Omid Ardakanian

Assistant Professor
Department of Computing Science
University of Alberta

ardakanian@ualberta.[NULL]ca

I am an assistant professor in the department of computing science. I study the design, implementation, and performance of intelligent networked systems using techniques from control theory, optimization, machine learning, and queueing theory. My research addresses systems challenges in different domains, from sensor networks and IoT to smart buildings and energy systems.

The Sustainable Computing Research Lab | Publications | Google Scholar

Omid Ardakanian is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta and a Principal Investigator of Future Energy Systems. He received the BSc in Computer Engineering at Sharif University of Technology, and the MMath and PhD in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo under the supervision of S. Keshav and Catherine Rosenberg. Before joining UofA, he was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley working with David Culler, and at the University of British Columbia working with Vincent Wong. Dr. Ardakanian's research focuses on the design and implementation of intelligent networked systems, such as smart buildings and grids. He was nominated for the Governor General's Gold Medal and received a 2015 University of Waterloo “Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies” award for his PhD thesis. He received the 2022 ASTech award for Outstanding Achievement in AI/ML Advancement: Energy and Environmental Innovation, and the best paper award at ACM e-Energy (2013), ACM BuildSys (2016, 2022), and IEEE PES General Meeting (2017). He was a guest editor of a special issue of IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, and TPC co-chair of ACM e-Energy 2021. He is currently serving on the executive committee of ACM SIGENERGY and is an editor of SIGENERGY Energy Informatics Review (EIR).

Note to prospective students: I am always looking for motivated students (PhD, MSc, or URA) with a strong quantitative background to work with me on various research projects in the areas of Sensor Networks, Embedded and Cyber-Physical Systems, and Energy Informatics. I especially encourage women and students from equity-seeking groups to apply to my group. If you are interested in pursuing graduate studies at UofA, check out this page before you submit your application. You must have a degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering (if you took core CS courses). Additionally, PhD applicants are expected to have at least one paper in top workshops, conferences, or journals in their field. If you decide to send me an email, attach your CV, and briefly explain why you want to work with me and what projects you might be interested in working on if you join my research group. Include "Houseplant" in the subject line to indicate that you have read this note.

May 2023 — Three papers accepted to the ACM e-Energy conference. Congratulations Afia, Javier, Saidur, and Karim!
Feb. 2023 — Paper on reducing the training cost of RL agents for HVAC control got accepted in Energy and Buildings. Congratulations Aakash and Tianyu!
Dec. 2022 — Gave a talk at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge, as part of the EEG seminar series.
Nov. 2022 — Received the ASTech Award for Outstanding Achievement in AI/ML Advancement: Energy and Environmental Innovation!
Nov. 2022 — Received the Best Paper Award at ACM BuildSys for our work on optimizing the operation of virtual power plants!
Sept. 2022 — Papers accepted in ACM BuildSys 2022 and IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. Congratulations Saidur and Yuan!
Mar. 2022 — Serving on the organizing committee and technical program committee of ACM BuildSys 2022.
Mar. 2022 — Paper accepted in Energy and Buildings. Congratulations Tianyu!
Feb. 2022 — Our robust sizing paper is accepted in IEEE PES General Meeting 2022. Congratulations to Hadi!
Jan. 2022 — I serve on the technical program committee of ACM e-Energy 2022.
Sept. 2021 — Congratulations to Omid Hajihassani on the acceptance of his paper in ACM Transactions on Internet of Things.
Aug. 2021 — I'm serving on the TPC of ACM BuildSys 2021 and ACM SIGEnergy RLEM 2021.
Apr. 2021 — Two papers accepted in ACM e-Energy 2021. Congratulations Tianyu, Gaby, Ray, and Moosa!
Apr. 2021 — I'm serving as Web Co-chair of ACM BuildSys 2021. You can find the CFP here.
Feb. 2021 — Our journal paper got accepted in Energy and Buildings. Congratulations Tianyu and Monir!
Jan. 2021 — New paper accepted in ACM/IEEE IoTDI 2021.
Jan. 2021 — Congratulations to Zishan and Moosa on the acceptance of their paper in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid.
Nov. 2020 — Our BuildSys poster was the runner-up for the best poster award. Congratulations Tianyu!
Oct. 2020 — I'm a TPC co-chair of ACM e-Energy 2021. Check out the CFP and submit your best work to this SIG sponsored conference.
Aug. 2020 — I'm organizing the 2nd International Workshop on Performance and Modelling of Energy Systems for IFIP Performance 2020.
Jul. 2020 — I'm serving on the technical program committee of ACM BuildSys 2020 and IEEE GLOBECOM 2020 (SAC - SGCPLC).
Jun. 2020 — Our paper on adaptive congestion control for EV charging is accepted in ACM e-Energy 2020. Watch the video presentation.
May 2020 — I served on the technical program committee of International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP'20).
Feb. 2020 — I'm serving on the technical program committee of ACM e-Energy 2020 and am the co-organizer of a workshop on "Challenges and opportunities in the design and operation of energy storage systems".
Jan. 2020 — We had two papers accepted in ACM/IEEE ICCPS and IEEE ICC. Congratulations to Zishan, Moosa, and Evandro!
Dec. 2019 — I served on the technical program committee of IEEE ICC Smart Grid Communications 2020.
Nov. 2019 — A workshop paper and a poster accepted in ACM BuildSys 2019. Congratulations to Tianyu. Monir, and Leepakshi!
Oct. 2019 — One paper accepted in IEEE Smartgridcomm 2019.
Sept. 2019 — Our IEEE TSG paper entitled "Bayesian Learning-Based Harmonic State Estimation in Distribution Systems with Smart Meter and DPMU Data" is in press.
Jun. 2019 — EnergyBoost was one of the bast paper award finalists of ACM e-Energy 2019 [check out the photo].
Apr. 2019 — Two papers accpeted in ACM e-Energy 2019. Congratulations to Baihong, Mohammad, Tianyu and Zishan!
Mar. 2019 — Check out this blog post about our recent work presented in NIPS 2018 FEAP-AI4Fin workshop.
Feb. 2019 — I served on the technical program committee of the Tenth ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems.
Jan. 2019 — Congratulations to Tianyu for having his first paper accepted in ACM/IEEE IoTDI 2019!
Jan. 2019 — Our IEEE TCNS paper entitled "On Identification of Distribution Grids" is in press.
Dec. 2018 — I served on the technical program committee of IEEE ICC Smart Grid Communications 2019.
Dec. 2018 — I delivered a talk on sparsity in distribution networks and how it facilitates system identification at ePerf workshop in Toulouse, France.
Oct. 2018 — I co-chaired "Data, Analytics, and Synchrophasors for Transparent Distribution Networks" Workshop at IEEE Smartgridcomm 2018.
Sept. 2018 — I served on the "AI and Future Energy Systems" panel of the International Symposium on Applications of Artificial Intelligence.
Jul. 2018 — Paper on Sparse Bayesian Learning for Harmonic State Estimation accepted in IEEE SmartGridComm 2018.
Apr. 2018 — Paper on data-driven occupancy modelling accepted in ACM e-Energy 2018.
Apr. 2018 — I am excited to kick off a collaboration with ATB Financial and be part of the their AI lab (read more about our four-year partnership between UAlberta and ATB).
Mar. 2018 — I currently serve as the Information Services Director of ACM EIG-ENERGY: Emerging Interest Group on Energy Systems and Informatics.
Jan. 2018 — I served on the technical program committee of the first International Workshop on Energy Market Engineering.
Dec. 2017 — I am a Guest Editor of IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, Special Section on Theory and Application of PMUs in Power Distribution Systems.
Nov. 2017 — I served on the technical program committee of IEEE ICC Smart Grid Communications'18.
Sept. 2017 — I served on the technical program committee of ACM eEnergy'18.
Jul. 2017 — I am the publication chair of ACM eEnergy'18.
Jul. 2017 — I am excited to join the CS Department at the University of Alberta!
May 2017 — Received the Best Paper Award at IEEE PES General Meeting for our work on event detection and localization in distribution grids with PMUs [Photo].
Apr. 2017 — I served on the program committee of Energy Informatics & Management conference (EIM 2017).
Jan. 2017 — I served on the program committee of ACM eEnergy'17.
Nov. 2016 — Received the Best Paper Award at ACM BuildSys'16 for our paper "Non-Intrusive Techniques for Establishing Occupancy Related Energy Savings in Commercial Buildings".

2023: Canada will need students' help to reach its aggressive EV targets [Corporate Knights]
2023: Demand outpacing supply for electric vehicles [St. Albert Gazette]
2022: Researchers aim to turn century-old building into a model of smart energy use [Folio][Global News]
2022: Saving energy and protecting privacy in the Internet of Things era
2021: The race to an EV-powered Canada
2021: Algorithms for fairness and control in energy systems
2020: AI could offer big energy savings for office towers
2019: Creating smarter buildings
2018: ATB taps University of Alberta for Artificial Intelligence expertise
2017: Computers combatting climate change

Email: ardakanian@ualberta.[NULL]ca
Office: Athabasca Hall 3-20
Mailing Address: Department of Computing Science
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E8
Canada

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