We are proud to share the news that the doyen of our laboratory, prof. emer. dr. sc. Nedjeljko Perić, has been awarded the prestigious Croatian State Award for Science for 2024! Prof. emer. dr. sc. Nedjeljko Perić, professor emeritus at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, and emeritus member of the Department of Systems and Cybernetics of HATZ, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award in the field of technical sciences. The community has recognized his long-standing contribution to the development and promotion of technical sciences, especially in the field of automation, as well as his significant impact on the development of Croatian universities and the strengthening of cooperation between academia and industry. The State Award for Science represents the highest recognition in the Republic of Croatia for scientific achievements and is awarded for exceptional contributions to the advancement of science and research. We are proud that one of this year’s recipients is a distinguished member of LARES.  

The University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing has welcomed 17 Erasmus Mundus students within the EU-CORE – European Master on Control of Renewable Energy Systems , marking a continued increase in international participation in laboratory-based teaching and research. In response to the growing international presence, LARES has further expanded its portfolio of courses delivered in English. These include Control and Grid Integration Techniques for Renewable Energy Sources , Energy-Efficient Buildings Control , Predictive Control , and Estimation Theory . The courses are designed to support the EU-CORE curriculum and ensure accessibility for incoming students. This development highlights UNIZG-FER’s ongoing commitment to strengthening its role in international higher education and advancing teaching and research in sustainable energy systems, with LARES aiming to actively contribute to these efforts.

IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) took place on December 9-12 2025 in Rio de Janeiro. Our Filip Vrbanc’s presentated his paper “Distributed Model Predictive Control of Hybrid Energy Storage Systems”. This contribution provided an opportunity to present our latest research findings, exchange ideas on emerging topics, participate in specialized workshops, and strengthen connections with leading researchers from around the world. The conference experience also supported the continued advancement of our projects, Dodola and MLBattProt, funded by the European Union through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan for Croatia.

Our laboratory is proud to celebrate the achievements of two of our researchers who have recently earned their doctoral degrees.

Our laboratory is proud to highlight the outstanding achievements of its students, whose work has been recognized with prestigious awards at both institutional and international levels.

The 9th International Energy Forum INTERENEF 2025 , titled “New Energy Order – Challenges and Opportunities”, was held in Zagreb on 14 October 2025, organized by the Institute for European and Globalization Studies and the Atlantic Council of Croatia, under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Croatia. Head of our laboratory, Prof. Dr. Mario Vašak participated in a high-level panel discussion on Artificial Intelligence in the Energy Sector, addressing the transformative role of digital innovation in modern energy systems. Prof. Vašak emphasized that AI should go beyond prediction and actively support decision-making in dynamic environments. “AI must be coupled with strong decision frameworks. Human expertise remains essential,” he noted. Alongside Prof. Vašak, the panel featured Prof. Andrej Pustišek, Dr. Marat Terterov, Assoc. Prof. Tomislav Capuder, and Davor Aničić, who discussed the importance of reliable data, clear regulation, and effective management in advancing AI-driven energy solutions. The session concluded that while AI offers immense potential for the energy transition, human expertise and sound decision frameworks remain its essential foundation.

On the 1st International Colloquium Power generation and electromechanical energy conversion (ICPGEEC 2025) held in Dubrovnik from October 12-15 2025, Mr. Luka Majić from company Vertiv and Prof. Mario Vašak from FER presented the paper "Hydrogen-based backup power solution for datacenters", a joint work of company Vertiv and FER team from LARES that outlines the build up and prototype testing of the automation and control system for the new Vertiv green back-up power supply product for datacenters -- Vertiv™ Power Module H2 . Alongside Prof. Vašak and Mr. Luka Majić, Dr. Mateja Car and Prof. Željko Ban from FER together with Mr. Branislav Radanović and Mr. Hrvoje Stančin from Vertiv contributed to this innovative development . The participation of FER on the conference was supported by the European Union via the I3 NACHIP project that deals with innovative solutions for integration of green hydrogen in value chains of North Adriatic region covering Croatia, Slovenia and region Friuli-Venezia-Giulia of Italy.

LARES hosted a series of lectures as part of the "International Workshop on Cooperative Control Systems" held on September 17, 2025, as the final workshop of the DECIDE project and a workshop of projects Dodola and MLBattProt. We were honored to host visiting scientists to provide invited talks: "Data-driven risk-aware coordination of boundedly rational agents", Filiberto Fele , University of Seville, Spain "Detecting cyber attacks in cyber-physical systems", Alexander J. Gallo , Politecnico di Milano, Italy "Some applications of control theory to lithium-ion batteries", Ross Drummond , University of Sheffield, UK "Distributed power system coordination via parametric optimization and ADMM", Branimir Novoselnik , FER In addition, a number of researchers presented the acomplished results of projects: DECIDE - Distributed Control for Dynamic Energy Management of Complex Systems in Smart Cities, PI Vinko Lešić, https://www.fer.unizg.hr/decide DODOLA - Research on predictive control for efficient and flexible operation of water supply systems, PI Mario Vašak MLBatProt - Model starenja baterijskog članka zasnovan na strojnom učenju korišten u računalnoj geometriji za on-line zaštitu integriteta baterijskog paketa, PI Mario Vašak Details on speakers and biographies available here .

LARES members Vinko Lešić and Hrvoje Novak had the pleasure of participating in the International Conference on Alpine Meteorology (ICAM 2025), held in Poreč, Croatia. Their presentation on machine learning applications in nowcasting and forecast post-processing reflects several years of LARES research at the intersection of meteorology and end-user weather forecasting. We take this opportunity to thank the Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service (DHMZ) for their continuous and long-standing support over the past decade. The strong feedback at ICAM confirms that the time for merging meteorological and machine learning expertise has truly arrived.

Our member Vinko Lešić was a speaker at the leading UN Platform on AI - AI for Good GlobalSummit 2025 , Geneva, Switzerland! Vinko participated in the panel "Open Source Generative AI for Public Services Innovation" announcing the upcoming IEEE–ITU GenAI for Good Challenge . Kicking-off after Summer and with the prize of $25,000, the challenge is setting the stage for global AI collaboration on key public service domains, utilizing the newest open source GenieAI platform for digital public services. The challenge is brought by IEEE Humanitarian Technologies and International Telecommunication Union where Vinko is one of the team contributors.  AI for Good summit is identifying innovative AI applications, building skills and standards, and advancing partnerships to solve global challenges. It is organized by ITU in partnership with over 40 UN sister agencies.  

2025 American Control Conference (ACC) took place on July 7-10 2025 in Denver, Colorado. Our member Dorijan Leko presented our paper published in IEEE Control Systems Letters—while Mario Vasak had the honour of co-chairing the presentation session. The work introduces new methodology that supports our Sequential Linear Programming approaches for battery management systems and the urban water cycle. Beyond the presentation, the full LARES crew in Denver— Branimir Novoselnik , Nikola Hure, Dorijan Leko , Luka Prlenda , and Mario Vasak —gained valuable insights to enhance performance in our EU-funded projects Dodola and MLBattProt, carried out in partnership with Končar Digital and Rimac Technology.

From 24 to 27 June 2025, the European Control Conference (ECC) brought together the international control community in Thessaloniki, Greece. Our member Prof. Mato Baotić took part in the Workshop on "System Theory of Optimization, Learning and Control Algorithms", which focused on current developments and emerging challenges in real-time control and decision-making. The event also offered an opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and collaborators from across the field.