Emmanuel Gonzalez
Emmanuel A. Gonzalez, Ph.D. is an educator and engineer by profession. He is currently the Head of Service Operations under the Existing Installation Department Of Jardine Schindler Elevator Corporation, a joint venture between Jardine Matheson and Schindler Group, and Director of Manila Operations in Engineers 4 Humanity. He is a senior member and officer of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of the Philippines (IECEP), and an associate member of the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). He is a Recipient of the IEEE Education Distinguished Chapter Leadership Award in 2009 and the IEEE Education Society Student Leadership Award in 2010. He was also featured in PinoyScientists tumblr 20 September 2013 entry.
Early life
He was born in Makati and was raised in Manila, in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. He completed his secondary studies at Don Bosco Technical Institute, Makati with a technical diploma in electronics technology. He then went to De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines, for his college studies. There, he completed his BS degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering, in 2003. Three years later, he earned an MS degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering, with distinction, from the same university. He completed his PhD in Electronics and Communications Engineering from De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines in 2014.
Education
- Ph.D. in Electronics and Communications Engineering, De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines, 2014. Dissertation: Design of Robust Fractional-Order Control Systems
- M.S. in Electronics and Communications Engineering, with Distinction, De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines, 2006. Thesis: An Ant Colony-Based Solution for Sub-Optimal Control Systems
- B.S. in Electronics and Communications Engineering, De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines, 2003. Thesis: An Autonomous Mobile Olfactory Robot (AMOR)
Career in the academe
After passing the ECE Board Examinations in 2004, he immediately went on to teach part-time as Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering under the College of Engineering at De La Salle University, Manila (DLSU). He handled courses in control engineering, electronic circuit analysis, computer programming, digital electronics, and electronic systems design to name a few. In 2005, he was promoted as Lecturer of the same department and handled courses in methods of research for ECE, ECE laws and ethics, microelectronics, VHDL, digital communications, and transmission lines and antennas and continued teaching other subjects until 2006. In 2007, he became a full-time faculty member of the same department having the Assistant Professor title, and handled courses in control engineering, numerical methods, discrete mathematics, and engineering mathematics. He also handled courses in graduate studies such as advanced feedback control systems and advanced mathematics for ECE.
He left the ECE Department by the end of December 2007 and in early 2008, he joined the Department of Computer Technology under the College of Computer Studies of De La Salle University, Manila as a part-time faculty with the title Assistant Professorial Lecturer—the part-time counterpart of the Assistant Professor rank. He taught courses on mobile robotics and control technology almost every year until at present, depending on the current demands of the students. He is also a member of the Center for Automation Research, a research arm under the same college.
Aside from DLSU, he also joined the School of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering at Mapua Institute of Technology in Intramuros Manila also in early 2008 as a part-time faculty member. He taught various undergraduate and graduate courses in dynamical systems and control engineering, advanced electronics theory, advanced engineering mathematics, advanced linear control systems, digital control systems, robotics and mechatronics, and digital signal processing.
Career in the industry
In January 2008, Emmanuel joined Jardine Schindler Elevator Corporation in Makati City, Philippines, as the Technical Training Supervisor who has led to the establishment of a comprehensive learning and development program for all rank-and-file and supervisory employees of the company. He also set up a collaboration between Don Bosco Technical Institute, Makati, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to come up with a comprehensive on-the-job training program for potential technicians from technical vocational institutions. In 2009, he was tasked to lead a service operations portfolio as the Assistant Portfolio Manager and Service Leader. The position was later reclassified to Service Manager and he held the position until February 2012. In March 2012, he was assigned to lead the Technical Operations Department as head, being responsible for the overall technical operations and technical compliance of the entire Existing Installation Department. He led to the development and implementation of various programs focusing on reliability and rehabilitation engineering, quality management through improved predictive and preventive maintenance, introduction of condition-based maintenance, operational (product and employee) safety, processes improvement, and training and development. In June 2014, he was promoted as the Head of Service Operations.
Research and projects
During Emm's stay in the ECE Department from 2004 to 2007, he was involved in various research projects mainly on feedback control systems, cellular automata, and combinatorial optimization. In particular, together with his undergraduate students, he developed the single-ant sequential variation of the ant colony optimization (ACO) metaheuristic. This was tested through the tuning of a proportional-integral-derivative PID controller for a small-scale microhydropower plant inside one of the mechanical engineering laboraties at DLSU. He also created an improved cellular automata model to simulate forest fires, which was presented both in the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) 29th Annual Scientific Meeting, and the 9th Science and Technology Congress in DLSU. Together with the late Prof. Aliento V. Estalilla, he helped develop a simple numerical technique in computing for the maximum singular value, spectral norm, and spectral radius of matrices, which was then presented in the 10th Osaka University—De La Salle University Academic Research Workshop. Both also conjectured an algorithm in determining the modulus of the dominant eigenvalue of an arbitrary square matrix, which was then presented in the 3rd International Conference on Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology, Communication and Control, Environment, and Management (HNICEM) in Manila. In 2006, he was assigned as a faculty adviser under electronics technology which focused in the design, simulation, construction and development of the Philippine first solar-powered race car named SINAG, and which competed in the 2007 Panasonic World Solar Challenge and ended up in the 11th place.
With Emm's involvement in the College of Computer Studies in DLSU and School of EE-ECE-COE in Mapua, Emm's researches focused on fractional calculus and fractional-order control systems, especially on the development of various methods in the design of robust feedback control systems and the development of analog fractional-order differentiators.
Currently, Emm is engaged in researches with colleagues from the Institute of Control and Informatization of Production Processes in Technical University of Kosice in Slovakia, the Robotics Lab of the Charles III University of Madrid in Spain, the Brno University of Technology in Czech Republic, the Alpha Control Lab at Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia, the Research and Development Office of the Technological Institute of the Philippines in Quezon City, Philippines, the School of EECE in Mapua Institute of Technology in Manila, the College of Computer Studies and Gokongwei College of Engineering in De La Salle University Manila, Philippines. Research collaborations are on the design of analog and digital fractional-order electronic circuits, design of various control methodologies for fractional-order systems, safety risk assessment and evaluation using fuzzy sets, and budget allocation problems in operations research.
Current research interests
- Control systems engineering
- Fractional calculus, fractional-order systems, modeling and synthesis of fractional-order elements
- Safety management systems, hazard identification, risk analysis and control
- Operations management and process optimization
- Image processing techniques applied to infrared thermography in condition-based maintenance of industrial machines
Selected publications
- Dorcak, L., Gonzalez, E., Terpak, J., Valsa, J., and Pivka, L. "Identification of fractional-order dynamical systems based on nonlinear function optimization," International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 89, no. 2, 2013. pp. 225–250, ISSN 1311-8080, eISSN 1314-3395. doi.org/10.12732/ijpam.v89i2.8
- Gonzalez, E. A., Hung, J. Y., Dorcak, L., Terpak, J., and Petras, I. "Posicast control of a class of fractional-order processes," Central European Journal of Physics, Special Issue on Fractional Dynamics, vol. 11, no. 6, June 2013, Springer Viena, ISSN 1895-1082, eISSN 1644-3608, 868-880. doi:10.2478/s11534-013-0284-3
- Gonzalez, E. A., Monje, C. A., Dorcak, L., Terpak, J., and Petras, I. "A method for incorporating fractional-order dynamics through PID control system retuning," International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 86, no. 4, 2013. pp. 593–605, ISSN 1311-8080, eISSN 1314-3395. doi:10.12732/ijpam.v86i4.1
- Gonzalez, E. A., Dorcak, L., Terpak, J., and Petras, I. "On the mathematical properties of generalized fractional-order two-port networks using hybrid parameters," Proceedings of the 14th International Carpathian Control Conference (ICCC2013), Rytro, Poland, May 26–29, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4673-4488-3. doi:10.1109/CarpathianCC.2013.6560517
- Dorcak, L., Gonzalez, E. A., Terpak, J., Petras, I., and Zecova, M. "Application of PID retuning methods for laboratory feedback control systems incorporating fractional-order dynamics," Proceedings of the 14th International Carpathian Control Conference (ICCC2013), Rytro, Poland, May 26–29, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4673-4488-3. doi:10.1109/CarpathianCC.2013.6560507
- Dorcak, L., Terpak, J., Petras, I., Horovcak, P., and Gonzalez, E. "Electronic realization of fractional-order system," Proceedings of the International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference (SGEM 2012), Albena Resort, Bulgaria, Jun. 17-23, 2012, pp. 103–110, ISSN 1314-2704. doi:10.5593/SGEM2012/S10.V3014
- Dorcak, L., Terpak, J., Petras, I., and Gonzalez, E. A. "Comparison of the electronic realization of the fractional-order system and its model," Proceedings of the 13th International Carpathian Control Conference (ICCC 2012), High Tatras, Podbanske, Grand Hotel Permon, Slovak Republic, May 28–31, 2012, pp. 119–124, ISBN 978-1-4577-1867-0. doi:10.1109/CarpathianCC.2012.6228627
- Gonzalez, E. A., Dorcak, L., and Co, C. B. "Bioelectrode models with fractional calculus," International Journal of Intelligent Control and Systems, vol. 17, no. 1, Mar. 2012, pp. 7–13.
Volunteer fire fighting and community service
During his college years, he joined the New Market Merchants Fire Prevention Unit as a probationary volunteer fire fighter. In 2003, he became a full-fledged regular volunteer fire fighter of the fire unit and also became a member of the Association of Philippine Volunteer Fire Brigades, Inc. (APVFBI) which is based in Malate, Manila, Philippines. Between 2004 and 2007, he became active in the Educator's Group (Public Education Division) who helped out in providing free fire safety and fire suppression seminars in private and local government communities around Metro Manila, as well as pre-schools, universities, colleges, and other educational institutions.
In October 2013, he initiated together with colleagues and co-members of the IEEE in the Philippines, the Engineers 4 Humanity Project and is currently Director of Manila Operations. The primary objective of this project is to come up with technical and technological solutions to help victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan in the central part of the Philippines in their recovery and rehabilitation stages, and to support other non-government organizations. The entire project is technically sponsored by the IEEE Education Society.
Arts and music
Emm loves to play the piano and guitar during his pastime, and was even a member of different bands in 1999–2000 (Last Minute) and 2003–2004.
He also makes abstract art preferably with mixed media.