May Yen
About May Yen
May Yen is a Managing Engineer at Exponent, specializing in failure analysis and fire and explosion investigations within complex systems, particularly in the Oil & Gas industry. With a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, she has extensive experience in turbulent diffusion flames and computational modeling, and has held various engineering roles at Cummins and Exponent over the years.
Work at Exponent
May Yen currently serves as a Managing Engineer at Exponent, a position she has held since 2024. In this role, she specializes in failure analysis and fire and explosion investigations within complex systems. Her responsibilities include performing facility evaluations for permitting and planning in the Oil & Gas industry. Prior to her current role, she worked at Exponent as a Senior Engineer from 2022 to 2024 and as an Associate in Thermal Science from 2019 to 2021, contributing to various engineering projects and analyses.
Education and Expertise
May Yen holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, where she conducted research on multidimensional modeling of turbulent diffusion flames. She also earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Mechanical Engineering from the same institution. Her expertise includes failure analysis, fire and explosion investigations, and computational modeling using tools such as FLACS, StarCCM+, CFX, and ANSYS Fluent.
Background
May Yen has a diverse background in engineering, having worked at Cummins, Inc. in various roles, including Combustion/Performance/Emissions Engineer Intern and Heavy Duty Product Planning Intern. She also served as a Research Assistant at Purdue University from 2011 to 2017, where she gained extensive experience in turbulent diffusion flames and soot formation. Her early internships at Cummins Engine Company provided her with foundational skills in design engineering and performance analysis.
Technical Skills
May Yen is proficient in various technical skills essential for engineering and analysis. She regularly utilizes CAD software, including Solidworks, Catia, ProE, and Spaceclaim. Additionally, she is skilled in coding with Fortran, C, Python, and MATLAB, and has experience in parallelizing code using MPI and OpenMP. Her technical capabilities extend to conducting engineering analyses using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for applications in medical devices, wearables, and consumer electronics.
Professional Experience
Throughout her career, May Yen has accumulated significant professional experience in engineering roles. She has worked at Cummins, Inc. in multiple internships focused on combustion and emissions, as well as at Exponent in various capacities, including Senior Associate and Senior Engineer. Her work has involved applying engineering expertise to intellectual property disputes and conducting assessments related to burn injury hazards in consumer products.