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Regina L

- Research Program Mentor

PhD candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Expertise

Mechanical Engineering, Controls, Vibrations

Bio

Hi! My name is Regina, and I'm currently a graduate student at MIT in the Mechanical Engineering department. I'm interested in mechatronics, control theory and design. Through my thesis project with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), I get to use all these skills to help create the next generation of optics suspensions for the observatories. Outside of research, I'm a big foodie and I'm always on the lookout for the next restaurant I want to try. I also love exploring the outdoors through hiking and long road trips, especially to the tidepools. I'm also a newbie climber and crochetier.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Optimizing a control system feedback loop for a dynamic system

Whether you have a simple motor or a life-sized robot, you'll need to implement feedback loops to make sure the system runs correctly. This project will experiment with various loop shaping designs in order to maintain stability within your system. We will be able to simulate the outputs of these control systems using Matlab and various microcontrollers/software. This can be as simple or complex as you want, and the principles learned in these experiments will be an important foundation for future projects.

Coding skills

Matlab, python, Arduino (C)

Languages I know

Chinese, intermediate

Teaching experience

I was a TA for a few terms in undergrad in a mechatronics class and a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) class. I helped students with their hands-on projects in the mechatronics class, and created demos to demonstrate various motors and sensors. I aided students in completing both mechanical and thermal FEA simulations in order to better understand the dynamics of the system.

Credentials

Work experience

Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) (2022 - Current)
Graduate Student
Caltech/JPL (2020 - 2020)
Undergraduate Summer Intern
LIGO Caltech (2018 - 2021)
Undergraduate Intern
Carnegie Observatories (2018 - 2018)
Undergraduate Summer Intern

Education

California Institute of Technology (CalTech)
BS Bachelor of Science (2021)
Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MS Master of Science candidate
Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PhD Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Mechanical Engineering

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