Farideh Ghanavati's journey began with a Bachelor's in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (2004-2008). She was introduced to Marketing and Consumer Behavior principles. As a member of her university’s Student Association, she participated in various national meetings and seminars, which helped Farideh develop her argumentative skills (engaging in debates), proactivity, initiative, and social skills like cooperation, empathy, and oral communication. Given her interest in studying Human Behavior, she pursued her Master's in Business Administration, focusing on Strategic Management (2011-2014). She successfully passed diverse courses in Financial Management, Economics, Operational Research, and Consumer Behavior Assessment. The knowledge gained has been valuable in understanding the psychological mechanisms that underlie Human Behavior topics. Farideh excelled in her coursework, achieving a final GPA of 17.02, with high marks in International Business, Behavior Analysis, and Managerial Economics. From 2015 to 2019, she had the privilege of serving as a Teaching/Research Assistant at Islamic Azad University, where Farideh delved into a myriad of enriching experiences and research endeavors. These experiences led Farideh to pursue a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Management (University of Aveiro), focusing on developing Decision Support System Tools for Automated Energy Systems. She is doing her research to leverage consumer engagement to actively participate in Smart Cities through Sustainable Energy Resources. Farideh has professional experience in Smart Energy Systems and Smart Grids, having worked on several nationally funded projects as an outstanding researcher. She also demonstrated her high-quality research work in 9 papers, including 4 conference papers and 5 journal articles. Among them, one First Author Q1 Journal in Sustainable Cities and Society (IF: 11.7), 2 papers in IEEE ACCESS, a Q2 Journal, and one Q3 Journal in IETE published by Taylor and Francis. For her Ph.D., Farideh achieved top scores in all courses, with an overall GPA of 18.33 over 36 ECTS. She has been working on her thesis topic, attending several seminars and Summit events (2022-2023), receiving an award for Smart Thinking in Industry 4.0 from OpenInnoTrain, an H2020 Funded Project, as well as participating in several Workshops in Artificial Intelligence and Open-Source Optimization Tools organized by Gurobi. Farideh received an International Scholarship in cooperation with Florida Atlantic University to carry out the intensive executive program IMDE - Innovation Management in the Digital Economy (July-September 2024), and contribute to the preparation of an Exploratory Project Proposal submitted to FCT in 2024. She is the First Author of an accepted paper in ICEE2024 (June 2024), which has been awarded a travel grant by GOVCOPP to attend, focusing on leveraging consumer engagement through Self-scheduling of Home Appliances, extracted from her Ph.D. thesis. In addition, she is the First Author of another paper accepted with revision in Sustainable Cities and Society, which is an Elsevier Q1 journal with IF: 11.7. The recent work, which is very close to her Ph.D. plan, has been published by IEEE ACCESS, a prestigious Q2-ranked journal. This paper investigates ‘A shrinking horizon model predictive controller for daily scheduling of home energy management systems’. The model developed for the Home Energy Management System (HEMS) is entirely related to the work plan for this grant. The algorithm proposed in this work is based on a model predictive approach, which uses a mathematical model of the HEMS to predict end-users' behavior. Farideh's Ph.D. research focuses on energy management in smart cities, emphasizing integrating renewable energy to reduce carbon footprint. The ultimate goal of this work plan is to provide a decision support system and its corresponding tools for energy management within a local energy market.