Jorge Santos (SGI) and José Paulos (CPES)

Jorge Santos (SGI)

“INESC TEC’s Infrastructures Maintenance Service (SGI) decided to nominate Jorge Manuel Lopes dos Santos for this month’s “The Incredibles”, due to the way he carried out multiple activities and tasks so dedicatedly, especially since many exceeded his usual role in the institution. While working on the premises on a daily basis (at a time when the risk of contagion was very high and there were demanding containment measures), Jorge handled a significant number of requests, in a dedicated manner (mail, orders, vehicles, demand for disinfection and personal protection products). He did so while showing a tremendous availability to all requests made by most services and assistants, often going beyond his usual tasks to meet everyone’s needs. For these reasons, we firmly believe that Jorge deserves this recognition“.

– The Coordination of the Infrastructures Maintenance Service (SGI)

How did the Covid-19 pandemic influenced your daily tasks at INESC TEC? What changed?

When I joined INESCTEC, more than 33 years ago, I decided to give my best to the institution, thus carrying out all my tasks with pride and dedication.

During the pandemic, it became necessary to ensure the tasks that I could not do while teleworking.

It was not easy, because fear took over and I felt quite vulnerable; however, I was ready to fight, without ever thinking of giving up.

I must thank all my SGI colleagues and coordinators, namely for their support in finding the best solutions, instead of creating more problems.

After several hours of phone calls with countless companies of hygiene and disinfection products – and after hearing “no” many times, but also a few “yeses” – we were able to prepare everything for our colleagues’ safe return.

I’ve never worked as an assistant before. It was as interesting challenge, many times overlooked, but I did my best.

Supporting the Board compelled me to pay particular attention to things, since working via phone calls and email is not easy. I had to print documents, take them to members of the Board to sign them, and then stamp, scan and resend them. I also went to the register office many times, while carrying out numerous other tasks. Thankfully, everything turned out well.

How did your work contribute to the employees’ safety, namely those who returned to the premises?

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it became necessary to protect all employees and myself. This led to a never-ending search for hygiene products, hand sanitiser and all the necessary PPE i.e. masks, gloves and gowns.

We made countless contacts to make sure companies delivered everything on time. Now, we have all kinds of hygiene products available. Employees can ask for them at the reception, thus ensuring we are all protected and safe inside the facilities.

How do you comment on this nomination?

My tasks at the SGI went beyond what I usually do, since I had to support daily procedures that did not stop. Orders arrived every day, since many people kept working, even during the lockdown. Therefore, it became necessary to leave many equipment and materials in the laboratories, so that whoever was working there had the necessary resources to carry out their projects.

My collaboration with the colleagues from the Accounting and Finance Service (CF) was also very important, particularly with those responsible for acquisitions. We communicated on a daily basis, in order to make sure that nothing was missing.

I can’t help but thank everyone for giving their best while collaborating with me during my day-to-day tasks.

I was quite surprised with this nomination, since I always did my job with pride, in order to help the institution – to which I’m grateful!

Thank you.

José Paulos (CPES)

“José Paulos dedicated himself to the Long_forecasting project (client: ENTSO-E) in an exemplary way, from the start of the project to the final stages. He was involved in the majority of tasks, and he was primarily responsible for the implementation of the project, besides his contribution to the research and the dissemination of results. José Paulos’ endless readiness and commitment to the project led to a clearly exceptional performance, due to the quality of his work and his undoubtedly decisive contributions”.

–  José Nuno Fidalgo, coordinator of the Long_forecasting project

– The Coordination of the Centre for Power and Energy Systems (CPES)

Briefly describe your participation in the design of the project.

The development of the Long Forecasting project followed the strategic partnership with ENSTO-E (European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity), established to apply for a call for proposals; fortunately, INESC TEC was the winner. This initiative is particularly relevant, since it enables the adjustment of European long-term load forecasting models. The project started after a few months of negotiation, and I began participating in May 2020. This project entails a lot of responsibility, and it is very demanding, particularly in terms of thoroughness and organisation – not only due to very tight deadlines (8 weeks), but also due to the need for constant and refined control of results and documentation.

The project relies on a small yet incredible team with four employees: Professor João Nuno Fidalgo, in charge of coordinating the team, Filipe Azevedo, Miguel Ribeiro and myself. My role focused on the development and research of load forecasting models using GRNN (Generalized Regression Neural Networks), as well as the development of a fully automated long-term forecasting platform. Even though everyone divided the tasks, we concluded the majority after discussing, suggesting and exchanging ideas, thus improving the team’s performance.

What are the main challenges in designing proposals? How did you overcame them?

The execution of this project, although involving a vast number of positive grounds, was always camouflaged and delayed by the circumstances and difficulties caused by the COVID-19. In this specific case, we had to start all tasks remotely, including internal meetings, the presentation and discussion of results and the editing of documents. Despite being unaware of this inelastic income disturbance during the early stage of adaptation, the entire team was brilliant in addressing all challenges, namely with digital communication and work tools.

So what further progress can we expect?

Besides my confidence in the completion of the projects underway, and other tasks or institutional challenges that may occur at INESC TEC over the future, I’d also point out the importance of completing my master’s degree thesis (MADSAD), which I hope to achieve in the upcoming months. I’m writing my thesis as part of the Master in Modelling, Data Analysis and Decision Support Systems, at FEP, in partnership with INESC TEC. The thesis focuses on the non-intrusive monitoring of loads for the unbundled detection of domestic energy.

How do you comment on this nomination?

I am very happy with the nomination, but I must express my gratitude to the teams with whom I have worked, and for all the job opportunities that they have proposed. I would also like to congratulate SCOM for the excellent work in developing this section of BIP INESC TEC Magazine, which allows us to get to know a little bit more about some of our colleagues from different centres, and their respective projects.