Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation

Mackenzie Duce — One of “NEA Global Forum Rising Stars”

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The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s Global Forum Rising Stars Workshop 2024 was hosted at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Karlsruhe, Germany on 25-26 November 2024. This annual event supports the professional development of talented female scientists pursuing careers in nuclear science and technology. Participants from around the world joined together for two full days of talks, career panels, and networking opportunities! Mackenzie Duce — ETI student from Georgia Institute of Technology — are one of these “Rising Stars”!

The Global Forum Rising Stars Programme’s mission is to reach within the nuclear field, adjacent disciplines, and beyond to welcome female rising stars in science, technology, education and policy into the global nuclear community. 

Inspired at the 2024 ETI Summer School

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ETI consortium successfully hosted its fourth ETI Annual Summer School. The Part I of this summer school was virtually held on June 12 – August 7, 2024, and received about 30 registrations. The Part II of 2024 ETI Summer School was held in-person at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN, on August 11 – 16, 2024, with 15 participants at various academic levels and backgrounds selected from both universities and national labs in US.

In this program, cross-cutting technologies across core disciplines for nuclear nonproliferation were explored, including data science and nuclear nonproliferation, instrumentation in fuel cycle monitoring, material selection  and sensor manufacturing, facility surveillance and predictive analytics. In addition to invited lectures and panel discussion by research scientists, in-person hands-on experiments, lab demonstrations and tours were also conducted for the Part II, including travel to ORNL to meet phenomenal scientists and tour comprehensive & advanced labs.

This summer school was a great success according to the feedback from participants, for example, Kassidy Aztergo, who is a PhD student in Chemistry from The Ohio State University, “I have met some phenomenal leaders during this summer school. I was totally was inspired by their talks and the hands-on experience, especially during the Early Career Luncheon at ORNL. Thank these scientists for showing the possibilities of career advancement, while prioritizing family commitments and for proving that a non-linear career path can build you into a capable, well-rounded scientist!” (click here for more details)

Dr. Raymond Cao Appointed to the Ohio Nuclear Development Authority

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Dr. Raymond Cao, Nuclear Engineering Professor & Nuclear Reactor Lab Director at the Ohio State University, who is also the lead of Thrust Area 3 of ETI consortium, has been appointed by the Office of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to the Ohio Nuclear Development Authority. The authority is responsible for the development of advanced nuclear reactor commercialization, isotope production and nuclear waste reduction.

ETI Wins Second $25 Million Award

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The Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation (ETI) 2.0, a consortium of 12 universities and 12 national labs, which is led by Georgia Tech and directed by Prof. Anna Erickson, wins a $25 million U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) award to support the basic science that underlies the nuclear security and nonproliferation missions.

ETI2.0 links basic university research with applied laboratory research to advance technical capabilities in support of nuclear security and nonproliferation missions of NNSA, enabling an effective pipeline of talented next-generation experts to establish careers at DOE national laboratories. “The consortium is critical to the future of NNSA’s nuclear security and nonproliferation research and development work,” said Jeff Chamberlin, head of NNSA’s nonproliferation efforts. “Once they develop a concept, the national laboratories can iterate and test its capabilities until it’s ready for the private sector to adopt.” (check here more details)

ETI2.0 will leverage the strong foundation of interdisciplinary, collaboration-driven technological innovation developed in the ETI Consortium funded in 2019. The technical mission of the ETI 2.0 team is to advance technologies across three core disciplines: data science and digital technologies in nuclear security and nonproliferation, precision environmental analysis for enhanced nuclear nonproliferation vigilance and emergency response, and emerging technologies. They will be advanced by research projects in novel radiation detectors, algorithms, testbeds, and digital twins.

While half the original collaborators remain, ETI2.0 sought new institutional partners for their research expertise, including Abilene Christian University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Stony Brook University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Other university collaborators include the Colorado School of Mines, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. National lab partners are the Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nevada National Security Site, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Savannah River National Laboratory. (more details are available here)

ETI Showcased the Research Progress at UPR2024

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The ETI members showcased the research progress by delivering impressive 16 oral presentations and 25 poster presentations at the annual University Program Review (UPR) meeting that was held by NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (DNN R&D) from June 4 – 6, 2024 at the Zachry Engineering Education Complex at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Over 260 participants representing university partners, national laboratories, and the government joined together at this event.

The UPR meeting 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 the students’ presentations are very impressive. This year’s UPR Student Award winners for our ETI consortium are:

  • Best Poster Presentation: Andrew Fishberg (Dr. Jonathan How group, MIT)
  • Best Oral Presentation: Avery Nguyen (Dr. Michael Short group, MIT)
  • Best National Lab Project: Sarah Scott (Dr. David Carlson group, Duke University)

Great efforts and contributions from the ETI members to make the UPR2024 successful! Special thanks to Dr. Pavel Tsvetkov and the TAMU team for hosting and supporting this meeting!