In 1986, Steven X. Ding begun with the Ph D study/investigation on model-based FDI isusses. During his three years stay in industry, he had gained experiences with the applications of FDI techniques in real technical processes. In the last 17 years, he has been, as a university professor and institute head, involved in numerous national and international research grants and industrial projects in developing advanced FDI methods and their applications in different industrial sectors. He holds a lecture on fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant systems for master students and seminars on advanced FDI methods for PhD students at the University Duisburg-Essen and gives guest lectures/courses at other universities and research institutes. He has published more than 80 journal and 130 conference papers in this thematic area.