6 Ltd, a University spin out company specialising in process monitoring.

He made personal contributions on wireless networked control systems, fault diagnosis of internal combustion engines and novel techniques for fast temperature measurement.

Prof Irwin authored over 350 research publications, including 120 peer-reviewed journal papers.

He retired in 2013.

Honours & Awards

He was elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy and Fellow of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering in 2002.

He was an IFAC Fellow, an IEEE Fellow and a Fellow of the Institute of Measurement and Control.

Prizes awarded include the IEE Hartree Premium (1996), IEE Mather Premium (1991), IEE Heaviside Premium (1987), IEE Kelvin Premium (1985), the Honeywell Prize from the Institute of Measurement and Control (1995), a Best Paper Award from the Czech Academy of Sciences (1997), an IFAC Outstanding Service Award (2008) and the Sir Harold Hartley Medal (2010) by the Institute of Measurement and Control.

Professor Irwin was an Honorary Professor at Harbin University of Technology (1999), Shanghai University (2005) and Shandong University (2005).

Professional Activity

Prof Irwin was a member of the Research Advisory Council of LAETA (Associated Laboratory of Energy, Transports and Aeronautics), Portugal, (2012 - ) and acted as an external advisor to:
Centre of Intelligent Systems, Institute of Mechanical Engineering (IDMEC), Institute Superio Technico (IST), Technical University of Lisbon, Centre for System Integration and Process Automation, University of Porto, Portugal.

Within the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), Professor Irwin served on the Publications Management Board, the Publications Committee, and was a member of the Technical Board.

He previously chaired the Publications Committee and the Prizes and Awards Committee, and was on the Executive Board.

In addition he chaired and participated in several IFAC Technical Committees, including those in 'Networked Control System' and 'Cognitive Control'.

Prof Irwin was an editor (formerly Editor-in-Chief) of the IFAC Journal Control Engineering Practice .

He has wide experience on the programme and organising committees of many international conferences including the International Programme Committee of the 2014 IFAC World Congress, held in Cape Town, South Africa , August 25-29, 2014.

Professor Irwin was a past chair of the executive committee of the UK Automatic Control Council and was a College member of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, where he chaired grant review panels.

He served as external examiner on the Control and Systems MSc courses at both Manchester University and Sheffield University.