Nuclear Engineering Education Project - "Computers and Nuclear Energy"
 
 
"Development of a nuclear engineering course with emphasis on safety critical application in digital instrumentation and control"
This project is funded by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Grant No: NRC-27-10-1123)
Project Period: October 2010 - December 2012
Project Overview:
This proposal addresses the lack of minority students and engineers in the challenging area of safety-critical application in digital control technology for nuclear power plant.  The proposal aims to develop a new course of nuclear power and to teach it to all engineering students at Howard University, which do not have a nuclear engineering department, the concepts of hardware/software diversity against common mode failures and the realistic practice of those concepts in the rector scram control of nuclear power plant operation.   A unique teaching model is applied in offering the course developed by the first year of the project period.  The model seeks to teach the new course by combining guest experts who will teach general nuclear engineering concepts and theories and the proposal investigators who will teach the specific area of software/hardware reliability in digital instrumentation and control.  The unique location of Howard University which has been successful in inviting external experts to the classrooms makes this new model of teaching possible.  Therefore, the proposal’s main tasks are to form a nuclear power expert network from which guest speakers are selected and to develop a learning module for safety-critical application in instrumentation and control. 
 
Investigators:
PI: Dr. Charles Kim (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering)
Co-PI: Dr. Peter Keiller (Department of Systems and Computer Sciences)
 
Student Workers:
Kidan Fenta(M. Eng. degree student), Will Reid (M. Eng. degree student)
Madeline Martinez-Pabon (M. Eng. degree in May 2012), and Ravi Jaglal (M. Eng. degree student)
 
Contact:
(202) 806-4821
ckim@howard.edu
Nuclear Expert Network (Advisors):
Dr. Emmanuel Glakpe (Mechanical Engineering, Howard University)
Dr. Ramesh Chawla (Chemical Engineering, Howard University)
Dr. James Johnson (Civil Engineering, Howard University)
Dr. Sukesh Aghara (Chemical Engineering and Nuclear Education, Prairie View A&M University)
Dr. Tae Ahn (NRC)
Drew Masada (CRDF Global)
Bruce Meffert (Linn State Technical College)
Dr. Javier Dies (Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain)
Ms. Deborah Jackson (NRC) and Numerous NRC guest speakers
 
New Course Development: "EECE499-02 Special Topics: Computers and Nuclear Energy"
1. First Course Offering: Fall 2011 Semester
2. Audience: All Engineering Students (Open to Graduate Students, too)
3. Course Contents: This course is offered to all engineering students for the purpose of exposing them the use of computers in safety-critical application such as nuclear energy production.  The risks and safety measures of using hardware/software system in the nuclear energy industry will be discussed and the labs of diversifying hardware and software will be conducted.  In addition, experts in nuclear sciences are invited to give lectures on nuclear energy, nuclear safety, and nuclear licensing process among others.
4. System & Software Safety
5. Hardware (Equipment)Diversity Learning Module Development: Undergoing
 
Publications/Presentations:
Charles Kim, Ronderio Hunt, and Peter Keiller (2012) “Analysis of Emergency Diesel Generator Failure Incidents in Nuclear Power Plants” 30th International System Safety Conference. August 2012. Atlanta, GA.

Madeline Martinez-Pabon and Charles Kim (2012) “Quantification of Complexity and Coupling Indices to Validate Normal Accident Theory in Telecommunication Network Accidents.” 30th International System Safety Conference. August 2012. Atlanta, GA.

Kidanmariam Fenta (2012) “A fail-safe computer system for nuclear reactor coolant control and protection,” (Master of Engineering student). 2012 Howard University Research Symposium (April 9, 2012)

Ronderio Hunt (2012) “Analysis of Emergency Diesel Generator Failure,” (Master of Engineering student). 2012 Howard University Research Symposium. April 9, 2012.

Madeline Martinez-Pabon (2012) “Quantification of Complexity and Coupling Indices to Validate Normal Accident Theory in Telecommunication Network Accidents,” (Master of Engineering student). 2012 Howard University Research Symposium. April 9, 2012.

Charles Kim and Peter Keiller (2011) "A Course Development Project for Hardware Diversity and Software Reliability Education for Digital Instrumentation and Control of Nuclear Power Plant," 2011 Conference on Nuclear Training and Education, Feb 6-9. 2011. Jacksonville, FL.
 
Oluwayeminisi Sonoiki and Charles Kim (2011) "Development of a Hardware Diversity Training Kit for Nuclear Industry", ANS 2011 Student Conference, April 14-17, 2011. Atlanta, GA.
 
Peter A. Keiller, Charles Kim, John Trimble, and Marlon Mejias (2011) “Revisiting the performance mixtures of software reliability growth models,” The 7th International Symposium on Management Engineering and Informatics (IME2011), July 19 – 22, 2011. Orlando FL.
 
Peter A. Keiller, Charles Kim, John Trimble, and Marlon Mejias (2011) “Addressing the Reliability of a Software System using Software Reliability Growth Models,” 83rd Annual National Technical Association Conference, September 14 - 16, 2011, Washington, D.C.