Sydney Sroka

Sydney Sroka, who earned a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and Computation from MIT, is focused on computational analysis, with applications to climate risk assessment and resilience planning. Her thesis focused on improving hurricane intensity forecasts through theoretical and computational models, representing the real-world applications of her investigations. She has a robust research background, with expertise ranging from numerical analysis to the microphysics of evaporation.

One project Sydney had the opportunity to lead estimated the flood risk to the MIT campus from both tropical cyclones and extratropical cyclones in the year 2050, and evaluated the cost effectiveness of several interventions. Using data from several numerical models, the team employed statistical and optimization techniques, and conducted a microeconomic analysis to determine the optimal near-term investment strategy for the institute.

The throughline of Sydney’s work has been improving the way that physical processes at scales too small to be explicitly simulated, can be accounted for to improve the overall model accuracy. She is now applying her computational and modeling expertise to challenging, real-world problems through her risk and resilience work in the MCSC.