UTSA’s participation: Myrtos Alamantiotis A GreenStar Endowed Fellow in Energy and an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, Alamamaniotis is an expert in applied artificial intelligence in the field of nuclear engineering.
This is the second NNSA consortium UTSA has joined to advance nuclear science. In 2019, NNSA provided $3 million in funding for CONNECT. (Nuclear Security Technology Consortium) is a project involving researchers from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Saint Mary’s University, Argonne National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
“UTSA’s outstanding researchers are important partners in this collaborative research.” Eric Bray,Dean UTSA’s Klesse School of Engineering and Integrated Design“UTSA is home to world-class researchers and innovators in the nuclear field, and our collaboration with peer institutions and national laboratories will advance scientific advancements and enhance students’ experiences in the field.”
Alamagnioutis also believes that membership in the consortium will benefit researchers and students.
“This consortium will be an eye-opener for our students as it will give them the opportunity to conduct quality research in areas of significant national and international interest while interacting and collaborating with students from top schools across the U.S.,” he said. “Moreover, in such a large consortium, our students will have the opportunity to prove themselves and showcase UTSA’s qualities and capabilities.”
Alamaniniotis of the Applied Artificial Intelligence LaboratoryAlamagnioutis is co-principal investigator of the consortium and leads research efforts as the principal investigator (PI) representing UTSA, preparing students for careers in the nuclear industry.
Each consortium principal investigator will be responsible for contributing to the collaborative research and leading one of their own research projects. Alamamaniotis said he will lead a project “focused on developing artificial intelligence algorithms to coordinate the movement of multiple mobile detectors within a metropolitan area to identify hidden radiation threats.”
“This project is particularly challenging due to the uncertainty regarding the existence of naturally occurring environmental radiation and the type of threat,” Alamamaniotis added. “Anyone in possession of illegal nuclear material is a threat to our security. We want to prevent the explosion and spread of radioactive material in major metropolitan areas, and the only way to achieve this is to detect material in motion before it explodes. Also, data analysis must protect privacy – it cannot tolerate mistakes and mistakenly accuse people of being potential terrorists. This can only be achieved by developing highly sophisticated AI algorithms that feed us with high-quality datasets.”
The two consortia, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, are led by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively.
These include:
- Technology Consortium Implementation CapabilitiesThe initiative is led by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The consortium is made up of 15 universities and eight national laboratories, including UTSA, Colorado School of Mines, Air Force Institute of Technology, Clemson University, University of California, Santa Barbara, University of Hawaii, Louisiana State University, MIT, North Carolina State University, University of Oklahoma, Oregon State University, Texas A&M University, University of Utah, Virginia Tech, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and Savannah River National Laboratory.
- Consortium for Enabling Technologies and InnovationIt is led by Georgia Tech.
The consortium is a partnership of 12 universities and 12 national laboratories, including Abilene Christian University, Colorado School of Mines, MIT, Ohio State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Stony Brook University, Texas A&M University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Texas at Austin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Virginia Commonwealth University, Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nevada National Security Site, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Savannah River National Laboratory.