Hi, I'm Charles Dawson!
I have a PhD in control theory and machine learning, and I use robots* to fight climate change.
Projects
Developed the load management and virtual power plant strategy for the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, using optimization-based models of load flexibility.
Worked with utilities, solar developers, and public advocates to negotiate proactive grid planning and interconnection reforms to support renewable energy development in Massachusetts.
Led full-stack robotics at Marble Technologies to design and deliver a robotic pick-and-place system for food processing automation in 3 months.
Research [Google Scholar]
As a PhD student in the Reliable Autonomous Systems Lab at MIT, I did research on...
Rare event prediction & model learning: Applied Bayesian inference and gradient-accelerated Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms to solve inverse problems, uncertainty quantification, and risk assessment for robotics and transportation networks. [1] [2]
Power flow: Wrote GPU-accelerated solver for security-constrained power flow in electricity networks, reducing the frequency of simulated power outages by 10x relative to state-of-the-art methods. [2]
ML for controls: Developed robust learning-for-control software for robot and plasma fusion control problems. [1] [2] [3] [4]