Internship Connects Supercomputing with National Priorities
National laboratories play a critical role in advancing science, developing energy technologies, and ensuring national security. This summer, Ph.D. student Tage Burnett contributed to that mission firsthand during an internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee.
The internship provided Burnett valuable insight into national laboratory research and reinforced skills he developed through his studies at Georgia Tech. When he returned to campus, we asked Burnett to share more about his internship and what he learned.
Student: Tage Burnett
Research Interests: Fusion energy, computational plasma physics, high-performance computing, and structure-preserving machine learning
Degree Program: Ph.D. in Computational Science and Engineering
Faculty Advisor: School of CSE Assistant Professor Qi Tang
2026 Internship: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Many people are unfamiliar with national laboratories, like ORNL. Could you explain the purpose of these institutions and why they are important?
The Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories are responsible for moving forward science and technology in the United States and solving high-consequence challenges in science, energy, and national security. They work on both applied and theoretical research with both short-term and long-term returns. ORNL has eight core research areas: biology and environment, energy science, fusion and fission, isotopes, physical sciences, national security, neutron science, and supercomputing. I was an intern in the supercomputing division.
How well did coursework and experience at Georgia Tech prepare you for your ORNL internship?
My coursework at Georgia Tech was vital in my preparation for this internship. I wrote highly parallel code where I leaned heavily on what I learned in CSE 6220: High-Performance Computing. I also worked on numerical methods which required an understanding of partial differential equations and numerical linear algebra which I also learned at Georgia Tech from classes like CSE 6643: Numerical Linear Algebra and a space plasma physics course.
What did you work on while interning at ORNL?
At ORNL, I was a developer on the Adaptive Sparse Grid Discretization (ASGarD) codebase. The code uses adaptive sparse grids and the Discontinuous Galerkin method to beat the curse of dimensionality and solve high-dimensional partial differential equations (PDEs). The code is designed to simulate fully kinetic plasmas in up to 6-dimensional phase space. My project was to implement an iterative method to solve the efficiently solve the Poisson equation within the codebase. This project gave me hands on experience with linear algebra, numerical PDEs, parallel computing and software engineering which was invaluable to my development as a CSE researcher.
Do you have a favorite memory or remarkable achievement from your internship?
My favorite memory from my internship was spending time with the other ORNL interns outside of work. There was an amazing group of interns at ORNL, and it was great getting to know them. One particularly good memory was when we went out to a restaurant with live music and played laser tag during our last week of the internship to celebrate our time at ORNL. The achievement I am most proud of was getting a working, highly efficient version of the Poisson solver into ASGarD. The ASGarD codebase is open source, so I hope other plasma physics researchers will use the code and find it helpful for their research.
While interning, you were selected for a GEM Fellowship, which Georgia Tech and ORNL nominated you for. What does this fellowship mean to you and is there anything you would like to say to your supporters?
To me, receiving the GEM Fellowship indicates that other people recognize the hard work I am doing, and they believe in my ability to meaningfully contribute to the field. Having this support from GEM, ORNL, and Georgia Tech gives me greater confidence in myself and my potential and inspires me to put my all into my work. I would like all my supporters to know that I am so grateful for the opportunity you have given me to be a part of the excellent community of researchers within GEM, ORNL, and Georgia Tech. I will do my very best to make your support worthwhile!
Overall, how helpful was this internship toward your studies at Georgia Tech and career as an aspiring researcher?
The internship was extremely important to both my studies at Georgia Tech and my career as a researcher. The hands-on experience I gained is irreplaceable and it helped me to apply all the skills I have developed throughout my education. I am also optimistic that the internship will open doors for me when I am seeking a job post-graduation.
