Welcome to Lourdes Diaz's AE Senior Thesis e-Portfolio
Biographical Sketch
Lourdes Diaz was born and raised in Puerto Rico. While attending high school at the International School of Panama in Panama City, Panama, where she obtained the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma, Lourdes realized she wanted to pursue a career where she could use both her excellence in the matha and sciences and her admiration for architecture. Lourdes applied for the Architectural Engineering Program at the Pennsylvania State University, and moved away from her family one more time to pursue her dreams.
Lourdes is currently in her 9th semester of studies at the Penn State University. She will obtain her integrated Bachelors and Masters of Architectural Engineering in May of 2006. She has focused her studies in structural design, particularly steel.She has mastered her ability to analyze a variety of steel structures under different loading conditions. Her preparation thought the AE Department has given a strong background on residential and comercial building structures.
Lourdes enjoys many other aspects of structural design and engineering. This past summer Lourdes was offered the opportunity to be part of the team to design the steel structure for the new nuclear powered aircraft carrier, CVN 21, for the Navy. While working at Northrop Grumman, Lourdes gained experience in steel design and analysis using computer software such as Nastran to analyze bent, transverse and longitudinal steel members under different and severe loading conditions.
Academically, Lourdes has excelled in her program by keeping one of the highest cumulative grade point average in her option. She has also partaken in many extra-curricular activities. She has been involved for five year in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. This year she is the Corporate Relations Officer and she works to promote diversity, cultural awareness, and aids low-income minorities to obtain a higher education. She has also been involved in projects where she can use her engineering knowledge to help those in need. Such was her commitment when she joined Engineers for a Sustainable World and worked in planning the reconstruction of a school in Grenada damaged as the result of Hurricane Ivan in 2004. She is also involved with the Student Society of Architectural Engineers, Golden Key National Honor Society, Architectural Engineering Honor Society, and was recently invited to join Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society.