Scholar Stories: Albano Driving for Success in Robotics, Graduate Experience
1/25/2024 2:12:00 PM | Ice Hockey
Continuing the series that began in 2016-17, each week MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories, presented by Absopure.
By Jillian Fishback
Graduate student Andrew Albano has a long list of successful academic, athletic and professional accomplishments, but he never imagined playing ice hockey at the University of Michigan would be one of them.
"I used to talk about Michigan with my goalie partner my junior year at Norwich," he said. "I had just gotten into an honor society for engineering, and one of the things they advertised was a scholarship for Michigan and at the time, he was joking around with me that I should apply to it like, 'Hey, what if you get a scholarship?'. All of a sudden then, 'Hey, maybe you should maybe call the coach'.
"I had no idea I was even going to end up going to grad school at the time. I didn't really know what was in store for me next, and then two years later, I'm suddenly getting on the phone with the coach. So had I ever expected it, I'd never really take any of those thoughts seriously. And suddenly, I was in a position that could open that door for me. So it just kind of came full circle, all these little things lined up in the right ways. And I couldn't be more grateful for that."
Albano came to the University of Michigan as a student in the robotics graduate program after playing at Division III Norwich.
"There was an atmosphere that's really hard to describe to somebody who hasn't lived through it; we were in the middle of nowhere, so all we had was each other," he said. "And that made our team so close."
Though his career started off slow on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, he learned to make the most of his time as a student-athlete there.
"There were only a few games that year," Albano said, "nothing that really meant anything. Yes, we were really fortunate to practice, and we found ways to be close as a team and bond, even though we had to deal with the social distancing.
"I looked to find positivity through that, whereas I think some of my teammates struggled at the time to see the good things that were still coming up, I was thankful that I was still there getting the education that I wanted."
Albano earned Academic All-America honors at the completion of his junior year and graduated in 2023 with a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering.
Since arriving in the Midwest, Albano has quickly begun to make an impact on and off the ice. Outside of schoolwork, he exercises his passion for autonomous vehicles and research.
"A lot of people think that with self-driving vehicles we're going to have more Tesla's on the road, but that's not necessarily the only thing with self-driving cars," he said. "Some of the other uses are in warehouses, factories and helping for manufacturing so it can improve efficiency, and that, I think is where I found some interest as well."
Working with two Ph.D. students last semester, Albano helped simulate a two-wheeled vehicle able to drive from one location to another.
"You pick points on the grid and say, 'OK, drive there,' be prepared with the equations of motion, the control system and algorithms and feedback systems so that we could drive appropriately in a realistic manner," Albano said.
"It would have to find a way not just from where we want to get from point A to point B, but how do we get from point A to point B safely? So sometimes we would have other vehicles driving and avoid those. Or making it almost like a maze, where we'd have to go through the maze to find this endpoint."
Albano continues to hone his skills with a keen passion for the methodology behind his research.
"We used MATLAB and Simulink, so I started diving into how they approached it, how some of those areas that I didn't see at the time actually work and run," he said. "I've been transferring it over into another programming language; not only have I taught myself how it worked, but now I'm also working on a new language so I have some more experience in another field.
"I just know that I love the industry that I'm in so I think I'm the kind of person who, whatever I do, I find enjoyment and I feel fulfilled by it, as long as it's challenging me and I get to work hard at it. Anything that kind of gives me those two things, I feel fulfilled with."
Albano contributes to the Wolverines not only protecting the cage, but through hard work, determination and drive. As one of the team's newest additions, he values the time he spends with his team the most.
"There's just so much you can say about some of the great things about being here, but I'd say it has to be being able to spend so much time with this team," Albano said. "I think that you're going to get that same answer from just about anybody. It's something special here.
"The players that we have, you know, it's something that I haven't experienced, being so welcomed, especially having had such a different pathway to get here. Being able to come in, work hard, and be accepted and welcomed the way that I did -- it was amazing."
