The Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony, highlighting a new scanning transmission electron microscope (ThermoFisher FEI Spectra 300), and a new 3D metal printer (Open Additive PANDA). Along with the ribbon cutting ceremony, CAES hosted a poster session where students had the opportunity to share their research leaders from Boise State, INL, and the community. Leadership from Boise State, including Vice President of Research Nancy Glenn, College of Engineering Dean JoAnn Lighty, CAES Associate Director David Estrada, and Director of the Micron School of Materials Science Amy Moll attended alongside INL Chief Research Officer Marianne Walck, CAES Director Philip Reppert and other community leaders.
Two AML graduate students, Tim Phero & Kaelee Novich, presented posters at CAES, and shared their experiences below.
Kaelee says, “The ribbon cutting/poster session provided a great opportunity for CAES students to interact with industry professionals as well as local government officials. The addition of the additive manufacturing facility and the TEM will get more students engaged in premier nuclear research. More specifically, I am using additive manufacturing capabilities to print artificial patterns on structural nuclear materials to carry out digital image correlation, a non contact method to measuring strain, at Idaho National Laboratory under a graduate internship and I currently have to drive back to Boise when I need to print on my samples. With the opening of the additive manufacturing facility, I could do my whole sample prep process in Idaho Falls.” You can view Kaelee’s poster here.
Tim shared, “At the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) ribbon cutting event we had the opportunity to showcase our research and engagement to CAES partners. As not only an Idaho National Laboratory (INL) graduate fellow, but also a CAES affiliated and Boise State University (BSU) Ph.D. student, I am one of the many students that resulted from CAES’ commitment to collaboration between national laboratory and university programs. I presented work on the “Development of Additively Manufactured Strain Gauges,” which highlights some of the state-of-the-art additive manufacturing (AM) capabilities at BSU in Boise, ID. The new investment towards AM at CAES allows for students and other researchers like me to continue leveraging their expertise and knowledge in AM in Idaho Falls.”