18
August
2014
|
13:41 PM
America/Chicago

UHD Receives $150,000 Grant from NRC for Nuclear Power Certificates

UHD recently received a $150,000 grant from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the project "Teaming Up to Produce Nuclear Power Certificates," which seeks to open nuclear power certificate coursework to the associate level undergraduate while also connecting research experiences at UHD to strongly encourage transfer and completion of an undergraduate baccalaureate for minorities.

Working on this project was PI Mary Jo Parker and co-PI's Mian Jiang, Maria Benavides, Katarina Jegdic and Weining Feng.

UHD, in cooperation with Houston Community College North West -West Houston Center for Science and Engineering (HCC-NW WHC) and supported by a ongoing, long-term partnership with Texas A&M University Nuclear Engineering Department, and the University of Texas-Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company, and Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant submitted a proposal to the NRC to establish a community college-to-four-year university training and pipeline project.

This project will target three primary goals to increase the minority undergraduates at HCC becoming prepared to enter nuclear-related jobs through 1) providing minority undergraduate scholarships to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) community college students seeking a degree, certification and employment; 2) providing extensive exposure to nuclear-related undergraduate, graduate and workforce programs through UHD-arranged field trips/seminars co-curricular opportunities; 3) supporting completion of the five-course Nuclear Power Institute (NPI) certificate program, qualifying graduates to enter nuclear power plant jobs and nuclear engineering studies; and 4) providing extensive mentored summer research experiences in radiochemistry, physics, material science, polymer-related nuclear chemistry and computational radiochemistry with UHD.

This project plans to support up to 20 community college Nuclear Prep Scholars over two years with full credit course loads.