Dr Thulasi Mylvaganam, Lecturer in Control and Multi-Agent Systems, Department of Aeronautics

“Being Norwegian, I have a great love for the outdoors and I will search for any excuse to be on a mountain! I like to spend my time hiking, running, rock climbing and traveling… and I absolutely love snow – it’s magical!”  

I first came to Imperial to complete my undergraduate degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) back in 2006. I’ve always had a special interest in mathematics, so once I got my first introduction to control engineering in my second year, I was smitten. I completed my PhD in nonlinear control with Professor Alessandro Astolfi in EEE, and I am now a lecturer in the Department of Aeronautics.

My job involves doing and supervising research on various topics in control engineering. We follow an abstract approach: we describe a system (any system!) with a mathematical model and develop systematic methods to design feedback to make the system behave in a desired manner. The abstract approach makes control engineering very powerful, which is why it is everywhere!

While I like my field for the maths, my team has recently also been given the opportunity to play around with robots, which is fun! In particular, my brilliant PhD students and I have a collection of robots on which we can experimentally validate the control methods we develop. In addition to this, I teach various modules related to control and numerical analysis to undergraduate and Master’s students, and I also have some administrative roles in the department.

One of my favourite things about Imperial is the people. I have been lucky to meet amazing people since joining the College, and I value the international community here a lot.

I also like teaching ‘Systems’ as part of one of the second year modules. I essentially introduce our undergraduate students to concepts which are crucial in control engineering, and it’s very rewarding and exciting when students show interest in my field!

Being Norwegian, I have a great love for the outdoors and I will search for any excuse to be on a mountain! I like to spend my time hiking, running, rock climbing and traveling … and I absolutely love snow – it’s magical!  

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