Benoit Boulet
Ph.D., Eng., William
Dawson Scholar 
Director, Centre for Intelligent Machines
Associate Chair
-Operations
Associate Professor 
Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering
Systems and
Control Group
McGill University,
McConnell Engineering
Building, room 509
3480 University Street
Montréal,
Québec, Canada H3A 2A7
Tel: 514-398-1478
Fax: 514-398-4470 or
514-398-7348
E-mail:
benoit.boulet_at_mcgill_dot_ca
Please consult my rolling two-week schedule
if you wish to make an appointment.
News
- CIM Summer School: I will give a one-day course for industry on
advanced industrial control in the Zames room (MC437) on Friday August 29, 2008. For
registration information, please click here.
(posted July 28, 2008)
- Dr. Yingxuan Duan will
be teaching ECSE404 Control Systems this Fall 07 semester. (posted Aug.
30, 2007)
- For those of you taking
my course ECSE303A Signals & Systems I this semester (Fall 2006),
we will be using my textbook Fundamentals of Signals &
Systems, Da Vinci Engineering Press ISBN 1584503815. You can order it on-line, or you
can buy it at the McGill bookstore. (posted Aug. 14, 2006)
- The textbook Fundamentals
of Signals & Systems (see below) has won the 2005 Readers
Preference Award in the "Science and Mathematics" category. (posted
Dec. 19, 2005)
- I am now back from a
very interesting sabbatical year a the NRC IMI where I worked with
some of my graduate students and research assistants on the control of
plastic forming processes. This ongoing work is in collaboration with
Dr.
Robert DiRaddo and Mr. Patrick Girard of the IMI (posted August 25,
2005)
- I will be teaching
ECSE303A Signals & Systems I this Fall, and ECSE304B Signals &
Systems II and ECSE513B Robust Control Systems (a new course) in the
W2006 term. (posted August 25, 2005)
- I have a new textbook,
including a CD-ROM, coming out in mid-September.
The book is titled Fundamentals of
Signals &
Systems, Da Vinci Engineering Press, Charles River Media
(a division of Thomson Delmar Learning) ISBN 1584503815. Here
is a link to it on Amazon.ca: B.
Boulet, Fundamentals of Signals & Systems, and here is
the link to it on Amazon.com (price in USD): B.
Boulet, Fundamentals of Signals & Systems. For those of
you taking my course ECSE303 this semester, we will be using this
textbook so you can pre-order it on Amazon at a substantial pre-release
rebate, or you can wait for it to arrive at the McGill bookstore by the
end of
September. Note that I will distribute handouts of the final page
proofs
of the first four chapters of the book during the first lecture.
We will also use this book in ECSE304. (posted August 25, 2005)
- I will be on sabbatical
leave from September 2004 until September 2005 at the NRC Industrial
Materials Institute in Boucherville. (posted June 8, 2004)
- Proposed
projects for Honour's thesis or Project Lab. If you're interested,
please
send me an email. (posted Sep. 9, 2003)
Research Interests
- Robust Industrial
Process Control
- Theory and
Applications of H-infinity Control
- Robust Vehicle
Control
- Manufacturing
Execution Systems
Research Sub-Areas
- Control of
material forming processes
- Cycle-to-cycle
process control
- FFT-based
control
- Robust flight control
- Control of
flexible structures
- Noise and
vibration control
- Optimal scheduling
Courses Taught
- ECSE303 Signals and
Systems I (ECE Dept)
- ECSE304 Signals and
Systems II (ECE Dept)
- ECSE404 Control
Systems (ECE Dept)
- ECSE513 Robust
Control Systems (ECE Dept)
Responsibilities and Committees
- Associate Chair of
Operations of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
-Supervisor, Mechanical Design & Machining Group
-Supervisor, Communication Services
-Course Teaching Assignments
- Director of
the Centre for Intelligent Machines
- Member of
McGill's Senate
Experience
Research
Work
- From September 2006,
Associate Chair -Operations of the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering at McGill University.
- From June 1 of 2004,
Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering at McGill University.
- From October of
1998, Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering at McGill University. I am also a member of the McGill
Centre for Intelligent Machines and Director of the IALab. Research and
teaching in signals, systems and control.
- From Nov. 1995 to
Oct. 1998, different positions as a consulting engineer at Hatch in Mississauga, Ontario,
culminating in positions of Senior Control Engineer and founding
manager of the Advanced Control and Optimization group in the Advanced
Systems business unit. Project work in modeling, simulation,
optimization and control of industrial processes, mainly in the metals
industry. Quality management following ISO 9001 requirements.
- From October of
1998 to August 2000, consultant with Hatch on a part-time basis.
Project work includes: Event-driven optimal scheduling for steelmaking
(EDOSS) and digital filter design
From March 1998 to
September 1998, member of PRECARN's
Research Management Committee.
Industrial
R&D Projects
- Development of a
control system for the sheet reheat phase of the thermoforming
process in collaboration with the Industrial Materials Institute of the
National Research Council of Canada.
The control system is composed of infrared sensors connected
to a real-time computer running advanced in-cycle and cycle-to-cycle
multivariable control algorithms. It adjusts the powers to be applied
to the heater zones to control independently the temperatures at
various locations on and within the sheet in order to reach the forming
temperature as quickly as possible while maintaining the surface
quality of the sheet. This control system can be retrofitted to
existing thermoforming machines or be part of a new machine design to
achieve a shorter cycle time, better part quality, and better
yield.
This work led to the
spin-off company MAGI Control Inc.
founded by my former graduate students.
- Event-Driven Optimal Scheduling for
Steelmaking (EDOSS), $1.4 million collaborative research project funded
by PRECARN, Hatch, RADSS Technologies, and Chaparral Steel to develop
an event-driven
intelligent scheduling software for EAF steelmaking. The project also
involves
Prof. Randy Goebel, Dept. of Computing Sciences, Univ. of Alberta.
- Discrete-event production
simulation of a proposed extension to Stelpipe's steel pipe
manufacturing facility in Welland, Ontario.
- Digital compensating filter design
and implementation for the Hatch Power Quality Analyzer.
- Design, simulation and
commissioning of a multivariable feed blending control system for Falconbridge, Sudbury.
- Preliminary design of
an integrated smelting furnace power controller for Cerro Matoso,
South America.
Publications
Research Papers
Books and book chapters
Important note: In the first
printing of the book, the Bibliography section was missing due
to a production issue.
Here is a link to it: Bibliography
PDF
Errata: Revision 1
(4.6MB PDF file, May 19,
2006)
Fundamentals
of
Signals & Systems has won the 2005
Readers Preference Editor's Choice Award in the "Science and
Mathematics" category.
- B. Boulet, A.
Noël, D. A. Coggan, Chapter 7: Analog and Digital
Control Devices, Fundamentals
of Industrial Control, 2nd Ed., D. A. Coggan, Ed., ISA and CRC
Press, 2004. ISBN 1-55617-863-8. Link on Amazon.com: Fundamentals
of Industrial Control
Professional Affiliations