Y-12 recently hosted the Nuclear Innovation in Tennessee Expo to enhance collaborations with universities in Tennessee. Photo by Brian Holt.
It may have started in the morning, but a number of Y-12 employees and potential university partners showed up at NITE in New Hope Center.
NITE, an acronym for Nuclear Innovation in Tennessee Expo, provided a day for collaboration and discussion about how to align universities’ research strengths with Y-12’s mission work.
“We need to continue leveraging academic and industry partnerships to continue delivering the Y-12 mission,” said Martin Williamson, senior director of Global Security and Strategic Partnerships. “Partnering with universities will enable us to field new capabilities, support national security, discover new frontiers for manufacturing, and develop a skilled workforce to solve manufacturing challenges.”
Senior Director of Development Randy Dziendziel told the group, “We want to move faster and be more agile and successful in the way we put production processes on the floor. We want to work with our university partners’ best ideas to advance our national security work.”
Sharing expertise, ideas
Including Y-12 staff, the first NITE drew nearly 40 participants, representing four universities –– the University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee Tech University, and Middle Tennessee State University. Through a day of presentations and discussions, the group identified more than eight possible collaborations.
From presentations by subject matter experts to student poster sessions and speed networking, the expo provided opportunities for in-depth discussions and explorations.
“This was such an exciting event to attend,” said Bethany Smith, assistant director of Corporate Relations for the College of Engineering at Tennessee Tech University. “The event was engaging and provided opportunities to discuss areas and projects where we might work with Y-12.”
Ideal partnerships
The expo concluded with a panel discussion about the assets universities and Y-12 bring to collaborations.
Jamie Coble, associate department head for the Department of Engineering at the University of Tennessee, said, “The ideal industry partner is someone who tells us what the students need to know and experience [students need to have] to help guide us in developing curriculum. They also open their doors to provide experience.”
“The timeline from cool to commonplace is pretty short for technology innovation,” said David Hathcock, director of Y-12 Development. “Academia can be more agile, provide depth of thought, and bring capabilities and talent that we may not have.”
Next steps
Sanchez Harley, the University and Industrial Partnerships program manager who spearheaded the event, said, “Our goal is to make Tennessee the nation’s nuclear innovation hub. A key step toward that goal was bringing universities to Y-12 to discuss how to leverage our partnerships to strengthen research and development and modernize the workforce to support Y-12’s core missions.”
The Nuclear Innovation in Tennessee Expo concluded with a panel discussion about the qualities of an ideal industry–university collaboration. Participants were (from left) Grant Allard, Y-12; Jamie Cobble, University of Tennessee; Sanchez Harley, Y-12; Shekar Bhansati, Vanderbilt University; and David Hathcock, Y-12. Photo by Brian Holt.