This summer, NPRE's Socio-Technical Risk Analysis (SoTeRiA) Laboratory presented virtually at the 2021 Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering (WYSE) camp to approximately 60 high school students.
During the risk analysis session, participants had the opportunity to interact with professors, researchers, and students from the SoTeRiA Laboratory, including Associate Professor Zahra Mohaghegh, Research Assistant Professor Tatsuya Sakurahara, Research Scientist Pegah Farshadmanesh, Ph.D. student Ha Bui, and undergraduate students Andrea Roy, Madeline Morasca, and Jake Mitstifer, to discuss the importance of Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) for nuclear safety and risk-informed policy making, the state-of-the-art PRA research underway at the SoTeRiA Research Laboratory, and PRA research and education opportunities available for prospective undergraduate students in NPRE.
In order to give students a glimpse into PRA methodologies, students participated in two hands-on activities associated with two research topics at SoTeRiA.
- Activity #1. Fire Risk Modeling and Quantification in Nuclear Power Plants (https://soteria.npre.illinois.edu/research/fire/):
- Activity #2. Incorporation of Human and Organizational Factors into PRA for Nuclear Power Plants (https://soteria.npre.illinois.edu/research/organizational/):
SoTeRiA’s research focuses on improving safety in technological systems such as commercial nuclear power plants, while reducing the cost of operations. This scientific work helps create a pathway to enhance the economic viability of the nuclear industry at a time when carbon-free energy resources play a critical role in mitigating climate change.
The SoTeRiA team would like to thank NPRE and the WYSE 2021 camp organizers for the opportunity to provide prospective NPRE students with an introduction to PRA and PRA research, as well as the high school students for their fantastic engagement and participation.
WYSE High School Summer Camps at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Grainger College of Engineering are designed to provide STEM-interested students the opportunity to experience advanced curricula at one of the best engineering schools in the nation and the world.