My name is Adrian Podpirka and I am a first year graduate student at Harvard studying Applied Physics. My undergraduate major was material science and engineering at Columbia University. Before taking fracture mechanics this semester I have taken Solid Mechanis (ES 240) with professor Suo.

My strengths in the course would have to be with concepts of fracture since I have taken an undergraduate mechanical behaviour of materials course. I am pretty proficient at ABAQUS so I feel that will help me in my understanding. My weakness in this course would probably be math based (as I saw in my last semester solid mechanics class) but from what I have already seen, this does not seem to be a problem at the moment.   Currently, my research leanings are on solid oxide fuel cells with Professor Ramanathan. I feel that this course will benefit me in that it will give me a deeper understanding of failure in thin film electrochemical devices which are currently a hot item of research due to the high temperatures reached and thinness required of the films.