Development of a Practice-Oriented Graduate Certificate Program in Nuclear Power Engineering

Project: Research project

Project Details

Description

A practice-oriented graduate certificate program in nuclear power engineering for students

pursuing a Master's degree in Mechanical engineering is proposed herein. A distinguishing

feature of the proposed program is a significant practical training component to be achieved by:

1) providing participating students the opportunity to engage in a Master's-level cooperative

education (Co-op) assignment at any of the program's industrial sponsors for one semester, and

2) our industry partners will be directly engaged in program and course content design and

review to facilitate the incorporation of vital nuclear engineering practice knowledge into the

course modules, based on forecasted needs of the nuclear power stakeholders. Accordingly,

the program courses will be enhanced with a significant experiential learning component

through practical, industry-based case-studies to be provided by our industrial partners based

on long-term experience of their experts as it relates to design, operation, safety, security,

environmental protection, and regulatory standards. The principal investigators have recently

established the Innovation Partnership Institute in Clean Energy Technology (IPI-CET) within

the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology. The IPI-CET is

guided by a consortium forming a strategic partnership which includes: Stevens Institute of

Technology, Bergen Community College, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) Services

Company, Burns and Roe Enterprises Inc., Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI),

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), PJM Interconnection, and Erin Engineering Company.

The main goal of the IPI-CET is to provide solutions to the workforce development challenges

within the nuclear power industry for students up to and including the Bachelor's degree level.

The proposed graduate certificate program is a natural extension of existing efforts which is

expected to increase the pool of students interested in a career within the resurging nuclear

power industry and related government agencies (e.g., NRC and DOE laboratories) while

significantly reducing the required training of next-generation nuclear power engineering

professionals. A long-range goal of the proposed program is its expansion to students from

other engineering disciplines including: Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Environmental

Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Physics, and Engineering Management. A

broader impact is for the program to become a model for adoption at other institutions

nationwide.

StatusActive
Effective start/end date1/01/10 → …

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