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Please meet Gabe Altman, NSI Intern. Gabe works closely with Calvin Chan, Senior Research Associate in Cybersecurity. They work closely with partners across industry, universities, national laboratories, DOD and DOE to develop more secure and resilient information systems that impact not only military preparedness and operations, but also global commerce and daily civilian life. 

Q: Hi, Gabe. Thank you for chatting with us.

My pleasure, thanks for the opportunity to be interviewed!

Q: Can you tell us a little about yourself? Where are you from, what you plan on studying, etc.? 

I came to Colorado from sunny south Florida on a mission to redefine the trajectory of my life by becoming an engineer. I was looking for a fulfilling career that would challenge me on a daily basis. Studying electrical engineering at CU Boulder certainly provided challenges!  It’s been a life changing journey. Before coming to CU, I worked as a bicycle mechanic, welder, machinist, EMT, and a handful of other interesting jobs. I’m glad to say that I received my B.S.E.E. in May of 2022, and now I can call myself “Engineer.” My future plan is to stay at CU to earn my Masters degree in electrical engineering.

Q: What drew you to working with NSI?

It’s an opportunity to work one-on-one with distinguished researchers, and to explore problems in engineering that I never knew existed. Working with NSI has allowed me to develop skills with computational tools, and to apply the theoretical knowledge that I gained as an undergraduate student at CU. 

Q: What do you hope to get out of your internship with NSI? 

I’d like to see the research project that I’m working on get published, and to see the results of that research being applied to real-world applications. NSI has also given me an opportunity to network with a community of researchers, which I hope will help me to find meaningful work after I graduate.

Q: Can you tell us a little about your current work?

Electronic devices are vulnerable to damage or glitches if they are exposed to strong electromagnetic impulses. We’re trying to build a multiphysics model that explains how these impulses effect microchips. If our model is accurate, perhaps it can lead to methods of designing circuits which are robustly protected from electromagnetic impulses. 

Q: Thank you. Do you have anything else to add about NSI or your current goals or work?

I’m grateful to have the opportunity to be working with NSI. It’s been a long road from bicycle mechanic to electrical engineer, and if you had asked me 20 years ago what I would be doing today, I would never in my wildest dreams have guessed the answer would be modeling electromagnetic effects for NSI. I’d love to build on this work while studying at CU, complete my degree, and then find work in industry or at a national laboratory! Who knows, there could even be a PhD. in my future!