{"692596":{"#nid":"692596","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Internship Connects Supercomputing with National Priorities","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENational laboratories play a critical role in advancing science, developing energy technologies, and ensuring national security. This summer, Ph.D. student \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/tage-burnett-537549221\/\u0022\u003ETage Burnett\u003C\/a\u003E contributed to that mission firsthand during an internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe internship provided Burnett with valuable insight into national laboratory research and reinforced skills he developed through his studies at Georgia Tech. When he returned to campus, we asked Burnett to share more about his internship and what he learned.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch Interests:\u003C\/strong\u003E Fusion energy, computational plasma physics, high-performance computing, and structure-preserving machine learning\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDegree Program:\u003C\/strong\u003E Ph.D. in Computational Science and Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFaculty Advisor\u003C\/strong\u003E: School of CSE Assistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/tangqi.github.io\/\u0022\u003EQi Tang\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E2026 Internship\u003C\/strong\u003E: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMany people are unfamiliar with national laboratories, like ORNL. Could you explain the purpose of these institutions and why they are important?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories are responsible for moving forward science and technology in the United States and solving high-consequence challenges in science, energy, and national security. They work on both applied and theoretical research with both short-term and long-term returns. ORNL has eight core research areas: biology and environment, energy science, fusion and fission, isotopes, physical sciences, national security, neutron science, and supercomputing. I was an intern in the supercomputing division.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow well did coursework and experience at Georgia Tech prepare you for your ORNL internship?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMy coursework at Georgia Tech was vital in my preparation for this internship. I wrote highly parallel code where I leaned heavily on what I learned in \u003Cem\u003ECSE 6220: High-Performance Computing\u003C\/em\u003E. I also worked on numerical methods which required an understanding of partial differential equations and numerical linear algebra which I also learned at Georgia Tech from classes like \u003Cem\u003ECSE 6643: Numerical Linear Algebra\u003C\/em\u003E and a space plasma physics course.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat did you work on while interning at ORNL?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt ORNL, I was a developer on the Adaptive Sparse Grid Discretization (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/joss.theoj.org\/papers\/10.21105\/joss.06766\u0022\u003EASGarD\u003C\/a\u003E) codebase. The code uses adaptive sparse grids and the Discontinuous Galerkin method to beat the curse of dimensionality and solve high-dimensional partial differential equations (PDEs). \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/github.com\/openjournals\/joss-reviews\/issues\/6766\u0022\u003EThe code\u003C\/a\u003E is designed to simulate fully kinetic plasmas in up to 6-dimensional phase space. My project was to implement an iterative method to solve the efficiently solve the Poisson equation within the codebase. This project gave me hands on experience with linear algebra, numerical PDEs, parallel computing and software engineering which was invaluable to my development as a CSE researcher.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDo you have a favorite memory or remarkable achievement from your internship?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMy favorite memory from my internship was spending time with the other ORNL interns outside of work. There was an amazing group of interns at ORNL, and it was great getting to know them. One particularly good memory was when we went out to a restaurant with live music and played laser tag during our last week of the internship to celebrate our time at ORNL. The achievement I am most proud of was getting a working, highly efficient version of the Poisson solver into ASGarD. The ASGarD codebase is open source, so I hope other plasma physics researchers will use the code and find it helpful for their research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhile interning, you were selected for a GEM Fellowship, which Georgia Tech and ORNL nominated you for. What does this fellowship mean to you and is there anything you would like to say to your supporters?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo me, receiving the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.gemfellowship.org\/gem-fellowship-program\/#a\u0022\u003EGEM Fellowship\u003C\/a\u003E indicates that other people recognize the hard work I am doing, and they believe in my ability to meaningfully contribute to the field. Having this support from GEM, ORNL, and Georgia Tech gives me greater confidence in myself and my potential and inspires me to put my all into my work. I would like all my supporters to know that I am so grateful for the opportunity you have given me to be a part of the excellent community of researchers within GEM, ORNL, and Georgia Tech. I will do my very best to make your support worthwhile!\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOverall, how helpful was this internship toward your studies at Georgia Tech and career as an aspiring researcher?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe internship was extremely important to both my studies at Georgia Tech and my career as a researcher. The hands-on experience I gained is irreplaceable and it helped me to apply all the skills I have developed throughout my education. I am also optimistic that the internship will open doors for me when I am seeking a job post-graduation.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENational laboratories play a critical role in advancing science, developing energy technologies, and ensuring national security. This summer, Ph.D. student \u003Cstrong\u003ETage Burnett\u003C\/strong\u003E contributed to that mission firsthand during an internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe internship provided Burnett valuable insight into national laboratory research and reinforced skills he developed through his studies at Georgia Tech. When he returned to campus, we asked Burnett to share more about his internship and what he learned.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"National laboratories play a critical role in advancing science, developing energy technologies, and ensuring national security. This summer, Ph.D. student Tage Burnett contributed to that mission firsthand during an internship at ORNL."}],"uid":"36319","created_gmt":"2026-09-15 16:02:56","changed_gmt":"2026-09-18 13:06:30","author":"Bryant Wine","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-15T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-15T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681151":{"id":"681151","type":"image","title":"Tage-Burnett-Head-Image.jpg","body":null,"created":"1789488262","gmt_created":"2026-09-15 16:04:22","changed":"1789488262","gmt_changed":"2026-09-15 16:04:22","alt":"CSE Tage Burnett","file":{"fid":"265514","name":"Tage-Burnett-Head-Image.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/15\/Tage-Burnett-Head-Image.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/15\/Tage-Burnett-Head-Image.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":117243,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/15\/Tage-Burnett-Head-Image.jpg?itok=L5ERGUNS"}},"681153":{"id":"681153","type":"image","title":"TB-ORNL-Mentor.jpeg","body":null,"created":"1789488297","gmt_created":"2026-09-15 16:04:57","changed":"1789488297","gmt_changed":"2026-09-15 16:04:57","alt":"CSE Tage Burnett","file":{"fid":"265515","name":"TB-ORNL-Mentor.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/15\/TB-ORNL-Mentor.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/15\/TB-ORNL-Mentor.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":93096,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/15\/TB-ORNL-Mentor.jpeg?itok=9neLNYx7"}}},"media_ids":["681151","681153"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"144","name":"Energy"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"193157","name":"Student Honors and Achievements"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"194612","name":"Workforce Development"}],"keywords":[{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"166983","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"170447","name":"Institute for Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"108061","name":"Oak Ridge National Laboratory"},{"id":"663","name":"Department of Energy"},{"id":"167322","name":"supercomputing"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBryant Wine, Communications Officer\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}