Team Q&A: Ioannis Marios Granitsas – Data Science Intern

For our Data Science intern Giannis Granitsas, finding opportunities to help his community can be as big as his dedication to advancing distributed energy resource (DER) research to finding eating less meat to minimize carbon emissions from farming. Join us in welcoming Giannis Granitsas to the Virtual Peaker team!

How did your previous life prepare you for Virtual Peaker?

At an early stage of my undergraduate studies in electrical engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), I became fascinated by the vast complexity of the electric grid. Through my course work, I became familiar with the core principles of power systems; our existing energy management paradigm isn’t suitable for the dramatic influx of renewable energy technologies coming in the future.

Because I’m eager to explore potential solutions to that problem, I decided to become a research assistant at the Laboratory of Electric Power Systems at NTUA. I devoted my time there to exploring the effect of wind stochasticity on the ability of wind farms to support the grid. This experience was quite transformative and inspired me to pursue a Ph.D. in the field.

I’m currently a 4th year Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan. My research there explores the development of modeling, estimation, and control approaches for distributed energy resources (DERs) as a tool to reduce the environmental footprint of electric power systems. More specifically, I’m interested in how large amounts of such devices can be coordinated to provide grid services, such as frequency regulation.

Tell us about your role at Virtual Peaker.

I am a Data Science intern with the R&D team at Virtual Peaker. My role entails developing advanced control and estimation approaches for distributed energy resources such as batteries and air conditioners. More specifically, I am working on methods of aggregating data from large amounts of such devices, prototyping algorithms that alleviate the technical challenges that can arise in practice, and also developing forecasting models. I’m very excited to get the chance to use my research-oriented background in a more applied environment and contribute to Virtual Peaker’s vision.

How do you personally engage in sustainability efforts?

In our household, we try to reduce our overall footprint by carefully planning our weekly groceries and cooking to avoid throwing out any food. We try to minimize the amount of waste we produce by taking advantage of the recycling and composting resources in the area, while at the same time prioritizing reusable items. In the last couple of years, we’ve been trying to reduce our consumption of animal-based products like beef due to their huge environmental footprint.

What can you tell us about yourself?

I’m quite physically active and enjoy playing soccer or basketball whenever I can. I love walking/jogging in nature, especially during the non-winter months (Michigan winters are tough!). During the summer months, I love going back to Greece and spending time on the boat, looking for cool places to swim. Whenever I cannot be outside, I enjoy watching sports, playing video games, and watching tech videos for anything from phones to PCs, even though I am one of those people who wait for things to stop being functional to buy something new.