On February 25, the DEEC TALK “Meet the New Faculty” took place, featuring the participation of the new DEEC faculty members Jorge de Sousa, Zita Marinho, and Pedro Costa.

The event began with a brief introduction by Sérgio Pequito, Vice President for Research, Development and External Relations.

The first talk was delivered by Jorge de Sousa, Associate Professor with Habilitation and senior researcher at INESC-ID. He began by outlining his academic and professional journey. He then addressed the objectives of the energy market up to 2050, considering energy efficiency and the integration of renewable energy sources. The researcher reflected on the liberalization of the energy sector over recent decades at the international level, leading up to the integration of the Portuguese market into the Iberian Electricity Market (MIBEL) in 2007. He also presented an overview of regulatory processes in Portugal since market liberalization, including the transposition of European directives, the deepening of liberalization and promotion of renewables, adaptation to the third energy package, and current legislation.

He also discussed the OMIE Day-Ahead Market, which presents daily supply and demand for the Iberian electricity systems.

Regarding challenges, he highlighted the development of markets capable of integrating flexibility services and investment strategies both in the short term—considering daily supply and demand structures—and in the long term, taking into account the integration of renewable energy sources.

Next, Zita Marinho, Assistant Professor at Técnico and researcher at DeepMind, presented her research focused on the development of artificial intelligence algorithms. She holds a PhD in Robotics from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and Técnico, under the CMU/Portugal Program.

Her research involves developing systems that support scientific discovery and adaptation based on reinforcement learning models. These self-consistent models consider factors such as system experience, external stimuli, planning, and the system’s capacity for action. The system generates multiple chains of reasoning, producing several possible imagined trajectories in response to a problem, while updating the model based on acquired experience.

The final part of the session featured Pedro Costa, Assistant Professor at DEEC and researcher at INESC-ID. He is a member of the Executive Committee of INESC-ID’s Energy Transition thematic line and is involved in the SHIFT2DC and Energy Dream Lab projects. He began by explaining what power electronics is, focusing on the use of converters in this field and their relevance for renewable energy integration, transmission and distribution systems, energy storage systems, and load interfaces.

He also provided an example of how these converters are integrated into the power grid, considering factors such as current control, voltage control, and modulation. He then addressed key challenges in the field, including the growing use of renewable energy sources, the integration of bidirectional flows, maintaining grid resilience, and the benefits and challenges associated with direct current (DC).

The DEEC TALK also included a discussion session, with participants sharing questions and perspectives on the various topics presented.

The next session will take place on March 18 and will feature Sérgio Pequito, DEEC faculty member and researcher at ISR, presenting his perspective on “Assessment Practices in the Age of AI: Examples, Tools, and Safeguards.”