Silvx Labs is a Missoula tech company targeted towards forest sustainability. Their services span from full-fledged python packages and applications to forest simulations that cover fire, carbon emissions, and/or forest growth and decay.

Brianna worked on a client project which focused on the simulation of forest growth, decay, and regeneration. She was able to support the end-to-end development of a data- driven forest growth simulation model python package from its initial development to the completion of a working prototype. To do this, multiple third-party python packages were employed to aid in execution of equation fitting and parameter calculations on a large forest inventory database. The parameters were calculated for both the entire United States and its ecosystem provinces (as defined by the US Forest Service) based on age as adult or sapling. Parameters were then used in programmed classes that integrated a dictionary-to-xml ability for simulation purposes. Brianna also supported proper code and API documentation and finished the prototype with a fully functional testing suite that was automated through GitHub Actions to prevent the integration of untested and/or breaking changes.

In Brianna’s words: “I had a lot of fun over the summer! If someone had told me what I would come to accomplish by the end of my internship I would not have believed them. I learned so much and got real world experience that used my academic experience as a foundation. I think everyone should think about getting an internship to feel prepared for a career and see what options are out there!”