Digital Twins & Simulation
Build models of vehicles, robots, and machines. Investigate operating conditions, optimize designs, and develop virtual testing workflows.
EXPERIENCE BUILT THROUGHFord Research & InnovationStellantis Research & DevelopmentTwinDroid Founder
eWishHub Founder
01 / HOW I CAN HELP
Complex systems.
Clearer decisions.
Through TwinDroid, I bring modeling, virtual testing, & controls together to help you create digital twins of your machines/robots/vehicles and evaluate their performance before building prototypes.
Controls that Connect Theory to Motion
Develop and evaluate robust & optimal control strategies for active suspension, steer by wire, and trajectory tracking—with the system’s physical behavior in mind.
Vehicle Dynamics & Durability Workflows
Study ride comfort, handling, and durability loads. Automate analysis and transfer CAE simulation methodologies so your team can build on the work.
02 / SELECTED WORK & EXPERIMENTS
Engineering in action.
From full-vehicle simulation to robotics and software. Explore the models, methods, and working demonstrations.
Active suspension, tested virtually
Control development with vehicle models exceeding 500 degrees of freedom. Blue: active suspension; red: passive.
H∞ - LQR - Skyhook - Vehicle Dynamics / 2024
Keeping autonomous vehicles on track
Trajectory and speed tracking using sliding mode control, PID, and torque vectoring.
Sliding Mode Control - Quadratic Optimization / 2024
From app idea to cloud-connected product
iOS and Android development with Flutter, backed by AWS services and CI/CD.
Mobile App - AWS - Flutter / 2021
Understanding a vehicle before the prototype
Virtual analysis of handling, ride comfort, and durability loads using multibody simulation.
Multibody Dynamics Simulation / 2018
Taking vehicle models off the beaten path
Challenging off-road and stair-climbing simulations in ADAMS/Car.
Vehicle Modeling - Vehicle Dynamics / 2019
Predictive control for lane changes
A Python implementation of model predictive control for vehicle maneuvers.
Control Theory / 2023
Trajectory tracking on six wheels
PID control of a six-wheel robot, developed in MATLAB.
Control Theory / 2009
Smaller models, useful system behavior
Model-reduction methods for multibody systems, including suspension models.
Proper Orthogonal Decomposition / 2014
Reducing equations of motion
Investigating uncontrollable and unobservable systems.
Model Reduction / 2014
A robot built for uneven terrain
Programming a mobile robot for an all-terrain robotics competition.
Robot / 2009
Teaching an ABB robot to write
Manipulator programming that turns names into controlled motion.
Robot/Manipulator Programming / 2011
THE ENGINEER BEHIND THE WORK
Khánh Nguyễn
Mechatronics engineer.
Researcher. Builder. Founder.
MY WORKBENCH
03 / ABOUT ME
I connect the math
to the machine.
The most useful engineering model is one that helps you make a better decision. That idea connects my work in vehicle dynamics, advanced controls, and software development.
At Stellantis, I developed virtual road load data acquisition methods to study ride, handling, and durability through full-vehicle simulation. My work at Ford’s Research & Innovation Center has focused on active suspension, steering controls, and software-in-the-loop evaluation—bringing control algorithms and detailed vehicle models together.
I founded TwinDroid Inc. to bring that experience to teams building vehicles, robots, and machines. I can help translate a physical problem into a model, use simulation to compare approaches, and develop the controls and analysis tools needed to move the work forward.
My foundation is in mechatronics and applied mathematics, with a master’s degree from the University of Waterloo and the First Prize in Algebra at Vietnam’s National Mathematics Olympiad. Building mobile apps with Flutter and AWS has also taught me to think beyond the algorithm—to the people using the product and the systems that keep it running.
I bring curiosity, technical depth, and a hands-on approach. If you have a difficult dynamics or controls problem, I’d welcome a conversation.
Tell me what you’re building04 / BACKGROUND
A foundation in research.
A career in building.
Experience across automotive engineering, applied research, and entrepreneurship.
Education
Master of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering
Jan 2012 - Apr 2014
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
- Thesis: Model Reduction for Vehicle Systems Modelling.
- Courses: Vehicle Dynamics Systems - Dynamics of Multi-body Systems - Computational Intelligence - Applied Functional Analysis.
Bachelor of Engineering in Mechatronics with Honours & Diplôme d’Ingénieur
Sept 2005 - Jul 2010
Training Program for Excellence Engineers (PFIEV)
Ho Chi Minh city University of Technology, Vietnam
INPG Grenoble Institute of Technology, France
- GPA: 8.46 in Top 1% of The University
Honours & Awards
6 Pending Patents
2025 to 2026 - US
Graduate Research Studentship - University of Waterloo $35,000/year
2012 to 2014 - Canada
Green Belt of Design For Six Sigma (DFSS) - Suspension Optimization for Washout Events
2018
Kaizen Recognition: Optimization for Washout Analysis
2015
Consolation Prize of Scientific-Research-Students Award from Vietnamese Education and Training Ministry
2011 - Vietnam
TOYOTA Scholarship
2009
Intel Vietnam Engineering Scholarship
2009
Masuda Scholarship
2005 to 2009
Professional Experience
Founder — TwinDroid Inc. - Create Digital Twin for Your Droid
2026 - Present
US & Canada
- Digital twins of vehicles, robots, and machines: Build detailed models in ADAMS and CarSim, create software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop testing environments, and evaluate performance under operating and failure conditions.
- Machine and vehicle controls: Develop robust and optimal controllers in C++, MATLAB/Simulink, and Python, using methods including ADRC, LQR, H∞, and sliding mode control. Develop calibration methods alongside the algorithms.
- Vehicle dynamics and durability: Model full vehicles with more than 500 degrees of freedom, simulate maneuvers on digitized roads, assess ride and handling, and generate suspension and body loads for durability analysis.
- Methodology transfer: Train engineering teams in vehicle modeling, virtual road load acquisition, and dynamics analysis using ADAMS/Car and MATLAB/Simulink.
Research Engineer - Advanced Chassis - Ford Research & Innovation Center
2023 - Present
Dearborn, MI, US
- Active suspension: Develop control algorithms using H∞, LQR, Skyhook, Groundhook, fuzzy logic, sliding mode, ADRC, and backstepping methods.
- Steer-by-wire and lateral control: Develop controllers for rack and pinion motion, driving torque, and brake torque.
- Software-in-the-loop evaluation: Combine ADAMS/Car and Simulink to evaluate active suspension and lateral control algorithms in detailed vehicle simulations.
Founder — eWishHub Inc..
2021 - 2024
Ontario, Canada
- eWishHub: Built a shopping app to track wishlist prices across retailers and notify users of price drops.
- Mobile and cloud development: Developed mobile apps with Flutter and AWS backends, including HTTP APIs, DynamoDB, Lambda, Fargate, SNS, and CI/CD workflows.
- Software engineering: Built and debugged applications and data workflows using Python, C++, C, JavaScript, VBA, SQL, Scrapy, Selenium, NumPy, and scikit-learn.
- Entrepreneurship: Gained hands-on experience navigating product decisions, uncertainty, and customer needs.
Multi-body Dynamics Engineer - Stellantis N.V.
2014 - 2023
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
- Virtual road load data acquisition: Developed the vRLDA methodology to evaluate vehicle dynamics, handling, ride comfort, and durability loads through simulation at virtual proving grounds.
- Controller integration: Integrated trajectory tracking, throttle and braking control, ABS, and adaptive damping into full-vehicle models through MATLAB/Simulink and ADAMS/Car co-simulation.
- Multibody modeling: Built full-vehicle models with rigid and flexible components using MSC ADAMS/Car, Altair MotionView, and nCode, covering suspension, steering, brakes, powertrain, cab, and frame.
- Production application: Applied vRLDA in production engineering and correlated simulation results with measurements from Chelsea and Arizona proving grounds and public roads.
- Suspension optimization: Used Design for Six Sigma methods and vRLDA to optimize suspension performance for washout events.
- Workflow automation: Created Python, C Shell, and VBA scripts for post-processing and engineering data workflows.
- Cross-functional engineering: Worked with design, release, vehicle dynamics, testing, and FEA teams on platforms including the 2021 Jeep Grand Wagoneer and 2023 Ram 1500 REV.
- Knowledge sharing: Mentored incoming members of the loads group and shared analysis methods across the team.
05 / LET’S BUILD SOMETHING
What challenge
are you working on?
A new machine. A difficult control problem. A simulation workflow that needs to go further. Tell me where you are and what you want to achieve.
Start a conversation