Graduated with honors in Electrical Engineering (1985) at the University of Cagliari, with discussion of the thesis "Minimum time optimal control of forest systems", Elio Usai is Full Professor (SSD ING-INF / 04 Automatic) at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the University of Cagliari from October 2015 (already Associate professor from 2000 to 2015 and Assistant professor from 1994 to 2000). Previously he worked as production manager and process engineer of auxiliary services at EniChem in Porto Torres (1988/1994) and as process development engineer in the Research and Development Department of Pirelli Cavi SpA (Laboratories of Milan, 1987/1988).
Coordinator of the University Quality Team since October 2015, he held various important university positions and, since 2015, he is the President of the academic spin-off SitAut srl. His scientific activity concerns the general aspects of systems theory and control, estimation and diagnosis of processes, currently with particular attention to the issues: Variable structure systems, Observers for uncertain nonlinear systems and model-based fault diagnosis, Control and estimation in multi-agent systems, Uncertain dimensional infinite systems, Robust output-feedback of nonlinear systems.
Visiting professor at the Technical University of Graz (Austria, 2016) and External Auditor/Evaluator for doctoral theses at foreign universities (Faculty of Engineering, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad, Pakistan; ITT Mumbai, India; University of Hull, UK; Ecole Centrale de Nantes, France), Professor Usai is a lecturer in various courses in the scientific disciplinary sector ING-INF/04 Automatic control of UniCa and in various training courses. He is/was supervisor of Bachelor and Master degree theses, tutor of doctoral students, for grants and research contracts, for doctoral students of foreign universities. Evaluator of research project projects on behalf of Italian and French institutions, over the years he carried out activities in research groups both as a leader and participating researcher. It also boasts several collaborations with institutions and industries (FST Atlantis Group, Hydrocontrol, Microsystems Milan, Ansaldo Energia Finmeccanica Group Genoa, Elianto Srl, Abbanoa SpA).
Author, co-author and reviewer of books and articles in international journals, Associate Editor of international journals, he won a "Best paper award" at CASYS 2000. Member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Variable Structure and Sliding Mode Control since 2016, he has participated and organized numerous sessions in international conferences and congresses, also with the role of reviewer. His name is also linked to the Italian patent "Method and apparatus for the dynamic positioning of an object moving in a fluid" (inventors: A. Pisano. G. Bartolini, E.Usai, T. Zolezzi, E. Punta, V. Arrichiello).