Saturday, February 16, 2008

A Statement of Professional Interests

At some point it becomes relevant to write down one's interests; for me, I choose now.

My professional interests, as a student in nuclear engineering, are wide-ranging. I enjoy the computational aspects of nuclear engineering; simulations or analytical studies of nuclear phenomena are engaging and show how much we know (and do not know) about the physical world.

Specifically, I (think I) like methods of (neutral particle) transport; in other words, I like to know how radiation works in large-scale, real-world problems. I note my skepticism only because I have not myself actually dug deeply into the 'guts' of such methods; rather, I've simply 'used' them a bit.

As for applications of transport, I find reactor physics, shield analysis, and radiotherapy all to be stimulating.

To support this interest, I find also I like numerical methods in mathematics. Pure math has always seemed so abstract to me, and while beautiful, I cannot say it is 'relevant.' Additionally, high performance computing is a necessary companion to applied math and engineering.

During my research experiences, a number of relatively specific sub-genres within nuclear engineering have struck me as particularly engaging. Sensitivity analysis, especially with respect to nuclear data analysis is an important application of applied math and transport theory. Additionally, optimization, a rather broad topic within many science (or even all of life!) has come into play more than once.

Having stated these interests, which are certainly not exhaustive, I feel it is my duty as a good and soon-to-be graduate to keep abreast of the 'latest-and-greatest' within the fields. I will try using this blog as a technical log of those things which seem especially valuable. My goal will be every Sunday morning to browse a recent volume of a related journal for relevant material; upon finding an article of interest, I shall read it over coffee and then recount the very basics of it via this blog. I shall also try finding ways such work could be applied in my own work or expanded to be of further utility.

5 comments:

Randal Leavitt said...

I think your statement of professional interests is significant. Lately I have been thinking about how much safety has improved as a result of software improvements in the nuclear power industry. This topic does not get much attention, but I think the impact of software has been huge. We know much more about reactors today as a result of the simulations and detailed analysis made possible by new software. How would you assess the impact of improving software on the nuclear power industry?

Brian Mays said...

Given what you have written here, I'm surprised that you chose Blogger to host your blog, instead of something superior like Wordpress, which would allow you to post mathematical equations, à la TeX. This is something that I would think would be attractive to someone interested in mathematics who wants to author a technical blog.

Of course, Blogger has other annoying features, such as requiring people to be assimilated into Google accounts in order to post comments on many blogs. A shame, that.

In any case, I wish you good luck in your blogging endeavors!

Jeremy said...

Randal - I have to say straightaway that I don't know very well the wealth of nuclear software out there. However, I am willing to bet there is a very strong correlation between the increased efficiency of reactors and the continual development and applications of state-of-the-art software. That alone is a millions if not billions of dollars impact. Moreover, we can expect new software--at the labs and otherwise--to help us with transportation and storage analysis, which, of course, will be integral to the future of nuclear.

Brian, I guess I never thought about other blogging options, and I really didn't expect to use math forms, either. If I keep up with things needing that, I would certainly consider something with a TeX flavor.

Rod Adams said...

Randal and marpha:

IMHO, one of the huge advantages that reactor designers have today is the speed and quality of the computer HARDWARE that is now available. I remember learning how limited the analysis opportunities were in the day that LWR's were designed - engineers would load their programs up using a card deck and rent time on a mainframe. They were lucky if they got their results back on the same day - the same simulations now take seconds.

Jeremy said...

You are certainly right - the increased computing power might very well be the bigger impact. In fact, I'm currently using a code with early-80's roots and a most recent release of '97 - it still works just fine!