B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
M.S. and Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Washington.
Multiple structural design alternatives in an interactive real-time environment—a finite-element analysis package that can analyze and display the results of two different structures at the same time.
Increasing the functionality of finite-element-based, surgical-suturing simulators—a finite-element-based, surgical-simulation program that gave users both visual and force feedback while manipulating and cutting virtual soft tissue.
Undergrad: Evans Scholarship—a four-year tuition and housing scholarship for golf caddies; 1998 Fritz Corrigan Scholar of the Year.
Graduate: Valle Fellowship—a one-year fellowship awarded for scholastic aptitude; the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship.
I loved computers and math as a young child.
World-class scientists and engineers, convenient location, and the most interesting and challenging problems out of all the national labs.
As a Sandia intern, I enjoyed interacting with a broad range of intellectual backgrounds. My internship began with a three-month stint in the Enabling Predictive Simulation Research Institute (EPSRI) where I explored the behavior of silicon microneedles. I then spent the next three months developing parallel software to run biological-attack simulations. The advancements I made in code development were part of a Laboratory Directed Research & Development project, and the code was later used for further R&D and publications.
I am part of the Multiphysics Modeling and Simulation Department at Sandia/California. I am a developer for Presto, Sandia’s in-house explicit, transient, dynamic finite-element software package. My work is interesting because it is constantly changing. The Presto user community is quick to give me feedback regarding any changes I make to the code; I appreciate knowing that my work makes a difference in their lives.
Solid mechanics, parallel-software development, software engineering.
I develop software that runs on a 10,000-processor cluster…there are not too many places where you can do that.
Weightlifting, running, golfing, rock climbing, hiking, and camping.
Make sure you know what you want to get out of your internship. Then tell your mentor what that is both before you start and during the internship. The more you communicate with your mentor and take an active role in your internship, the more you will get out of your experience at Sandia.