Coursework
Graduate courses at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2021 to 2024, grouped by what each one added to the toolbox. Several ended in a project that ran on hardware or on a cluster; those are collected in the third portfolio case study.
Control theory
- ECEN 898Advanced Linear Control
- State-space modeling and the linear algebra behind it: controllability and observability, pole placement, servo design, state observers and observer-based regulators, and the linear quadratic regulator. Two individual design projects, each worked through and verified in MATLAB.
- ECEN 996Nonlinear Analysis and Control
- Qualitative analysis of nonlinear systems, from existence and uniqueness through limit cycles, Lyapunov's direct and indirect methods, and the invariance principle, then the design side: control Lyapunov functions, backstepping, dissipativity and energy shaping, feedback interconnection, sliding mode, and adaptive control. Two projects, each presented to the class. This is the mathematics my dissertation controller is built on.
Power electronics, machines, and energy systems
- ECEN 828Power Electronics
- Steady-state analysis of dc-dc converters in continuous and discontinuous conduction, switch realization, averaged small-signal models and converter transfer functions, feedback compensator design, and inductor and transformer design down to core selection and winding loss. The term project built a flyback converter from the magnetics up.
- ECEN 932Advanced Power Electronics and Applications
- Snubber circuits, resonant converters and soft switching, pulse-width modulation, electric machine dynamics and ac motor drives, multilevel converters, and the power electronics behind wind energy systems, FACTS devices, and HVDC transmission. Project: a turn-off snubber for a photovoltaic battery charger.
- ECEN 898Modeling and Control of Three-Phase Power Converters
- Vector representations of three-phase variables, switching and averaged models of the voltage source inverter and boost rectifier in stationary and dq frames, space-vector and discontinuous modulation, phase-locked loops, and digital current control with sampling and computation delays accounted for, carried to hardware through PLECS processor-in-the-loop simulation and TI C2000 microcontrollers. Project: a permanent-magnet drive emulated with two inverters.
- ECEN 836Electric Machines
- Transformers, ac machinery fundamentals, synchronous generators and motors, induction machines, dc machines, and single-phase motors: the plants that the drives above exist to control.
- ECEN 830Wind Energy Systems
- Wind resource statistics and energy-yield estimation, turbine aerodynamics, generator and converter topologies, grid integration, siting, and the economics and policy that decide whether a farm gets built. A term project assessed a commercial wind farm from a site's measured wind data.
Robotics
- MECH 892Special Topics in Robotics
- Robot architectures beyond the serial arm: parallel and cable-driven mechanisms, compliant and soft actuators, origami-inspired designs, hybrid architectures, singularities, configuration space, kinematic performance indices, grasp analysis, and screw theory. Coding assignments on parallel robot workspaces and singularities, and a report on the dynamics and control of a four-axis arm.
Learning and computation
- ECEN 935Computational Intelligence
- Neural networks and backpropagation, radial basis function and echo state networks, particle swarm optimization, evolutionary computation, fuzzy systems and fuzzy control, support vector machines, and reinforcement learning, with a project applying swarm optimization to a wireless power transfer link.
- CSCE 878Introduction to Machine Learning
- Decision trees, Bayesian classifiers, neural and convolutional networks, support vector machines, bagging and boosting, clustering, and hidden Markov models, each implemented in Python and trained on a university GPU cluster.
Signals and devices
- ECEN 863Digital Signal Processing
- Discrete-time systems, the discrete-time Fourier transform and the z-transform, sampling and sample-rate conversion, digital filter design, and the FFT: the tools behind the encoder filtering and differentiation in my real-time controllers.
- ECEN 960Solid State Devices
- Carrier transport and junction physics of semiconductor devices, the layer beneath the switches and diodes in every converter above.
Systems engineering
- ECEN 895Introduction to Systems Engineering
- Requirements definition, life-cycle models including the Vee, trade-off study frameworks, reliability, and systems-engineering heuristics, studied through case histories of large programs such as the Hubble Space Telescope, GPS, and the International Space Station.
The projects that came out of these courses are in the portfolio. Degrees, positions, and awards are on the About page.