A Conversation with Deji Chen, ISA Fellow 2024

Summary

Deji Chen, chief scientist at Wuxi University in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, China, is one of four individuals recognized in 2024 by the International Society of Automation as an ISA Fellow.  The esteemed Fellow member grade is one of ISA’s highest honors, recognizing only Senior Members who have made exceptional contributions to the automation profession, in practice or in academia.

Chen has 13 patents ranging from location detection in a wireless network, to a two-mode foundation fieldbus device configurator, to a unified application programming interface for a process control system network. He has written or co-written three books: “Wireless Control Foundation - Continuous and Discrete Control for the Process Industry,” “WirelessHART - Real-Time Mesh Network for Industrial Automation,” and “Real-Time Data Management in the Distributed Environment”, which was his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Texas at Austin, 1999. In addition, Chen has co-authored more than 45 conference papers.

In an exclusive interview with InTech magazine, Deji Chen answered questions about his distinguished career.

InTech: Can you tell us a bit about where and when you started in industrial automation, and where you are now?

Chen: I joined Emerson in Austin, Texas as a summer intern in 1995, working on the then secret DeltaV project, the next generation DCS system centered on workstations. At the end of the internship, Mark Nixon hired me. I had been with the Emerson DeltaV team ever since until 2014, except in 2001 when I left for one year to work at Schlumberger. In 2014, I went back to China and joined my alma mater as a faculty member. Now, I am with Wuxi University in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, China.

InTech: How and when did you first get involved with ISA? What work with the organization has been most meaningful to you over the years?

Chen: I got to know ISA soon after joining Emerson. However, I did not get involved until 2004 when I started publishing at the ISA Expo and in InTech. The highlight was receiving the ISA 2007 Excellence in Documentation Award.

The most meaningful work was the translation into Chinese of three ISA award winning books: “Control Loop Foundation,” “Advanced Control Foundation,” and “Wireless Control Foundation.” It was a wonderful experience working with Susan Colwell at the ISA Press.

InTech: Tell us more about your work on Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), WirelessHART, OPC, IEC30141, and IEC30165.

Chen: WirelessHART is the first international standard on industrial wireless communication in the plant. It was initiated by Emerson. While Mark Nixon and Eric Rotvold were busy co-writing the standard text with Wally Pratt who is from the HART communication Foundation, I led a team of Ph.D. students of Professor Al Mok at the University of Texas at Austin for the literature research and technical verification. The code we wrote was later developed into the testing system for the WirelessHART certification by the HART communication Foundation. The text we wrote was later developed into a definitive book on industrial wireless sensor networks.

OPC was also pioneered by Emerson [among others]. My first job at Emerson was developing this standard with Mark Nixon's team. In the meantime, I participated in coding OPC software in the DeltaV system. OPC-UA has become the mainstream standard for IIoT.

After coming back to China, I was invited to work on IEC30141, the IoT architecture standard. During this period, I initiated and chief-edited the IEC30165 standard (Real-Time IoT Framework) to emphasize the real-time aspect of an IoT system.

These standard works, including those of Chinese national standards, are part of my work around IIoT. ProudSmart, the IIoT company I started, has built an IIoT platform product that has been used in many smart manufacturing systems in China.

InTech: Who or what has been most influential to you as far as influencing your career?

Chen: It definitely is Mark Nixon. I started my career working as a summer intern with him. He was my direct boss for most of my time at Emerson, except in the middle he sent me to work on embedded developments to gain more comprehensive knowledge about industry automation, which helped my final Emerson years with him.

InTech: Your three books were published in 1999, 2010, and 2014. Are there perhaps more book titles in your future?

Chen: The book in 1999 was actually my Ph.D. thesis. I have also co-translated seven books into Chinese, including three ISA books mentioned above. Recently, I have written some short essays on IIoT, which I am considering publishing as a book.

InTech: What advice or insight do you have for young professionals just starting their automation careers?

Chen: There is a lot of good advice given by many good folks already. If I were to add to them from my personal experience, the keyword is perseverance. There is no easy path for any endeavor, put in your time and sweat, that’s it.

_{This news item originally appeared in the April 2024 isue of InTech digital magazine.}