STEM Stories inspires budding scientists, mathematicians

Posted at 9:13 am April 26, 2017
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Erin Webb, agricultural engineer at ORNL, answers a question from a student at ORAU STEM Stories on Thursday, April 20, 2017. (Photo by ORAU)

Real-life scientists discuss their work, share advice with students interested in pursuing STEM careers

Be kind and show up every day.

That’s the advice Erin Webb, an agricultural engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory gave to young people during ORAU’s second STEM Stories event on Thursday, April 20. STEM Stories gives students interested in STEM careers the opportunity to learn from and interact with scientists working in the region.

Webb works in bioenergy, specifically focused on finding solutions for transporting and storing large quantities of biomass like feedstocks for commercial use so it can be converted to energy. She was joined by Jibo Sanyal, a computer scientist at ORNL whose work focuses on geo-computing, which he described as using computers to solve problems like long-term weather concerns, the resilience of environments and more.

Webb told the 30 students and their parents gathered for the event that while STEM careers are all about math and science, they should never forget to factor in the people they work with. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

“I thought I could pick engineering and it would be all about machines and I wouldn’t really have to work with people. I was very naïve and completely wrong,” Webb said. “The mentors I’ve had and the teammates that I have are very important. My advice is to be kind.”

Sanyal, whose team uses the TITAN supercomputer, underscored the importance of working with other people. Collaboration allows for fresh thinking and new ideas.

“We work with scientists all over the world,” he said. “I know some things but I don’t know everything, so I need to work with other people.”

Webb also stressed the importance of showing up every day, no matter how difficult the work might be.

“For girls especially I’ve found that if you have a hard math class, if you have a difficult test, that girls think they’re not cut out for it, that math and science are abilities that you either have or you don’t,” Webb said.

Girls need to understand what boys seem to know instinctively: “If you show up the next day, keep working and keep going, everything works out,” Webb said. “(Math and science are) not about ability. It’s not innate. It really is about hard work, and it is possible to work to the next level.”

This story and photos were submitted by Michael Holtz of ORAU.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Jibo Sanyal, computer engineer at ORNL, speaks to a group of 30 students and their parents about geo-computing during ORAU’s second STEM Stories event on Thursday, April 20, 2017. (Photo by ORAU)

Do you appreciate this story or our work in general? If so, please consider a monthly subscription to Oak Ridge Today. See our Subscribe page here. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.

If you appreciate our work, please consider subscribing. Besides helping us, your subscription will give you access to our premium content.

Most of our stories are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our members—advertisers, subscribers, and sponsors.

But some are premium content, available only to members. Those are in-depth, investigative, or exclusive stories that are available only on Oak Ridge Today. They generally require at least four hours to report, write, and publish.

You can subscribe for as little as $5 per month.

You can read more about your options here.

We currently offer five primary subscription options to readers, and they include benefits.

Basic

Basic monthly subscription ($5 per month)—access premium content
Basic annual subscription ($60 per year)—access premium content

Pro

Pro monthly subscription ($10 per month)—access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month
Pro annual subscription ($100 per year)—save $20 per year, access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month

Temporary

Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here.

We also accept donations. You can donate here.

If you prefer to send a check for a subscription or donation, you may do so by mailing one to:

Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831

Thank you for your consideration and for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support.

We welcome comments, but we ask you to follow a few guidelines:

1) Please use your real name, including last name. Please also use a valid e-mail address.
2) Be civil. Don't insult others, attack their character, or get personal.
3) Stick to the issues.
4) No profanity.
5) Keep your comments to a reasonable length and to a reasonable number per article.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these guidelines. Comments held for review, usually from those posting for the first time, may not post if they violate these guidelines. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you also for reading Oak Ridge Today and for participating in the discussion.

More information is available here.