PhD Candidate and Control Systems Engineer

Bogac Canbaz

I am a PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, graduating in December 2026. I design optimal and nonlinear control algorithms from first principles and prove them on hardware under hard real-time constraints.

bogaccanbaz@gmail.com LinkedIn Google Scholar CV (PDF)

What I do

I design feedback control systems for complex electromechanical machines: multibody systems whose dynamics are nonlinear, whose axes are coupled to one another, and whose behavior changes with configuration, load, and wear. These are the systems where a linear controller tuned at one operating point quietly stops being valid at another, and where the honest answer to whether a design works can only come from the hardware.

My dissertation built the first real-time control stack reported in the literature for an underactuated gyroscopic system, a machine with fewer actuators than degrees of freedom and a singular configuration it must never reach. My first design passed every check in simulation and then failed on the rig, close to that singularity. Rebuilding it as a constrained nonlinear controller, one that carries the limit inside the control law rather than assuming the plant will stay away from it, produced a system that settles faster, tracks more accurately, and holds the machine inside its safe envelope throughout.

I work across the whole path: deriving the dynamics, formulating the cost and constraint terms, deploying generated code onto real-time targets, and defining the gates a controller has to clear before it is allowed anywhere near the hardware. I am drawn to complex electromechanical systems, where controls is the layer that turns planned intent into motion that is precise, smooth, and safe.

The problems I want to work on sit at that boundary. How do you control a machine that has fewer actuators than degrees of freedom, so that some axes can only be moved indirectly through the coupling? How do you keep a system inside its safe operating envelope when the constraint is not a soft preference but a configuration the machine must never reach? How do you build a controller that stays stable when the friction, the payload, and the disturbances are unknown and changing, without retuning it for every case? How do you recover the states you need from the sensors you actually have, rather than the ones the model assumed?

What I work on

Modeling and simulation of electromechanical systems: Deriving multibody dynamics from first principles, building plant and controller models in MATLAB/Simulink, and multiphysics finite element analysis in COMSOL and ANSYS where thermal, structural, and electrical behavior are coupled.
Nonlinear and robust control design: Sliding mode and adaptive control, optimal state feedback, cascaded loops, and active disturbance rejection, with stability established through Lyapunov analysis rather than assumed from simulation results. I am particularly drawn to underactuated systems, where there are fewer actuators than degrees of freedom and the usual design shortcuts stop working.
State estimation and sensor fusion: Observer design, filtering, and fusing position, current, and inertial measurements into the state a controller needs, including physics-informed learned estimators constrained by the governing equations of the plant.
Design optimization under real constraints: Searching a design space against the limits that actually bind: stress, thermal margin, actuator saturation, parasitics, manufacturability. A design that only works on paper has not been optimized, it has been sketched.
Real-time implementation and hardware validation: Deploying control loops on resource-constrained real-time targets, instrumenting a test rig, and running the experiments that decide whether the design was right. Most of what I know about control I learned from the gap between what the simulation predicted and what the hardware did.

Where it applies

The mathematics of underactuated, strongly coupled multibody control is not specific to one industry. The same structure appears wherever a machine has to move precisely without a rigid reference to push against. These are the areas I find most compelling.

Robotic manipulators and mobile robots. Serial arms with configuration-dependent inertia, compliant and flexible joints, and contact tasks where the controller has to stay stable through changing dynamics.
Attitude control and stabilization platforms. Momentum-exchange actuators for spacecraft and satellites, and the gyroscopic stabilizers used on ships, camera platforms, and self-balancing vehicles.
Aerial and unmanned vehicles. Guidance, navigation, and control for systems with no stationary frame, where attitude is regulated through coupling between rotating bodies and control surfaces.
Marine and underwater vehicles. Orientation control under buoyancy, added mass, and wave-induced disturbances the controller never measures directly.
Industrial automation and motion control. High-speed multi-axis actuators, smooth trajectory generation with bounded jerk, and protective logic that keeps a machine inside its safe envelope.
Power electronics and drives. Motor drive and inverter design, and translating electrical and thermal limits into control constraints so the hardware is never asked for more than it can survive.

The two bodies of research behind all of this, and the hands-on course projects alongside them, are in the portfolio.

Background

Education

PhD, Electrical Engineering. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Expected December 2026. GPA 3.87/4.00
MS, Electrical Engineering. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. May 2024. GPA 4.00/4.00
BS, Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkiye. July 2021

The graduate courses behind these degrees are listed on the Coursework page.

Experience

Ph.D. Graduate Research Assistant, Optimal Control, Estimation, and Real-Time Autonomy: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. September 2022 to present.; Real-time nonlinear control and state estimation for an underactuated gyroscope, validated on hardware.
M.S. Graduate Research Assistant, Multiphysics Modeling and Numerical Optimization: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. August 2022 to May 2024.; Electro-thermal finite element modeling and design optimization of high-frequency press-pack SiC power modules.
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Embedded Systems and Technical Mentoring: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. August 2021 to August 2022.; Guided students through embedded design projects with hardware interfaces and real-time constraints.

Awards

Graduate Scholarship, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2022 to 2026
College of Engineering Professional Development Fellowship, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2024
Holling Fellowship, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2021 to 2022
TUBITAK 2209-A Undergraduate Research Grant, 2021

Publications

B. Canbaz, L. Qu, and W. Qiao, "Adaptive linear quadratic regulator-based stabilizing control for underactuated double-gimbal control moment gyroscopes," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 2026, doi: 10.1109/TIA.2026.3653743.
B. Canbaz, W. Qiao, and L. Qu, "Adaptive sliding mode-based robust control for underactuated double-gimbal control moment gyroscopes," in Proc. 16th IEEE International Conference on Industry Applications (INDUSCON), 2025, pp. 918 to 925.
B. Canbaz, W. Qiao, and L. Qu, "Adaptive LQR control of underactuated double-gimbal control moment gyroscope," in Proc. IEEE/IAS 61st Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Technical Conference (ICPS), Phoenix, AZ, 2024.
B. Canbaz, E. Muravleva, J. Wang, L. Qu, and J. Hudgins, "Design and optimization of a novel monolithic spring for high-frequency press-pack SiC FET modules," in Proc. IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Nashville, TN, 2023, pp. 5551 to 5557.
E. Muravleva, B. Canbaz, J. Wang, L. Qu, and J. Hudgins, "Switch cell design for novel high-frequency press-pack SiC FET modules," in Proc. IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Nashville, TN, 2023, pp. 5455 to 5461.
B. Canbaz, L. Qu, and W. Qiao, "Finite-time adaptive sliding-mode-based control for underactuated double-gimbal control moment gyroscopes," submitted to IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, under review.

Patents

J. Wang, E. Muravleva, B. Canbaz, and L. Qu, "High frequency press pack SiC FET modules," published U.S. Patent Application US 2026/0039294 A1, February 2026, patent pending.
J. Wang, B. Canbaz, E. Muravleva, and L. Qu, "Monolithic spring assemblies for high frequency press pack modules," published U.S. Patent Application US 2026/0036180 A1, February 2026, patent pending.

Contact

I am always glad to talk about control design, underactuated systems, and getting theory onto hardware. Reach me at bogaccanbaz@gmail.com or on LinkedIn.