{"id":1960,"date":"2016-06-02T15:20:11","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T15:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/graduate\/?page_id=1960"},"modified":"2025-09-09T08:05:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T13:05:58","slug":"nuclear-engineering-sciences","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/graduate\/current-students\/undergraduate-research\/research-projects\/nuclear-engineering-sciences\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear Engineering Sciences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Project Title: <\/strong>Backscatter Radiography for Non-Destructive Examination
Department: <\/strong>Nuclear Engineering Sciences
Faculty Mentor:<\/strong> James Baciak, jebaciak@mse.ufl.edu<\/a>
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s):<\/strong> Shuang Cui, cuishuang413@ufl.edu<\/a>
Terms Available:<\/strong> Fall, Spring, Summer
Student Level:<\/strong> Junior, Senior, 1 student per semester
Prerequisites:<\/strong>  The undergraduate student must be willing to take the University of Florida’s radiation safety course, and be willing to work in the Surge Area. Student should be in Nuclear Engineering Program, Electrical Engineering, or Computer Information Science and Engineering.
Credit:<\/strong>  0-3 credits via EGN 4912
Stipend:<\/strong> $10\/hr up to 8 hrs\/wk; can be increased through University Scholars Program
Application Requirements:<\/strong> resume, UF unofficial transcripts, faculty interview; email pdf file to Jim Baciak, jebaciak@mse.ufl.edu<\/a>
Application Deadline:<\/strong> March 1 for Summer and Fall terms; November 1 for Spring term
Website:<\/strong>  n\/a
Project Description:<\/strong> In this project, students will develop the use of backscatter x-ray radiography as a non-destructive examination technique for the identification of flaws and features in materials and components. The undergraduate student selected for this project will work with a PhD student to acquire data, generate images, and identify any features of interest in the images. The student may also get involved with computational modeling and radiation transport simulations associated with the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project Title: <\/strong>Chemical Interaction Between FeCrAl Cladding and Fission Products
Department: <\/strong>Nuclear Engineering Sciences
Faculty Mentor:<\/strong> Yong Yang, yongyang@ufl.edu<\/a>
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s):<\/strong> n\/a
Terms Available:<\/strong> Fall, Summer
Student Level:<\/strong> Junior, 1 student per semester
Prerequisites:<\/strong>  With a good understanding on materials science basis.
Credit:<\/strong>  0-3 credits via EGN 4912
Stipend:<\/strong> $500 per semester
Application Requirements:<\/strong> Resume, UF unofficial transcripts; one pdf file with all application requirements to Colin Paulbeck, cpaulbeck@ufl.edu<\/a>
Application Deadline:<\/strong> March 1 for Summer and Fall terms
Website:<\/strong>  n\/a
Project Description:<\/strong> This project is aimed to find out whether FeCrAl is subject to the chemical attack from iodine and cesium during a normal reactor operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project Title: <\/strong>National and Nuclear Security
Department: <\/strong>Nuclear Engineering Sciences
Faculty Mentor:<\/strong> Kyle Hartig, kyle.hartig@ufl.edu<\/a>
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s):<\/strong> Emily Kwapis, Kyle Latty, James Totten
Terms Available:<\/strong> Fall, Spring, Summer
Student Level:<\/strong> Sophomore, Junior, Senior; 2 Students Per Term
Prerequisites:<\/strong> Some programming experience in addition to completion of calculus, physics, and chemistry courses that are commonly pre-requisites for higher-level science and engineering courses.
Credit:<\/strong>  0-3 credits via EGN 4912
Stipend:<\/strong> May be paid $15 an hour for up to 10 hours a week
Application Requirements:<\/strong> Email resume and short statement of interest to kyle.hartig@ufl.edu<\/a> for screening and setting up an interview.
Application Deadline:<\/strong> March 1 for Summer and Fall terms; November 1 for Spring term
Website:<\/strong> Rolling deadline until positions are filled.
Project Description:<\/strong> Unlike many groups on campus in which undergraduate researchers are expected to contribute to an on-going project, if you decide to do research with me, you will have the opportunity to lead your own project that you will conduct with my tutelage\/assistance\/encouragement\/interference. If you so choose, you may be partnered with a graduate student on an existing project that will allow you to gain experience with the research process and build skills necessary to lead a successful individual effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students participating in research in my group will have the unique opportunity to perform research in support of national and nuclear security and interact directly with federal agency sponsors as well as national laboratory and government agency stakeholders. As a member of my group, you will have the opportunity to leverage my groups connections and success to achieve your education and career goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drone-based radiation detection: Under a Department of Defense grant we are developing a student grand-challenge (competition) related to radionuclide plume tracking. To enable this challenge, we are developing a radiation detection system that will be ultimately be implemented on a drone platform for detection, characterizing and tracking the radionuclide plume released by the University of Florida Training Reactor (UFTR). Students on this project will get experience in radiation detection, drones, system integration, electronics, data acquisition, machine learning, and research collaboration among many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Special projects: As stated earlier, students working in the group are more than welcome to lead their own effort and several existing ideas exist that you may be interested in leading.
Sensor fusion \u2013 Fusing of multiple sensors for extracting features of interests and anomalies.
Optical sensing \u2013 Analysis of spectra using machine learning and ab initio modeling.
Detonation modeling \u2013 Assisting in a collaboration with MAE Department on laser produced plasma modeling and simulation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Project Title: Backscatter Radiography for Non-Destructive ExaminationDepartment: Nuclear Engineering SciencesFaculty Mentor: James Baciak, jebaciak@mse.ufl.eduPh.D. Student Mentor(s): Shuang Cui, cuishuang413@ufl.eduTerms Available: Fall, Spring, SummerStudent Level: Junior, Senior, 1 student per semesterPrerequisites:  The undergraduate student must be willing to take the University of Florida’s radiation safety course, and be willing to work in the Surge Area. Student […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19875,"featured_media":0,"parent":1782,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/page-section-nav.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"featured_post":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-1960","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1960"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17669,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1960\/revisions\/17669"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}