In this week’s show, DesignSafe Radio host Dan Zehner talks with newly minted PhD, Barbara Simpson. Simpson discusses her academic path in engineering and what it’s like entering the workplace as a faculty member.
She says building things out of household articles as a kid naturally led to her career choice. She started in architecture, then switched to civil engineering. A pivotal experience for her was participating in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of Illinois — as part of the NSF-funded earthquake engineering initiative called “NEES.” The exposure to earthquake engineering changed her attitude toward academia. She learned about seismic engineering, doing research, and hybrid simulation. She interacted with postdocs and PhD students, wrote a paper and presented at a national conference — in Hawaii.
The hybrid simulation technique combines physical testing and numerical modelling, and researchers often use it when a structure is too large to test. They will physically test a portion of the structure and simulate the rest in a combined fashion that represents the whole system.
She went to UC Berkeley for her master’s degree, and she found earthquake engineering so interesting she decided to stay and earn her PhD. In research, she says, there’s always some new problem that needs to be solved. It is never the same thing twice.
As a graduate student, she focused on testing older types of braced frames, a structural element used to protect against earthquake damage, and saw lots of interesting failures.
Simpson and Zehner discuss the usefulness of modern earthquake-proof provisions, which standardize protective construction features. She wrote her thesis on a kind of braced frame called a strongback, a tie or truss that you put in buildings to prevent weak stories.
As a postdoc, Simpson worked at the NHERI SimCenter, where she created an application that is a learning tool for numerically modeling braced frames. Learning to program is an important aspect of being an engineer, she says. Programming languages are tools that can make research easier and more efficient.
Now on faculty at Oregon State University, she sees that unlike being a PhD student with one cool project to focus on, professors must work on many different things at once. It is harder to choose what to explore, she says. At OSU, the OH Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory presents interesting possibilities for experimentation. She’s interested in control theory, too. She says being a professor is the best job she could ever have: Your research is your choice, she says. Academics have a kind of freedom other careers don’t have.
She encourages new PhDs to apply for jobs, even if the competition is stiff. Even if you don’t get the job, making an application helps you summarize your PhD work and hone your teaching goals, she says. The application cements what you’ve accomplished and helps you figure out where your career is going.
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