INL recognizes summer interns during Expo

Over 100 INL-U.S. Department of Energy interns presented their work during an expo in Idaho Falls Thursday.INL has hosted 360 interns from 97 institutions so far this year. They were selected from among 1,800 applicants.

“We strive to provide the best internship experience possible by balancing work responsibilities and enrichment activities,” said Michelle Thiel Bingham, University Partnerships director. “INL follows an 80/20 philosophy. We encourage interns to spend 80 percent of their time at INL with their mentor and apply their classroom knowledge to real-life work, and to spend 20 percent of their time in enrichment activities like workshops or skill-building activities.”

Some of the interns’ most important achievements were also recognized:

2018 Intern Expo Awards List

World Nuclear Energy Future
Winner: Logan Harbour. Logan is getting his Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M. He’s an intern in the Reactor Physics Design and Analysis Organization under the mentorship of Mark Dehart. His submission is titled Uncollided Flux Treatment for Discrete-Ordinate Radiation Transport Solutions in Rattlesnake.
1st runner up: Kristen Baker. Kristen is getting her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. She is an intern in the Plant & Project Engineering Organization and her mentor is Phil Erickson. The title of her submission is Port Cover Adapter.

Enabling Clean Energy Development
Winner: Ethan Woodbury. Ethan is getting a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from University of California Berkeley. He is an intern in the Systems Analyses and Engineering Organization and his mentor is Ruby Nguyen. His submission is titled Electric Vehicle Battery Chemistries and Implications for Material Demand.
1st runner up: Monica Oliva-Sifuentes. Monica is a student at Firth High School. She’s an intern in the Bioenergy Technologies Organization under the mentorship of Neal Yancey. Her submission is titled Particle Size Distribution.

Securing and Modernizing Critical Infrastructure
Winner: Jacob Lehmer. Jacob is getting his Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering at Idaho State University. He’s an intern in the Infrastructure Security organization under the mentorship of Jake Gentle. The title of his submission is Machine Vision Techniques for Designing Least Cost Transmission Lines.
1st runners up: Aniqua Baset and Christopher Becker. Christopher and Aniqua are both working on their Ph.Ds. in Computer Science at the University of Utah. They are interning in the Communications and Modeling Organization under the mentorship of Kurt Derr. Their submission is titled Detecting and Localizing Spectrum Offenders using Crowdsourcing.

Enabling INL Business and Support Operations
Winners: (goes to a group of students) The winners are interns in the Process Architecture organization under the mentorship of Curt Fleming, Susan Hipp, Johanna Oxstrand, Linda Reeder and Natalie Schmidt. They submitted three posters that related to each other titled What we Found, Changing Our Thinking, and The Final Impact.

Ryan Barna, who’s getting a Bachelor of Science in Biological Engineering from Montana State University,
Tim Blain, who’s getting a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems at University of Georgia,
Dongyeon “Kade” Ha, who’s getting a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems at Brigham Young University,
Nikita Khairatkar, who’s getting a Master of Business Administration at Idaho State University,
Sal Mascareñas, who’s getting a Master of Science in Engineering Management at Duke University
Danielle Pearson, who’s getting a Bachelor of Science in Human Resources at Liberty University,
Weston Tice, who’s getting a Bachelor of Science in Accounting at University of New Mexico,
and Jonathan Trusty, who’s getting a Bachelor of Science in International Business at University of Idaho

1st runner up: Adrienne Petrovic. Adrienne is getting her Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education at Idaho State University. She’s an intern in the K12 STEM Organization under the mentorship of Cathy Riddle. Her submission is titled A Parent’s Guide to STEM.

Best Informational Graphic
Winner: Pierre-Clement Simon. Pierre is getting his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. He’s an intern in the Fuel Modeling and Simulation Organization under the mentorship of Andrea Jokisaari. His submission is titled Grand Potential Modeling of Zirconium Hydride Microstructure for the Study of Delayed Hydride Cracking.
1st runner up: Briana Frank. Briana is a student at Blackfoot High School. She’s an intern in the Information Storage and Retrieval Organization under the mentorship of Pamela Barnes. Her submission is titled Are you protecting your information?

Best Technical Presentation
Winner: Pierre-Clement Simon. Pierre is getting his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. He’s an intern in the Fuel Modeling and Simulation Organization under the mentorship of Andrea Jokisaari. His submission is titled Grand Potential Modeling of Zirconium Hydride Microstructure for the Study of Delayed Hydride Cracking.
1st runner up: Kofi Oware-Sarfo. Kofi is getting his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Oregon State University. He’s an intern in the Fuel Modeling and Simulation Organization under the mentorship of Yongfeng Zhang. The title of his submission is Investigation into the initiation of localized corrosion in stainless steel by first principles.

Intern Mentor of the Year award
1st runner up: Andrea Jokisaari, a computational scientist in the Fuel Modeling and Simulation Organization
Winner: Susan Hipp, from the Performance Assurance organization