Motaz Ayiad

Project:  Enhancement to SCADA/EMS for hybrid AC/DC networks at EFACEC, Portugal (21 May 2018 – 20 May 2021).
  
Watch his work package 1 short video and read the work package reports.

Journal publications:
State Estimation for Hybrid VSC Based HVDC/AC: Unified Bad Data Detection integrated with Gaussian Mixture Model, IEEE 2021.
Communication Requirements for a Hybrid VSC Based HVDC/AC Transmission Networks State Estimation, Energies 2021.
State Estimation for Hybrid VSC Based HVDC/AC Transmission Networks, Energies 2020.

Conference presentations and posters:
HVDC Colloquium, KU Leuven, Aug 2019.
PowerTech, Milan, June 2019.
HVDC Colloquium, UPC, Barcelona, Sept 2018.

PowerPoint video presentations:
Enhancement to SCADA/EMS for hybrid AC/DC networks (9 mins) March 2021.
Enhancement to SCADA/EMS for hybrid AC/DC networks (7 mins) Oct 2020.

Policy related work:
Khutwa, pillars of education in driving the Palestinian economy, Nov 2020.
European Energy Innovation InnoDC feature co-designer, autumn 2020.
Science Projects Workshop – Future Classroom Lab, Brussels, Sept 2019.

Public work:
Virtual lecture to MSc students, Oct 2020.
European Researchers’ Night, international, Sept 2019.
Renewable energy demonstration, Cardiff, May 2019.

Tutorial work:
Co-wrote tutorials and delivered examples (codes) for Uporto Master’s students studying mobile robotics based on SimTwo simulator, and regularly discusses his InnoDC work with students.

Secondments:
Uporto, summer 2020.
KU Leuven, Energyville, summer 2019.

Training: 
Portuguese (2018 onwards); numerous webinars (2020-21); ACDC international conference, Coventry (2019);  BIN@Porto (2018). Network meetings: KU Leuven (2021), Cinergia & UPC (2020), Cardiff University (2020), Elia (2019), DTU (2019), Uporto & Efacec (2018) and contributed remotely to the UPC meeting (2018).   Uporto: Signal Analysis, Classification & Processing (2019), Power Conversion (2019), Robotic Manipulators (2019), Real-time Embedded Systems (2019) and Mobile Robotics (2018). 

Background:
I am a fresh MSc graduate from Imperial College London in Future Power Networks (2017).  I am originally from Palestine – Gaza strip, where I studied my BSc in Mechatronics Engineering at Al Azhar University.  I had obtained a First class degree, and as a result, I was hired as a Teaching Assistant from 2015 to 2016.  During this role, I gained experience in teaching, presenting and organising.

In addition, I was given a chance to participate in the first smartmeters project in Gaza. My role was to program and set up a separate software to perform demand-side management in the form of load limiting. This was the moment where my research interests changed from mechatronics and robotics to power and smartgrids.  Furthermore, the huge shortage of electricity in my country (2 to 4 hours a day in Gaza) motivated me to complete my studies in the power sector.

In 2016, I was awarded a full scholarship from Hani Al-Qaddumi Foundation to obtain a Master degree from Imperial College London, and I selected the course in Future Power Networks.  This course provided me with state-of-the-art in the power field, different technologies, topologies and innovative ideas.  My MSc dissertation was based on demand-side modelling and state estimation on a low voltage network (customer side).

After my MSc, I decided to obtain a PhD degree before going into industry.  I received three offers for fully-funded PhDs in Luxembourg, the UK and on InnoDC in Portugal.  I selected the Marie–Curie funded InnoDC.  I believe being part of this wide-scale project will benefit my practical and academic experience, and I will meet, attend and participate in numerous activities that will help me in many aspects of life.  In fact, the first challenge now is to learn Portuguese :D.

My participation in the InnoDC project will be in the SCADA level, where HVDC and HVAC networks need to be monitored at the same time and in real-time.  There are many challenges to this topic, but it is always possible with the collaboration and feedback from other ESRs, along with hard work and wise supervision.

Outside the world of work and study, I enjoy spending hours fishing and taking photos of landscapes, sunsets, fireworks and thunder & lightning.  I used to play video games, but I do not find much time nowadays.  Also, I am an experienced war survivor who witnessed three destructive wars in 2008, 2012 and 2014.  Therefore, you can count on me during hard times and working under “pressure”.

 

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