Karthik Ganapathy

I earned my B.Tech from Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore, India in Spring 2016 and my Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), Richardson, USA in December 2023, specializing in Dynamic Systems and Control. My dissertation on "Control and Estimation Architecture Design for Complex Dynamical Networks", was supervised by Dr. Tyler Summers during my time at the Control, Optimization and Networks Lab (CONLab) at UTD.

My research interests are in interdisciplinary applications of control theory and the corresponding challenges encountered. I believe that all scientific research seeks the best approximation of the pieces that make up the large jigsaw puzzle that is our universe, and that control theory gives us the tools to build that jigsaw - to model, estimate and control the parameters of our environment to raise our standards of living. Building controllers and applications that let us estimate, adapt and optimize how we live pose interesting challenges. I aim to work on researching and developing solution frameworks to solve these problems.

During my doctoral program, I have been a Teaching Assistant, Graduate Teaching Fellow and an Instructor of Record for undergraduate mechanical engineering courses. Education is a lifelong pursuit to share the means to dream and realize ideas. The core of my career decisions is to contribute to humanity's growing knowledge, as either an academic or industrial researcher.

Tinkering, design and manufacturing have been long term hobbies. I built up my wood and metal fabrication skills and learnt tools for design and analysis during my undergraduate program when I was a member, and later captain, of the off-road buggy racing team. While my doctoral research was theoretical, I continued to purse my hobby, integrating 3D-printing and electronics. My most recent project is a custom computer keyboard designed and fabricated from scratch. I have more projects ideas to explore in the future including an audio visualizer, a spiderbot and a home automation system.

Books, music, cartoons and games have been life-long companions. I enjoy fantasy, sci-fi, action and mystery fiction. Currently, I am following a rabbit warren of Japanese light novels translated to English that inspired many of my favorite anime and TV-shows. My Spotify save-list spans multiple genres of music across pop, rock and classical music for about 150 hours. I enjoy TTRPGs like D&D, and different video game genres like role-players, strategy simulators and looter-shooters. More recently, I've been fascinated by VR and AR games as well. Nature near the water, like a beach or a lakeside, are ideal vacation spots. I enjoy walks, long bike rides and even longer road-trips, especially if I get to drive.

Currently, I am seeking opportunities to explore the application of control theory and mechanical engineering. In the long term, I currently intend to pursue a career in research and development with engineering education as a passion project.