{"id":5034,"date":"2026-05-13T15:09:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/?post_type=profiles&#038;p=5034"},"modified":"2026-08-10T11:41:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T15:41:50","slug":"ethan-chow","status":"publish","type":"profiles","link":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/profiles\/ethan-chow\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethan Chow"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Chow-Ethan-edited.jpg\" alt=\"by Corban Swain\" class=\"wp-image-5683\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1;object-fit:cover;width:241px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Chow-Ethan-edited.jpg 400w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Chow-Ethan-edited-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chabot College<br>Faculty Advisor: Prof. Michael Howland<br>Research Supervisor: Ilan Upfal<br>Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:0px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Biography<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ethan Chow grew up in the California Bay Area and is a rising junior transferring to<br>UC San Diego to study electrical engineering. He is researching the joint influence of inflow<br>conditions and pitch angle on power production of wind turbines with the Howland Lab at MIT<br>as an MSRP 2026 intern. He spent four years at a California community college to discover<br>his passion, from robotics to 3D modeling until sustainability workshops turned his interest<br>in supporting the environment into a career direction. In summer 2025, he interned at SLAC<br>National Accelerator Laboratory, where he developed molecular dynamics simulations to<br>model the thermal response of tungsten in fusion environments. This sparked his excitement<br>about nuclear fusion\u2019s potential. He believes investing in others and the environment is key to<br>a fulfilling life, and he hopes to pursue a career advancing fusion energy. He enjoys practicing<br>piano, making glass paintings, and cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><br>C<strong>haracterizing the joint influence of atmospheric conditions and control setpoints<br>on wind turbine power production using field measurements<\/strong><br>Ethan M. Chow1, Ilan M. L. Upfal2, Alex Clerc3, and Michael F. Howland2<br>1Department of Engineering, Chabot College<br>2Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>3Renewable Energy Systems (RES) Group, United Kingdom<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><br>As demand for low-cost clean energy increases, improving the efficiency of wind farms is<br>becoming increasingly important. Currently, the control strategy of wind turbines, including the<br>rotational speed of the rotor and the pitch angle of the blades, is designed to maximize power<br>production assuming simplified inflow conditions. However, in realistic atmospheric boundary<br>layers, wind turbines experience complex inflow conditions in which the wind speed and<br>direction both change with height, known as wind speed shear and direction shear, respectively.<br>Recent studies have revealed that turbine power production depends significantly on the inflow<br>wind profile. Furthermore, current control strategies may no longer maximize power generation<br>for these realistic inflow conditions. In this project, we seek to understand how the blade pitch<br>angle affects power production under different complex inflow conditions. We analyze a six<br>month dataset collected at a commercial wind farm in Northern Ireland. The inflow wind profiles<br>are characterized using LiDAR measurements to determine the degree of wind speed and<br>direction shear. The objective of the investigation is to determine how the power-maximizing<br>pitch angle depends on the inflow wind profile. These findings can inform future turbine control<br>strategies which adapt to complex inflow conditions, increasing power production.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5394,"template":"","profile_category":[25],"class_list":["post-5034","profiles","type-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","profile_category-2026-interns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profiles"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5685,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5034\/revisions\/5685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"profile_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_category?post=5034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}