Professor Sadok BEN YAHIA
Sadok BEN YAHIA Full Professor at the Southern Denmark University (SDU) since September 2023. Before joining SDU, he was full professor at Technology University of Tallinn (TalTech) since January 2019. He obtained his HDR in Computer Sciences from the University of Montpellier (France) in April 2009. He is the head of the Data Science Group in the IT School, and his research interests mainly focus on data-driven approaches for near-real-time Big Data analytics, e.g., urban mobility in smart cities (e.g., information aggregation & dissemination, traffic congestion prediction), Recommendation System. and fake content fighting.
Resilient Data-Driven enabled Zero-touch framework for urban mobility
Abstract: The transportation sector is responsible for 23% of energy-related CO2 emissions. Decarbonizing transportation is challenging, as it is still 92% dependent on non-renewable resources. However, current transport decarbonization-related policies are insufficient to decrease CO2 emissions to the expected level. Therefore, strategic approaches to reducing emissions from urban transport are critical to addressing the challenges of climate change. In this talk, we present our recent research activities on a framework to build the next level of innovative data-driven traffic light strategies as the most impactful action to reduce CO2 emissions within the context of urban mobility for Connected and Autonomous Cars. This Framework is committed to embracing the next generation of Edge-AI, benefiting from the ease of implementation and increased computation power toward more composable, distributed, and federated intelligence, as well as security by design frameworks. Powerful eye-bird-view multimodal data fusion approaches feed AI models for accurate CO2 and urban noise level predictions, that feed to dashboards for awareness purposes. Advanced reinforcement learning techniques make use of urban noise predictions to implement the best traffic light strategy in real time. We will also discuss the challenges to achieve resilience by proactively detecting misbehaving entities within Vehicle-to-Everything settings.
Mr. Michael SHORT
Michael SHORT is professor of control engineering and systems informatics at Teesside University in the UK and leads the multidisciplinary Centre for Sustainable Engineering. He is also a visiting Professor at VIT Chennai in India. He holds a BEng degree in electronic and electrical engineering (1999, Sunderland) and a PhD degree in real-time robot control (2003, Sunderland). Michael’s research interests encompass aspects of applied control engineering and systems informatics applied to smart energy systems and robotics. He has authored over 180 reviewed publications in international conferences and journals, has over 1800 citations, has supervised ten PhD completions, and has won six best paper awards.
Control and Informatics for Smarter Cities and Smarter Energy
The design and operation of cities is under increasing pressure due to changes in population, climate, and congestion. In this talk, the core theme will be how digitalisation can provide a platform for Smarter Cities, with focus on Smarter Energy aspects. After introducing basics of Internet of Things (IoT) and the Web 3.0 paradigm, focus will shift to how interconnectivity, interoperability and distributed automation can power the cleaner, greener, sustainable digital cities and economies of the future. The talk will discuss how industrial microgrids and Systems of Systems (SoS) concepts are being deployed to optimally facilitate the production, distribution, and consumption of electricity on a local geographical scale, and how smart grids, smart buildings and electronic energy trading enable the interconnection of multiple, distributed microgrids to achieve an interoperable and resilient energy network. This facilitates large penetration of local renewable energy production for smarter manufacturing, HVAC, lighting, and e-mobility operations. Within this framework, analytics, intelligent optimization/scheduling, and control principles may be applied to improve Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as energy efficiency and carbon cost. Results and progress from selected European, UKRI and other funded research and innovation activities will be outlined, along with completed and ongoing piloting activities. Finally, it will outline some of the open issues and challenges in industrial energy efficiency and opportunities for further research and innovation.
Professor Jamel BELHADJ
Jamel BELHADJ obtained the Electrical Engineering degree and Master degree from ENIT, Tunisia in 1997. In 1998, he got the Master degree from INPT-ENSEEIHT Toulouse. He received the PhD Degree from both of INPT-ENSEEIHT-Toulouse and ENIT- Tunis in July 2001. Finally he obtained, in February 2007, the University Habilitation degree from ENIT , Tunisia. Actually he is a full professor at ENSIT since 2012. Between 2000 and 2012, he worked in the High College of Sciences and Technics, ESSTT College Tunisia. Then, from 2014 to 2017, he held the position of Vice President of the University of Tunis and the director of the doctoral school from 2020 to 2023. He has authored more than 40 journal papers and 90 conference papers. He took responsibility and membership of more than 10 national and international projects. He supervised 14 defended PhD thesis, more than 100 defended master and more than 100 final study projects. He is scientific member, organizing committees and a reviewer of several journals and conferences. His mean research field is the systemic design, control and energy management of renewable energy systems for micro-grids and smart grids.
From the conventional grid towards smart grids: What is the position of Tunisia, what are the challenges and prospects for scientific research?