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Short Bio
Sérgio Pequito is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa. He coordinates the Evolutionary Systems and Biomedical Engineering Lab (LaSEEB) at the Institute for Systems and Robotics, where he also serves on the Scientific Council, and serves as DEEC’s Vice President for Research, Development and External Relations.
His research addresses the foundations of networked and decentralized control, discrete-time fractional-order and cyber-neural systems, and distributed optimization with privacy and resilience guarantees. He connects system architecture, information and memory with questions of controllability, observability, stability and computational complexity, with applications in engineering, neuroscience and biomedicine.
He contributes to faculty development and AI-supported higher education in coordination with Técnico’s Núcleo de Desenvolvimento Académico and Pedagogical Council. His teaching and training activity includes the preparation of doctoral students for teaching and faculty-development programmes across several institutions.
He is an IEEE Senior Member and a recipient of the 2016 O. Hugo Schuck Award in the Theory Category and the José Tribolet Award for Digital Innovation in Teaching in 2026.
Academic Background
2014
Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Dual Degree)
Carnegie Mellon University &
Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon
Dissertation title: A Structural Approach to Design, Analysis and Optimization of Large-Scale Dynamical Systems
[summary]
2009
M.Sc. in Applied Mathematics (Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems)
Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon
Master Thesis title: The Entropy Penalized Minimum Energy Estimator
2007
B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics and Computation
Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon
Final project title:
The perceptron: from neural models to their computability
Professional Experience
April
2024
-
present
Principal Investigator
Evolutionary Systems and Biomedical Engineering Lab
Institute for System and Robotics, Lisbon
April
2024
-
present
Associate Professor
Instituto Superior Técnico
University of Lisbon
June
2023
-
March
2024
Associate Professor of Automatic Control, with docent
Section of Systems and Control
Department of Information Technology
Uppsala University
Uppsala, SE
July
2022
-
May
2023
Associate Professor of Automatic Control
Section of Systems and Control
Department of Information Technology
Uppsala University
Uppsala, SE
July
2020
-
June 2022
Assistant Professor
Delft Center for Systems and Control
Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering faculty
Delft University of Technology
Delft, NL
Aug
2017
-
June
2020
Assistant Professor
Industrial and Systems Engineering Department
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY, USA
Aug
2014
-
July
2017
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Pennsylvania
General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception Laboratory
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Fev
2009
-
Sept
2009
Trainee
European Space Agency
Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) systems group
European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC)
Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Fev
2008
-
Jan
2009
Young Researcher
Institute for System and Robotics
Dynamical System and Ocean Robotics LAB
Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon
Leadership and Governance
Coordinator, Evolutionary Systems and Biomedical Engineering Lab (LaSEEB)
Institute for Systems and Robotics, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa
October 1, 2026–present
Member of the Scientific Council, Institute for Systems and Robotics
Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa
October 1, 2026–present; as part of the LaSEEB coordinatorship
Vice President for Research, Development and External Relations
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico
January 2025–present
Member of the Executive Commission, Mind–Brain College
Universidade de Lisboa
January 2025–present
Academic Awards and Honors
José Tribolet Award for Digital Innovation in Teaching, powered by Deloitte, 2026
Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences 100 List 2023 for conducting influential research with a significant utilization impact in the industry sector, 2023
European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLiS) Research Scholar, 2023
Guest Editor of the Invited Section on ``Neurotechnologies and closed-loop control of neurodynamics" in Annual Reviews in Control, 2021
Guest Editor in Frontiers in Physiology Fractal and Network Physiology, Special issue on Inference, Causality and Control in Networks of Dynamical Systems: Data Science and Modeling Perspectives to Network Physiology with Implications for Artificial Intelligence, 2020
Senior Member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2019
Trustees Faculty Achievement, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2018, 2019
PLoS One Academic Editor, 2018 - 2023
American Automatic Control Council, O. Hugo Schuck Award (Theory Category), 2016
European Embedded Control Institute (EECI), European PhD Award on Control for Complex and Heterogeneous Systems (finalist), 2016
Phi Kappa Phi, Love of Learning Award, 2012
Electrical & Computer Engineering Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, Carnegie Mellon University, 2012
Carnegie Mellon University Graduate Teaching Award (university-wide) [Honorable Mention], 2012
Phi Kappa Phi member (Carnegie Mellon Chapter), 2012
Best student paper award finalist at 48th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2009
Second prize for the best students of the Technical University of Lisbon, 2009: Distinguishes 20 students of the Technical University of Lisbon (now, University of Lisbon), from which only 8 are from the School of Engineering (Instituto Superior Tecnico), who have excelled in the context of their overall training: it stressed the strands scientific, academic, cultural and civic life
CLUSTER prize, 2009: Three prizes are awarded annually during the Consortium Linking Universities of Science and Technology for Education and Research (CLUSTER) general assembly to reward a mobility from a CLUSTER institution to another CLUSTER institution that must have occurred during the previous or the current academic year for at least one year. Criteria comprises the following: Academic excellence and contribution to student community for internationalization within CLUSTER
Professional Service
Chair, IEEE Control Systems Society Technical Committee on Healthcare and Medical Systems — January 2024–December 2026.
Associate Editor for Invited Sessions, American Control Conference 2026.
Member of the International Program Committee, CONTROLO 2026 — Coimbra, Portugal, September 9–11, 2026.
Publicity Chair, European Control Conference 2028 — Rimini, Italy.
Organising the participation of the Technical Committee on Healthcare and Medical Systems in IEEE Control Systems Society Day — October 23, 2026 (scheduled).
Jury member for the Universidade de Lisboa pedagogical innovation prize and pedagogical innovation projects — 2025 and 2026 editions.
Jury member for the Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa pedagogical innovation prize and pedagogical innovation projects — 2026 edition.
Active reviewer for journals and conferences in control, dynamical systems, optimization and related fields.
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