Ulrich Korn

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Ulrich Korn (2011)

Ulrich Korn (born August 31, 1941 in Magdeburg ; † July 7, 2020 in Gommiswald / OT Uetliburg , Canton St. Gallen in Switzerland ) was a German engineer and professor of control engineering . He was one of the pioneers of theories and methods of control design for multi-variable systems with innovative applications and was a co-founder of engineering training in interdisciplinary, innovative courses in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg.

Career

Ulrich Korn was born and raised in Magdeburg as the son of sales representative Albert Korn and his wife Edith Korn . The father never returned from World War II . From 1947 to 1955 he attended the Franz Mehring elementary school in Magdeburg and then the Alexander von Humboldt high school.

After graduating from high school in 1959, he started his studies at the Magdeburg University of Heavy Mechanical Engineering, which had just been founded six years earlier (since 1961 Technical University of Magdeburg , later Technical University, today Otto von Guericke University ) (former rector: Ernst-Joachim Gießmann ) . After completing his basic studies in mechanical engineering, he chose the field of control engineering at the Institute for Measurement, Control, and Regulation Technology, which was founded in 1960 (founding director: Heinrich Wilhelmi ; founding assistant: Herbert Ehrlich ). Ulrich Korn belonged to the first class of this subject, which was fully trained both theoretically and with all internships at the TH Magdeburg.

At the beginning of 1965, under the rectorate of Friedrich Kurth, he completed his studies as a qualified engineer (Dipl.-Ing.) At the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (Dean: Hans-Erich Weinschenk ). He then worked as a scientific assistant, later as a senior assistant at the Institute for Measurement, Control and Regulation Technology at the TH Magdeburg. Three years later, he did his doctorate here with a thesis on draft regulations in the state space for chemical reactors.

In 1970 he received an appointment as a university lecturer (equivalent to C3 professor ) for the field of control engineering at the then TH Otto von Guericke Magdeburg, section technical cybernetics and electrical engineering (TK / ET), founding director Heinz Töpfer . In 1972 Korn defended his habilitation (doctorate B) on the computer-aided design of multi-variable regulations. From 1973 to 1976 he was deputy. Section Director for Research at Section TK / ET (Section Directors: Albrecht Riedel, then Reinhold Krampitz).

From 1976 to 1978 he worked in the research department at the Energiekombinat Mitte Magdeburg and was jointly responsible for the construction and commissioning of the district heating network in Magdeburg. In doing so, he benefited from his previous research in the field of automation technology, especially with regard to modeling and optimization as well as the optimal regulation and control of such complex technical systems.

Act as a professor

After working in industry, Ulrich Korn returned to the TH Magdeburg. Here he was appointed full professor for control engineering on September 1, 1978, to succeed Heinz Töpfer , who continued Heinrich Kindler's chair at the TU Dresden . Between 1980 and 1985, Korn succeeded Siegfried Rudert, who died unexpectedly, as head of the control engineering and process control department. He was followed in this role by Peter Neumann , who was appointed from industry and who later became the founder and head of the Institute for Automation and Communication (ifak) as an affiliate of the university in 1991 .

Campus Magdeburg, traditional seat of the Institute for Control / Automation Technology (in the background the newly built faculty building "Electrical Engineering and Information Technology")

After reunification , Korn was committed to the restructuring of his faculty as a university lecturer and researcher and worked on various academic university committees. In particular, the control engineering and process control science area was transferred to the "Institute for Automation Technology" (IFAT) with his assistance and expanded to around 30 employees with 4 chairs. Peter Neumann took over the management from 1991 to 1994. During this time, Ulrich Korn was in a leading position at the university level, initially from 1992 to 1993 as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. In 1994 Korn was elected Dean of the Faculty, which he headed until 1998.

In this function as dean, he successfully campaigned for the development and further development of the teaching and research profile of the faculty and for a newly founded Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg (founding director: Ernst Dieter Gilles , institute director for system dynamics and control engineering at the University of Stuttgart ).

New interdisciplinary courses such as industrial engineering for electrical engineering, energy technology and information technology were designed and introduced during his dean's office in close cooperation with the new engineering-oriented Max Planck Institute that meet the requirements of the economy. The construction and completion of the new faculty building for "Electrical Engineering and Information Technology", the gateway to the university on Universitätsplatz / Walther-Rathenau-Strasse, also fall within his tenure as dean.

In 1993 Korn was appointed university professor to the chair for control engineering. He has worked intensively and successfully to attract the next generation of scientists. As a university professor, he supervised over 20 doctoral students, more than 100 diploma students and many research students and research assistants. He was a reviewer for numerous dissertations and habilitation theses.

50 years of automation technology in Magdeburg (2011); first students: Ulrich Korn, Werner Kriesel , Peter R. Asche , Wolfgang Wilhelmi (from left to right)

In his research , Korn dealt with the description of the state space for dynamic systems, with the design of control systems, especially for multi-variable control - always focusing on the feasibility of the research results in practice. For this reason, specific device solutions and a semi-industrial test facility for practical testing were developed for this new type of multi-variable control with a state space description based on the Korn design process in cooperation with Werner Kriesel's research team . Most recently, his work focused on modern control algorithms with parameter changes, e.g. B. for use in innovative environmental technologies. Furthermore, in collaboration with Ernst Dieter Gilles and his staff , he dealt with theoretical problems and test drives for navigation systems for ship control on inland waterways.

Korn has made a name for himself in the national and international specialist world with a wide range of publications on control theory and through co-authorship of textbooks and specialist books.

On the occasion of Korn's retirement in 2004, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at Otto von Guericke University organized an honorary colloquium. Employees and former graduates who work in business and research companies have said goodbye to the academic teacher and researcher with academic lectures. Almost 45 years of development of regulation and control technology at Magdeburg University are associated with his academic career, which he has strongly shaped through his teaching and research activities.

Ulrich Korn, urn grave: bronze sculpture La Luna Caprese , artist Giacinto Bosco , Milano

Renowned industrial experts , scientists and several professors emerged from Korn's academic environment : Ulrich Jumar (Magdeburg, ifak), Christian Diedrich (University of Magdeburg), Nguen Thien Nhang (University of Hanoi / Vietnam), Klaus-Peter Schulze (TH / HTWK) Leipzig), Wolfgang Günther (Anhalt University), Klaus Zindler (Aschaffenburg University), Steffen Sommer (Anhalt University), Daniela Döring (Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus-Senftenberg).

Ulrich Korn had been with the ethnographer Dagmar Korn , born in 1967 . Westerhoff, the couple has an adult daughter, Susanne Korn , who is trained as an IT engineer. Since his retirement in 2004, the family has lived in Switzerland in Gommiswald / OT Uetliburg, Canton St. Gallen in the greater Zurich area . Ulrich Korn's urn grave is also located here in the front garden of his daughter's house in Rosenweg; it is adorned by a bronze sculpture with two almost life-size figures La Luna Caprese , the internationally known artist is Giacinto Bosco from Milano / Italy.

Memberships and honors (selection)

Publications (selection)

  • Contribution to the application of the state space description and introduction of the matrix signal flow diagram for the design of process controls. Magdeburg, Technical University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, dissertation, Magdeburg 1968.
  • Basics of the state description of control systems. Scientific-Technical Society for Measurement and Automation Technology (WGMA) in the Chamber of Technology (KDT), autumn courses in technical cybernetics, Berlin 1970.
  • Contribution to the generation of methods based on system theory for the computer-aided design of linear, time-invariant, multi-variable control systems of a higher order. Technical University, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Habilitation (Dissertation B), Magdeburg 1971.
  • Automatic control. Part: Lesson 1., state space description.
  • with Hans-Helmut Wilfert: Multi-variable control - modern design principles in the time and frequency domain. Verlag Technik, Berlin and Springer-Verlag, Vienna; New York 1982, ISBN 3-211-95802-9 .
  • with Ulrich Jumar : PI multivariable controller - practical design, robustness, application. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich; Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-486-21720-8 .
  • with S. Sommer: Regulation of non-linear systems using linear, parameter-variable systems. Otto von Guericke University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Magdeburg 1999.
  • with D. Döring : Design of a non-linear, dynamic gain scheduling controller using the approach of speed-based linearization. Otto von Guericke University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Magdeburg 2000.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Winfried Oppelt : Small manual of technical control processes. Verlag Chemie, Weinheim 1954, 5th edition Verlag Chemie, Weinheim and Verlag Technik, Berlin 1972. ISBN 3-527-25347-5 .
  2. ^ Heinrich Kindler : Collection of exercises on control engineering. Verlag Technik Berlin, Oldenbourg-Verlag, Munich; Vienna, 1964 (with H. Buchta and H.-H. Wilfert).
  3. ^ Hans-Joachim Zander , Georg Bretthauer : Prof. Heinz Töpfer on his 80th birthday. In: Automation technology, Munich. Vol. 58, No. 7, 2010, pp. 413-415.
  4. ^ Werner Kriesel : Prof. Hans-Joachim Zander on his 80th birthday. In: Automation technology, Munich. Vol. 61, H. 10, 2013, pp. 722-724.
  5. ^ Peter Neumann : Automation technology at the Magdeburg alma mater. In: Mechanical and plant engineering in the Magdeburg region at the beginning of the 21st century. Future based on tradition. Delta-D publishing house, Axel Kühling, Magdeburg 2014, pp. 215-219, ISBN 978-3-935831-51-2 .
  6. ↑ Peter Neumann (ed.): Magdeburg's automation technology in transition - from industrial to research location. Authors: Christian Diedrich , Rolf Höltge, Ulrich Jumar , Achim Kienle , Reinhold Krampitz, Günter Müller, Peter Neumann, Konrad Pusch, Helga Rokosch, Barbara Schmidt, Ulrich Schmucker, Gerhard Unger, Günter Wolf. Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg ; Institute for Automation and Communication Magdeburg (ifak), Magdeburg 2018, production: Grafisches Centrum Cuno GmbH & Co. KG, Calbe (Saale), ISBN 978-3-944722-75-7 .
  7. ^ Ernst Dieter Gilles : Systems with distributed parameters. Introduction to control theory. Oldenbourg, Munich; Vienna 1973, 186 pp., ISBN 3-486-33911-7 .
  8. ^ Karl Reinisch : Cybernetic basics and description of continuous systems . Verlag Technik Berlin 1974, pp. 30-61.
  9. ↑ Jan Lunze : Control engineering 2. Multi-variable systems, digital control. Springer Verlag, 8th edition 2014, pp. 143-413, ISBN 978-3-642-53943-5 .
  10. ↑ Alexander Lutz, Ernst Dieter Gilles (supervisor): Collision detection and avoidance on inland waterways. Dissertation, University Library of the University of Stuttgart 2011.
  11. ↑ Hans-Joachim Zander : Control of event-discrete processes. Novel methods for describing processes and designing control algorithms. Springer Vieweg Verlag, Wiesbaden 2015, pp. 175–280, ISBN 978-3-658-01381-3 , e-book ISBN 978-3-658-01382-0 .
  12. ↑ Werner Kriesel : Future models for computer science, automation and communication. In: Frank Fuchs-Kittowski ; Werner Kriesel (Ed.): Computer science and society. Festschrift for the 80th birthday of Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski . Frankfurt a. M., Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Vienna: Peter Lang Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, PL Academic Research 2016, pp. 415-430, ISBN 978-3-631-66719-4 (print), E- ISBN 978-3-653-06277-9 (e-book).
personal data
SURNAME Korn, Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer and professor of control engineering
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg