Eagle Uses Numbers to Help Solve National Security Challenges

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University senior Emily Diegel arrived on the Daytona Beach Campus nearly four years ago determined to become an aerospace engineer. She soon found that engineering wasn’t the right fit, however, and switched to math, which offered new and interesting ways to apply her talents.

“Originally, changing my mind was a scary thing,” said Diegel, who is from the Boston, Massachusetts, area. “But then it was scarier to imagine not figuring out what I really was supposed to be doing.”

Emily Diegel, who is also captain of Embry-Riddle’s cheerleading team, was chosen for a fully funded trip to in Saudi Arabia to present her research as a finalist in the 2023 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Annual Poster Competition. (Photo: Emily Diegel)

This spring, Diegel, who is also captain of Embry-Riddle’s cheerleading team, will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Computational Mathematics and a minor in Homeland Security. Her journey to finding the right academic and career path has taken her across the United States and even overseas.

“It was a lot of trying things out and figuring out where I belonged,” said Diegel, who has worked on projects using data science for nuclear safeguard applications for the U.S. Department of Energy. “The way I figured everything out was just reaching out to a bunch of people and asking a lot of questions.”

List summer, she was chosen as an artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics intern at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, where she will intern again this summer. In 2023, she was also chosen for a fully funded trip to in Saudi Arabia to present her research as a finalist in the 2023 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Annual Poster Competition.

“Emily has been a brilliant student at Embry-Riddle, consistently demonstrating excellence in her academic pursuits,” said Dr. Mihhail Berezovski, associate professor of Mathematics. “She truly represents the best of what Embry-Riddle students have to offer.”

Finding the Right Path

Diegel credits mentors, like Dr. Berezovski, with helping her find the best academic and career paths.

In 2022, she joined Berezovski’s National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) project, which focused on data-enabled industrial mathematics. Partnering with the Nevada National Security Site, her student team evaluated the effectiveness of machine learning for small-scale high-energy testing, and later published their results in the SIAM Undergraduate Research Online journal.

“Data analytics is an applied field of mathematics that can be used to solve problems with AI or machine learning,” said Diegel, who is the president of Embry-Riddle’s Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) student chapter.

Data analytics proved to be exactly what Diegel was looking for. She has presented her research in the field at conferences and symposiums from Washington, D.C. to San Francsico, in addition to in Saudi Arabia.

Diegel balances academics with athletics, and she leads the university’s cheerleading team.

“You become a family and spend a lot of time together,” she said. “I like to stay in shape, and being able to work out and socialize is the best.”

New Directions

As graduation approaches, Diegel said her internship at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, has inspired her to pursue a doctorate degree in Mathematics. The experience interning at a national lab has taken her research to a new level and she has connected with scientists and researchers from around the country, who have offered encouragement and guidance.

“The internship kind of confirmed everything I was thinking about, like getting my Ph.D., because everyone out there had one,” she said. “It is a nice community there of scientists and everyone really cares about their mission.”

This fall, after recently receiving acceptances for Ph.D. programs from three highly competitive schools, she will start a doctorate program at Texas A&M University.

“I found my passion, and the goal is to work in an area for the security of the U.S.,” said Diegel. “I want to work on problems in national security through a mathematical lens.”

Posted In: Security Intelligence and Safety