University of Cagliari
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Last update, March 2024.
Sara Sulis is Full Professor of Electrical and Electronic Measurements with the Instrumentation and Measurement Group at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in the University of Cagliari, Italy.
She was an Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor with the same Group. In March 2006, Dr Sulis was awarded a PhD degree in Industrial Engineering by the University of Cagliari, after completing a M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering.
She is Vice-Coordinator and Referent for the Quality of the PhD Program in Industrial Engineering of UniCa. She is “University Representative” in the collaboration agreement “Academic and Scientific Exchange and Cooperation between UniCa and the Forschungszentrum Jülich Gmbh, Germany”
She is Associate Editor IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, TIM, (ISSN 0018-9456); Secretary of TC39 “Measurements in Power Systems”, selected as the recipient of the 2016 Outstanding TC Award for the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society; She is a Member of Section Editorial Board, “F: Electrical Engineering”, Energies (ISSN 1996-1073).
She is a Member of the Italian CEI CT38 “Instrument transformers” and of the WG47 of the IEC TC38 “Instrument transformers”. She is a member of IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, of the “Associazione Italiana Gruppo Misure Elettriche ed Elettroniche”, GMEE, and of the Didactic Commission of the GMEE.
Her research activity focuses on Power Quality issues, i.e. any deviations of voltage and current characteristics from sinusoidal, symmetrical conditions and nominal frequency, in power systems with special attention to harmonic pollution. Over the years, she has worked on the metrological qualification of the measurement processes involved in the above topics and she proposed a numerical approach based on a Monte Carlo probabilistic method as an advantageous alternative to the traditional analytical methods for the evaluation of the uncertainty in measurements obtained by digitally processing sampled input data. In recent years, the research work has focused on distributed measurement systems applied to electric distribution grids and designed to study reliable methodologies to perform both the state estimation and harmonic sources estimation of the network.
Author and co-author of more than 140 scientific papers, she has published on international journals (IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Measurement, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Energies, COMPEL, EPQU) and on Proceedings of International Conferences sponsored by IEEE Societies and IMEKO. She is a reviewer for international journals and for international conferences, in particular, IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC) and IEEE International Workshop on Applied Measurements for Power Systems (AMPS). She was an “Outstanding reviewer of 2014” of the Instrumentation and Measurement Society for the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.
Co-author of “Fault Identification in Three-Phase Distribution Networks Improved by Line Parameter Estimation” recognized as a “Best Student Paper” during the IEEE AMPS 2023, Bern, Switzerland; of “Compensation of Systematic Measurement Errors in PMU-Based Monitoring Systems for Transmission Grids” recognized as a “Best Student Contest Paper” – Runner Up (2nd Place) during the IEEE I2MTC 2021. The conference was held virtually, in May 2021.
In 2020, in the celebrations for the 70 years of the journal, Dr. Sulis has been recognized by TIM as co-author of two articles among the “Top 70 most-cited articles published in the past 7 years” and awarded as one of the “Top 70 Most published authors in the past 7 years”. She received the Faculty Course Development Award, funded by the Instrumentation and Measurement Society, for the course “Sistemi Automatici di Misura”, in 2013.
Main research projects
2023 – present: Principal Investigator (PI) of the project PRIN PNRR 2022 “Next quantum-based traceability and new accuracy description for synchronized multifrequency phasor measurements in modern distribution grids”, QuantAGrid, funded by Italian Ministry of University and Research, MUR.
2020 – present: Responsible for the design and development of the data acquisition system of the “Spirulina NOA” project, funded by the Region of Sardinia, RAS.
2019 – present: L2 Manager of the Working Group “Slow Control” aimed at the realization of the DArT experiment in ArDM at the underground laboratory Canfranc (LSC, Canfranc, Spain) and part of the DarkSide and Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration.
2019 – present: Deputy Leader of the Working Group dedicated to the creation and management of the Slow Control system of the ARIA project, funded by RAS, Regional Programming Center L.R. 7/2007, for the experimentation of a cryogenic distillation tower to produce enriched stable isotopes.
2018 – 21. PI of the project “Sistemi Efficienti ed affidabili per il Monitoraggio e la gestione Intelligente dell'energia Elettrica, SEMI” funded by RAS, “POR Sardegna FESR 2014/2020 - Asse Prioritario I, Ricerca Scientifica, Sviluppo Tecnologico e Innovazione”.
(2019-) Member of the Project “ARIA” funded by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, RAS, Centro Regionale di Programmazione L.R. 7/2007. Information available here
(2019-2021) Member of the Project “Spirulina del Sulcis“, funded by the Region of Sardinia.
(2015) Member of the Project funded by Terna SpA, the italian Transmission System Operator. Issue: Support for PMU data analysis and models for the compensation of measurement errors.
(2012) Member of the Research Group in the research contract between E.On Research Center RWTH Aachen University and DIEE: “Analysis of a PV plant in Italy, identification of causes for under-performance and of corrective measures”.
(2008-11) Member of the Project PRIN 2008, funded by Italian Ministry of University: “Methods, architectures and devices with metrology validation for monitoring complex electric systems under reliability and robustness assurance”.
Project of the Research Unit of Cagliari: “Robustness of distributed measurement methods and systems for monitoring, control, management and protection of electric power networks”.
(2006-08) Member of the Project PRIN 2006: “Monitoring electric power distribution systems in a deregulated market scenario: metrological design and development of measurement architectures capable of ensuring result reliability”.
Project of the Research Unit of Cagliari: “Distributed measurement systems for the monitoring of electric distribution networks: design, setting-up, metrological characterization and optimal placement of the measurement stations”.
(2004-06) Member of the Project PRIN 2004: “Innovative methodologies and processes for information quality management in sensor networks”.
Project of the Research Unit of Cagliari: “Sensor networks for the monitoring and management of electric networks in the presence of distributed generation by renewable energy sources”.
Teaching (Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari)
Since academic year 2020-2021: together with Prof. Muscas, "Measurements for electrical energy", 90 hours, master's degree in Electrical Engineering.
Since academic year 2015-2016: “Measurements on Power Systems“, 60 hours for “Laurea” (bachelor’s degree) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Since academic year 2011-2015: LabVIEW, 20 hours.
2016, 2020 – Ph.D. School in Industrial Engineering – “Sistemi di acquisizione dati e strumentazione virtuale”, 20 hours.
Academic years 2011-2015: Automatic Measurement Systems, 60 hours for “Laurea Magistrale” (Master’s degree) in Electronic Engineering;
Academic years 2008-2011: Virtual Instrumentation, 40 hours curriculum in Electronic Engineering;
Academic years 2006-2011: Complements of Electrical Measurements, 30 hours for “laurea” (bachelor’s degree) in Electronic Engineering;