In the first event of its kind, the Faculty of Engineering hosted more than 70 nuclear experts, students, industry and government partners from around the world in a virtual hackathon to broaden the discussion of nuclear energy solutions.
Focusing on small modular reactors (SMRs) and training the next generation of nuclear experts, the SMR Hackathon took place from August 17 to 21, bringing together participants from across Canada, the U.S. and the European Union.
The SMR Hackathon was jointly organized by the Organization for Economic Development (OECD)’s Nuclear Energy Agency’s Education, Skills and Technology (NEST) Framework and the NSERC SMART-CREATE program.
The OECD-NEA's NEST Framework is a Nuclear Energy Agency program involving the EU, U.S. and Canada and is dedicated to the training and development of people for the upcoming SMR deployment phase.
The SMART program, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s CREATE Program and led by Dave Novog, seeks to train more well-rounded and entrepreneurially focused graduate students who can succeed in the competitive world of small SMR vendors. It involves six universities and 10 principal investigators and aims to train students to succeed in the new nuclear environment where many small companies co-exist instead of the historical model of one or two major industry players.
Click here to visit the SMR Hackathon Website