Feature Articles

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sal Rodriguez, a nuclear engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, is forging a rocket revolution with the help of the University of New Mexico and student Graham Monroe.

Their cutting-edge research is propelling the future of aerospace by infusing rocket science with a touch of golf ball magic.

Wah-Keat Lee, Lijuan Ruan, and Alistair Rogers—all researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory—explored the complexities, challenges, and opportunities facing the national lab system and DOE as 2023 Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program (OSELP) fellows.

Under the direction of principal engineer Yuhu Zhai, PPPL is building its new High-Field Magnet Test Facility, which will provide powerful magnets for scientific experiments to researchers at both PPPL and Princeton University, as well as private companies along the mid-Atlantic coast.

Argonne provides graduate students with high-level mentorship and first-hand experience on their theses and STEM journeys.

Argonne scientists use X-rays powered by the Advanced Photon Source and a custom-built characterization platform to peer into ion movements of perovskites, a potential new solar energy material, and shining UV rays on them to see how they degrade.

A team from Sandia National Laboratories and New Mexico State University is work to make a vision of a self-healing electrical possible — not with tiny robots, but rather a cutting-edge library of algorithms. By coding these algorithms into grid relays, the system can quickly restore power to as many hospitals, grocery stores and homes as possible before grid operators can begin repairs or provide instructions.

A lot can happen to solar panels that are mounted to a roof – from tree branches casting shade over them to a neighbor’s baseball cracking one.

Now, a solar panel owner can better understand how their system is performing with a new software tool that transforms solar energy data into a clear picture of power generation over time. The tool could make it easier for solar owners to maintain their systems as the years go by, helping them generate more clean electricity for their homes and an electric grid.

The software, called PVInsight, reveals a system’s performance on cloudy days versus sunny days; potential shade impediments, like buildings or vegetation; or more catastrophic changes, like hail pellets damaging panels during a storm. Built by a team of researchers with SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s Grid Integration Systems and Mobility lab (GISMo) lab, the software is also open source, meaning anyone interested can access it.

A team of researchers from Berkeley Lab developed a new tomographic reconstruction algorithm, TomoCAM, that leverages advanced mathematical techniques and GPU-based computing. Their method set a new world record by surpassing the speed of existing state-of-the-art iterative tomographic reconstruction algorithms.