Name: Michael Sinner
Hometown: Nelson, New Zealand
Advisor: Lucy Pao
My Path to Engineering
I grew up in Nelson, New Zealand. I didn’t have a good idea of what engineering was about until my final year of high school – but I had always enjoyed building and experimenting with things, and liked physics and math in school. So, when I finally did learn about engineering, it seemed like a natural fit for me.
I moved to Auckland, NZ, to start at the University of Auckland and after a year of general engineering, chose to go into mechanical engineering. At the time, I liked the idea of dynamics, mechanisms and design – although only the first of these has really followed me into my graduate studies. Most of the coursework was good, but not great – I found that my initial interests petered out, and weren’t replaced until I took a class in control systems in my junior year. At the time, I had no idea what ‘control system’ meant, and distinctly remember not enjoying the first few weeks of the class – but after the preliminaries and introduction were out of the way, we got into material that finally I could be really passionate about. I attribute this passion, in no small quantity, to the excellent teaching of Dr. Karl Stol.
Having ignited my interest, I took all the remaining undergraduate controls courses the university had to offer, and took on a senior project designing a control system for a hydrofoiling yacht with Dr. Stol as my adviser.
When I graduated with my bachelors in mechanical engineering, I felt that I had only gone knee deep in the material that I wanted to pursue a career in – there was so much more to know about control systems engineering. I wanted to learn more, and the obvious way to do that was to continue my education. Having now taken 10 graduate classes at CU, I realize that when I finished my bachelors, I was far from knee deep – I had really only wet my toes.
I’m currently completing an MS (due to graduate fall 2018) and PhD in electrical engineering. I’m in the dynamics & controls research group, and have a research focus in model predictive control for wind power systems.
Why CU Boulder?
The major reason for my ending up at CU is that Dr. Lucy Pao, now my academic adviser, is a professor here. When I finished my undergraduate studies, I wanted to continue to study controls – but I also wanted my work to have a positive environmental impact. A natural crossover was control systems for wind turbines. As it happened (I make it sound like a coincidence, which is certainly not the case), Dr. Stol received his PhD from CU Boulder in aerospace engineering in 2001 – and his thesis topic was on control systems for wind turbines. He was able to put me in touch with Dr. Pao, a specialist in wind turbine control, and she agreed to take me on as a student.
The other big reason for coming to CU is its location. I need a good work-life balance, and for my particular set of interests, the ‘life’ part couldn’t be better than on the front range of the Rocky Mountains. I’m a mountain biker by summer and snowboarder by winter, with a bit of car camping thrown in the mix, so the Rockies are a paradise for me, and the access from Boulder is unbeatable. I do miss the sea though … that is the one major drawback of Colorado!
From an academic point of view, I have had a fantastic experience with the quality of classes and professors in electrical engineering department. Classes have consistently been both challenging and rewarding, and the professors teaching them have been approachable, helpful and extremely knowledgeable.
I couldn’t have asked for a better research environment than Dr. Pao’s research group. My colleagues have a variety of research interests that complement my own and are always willing to answer my questions and respond with questions of their own. Moreover, Dr. Pao is an excellent adviser.
Aside from the work, I love the bike culture at CU! The university has great facilities and resources for cyclists, and the students make use of it.