Director at INESC TEC wins IEEE excellence award

Vladimiro Miranda is the first Portuguese researcher to receive the award

Last March, Vladimiro Miranda, director of INESC Porto (the entity coordinating the INESC TEC Associate Laboratory), was elected to receive the IEEE Power & Energy Society Ramakumar Family Renewable Energy Excellence Award. The researcher, distinguished for fostering and implementing large scale renewable sources integration, will be receiving his award in July, in a ceremony that will take place in Vancouver, Canada. This is the first time that a Portuguese researcher receives this award.

An excellence award

Eight years after becoming an IEEE Fellow (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) – the most important title awarded by the electrical engineering scientific community and to a small percentage of IEEE members, acknowledging a set of extraordinary activities with a concrete value for society – Vladimiro Miranda is now distinguished for “fostering and implementing large scale renewable sources integration in conventional power systems through the application of computational intelligence based techniques”, according to mention associated to the Award.

The director of INESC Porto will be receiving the award at a ceremony that will take place on 23 July during the IEEE PES General Meeting in Vancouver, Canada, with the theme “Shaping the Future Energy Industry”. Given for the first time to a Portuguese scientist, this award confirms that in Portugal, and at INESC TEC in particular, there is internationally acknowledged science. And this is even more relevant in the current social and economic context where it is fundamental for institutions to stand out by promoting excellence.

Questioned on what it meant for him to receive this award, Vladimiro Miranda confesses that this nomination fills him “with pride and satisfaction”. According to the researcher, “the fact that my peers chose me to receive this award is contrary to the idea that colleagues or countries are jealous. On the contrary, this award acknowledges a person from a small peripheral country that is generally discrete and quiet in the international scene”, he stresses. And he insists that “the public responsibility that comes with receiving this award is quite large – and because we are a small country, I want to interpret it as an homage to Portugal for its success in renewable energies”. When questioned about being the first Portuguese researcher to receive this award, Vladimiro Miranda states that “more than being happy for being the first – especially because the award is relatively recent – I hope to be the first of many because many in Portugal deserve it”.

The importance of IEEE for science

The IEEE is an association that promotes technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of the society and its roots date back to 1884, at a time when electricity was giving its first steps to become one of the world’s driving forces. Designed to serve professionals involved in all areas of electrical engineering, the IEEE would later expand to welcome engineers, scientists and other related practitioners. And if in the 1960s the IEEE had 150 thousand members, of which 140 thousand were from the USA, by 2010 the IEEE had 395 thousand members from 160 different countries. For the director of INESC Porto, the “IEEE is the sole organisation in the electrical engineering area with planetary dissemination, that is universally acknowledged for its top scientific and professional quality”. The researcher highlights that “the professional standards promoted by the IEEE in the US are an international reference. And it was this combination of professional engineering and scientific research that made the IEEE a world leader, besides being obviously an organisation from the largest world power”. 

The director highlights not only the importance of the IEEE for science, but also for students as they can not only become members of the organisation and receive student subsidies, discounts and awards, but also contact with the most important experts in this area, all that combined with a relevant training package for students who strive to succeed in their profession. “One could argue that IEEE is acting in the best selfish interest to capture future partners, but the truth is that setting a high standard for the students has an absolute transformative power in their self-esteem and dedication”, the professor reveals.

Against restricting access to scientific publications

The planetary recognition of the IEEE is reflected on the quality of the journals published by the organisation, with some of the highest impact factor in the areas of electrical engineering, electronics and computing. For this reason, Vladimiro Miranda believes that “the decision of the FCCN (Foundation for National Scientific Computing) of restricting access to IEEE publications five years or older, presenting a merely budgetary argument, is reprehensible”.

For the director, with this decision “there was a failure to assess the importance of the publications for science and the replication effect that engineering sciences have on the Portuguese economy and industry, and especially in the energy area where the country plays an important role”. “It was precisely in the scientific area that may have a more direct impact on the Portuguese economy –engineering – that such access was restricted", the researcher stresses, adding: "It seems that the crisis, prior to being a financial crisis, is one of common sense, and that the cuts – restricting access or other cuts – are selective to harm especially the activities that produce wealth".

A culture of scientific prestige

This award once again reinforces the image of INESC TEC and the University of Porto nationally and internationally. “I am very honoured to be a professor at the University of Porto and I am very proud to be part of INESC TEC. I am very excited to be receiving this award because I understand that without INESC TEC I would not have had the perfect work conditions to get to this stage and receive this award”, the professor stated. According to Vladimiro Miranda, “it would be unthinkable for the power systems area to be so successful and to achieve the national and international recognition and prestige if we didn’t have an INESC structure. Similarly, it is disappointing to find people who people still believe that these structures are not necessary and that a strategy can emerge automatically from individual selfish actions”.

And because it is often “necessary for Portugal to receive external recognition, this result is a triumph for the University of Porto – and stresses the value of the model embodied by INESC TEC, a model that the University of Porto cultivated so well and is now reproduced in other important institutes, such as IBMC and IPATIMUP, among others”. This is a model that produces excellence and economic sustainability, two concepts that are not incompatible, and the award given to Vladimiro Miranda is proof of that. For INESC TEC, in terms of international presence, this is a quality stamp from the most important scientific authority; nationally, it is the confirmation that this model can generate important results.

Other than Vladimiro Miranda, INESC TEC benefits from the collaboration from other IEEE Fellows, e.g. José Carlos Príncipe (president of INESC TEC’s SAB - Scientific Advisory Board and professor at the University of Florida), José Fortes (member of the SAB and also professor at the University of Florida), Gerald Sheblé (member of the SAB and professor at the University of South Wales, Australia), or Armando Leite da Silva (former employee at the Power Systems Unit and INESC Porto Fellow). They all bring to INESC TEC the culture of reference and scientific prestige of the IEEE.

Have your say

José Carlos Príncipe, University of Florida, IEEE Fellow

“The award demonstrates that the work developed by Professor Vladimiro in renewable energies was considered the best by his peers. This award is attributed by one of the technical societies of the IEEE [power systems] and this is very important because the pool of candidates includes the best experts worldwide in the area. I would like to use this opportunity to congratulate Professor Vladimiro and INESC TEC for the honour of receiving this award”.

José Fortes, University of Florida, IEEE Fellow

“This award is a well-deserved recognition for Professor Vladimiro Miranda as a research leader on renewable energy modelling whose work is known around the world. It is also emblematic of the sustained quality of the work being done at INESC TEC in many areas of engineering and IT”.

Mladen Kezunovic, Texas A&M University, Fellow IEEE

“The name of the award says it all. For somebody who has contributed to the field of renewables around the world, it’s a great honour. To be selected to receive this award is a big thing because it is recognition not only of Vladimiro’s activity, but also of the Institute and the people that work with him".