- The director of this chair of Innovation and Energy Efficiency is a specialist in robotics, control engineering and artificial intelligence
The professor of Systems Engineering and Automation at the University of La Laguna (ULL), Leopoldo Acosta, has been appointed as new director of the Fundación Cepsa Chair of Innovation and Energy Efficiency at the University of La Laguna.
Leopoldo Acosta, whose deputy as chair director is Francisco Ramos, has an excellent CV. His research has focused mainly on robotics, control engineering and artificial intelligence applied to these two disciplines.
One of Acosta's objectives is to boost this recently-created chair, which this year will have its first anniversary, by promoting research, training, scientific disclosure, the transfer of knowledge, and innovation in the energy field.
His work at the helm of this scientific and educational initiative is directed at the development and management of a broad program of activities intended to boost research actions in response to real needs of the business world.
The Chair's activities will be focused on actions to foster the development of technologies that contribute to a more sustainable society. This will be done through final degree projects and dissertations, seminars, conferences, scholarships and grants, among other actions.
Leopoldo Acosta will also work to strengthen collaborative education and raise awareness of Cepsa among the students of the University of La Laguna, fostering knowledge and bringing the students closer to the world of work and the current industrial reality.
The Fundación Cepsa Chair aspires to become a reference model for relations between private enterprise and academia, building bridges between society and the University. Prior to the creation of the Chair, Cepsa and ULL had already been collaborating for decades on research projects shared between the two institutions since the opening of the refinery in 1930 in the Tenerife capital, the event that represented the origin of the Company itself. In all this time, many graduates of this University have worked or are working in the business, both at its facilities in the Canary Islands and at other national and international locations.
The Fundación Cepsa Chair at the University of La Laguna is added to those already existing in collaboration with the universities of Madrid, Huelva, Seville and Cádiz.
A glittering career
Leopoldo Acosta obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Physics in 1988 at the University of La Laguna and won the special graduation award. He is currently Director of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology.
The professor has been principal researcher for six projects of the National R&D Plan and has participated in numerous research and development projects and agreements.
In parallel, he has been member and chair of the Advisory Committee on Communication, Computing and Electronics of the National Commission for the Evaluation of Research Activity, and has participated as author or co-author on more than a hundred papers in international journals and congresses in the fields of Robotics and Automation.
During his professional career he has held various management posts at the University of La Laguna, as director of the Faculty of Computer Engineering, Vice-Rector of Information and Communication Technologies, Director of the Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, and Director of the Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering.