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

Our LARES member, Assoc. Prof. Vinko Lesic, PhD, was a co-organizer of AI Doctorate Symposium , a competition on research commercialization for PhD students and recent graduates, which took place at GITEX Global summit in Dubai, October 16-20, 2023. The competition was organized by IEEE Region 8 Entrepreneurship together with IEEE Region 8, R8 Member Activities and R8 Technical Activities, in organization with GITEX Global - DevSlam, and attracted current or recent PhD students to present their published research papers related to their theses in the topic of AI. Out of 47 participants, 5 were selected for the finals in Dubai. Judging panel included Dr. Simon See , Global Head Nvidia AI Technology Centre, Dr. Wathiq Mansoor , Dean of College of Engineering & IT at University of Dubai, Omar Hatamleh , Chief Advisor, Artificial Intelligence & Innovation - NASA, Christopher Abraham , CEO & Head - Dubai Campus, S P Jain School of Global Management, and Vinko Lesic , IEEE R8 Vice Chair for Member Activities and LARES member. Three authors were awarded on stage, first prize of 2,000 USD for Paolo Testolina (Italy), second prize of 1,000 USD for Sofia Bourhim (Spain) and third prize of 700 USD for Abir Abid (Tunisia). Global DevSlam is inspired by GITEX Global, the largest tech show in the world, which gathers over 170,000 attendees, 5000 exhibitors and 1400 speakers from 176 countries. The 43rd edition of GITEX Global took place in Dubai World Trade Center, bringing together major players in academia, government, and industry. The event consisted of eight co-located shows on coding and software development, AI, fintech, future urbanism, blockchain and more. Photos are available in detailed news content.

On December 22, 2023, LARES researcher Mateja Car successfully defended her doctoral dissertation and received a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering. Mateja's thesis, entitled "Model predictive control of battery systems in a microgrid" , elaborates model predictive control of heterogeneous battery storage systems in a microgrid by taking into account the chemical processes inside a battery which are reflected in variable battery efficiency and consequently, battery longevity. Our congratulations to Doctor Mateja Car!

LARES team attended IEEE  CDC 2023  – 62nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control that took place on December 13-15, 2023, in Singapore. Assoc. Prof. Vinko Lešić, PhD , presented SmartCityLight project results in the paper  "Street Lighting Optimal Dimming with Model Predictive Control" by Husam I. Shaheen, Marina Gapit, Ana Martinović, Vinko Lešić