Nevada National Security Site involvment with Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program*

The article elaborates the collaborative involvement of the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) with Nuclear Security Science  and Technology Consortium (NSSTC) for Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program (MSIPP). The MSIPP is a research-based experience for students who are traditionally underrepresented in Science Technology Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. MSIPP is designed to build a steady pipeline between the U.S. Department of Energy facilities and national laboratories and minority-serving institutions in STEM disciplines, and bring a heightened awareness of NNSA plants and laboratories to institutions with a common interest in STEM research fields.

The NNSS is working with faculties of University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Department of Mechanical, Electrical and Computer Engineering. Collaboration have been formed with University of New Mexico and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Research progresses in the following areas of interests will be highlighted in the presentation (i) Fabrication of microfluidic chips and testing with nonradioactive surrogates, (ii) Computational study of elpasolites scintillation detectors in active assay of special nuclear materials, (iii) Fast neutron gallium nitride scintillation experiments at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), (iv) Compact muon scintillation detectors about the size of a cell phone, and (v) Radiation sensors (CZT and CLYC sensors) integrated into unmanned aircraft system platforms.