NETL’s STEM Education & Outreach Team supports all types of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning — even if that learning takes place through a screen. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 and into 2021, team members have stayed busy by preparing virtual activities and participating in online events that continue to bring STEM education, information on science career paths and more to students and science professionals during a time of great uncertainty. In the last year, NETL developed the first in a series of virtual Meet A Scientist events to increase the accessibility of the Lab’s research and directly engage with K-12 students in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and rural Oregon. Interested participants submitted questions through NETL’s social media accounts, with researchers addressing selected questions through a live virtual event. Researchers were able to speak about their career pathways and exciting research roles during the event. Future Meet a Scientist events are slated to occur, so check NETL’s social media to learn about future dates and topics.

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) are working with data science leadership and experts from DOE’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) to develop powerful new cloud computing capabilities that are harnessing the power of big data to advance energy research and data computing across the Department.

As NETL turns its attention to inspiring the next generation of energy researchers this month, the Lab is presenting four fun and engaging engineering activities that parents can enjoy with their children. These classic educational experiences will help build critical thinking skills that can spur an early interest in science, technology, engineering and math. Blanket Fort Build a childhood memory! This is fun activity for both parents and children that also helps with learning about engineering through play. Is this a fort that can fit the whole family? Is this a jungle hideout or a mad scientist’s lair? Suggested supplies:

The West Virginia Science Bowl tested students’ knowledge of math and science topics. Middle school teams competed Friday, followed by high school students on Saturday. With the shift to a virtual setting, this year’s Science Bowl followed a slightly altered format; teams competed individually instead of head-to-head with the highest scoring teams moving up. The final winning teams in the two events will compete in the National Science Bowl. Coming in at second, third and fourth place were Morgantown High School teams 1 and 2, of Monongalia County, and Williamstown High School, of Wood County, respectively. In the middle school division, second, third and fourth place were awarded to Triadelphia Middle School Team 1, of Ohio County, Williamstown Middle School, of Wood County, and Triadelphia Middle School Team 2 respectively.

As one of NETL’s most prolific researchers, Ranjani Siriwardane is listed as co-inventor of 25 U.S. patents and has earned numerous scientific awards for discoveries that have had a profound impact on the production of clean and affordable electricity. None of those accomplishments, however, would have been possible without the support of family members, teachers and others who recognized Siriwardane’s early interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and encouraged her to pursue her dreams and overcome obstacles she faced growing up in Sri Lanka, an island nation in South Asia.

NETL’s water-energy research and development (R&D) activities are now the focus of a new quarterly newsletter set for release later this month. Additionally, the recent launch of the Lab’s Water-Energy Research homepage further highlights NETL’s capabilities and competencies across a broad spectrum of water-energy topics directed at enhancing the nation’s fossil energy infrastructure while protecting the environment. The newsletter will feature water-energy project highlights, spotlights of the Lab’s researchers, upcoming water-energy conferences and more. It will cover the width and breadth of the Lab’s in-house and extramural water-related activities across NETL’s crosscutting, carbon capture and storage, oil and gas, critical minerals and rare earth element recovery, modeling and analysis, coal byproduct and other programs. The inaugural January 2021 edition highlights funding opportunities and recently awarded research projects, journal publications and work being carried out in support of the National Alliance for Water Innovation.

NETL and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) have announced five finalists for the Advanced Welding Workforce Initiative (AWWI), a partnership to invest approximately $1 million in education and training for advanced technical workers in Appalachia. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy High Performance Materials Program provided $750,000 to AWWI to prepare a new generation of welders to manufacture and service high-temperature alloy components in advanced coal- and natural gas-fueled electric generating stations. Such plants operate at significantly higher temperatures and pressures, which increases efficiency and lowers emissions of carbon dioxide and requires the use of superalloys that can withstand the harsh conditions. Skills to be acquired through AWWI training will also be broadly applicable for positions in Appalachia’s emerging aerospace, aviation, automotive and petrochemical industries, which will require welders and other technicians with expertise in working with high-performance materials.

NETL has named Kelly Rose, Ph.D., to serve as interim technical director for the Lab’s Science-Based Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Institute (SAMI), a joint institute led by NETL for advancing cutting-edge AI and ML computational technologies to drive innovative solutions for effective, environmentally sustainable fossil energy resource recovery and utilization. Established in 2020, SAMI builds off NETL’s unique strengths in science-based modeling and research data curation and management capabilities. It also capitalizes on NETL’s world-class capabilities in high-performance and other scientific computing capabilities to address fossil energy research in areas such as improving the performance, reliability and efficiency of the existing coal-fired fleet; beneficiating carbon ore and fossil energy byproducts; driving break throughs in advanced materials design and discovery; optimizing the recovery of oil and gas resources; and reducing the cost and risk of carbon capture utilization and storage.

The eXtremeMAT team will provide a webinar presentation Thursday, Jan. 21 to American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) committee members, providing information and feedback including how eXtremeMAT’s work may impact ASME standards in the future.  The presentation, “Accelerating the Development of Extreme Environment Materials,” will summarize the team’s recent advances to develop physics-based models to predict long-term alloy performance in harsh service conditions and to detail a strategy proposed by eXtremeMAT for using these models to accelerate the qualification of alloys. Initiated in 2018, the eXtremeMAT consortium, led by NETL with support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its Office of Fossil Energy, leverages the unparalleled materials science and engineering expertise and capabilities available within the DOE national laboratory complex to accelerate development of affordable and durable materials for extreme environment service. eXtremeMAT aims to develop, validate and integrate advanced models to predict how microstructure and composition of certain steels affect alloys designed for harsh service environments.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected 29 projects to receive nearly $7.6 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development. The projects will advance energy storage technologies under the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0002332, Energy Storage for Fossil Power Generation. Energy storage combined with fossil energy assets offers a suite of benefits to asset owners, the electric grid, and society. These benefits include more reliable and affordable energy, a cleaner environment, and stronger power infrastructure. These projects will accelerate the development of technology options to manage the energy transition underway to decarbonize and increase the flexibility of fossil power generation and support the grid of the future with increasing variable renewable generation.