With a main objective of advancing artificial intelligence (AI) approaches related to energy in the pursuit of smarter energy systems, the College of Engineering in fall 2021 authorized the new Center for Intelligent Energy Systems (CiENS). Lefteri Tsoukalas, professor in Purdue’s School of Nuclear Engineering, is the center’s director.

Junghyun Bae, PhD student at the School of Nuclear Engineering, won the ‘Pitch Your PhD’ Competition during the 2021 American Nuclear Society (ANS) Winter Meeting and Technology Expo. Hosted in Washington, D.C., Bae was selected from six other finalists from top nuclear programs around the country.

Humming quietly in the basement of the Electrical Engineering building, PUR-1, Indiana’s first and only nuclear reactor, has been the prized possession of the school of nuclear engineering for the past six decades. “I consider the reactor to be a hidden gem on campus,” said Ashvini Malshe, associate marketing and communications specialist for the school of nuclear engineering. “We’re not just a myth,” she chuckled.

KINGS BAY, Ga. (NNS) –The Gold crew of the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Alaska (SSBN 732) held a change of command onboard Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia, Oct. 29. Cmdr. Justin Hardy relieved Cmdr. Adam Thomas as the Gold crew’s commanding officer in a ceremony held at the base chapel. Retired Capt. Mark Davis was the guest speaker at the change of command.

Travis Crawford, PhD student at the School of Nuclear Engineering (SNE), was named a 2021-2022 Directed Energy Graduate Scholar. Awarded by the Directed Energy Professional Society’s (DEPS) Board of Scientific & Engineering Advisors (BSEA), Crawford was one of only twenty graduate students across the country who received this honor.

It sounds like a scene from a spy thriller. An attacker gets through the IT defenses of a nuclear power plant and feeds it fake, realistic data, tricking its computer systems and personnel into thinking operations are normal. The attacker then disrupts the function of key plant machinery, causing it to misperform or break down. By the time system operators realize they’ve been duped, it’s too late, with catastrophic results.

Faculty and graduate students at the School of Nuclear Engineering were recognized for their outstanding strides in the nuclear engineering field during the 28th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE28), which took place virtually from August 4 to August 6, 2021.

Allen Garner, Associate Professor at the School of Nuclear Engineering (NE), was elected as the Academic Representative for the Naval Surface Technology Innovation Consortium (NSTIC) Executive Committee. He will serve for a three-year term from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2024.

Stylianos Chatzidakis, Assistant Professor at the School of Nuclear Engineering (NE), received a Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) award from the U.S. Department of Energy earlier this year.

Undergraduate and graduate students at the School of Nuclear Engineering have won several prestigious scholarships and fellowships within the past few months. The following is a full list of the recipients and their honors: