Nicholas Lewis

After a decade of professional and academic experience, I have found my passion for applying machine learning and computational models in novel applications in the realm of energy engineering. The more I spend time in nature, hearing the songs of birds or basking in the rugged beauty and solitude of the Pacific Northwest, the more I feel the need to preserve all that we can for future generations, while still acknowledging the need for energy and its positive effects on the standard of living. I have yet to be convinced of a "silver bullet" solution that will solve all of the grand challenges of engineering, but I do believe in the innovation of people from multiple disciplines working together to yield beneficial results.

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My path to this was somewhat tortuous; I spent several years during undergraduate working in labs and internships in fields ranging from biological modeling to nuclear plant design and battery fabrication modeling. I also worked for the nuclear Navy and at an internship with materials used in nuclear fusion energy, and professionally in the solar industry and with traditional chemical refineries. While I did some hands-on lab work in my coursework and internships, the common thread through all of this was in using computational modeling and machine learning to answer interesting questions and present novel solutions. With that, I decided to fully focus on computational and data science-driven approaches to the energy challenges, particularly in renewable energy applications. I completed a Master's degree from the University of Washington, completing the DIRECT (Data Intensive Research Enabling Clean Technologies) program. I've found my professional calling, and I'm excited for the bright future and all that I can contribute to it!