I am Nitin Sharma, enrolled as M.S. student in Mechanical Engg. at UNL. I did my B.Tech in Mechanical Engg. in India. Worked as an Application Engineer in CAE, for some years, before deciding to take sabbatical and head back to school. Other courses that I have taken in solid mechanics include Mechanics of Materials and Mechanics of Composite Materials (currently enrolled). I feel that my experience with Finite Element codes would help me simulate crack propogation numerically. However, coming back to school after a long time makes me little out of touch with some mathematical concepts.