Valentin Robu

Background

About Valentin Robu

Valentin Robu is a Senior Researcher in the Intelligent and Autonomous Systems Group at CWI, the Netherlands National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is also a Full Professor (Part-Time) of Artificial Intelligence for Decentralised Energy Systems, in the Electrical Engineering Department at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He also has an honorary appointment as Visiting Research Collaborator at the ECE department at Princeton University in the US. His core research expertise in in the area of multi-agent systems and distributed AI, more specifically designing strategies and interactions between strategic agents, such as in negotiation and auctions settings. A large part of his research in recent years has focused on using AI techniques to address challenges in building next-generation energy systems and smart grids. Example challenges in this area include: coordination of charging between multiple electric vehicles, such that the capacity of the distribution networks is not exceeded, using game-theoretic models for the integration of renewable energy suppliers into existing grids or incentive design for distributed demand-side response. Over his career, he has collaborated with many researchers in many countries, and co-authored close to 200 journal/conference papers/book chapters/reports. He is a task lead for hydrogen system integration WP3 in Groenvermogen WP3, the Netherlands national research programme of hydrogen systems, as well as WP lead is large-scale EU TESTBED-2 project (that looks at AI, communications and smart grids), besides a number of other grants with several academic and industry partners (including Dutch TSO and DSOs). Previously, he was a co-investigators and led WPs and workstreams in several other top projects, including CESI - the UK's National Research Centre for Energy Systems Integration, CEDRI (Community Energy Demand Reduction in India), or ORCA, the UK Offshore Robotics for Certification of Assets Hub. He has won a number of awards, such as the 2019 UK Innovation of the Year Award (awarded by the IET, the UK's Institute for Engineering and Technology), for his work on network monitoring with Scottish Power Energy Networks, or the 2018 Low Carbon Transport Award, from the British Renewable Energy Association, for the work on hybrid vessels on the Thames in London. His research was featured in a number of venues, such as the Conversation, the BBC, the Economist, Nature, World Economic Forum, the US Congres Research Service etc.