MY EXPERIENCE
POWER ENGINEER / RESEARCHER, INL
June 2021 - Present
After working as an intern and graduate fellow for INL, I was excited to join the lab full time in the Infrastructure Security department. My focus is on cybersecurity and resilience for distributed energy resources, with a special focus on distributed wind.
GRADUATE FELLOW, INL
May 2020 - June 2021
As a graduate fellow for Idaho National Laboratory, my goal was to bring together the expertise from the labs and my university to create a well-rounded Master's thesis project. My focus for my graduate fellowship was on integrating DER into electric utility systems in order to support the grid under unstable conditions, and consider how these would change under adverse cyber scenarios.
GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT, UIUC
August 2019 - May 2021
My GRA was co-funded by my two advisers, Dr. Pete Sauer and Dr. Kirill Levchenko. My power-focused project considered the integration of DER into the bulk energy system, and specifically studies the communication interface between DER and a utility as mandated by the IEEE 1547 2018 standard. We propose potential cyber threats that take advantage of new abilities allowed in the revised standard, model these scenarios, and propose mitigations. In another take on cyber-physical security, I examined the potential for spoofing radio altimeter signals to commercial aircraft. My contribution was examining documentation of various on-board systems and predicting how the systems will respond to a spoofed signal, then designing models and tests to show this. My final project was a collaboration with UCSD to examine vulnerabilities in key computers on board aircraft and performing hardware experiments to show how these vulnerabilities may be exploited.
CONTROL SYSTEMS SUPPORT INTERN, EXXONMOBIL
June 2019 - August 2019
In this role my primary project was to test commercial, open-source, and in-house honeypot solutions to be deployed on control networks. I did a lot of research ahead of time, and narrowed down options from each to test. I qualified my tests so I could compare the honeypots, and recommended a solution at the end of the summer. I also worked on a project to visualize cybersecurity metrics from sites around the world and to make it easier to maintain these metrics over the next years and compare year to year progress.
CYBERCORE PROGRAMS INTERN, INL
February 2019 - May 2019
As a part-time, remote intern, my primary goal with this role was to learn about what different projects are possible at INL and to prepare for applying for a fellowship with INL. My work objectives were to study supply chain security in utility equipment. I tracked known vulnerabilities from different vendors and tried to draw comparisons of similarities and differences across different vendors.
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER INTERN, EXXONMOBIL
May 2018 - August 2018
After interning twice with a national lab, I wanted to have an experience in industry. I was excited to have an opportunity with a power specialty. As an electrical engineer intern, I learned a lot about motors, compressors, and power distribution at a site level. I especially appreciated the opportunities to shadow engineers who were commissioning equipment or debugging processes in the field. My power projects included specifying and taking bids for a large space motor, creating the relay settings for a redone substation. After expressing an interest in cybersecurity, I was also able to evaluate cybersecurity practices of the instrumentation team at the refinery, and make proposals for the most cost-effective improvements.
PEER TEACHING ASSISTANT,
TEXAS A&M
January 2017 - December 2017
As a peer teaching assistant for two semesters, I was able to help teach two separate classes. In class, I answered questions during in-class activities. I graded assignments, quizzes, and tests, and was a team leader both semesters for my classes. The second semester, the format of the class changed, and I led two separate recitation sections. It was a great experience in learning how to teach in a variety of different settings, from one-on-one, to small group, to full classroom size.
TECHNICAL INTERN, SANDIA NATIONAL LABS
May 2017 - June 2017
In my second summer with the Sensor Exploitation Application group, my primary project was to independently develop a quality-assurance test of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images in MATLAB. I also worked to collect high resolution satellite imagery which was used for building a database of images.
R&D INTERN, SANDIA NATIONAL LABS
May 2016 - August 2016
I was very excited to get an internship in an area relevant to my major after just my first year in college. I didn't know exactly what I was getting in to, but my team, the Sensor Exploitation Applications group did a great job of challenging me and using the skills I was already developing in school. I supported outdoor data collections with setup, ground truth data, and data consolidation. I analyzed data from images, radar, and energy signatures by writing and modifying MATLAB code for each problem. I also improved the speed and accuracy of material identification by designing and running tests on pre-collected data.