Joanna Schmidt likes solving problems. Big, complex, challenging problems. That might explain why she is thriving in her role as an engineer at NASA, a job where she gets to regularly use the problem-solving skills she gained from the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Physics.
“[Physics is] trying to understand the rules for the world around you,” said Schmidt who earned her B.S. in Physics in 2019.
Schmidt first discovered physics while attending the Alabama School of Math and Science in Mobile. She had a teacher, Pamela Quintana, Ph.D., who inspired her to dig into the discipline and find the fun in it. She then carried that curiosity for physics over to her college career at UAB.
“It’s just really fun—to do the problem solving, to try to figure out how to correctly set up the problem and then actually going through and solving it,” said Schmidt. “In physics, you’re dealing with these perfect, beautiful, elegant solutions.”
Schmidt describes the Department of Physics at UAB as “small but mighty.” According to her, the tightknit environment allowed for more interaction between students and faculty, something she really appreciated.
“I got … one-on-one attention from a lot of the professors, which really helped me grow into different fields [of physics]. I got to try out materials physics, working with lasers, computational materials,” she said.
In addition, Schmidt took classes in other departments that helped her build transferable skills, including science-focused English courses and calculus courses. Now, she’s applying her interdisciplinary knowledge in the unique field of uncertainty quantification software development at NASA. She describes uncertainty quantification as, “trying to better represent what we don’t know for certain about a system.”
Her work covers many topics and projects, including drone safety modeling and the X-59 (NASA’s quiet supersonic aircraft). In addition to her day-to-day responsibilities, Schmidt is pursuing her master’s in modeling and simulation engineering from Old Dominion University.
This past summer, she presented a paper she co-authored at the AIAA AVIATION Forum and Exposition. It was her first time presenting at a conference, which proved to be a major milestone in her career.
“My co-author—I was the second author on that paper—was … originally supposed to present it, but something came up and I ended up presenting it,” said Schmidt. “That was a really great experience.”
As Schmidt’s career moves forward at an impressive pace, she still reflects on the approach she took when she first arrived at NASA. She believes it is an approach future UAB graduates could also leverage as they make the most of their time on campus and prepare for the future.
“Definitely leading with questions and curiosity about whatever field it is you’re going into,” said Schmidt. “When I initially started, I had very little experience in uncertainty quantification, so I would come with a list of questions everyday … to try to better understand what I was doing.”
It’s a strategy that continues to serve her well.
