Behind the Blades: Future Wind Energy Leaders Earn Their Stripes as NREL Interns

Behind the Blades: Future Wind Energy Leaders Earn Their Stripes as NREL Interns

From Wind Workforce Development To Floating Offshore Wind, NREL Interns Spark Wind Energy Advancements-and Build Crucial Skills for Clean Energy Careers

Six undergraduate- and graduate-level interns shared their NREL wind energy internship experiences. Pictured here are (top row, from left) Bianca Calderon, Kyle Devlin, Storm Mata, (bottom row, from left) Vishnu Sankar Manivasakan, Anjal Paudel, and Leah Sirkis.

A record-breaking 467 undergraduate- and graduate-level college students completed internships at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) during the 2024-2025 school year.

Through programs like the U.S. Department of Energy's Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship, Research Participant Program, and the Graduate Education Minority Program, interns gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art technologies, strengthen their professional networks, and support NREL's mission to deliver solutions for a clean energy economy.

NREL's National Wind Technology Center hosted 36 interns for the summer. The Leading Edge caught up with six of those interns to learn about their work, achievements, and hopes for the future.

Bianca Calderon, who is working on a Master of Science in environmental policy and renewable sustainable energy from the University of Colorado Boulder, supported wind energy workforce and development efforts under the mentorship of NREL researcher Brinn McDowell. Calderon helped develop the upcoming Wind Works Forum, a virtual career fair to help high school and college students discover pathways to jobs in wind energy.

"We will have speakers, program opportunity panels focused on both internships and apprenticeships, daily keynote speakers, and daily networking events," Calderon said. "We encourage students, industry members, educators, and training program coordinators to attend."

Set to graduate next spring, Calderon hopes to continue to help create opportunities for individuals from different backgrounds to join the field of renewable energy.

Kyle Devlin graduated from the Pennsylvania State University last spring and will begin working on a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering at Princeton University this fall. During his NREL internship, Devlin contributed to the analysis of flexible wind turbine blade structures at low computational cost under the guidance of his mentor, Pietro Bortolotti. His work addressed the challenges posed by increasing blade sizes and weight reduction efforts that lead to fatigue issues.

"My internship experience provided me with valuable computational experience," Devlin said. "That experience will aid in my future doctoral studies on experimental fluid dynamics at high Reynolds numbers for wind turbine applications."

Storm Mata, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctoral student, joined NREL researchers Eliot Quon and Regis Thedin in the effort to find new ways to model how daily changes in weather affect wind turbine performance. This research explored a new area beyond Mata's usual focus on rotor aerodynamics and turbine power production.

"Through collaboration with experts like Quon and Thedin, I developed new skills and am grateful for the support I received," Mata said.

After completing his Ph.D. in environmental fluid mechanics, Mata hopes to continue advancing wind energy technology in a national laboratory or industry setting.

Vishnu Sankar Manivasakan is pursuing a master's degree in computational science and engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and expects to graduate in spring 2025. As an intern under NREL researcher Stein Housner, Manivasakan focused on reducing costs and improving energy efficiency for floating offshore wind turbines through parametric, gradient-based design optimization. He built an optimization framework for NREL's Response Amplitudes of Floating Turbines tool to explore design space and deliver optimal solutions, and he published the framework on GitHub.

"Meeting and brainstorming with others at NREL has been thrilling for me, and publishing on the GitHub repository with my mentor was a rewarding experience," Manivasakan said. "Even though it's time to move on from NREL, Housner's vision inspired me, and I plan to complete my master's thesis aligned with that vision."

Anjal Paudel, another Stein Housner mentee, consolidated descriptions of various components of offshore wind turbine mooring systems from different manufacturers into one document and analyzed seafloor data to determine seabed characteristics. Paudel expects to graduate from the City College of New York in spring 2025 with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering and to continue his studies.

"I hope to work in the renewable energy industry," Paudel said. "And, given my experience at NREL, I might pursue a career in research."

Leah Sirkis, who graduated from the University of Maine in 2023 with a Master of Science in mechanical engineering, is working under NREL researcher Ericka Lozon as a mooring engineering intern. In her role, Sirkis assists with designing and modeling floating offshore wind farms. Driven by this experience, Sirkis aspires to pursue a career in floating offshore wind energy research.

"Each day as an NREL intern presents a fun challenge," Sirkis said, "but my biggest task has been to help integrate various modeling software, design information, and site data into one system to simplify low-fidelity modeling of floating wind at the farm level."

Interested in an internship at NREL? Learn more about our internship opportunities, as well as other ways you can work with NREL's wind energy program.

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