Sean Sundberg is a 3rd year undergraduate mechanical engineering student working in Dr. Rong Long’s Nonlinear Mechanics Laboratory (NML). In broad terms, this research group is interested in the mechanics of soft materials and flexible structures; combining experimental testing with computational modeling to develop a deeper understanding of their behaviors and potential applications.
Specifically, Sean is aiding in the research of contact mechanics and adhesion between micro-pillar arrays and soft, slippery substrates by developing software tools to be used for data analysis.
Over the previous summer, Sean created a MATLAB program that calculates and reports the centroids of fluorescent beads distributed throughout the volumes of the team’s test samples in order to begin developing a computational model of this complex mechanical problem.
Outside of his research and coursework, Sean is a member and acting treasurer for the Tau Beta Pi Colorado Beta Chapter, as well as a member of the Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity.
In his free time, he enjoys reading, going to concerts, watching movies, and spending time with friends and family.