Going to college for an undergraduate degree is a big and sometimes scary commitment. Pursuing a graduate degree can be an even bigger challenge, even just making the decision on whether to go for graduate work can be terrifying. 希瓦娜·托雷斯，机械师 Engineering PhD student pushed through this boundary, taking her out-of-the-box thinking and putting it towards her research. 

 Sivana, a New Mexican native, completed her undergraduate at NMT in Petroleum Engineering. In her last couple years at NMT as an undergraduate student, she took a Thermodynamics 和博士一起上课. Hargather, saying she “really enjoyed the 液体 but didn’t realize how broad the applications could be.” This was a foundational moment in her decision 研究生课程. 

 

 She decided on staying at NMT for her graduate work because of how different Tech can be from other graduate schools. “威尼斯人app下载 was a great option for me, the opportunities here are just so much more hands-on than other research schools instead 所有的理论研究. I even get to be more in control of my research, running 我自己的实验和程序.” She’s even found that as a female researcher, she’s treated with the same respect and regard as her male counterparts. “我很紧张。 at first, entering a field that was almost exclusively male but the NMT graduate program has made me feel welcome and apart of the team.”

 Sivana even took a different approach to her graduate discipline than most students, she deviated from her undergraduate concentration. “我认为了解这一点很重要 that just because you got your undergrad in something does not mean you’re stuck in 那个盒子.” Most Petroleum Engineers, if pursuing graduate work, will typically just further their degree in Petroleum Engineering. Sivana decided to pursue her PhD to be in 机械工程, and despite both being engineering 度 they can have stark differences in education. Yet, Sivana found a way to harmoniously bring 把这两个学科放在一起. “I really liked the rock mechanics aspect of Petroleum Engineering but I also really loved the 液体 of 机械工程. 我的研究 has been the perfect marrying of the two for me.”

 Sivana is currently putting her research towards understanding how PMMA (Polymethyl Methacrylate) 骨折s and how shock waves propagate through the solid. PMMA是一种 industrial produced resin, synthesized using the polymerization of Methyl Methacrylate. It’s better known as acrylic or acrylic glass. To study this, she utilized schlieren imaging techniques to watch as the shockwaves spread through the medium. 

 Schlieren imaging makes use of the fact that light rays bend as they encounter changes 在流体的密度中. For schlieren imaging, a setup consisting of a light source (such as a candle or mercury vapor lamp), a slit for the light source to pass through, mirrors to reflect and create parallel light beams that will pass through the testing material, a razor’s edge to focus the beams and then a recording device. 通常 schlieren imaging is used with 液体 but “it can be used for anything that is optically clear, tracking any variations in pressure, temperature, density that will change 折射率.”

 Sivnana, using both her Petroleum and 机械工程 knowledge, wants to correlate the fracturing of the PMMA to rock mechanics. Rock mechanics is the study of the mechanical behavior of rocks, specifically in response to forces within their physical environment. It applies the concepts of engineer mechanics to rock structures created by mining, fracking or other geolomechanic constructions. She’s looking to apply the knowledge of PMMA fracturing, to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to see how 骨折s connect within bedrock when shockwaves are applied. 

 Sivana, in the future, is looking to bring variance into her experiments. 她想要的 to observe how layers versus no layers within the PMMA impacts the propagation of 冲击波. She’s also looking to apply stress to different layers within the PMMA to see how the 骨折s differ with respect to the stress. 这一切都在一个 effort to mimic the behavior of underground boreholes to see how she can best direct 骨折s and get them to “talk,” meaning have the 骨折s connect and interact 彼此之间. 

研究生 school can be a daunting decision for many students finishing up their undergraduate 度. Sivana Torres took the leap and is now getting to pursue hands-on research 她对. She thinks “everyone should give grad school a chance, I think 这是一个绝佳的机会...you should never feel like you’ve been put in a box by your undergrad work, research is limitless.”