CV

Olga Shishkov

PhD Candidate

Education

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA   
Ph. D., Mechanical Engineering, projected May 2020     

  • Experimentally studying the physics of animal swarm behavior and insects as active matter
  • Developing technology to raise black soldier fly larvae as a sustainable protein source
  • Thesis: “Biomechanics of black soldier fly larvae”

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY            
M.E., Mechanical Engineering, December 2015     
Thesis: “Development and Validation of a Particle Image Velocimetry System for Measuring Laminar and Turbulent Pipe Flow Fields”
B.E., Mechanical Engineering,  May 2013

Work and Project Experience

NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 
June 2014 – August 2014
Flow Physics and Control Branch
Langley Aerospace Research Student Scholars program                                

  • Studied transition to turbulence in a boundary layer over a swept flat plate with a backward facing step in a wind tunnel
  • Presented the results in a branch meeting and documented results in a technical report

Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation, Boston, MA       
June 2013 – January 2014
Mechanical Engineering Intern                                                                       

  • Performed process control to determine parameters for a filament stretcher and presented results
  • Worked with a team of engineers and surgeons to design a surgical endoscope attachment
  • Improved accuracy of a cymbal casting process by designing a vibration damper

Center for Innovation and Applied Technology
September 2012 – May 2013
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY
Research Associate

  • Collaborated with a group to study whale hearing to improve Sonar reception
  • Performed vibrational analysis on the tympanic part of the temporal bone from a whale ear and determined areas for further analysis

Consolidated Edison, New York, NY                                           
November 2012 – March 2013
Engineering Aide, Maintenance Department, East River Generating Station

  • Prepared reports on plant outages and tracked work orders

Fellowships and Awards

  • Georgia Institute of Technology President’s Fellowship, 2015-2018
  • Feeding Fly Larvae Form a Fountain”  at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology 2019. January 5, 2019.
  • One of two winners of outstanding poster award (from 16 posters) for “Self-mixing of fly larvae during feeding” at The Geilo School 2017: Physics Inspired by Living Matter. March 24, 2017.
  • Second place oral presentation (from a pool of 30 participants) for “Squishy physics: Optimizing Eating Rates in Black Soldier Fly Larvae” with undergraduate student Chris Johnson, 2016 S.U.R.E Research Symposium. Awarded an iPad Air 2. July 28, 2016.
  • 2016 Junior Scientist Travel Award to Active and Smart Matter: A New Frontier for Science and Engineering, June 20-23, 2016

Teaching

Society of Scientific Communication, Teaching Assistant, Georgia Institute of Technology, Fall 2016

  • Assisting with an experimental workshop for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers on working with the media

Research Project Lab, Teaching Assistant, Georgia Institute of Technology, Spring 2016.

  • Supervised senior students during a biology research project lab studying fire ants
  • Aided students with literature search, experimental design, and report writing
  • Received a 5.0/5.0 instructor rating from students

Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, Teaching Practicum instructor, Georgia Institute of Technology, Fall 2015.

Presentations

  1. Shishkov, O., Hu, M., Johnson, C., Hu, D. L Feeding Fly Larvae Form a Fountain. Poster presented at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Tampa, FL. January 4, 2019 (Invited).
  2. Shishkov, O., Hu, M., Hu, D. L. Fly Larvae Feed by Forming a Flowing Fountain. APS DFD 2018 Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, November 19, 2018.
  3. Shishkov, O., Fuentes-Cabrera, M., Hu, D. L. Active mixing in aggregations of black soldier fly larvae. Poster presented at the 2018 CNMS User Meeting, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, August 13, 2018.
  4. Shishkov, O., Hu, D. L Competition of feeding fly larvae causes active mixing. iPoLS 2018 Annual Meeting, Rice University, June 24, 2018.
  5. Shishkov, O., Hu, D. L Collective motion of fly larvae during feeding. 11th Annual Meeting on Soft Materials, Emory University, May 23, 2018.
  6. Shishkov, O., Hu, D. L Collective forces of black soldier fly larvae. American Physical Society March Meeting, Los Angeles, CA , March 8, 2018.
  7. Shishkov, O., Hu, D. L. Fly larvae mix to increase eating rates. 2017 AIChE Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN., November 1, 2017.
  8. Shishkov, O., Hu, D. L. Fly Larvae Mix to Increase Eating Rates. Society of Engineering Science 54th Technical Meeting. Boston, MA, July 26-28, 2017.
  9. Shishkov, O., Hu, D. L. Fly larvae mix to increase eating rates. 2017 Active Materials Project Summer School. Georgetown University, Washington, DC, June 11, 2017.
  10. Shishkov, O., Hu, D. L. Active mixing of black soldier fly larvae during feeding. The 10th Southeast Meeting on Soft Materials. Atlanta, GA, Friday, May 12, 2017.
  11. Shishkov, O., Hu, D. L. Self-mixing of fly larvae during feeding. The Geilo School 2017: Physics Inspired by Living Matter. Geilo, Norway, March 20-30, 2017.
  12. Shishkov, O., Johnson, C., Hu, D. L. Self-mixing of fly larvae during feeding. American Physical Society March Meeting. New Orleans, LA, March 13-17, 2017.
  13. Shishkov, O., Johnson, C., Zhang, B., Hu, D. L., Self-mixing of fly larvae during feeding. Division of Fluid Dynamics annual meeting. Portland, Oregon, November 20-22, 2016.
  14. Shishkov, O., Johnson, C., Hu, D. L.  Active mixing increases feeding rate of black soldier fly larvae. Active and Smart Matter: A New Frontier for Science and Engineering. Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, June 20-23, 2016.
  15. Shishkov, O, Hu, D. L.  “Active mixing of black soldier fly larvae”, Soft Matter & Lunch Event. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, April 2016.

Publications

  • Shishkov, O., Hu, M., Johnson C., Hu, D. L. Black soldier fly larvae feed by forming a fountain around food. Accepted at Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
  • Shishkov, O., Hu, M., Johnson C., Zhang, B., Hu, D. L. (2018). Black Soldier Fly larvae consume food by actively mixing. In the 7th International Symposium on Aero-aqua Bio-Mechanisms, Tokyo.
  • Eppink, J. L., Shishkov, O., Wlezien, R. W., King, R. A., & Choudhari, M. M. (2016). The Effect of Acoustic Forcing on Instabilities and Breakdown in Swept-Wing Flow Over a Backward-Facing Step. In 54th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting (p. 2063).

Patent applications

  • Shishkov, O., Hu, D. L. (2018). “Aerating bed for black soldier fly larvae.” U. S. Provisional Patent Application 62/627,355, May 4, 2018

Media

Mentoring

I have mentored 17 undergraduate students and a high school student, including:

  • Two Presidential Undergraduate Research Award (PURA) fellowship winners.
  • Two students funded through Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering/Sciences (SURE), a research program for under-represented students in STEM

Skills

Fluid Mechanics: Particle Image Velocimetry, Hot Wire Anemometry, ANSYS Fluent, Hypermesh

CAD: SolidWorks, Pro Engineer, AutoCAD

Electronics: Arduino, Digital Logic Design

Programming: C/C++, Java, LabView, MATLAB, Python