Meet Rodrigo Orozco

Hi, I am a graduate student since Fall 2005 working on my PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This is my fourth and last year, I hope!!! My research is related to viscoelastic stress analysis of polymer and polymer composite structures using a meshless technique and FEA.

I am Colombian, received my BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia in 2001 and 2002, respectively. After finishing my MS degree I thought that I would never write a thesis ever again, but a couple of years later I changed my mind.

After my MS I worked for a company that produces strike anywhere matches, this company belongs to a Spanish holding that was increasing their businesses in Colombia. Due to the company’s growth I had the chance to get promoted really quickly, but that required a lot of work and extra time, including nights and weekends. This work taught me a lot of things, mainly non-engineering related, which I really appreciate.

One day in late Spring 2005 one friend helped me to get in contact with a Professor from UW-Madison, he needed a graduate student to work in a project in the area of refrigeration. My course work is mainly focused in energy conversion, with some continuum mechanics. In less than two months I quit my job, applied to graduate school, took the GRE and TOEFL, and packed my life in two suitcases, leaving my family to start my PhD.

Now, almost four years since I started graduate school, I don’t regret my decision, anyway it was not easy. My English was good enough to pass the requirement from the school, but needed improvement. I was rusty, I was no longer in the mode of school, homework, exams, projects, etc.

During my second year in graduate school I realized that refrigeration was not my passion, and then I had the chance to change the topic of my research and started working with Prof. Osswald at the Polymer Engineering Center. Initially polymers were completely new, but according to my advisor, I would learn about plastics in a couple of months. I took classes in polymers and still continue learning. Since then I am a SPE student member and truly enjoy working on my research and learning about polymers.