Rachel Newton awarded Towner Prize for Distinguished Academic Achievement in ECE

Rachel Newton, doctoral student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded the Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Prize for Distinguished Academic Achievement by the College of Engineering for outstanding achievements in research, leadership, and academics.

Newton’s research is focused on optimizing wind farms and similar large-scale systems by applying techniques in machine learning, nonconvex optimization, and control systems. In her dissertation, she is applying new developments from machine learning to provide novel theoretical foundations for existing control approaches in order to improve the performance of existing approaches that are known to have failed.

“This work has broad applications across many facets of the search for sustainable energy stability and long-term mitigation of climate change, such as through control of more fuel-efficient aircraft and addressing optimal power flow problems,” said Newton.

Aside from her research, Newton has been involved in the program, Letters to a Pre-Scientist, to inspire elementary and middle school children to become interested in science and engineering. Related to this, she is a reviewer and copy editor for the Journal for Emerging Investigators, which is an open-access journal that publishes original research in the biological and physical sciences that is written by middle and high school students. 

Within the department, she has contributed to the department as a Student Ambassador, helping inform prospective students about the department and the admissions process. 

Newton has received the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue her graduate studies, and is a recipient of the J. and H. Hughes Fellowship. She received her undergraduate degree from Arizona State University, her master’s degree in ECE from University of Michigan, and is advised by Professors Laura Balzano and Peter Seiler.