Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Sloan Scholar Kristen Susuki: keeping our structures safe through better analysis

Structural engineering PhD student Kristen Susuki is a fourth-generation Japanese American who came to San Diego by way of the Midwest: she hails from St. Louis, Missouri and earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At UC San Diego, Susuki is researching a type of numerical analysis called meshfree methods, which are used to more accurately understand and model the durability of structures during catastrophic failure.

“Normally when you need to analyze a structure, you are looking to find stress, displacement, etc,” said Susuki. “To do that, you try to break down the structure into simple geometry. You may not know how an airplane will deform when loaded because its geometry is complex, but you can approximate it by using a bunch of simpler shapes like cubes and tetrahedra.” 

While this method of using smaller shapes to break down a larger, more complex problem—which is called finite element analysis—works, it isn’t as effective when testing a large deformation.

“That's where meshfree methods come in. Meshfree methods are really good at analyzing these types of problems because they treat everything like individual particles, so they have applications to a lot of "extreme" events—landslide problems, fracture, explosive welding, etc,” said Susuki. 

Susuki studies these analytical methods in the lab of JSChen, a professor of structural engineering at UC San Diego. The story of how she came to work in this lab is a lesson in taking advantage of every opportunity thrown your way and not letting fear get in the way.

“Right before I started applying to PhD programs, I drafted up a list of groups and PIs that I was really interested in working with. As if by a stroke of luck, one of the professors that was high on my list came to my university for a guest lecture. There was an email floating around asking people in my department to host the guest professor for an hour during the day to fill out his schedule. I signed up, but then started getting so nervous because I realized that the email was meant for faculty members and current grad students. I almost took my name off the list because I felt so underqualified to even talk to this professor. Thank goodness I didn't though. That professor was Prof. JS Chen of the Structural Engineering department at UC San Diego, my current PI. In that hour that I was hosting, we chatted about research and food and life. We really hit it off, and from then on I was pretty certain that UC San Diego was my top pick.”

Not only is Susuki now a student in Chen’s lab, but she also received a Sloan Scholar fellowship, awarded to 12 incoming UC San Diego graduate students each year. The fellowship is meant to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists of outstanding promise. Sloan Scholars receive a $40,000 award to be used over four years.

Outside of research, Susuki loves to travel—she’s been to 43 states and 23 countries spanning four continents. While she doesn’t have a favorite location—“every place I’ve been has been so unique”— she’s most excited for a trip to Japan that was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She’s also passionate about increasing female representation in her field of mechanics and in STEM in general.

“I remember in college, especially in my last two years, how few women were in my classes. The first time it happened, I was shocked. By the last time, I barely noticed because that had become the norm. Oftentimes, I was both the only woman and the only person of color in my classes, which felt overwhelming. Having mentors that looked like me really helped me overcome the self-doubt I was feeling because I was able to talk to them about their experiences as female engineers and relate to some of their struggles/frustrations. Representation played such an important role for me in my educational career, and I really want to pay it forward because it's hard to envision yourself doing something if you haven't seen anyone else like you do before.”

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