Angela Mink—Research Award
Major
Civil Engineering
Post-graduation plans
Run away to Europe for a month to eat lots of cheese and drink wine, then start a PhD program at CU Boulder as a GAANN Fellow.
What accomplishment are you most proud of, either academically or personally?
I am most proud of the relationships I have built throughout my time at CU Boulder. I made life-long friends and met splendid colleagues and inspirational mentors.
You won a research award from the College of Engineering and Applied Science. What is your research focused on?
As a geotechnical researcher in the CIEST laboratory, I used our massive 400g-ton centrifuge to model tsunami waves over a sand bed. The centrifuge is such a novel tool— it induces up to 400 times the Earth's gravity, allowing small-scale models to 'feel' as heavy as if it were life-sized. This let me study the force of a tsunami-sized wave over a deep sand bed in a metal box, just a few cubic feet in volume. When the wave passes over the sand bed, it increases pore water pressure between soil grains, weakening the soil at various depths. While this behavior is still not fully understood, unlocking it is essential to improving the design of civil engineering infrastructure.
What inspired your research project?
There is a growing need to develop more efficient designs that use less concrete and reduce environmental impact. At the same time, we must adapt our infrastructure to withstand increasingly severe weather events, including tsunamis and storm surges to river floods and hurricanes. My research aims to help advance civil engineering to meet these challenges and promote a more sustainable future. It is our duty as civil engineers to protect both people and the planet, and I hope my future research accomplishes that.
Tell us about a moment when you felt like you hit your stride or felt like you were “officially” an engineer.
When I loaded my wave box (a physical model used in geotechnical engineering to simulate wave action) into the centrifuge for my first experiment, I was immediately drawn to the technical machinery and the tinkering that came along with assembling my model. I felt like such an engineer, pressurizing air tanks, soldering sensors and sitting in the centrifuge control room. At times I was the leader, guiding an awesome team to complete the task at hand.
What is your biggest piece of advice for incoming engineering students?
My advice to future students in research is to recognize the power they hold. Every individual contribution strengthens the collective effort to achieve greatness. You have the power to change lives, so use that potential to build a career, and a life, you're proud of.