Teaching Information
Teaching Interests
Professor Garcia-Sanz's main teaching interest focuses on advanced solutions for practical control engineering problems in energy systems, multi-megawatt wind turbines, tidal and riverine energy converters, renewable energy plants, power system dynamics and control, grid integration, energy storage, power electronics, wastewater treatment plants, desalination systems, formation flying spacecraft, satellites with flexible appendages, heating systems, robotics, parallel kinematics, telescope control, etc.
Research Information
Research Interests
With an interdisciplinary and concurrent engineering approach (Control Co-Design), Professor Garcia-Sanz's main research interest focuses on bridging the gap between advanced control theory and applications, with special emphasis in energy innovation, wind energy, spacecraft, water quality, environmental and industrial applications.
Publications
Books:
[1]. M. Garcia-Sanz. “Robust Control Engineering: Practical QFT Solutions", CRC Press, 610 pages, 2017.
[2]. M. Garcia-Sanz and C.H. Houpis. "Wind Energy Systems: Control Engineering Design", CRC Press, 625 pages, 2012.
[3]. C.H. Houpis, S. Rasmussen and M. Garcia-Sanz. "Quantitative Feedback Theory: Theory & Applications", Taylor & Francis, 600 pages, 2006.
Matlab Toolboxes:
[4]. The QFT Control Toolbox (QFTCT) for Matlab, initially developed for the European Space Agency (ESA-ESTEC), is currently one of the top CAD tool for designing robust control systems.
[5]. DeltaGrids toolbox for Matlab, for optimal planning of electrical distribution networks, which has been used by electrical utilities to design new municipal electrical networks.
Patents. Selected examples:
[6]. Hydraulic wind turbine system with variable flow per revolution and constant pressure. Issued March 28, 2012, Spain ES2361986B1.
[7]. A control system for variable-speed aero-hydraulic turbines for water desalination and electric energy production. Issued December 1, 2008, Spain ES2291081B1.
[8]. System for controlling a variable-speed water/wind turbine. Issued April 26, 2007, Europe WO2007012683A3.
Publications in peer-reviewed journals. Selected examples:
[9]. Garcia-Sanz M. et al. (2025). Grid fragility, blackouts, and control co-design solutions. Advanced Control for Applications, Wiley, Vol.7, Num.3, e70022.
[10]. Garcia-Sanz M. (2024). Hybrid Energy Systems: Synergy Margin and Control Co-Design. Advanced Control for Applications, Wiley, Vol.6, Num.4, e238.
[11]. Garcia-Sanz M. (2021). Engineering Microgrids with Control Co-Design. Technology leaders section. IEEE Electrification magazine, Vol.9, Num. 3, September, pp. 8–17.
[12]. Garcia-Sanz M. (2020). A Metric Space with LCOE Isolines for Research Guidance in Wind and Hydrokinetic Energy Systems. Wind Energy, Wiley, Vol. 23, pp.91–311.
[13]. Garcia-Sanz M. (2019). Control Co-Design: an engineering game changer. Advanced Control for Applications, Wiley, Vol.1, Num.1, e18.
[14]. Garcia-Sanz, M. (2019). Quantitative Feedback Theory. Chapter in Encyclopedia of Systems and Control, Springer.
[15]. Garcia-Sanz, M., Eguinoa, I., Bennani, S. (2009). Non-diagonal MIMO QFT controller design reformulation. Int.J.Robust Non-Linear Control, Wiley, Vol.19, N.9, pp.1036-1064.
Additional Information
Summary
Prof. Garcia-Sanz is a senior leader, university professor, entrepreneur and engineer with over 30 years of experience designing multidisciplinary control systems and leading engineering teams. Energy, systems thinking and control and are his passions.
Since January 2018, he serves as Program Director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), at the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington DC, where he has launched and developed National Programs on energy innovation, managing over a quarter billion dollars, with 90+ projects in about 35 states. The programs he leads focus on grid control and optimization (GRADIENTS, NODES, GO competition, PERFORM, OPEN’15/18/21/24), tidal/riverine energy systems (SHARKS 1 & 2), and floating offshore wind turbines (ATLANTIS 1 & 2, ATLAS), with new Control Co-Design methodologies and metrics.
He also served as Endowed Chair Professor and Center Director at CWRU, President and Founder of CoDyPower LLC, Professor and Associate Dean at the Public University of Navarra, Research Scientist at CEIT, Associate Professor at TECNUN, Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester UMIST, at Oxford University, at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and at the European Space Agency, NATO/RTO Lecture Series Director, Senior Editor of the Applied Control for Applications Journal, and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, Wiley.
Over the past two decades, Prof. Garcia-Sanz laboratory has been recognized as the most active research group on Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) robust control engineering, with 100+ PhD and Master students under his supervision, and many industrial projects on energy, wind turbines, hydrokinetic systems, grid optimization, spacecraft control, large radio telescopes, municipal water treatment plants, etc.
Also, as a university professor and senior advisor for wind energy companies, he worked on new designs of commercial multi-megawatt wind turbines since the nineties, including companies like Gamesa, Acciona, M.Torres, MTOI, IngeTeam, CENER, Eaton Corporation, Enercon and Siemens. As a result, many of his former PhD and Master students are currently R&D leaders of wind energy companies worldwide.
In terms of numbers, Prof. Garcia-Sanz has written 3 CRC-Press books on control engineering, and over 250 research papers, 20 patents, 2 Matlab toolboxes, and 50 industrial projects where he served as Principal Investigator.