The Consortium for Nuclear Security Advanced Manufacturing Enhanced by Machine Learning (NSAM-ML) combines the research infrastructure in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields available at the three university members and leverages the assets of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) partners to enhance the research capabilities of the participating research groups as well as to support STEM education programs through sustainable and stronger research efforts.
Dozens of under-represented students have been supported financially and engaged in the NSAM research projects to increase their commitment to their education and to embark in careers with better horizons. The multi-disciplinary collaboration with NNSA laboratories, majority universities and premier research consortia is indeed enabling noteworthy participation of students in science and advanced engineering, as well as advancing the discovery of critical materials and sensors, while building new knowledge in critical fields of national interest. Students who were not financially supported still benefited from the new education and research assets brought by the Consortium.
To achieve bold and transformative outcomes, the NSAM-ML Consortium teams build on their own successes in prior research projects (e.g., the National Science Foundation Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology [NSF-CREST] at NCCU; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA] Center at NCCU; the NCCU Homeland Security-Center for Research, Education and Sensor Technology [HS-CREST] project; the Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) for the NCCU-Penn State [PSU] partnership; the NCCU Research Institute for Scholars of Equity [RISE] project; and NSF Excellence in Research awards).
The Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) team has long-standing expertise in the field of sensing and solar energy conversion through electrochemistry routes. The team is actively collaborating with other institutes (e.g., Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University and NCCU). With recent support from NSF, NASA and the Department of Defense (DOD), the ECSU team has established a major research facility that provides exceptional opportunities for under-represented undergraduate students to learn advanced technology and gain first-hand experience in the fields of ultra-sensing and renewable energy.
The Southern University and A&M College (SUBR) team and the students benefit from the Louisiana Alliance for Simulation-Guided Materials Applications Consortium (LONI/NSF-LASIGMA), the Louisiana Consortium for Innovation in Manufacturing and Materials (CIMM), the Louisiana Materials Design Alliance (LAMDA) consortium, the CREST Center for Next Generation Multifunctional Composites (NextGen Composites Phase II) and partnerships with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).
The consortium has initiated new projects that strengthen intra-consortium collaboration, notably the fabrication of metal nanoparticle catalysts by the SUBR research team, that the ECSU group uses for photo-catalysis experimentation on water photon-induced splitting and on the conversion of CO2 to alternative fuels or high-value chemicals. For this project, the NCCU team studies atomistically the photo-chemical reactions involving the nanoparticle catalysts. Also, the NCCU team in collaboration with the Center for Integrated Nanotechnology (CINT) at SNL performs in-situ analysis of Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) inside an environmental scanning electron microscope (Env.-SEM) and a unique environmental high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM).
The consortium also seeks inter-MSIPP (Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program) consortia collaboration. Such collaboration began with the Quality Control of Additive Manufacturing (QCAM). This summer, students will attend courses at NMSU offered by QCAM faculties. Joint research projects on non-destructive materials characterization methods are also being discussed.
Lately, the NSAM-ML has devised synergetic research that will be carried out jointly with the MSIPP consortium Additive Manufacturing Post Processing Partnership (AMP3). The principal investigators (PIs) are planning a scientific collaboration on at least one project on piezoelectric qubit.
In terms of advanced manufacturing approaches, a paradigm shift in the manufacturing of nanomaterials has been invented by the PI of the NSAM-ML project. It consists in developing and utilizing synergy between the material nanoscale properties and the utilized fabrication method to create a process that does not smear or squander the nanoscale properties of the fabricated material.
For instance, researchers from the Consortium have engaged in research for developing some “guided-self-assembling for additive manufacturing of nanomaterials” processes, where the nanoscale fillers in the material are aligned to amplify the nanoscale group response. The research emphasis is on the fabrication of mediums compatible with precision 3D printing or inkjet printing. Such mediums could be a specially developed polymer nanocomposite that enables printed aligned fillers (PAF) that maintain the structural integrity of the nanocomposite, in a way to preserve PAF nanoscale property during the printing process.
We found that multi-stage-electrospinning is a promising approach for aligning nanocomposites that have fillers that can be aligned by applying electric fields during the electrospinning. Alignment of fillers suggests using, for instance, fillers that can be electrically polarized to enable the use of electrical forces for guided self-assembly. Also, thermal effects can drive phase transforms of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), where under certain thermodynamic conditions one can obtain ferroelectric β-phase PVDF.
A carbon nanotube (CNT) can be an insulator, semiconductor or conductor; selecting CNT fillers with specific chirality allows alignment of the nanotube when blended with the polymer. However, the entanglement of CNTs led to using nanorods as an alternative; thus, the NSAM shifted interest to boron nitride (BN) and boron (TiO2) nanorods being good candidates for guided self-assembling within the printed nanocomposite. This advanced manufacturing paradigm is being investigated at the NSAM-ML and promoted by the PI and his team.
The Consortium has also strong research activities that promote advanced manufacturing for quantum devices. Our theoretical studies of quantum dots indeed pave the way to nanomaterial and quantum device design and manufacturing. One cannot utilize quantum properties of a given system, for instance to make qubits, without understanding the properties and the intricacies of such systems.
Furthermore, to enhance advanced manufacturing with machine learning (ML), the Consortium teams have been developing new ML approaches. These are employed to discover critical materials and manufacturing processes of interest to the sponsor and to our industry. The methods they develop allow unraveling hidden information in their experimentally and computationally generated data. Neural network models that improve and accelerate the outcomes of the research on superalloys have been successfully used to tune the composition of high-entropy alloy (HEA) and heat cycling.
The Consortium’s educational vision is not merely to provide opportunities for the students but also to improve the quality and outcomes and to impact the majority of STEM programs in the three universities. Students are financially supported each semester to conduct their research projects over the course of a 14-week internship in one NNSA national laboratory. The number of research mentors relative to the students is higher than in any other activity. These internships are designed to prepare students for summer internships at Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Joint research and education efforts are producing outcomes that have significant impacts on underrepresented student populations in the university members and faculty development, beyond the current funding.