Biography
Valentin Robu is a scientific staff member (tenured) in the Intelligent and Autonomous Systems Group at CWI. He is a part-time associate professor in the Algorithmics Group at TU Delft, and a research affiliate in the Collective Intelligence group at MIT. Before coming to CWI (in October 2020), he was associate professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, where he was part of (and co-founded) the Smart Systems Group with Prof. David Flynn. Before Heriot-Watt he was a senior research fellow in the Agents, Interaction and Complexity Group at the University of Southampton for 5 years (between Feb. 2009 - Feb. 2014), working with Prof. Nick Jennings and Prof. Alex Rogers. Before moving to Southampton, he obtained his PhD at CWI and TU Eindhoven, under the supervision of Prof. Han La Poutré (in July 2009). He was also a visiting scholar in the Economics and Computer Science research group at Harvard University (hosted by Prof. David Parkes) on several occasions, longest in the Fall (October-December) of 2015, and a visiting scientist in the Collective Intelligence group at MIT (in July/August 2018 and 2019), working with Dr. Mark Klein. His core research interests are 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 over 150+ journal/conference papers/book chapters. 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 our 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 Congressional Research Service etc. In the course of his career, he has visited and collaborated widely with researchers from a range of institutions, such as MIT, Harvard, Santa Fe Complex Systems Institute, IIT Delhi, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Microsoft Research, TU Delft, University of Toronto etc. He was also investigator or Co-investigator in a number of 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.
