Ricardo
Lima has joined the Center for Uncertainty Quantification in Computational
Science & Engineering at KAUST. Ricardo is a Chemical Engineer specializing
in Process Systems Engineering and Energy Systems, with specific interests in mathematical
programming, applied optimization, decision-support and decision-making in the
presence of uncertainty, energy systems, process synthesis, and the scheduling/planning
of industrial processes.
He
earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering,
University of Porto, Portugal. Ricardo was fortunate enough to do his PhD under
supervision of Professor Romualdo Salcedo and Domingos Barbosa. His PhD
research focused on the application of stochastic search based algorithms for
the optimization of chemical engineering processes, namely the design and
synthesis of reactive distillation columns.
From
2006-2011, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Chemical
Engineering of the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, USA. His
stay at CMU is marked by an indelible collaboration with Professor Ignacio
Grossmann, who has introduced Ricardo to mathematical programming and process
synthesis using superstructures and Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP)
models. His research activities were related with the synthesis of
crystallization processes for para-xylene recovery.
In
2008, Ricardo and Ignacio Grossmann started a research project with the Glass
Business and Discovery Center from PPG Industries under the umbrella project “Enterprise
Wide Optimization” between CMU and several world companies. During this time,
Ricardo was an invited Senior Researcher at PPG Industries, where he
participated in several enterprise cross functional projects involving people
from manufacturing, supply chain, marketing and research. From the technical
point of view, his research activities were focused on the development of
Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) models and solution strategies for the
simultaneous planning and long-term scheduling of continuous processes with
complex recycle structures.
In
2011, Ricardo was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship from a European Marie Curie
COFUND Action, and he joined the National Laboratory of Energy and Geology
(LNEG) in Lisbon, Portugal. In LNEG he was the principal investigator of the
project “Planning and scheduling of optimal mix of renewable sources in
sustainable power systems”. In this project, Ricardo focus was on: a) the
global optimization of short-term hydro scheduling problems represented by
MINLP models, by using Generalized Disjunctive Programming, convex McCormick
Envelopes, and spatial branch and bound algorithms; and b) 2-stage adaptive
robust optimization applied to the scheduling and electricity market
involvement of virtual power plants.
His
current research interests lie at the development of mathematical programming
models and decompositions strategies for optimization under uncertainty. More
specifically, Ricardo is interested in the application and development of
models and methods based on stochastic programming, and 2-stage adaptive robust
optimization in energy related problems. In the SRI-UQ is looking forward to
building bridges between optimization and uncertainty quantification.