Ryan Brook ’19, Hunt Institute Associate

Ryan Brook '19, IT Business Analyst & Project Manager at Hunt Consolidated

Ryan Brook ’19 joins the Hunt Institute as an Associate, bringing his experience in project management and the ability to overcome various challenges through innovative solutions.

Ryan Brook graduated in May of 2019 from SMU with a major in EMIS and a minor in Business Administration & Mathematics. Ryan is originally from Denver, Colorado. He was also an SMU Discovery Scholarship & Founders Scholarship recipient.

While at SMU, Ryan worked as an Undergraduate Project Manager in the Hunt Institute where he applied his knowledge from both the Lyle School of Engineering and Cox Business School to assist student researchers with their projects. In addition to contributing as a project manager, he mentored younger students in project management training and helped to shape a project management handbook for the Institute. His goal was to help projects define the scope, timeline, and budget so undergraduates would be better equipped to execute their projects successfully. While he is not a technical engineer, Ryan believes that he can contribute to the Hunt Institute mission by assisting others with their projects.

After leaving SMU and the Hunt Institute, Ryan continued his work in Project Management with Hunt Consolidated, Inc. in Dallas. Ryan was recruited into Hunt to help rebuild their internal office of Project Management and was able to apply his skills and lessons learned from his time with the Institute doing the same. Over the past two years, Ryan has worked in many different areas within IT as a Business Analyst, Technical Project Manager, and Pseudo Developer, helping the business identify weaknesses and needs while providing roadmaps and application solutions. Hunt was faced with many unforeseen difficulties over the past two years, and Ryan was able to help the business stay nimble and adapt to the ever-changing landscape. Having overcome various challenges, Ryan has now resumed work as a Project Manager, implementing enterprise-wide SAAS solutions and continuing his growth in the specialization of IT Project Delivery.

In addition to school and his work with the Hunt Institute, Ryan was a member of Lyle Ambassadors, a group of students that assist with recruitment and retention. Ryan has a passion for helping other people succeed, especially in the areas that he has struggled through before. He continues this work by taking his skills into the professional workspace as an IT Business Analyst & Project Manager at Hunt Consolidated.

After working as a professional in the industry, we asked Ryan Brook what he felt about impact work. He said, “Impact work is important to me because for me, it is a choice, and I hope that one day it can be a choice for everyone. The beauty of life is in what we choose to do with what we are given, and helping people…is what I choose to do.”

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedInFacebookTwitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

Wilkie Stevenson ’20, Hunt Institute Associate

Wilkie Stevenson '20

Wilkie Stevenson ’20  joins the Hunt Institute as an Associate, bringing with him his passion for mechanical engineering in solving societal problems.

Wilkie is an Associate at Capco where he works as a mechanical engineer as a full stack developer monitoring and supporting the Texas Electrical Grid specializing in efficiencies that increase customer satisfaction by working to eliminate discrepancies between environments. Capco is a global management and technology consultancy dedicated to the financial services and energy industries. He graduated from SMU with a BS Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Management & Entrepreneurship Specialization major from Lyle School of Engineering in 2020.

As a student at SMU, he spent the majority of his college employment as an Undergraduate Research Analyst for The Hunt Institute where he worked on various projects over the years that supported local education in communities around the world. These roles allowed him to grow his computer science, technical, leadership, and design skills through real-world experiences. Before graduating from SMU, he filled two patent-pending applications on products he designed and created. 

Wilkie continues to support the work at the Hunt Institute through his dedication to the STEM Up initiative designing a sufficient computer lab focusing on offline access to digital educational content for rural areas without access to infrastructure like electricity and internet. His dedication to impact work has touched many projects including Map INDallas (formerly called Map4Good), Evie-in-a-box, database structure for the Blockchain Hub, and the continued progress and development of the rural STEM Up initiative. 

He holds the level of Eagle Scout in The National Eagle Scout Association which is the highest achievement attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scout of America.

When asked what his motivation is for doing impact work he replied, “What motivates me is making education more accessible”

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedInFacebookand Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

Nicos Makris, Hunt Institute Fellow

Nicos Makris, Ph.D. Addy Family Centennial Professor in Civil Engineering, Hunt Institute Fellow, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Southern Methodist University

Dr. Nicos Makris is a Hunt Institute Fellow collaborating in the Global Development Lab focused on his passion for researching low-cost seismic solutions, more specifically in rocking isolation. The initial project began with Dr. Makris’ work on Filling the Gap for Seismic Protection. During the COVID 19 pandemic, the work shifted to focus on Resilient Shelter, Phase I with Kostas Kalfas (Ph.D. student and researcher), Corrie A. Harris (Portfolio Manager), JuliaGrace Walker (Undergraduate Project Manager), Sam Borton (Undergraduate Research Analysis). The conclusion of Phase I resulted in a report titled Seeking Low-cost seismic Protection for Urban Masonry in an Unstable Terrain.

Professor Nicos Makris received his Ph.D. (1992) and his Master of Science (1990) from the State University of New York at Buffalo, USA; while he holds a Diploma in Civil Engineering from the National Technical University, Athens, Greece. He has more than thirty (30) years of research, academic and professional experience in the areas of structural-earthquake engineering and structural mechanics-dynamics.

He has served as Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame (1992-1996) and at the University of California, Berkeley (1996-1998); Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (1998-2002) and Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (2002- 2005), the University of Patras (2003-2014), the University of Central Florida (2014- 2018) and at Southern Methodist University (2018-present).

His research interests include the analysis, design, and protection of structures against natural and man-made hazards—from modern tall bridges and buildings to unreinforced masonry and historic structures, system identification and health monitoring studies, soil-structure interaction, and the reconstruction-preservation of ancient monuments and stone arches in areas with high seismic hazard. He has published more than 110 papers in archival journals, 120 papers in conference proceedings, and 30 technical research reports and monographs. His citation index is more than 9,200, while his H-index=52.

He has served as Associate Editor for the Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, and the Chair of the Dynamics Committee on the same Journal. He is a member of Academia Europaea “The Academy of Europe”, a distinguished visiting fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the UK, a member of the Congress Committee and General Assembly of IUTAM; while, he has been honored with several international prizes and awards including the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) for his original contribution on the development of energy dissipation devices and for improving our understanding on the role of damping for the seismic protection of structures, the T. K. Hsieh Award from the Institution of Civil Engineers, the U.K. for the best paper in the Geotechnique Journal during year 1997, the Shah Family Innovation Prize from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), USA and the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, USA. He has directed as Principal Investigator more than 30 funded research projects in the USA and Europe with emphasis on structural testing and experimental methods. Professor Makris has also served for six (6) consecutive years as the Director of Reconstruction of the Temple of Zeus in Ancient Nemea, Greece. During that period (Jan 2004—Dec 2009) four entire columns and their capitals have been reconstructed.

When asked what his motivation is to do impact work he replied, “Part of our role as structural engineers is the design and construction of structures that are affordable to the local society and meet acceptable performance levels as present and the years to come without compromising the ability of future generations to use them, maintain them, and benefit from them.” Achieving this is his motivation.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedInFacebookand Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

Anna Grace Carey ’19, Hunt Institute Associate

Anna Grace Carey '19

Anna Grace Carey ’19 joins the Hunt Institute as an Associate, bringing with her a passion for marketing and giving back to the Institute as an alumna of SMU and the Hunt Institute.

Anna Grace is a Marketing Specialist at Sendero, a management consulting firm in Dallas. Prior to joining the marketing department, she worked as an Associate Consultant at Sendero where she led various organizational change management initiatives in IT departments at two Fortune 500 companies. She graduated cum laude from Southern Methodist University in 2019 with majors in journalism, fashion media, and political science; and minors in law & legal reasoning and history of visual & performing arts.

Outside of the office, she is a member of the Genesis Young Leaders Board of Directors and volunteers through the Junior League of Dallas. She enjoys writing, traveling, and spending time with Henry, her energetic Goldendoodle.

During her time at SMU, Anna Grace worked at the Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity as the Communications Team Lead. She created the communication strategy and edited blog posts for the Hunt Institute Digest. She also developed the Sages & Seekers Podcast with the Hunt Institute for her honors distinction thesis in the SMU Division of Journalism. The goal of the podcast is to facilitate conversations about community and resiliency.

While at SMU, Anna Grace also completed research on the Supreme Court and copyright law.  She contributed to “Give Me a ©: Refashioning the Supreme Court’s Decision in Star v. Varsity into a More Complete Copyright Protection for Fashion Designers,” a paper written with Professors Jared Schroeder and Camille Kraeplin. This work was published in the UCLA Entertainment Law Review. Additional honors and awards include membership in Pi Beta Kappa and Kappa Tau Alpha, the Outstanding Senior in Writing & Editing award for the Division of Journalism, and the John Goodwin Tower award for leadership in political science.

When asked what her motivation is for doing impact work she replied, “Nothing is more rewarding than doing work in the impact space. Contributing to initiatives that move us towards a more sustainable, inclusive and conscientious future is such a gift.”

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedInFacebookand Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

Gabrielle J. Gonzales ’20

Photo of Gabrielle J. Gonzales

 

 

 

 

2020

Research Analyst, Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Majors: Electrical Engineering with the Biomedical Specialization

Minors: Philosophy

I just started working with the Hunt Institute this semester to work on our Hydrogen Powered Fuel Cell Project that will hopefully work in conjunction with other sustainable projects and communities like Evie, our mobile urban farming unit.

Gabrielle graduated from Southern Methodist University with a degree in Electrical Engineering – Biomedical Specialization, with a goal of going into the Biotechnology. She has always been interested in science and medicine. After deciding against medical school in High School, she found a way to unite many of her interests in Engineering and Biology.

While at SMU, she was involved in Not On My Campus, Society of Women Engineers, Engineering Without Borders, SMU Ballroom, Loyd Commons Purpose Committee, Intermural Sand Volleyball, Mustang Corral (Freshman Orientation) Leader. Before joining the Hunt Institute, Gabrielle worked as a Student Ambassador out of the Engineering Office for Recruitment, Retention, and Alumni Relations.

Gabrielle had worked with the Hunt Institute since her freshman year through organizations like Engineering Without Borders, housed in the Hunt institute facilities. She has volunteered with communities in Dallas through Plant Lab, a committee of Engineering Without Borders. Plant Lab works with local communities in South Dallas located in some of Dallas’ food deserts and pockets of poverty. She also got involved with International Esperanza Project, an organization based out of Dallas who works with rural communities in Guatemala to provide free comprehensive medical clinics with staff from Guatemala and The U.S. and offers low-cost, donor aided solution for clean water and well ventilated high-efficiency wood burning stoves for cooking and heating.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedInFacebookand Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

Sienna Dugan ’20, Hunt Institute Associate

Sienna Dugan, Hunt Institute Alumna

Sienna Dugan ’20 joins the Hunt Institute as an Associate, bringing with her a passion to provide resources to countries and regions that lack medical care.

Sienna Dugan is a Medical Coordinator of One World Surgery, formerly an Epidemiologist for the Texas Department of State Health Services, and an Epidemiologist for the Tarrant County Public Health department. Previously, Sienna worked in the Hunt Institute as an Undergraduate Research Analyst. She continues to volunteer to support other Undergraduate Research Analyst as a mentor.

In the late summer of 2021, Sienna began her role as a Medical Coordinator of One World Surgery on location in Honduras. One World Surgery works to transform lives by providing access to high-quality surgical care globally. OWS funds and operates a world-class surgery center located on the ranch of our partner, Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos™ which is home to over 500 abandoned and disadvantaged children. At OWS are dedicated to helping patients lacking the resources and access to receive world-class surgical care, as well as empowering hundreds of physicians, nurses and volunteers in the US contribute to make a positive impact in global health.

Since 2012, Sienna volunteered on multiple medical mission trips to China, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Ethiopia as well as her hometown, Los Angles, California working alongside medical professionals to help save the lives of children with no other options.  At an early age, Sienna and her family started to host kids in their home as they were in the US receiving life saving surgeries.  Whether it was holding her phone over the operating table so Dr. Gopi Manam could finish stitching up the hole in two year old Selina Hewiot’s beating heart when the power went out in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, or talking her family into hosting 3 year old named Erica from Guatemala with, not a cleft palate, but a double cleft face and hydrocephalus tumor because no one else would take her into their home and care for her during her extensive surgeries, her experiences have shaped her into a caring and compassionate advocate for social justice.

When asked what motivates her to do impact work she replied, “I believe the best way to lift yourself up is to lift up those around you. I can’t think of anything more rewarding than being able to work in a field where my job is helping others accomplish their dreams.”

Sienna Dugan ’20 is alumna of Southern Methodist University and the Hunt Institute. While a student at SMU, she worked as a Research Analyst in the Hunt Institute to develop an international poverty alleviation program in order to help promote a resilient humanity and was influential in piloting the program by working on a research project that promoted health in the refugee camps in Rwanda titled Assessment of Rwanda Refugee Camps in the Context of the Villagization Process. She co-authored Bridging the Gap in Diagnostics a broader impact report on the subject of a low-cost and portable point-of-care device for humanitarian and health applications. In addition, she served as the Philanthropy Chair of her sorority, Pi Beta Phi, as well as spending time on a water reallocation program designed to benefit the underprivileged community of the Piuris people, a Native American Pueblo in Taos, New Mexico. Sienna holds a Bachelor of Arts in Health and Society and a minor in Global Development and Psychology.  She was an Engaged Learning Fellow and a recipient of the Caroline M. Jones Scholarship, the Cowels Scholarship, and the Opportunity Scholarship.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedInFacebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

Cydney Kay Snyder ’19

Photo of Cydney Kay SnyderClass of 2019
Research Analyst, STEM Education
Majors: Human Rights, Public Policy, Political Science
Minor: Economics
Cornerstone Scholar
Honors College
Engaged Learning Fellow

Cydney Snyder graduated from Southern Methodist University with bachelor’s degrees in Human Rights, Public Policy, and Political Science. She is also a Cornerstone Scholar, an Engaged Learning fellow, and a member of SMU’s honors program.
 
Cydney is from Celina, Texas – a small, rural community, an hour outside of Dallas. While she worked on education research projects throughout her time at SMU, Cydney became passionate about STEM education after watching her brother struggle through the college application process. She has developed a STEM camp for rural communities, using place-based pedagogy. Cydney hopes that this camp provides students in rural communities more exposure to STEM as well as educates students on the applications of STEM in their everyday communities.
 
Outside of the Hunt Institute, Cydney had many leadership positions on campus. She served as the treasurer of the SMU Human Rights Council, and is the Vice President of Philanthropy for Alpha Chi Omega, and served as an Orientation Leader this past summer.
After graduating from SMU, Cydney earned a Master’s of Education from the University of Missouri-Saint Louis and is currently working as a Teaching Fellow at Ewing Marion Kauffman School.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedInFacebookand Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

Tristan Knotts ’20

Photo of Tristan KnottsClass of 2020
Project Manager
Majors: Computer Science, Mathematics
Lyle Scholar
SEAS Award
Lyle Senator
Lyle Ambassador

Tristan Knotts graduated from Southern Methodist University, majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics. He was a Lyle Scholar, SEAS Award recipient, and a member of the Lyle Ambassadors program, the face of the Lyle School of Engineering and Lyle’s primary recruiting organization. Tristan has held many key roles within the organizations he is involved, including Lyle Senator within SMU’s 104th Student Senate, the captain of his intramural football team, and Treasurer of the Cyber Security Club.

In  summer of 2018, Tristan, worked at AT&T, a global leader in technology, media, and communications, as a software developer and project lead, designing and developing a software application. At AT&T, he gained valuable insight into the technology and communications industry, as well as experience in an innovative corporate environment. He was given a key role within a new project that allowed him to complete most of the project development lifecycle and saving AT&T operation costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next few years.

In the summer of 2017, Tristan, worked at the defense contractor Raytheon, as a cybersecurity intern, designing application frameworks, and conducting software testing. Tristan also worked at SMU’s Caruth Institute for Engineering Education for two weeks, teaching high school students the fundamentals of engineering, and drone piloting.

At the Hunt Institute, Tristan worked as a project manager, where he oversaw student-driven projects through the project lifecycle. He was drawn to the institute by its inspiring mission to help others and provide solutions to real-world humanitarian and environmental issues. He enjoys the opportunity to make an impact on the global community, and hopefully inspire others to make a difference.

“Upon first walking into the Hunt Institute I could see the passion, integrity, and innovation the team expressed daily. The projects taken on by the Hunt Institute are highly innovative and all have the potential for positive impact, making it rewarding to participate. The institute’s encouraging and supportive environment inspires me to work to help others and give back whenever I can. I look forward to working with the institute throughout my college career to make a difference in the community.”

After graduating from SMU, Tristan has been working as a Business Analyst at Deloitte Consulting.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedInFacebookand Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

Andrea Dac Chau Nguyen ’20

Photo of Andrea Dac Chau NguyenClass of 2020
Research Analyst, Blockchain
Majors: Markets and Culture, Anthropology
Minors: History, Human Rights
Dedman College Scholar
Dean’s Scholar
Honor Roll
President of Career Development Ambassadors
Andrea graduated from Southern Methodist University with B.A. degrees in Markets and Culture and Anthropology and Minors in History and Human Rights. She was also an SMU Dedman College Scholar and President of the Career Development Ambassadors.
She lives in Allen, Texas and is passionate about how blockchain technologies are applied in social impact spaces. Andrea conducted research for the Hunt Institute on the history of blockchain technology and its cross-industry usage, with the goal of contributing vital information to Dallas nonprofits and start-ups interested in beginning their own blockchain applications.
While at SMU, she worked in various locations on- and off-campus, with experience working as an intern at the International Rescue Committee, with the SMU student newspaper, tutoring on-campus, and engaging in interdisciplinary research in sociology and political science. After graduating from SMU, she is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Transportation Technology and Policy at the University of California, Davis.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedInFacebookand Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

Dinesh Rajan, Hunt Institute Senior Fellow

Dinesh Rajan, PhD., Hunt Institute Fellow

Dinesh Rajan, Ph.D., Hunt Institute Senior Fellow is the Department Chair for Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Professor. His areas of research focus are in wireless networking, computational imaging and signal processing, and system optimization.

Dinesh Rajan received his B.Tech degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras in Electrical Engineering. He was also awarded the M.S and Ph.D degrees from Rice University, Houston, Texas both in the areas of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is currently Department Chair and Cecil and Ida Green Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Rajan’s broad interests are in the sensing/extraction, transmission, and dissemination of information. His current research is interdisciplinary and spans the traditional areas of communications theory, wireless networks, information theory, system optimization, and computational imaging. His work has lead to the design of algorithms that can improve energy efficiency of next-generation mobile devices by an order-of-magnitude compared to existing methods.

Dinesh has published over 100 peer-reviewed technical articles in leading journals and conferences. He has also co-edited 2 books. His work has been supported by federal agencies such as NSF, ONR, ARL, DARPA, and companies including Toyota and Nokia. He was technical program chair for the IEEE vehicular technology conference in 2009 and served on several other conference executive and technical committees.

Dinesh is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2006 for his work on applying information theory to the design of mobile wireless networks. He has also received the Ford Research Fellowship in 2012 and the Golden Mustang Award in 2008 from SMU. IEEE Dallas named him outstanding young engineer in 2009. He has received multiple outstanding EE faculty teaching awards at SMU.

When asked what his motivation is for doing impact work he replied, “The simple joy in knowing that my actions have impacted another individual in a positive way is what motivates me to do what I do.”

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedInFacebookand Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.