For the first time since 1996 Penn State has been selected as a finalist in the undergraduate category in American Nuclear Society Student Design Competition. The Penn State design team consists of Andrew Bielen a Nuclear Engineering student and Michael Meholic and Daniel Skilone who are enrolled in the dual degree major program in Nuclear and Mechanical Engineering.  Drs. L.E. Hochreiter amd K.I. Ivanov were their advisors on the design project.  The title of their design report is” Optimum Loading Pattern Design and Analysis Considerations”. 

The Penn State design entry was developed as part of the Penn State Nuclear Engineering senior cap-stone design course. The senior design course, NucE 431W, is taught by Drs L.E. Hochreiter and K.I. Ivanov along with engineers from Westinghouse Electric Company.  Westinghouse has given Penn State use of its nuclear design computer programs for reactor core design and analysis.  Westinghouse prepares training material for the students as well as develops realistic design problem scenerios for the students.  The class is divided into student teams which are then mentored by the faculty as well as a Westinghouse engineer.  The Westinghouse engineers come to University Park over an eight week period to work with both the faculty and the student design teams.  The individual design teams prepare a final design report which is reviewed by both Westinghouse and the faculty and each design team makes an oral presentation to both the faculty and Westinghouse as well as to create a poster on their project.  The Penn State Nuclear Engineering Program is the only program in the country has this integrated approach with a major nuclear company such as Westinghouse.

Background

The American Nuclear Society (ANS) Student Design Competition began in 1975 as part of the ANS honors and awards program for Nuclear Engineering students.  The objective was to encourage competition between the different Nuclear Engineering Programs and or Departments in the country.  The competition is at both the undergraduate and graduate level.  The students who participate truly enjoy the competition, a competition that is academic and not athletic, and they interact with and learn to appreciate their Nuclear Engineering Program as well as other programs at different universities. The number of entries each year averages approximately a third of the Nuclear Engineering Programs in the US.  For the last several years the program has been administrated by Professor H. Lee Dodds, Department Head from the University of Tennessee.  He has made arrangements to have the results of the design competition as one of the session at the ANS Winter Annual Meeting in which the selected design team finalists, both undergraduate and graduate, make an oral which is separately judged by a panel of experts.  The finalist will also have their summaries published in the ANS transactions.  Dr. Dodds has also been instrumental in having the national ANS organization provide travel funds for the students such that they can attend the conference.  This year the winter annual meeting will be held at Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Penn State undergraduate design team will attend.