Go With the (Atmospheric) Flow: A Former NREL Wind Energy Intern Comes Full Circle

Go With the (Atmospheric) Flow: A Former NREL Wind Energy Intern Comes Full Circle

Kelly Huang, a Kalsi assistant professor at the University of Houston, reflects on her transformative journey from NREL wind energy intern at NREL to educator, inspiring the next generation of engineers with real-world research opportunities. Photo from Kelly Huang

Kelly Huang was on the fence as she wrapped up her junior year as a mechanical engineering major at Cornell University. Senior year was fast approaching, and then graduation, and then the rest of her life. Should she seek a career in industry or academia? Should she pursue a master's degree? A Ph.D.?

Luckily, Huang had landed an internship with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) Program. For 10 weeks that summer, Huang supported NREL's research on offshore wind energy, collaborating with leading researchers and gaining experience that shaped her future career.

"I fell in love with atmospheric flows, fluid dynamics, and the hands-on aspects of fieldwork: going out, collecting data, and using instrumentation that we built ourselves," Huang recalled. "Those 10 weeks showed me what research could really be like."

During her internship, Huang developed code for optimizing the dimensions of floating offshore wind turbine spar structures, which are long, vertical, floating components that extend deep into the water and allow the turbine to float without being anchored to the seabed. The team's end goal was to integrate this code into NREL's Wind Plant Integrated System Design and Engineering Model (WISDEM), which helps analyze how different parts of a wind energy system work together in order to find ways to improve performance and lower costs.

"The coding part was helpful for gaining basic engineering skills," Huang said. "But more importantly, the whole experience showed me that there's a whole community of scientists working on similar problems. It gave me the courage to pursue a Ph.D., which had seemed like a very daunting task up to that point."

A Journey of Growth and Giving Back

Ten weeks passed, the internship concluded, and Huang completed her senior year, graduating with a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering. During her senior year, she applied and was accepted to Princeton University, where she earned a master of arts and a Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering. Today, Huang is a Kalsi assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston. Huang recently returned to NREL to participate in the Faculty-Applied Clean Energy Sciences (FACES) program-another 10-week program that gave her the opportunity to collaborate with researchers and enhance her research skills.

The FACES program aims to bridge the gap between national laboratories and faculty at minority-serving institutions. Participants work with NREL researchers to enhance their expertise in clean energy science, develop scalable educational modules, and receive mentorship. Huang used field data from NREL's AWAKEN campaign to build a curriculum for a class she is launching called "Introduction to Environmental Fluid Dynamics."

"Students will use open-source data, like the data from the AWAKEN campaign, for independent projects on environmental fluid mechanics," Huang said. "This will expose students to real-world research so that they can gain experience with data analysis and scientific inquiry."

For Huang, participating in the FACES program brought her full circle in several ways.

"I grew up in Houston and really appreciated the diverse, multicultural community there," Huang said. "That was one reason why I accepted my position at the University of Houston. It inspired me to give back to that community. I was happy to see NREL also recognize the importance of supporting diverse communities through education and research communities."

Huang also reconnected with NREL researcher Senu Sirnivas, her supervisor from her SULI internship.

"He told me that my code had been integrated into the WISDEM tool and that researchers still use it, which was really cool to learn," Huang said. "He was already supportive during the internship, and this time, he was excited to catch up and went out of his way to advise me on navigating my role as a professor and the challenges that come with it."

Upon visiting the NREL campus again, Huang was pleased to see how the wind energy internship cohort has grown over the years.

"When I started, there were only eight of us at the wind site," Huang recalled. "Now, there are so many interns, they have to do separate cohorts because onboarding is taking so long. Which is a great problem to have-it means the program is thriving."

Huang's internship also fostered lasting connections among its participants.

"I still keep in contact with my internship cohort," Huang said. "One of them is an assistant professor of mathematics at University of Seattle, one of them is a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark, and a few work in the clean energy industry."

Huang plans to encourage her colleagues in academia to apply for the FACES program and also to get her students involved with NREL through SULI and other internship programs.

"Working with NREL as a SULI intern and later as a FACES partner were such valuable experiences," Huang said. "They both changed the course of my career."

Visit NREL's internships page to learn more about the wide variety of programs available to undergraduate and graduate students. Check out the FACES program page to learn how you can enhance your research skills with expertise in clean energy science.

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