Cadets Visit the University of Massachusetts

Two cadets and three faculty from the nuclear engineering program spent a day at University of Massachusetts-Lowell (UML). In the morning they toured their one-megawatt research reactor and the lab facilities that support various ongoing research efforts. CPT Kaminski discussed opportunities to use the reactor to support forensics efforts aimed at developing a better understanding of nuclear debris from various environments and locales. Dr. Aghara of UML supported the idea of partnering on such research in the future. In the afternoon, Dr. Allen gave an overview of the nuclear engineering program at USMA to a group of UML students and briefly spoke about the new computational methods design course. Over the past three years, Dr. Allen has built the course from the ground up, and authored a book aimed at teaching undergraduates the contemporary modeling tools used in the field. Several programs around the country have adopted his free digital text, and others, including UML, are considering it for future use. In the evening, the group attended a meeting of the American Nuclear Society-Northeast Section. Cadets Salem Al Kaabi and Evan Terkanian competed in a Jeopardy-like quiz show on mixed teams comprised of students from MIT, UML, and TRCC.