DENA0004016

Florida International University

Project Title: Consortium for Research and Education in Power and Energy Systems (CREPES) for Sustainable STEM Workforce

Project Description: The goal of the proposed consortium is to develop a sustainable and high caliber STEM workforce from minorities and underrepresented groups by providing an innovative research and educational platform in the intersection of legacy power system analysis, nuclear engineering, and cyber-physical systems. The proposed consortium (CREPES) will achieve its goal through activities that operate at the nexus of four thrusts: UG research and education, graduate research and education, post-doc/faculty mentoring, and sustainability of the consortium.

Specifically, through the CREPES, we will achieve the following objectives:

• Strengthen the research and education capabilities of minority serving institutions in the NSE related topic areas: The consortium will strengthen research and education capabilities of three minority serving institutions (MSIs). The consortium will help strengthen undergraduate curricula of a historically black college and university: Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (AAMU) in nuclear engineering. The consortium will establish a new nuclear certificate program at two Hispanic serving institutions: Florida International University (FIU) and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), and also strengthens research and education on power, energy, and cyber-physical systems at FIU and UTEP.

• Attract high caliber undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and postdoctoral students and train them in areas critical to NNSA's mission: The consortium has a well laid out plan for K-12 outreach, recruitment, retention, professional development programs, mentoring and internship programs (at two NNSA labs: Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and up-to-date research topics in the core area of power, energy, nuclear engineering, and cyber-physical systems that will keep the graduates ahead in the competitive job market. The consortium will ensure the graduates excel in STEM by providing them with practical experience and training through applicable research projects, capacity building, and experiential learning.

• Provide faculty and students with exposure to researchers and the environment of the NNSA national laboratories, mentors young researchers and prepares them for leadership roles: The consortium has well articulated plans for the mentoring of two junior faculties at MSIs (at UTEP and FIU) jointly in collaboration with senior scientists from the partner NNSA national labs in the core area of smart grid cyber-physical systems.

• Ensure the success, increase the visibility and sustainability of the consortium: The consortium has well thought plans to evaluate the overall success of the research and educational programs. The PIs are committed to increasing the visibility of the consortium by all possible means of information dissemination, networking, and presentations at top tier conferences. PIs ensure sustainability of the consortium through follow on funding from internal/external sources.

Florida International University

81.123 - National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) Program

National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) [DOE]

NNSA Weapons Activities [DOE - NNSA]

Miami, Florida 33199-0001 United States

Single Zip Code

Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program (DE-FOA-0002144)

Amendment Since initial award the End Date has been extended from 09/30/24 to 09/30/29 and the total obligations have increased 86% from $2,000,000 to $3,725,000.