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Skylar Gering

Program Year:
1
University:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Field of Study:
Applied Ocean Science and Engineering
Advisor:
Michael Howland
Degree(s):
B.S. Computer Science and Mathematics, Havey Mudd College, 2022

Summary of Research

Expanding offshore wind energy is vital to decarbonizing the United States [1]. Due to water depth, many potential sites require floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs). Since FOWTs are not fixed to the sea bed, they move unsteadily with ocean wind and waves, rapidly changing the flow of air around individual turbines. In a wind farm configuration, aerodynamic interactions between these fluctuating patterns cause annual energy losses upwards of 30% [2]. For farms with stationary turbines, control strategies have been developed to direct air flow along a path that maximizes energy production using small mechanical adjustments, like rotating turbine blades. Developing similar strategies for floating farms requires an accurate understanding of FOWT dynamics in realistic ocean conditions. My work seeks to understand these dynamics to develop efficient and accurate models of FOWT behavior with a goal of maximizing wind farm power production.

[1] DOE. Floating Offshore Wind Shot. (2022).
[2] Pryor, Sara C., Rebecca J. Barthelmie, and Tristan J. Shepherd. "Wind power production from very large offshore wind farms." Joule 5.10 (2021): 2663-2686.

Publications

Papers:

Modeling sea ice in the marginal ice zone as a dense granular flow with rheology inferred from a discrete element model
Journal of Fluid Mechanics (2024)
de Diego, Gupta, Gering, Haris, Stadler

Hector V3.2.0: functionality and performance of a reduced-complexity climate model
Geoscientific Model Development (2024)
Dorheim, Gering, Gieseke, Hartin, Pressburger, Shiklomanov, Smith, Tebaldi, Woodard, Bond-Lamberty

Presentations and Posters:
Subzero.jl: Fast and Flexible Sea Ice Physics, JuliaCon 2024, July 2024

GeometryOps.jl: Building a Comprehensive Native Geometry Package, JuliaCon 2024, July 2024

Performant, Modular Modeling in Julia: A Case Study in Sea Ice Physics, Gates Foundation Institute for Disease Modeling, June 2024

Discrete Element Sea-Ice Modeling in Julia: Successes and Challenges, JuliaCon 2023, July 2023

Assessing eDNA and Acoustic Data for Ecosystem Monitoring, Ocean Sciences Meeting, March 2022

Interpreting acoustic data with eDNA, NOAA Hollings Scholar Summer Symposium, August 2021

Tracking carbon flows through the biosphere: a new capability for the simple climate model Hector, European Geoscience Union General Assembly, April 2021

Land-Ocean Warming: From Emergent Property to Simple Model Parameterization, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory SULI Symposium, August 2020

Using a Simple Climate Model to Track Global Carbon Flows Under Negative-Emissions Scenarios, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, December 2021

Interpreting acoustic data with eDNA, Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society, November 2021

Awards

DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship, 2025 - 2029

NSF GRFP Honorable Mention, 2025

Eni-Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Energy Fellowship, MIT Energy Initiative Member Company: ENI, 2024-2025

MIT Presidential Graduate Fellowship, MIT, 2024-2025

Best Clinic Team Award, Harvey Mudd Computer Science Department, May 2022

William and Margaret Radley Prize, Harvey Mudd College Humanities, Social Sciences, and Arts Department, May 2022

Best Student Poster Award, American Fisheries Society 151st Annual Meeting, November 2021

Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, April 2020 - May 2022

Outstanding Emerging Leader Award, Harvey Mudd College, April 2019

Dean's List, Harvey Mudd College, 2019 - 2021