NHERI REU Summer Program
REU Alumni Spotlight: Where are they now?
The NHERI ECO, in collaboration with the eleven NHERI facilities, has hosted the NHERI Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Summer Program since 2017, excluding 2020 due to COVID. Eight cohorts and 225 unique participants later, we wanted to share where NHERI REU alumni are now. Below, we spotlight a selection of participants with whom we have had the privilege of working. We will continue to add alumni over the coming weeks. If you are an alumnus and would like to be featured, we invite you to reach out to the ECO at reu-request@designsafe-ci.org.
Carmen Andrade von Hillebrandt is a first-year PhD student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Stanford University, where she works with Professor Greg Deierlein. She completed her master’s degree at Stanford where she was teaching assistant for undergraduate classes and began research with Prof. Deierlein. She double majored in Civil Engineering and Engineering & Public Policy (EPP) at Carnegie Mellon University. Originally from Puerto Rico, she is interested in how natural hazards affect the built environment and how engineering decisions can improve community resilience.
After her junior year at CMU, she participated in the NHERI REU at the SimCenter working with Dr. Kuanshi Zhong and Dr. Sang-Ri Yi on comparing surrogate modeling methods for predicting seismic structural response. As her first research experience, it introduced a new way of thinking about engineering problems. Her current research broadly focuses on understanding regional risk to the built environment from natural hazards.
"The NHERI REU opened the door to research for me and connected me to a community and professional network that continues to shape my career."
Anna Babchanik is a master’s student in Mechanics and Computation at Stanford University. She holds bachelor’s degrees in Civil Engineering and Mathematics from California State University, Sacramento. Her academic and professional experiences span both the public and private sectors, including work in dam safety, geotechnical earthquake engineering, and numerical modeling. Through the NHERI REU at the UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling, she worked on image analysis to investigate internal erosion in levees. Anna’s research interests lie at the intersection of geotechnical engineering, computational mechanics, and natural hazards, with a focus on developing simulation-based approaches to improve infrastructure safety and resilience. She is particularly interested in blending experimental insight with computational and data-driven methods to better understand the behavior of geomaterials. Her most recent research explores constitutive modeling and deep learning approaches for shale, investigating how physics-informed methods can enhance geomechanical simulations. Anna is also actively involved in engineering outreach and served as President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Stanford Student Chapter in 2025.
"The program gave me space to explore what I was curious about, helped define my interests in geotechnical engineering, and introduced me to a close-knit, supportive group of peers and mentors I’m still connected with today."
Brenna Derby recently graduated from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Environmental Engineering. In 2023, she participated in the NHERI REU at Oregon State University, gaining experience in large-scale experimental research focused on coastal processes. She is a graduate student, pursuing a degree in Ocean Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. In addition to her academic work, she is involved in the American Shore & Beach Preservation Association as a member of the Student & New Professionals group and a recipient of the Nicholas Kraus Coastal Scholar Award. She enjoys being a member of the NHERI Graduate Student Council and promoting the NHERI REU program to undergraduates.
Alanna DaRin is a Ph.D. student in Coastal Engineering at Texas A&M, where she specializes in drone-based environmental monitoring. Her work focuses on an emerging technique that uses aerial footage of ocean waves to measure surface current speed and direction through analyzing wave patterns. This work has potential applications in tracking oil spills and other pollutants in Galveston Bay and improving response strategies in vulnerable coastal environments. Through innovative tools and methodology, Alanna seeks to enhance our understanding of coastal systems for environmental protection and resilience.
Recently, Alanna went on her first field survey, where she traveled by boat to collect drone footage of waves across Galveston Bay. During the survey, she helped capture aerial imagery of surface wave patterns and sediment movement in a new drone-based method to measure surface currents using mathematical analysis of wave behavior. By extracting current information from short drone videos, this approach offers a safer, faster, and more cost-effective alternative to traditional methods. By combining aerial observations with in-situ measurements, Alanna contributes to research aimed at improving predictive models of contaminant transport.
“The NHERI REU is what sparked my interest in coastal engineering by giving me hands-on research experience focused on coastal resiliency. The program showed me how engineering can be used to help protect people and the environment and inspired me to pursue graduate research that utilizes innovative technologies to enhance the resiliency of coastal environments.”
Bora Haller is a Thermal Engineer with SpaceX's Starlink program. He comes from a thermo-fluid science background, with his REU having been at the University of Florida's Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Experimental Facility and having developed numerical models for compressible fluids in liquid-liquid rotating detonation engines prior to coming to SpaceX. At SpaceX, Bora's work is mostly focused on designing Starlink's next generation broadband telecommunication satellites, owning thermal design of components of the satellite's propulsion and ADCS systems, including the Hall Effect Thruster, its corresponding avionics module, and the reaction wheels. His passion for thermo-fluid science stems from his parents' work in nearshore oceanography and coastal engineering.
Lucy Hegenderfer is an Environmental Engineering student at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, passionate about tackling complex water, energy, and sustainability challenges. In 2024 she participated in the NHERI REU at the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory, where she explored the wave surface interactions of tsunami-like waves on a structural column. At Cal Poly, Lucy explores the inland sea level rise, attenuation, and subsidence of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by comparing hindcast models against historical data to assess community hazard impacts. She supports fundamental engineering courses as an Instructional Student Assistant and works on DOE- and state-funded projects to produce resilient algal mutants for conversion to biofuels. She most recently spent the summer in Munich, Germany researching the environmental footprint of local and cloud-based AI agents. Recognized with multiple academic honors, Lucy is committed to engineering the built environment for the natural world, creating innovative solutions for a more sustainable future.
Parker Huggins graduated from the University of South Carolina in May 2025 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a Minor in Mathematics. In 2023, he participated in the NHERI REU summer program at Lehigh University’s ATLSS Engineering Research Center, where he performed physics-based modeling of a semi-active friction damper. Parker’s recent internship experience includes a summer researching SAR interferometry with the German Aerospace Center, and a summer on receiver modeling with the Telecommunications Signal Processing group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at New York University.
Ella Landau attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a degree in Environmental Engineering, minored in Sustainable Energy Engineering, and participated in research in environmental fluid mechanics. Her additional experience includes research at the Oregon State University O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory and a coastal engineering internship with Moffatt & Nichol. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree through the Coastal Engineering and Management (CoMEM+) program, a collaborative international program involving five universities across Europe.
Nick Mesa grew up in Miami, Florida, and his passion for natural hazards research was ignited with various experiences with landfalling hurricanes. These experiences motivated his eventual pursuit of a B.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Florida, along with a certificate in Meteorology and Climatology, which he obtained in 2023. Nick's interest in natural hazards research was complemented by various undergraduate research experiences, which include working with the NHERI O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University as part of the 2022 NHERI REU Summer Program. Additional experiences with the NOAA Hurricane Research Division, UF Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel, and the NSF NHERI NICHE project solidified Nick's interest in natural hazards research, with a particular interest in tropical cyclones.
Emily Mongold was a NHERI REU in 2019 at the RAPID facility at University of Washington. She grew up in Maryland and attended the University of Delaware for undergrad, studying Civil Engineering. She went to Stanford University for her Masters in Structural Engineering and PhD. At Stanford, Emily was a leader in the Stanford Urban Resilience Initiative, expanding student programming and facilitating seminars and journal clubs. After finishing her PhD, Emily thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada, just over 4 months of backpacking! Emily is now a Resilience Management Engineer at Carollo Engineers, a water-focused environmental engineering firm. Her work includes preparing climate adaptation plans for water infrastructure, assessing climate risks to wastewater treatment plants, and integrating natural hazard risk assessment into traditional water engineering projects. In her free time, Emily loves to run, hike, and rock climb!
Anthony Reynaga is a Civil Engineering student at California State Polytechnic University Pomona, with an interest in construction. As a 2022 NHERI REU participant at Florida International University's Wall of Wind Facility, he studied wind engineering and contributed research on hurricane mitigation. His research focused on Aerodynamics Mitigation and Power System (AMPS)- a patented concept designed to reduce wind damage while simultaneously providing power to buildings. Anthony worked on a patented system designed to reduce wind damage while generating power for buildings. He gained industry experience at Anning-Johnson, supporting estimating and project management in the metal decking department, and as a Project Engineer for PNG Builders' Cedars-Sinai Hospital project.
Dana Smith is a Goldwater Scholar studying Civil Engineering at Florida Atlantic University. Since beginning her research journey in the NSF-funded Freshman Learning Environment and Academic Research Network (F-LEARN) program, Dana has become a key undergraduate researcher at the Center for Smart Streetscapes (CS3), where she works under the mentorship of Dr. Jinwoo Jang. Her current research focuses on utilizing wind simulations and digital twin technology to enhance urban resilience. A former NHERI REU participant at Florida International University's Wall of Wind (WOW), Dana has successfully bridged the gap between physical experimentation and advanced digital modeling simulation. Her work has been presented at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) and the Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC) in 2025. Upon graduation, Dana intends to pursue a master's degree in Smart Cities with a specialized focus on the intersection of resilient transportation and urban infrastructure.
Will Zakka is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in geotechnical earthquake engineering with minors in seismology and structural mechanics. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2022 and his master’s degree from UC Berkeley in 2023. His research focuses on investigating soil liquefaction, seismic performance of shallow and deep foundations, and site response analyses using advanced numerical methods. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, the James H. Kleinfelder Fellowship, and the Canning Award.
In 2021, He participated in the NHERI REU program at the SimCenter at UC Berkeley. His project consisted of developing a probabilistic model of near-surface soil conditions for site response analysis in Alameda, CA to better characterize both the ground shaking and liquefaction risks in the region. This experience encouraged Will to pursue graduate school at UC Berkeley in geotechnical earthquake engineering. His long-term goal is to become a professor and contribute to research, teaching, and mentorship in the field.
“This experience encouraged me to pursue graduate school at UC Berkeley in geotechnical earthquake engineering.”