Elaura Gustafson

Experience

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  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

  Oct 2013 - Jul 2015

  Volunteer Representative

  I put my entire life on hold to move to the South and serve the lovely people of Alabama to help improve their quality of life.·Organized 4 monthly service projects focused on community support and engagement leading to 30 service hours monthly·Created innovative ways to connect with 100 people weekly in rural and urban Alabama ·Responsible for planning and teaching over 15 personalized lessons weekly to unite families and improve quality of life·Trained 2 new representatives in planning, teaching, and communication efforts in both formal and informal settings Show less

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  Brigham Young University

  Jan 2016 - May 2017

  The Inorganic Chemistry Stockroom is the go-to for all the chemicals and supplies for inorganic chemistry lab classes at BYU.·Managed 8 employees and collaborated with 6 professors to prepare supplies, chemicals, and safety procedures weekly for 1,000 students in laboratory courses to ensure student success·Reduced chemical accidents by 80% through designing and implementing safety procedures when handling various chemicals I worked as an undergraduate researcher in the Dearden lab using a 4.7 T FTICR-MS instrument.·Prepared micromolar solutions containing inorganic salts and host-guest complexes for analysis using an FTICR-MS instrument·Executed experiments on host-guest samples to continue the technique development to determine collisional cross-sections·Edited and revised manuscript on corrected equations for cross-section technique published in a professional journal

  • Student Manager | Inorganic Chemistry Stockroom

    Dec 2015 - May 2017

  • Undergraduate Student Research Assistant - Dearden Lab

    Jan 2016 - Apr 2017
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  Brigham Young University

  Sept 2017 - Sept 2022

  I've been designing a device (referred to as an instrument in science) that will analyze the mass and electrical charge of dust in the atmosphere of Mars!·Developed a custom charge detection mass spectrometer (CDMS) using a printed circuit board (PCB) array detector to analyze atmospheric Mars dust up to 2 micrometers in diameter under a NASA funded effort·Solved experimental velocity inconsistencies by integrating ion optics simulation results to experiments yielding velocity agreements within 0.44% RSD and a professional publication·Created MATLAB codes to analyze data and reduce analysis time by more than 50%·Engineered, tested, integrated, and troubleshooted the CDMS instrument system containing 5 subsystems – vacuum system, ionization source, solvent evaporation devices, dust analyzer, and charge amplifier system – for laboratory testing·Designed low-cost PCB detectors ($10) as the central focus of the CDMS instrument using SIMION 8.1·Planned daily experiments for analysis of prepared microparticle simulant sample to determine instrument efficacy·Wrote CDMS project reports and manuscripts – including data and figures – for submission to the university community, funding agency, and professional journals for publication·Collaborated with 5 electrical engineers at BYU to design and implement a custom charge amplifier system in the CDMS instrument to meet our Mars dust application requirements Show less

  • Graduate Student Researcher

    May 2017 - Sept 2022

  • Graduate Student Teaching Assistant

    Sept 2017 - Dec 2017
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  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  Jun 2021 - Aug 2021

  Spacecraft Bus Lead - Planetary Science Summer School

  This was an exciting summer program where we got to design a mock mission to explore the Venusian atmosphere with JPL mentors!·Designed a mock Venus in situ New Frontiers mission having a $1B cost cap with 18 early career scientists and engineers ·Designed 2-chassis spacecraft bus during mission architecture development that achieved cost, mass, thermal, power, and structural requirements ·Created 4 hypothesis-based research profiles aimed at answering questions about Venus to mature into a mission concept and architecture·Selected 3 different scientific instruments for the mission concept to acquire data and achieve science requirements Show less

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  Lockheed Martin

  Oct 2022 - now

  Artificial Intelligence Engineer

  Improving and accelerating data analysis processes using different artificial intelligence and machine learning software packages within different API.