Xu joins Columbia University as an Assistant Professor in Earth and Environmental Engineering, with an affiliation in Electrical Engineering. His research aim is to develop sustainable energy systems by facilitating the adoption of emerging technologies and new market designs.
Xu’s previous research focused on integrating battery energy storage into energy systems and electricity markets. Xu has developed extensive optimization and control algorithms that optimize battery operation based on electrochemical degradation mechanisms in various market applications, trading-off market revenue with battery life reduction aroused in market participation. His work on battery degradation modeling and optimization has been adopted by various companies including ABB, Doosan, and Microsoft, as well as system operators such as ISO-NE and California ISO.
In addition, Xu’s research includes solving optimization and control problems subject to various application constraints such as complicated physical model, multi-stage uncertainties, and large scale systems. In his recent work Xu developed a novel predictive control algorithm for energy storage that offers leading control optimality while being thousands of times faster with very simple hardware requirements compared to state-of-the-art commercial solvers.
Xu received his BS from Shanghai Jiaotong University, MS from ETH Zurich, and PhD from University of Washington, Seattle, all in Electrical Engineering. Before joining Columbia, he was a postdoctoral associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, jointly hosted by MIT Energy Initiative, and Lab for Information & Decision Systems.