Thomas Scott, a third-year undergraduate student in mechanical engineering, has been named the 2023 Foster Fellow. The John S. Foster Jr. Undergraduate Fellowship was founded to honor Foster’s contribution to Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) and national security issues.
According to the Livermore Lab Foundation’s website, “The intent of this wonderful new fellowship is to pair students with a laboratory technical mentor in a summer project that both provides a learning experience for the student and contributes to a topic important to national security.” As a fellow, Scott will receive a summer stipend of $15,000.
“As the first Foster Fellow, I am honored to have the chance to explore my passion for computational engineering in the context of national defense,” said Scott. “This fellowship not only represents a tremendous opportunity for me to expand my knowledge and skills through working under nationally recognized scientists and engineers at LLNL, but also a responsibility to contribute to the national security of our nation by tackling challenging problems in science and engineering. The funds provided by this fellowship will also allow me to fully dedicate myself to advancing my knowledge in my field throughout my senior year and beyond.”
Scott first found his passion in programming and numerical methods through Assistant Professor Devina Sanjaya’s engineering analysis course (ME391). In fall 2022, he joined Sanjaya’s Scientific Computing and Fluid Dynamics Lab. Since then, Scott has been developing a high-order geometry node movement algorithm based on deep reinforcement learning to improve the approximation power of high-order finite-element meshes.
“It has been a privilege to advise him and watch his growth as an academic and as a researcher,” said Sanjaya.