Honors Portfolio Reflection

Olivia Holbrook

I am a diligent and collaborative environmental engineering student with a curated

passion for renewable ocean energy, coastal engineering, and geoengineering. I graduate this
May with my Bachelor’s of Science, and I am hoping to go to graduate school to learn more
about renewable ocean energy and oceanography. I am proud to have completed my work for the
honors program here at NC State with the submission and presentation of this portfolio. Creating
my honors portfolio website made me recognize the multitude of projects and achievements that
I have completed through my undergraduate career at NC State. This exercise made me proud of
the time and work I have put into my courses, internships, undergraduate research, and
extracurriculars. The portfolio I have assembled displays an assortment of team and individual
projects that I am proudest of from my undergraduate career.
My honors portfolio is split into three sections: Academics, Work Experience, and
Extracurriculars. The first section, Academics, displays five projects that were completed to
satisfy course requirements. These assignments resulted in projects that I was most proud of
from some of my most influential courses. The first artifact in the “Academics” section is a
report I completed on mycofiltration as a method for filtering water. This was completed for a
course called “Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries,” a class that taught us about
unconventional methods for water treatment and sanitation. Mycofiltration is the process of
using fungi inoculated on filter media to remove contaminants from water. The report is a
literature review centered around the question: could mycofiltration be used for public water
treatment? This paper was influential for me because it introduced me to the idea of using natural
processes for public utilities. Natural processes are already used for wastewater treatment in
activated sludge. Here, microbes consume unwanted organic matter from water. This gives hope
for mycofiltration and other natural processes becoming integrated in public water treatment. It is
important for me to practice writing literature reviews because I am interested in participating in
research specifically in marine renewable energy during my gap year before graduate school and
participating in research during graduate school. Practicing academic writing based on scientific
research is extremely helpful for these future endeavors.
 The second artifact under “Academics” is a research paper I completed with my partner
for the final project in a class called “Climate & Energy.” This assignment asked us to research
one renewable energy device of our choice. We analyzed the cost, engineering design, and
environmental and societal impacts of airborne wind energy. This is also known as flying wind
power. AWE is similar to regular wind turbines, however it operates closer to a kite that is
tethered to the ground. This is beneficial because AWE is able to convert the strongest winds, as
it can move to spots with higher wind velocity. This was an important project to me because I
have a strong interest in renewable energy devices, so learning about emerging technologies in
the renewable energy field is exciting. We made comparisons between wind turbines and AWE
for costs and environmental/societal impacts.
The third artifact in the “Academics” section is the final paper I completed for a course
called “Global Environmental Politics.” This assignment asked us to form a thesis pertaining to
environmental innovation, and select a case study of a specific environmental innovation from
another country to support this thesis. I found that the three major reasons for environmental
innovation include academic research, market pull, and public opinion. I analyzed the use of
geotextile snowcovers in Italy to protect the Dosde Est Glacier and Presena Ovest Glacier from
melting. Geotextiles are essentially tarps that are used to cover the glaciers and reflect the sun to
prevent further warming and melting. This was a project I was passionate about because I have a
strong interest in geoengineering. The debate between solving climate change effects using
mitigation vs adaptation is so intriguing to me. Geoengineering devices prove that adaptation
could be a successful method for tackling climate change. I am proud of this paper because it is
one of the longest papers I have had to write. The project seemed daunting at first, but I
completed the paper, and learned about geoengineering and environmental innovation, further
fostering my excitement and curiosity surrounding these topics.
The fourth artifact in this section is my group’s Freshmen Engineering Design Day
project, which won first place in the “river culvert design” group. The goal of the project was to
3D design a structure that could be placed in a river which would reduce the velocity of water
flowing through the culvert, achieve ideal flow depths, and emulate the natural habitat of fish
species found in North Carolina rivers. Throughout this project, I learned how to use AutoCAD
Fusion 360 for 3D design and how to model hydraulics through a structure. More importantly, I
learned the most effective ways to work through iterations of the design cycle with a team.
Working with many different personality types, work ethics, and schedules can be extremely
difficult. My team worked through these problems by designating roles for each member,
scheduling weekly meetings, and being respectful during team member disagreements. This
artifact is included because not only did it teach me effective ways to operate in a team, but it
also was a very proud moment for me at NC State. When I was a freshman I experienced
Imposter’s Syndrome, so being on a team that won first place for FEDD gave me the confidence
to perform well in my engineering classes sophomore, junior, and senior year.
The last academic artifact included is a water treatment excel spreadsheet created by my
group as a final project for a course titled “Water and Wastewater Systems.” This class took my
experience with excel from beginner to intermediate/advanced. We were able to create multiple
spreadsheets to solve common problems in water and wastewater system design. The excel tricks
that I learned in this class, like drop-down menus, if statements, and methods to efficiently copy
excel equations have carried into other courses. Currently, in my Coastal Engineering class, I use
the techniques I learned through this project in homeworks to streamline the equations used to
answer problems. This was an extremely influential project for my technical engineering skills,
as excel will always be used in any job I am in.
The next section of the portfolio is “Work Experience.” I then split this section into my
internship at the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese, NC and undergraduate research with the
Coastal Engineering Department at NC State. I included four artifacts related to the renewable
ocean energy engineering internship at the Coastal Studies Institute. The first artifact is a
collection of pictures of a device I built with a team called a Planktoscope. This is a device that
takes in water samples, and identifies types of plankton in the sample using quantitative imaging.
This project taught me valuable technical skills such as soldering, operating a drill press, tapping
holes for screws, and wiring electrical constituents. Similar to the FEDD project, this taught me
valuable lessons for how to improve team operation to ensure success. I worked with
personalities and skill sets that were completely different from the individuals on my FEDD
team, so this added to my experience with communicating effectively on a team, making
decisions based on compromise, and designating roles and tasks to team members.
Another project highlighted in the portfolio from the CSI internship is an environmental
monitoring project related to marine energy device deployment. My project involved collecting
data every day using a CTD device which measures salinity, conductivity and temperature at
different depths throughout the water column. This was done by attaching the device to a fishing
rod and dropping it to the seafloor and pulling it back up slowly to the water surface. This data
was important to collect to obtain baseline knowledge of the state of the waters around Jennette's
Pier, so that when marine energy devices are deployed, any changes in this data can be noted.
This ensures that we are alerted by the change in data if the devices are disturbing water
chemistry or marine life around the pier. The data also provides oceanographic insight into the
location of water bodies which interact at Jennette's Pier. The graphs presented in the portfolio
indicate these oceanographic discoveries. This project greatly improved my understanding of the
Python computing language. NC State requires that Environmental Engineering students take a
beginning course for Python, however we did not learn much about data extraction, data
processing, or creating graphs based on excel data. This project taught me what commands to use
and how to format those commands. This project also taught me how to use ChatGPT
responsibly and effectively. I was able to use it for finding errors in my code script. This is a tool
I will continue to use to make my work more efficient. Through this project, I also learned a lot
more about oceanography and environmental monitoring studies. I am very proud of the outcome
of this internship task, as this was an individual project. I collected the data in the field,
processed the data, analyzed the data, and wrote conclusions based on the data. This project is
included because I am proud of its results especially because it was a completely individual
project.
The third artifact from the CSI internship is a collection of photos gathered from field
work trips related to sargassum research. Sargassum is an algae found in the Gulf Stream that is
the base of food webs. CSI, other research institutions, and universities are looking into the Gulf
Stream as a source of marine energy. Research on sargassum is conducted to learn more about
how devices deployed in the Gulf Stream could affect marine life living there. Field work trips
taught me discipline, to pay attention to details, and to be able to focus even in adverse weather.
Field work trips were an influential part of the internship because they provided me with the
experience to be a research technician. During my gap year between undergrad and graduate
school, I am looking for a research technician position related to marine renewable energy, so I
am grateful to have practiced data collection in the field before this.
The fourth artifact from the CSI internship is a collection of photos from a presentation I
gave to the Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Industry Advisory Board in
September 2023. I was invited to present about all of the projects I completed during my summer
internship at CSI. This was a thirty minute presentation, so this was a huge accomplishment, for,
at most, before this presentation I had given presentations that were at a maximum 10 minutes
long. This taught me the importance of practicing a presentation multiple times before the day of
the presentation. It also taught me the power of all picture slides and telling jokes to keep the
audience engaged. I received multiple compliments on how calm I seemed while presenting, due
to the number of times I practiced. I also received compliments on the presentation because of
the abundance of pictures and my ability to include jokes and stories to keep the audience
engaged.
One artifact is included in the portfolio from my time conducting undergraduate research
with the NC State Coastal Engineering Department and the Institute for Transportation Research
and Education. I developed an annotated bibliography on ferry system factors of vulnerability as
part of a vulnerability assessment of the Outer Banks ferry system funded through NCDOT. As a
result of the annotated bibliography, I was able to make a chart of the most commonly referenced
factors of vulnerability for ferry systems. This chart was used in a presentation by my mentor,
Dr. Sciaudone, to NCDOT stating their vulnerability assessment plan.
The final section in the portfolio is for “extracurricular” achievements. One of these
artifacts is a paper I wrote for a volunteer organization in my hometown called “Friends of
Nantasket Beach.” They asked me to write a report on why the pebbles continue to cover the
wheelchair ramps that access the beach. We hoped this would help citizens that were
complaining about the rocks understand the difficulties of continuing to clear the ramps. I am
proud of this accomplishment because the article was published in their seasonal newsletter.
The last artifact I included is flyers that I graphic designed for the NC State Women’s
Club Basketball Team. I have been on the team since my sophomore year, and I have been the
Public Relations chair for the team since junior year. This is an extracurricular that I am
extremely proud of because it shows my dedication and ability to successfully lead a team. It
also displays my artistic and creative side. All flyers and social media posts are designed by me
for tryouts, tournaments, and volunteer events.
Ultimately, the portfolio that I designed is an excellent representation of the achievements
that I am most proud of during my undergraduate career. I have learned so many technical and
interpersonal skills through the completion of these projects. These are skills that I will carry
with me throughout my career and continuation of learning in graduate school.