Interdisciplinary and Social Nature of Engineering Practices Philosophy, Examples and Approaches

A . C. Zambroni de Souza  holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (1987), a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (1990) and a PhD in Electrical Engineering - University of Waterloo Canada (1995). He is currently a full professor at the Federal University of Itajubá.He was a Visiting Professor (CAPES Scholarship) at the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2000. In 2008 he was with the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. He acts in the area of stability of electrical systems, with special emphasis on the topic of voltage stability in transmission and distribution systems. As sub-topics, it works on voltage control and reactive power and analysis of electrical losses. Nowadays, his focus is on smart grids and smart cities, which includes the social effects of technologies. He is associate editor of the Journal of Control, Automation & Electrical Systems. Since 2015 he has been an Associate Editor of the Renewable Power Generation (IET-RPG) and of the IET Power Electronics, both under the coordination of The Institution of Engineering and Technology in the United Kingdom. He has served as a reviewer in national and international magazines and conferences. He is Fellow Member of the "IET - The Institution of Engineering and Technology", and has edited a book with Springer on “Microgrids Design”.

P.F. Ribeiro, holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Pernambuco (1975), Diploma in Power Engineering from Power Technologies Inc., (PTI) 1979, Schenectady, New York, USA, PhD in Electrical Engineering - University of Manchester (1985), MBA from Lynchburg College, Virginia, USA (2000). He is currently a Full Professor at the Federal University of Itajubá, Itajubá, MG Brazil and was an Associate Professor at Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and also taught at Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Va., Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Professor Ribeiro was a Faculty Fellow at the NASA Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, worked as a researcher at EPRI, Palo Alto, California, and served as an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Professor Ribeiro is an IEEE Fellow, IET Fellow and Registered, PE in the State of Iowa, USA. His research interests include power systems, power electronics and power quality engineering, transmission systems, and superconducting magnetic energy storage systems, smart grids, engineering education and philosophy of technology. He is active with CIGRE, IEEE, and IEC Working Groups. He has published over 350 papers, several book chapters and four books.