Nayana's Space: Pre-Blog *Vintage*

Recent Activity

In October, 2007, I returned to Hewlett Packard as a Senior Thermal Systems Engineer on high-end gaming desktop systems for the Voodoo Business Unit in Cupertino, CA.  I'm having a lot of fun working on new liquid cooling systems.  Check out HP's Voodoo Omen (Luxury PC Systems) and Blackbird (Ultimate Gaming Machine). From July, 2002 to September, 2007, I worked for Apple Computer in Cupertino, CA as a Senior Thermal-Mechanical Engineer.  I designed the cooling architecture (air-cooled only) for the Apple G5 (IBM 970 64-bit PowerPC) dual CPU workstation and also worked on the 1U Xserve.  In June 1996, I graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering.   Click here for an on-line resume.

My world travels include:  Spain & Ibiza (34th b-day coming soon in 2008), Greece & Turkey (2007), Italy (2006), Australia (2005), Rio de Janeiro's Carnival (2004), Cancun (30th b-day in 2004), Germany & Italy (2003), Hawaii (29th b-day in 2003, 2000), Singapore (for ABI), Canada, England, Taipei (for HP, 2008 & 2001), France, Austria, Switzerland, India.

Adventures & Activities

Before Apple, I used to work for Hewlett-Packard as a Thermal-Mechanical Engineer in R&D for the Network Server Division in Cupertino, California. HP has a Cool Team which is focused on solutions for data centers. Here is a picture of me at my HP workstation during my server days.

In the first week of May 2000, I spent eight days visiting three islands of Hawaii with friends from MIT. We walked through tropical rainforests in Maui and took a wild helicopter ride over active volcanoes on the Big Island. We also saw a performance of Ulalena in Maui which was first performed by Cirque du Soleil. To view pictures of me in Hawaii, click on:   Pictures,  More Pictures.

From August 1998 to September 2000, I worked for a hot  biotechnology company called Applied Biosystems which is located in Foster City, California.  They are the industry leader in bioanalytical instrumentation for the life sciences research market. I was a R&D Mechanical Systems Engineer in PCR-SDS.  PCR stands for Polymerase Chain Reaction. SDS stands for Sequence Detection Systems.   My product engineering group works on new Thermal Cycler designs to automate PCR.  The latest automated cycling instruments use thermoelectric devices which control  the heating and cooling of a metal block filled with a  plastic sample tray or test tubes. After 30 cycles, DNA has been amplified  through the PCR process and can be read by a DNA sequence detector.  In the near future, pharmaceutical companies will use  human genomic data to design drugs to target specific genes.   As part of the reorganized PE Corporation  (formerly Perkin Elmer Applied Biosystems), a new business unit called  Celera Genomics finished their first complete draft sequence of the human genome in June 2000. This is a major milestone for mankind.  On Thursday, December 23, 1999, Celera closed as #1 on the New York Stock Exchange List with the highest positive percentage gain in one day, a feat that has been repeated several times since that date. At the start of the new millennium, both PEB and CRA finished in the Top 5 on the NYSE with the highest percentage gain in one day! Yes, it was a total rush watching the stock double and split twice in my first 18 months with the company!  However, the future of biotechnology is uncertain and may pose harm to our species.

Between February and August 1998, I lived in Boston and worked for Design Continuum, Inc. which is an engineering design consulting firm that has its headquarters in West Newton, Massachusetts.   I was lucky enough to work with:   BMW(Yep, the car company),  SEGA (the video game company),  Moen,  Millipore,  and Varian.   Some cool clients in the company's portfolio include: Reebok,  Rollerblade, and PictureTel.

After graduation from MIT back in 1996, I worked for Applied Materials as a Mechanical Design Engineer for the Metal Deposition Product Business Group (aka Physical Vapor Deposition or PVD).   Applied Materials is the world's leading supplier of semiconductor manufacturing process equipment.  Some of their largest customers include: Intel, IBM, Texas Instruments, Motorola. Ticker symbol to keep an eye on: (NASDAQ: AMAT)

I helped race, design, and build a solar car on the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team called Manta for Sunrayce 95 which took FIRST PLACE.  The race began in Indianapolis, Indiana and ended in Golden, Colorado.  Before Sunrayce 95, I participated in the 1994 NESEA American Tour de Sol Commuter Car Race from New York City to Philadelphia, where our car Aztec took FIRST PLACE.

During my Senior year at MIT, I took Tools for Thought at the MIT Media Laboratory. Through the discussions about perception and how children acquire knowledge, we brainstormed creative ways to visualize environments through the analysis of simple and complex systems. We analyzed behavior through a Lego creature project.  I even dreamed up a new method to teach ballroom dance through an Interactive Dance Studio that could use a real-time Twister pad with software feedback control.

I'm affiliated with

MIT's Alpha Chi Omega sorority

MIT's Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honor Society

During Summer 1994, I was a BS CO-OP Intern at Hughes Space & Communications in El Segundo, California and "like totally" loved the SoCal beachfront area near Hermosa Beach.   I went to Mission Controls once to watch an Arian rocket launch and was also involved with thruster testing in the Hughes High Bay for the  Australian Optus B-3 satellite ( launched 8/28/94 on Chinese Long March rocket)  and Asian Apstar-2 .

During Summer 1995, I was an intern at Ford Motor Company in Plymouth, MI and I lived at University Towers located at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

I was either an officer or a member in good standing in the following groups during high school and/or college:

American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Member       Alpha Chi Omega Sorority, Theta Omicron Chapter Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honor Society, '95 Alumni Chair       MIT Society of Women Engineers, Publicity Chair       National Honor Society, Lideres Chapter, President 91-92       California Scholarship Federation, Life Time Member       Medical Explorer Post, President 91-92, Captain of First Place Team in American Red Cross Standard & Advanced First Aid West Coast Competitions

It's not a big deal, but I graduated as Valedictorian for both LeyVa Junior High and  Silver Creek High School.

In November 1997, a friend told me that I was spotted on CNN for a brief moment in the background when Miss Manners visited MIT.

During sophomore year in high school, I simulated a rock-sample sorter in the 3rd Annual Santa Clara Technology Challenge for the Mars Rover Project. I ended up on the front page of the San Jose Mercury's Science & Medicine section on February 13th, 1990.

In my senior year of Silver Creek High School, I was a regional finalist in the Bank of America competition in Science & Mathematics. I received $500, a nice plaque, and my name was mentioned in a SJ Mercury News article.

When I was a freshman in high school, I did two TV spots for KQED's (PBS, Channel 9 - Bay Area)  Vacation Video Summer Action Kid Minutes.   The studio is in San Francisco, California.   With the Bay Area Chapter of AXO, I was on TV again in February 1999. This time it was KCSM,  Channel 60. The pledge break announcer was quite a flirt! Besides these debuts, I did another televised pledge telethon for KQED in March 1999 with co-workers from Applied Biosystems.

In November 1986, there was a photo of me in Time Magazine for being in the all-girls computer club in Junior High.

I am a Virgo. I've enjoyed my time with the following Virgo compatible signs: Taurus, Scorpio, Cancer, and Pisces. I'm interested in guys that are sassy, classy, passionate, caring, sophisticated, intelligent, exciting, handsome, athletic, fun, and worldly.  (A French or English accent is a big plus.)

I grew up in the Evergreen area of San Jose, California which is located in Santa Clara. Check here for home prices.

I like to play tennis, beach VB, and golf (even if it's just always the driving range). In May 1999, I started rollerblading and love my Salomon TR soft boot in-line skates! In the summer, I go to San Francisco's Ocean Beach to blade and to enjoy the amazing view of the Pacific ocean at sunset.  If you blade or play tennis, drop me a line.  I also enjoy theatre, opera, and the latest movies.  I used to have a subscription series to TheatreWorks and West Bay Opera. My favorite movies in 2001 were: Monsters, Inc., Harry Potter, and Moulin Rouge.  My favorite movie in 2008 is IRON MAN.  The main character is portrayed from MIT and the entire movie was like a James Bond  turbo-charged thriller of excitement, explosions, and special effects.

I've been to a lot of awesome live concerts over the years.  My favorite concerts were: The Police, NIN, Beastie Boys, Harry Connick Jr., Madonna (on my 27th birthday for the 2001 Drowned World Tour, 2004 Re-Invention Tour, 2006 Confessions Tour), Gwen Stefani, Savage Garden (on my 26th birthday), Depeche Mode (Ultra & Exciter Tours), Erasure, U2 (1997/98 Popmart Tour, 2001 Elevation Tour, 2005/06 Vertigo Tour), Beck,  Ricky Martin, Snoop Dogg, The Dave Matthews Band, Sting, Sheryl Crow, The Artist formerly known as Prince, Duran Duran, Phil Collins, Color Me Badd, Paula Abdul, Chemical Brothers, ORBITAL, Primitive Radio Gods.

I'm into pop, rock, electronica (tango/techno), top 40, dance, alternative.  Favorite music albums in my collection include: U2's "All That You Can't Leave Behind", Gotan Project's "La Revancha del Tango", Pretty Hate Machine by NIN, Ultra by Depeche Mode, Shaggy's HotShots, Madonna's "Music", Ricky Martin, Fat Boy Slim, Backstreet Boys, The Crystal Method, Garbage, Mortal Kombat, Savage Garden, Eiffel 65, The Saint, Collective Soul, MTV's Party to Go Volume Series, MTV's AMP-Techno, Gwen Stefani's classic hits, and many more.

Last Updated: July 5, 2008  2:22PM