Expert working group

Lucy Yu

CEO, Centre for Net Zero (Octopus)

Group Chair

Lucy Yu is CEO at Centre for Net Zero, Octopus Energy Group’s AI and data-driven research institute focused on advancing tech-driven energy systems that benefit humanity, and pioneering the development and use of synthetic energy data. She has 20 years of experience building and scaling global consumer-facing and deeptech ventures in artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles and future mobility, climate and clean energy; and developing tech policy and regulation for the UK government, European Commission, and the UN. 

She is a non-executive director at Connected Places Catapult and E3G, co-founder of the Institute for Ethical AI & Machine Learning, and advisor to startups, scale-ups, and innovation led organisations. She studied computational and physical chemistry at Imperial College, and public leadership at Harvard Kennedy School.

Pippa Robertson

Head of AI Policy, Ofgem

Theme Lead 1 - AI for Decarbonisation Policy and Regulation Alignment

Pippa is leading the drive to define regulatory science guidance for the responsible and innovative use of AI within the Energy sector, in response to a growing use of AI in this sector, and its huge capability to create efficiencies now, and in future. AI is a UK top 5 Growth Technology – and can be harnessed to create a better energy deal for consumers, ensure market competition, and reach Net Zero goals through modernised energy infrastructure and a renewables-led energy sector. 

Pippa is working with a great team, and collaboratively across regulators, government, academia, tech, and with consumers, to define guidance in line with the UK’s Growth Strategy and the UK’s Pro Innovation Approach to AI Principles.

Chioma Rita
Udeozor

Innovate UK Project Lead - Circular Economy, NEPIC

Theme Lead 2 - Unlocking and Enabling Investment and Innovation

Chioma is currently working as the Project Lead for Circular Economy (an Innovate UK project) at the North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC). Her work primarily focuses on developing a roadmap for sustainable olefins production on Teesside, and ultimately the decarbonisation of the Teesside industry cluster.

Before joining NEPIC, Chioma worked on an EU H2020 project on immersive technologies for chemical engineering training. She gained a PhD in chemical engineering from Newcastle University and a master’s degree in operations and supply chain management from the University of Liverpool. She also completed an AI for Business program at MIT.

Chioma is a member of the board of the Early Career Section of the European Federation of Chemical Engineers. She is also a member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE). Chioma’s interests include sustainable manufacturing, circular economy, digitalisation, and industry 4.0.

Simon Hart

Lead for Cyber Physical Infrastructure, Innovate UK

Theme Lead 3 - Data Accessibility and Capability

Simon is Head of Digital Twin and Cyber Physical Infrastructure at Innovate UK, the UK Government’s Innovation Agency.

Simon’s career started in systems engineering before moving into business development, sales and consultancy. Simon’s expertise is in helping new sectors to thrive by enabling collaboration between startups and industry.

At Innovate UK, he ran the Built Environment Innovation programme and led the development of Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB) with the Government BIM Task Group. More recently he co-founded the Transforming Construction ISCF programme before moving to Digital Twins and Cyber Physical Infrastructure in 2021. Prior to joining Innovate UK, Simon led the Connectivity Practice at Altran (Capgemini) following 10 years in the Automotive Electronics sector. Simon is a regular speaker on the London Tech scene and is happiest when fixing cars, boats or houses.

Graham Faiz

Head of Digital Energy, DNV

Graham is the Head of Digital Energy for DNV within the United Kingdom and Ireland. He is a Chartered Engineer with a specific focus on the energy, utilities and technology verticals. 

He has been responsible for the leadership of flagship industry digitalisation projects, holding project manager, sponsor and director roles. Graham is Chartered with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and is a Fellow of the BCS – the Chartered Institute for IT.

Parita Gupta

Senior Commercial Manager, Orsted

Parita joined Asset Management in Ørsted in 2021 as a Commercial Manager bringing a range of multi-sector experience. She is passionate about Ørsted’s position as a renewable energy company that takes tangible action to create a world that runs entirely on green energy. Her main focus is on Lifetime Extension exploring its feasibility from a technical, sustainable financial and regulatory perspective, and working on overcoming the obstacles to achieve Lifetime Extension for the UK offshore wind fleet. 

She is dedicated to driving opportunities to develop a smart, sustainable and efficient offshore wind sector collaborating with an expansive group of stakeholders internally and externally.

Sherif Elsayed-Ali

Co-founder, Nexus Climate VC

Sherif Elsayed-Ali is co-founder of Nexus Climate, a climate innovation platform company working to enable and scale decarbonization solutions, including a number of AI initiatives. Sherif previously co-founded and served as CEO of Carbon Re, an AI for materials company pushing the boundaries of AI to accelerate the decarbonization of foundational materials such as cement. Prior to this, he set up and led the AI for Climate practice at Element AI, was co-founder and director of Amnesty Tech, a World Economic Forum Global Future Council co-chair and a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.

Sherif has a BSc degree in Civil Engineering from the American University in Cairo and a Masters degree in Public Administration from Harvard.

Peter Dudfield

Head of Technology, Open Climate Fix

Dr Peter Dudfield holds a PhD in fluid dynamics from the University of Cambridge. He has a passion for working with cutting-edge technologies to help fight climate change. 

Before working at Open Climate Fix, Peter worked with Habitat Energy and helped set up the largest UK battery optimisation portfolio. Peter also worked in the wind power sector with Siemens Gamesa, developing image recognition technology for damaged wind turbine blades. He has cycled around the world and likes getting the job done.

Oliver Parson

Principle Data Scientist, National Grid

Oliver is currently employed as a Principal Data Scientist at National Grid. Prior to this, he took a career break to travel the world, carbon neutral. From 2019-2022, Oliver was a Staff Data Scientist at Bulb, where he joined Bulb’s mission to lower energy bills and carbon emissions. From 2016-2019, Oliver worked as a data scientist at Hive, where he developed products to help energy customers understand their smart meter data, detect water leaks in their homes, and look after their elderly relatives. 

From 2010-2015, Oliver completed a two year post-doctoral research fellowship and PhD at the University of Southampton. During this time, he published a number of papers which have been cited thousands of times and achieved an h-index of 14. Oliver also has one patent granted, and have a further 3 patent applications filed.

Matias Acosta

CEO, CosySense

Matias is a social entrepreneur and thought leader. He led 100+ people teams, managed $1M+, and published 50+ articles, and 8 UN sustainability reports cited 4,000+ times. In 2022, Matias cofounded Cosysense, a cleantech using sensors and AI to make air conditioning in commercial buildings smarter, cutting clients’ costs and emissions while boosting comfort with zero upfront costs. Previously, Matias founded Shaping Horizons, a social edtech that upskills young people on how to build impact ventures across Latin America. Matias was appointed UNDP’s Accelerator Lab Head of Exploration to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. He also worked as an academic at the Technical University of Darmstadt and Cambridge University on new materials for the internet of things and clean energy devices.

Matias studied materials engineering at Instituto Sabato, Argentina. He did a postgraduate study on policy and management at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences and a PhD on materials for internet of things at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

Buffy Price

COO, Carbon Re

Buffy is a co-founder and COO of Carbon Re. She wears many hats in this role including MarComm, Policy, Legal and HR. 

Formerly the AI for Climate Partnerships Manager at Element AI and Senior Advisor at Amnesty International, Buffy has extensive experience in change management, organisational development and project management

Georgios Rigas

Senior Lecturer, Imperial College London

Georgios is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Aeronautics at Imperial College London. Before joining IC in 2019, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar at Caltech and the University of Cambridge. Georgios received a Ph.D. in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College in 2015.

His research is at the interface of digital modelling and optimisation of complex energy and transport systems through applied artificial intelligence. Georgios is particularly interested in the development and real-time implementation of dynamic decision making algorithms to control turbulence in state-of-the-art wind-tunnel experiments. Currently, Georgios is leading the AI for Net Zero effort at Imperial College to increase the energy efficiency of energy and transport systems.

Lydon Ruff

AI Centre of Excellence Manager, NESO

Lyndon Ruff is an experienced data science leader in the energy industry, leading cross-functional teams, driving innovation and operational excellence. 

As AI Centre of Excellence manager within ESO his role is pivotal in shaping the AI landscape, with a focus on strategic deployment and fostering a culture of continuous learning, which is key to successful integration and adoption of AI.

Maria Sharmina 

Professor in Energy and Sustainability, University of Manchester

Maria Sharmina is Professor in Energy and Sustainability at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the School of Engineering, at the University of Manchester. 

Maria is a member of the Strategic Advisory Team for the EPSRC’s Digital Security & Resilience Theme. She served as Senior Academic Advisor with the Government Office for Science and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), working on the Net Zero Foresight project from 2021–2023.

Yupeng (Jack) Wu

Chair in Building Physics, University of Nottingham

Professor Yupeng (Jack) Wu is a Chair in Building Physics at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, the University of Nottingham. Jack has been working on building energy simulation and integration of renewable energy systems into buildings and built environments over the past 18 years. He has supervised over 10 PhD students and managed postdoctoral researchers.

Jack has worked on and led funded research projects with a total value in excess of £10m, exploring energy efficient technologies, solar energy, and advanced solar building facades. Currently Jack is leading a £1.6m EPSRC research project ‘Advanced building façade design for optimal delivery of end use energy demand’ (EP/S030786/1). Jack serves as subject Editor in Low Energy Architecture and Buildings for the journal of ‘Renewable Energy’. He is a full member of the EPSRC peer reviewer college and is also reviewer for European, Canadian and US funding agencies.