Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation

Next Generation Titans: Natalie Cannon, ETI Student from Georgia Institute of Technology

by

Over the last three years, Energy Impact Center (EIC) have met with leading experts across climate and energy, mapping out challenges and opportunities to form the foundation for future work. This work features a deep dive into the challenges and opportunities within the field of nuclear energy and explores how the fundamentals of utilizing atomic energy yield orders of magnitude better performance and less waste over all alternatives. At Ep. 423, EIC conducted one-on-one interview with ETI graduate student Natalie Cannon from Georgia Institute of Technology, discussing:

  • Natalie’s last minute switch from film to STEM – How she settled on nuclear engineering.
  • An exploration of manufacturing techniques, finding mentors, and invaluable pieces of advice.
  • Natalie’s research and a dive into neutron noise, criticality, and robots.
  • Celebrating past accomplishments and looking toward what younger generations can help achieve in the future.

ETI Student Sarah Scott’s Research Work Selected as Cover of Sensors

by

Thermal tomography (TT) is a promising non-contact nondestructive imaging method for the detection of pores in metallic structures printed with the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing method. ETI student Sarah Scott from Duke University collaborating with Argonne National Laboratory introduces a novel multi-task learning (MTL) approach, which simultaneously performs a classification of synthetic TT images and segmentation of experimental scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. Synthetic TT images are obtained from computer simulations of metallic structures with subsurface elliptical-shape defects, while experimental SEM images are obtained from imaging of LPBF-printed stainless-steel coupons. The results of this study show that the MTL network performs better in both the classification and segmentation tasks, as compared to the conventional approach when the individual tasks are performed independently of each other. (view this paper)

Prof. Anna Erickson Honored with Two Awards!

by

Dr. Erickson, the ETI consortium director, and the Associate Chair for Research and Woodruff Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been honored with two awards from the American Nuclear Society (ANS).

She received the Arthur Holly Compton Award in Education from the Education, Training and Workforce Development Division (ETWDD), and the National Landis Young Member Engineering Award. She was formally recognized during the 2023 ANS Annual Meeting, held earlier this week in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Arthur Holly Compton Award in Education recognizes outstanding contributions to education in nuclear science and engineering. Dr. Erickson was selected for her pioneering academic achievements and extensive outreach endeavors in the field of nuclear engineering education, seamlessly integrating traditional classroom instruction, innovative experimentation, and cutting-edge distance education techniques to create a multidisciplinary, multi-platform educational experience for the 21st century.

The Landis Young Member Engineering Award recognizes outstanding achievement in which engineering knowledge has been effectively applied to yield an engineering concept, design, safety improvement, method of analysis, or product utilized in nuclear power research and development or commercial application. Dr. Erickson was selected for establishing the foundation for novel high-precision instrumentation for safety and security remote monitoring enabling successful development, deployment, and commercialization of advanced reactors with operational autonomy.

UPR2023 — great success!

by

The University Program Review (UPR) 2023 review meeting that was held at the ASUC Student Union: Martin Luther King Junior Building at the UC-Berkeley in Berkeley, CA, June 6 – 8, 2023, which 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. UPR is an unclassified venue for sponsors to review the accomplishments of grantees; stakeholders within the community to engage sponsored researchers; a forum to stimulate collaboration, technology transfer, and integration; and a venue where students and early career scientists can interact with their peers in a rigorous, yet collegial, environment.

All presenters from the Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation (ETI) delivered excellent oral/poster presentations to our sponsors and the community!

All ETI students’ presentations were very impressive. This year’s UPR Student Award winners are:

  • Best Poster Presentation: Hyunsoon Lee (Dr. Siddharth Rajan group, The Ohio State University)
  • Best Oral Presentation: Andrew Fishberg (Dr. Jonathan How group, MIT)
  • Best National Lab Project: Jordan Stomps (Dr. Paul Wilson group, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Thank the ETI team for your great efforts and contributions to make the UPR2023 successful!

Student Awards at the 2023 ETI Workshop

by

ETI consortium hosted its Annual Workshop at University of Wisconsin-Madison on February 8-9, 2023. About 80 participants representing university partners, national laboratories, and the government joined together to build and strengthen the research collaboration between the labs and the universities. This workshop was a great success with wonderful contributions from the ETI community.

Student presentations (both oral and poster) were impressive and excellent, and this year’s Student Award winners are: 

Allen Wood III (UNC-Chapel Hill) — Best Oral Presentation

Kate Thompson (UW-Madison) — Best Poster Presentation