News

2025

• Lucy is appointed Chair of International Program Committee for 2032 IFAC World Congress (2025-2032)
• Lucy gives Joint IFAC Symposium on Mechatronics Systems and Robotics Plenary Talk on "Sink or Swim:  Modeling and Control of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines" (July 2025)
• PhD student A. Henry was honored with 1st place in the 2025 Three Minute Thesis Competition held at CU Boulder.
• PhD student E. Sharafuddin earns Ryland Graduate Fellowship for control theory research

2024

• Lucy is a co-recipient (with PhD student Misha Sinner and others) of the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award

2023

• Nikhar Abbas (Past PhD student, graduated 2022) received the 2023 European Academy of Wind Energy (EAWE) Excellent Young Wind Doctor Award (June 2023)

2021

• Lucy Pao was inducted into the Austrian Academy of Sciences as a Member of the Division of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
• Lucy Pao gave a Keynote Presentation at the IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications on "Control of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines" (August 2021)
• Bart Doekemeijer (2015-2016 visiting MS exchange student in our lab) received the 2021 European Academy of Wind Energy Excellent Young Wind Doctor Award

2020

• Lucy gives an IFAC World Congress Plenary Talk on "Going Big: Control Co-Design for Extreme-Scale Wind Turbines" (July 2020)
• Lucy becomes an IFAC Distinguished Lecturer (2020-2026)

2019

• Lucy received the Nyquist Lecturer Award from The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• PhD student D. Zalkind was honored with 1st place in the 2019 ARPA-E Aerodynamic Turbines with Load Attenuation Systems (ATLAS) Offshore Wind Challenge Competition.
• Lucy gives ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference Plenary Talk on "Design and Control of Extreme-Scale Wind Turbines"

2017

• Lucy was a Fellow at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study, Delmenhorst, Germany and a Visiting Scholar at the ForWind Center for Wind Energy Research, Oldenburg University, Germany, October 2016 - July 2017
• Received the European Academy of Wind Energy Scientific Award (June 2017)
• Lucy received the Control Engineering Practice Award from the American Automatic Control Council (May 2017)

2016

• Lucy was a Resident Scholar at the Center for Information and Systems Engineering, Boston University, September 2016 - October 2016
• David Schlipf (2014-2015 visiting PhD student/postdoc in our lab) received the 2016 European Academy of Wind Energy Excellent Young Wind Doctor Award
• NREL article highlighting one of our collaborative projects with NREL, University of Stuttgart, and Delft University of Technology (September 2016)
• Lucy gives Plenary on "Challenges and Opportunities in Integrating Large Amounts of Wind and Solar Energy into Utility Grids" at the 2016 Alpbach Technology Symposium (August 2016)
• Lucy gives Plenary on "Combined Feedforward/Feedback Control of Flexible Structures: Recurring Themes across Diverse Applications" at the 2016 American Control Conference (July 2016)

2015

• Co-recipient (with Jason R. Marden and H. Peyton Young) of the SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization Best Paper Prize. (November 2015)

2014

• Son Matthew's high school (Boulder High School) soccer team finishes second in the Colorado 5A division. Son is mentioned in a couple newspaper articles (Denver Post article) following his team's semi-final win. (November 2014)
• PhD student E. Simley was honored with 3rd place in the 2014 IEEE New Faces of Engineering Competition. (February 2014)

2013

• Lucy gives Plenary Presentation at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control on "Controlling Wind Energy for Utility Grid Reliability" (December 2013).
• Lucy gives Keynote Presentation at the SICE Annual Conference (International Conference on Instrumentation, Control, Information Technology and System Integration) on "Wind Energy Control and Grid-Integration Challenges" (September 2013).
• PhD student Eric Simley spent September 2013 to June 2014 at the Technical University of Denmark Department of Wind Energy on a Fulbright Fellowship.
• Lucy gives Plenary Presentation at the IEEE Power and Energy Conference at Illinois on "Wind Energy Control and Grid-Related Issues" (February 2013).

2012

• Co-recipient (with Kathryn Johnson) of the IEEE Control Systems Magazine Outstanding Paper Award (December 2012)
• Lucy gives ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference Plenary Talk on "Control of Wind Turbines: Accomplishments and Continuing Challenges" (October 2012)
• Lucy give's Chinese Control and Decision Conference Distinguished Lecture on "Control of Wind Turbines: Accomplishments and Challenges" (May 2012)
• Lucy's Daughter scores Boulder's golden goal against 5th ranked Legacy (April 2012)
• Lucy is elevated to IEEE Fellow (January 2012)

2011

• Lucy gives ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition Plenary on "Control of Wind Turbines: Accomplishments and Challenges" (November 2011)
• BS/MS student Anil Damle received the CU-Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science Outstanding Graduate for Research Award, May 2011.

2009

• Colorado Governor Bill Ritter to Kick Off Inaugural Symposium for New Colorado Wind Research Center on August 14, 2009, Denver Post article
• Ph.D. Student Brian Rigney is one of four finalists in the 2009 American Control Conference Student Best Paper Competition, June 2009
• Lucy was a Visiting Scholar at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's National Wind Technology Center, January 2009 - August 2009

2008

• Lucy was a Visiting Miller Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, August 2008 - December 2008

2007

• Lucy's Daughter is quoted in the Boulder Daily Camera (Friday, August 31, 2007).

2006

• Lucy give's 2006 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control Plenary on "Control of Flexible Structures: From Large Space Structures to Disk Drive Read/Write Arms" (December 2006)

2005

• Lucy Pao was featured in People in Control: Rocky Mountain High, IEEE Control Systems Magazine, pp. 18-21, Dec. 2005.
• Our paper received the Best Paper Award at the 2005 World Haptics Conference.
  • D. A. Lawrence, L. Y. Pao, and S. Aphanuphong. "Bow Spring/Tendon Actuation for Low Cost Haptic Interfaces," Proc. 1st Joint EuroHaptics Conf. and Symp. on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environments and Teleoperator Systems, Pisa, Italy, Mar. 2005.
• One of our projects was chosen to be featured in the National Science Foundation's Fiscal Year 2004 Performance Highlights report (see page 21) to Congress and the White House.