معرفی
Professor Lieve Helsen is a Full Professor at KU Leuven's Department of Mechanical Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering Science. She serves as head of the Subdivision EnergyVille TME and is a member of the EnergyVille Division and KIEM – KU Leuven Institute for Energy and Society. Professor Helsen leads the Thermal Systems Simulation (The SySi) research group, which focuses on sustainable thermal systems integration in the built environment.
Her research interests center on energy system integration, sustainable thermal system concepts, demand response flexibility, robust model predictive control, and physics-based data-enriched modeling (zebra-box models). The SySi team investigates how to optimally integrate thermal systems across multiple energy vectors and sectors to sustainably use resources in the built environment.
Analysis of Professor Helsen's recent publications reveals a strong focus on district energy systems, particularly fourth and fifth generation district heating and cooling networks. Her work emphasizes model predictive control strategies, uncertainty quantification, and the integration of renewable energy sources. There's a clear trend toward system-of-systems approaches that consider interactions between buildings, districts, and the broader energy system.
- Best Poster Award - Carnot 2024, Belgian Symposium of Thermodynamics
- IFAC Foundation Kwon Award Nomination - 2023
- Finalists Febeliec Energy Award - 2023
- Joule Award Organisatie Duurzame Energie (ODE) - 2022
- Best Paper Award Journal of Building Performance Simulation - 2021
- Nominated Member of Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (KVAB)
Professor Helsen actively supervises numerous PhD students working on topics including positive energy districts, multi-energy vector districts, and model predictive control in buildings. She leads multiple major research projects (2022-2028) focused on energy system integration, decarbonization of heating and cooling systems, and optimization of thermal networks. Her work has strong industry connections through EnergyVille, Eurelco, and other industry networks.
The SySi team operates within the Applied Mechanics and Energy Conversion research unit at KU Leuven, with strong ties to EnergyVille, a collaboration between KU Leuven, VITO, imec, and UHasselt. The team develops multiple in-house tools including IDEAS (a Modelica library), IDEAS TACO (for automated control), and GHEtool (for geothermal borefield sizing), demonstrating their commitment to translating research into practical applications.
