On March 26th, 2025, the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (UNIZG-FER) and Laboratory for Renewable Energy Systems (LARES)   had the honor of hosting Professor Francesco Borrelli (Fanuc Professor, UC Berkeley), a leading expert in Model Predictive Control (MPC) and its applications in energy systems and autonomous systems. His lecture attracted students, researchers, and industry professionals eager to learn from one of the foremost authorities in control engineering.  

Pupils and teachers of the First Gymnasium Varaždin (PGV) from all four high school classes visited FER once again on Monday, March 24, 2025. The host at FER was Prof. Mario Vašak, Ph.D . The first lecture was held by Asst. Prof. Đula Nađ, Ph.D., in which he presented the field of maritime robotics and showed the equipment of the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies ( LABUST ). Then Robert Milijaš, M.Sc. and Assoc. Prof. Tamara Petrović, Ph.D. presented the Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems ( LARICS ). Robert Milijaš showed the interesting equipment with which he conducts his research, and Tamara Petrović gave a lecture on multi-robot systems. After this motivating lecture, LARICS researchers Marijana Peti, M.Sc. and Marin Maletić, M.Sc. demonstrated the flying of small drones.  The aim of the visit was to increase students' interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It was co-financed through the project of the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth Innovative STEM learning for the digital future, which is carried out by PGV in cooperation with FER and also from the Interreg projects HyEfRe and Danube Indeet .

ECC24 - 22nd European Control Conference took place on June 25-28, 2024 in Stockholm, Sweden. Our DECIDE project research team presented a paper: Coalitional model predictive control of building zones temperatures  by Filip Vrbanc, Vinko Lešić, Anita Banjac and Mario Vašak The paper can be found under the project  Publications tab .

LARES team was once again present at the Data Science Conference ( DCS Adria ) in Zagreb where Filip Rukavina and Hrvoje Novak delivered an engaging presentation on "Conformal prediction: uncertainty quantification for robust and reliable decision making." The talk discussed the importance of considering prediction uncertainty in designing control systems and decision support frameworks, advocating for the adoption of conformal prediction as a user-friendly approach to create statistically rigorous uncertainty intervals, showcasing its applications across various domains like smart cities, renewable energy, agriculture, and meteorology within the LARES research scope We are glad to be part of this successful conference and are looking forward to future DSC events!

As an outcome of project " SmartCityLight - Intelligent and modular platform for control and monitoring of smart city lighting " and in collaboration with project partner LED elektronika , LARES researchers were granted positive WIPO opinion with confirmed novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability for two patents: V. Lešić, H. Shaheen, M. Gapit, M. Vašak, H. Kaluđer, "A Centralized Model Predictive Lighting Control Method and a Centralized Prediction-based Controllable Street Lighting System," patent no. EP4369866 V. Lešić, H. Shaheen, M. Gapit, M. Vašak, N. Jurković, M. Marinac, H. Kaluđer, "A Distributed Model Predictive Lighting Control Method for a Street Zone and a Distributed Prediction-based Controllable Lighting System," patent no. EP4369867