Jessica May

Jessica received both her BS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech. Her PhD topic was the characterization and modeling of a material used in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The material had time, temperature, and moisture dependent properties, so she performed experiments to characterize the material behavior in the region of interest, then selected an appropriate material model and performed analytical work necessary for parameter definition in the material model, which she then implemented in a custom material property subroutine (UMAT) for Abaqus.

After completing her PhD, Jessica moved to Cleveland, OH, where she spent several years working for a company that develops and manufactures single use plastic containers. Her duties included using Catia for container design and Abaqus for simulations to predict container performance, which guided the development of new designs prior to physical prototype creation. She also assisted in improving the container evaluation simulations and developing new simulations to further aid in the evaluation of new container designs.

She took some time off to enjoy being a mother, now excited to be back in the simulation world in a consulting role for customers without in-house simulation capabilities or who wish to extend current simulations through the use of custom user subroutines and scripts. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time outside hiking and gardening, and trying to keep up with her husband and their two young sons.