Thirty-six schools will be represented at the 2026 Western Pennsylvania Science Bowl (WPASB), which will be held Friday, Feb. 27, for middle schools and Saturday, Feb. 28, for high schools. The Community College of Allegheny County South Campus in West Mifflin will host both days of the tournament.

A talented team from Mountaineer Middle School and a highly skilled squad from Morgantown High School took top honors at the 2026 West Virginia Science Bowl (WVSB) co-hosted by NETL and advanced to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl to be held in Washington, D.C this spring.

Final preparations are underway for the 2026 West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania Science Bowls, exciting academic challenges designed to test middle and high school students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and inspire the next generation to pursue rewarding STEM-related careers.

NETL has announced that the application window is open for the summer 2026 Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program, a paid 10-week summer internship program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Applications are due by 5 p.m. EST Jan. 7, 2026. Access to the online application system is available here.

NETL, in its commitment to cultivating America’s next generation of scientists, is seeking students from around the country to apply to participate in the 2026 Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship (MLEF) summer program for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

WASHINGTON—President Trump issued an Executive Order to launch the Genesis Mission, a historic national effort led by the Department of Energy. The Genesis Mission will transform American science and innovation through the power of artificial intelligence (AI), strengthening the nation’s technological leadership and global competitiveness. 

An NETL-led team secured first place in the engineering track of the Geothermal Energy from Oil and Gas Demonstrated Engineering (GEODE) Datathon for their development of the FlowDash Geothermal Energy Enhancer, a new machine learning (ML) tool that can reduce risks and costs for geothermal energy operations and enhance safety for neighboring communities.

NETL has released the latest version of its award-winning Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges (MFiX) — a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software suite designed to shorten the time and reduce the cost associated with developing new power generation technologies.

NETL is hosting 52 summer participants in four internship and fellowship programs at its research sites in Albany, Oregon; Morgantown, West Virginia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Construction is underway on NETL’s Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) Center in Morgantown, West Virginia — a state-of-the-art facility for advanced data and computing solutions related to applied energy challenges.