Ana Santasheva is a researcher passionate about creating practical solutions to make the energy transition secure, decentralized, and resilient. For her undergrad, she studied Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. After that, Santasheva moved to the Bay Area and spent five years working as a senior software engineer at Coinbase. Now, she is finishing her master’s degree at UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, where she focuses on integrating distributed energy resources (DERs) and residential electrification. Santasheva has built tools like household electrification calculators and interactive maps that help policymakers and utilities figure out how best to navigate the shift to renewable and distributed energy.
Her research interests include creating scalable grid models for the distribution grid to boost renewable energy adoption, and designing cooperative frameworks for governing decentralized energy resources. Santasheva is using techniques like optimization, machine learning, game theory, and distributed control to address both the technical and human sides of renewable energy integration. She hopes to research and build tools that communities and utilities can easily use in service of a more resilient and abundant energy future!
Santasheva is Canadian, and was born in Belarus! She also used to be a professional DJ. Don’t ask her about it.
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