My name is Anna, and I’m an engineer and a scientist. I study Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan; and I graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in Physics. My thesis project deals with computationally predicting the properties of materials used in lithium-ion batteries and airplane turbine blades.

I’m writing this blog post for SciRuby, but I’m really writing it for the young women out there. SciRuby is applying to participate in Google’s Code-In 2013, which aims to get high school students involved in the open source movement, and specifically in coding. It’s great preparation for college and beyond — whatever you might choose to study.

I became involved in science because I love figuring stuff out and working with smart, interesting people, and I want you to get involved, too. Modern science wouldn’t be possible without open source software. Moreover, if you learn how to code, you’ll always have a job. Always.

And the cool part is that you don’t have to know how to code in order to participate. Many of the tasks involve research and documentation in science and mathematics — which is a great way to obtain valuable experience for college applications.