About
Researcher and engineer.
F-1 visa. Authorized to work in the US via CPT/OPT, no sponsorship required for internship positions.
I'm a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Central Florida, working on physics-informed machine learning for robot control: system identification, uncertainty quantification, and optimal control.
Before UCF I completed my M.S. at Northern Arizona University, with a thesis on physics-informed ML for HVAC systems, and my B.S. at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, with a thesis on fuzzy-based traction control for electric vehicles.
Outside the lab I run Research Talk, a YouTube series for Vietnamese engineering researchers worldwide, with 6,600+ subscribers and 30,000+ hours of watch time.
- GPA, Ph.D. and M.S.
- 4.0
- Papers
- 7
- Google Scholar citations
- 14
- YouTube subscribers
- 6.6k
- Awards and honors
- 9
Experience
-
08/2026 – Now
Graduate Teaching Assistant
University of Central Florida, Florida, USA
- Teaching assistant for the embedded systems course, taught on the TI MSP430 microcontroller.
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08/2025 – 08/2026
Graduate Research Assistant
University of Central Florida, Florida, USA
- Built an add-on uncertainty quantification module for pre-trained hybrid physics-informed models. In model predictive control of a racing car, a quadrotor, and a Franka manipulator it outperformed four baselines, cutting quadrotor position error by 21% without disturbance and 13% under high noise.
- Built a differentiable MPC framework with online system identification for autonomous racing under time-varying road conditions, reaching 15% faster lap times than standard MPC in a full-size race-car simulator, validated with IPOPT and OSQP solvers.
- Compared 14 active-learning strategies for system identification on the BOPTEST simulator, cutting model error by up to 54% versus random sampling.
- Developed an epistemic-uncertainty-aware RL policy using a physics-informed transition model for robust, energy-efficient control under sensor noise.
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01/2025 – 05/2025
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Northern Arizona University, Arizona, USA
- Taught EE 280 (Introduction to Electronics) and EE 348 (Fundamentals of Signals and Systems) to undergraduate students.
- Reinforced core signals-and-systems theory, including Laplace/Fourier transforms, convolution, and frequency-domain analysis, while mentoring students through coursework.
-
01/2024 – 01/2025
Graduate Research Assistant
Northern Arizona University, Arizona, USA
- Developed physics-informed and grey-box surrogate models of HVAC dynamics from real-world BACnet data; proposed Monotonic-Taylor NN with 25% higher multi-step accuracy over baselines.
- Deployed a learning-based MPC controller on an Arduino temperature-control lab (MIMO), achieving 1°C steady-state error at a 55°C setpoint under real disturbances.
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07/2022 – 10/2023
Research Assistant
Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam
- Designed Fuzzy-MFC traction control algorithms for electric vehicles, reducing wheel slip ratio by 23% during acceleration.
- Validated closed-loop controllers in a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) environment using a dSPACE DS1103 board and TI C2000 microcontrollers.
Education
-
2025 – Now
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering
University of Central Florida · GPA 4.0/4.0
-
2024 – 2025
M.S., Electrical Engineering
Northern Arizona University · GPA 4.0/4.0 · Thesis: Physics-Informed ML for HVAC Systems
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2019 – 2023
B.S., Automation & Control Engineering
Hanoi University of Science and Technology · GPA 3.66/4.0 · Thesis: Fuzzy-Based Traction Control for Electric Vehicles
Awards & honors
- Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor SocietyMember, Florida Delta Chapter (UCF), 2026
- Presentation FellowshipUCF College of Graduate Studies, 2026
- Open Access Publishing FundUniversity of Central Florida, 2026
- Travel Award, ACC 2025American Control Conference, 2025
- SGS Summer Research AwardNorthern Arizona University, 2024
- LG Display ScholarshipOutstanding Students, 2022
- Excellent Study Scholarship (Top 1%)Hanoi University of Science & Technology, 2020 · 2021 · 2023
- Best Presentation AwardStudent Forum on Frontiers in Sustainability, 2023
- Best Presentation AwardStudent Forum on Sustainable Energy, 2021
Skills
- Estimation & modeling
- Moving-horizon estimation, EKF/UKF, particle filters, system identification, physics-informed ML
- Control & learning
- Model predictive control, reinforcement learning, uncertainty quantification, active learning
- Programming
- Python (PyTorch, JAX, CasADi, NumPy, SciPy), C/C++, MATLAB/Simulink, ROS 2
- Tools & simulation
- MuJoCo, F1TENTH-Gym, IPOPT/OSQP, Linux, Git, Docker, HPC clusters
- Hardware
- NVIDIA Jetson, Raspberry Pi 4, Arduino, TI MSP430, TI C2000, dSPACE DS1103