I Graduated with my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering

I'm excited to announce that I have officially defended my dissertation and graduated with my PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington!

My dissertation, "Transitioning to Inverter-Based Resources: Stability of AC Power Systems considering Current Constraints, Small-Signal Sensitivities, and Large Loads," explores a range of challenges that arise when integrating IBRs into the grid. The short version is that my research developed methods for maintaining system stability across multiple scales, from optimally controlling inverters with current constraints and regulating volatile data center loads, to quantifying system-wide stability. If you want to hear the long version, you can watch a recording of my defense here. My biggest takeaway from my work so far has been that there is still much work to be done to determine how best to regulate and control grid-interfacing inverters to ensure power systems remain stable and reliable as IBR penetration increases.

I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who supported me along the way. In particular, I would like to acknowledge my advisor, Prof. Baosen Zhang, for his invaluable mentorship and research guidance, and Prof. Daniel Kirschen for his unwavering support from my undergraduate studies all the way to my dissertation defense.

1. Safe Trajectory Gradient Flow Control of a Grid-Interfacing Inverter,
2. System Strength Sensitivity to Power Flow Perturbations in AC Power Systems with Inverter-based Resources,
3. A Review of System Strength Metrics for Inverter-based Power Systems.

I accepted a job at Lawrence Livermore National Lab!

I'm excited to say that I have accepted a position as a Power Grid Engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) to conduct research in the topics of power system analysis, operation, and resilience. This position will be within the Computational Engineering Division (CED) with work supporting LLNL’s Cyber and Infrastructure Resilience (CIR) program. This summer I will be moving down to the Bay Area, after I have defended my dissertation.

I Passed My General Exam!

Today, I presented my research proposal and graduation timeline to my General Exam Committee. I am grateful to say that I passed my examination and am now officially a PhD Candidate. A huge thank you to my committee: Prof. Baosen Zhang, Prof. Daniel Kirschen, Prof. Jing Yu, and Prof. Chaoyue Zhao.

My Expected PhD Graduation Timeline: Soon (June 2026)

Going into the fifth year of my PhD studies at the University of Washington, I'm cautiously excited to say the end is in sight. Currently, I am planning on taking my General Exam in December, and potentially defending my dissertation as soon as June of 2026. As I begin the process of wrapping up all of the threads of research that I've weaved over these past few years, I am thinking about how what my next steps will be as a Post Doc. My job hunt has commenced, and I am looking for opportunities to continue researching the control and stability of distributed systems of inverter-based resources.

NREL Graduate PhD Internship

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to be a PhD intern with the Grid Modernization group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). I had a wonderful time working with Shuan Dong and Jin Tan exploring the most recent developments in grid strength metrics for systems with high levels of inverters and working on developing a new grid strength metric. I also got to play around with writing python scripts for PSS/E and measuring admittance models with frequency scanning methods in PSCAD. We'll soon be submitting some papers to the PES-GM; one gives an overview of what I learned about state-of-the-art grid strength metrics, while the other introduced a method for calculating eigenvalue sensitivities to changes in power flow injections.

CDC 2024 & HICSS 2025

Over this past month, I had the privilege of presenting papers at two conferences: the Controls & Decision Conference (CDC) in Milan and the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) on the Big Island.

Both papers focus on the same topic-the control of grid-interfacing inverters while considering current magnitude limits-but approach the problem from different angles. The CDC paper establishes conditions for controller stability when a current limiter is included in the system, while the HICSS paper explores the use of a safety filter to prevent violations of current magnitude limits.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to present these works (provided by my Advisor Baosen Zhang and a Clean Energy Institute travel grant) and for all the meaningful connections I made at these conferences!