Subisha Sundaram, an Honors College student pursuing her bachelor’s degree in radiation health physics, appreciates the student support systems in the College of Engineering and throughout Oregon State University.
Lucia Gómez Hurtado, now a fourth-year nuclear engineering student, remembers when her father was a graduate student.
“I used to stop by his office and see what he was doing,” she said. “I would sit next to him and look at equations on his computer screen that made no sense to me. He showed me CAD designs and I would ask lots of questions.”
A year and a half after Oregon State University launched the Center for Exascale Monte Carlo Neutron Transport, or CEMeNT, its researchers have displayed impressive progress in their quest to develop ultra-high-speed computer simulations for predicting the behavior of neutrons.
Predicting the behavior of neutrons has been of fundamental importance for the nuclear security enterprise since the very beginning. Though we have come a long way from the days of using a series of wheels to simulate the movement in neutrons in a system, as Fermi did, Monte Carlo simulations that use random numbers to estimate the behavior of neutrons in a nuclear system still are a critical technology in the nuclear analytical toolkit.
Sasha Chemey, who joined the College of Engineering this fall as an assistant professor of nuclear engineering, often turns to sports to clarify how he envisions his new role.
Our faculty are the heart of the College of Engineering’s pursuit of excellence. These are the people in whom our research and education missions live and breathe. Not only are the college’s faculty shaping the future by driving discovery and innovation — in the areas of artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, clean water, materials science, renewable energy, and many others — they are teaching and mentoring tomorrow’s leaders. Above all, faculty excellence fosters student success.
Small, efficient radiation detector could find its way into mammogram machines
In 2015, a team of Oregon State University researchers devised a new solid-state, scintillator-type radiation detector that offers several key advantages over existing designs: It’s more compact, less expensive to produce, and, critically, does not require lots of high-voltage current to operate.
A whopping 5% to 8% of the carbon released into the world’s atmosphere comes from the production of cement, a key component of concrete. At Oregon State University, researchers are developing numerous ways to reduce that load and related climate impacts.
NUCLEAR ENGINEERING ALUMNUS FINDS OPPORTUNITIES TO HELP STUDENTS SUCCEED
Even before he graduated from high school, Bill Nicholson (’80 B.S., Nuclear Engineering) knew he wanted to make a difference for future generations. The Portland native had always been interested in the clean energy field, and, at the time, solar and nuclear power were the two most promising technologies.
