NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (DNN R&D) held its annual University Program Review (UPR) Meeting from June 7 – June 9, 2022 at the Michigan League at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The UPR 2022 review meeting is an opportunity to showcase the DNN R&D-funded research projects from universities and their laboratory partners to the broader nuclear security and nonproliferation community. Activities included presentations consisting of 54 oral research presentations and 70 posters from different disciplines and topic areas: (1) Data Science, Modeling, and Simulation, (2) Fundamental Science, (3) Detection Technology, (4) Nonproliferation Signatures and Observables.

ETI members successfully presented 19 oral and 22 poster presentations. Three ETI students were awarded best presentation awards:

• Best Oral Presentation: Ashok Dheenan (OSU, advisor: Dr. Siddharth Rajan, “Radiation Tolerant Wide Bandgap Microelectronics“)
• Best Poster Presentation: Samuel Kemp (GT, advisor: Dr. Jonathan Rogers, “Precomputing Radiation Kernels for Real Time Particle Filter Source Term Estimation in Obstacle Rich Environments“) 
• Best National Lab Project Award: Caleb Chandler (CSM, advisor: Dr. Alan Sellinger, “Photoinitiated Cationic Polymerization of Vinyltoluene Towards the 3D Printing of Plastic Scintillators“).

Sarah Mantell, University of California, Santa Barbara

Brief Bio: Sarah Mantell graduated summa cum laude with her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in June 2021. In Fall 2021, she will begin a PhD program at the University of California, Santa Barbara in applied mathematics while continuing her work at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Research and Academic Interests: Sarah’s research interests are widespread and include machine learning, image processing, and cryptography. Sarah’s work at Los Alamos National Laboratory is part of an interdisciplinary project that is studying the relationship between build parameters used in laser powder bed fusion and the resulting material properties. Thus far, Sarah has developed a variety of computer vision tools to analyze melt pools and flag samples that are likely to contain lack-of-fusion defects. Sarah’s mathematical interests include operator theory, low-dimensional topology, and machine learning. Outside of mathematics, she is interested in photography, cross stitching, and cooking.

ETI Congratulates two outstanding students being awarded ETI Consortium Graduate Student Fellowship! The two awardees are Sarah Mantell (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Alexandra Schueller (Georgia Institute of Technology). The ETI Graduate Fellowship recipients will receive up to $50,000 annually (for a maximum of two years) toward the cost of their education, including tuition, fees, a stipend, and travel. The students will also have an opportunity to complete a summer internship at a national laboratory. These fellowships are geared toward students with an interest in one of the ETI’s three thrust areas.

Dr. Joesph Beaman, Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Texas at Austin, has been honored with the General Pierre Nicolau Award from the International Academy of Production Engineering (CIRP). CIRP is the world leading organization in production engineering research and is at the forefront of design, optimization, control and management of processes, machines and systems. 

Dr. Beaman is recognized for this award as one of the inventors of 3D printing technology and an expert in additive manufacturing. He was one of the founders of DTM Corporation (now merged with 3D Systems), which markets Selective Laser Sintering, an additive manufacturing technique that is now used worldwide. He will be honored at a virtual ceremony in August 2021 at the CIRP General Assembly. This Award is conferred in recognition of significant and distinguished scientific and industrial contributions to a specific area within the field of production engineering encompassed by the interests of CIRP.

ETI Congratulates four outstanding students being awarded ETI Consortium Undergraduate Scholarship! The four awardees are Alexander Greenhalgh (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), Jordan Parker-Ashe (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Nick Folino (The Ohio State University), and Sarah Mantell (California Polytechnic State University). The ETI’s core mission is to direct the multidisciplinary research and innovation that enable the technologies to train the next generation of human capital, and to bridge the gap between the university basic research and NNSA national laboratories’ mission-specific applications. The ETI Undergraduate Scholarship recipients will receive up to $5,000 annually (for a maximum of two years) toward the cost of their education, including tuition, books required for classes, housing expenses for on campus facilities, off-campus room expenses with a valid rent receipt, and fees charged to students of similar academic standing.