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Publications

2025

Integrating a spatio-temporal diffusion model with a multi-criteria decision-making approach for optimal planning of electric vehicle charging infrastructure

Authors
Mejia, MA; Macedo, LH; Pinto, T; Franco, JF;

Publication
APPLIED ENERGY

Abstract
Electric vehicles (EVs) allow a significant reduction in harmful gas emissions, thus improving urban air quality. However, the widespread adoption of this technology is limited by several factors, resulting in heterogeneous deployment in urban areas. This raises challenges regarding the planning of public electric vehicle charging infrastructure (EVCI), requiring adaptive strategies to ensure comprehensive and efficient coverage. This study introduces an innovative method that leverages geographic information systems to pinpoint appropriate sizes and suitable locations for public EVCI within urban environments. Initially, a Bass diffusion model is employed to estimate EV adoption rates by regions, enabling the determination of the appropriate sizes of EVCI necessary for each of them. Subsequently, a multi-criteria decision-making approach is applied to identify the suitable locations for EV charger installation within each region. In this way, EVCI locations are selected using spatial criteria, which ensure they are near common areas of interest and easily accessible through the road network. To validate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method, tests using geospatial data from a city in Brazil were carried out. The findings suggest that EVCI planning without proper spatial analysis may result in inefficient locations and inadequate sizes, which may discourage potential EV adopters and hinder widespread adoption of this technology.

2025

Dynamic incentives for electric vehicles charging at supermarket stations: Causal insights on demand flexibility

Authors
Silva, CAM; Andrade, JR; Ferreira, A; Gomes, A; Bessa, RJ;

Publication
ENERGY

Abstract
Electric vehicles (EVs) are crucial in achieving a low-carbon transportation sector and can inherently offer demand-side flexibility by responding to price signals and incentives, yet real-world strategies to influence charging behavior remain limited. This paper combines bilevel optimization and causal machine learning as complementary tools to design and evaluate dynamic incentive schemes as part of a pilot project using a supermarket's EV charging station network. The bilevel model determines discount levels, while double machine learning quantifies the causal impact of these incentives on charging demand. The results indicate a marginal increase of 1.16 kW in charging demand for each one-percentage-point increase in discount. User response varies by hour and weekday, revealing treatment effect heterogeneity, insights that can inform business decision-making. While the two methods are applied independently, their combined use provides a framework for connecting optimization-based incentive design with data-driven causal evaluation. By isolating the impact of incentives from other drivers, the study sheds light on the potential of incentives to enhance demand-side flexibility in the electric mobility ecosystem.

2025

PID Control with TCLab: An Unified Experiment for Undergraduates

Authors
Oliveira, PBD; Cunha, JB;

Publication
IFAC PAPERSONLINE

Abstract
Portable, pocket-sized laboratories offer a cost-effective means for students to conduct control experiments outside the classroom. Broad access to such laboratories can help bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. The Temperature Control Laboratory (TCLab) is one such portable kit that has been effectively utilized for teaching and learning control engineering. Building on experience with TCLab since 2018, we propose a unified experiment focused on PID control. This experiment was integrated into a Modeling and Control Engineering course for Biomedical Engineering undergraduates at UTAD. The students' feedback indicates strong interest and underscores the value of this handson experience. Copyright (c) 2025 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

2025

Explainable AI framework for reliable and transparent automated energy management in buildings

Authors
Teixeira, B; Carvalhais, L; Pinto, T; Vale, Z;

Publication
ENERGY AND BUILDINGS

Abstract
The increasing integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) is revolutionizing energy optimization by enabling real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and automated control. While these advancements improve energy efficiency and sustainability, the opacity of AI models poses challenges in interpretability, limiting user trust and hindering widespread adoption in operational decisionmaking. Ensuring transparency is crucial for aligning AI insights with building performance requirements and regulatory expectations. This paper presents EI-Build, a novel Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) framework designed to enhance the interpretability of intelligent automated BEMS. EI-Build integrates multiple XAI techniques, including Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP), Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME), Anchors, Partial Dependence Plots, Feature Permutation Importance, and correlation-based statistical analysis, to provide comprehensive explanations of model behavior. By dynamically tailoring the format and depth of explanations, EI-Build ensures that insights remain accessible and actionable for different user profiles, from general occupants to energy specialists and machine learning experts. A case study on photovoltaic power generation forecasting applied to a real BEMS context evaluates EI-Build's capacity to deliver to deliver both global and local explanations, validate feature dependencies, and facilitate cross-comparison of interpretability techniques. The results highlight how EI-Build enhances user trust, facilitates informed decision-making, and improves model validation. By consolidating diverse XAI methods into a single automated framework, EI-Build represents a significant advancement in bridging the gap between complex AI energy models and real-world applications.

2025

Bridging Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development

Authors
Almeida, F;

Publication
Examining the Intersection of Technology, Media, and Social Innovation

Abstract
Social entrepreneurship is crucial for sustainable development as it blends innovative business models with a focus on economic, social and environmental impact. This synergy can potentially accelerate progress towards the sustainable development goals, creating a more equitable and sustainable future. This study aims to explore this phenomenon by carrying out a systematic review of literature. It is adopted the PRISMA framework to identify 54 relevant studies in this field. The findings characterize the evolution of articles in this field, the number of citations, the relationship between key terms, and the respective clusters. Moreover, seven contributions of social entrepreneurship for sustainable development are identified. Finally, the role of technology in promoting and supporting the interconnection between social entrepreneurship and sustainable development is explored. This study is relevant to enhance understanding of how technology supports social entrepreneurship and helps social entrepreneurs to achieve sustainable development goals.

2025

Transformer-Based Models for Probabilistic Time Series Forecasting with Explanatory Variables

Authors
Caetano, R; Oliveira, JM; Ramos, P;

Publication
MATHEMATICS

Abstract
Accurate demand forecasting is essential for retail operations as it directly impacts supply chain efficiency, inventory management, and financial performance. However, forecasting retail time series presents significant challenges due to their irregular patterns, hierarchical structures, and strong dependence on external factors such as promotions, pricing strategies, and socio-economic conditions. This study evaluates the effectiveness of Transformer-based architectures, specifically Vanilla Transformer, Informer, Autoformer, ETSformer, NSTransformer, and Reformer, for probabilistic time series forecasting in retail. A key focus is the integration of explanatory variables, such as calendar-related indicators, selling prices, and socio-economic factors, which play a crucial role in capturing demand fluctuations. This study assesses how incorporating these variables enhances forecast accuracy, addressing a research gap in the comprehensive evaluation of explanatory variables within multiple Transformer-based models. Empirical results, based on the M5 dataset, show that incorporating explanatory variables generally improves forecasting performance. Models leveraging these variables achieve up to 12.4% reduction in Normalized Root Mean Squared Error (NRMSE) and 2.9% improvement in Mean Absolute Scaled Error (MASE) compared to models that rely solely on past sales. Furthermore, probabilistic forecasting enhances decision making by quantifying uncertainty, providing more reliable demand predictions for risk management. These findings underscore the effectiveness of Transformer-based models in retail forecasting and emphasize the importance of integrating domain-specific explanatory variables to achieve more accurate, context-aware predictions in dynamic retail environments.

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