Hello internet friends! Like you (most likely), I am a human with particular talents and interests.
They include attaining climate tech entrepreneurship in San Francisco, mastery in C++ and Python 3, designing wind turbine controllers for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, working on ***** for Apple, trail marathon training and racing as a vegan athlete, capturing moments with my Canon and generally the psychological and philosophical aspects of doing good and feeling good during the short time we have in this universe.
Come visit my website if you think you might enjoy musings, thoughts and notions on the above topics.
Skills
… applied to modeling and control of wind turbines, power management of batteries and energy storage, and the economic optimization of wind turbine and energy storage repairs and warranties.
Deep Learning
- Transformers, Graph Neural Networks, and Recurrent Neural Networks applied to multivariate multistep spatiotemporal probabilistic forecasting and the reconstruction of dynamic wind fields.
Statistical Learning
- Gaussian process regression applied to online estimation of dynamic wind fields and real-time learning-based control for energy systems.
- Sparse identification of nonlinear dynamics (SINDy) and Support Vector Machines (SVM) applied to efficient online modeling and the learning of complex closed-loop control laws.
Model Predictive Control
- Stochastic Model Predictive Control applied to wind farm wake steering with online learning of incoming wind fields and Gaussian wind direction preview.
Robust Control
- H-infinity synthesized full-order controller with constrained actuation for individual pitch control (IPC) of wind turbines
Controller Auto-Tuning procedures
- Iterative Feedback Tuning (IFT), Virtual Reference Feedback Tuning (VRFT), Fictitious Reference Iterative Tuning (FRIT) methods applied to implement auto-tuning procedures for an unknown, black-box system privy to uncharacterized disturbances
Reinforcement Learning
- Multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithm applied to control of floating offshore wind farms with stochastic turbine location and turbine outages
Python 3, MATLAB, C++, Rust
- Special interest in high-performance Python (Pandas, Polars, Spark), concurrency, and parallelism with a penchant for well-written examples and beautiful plots.
- Use C++ for machine learning applications, high-performance power management at Apple, and data-intensive pipelines.
- Rust for high-performance ML and data engineering applications
- MATLAB/Simulink for large datasets, control system design, and aero-hydro-servo-elastic modeling.
High-Performance Computing
- University of Colorado Research Computing and NREL Eagle/Kestrel supercomputers (SLURM-based) used to run learning tasks and large eddy simulations across nodes.
- GPU implementation of algorithms using CUDA and ROCm, including memory/performance profiling and debugging for scalable Big Data pipelines.
Work Experience
CEO & Co-Founder, Zentus Inc., Stanford University (2025 – Present)
Ph.D. Graduate & Research Engineer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2021 – 2025)
Platform Architecture & Controls Engineer, Apple Inc. (2023)
Smart Grid Engineer, Elektrizitätswerke des Kantons Zürich (2019 – 2020)
Research Engineer, Computational Geoscience & Engineering, Imperial College London (2018)
Junior Engineer, Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (2016 – 2017)
Education
Ph.D., Machine-Learning Augmented Control of Wind Farms, University of Colorado Boulder & NREL (2021- 2025)
MSc Energy Science & Technology, ETH Zürich (2018 – 2021)
BEng Electrical Power Grid Engineering, University College Dublin & University of California San Diego (2014 – 2018)
Awards
Stanford Sustainability Accelerator Fellowship, Electricity and Grid Systems Track (2025)
Valedictorian Speaker at Graduation, University of Colorado Boulder (2025)
Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition Winner (2025)
Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator supported by Innovation & Entrepreneurship Fellowship (2024)
ETH Zürich Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme (ESOP) Scholar (2018 – 2021)
CU Boulder Europe-Colorado Exchange Scholar (2020 – 2021)
University College Dublin Ad Astra Academic Scholar (2014 – 2018)
University of California (UCSD) Provost Honours Award (2016 – 2017)
‘Teach na Gaeilge’ (Irish Language Home) Irish Language Scholar (2015 – 2016)
Award for Highest Leaving Certificate (ranked in the highest 0.01% percentile in Ireland) (2014)
Fun facts
I’m fluent in the Irish language (Gaelic), and proficient German
I run, and sometimes win, trail marathons in Colorado and cover up to 100 miles/week by foot to train for them around the foothills and bike paths of Boulder.
I started coding in my early teens with a non-profit club called Coder Dojo, and progressed to teaching the younger children how to code on a voluntary basis. I still enjoy learning new ways that Python can be used and abused.
I went through an ultra-cycling phase in my early-twenties, and once cycled 600 miles of distance with 15 miles of elevation across the Pyrenees in 4 days, among other silly bike tours that I don’t regret, but would never recommend.
I can make any piece of bark look beautiful through the lens of my Canon.