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.
Status | Active |
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Effective start/end date | 1/01/10 → … |