YPPDO: Sabrina Cales, IDA, “From astrophysics to systems evaluations”

Event time: 
Wednesday, February 21, 2018 - 1:00pm
Location: 
WL 216, Wright Laboratory See map
272 Whitney Ave
New Haven, CT 06510
Event description: 

Join the YPPDO for a presentation by Sabrina Cales (Institute for Defense Analyses, University of Wyoming PhD, Yale Postdoc) focusing on her transition from astrophysics into the world of data-driven evaluation of military systems. Sabrina is a research staff member at the Systems Analysis Center at Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) a non-profit Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), where she designs test concepts, uses statistical techniques to analyze their results, and provides input to reports that inform the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Congress of the effectiveness and suitability of various U.S. military programs. By ensuring that these systems actually work, this oversight role helps save taxpayer’s dollars and more importantly the lives of our sailors, marines, airmen, and soldiers. The presentation will cover Sabrina’s think-tank journey; the differences between academia and think-tank analyst; the IDA interview process; analysis topics she has recently leveraged; and resources to help you gain a better understanding of the world of systems evaluation.

Host: Yale Physics Professional Development Organization

Lunch: Join us for lunch at 12:30pm, RSVP to: https://goo.gl/forms/1rDTb7Jtqs3d7aMF2 or kimberly.tighe@yale.edu

Funding for this event is provided by the Department of Physics, Wright Laboratory, and the Flint fund.