Clayton, Suzanne C.; Dallo, Tessa D.; Dotson, Corey D.; Houston, Gwen H.; Kao, Mae-Ling K.; Kast, Keana K.; Kiegel, Kestrel K.; Mascarenas-Wells, Jordyn M.; Moreno, Eric M.; Sandoval, Lillian S.; Serrano-Smith, Ricardo S.; Brake, Matthew R.; Negus, Michaela N.; Todorova, Gergana T.
This report analyzes the results of a study on culture and its capability to influence research. The study occurred during the 2016 Nonlinear Mechanics and Dynamics Summer Research Institute, a six-week research program sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico consisting of 27 graduate students participating in ten different projects. Two separate surveys were administered at the beginning and end of the Institute, in addition to interviews and observation, in order to study the effects of various cultural factors on engineering processes and maintaining professional interactions. The results of this study indicate that cultural differences are not a significant barrier to engineering progress and most cultural issues are minor. A variety of cultures instead provide new perspectives, advancing universal understanding.
A collaborative research institute was organized and held at Sandia Albuquerque for a period of six weeks. This research institute brought together researchers from around the world to work collaboratively on a set of research projects. These research projects included: developing experimental guidelines for studying variability and repeatability of nonlinear structures; decoupling aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty in measurements to improve dynamic predictions; a numerical round robin to assess the performance of five different numerical codes for modeling systems with strong nonlinearities; and an assessment of experimentally derived and numerically derived reduced order models. In addition to the technical collaborations, the institute also included a series of seminars given by both Sandians and external experts, as well as a series of tours and field trips to local places of scientific and engineering importance. This report details both the technical research and the programmatic organization of the 2014 Sandia Nonlinear Mechanics and Dynamics Summer Research Institute.