Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
Olga Brudastova
Please describe any relevant past experience
I have been an organizer with GWC-UAW - the union for graduate workers of Columbia - for two and a half years. After the card drive and filing the petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) - December 2013 - I combined the role of an organizer with the one of a spokesperson. During this time, I have participated in personal conversations and town halls with hundreds of people both from the school of engineering and from many other departments, including natural sciences, humanities, and medical campus. This allows me to see a lot of common issues, as well as some disparities in benefits between SEAS and GSAS.
What are your goals/vision for your committees of choice? How do you think you can contribute to them?
I am currently starting my fourth year of the MS/PhD track, and I would be glad to share my experience of being a part of this school with new and continuing students. Being an international student, I closely relate to many difficulties that we face in our daily life here, as well as numerous disadvantages that we are given, for example, with regards to external funding opportunities. I would like to transform my experience of organizing with the union into organizing with EGSC to reduce these frustrations. I have witnessed how successfully GSAC collaborates with the union, and I would not like EGSC to miss out on such an opportunity!
Any other relevant information you would like to share
My research is in the field of stochastic mechanics; to be more specific, our group applies Wiener Path Integrals (WPI) to solve structural mechanics problems and develop a more robust technique to calculate probability distributions for structural systems than Monte Carlo Simulations (MCS). My current work considers colored noise as an external load and modeling such conditions with the use of pre-filters.
JING SUN
Please describe any relevant past experience
During my undergraduate studies, I managed to make time for extracurricular activities and took every opportunity that was offered to me such as fund-raisings for families in need, entrepreneurial business competitions as well as internships at various business settings.
What are your goals/vision for your committees of choice? How do you think you can contribute to them?
My goal is to better understanding the current issues and concerns of current graduate students and find the best solutions to solve them. In addition, I think holding department events would build better interactions between students. Through my undergraduate, I gained first-hand experiences in management, teamwork and leadership, and most importantly, skills in communicate and cooperate with professionals from other disciplines. I think being part of the department representative will help me to bring more benefits for graduate students.
Any other relevant information you would like to share
No.