The Consortium for Nuclear Security Advanced Manufacturing Enhanced by Machine Learning (NSAM-ML) was established in October 2021 under the sponsorship of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a Department of Energy (DOE) agency. It is built upon a partnership between North Carolina Central University (NCCU), Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), Southern University Baton Rouge (SUBR) and two NNSA national laboratories, namely Sandia National Lab (SNL) and Los Alamos National Lab (LANL), as well as the Center for Integrated Nanotechnology (CINT).
Additionally, the consortium collaborates with several research groups in majority universities that are leaders in materials science and engineering, notably NC State University (NCSU), Pennsylvania State University (PSU) in the framework of the National Science Foundation Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (NSF-PREM), the NSF-sponsored nano-manufacturing (nanoMFG) node at the University of Illinois and the nanoHUB at Purdue University.
Consortium Teams
The consortium capitalizes on prior research projects and infrastructures in the three HBCUs and expands on them to create a more productive research and novel education experience aimed at solving some of the national concerns in the NNSA and DOE fields of interest. Established collaborations through the consortium leverage of expertise and resources in the three minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and the NNSA laboratories are intended to produce sustainable research programs in the three member universities in five thrust research areas:
- Discovery and development of super-hard materials that can withstand extremely harsh environments as well as new nanocomposites with superior functionalities
- Sensor physics and material science for developing devices usable for monitoring the health of nuclear infrastructure, as well as in many other critical applications
- Science and technology underlying advanced manufacturing and leading to new paradigms for fabrication of nanomaterials
- Nanoscale catalysts for solar energy harvesting and generation of H2 through water splitting and alternative fuel from CO2
- Machine learning that can accelerate materials discovery and development of advanced fabrication processes
The overall goals of participating faculties are to produce scientific breakthroughs in each of the consortium thrust areas and to engage students in this endeavor.
Consortium Partners and NNSA Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)
- Research Foundations at SNL
- Materials Science Research
- Center for Computing Research
- Computing and Information Science
- Publications
- Awards
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
- Ion Beam Materials Lab
- Los Alamos National User Facilities
- Capability Pillars
- Los Alamos Science Facilities
Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT)
- CINT Fact Sheet
- CINT Characterization Capabilities
- CINT Synthesis and Fabrication
- CINT Capabilities: Theory and Simulation
Other Collaborators
- NSF nano-Manufacturing Node (University of Illinois)