Omid Abrishambaf from the GECAD Research Group (IPP), and a collaborator with the BISITE Group at USAL, has recently defended his doctoral thesis. It has been a pleasure to work with him and to co-direct it in collaboration with Professor Pedro Nuno Silva Faria of GECAD-ISEP, IPP (OPORTO).

His excellent research, entitled “Implementation of Demand Response Programs in Intelligent Energy Management Systems Based on Distributed Control System”, has earned him the highest “cum-laude” rating.

The panel was chaired by Professor Florentino Fernández Riverola (University of Vigo), with Professor Vicente Julián Inglada (Universidad Politécnica de Valencia) as a judge and our colleague, Prof. Sara Rodríguez González (University of Salamanca) as secretary.

Over the last few years, Omid has participated in several R&D&I project, some were international projects. He has published 31 scientific articles, 13 of them in specialised scientific journals with great impact. I am convinced that his research will greatly contribute to the development of energy efficiency and intelligent systems.

Congratulations Omid, best of luck!

Posted by Juan M. Corchado

Juan Manuel Corchado (15 May 1971, Salamanca, Spain) is Professor at the University of Salamanca. He has been Vice-Rector for Research from 2013 to 2017 and Director of the Science Park of the University of Salamanca. Elected as Dean of the Faculty of Science twice, he holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Salamanca and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of the West of Scotland. He leads the renowned BISITE (Bioinformatics, Intelligent Systems and Educational Technology) Research Group, created in 2000. Director of the IoT Digital Innovation Hub and President of the AIR Institute, J. M. Corchado is also Visiting Professor at the Osaka Institute of Technology since January 2015, Visiting Professor at the Universiti Malaysia Kelantan and Member of the Advisory Group on Online Terrorist Propaganda of the European Counter Terrorism Centre (EUROPOL). J. M. Corchado has been president of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, and academic coordinator of the University Institute for Research in Art and Animation Technology at the University of Salamanca, as well as researcher at the Universities of Paisley (UK), Vigo (Spain) and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (UK). He currently combines all his activity with the direction of Master programmes in Security, Digital Animation, Mobile Telephony, Information Systems Management, Internet of Things, Social Media, 3D Design and Printing, Blockchain, Z System, Industry 4.0, Agile Project Management, and Smart Cities & Intelligent Buildings, at the University of Salamanca and his work as editor-in-chief of the journals ADCAIJ (Advances in Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence Journal), OJCST (Oriental Journal of Computer Science and Technology) or Electronics MDPI (Computer Science & Engineering section). J. M. Corchado mainly works on projects related to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, IoT, Fog Computing, Edge Computing, Smart Cities, Smart Grids and Sentiment Analysis. He has recently been included in the board of trustees of the AstraZeneca Foundation, along with other health professionals and researchers recognised for bringing scientific knowledge closer to society.