Sandia National Labs NM Partnerships Collaboration Report 2021-2022

Students who worked on LDRD projects supported through university partnerships supplemental funding in 2021 were invited to present their research at several virtual poster sessions hosted for SUPN Alliance Partners last year. This talent pipeline-focused activity allowed students to showcase their work in a larger forum for their schools and demonstrate their contributions to Sandia research. Andre Claudet, Sandia’s campus partnership manager (CPM) for Georgia Tech, said, “This event has a twofold benefit. It highlights the amazing student work enabled through contributions by our Alliance Partners while also conveying the breadth of problems being addressed by Sandia’s LDRD projects.” Nadine Miner, Sandia’s CPM for UT Austin, added, “By hosting this type of event, we’re also opening up the possibility for new partnerships beyond the initial projects the students are presenting on. It enables attendees to learn about projects and see opportunities for tangential collaborations.” Each student had five to 15 minutes to present their work with a moderator helping to feed them any questions coming through the chat. Students were also invited to sign up for Sandia’s Yello Talent Community list, allowing them to get more information on Sandia career opportunities and be be alerted to any Sandia-hosted events at their schools. Academic Programs Senior Manager Diane Peebles is a strong supporter of these talent pipeline events. She said, “These sessions make student researchers the stars. The supplemental LDRD funding may facilitate the collaboration, but their hard work and insight is an essential ingredient to many projects. We want to further student careers while furthering Sandia missions. ” Poster sessions highlight student contributions to Sandia projects

CONTRIBUTOR Spotlight

Brent Austgen is a PhD student in the Operations Research and Industrial Engineering program at UT Austin who presented last April on his contributions to a power grid resilience LDRD project. “The LDRD project blossomed first into a summer internship directly related to my research and now a year-round internship that is more loosely related under the umbrella of grid planning and resilience.”

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2021-2022 Collaboration Report