After more than three years as Assistant Professor for "Internet of Things for Smart Buildings" at Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF) and Technische Universität Berlin, Prof. Dr. Sergio Lucia is taking the next step in his career. He has accepted the call of Technische Universität Dortmund and will take over the chair "Process Automation Systems" on October 1, 2020. The time in Berlin was very formative for him and his research. "The ECDF gave me the opportunity to make the transition from a young scientist to a completely independent junior professor - and that in the great research landscape of Berlin," he says.

Of particular importance for Sergio Lucia is the interdisciplinary research approach at the ECDF. As an engineer, he was able to combine different areas of engineering sciences with mathematics and machine learning, among others. "In one research project, we were thus able to create digital twins of buildings that are capable, for example, of accurately predicting energy consumption and calculating intelligent strategies for reducing energy consumption or CO2 emissions while maintaining the same level of comfort," explains Sergio Lucia. The involvement of civil society is also important to him. "For our developments to work in practice, citizens must be involved in the design and use of such ideas. The project is a clear example of how interdisciplinary research can have a positive impact on society," he says.

Events play an important role in this exchange between science and society. "When I think back to my time at ECDF, the many events come to mind - be it the big Climathon, the Science Match with more than 1000 participants, the Long Night of Science or the workshops and conferences at ECDF," he said.

For ECDF's CEO Prof. Dr. Odej Kao, the TU Dortmund University's call on Sergio Lucia is a great confirmation. "We have been bringing the best minds in digitization research to the ECDF in Berlin since 2017. We give the young scientists freedom to develop their ideas for researching, designing and implementing digitization. Sergio Lucia has always lived this spirit and has been a great asset to the ECDF," he says.

The interdisciplinary digitization research at the ECDF is made possible by a large public-private partnership (PPP) consisting of more than 30 companies and organizations, all four Berlin universities, the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the State of Berlin and more than ten research institutes from the Berlin scientific community. The professorship "Internet of Things for Smart Buildings" is co-financed by Viessmann. "We are very pleased that the successful scientific work of Prof. Dr. Sergio Lucia is confirmed by his appointment to the TU Dortmund University and wish him continued success," says Prof. Dr. Markus Pfuhl, CDO of the Viessmann Group. The company will continue its cooperation with the ECDF. "The ECDF is a very valuable partner for us in the great knowledge landscape of Berlin, so we will continue to support research in the future," he says.

Sergio Lucia is now looking forward to his start as a W2 professor with tenure track on W3 at the TU Dortmund University, "I can build a larger team of researchers with long-term research goals there. My research group will research at the interface between control engineering, numerical optimization, machine learning and other digitization strategies to enable the sustainable and efficient processes of the future," he says. As an associate member, Sergio Lucia remains associated with the ECDF. And anyone who would like to continue to meet the scientist in Berlin can go on a search in the Futurium. In the "Technology" think tank, Sergio Lucia can be found as a virtual person in the section "The Invisible City".