Back in-person, the NC State nuclear engineering summer high school program

The Young Investigators’ Summer Program in Nuclear Engineering (YISP) resumed this July 2022 with 18 high school students from North Carolina (12), and one each from Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland, and New York. Students spent three-weeks in our residential programs attending lectures, completing labs, visiting industrial sites, and completing group projects.

Another aspect of this program is to introduce rising juniors and seniors to university life. A trial run so to speak – living in a dormitory, attending classes, writing lab reports, engaging with university resources, and participating in extracurricular activities. Two nuclear engineering students served as program counselors – Alina Jugan (rising junior) and Ethan Newhouse (rising senior).

“A task is to provide young adults with an opportunity to experience college. Although we ran one-week virtual summer series during the height of the pandemic, there is nothing like having students on-campus for an extended period, exploring the various facets, the multidisciplinary field of nuclear engineering”. – Lisa Marshall

Sample programming included –

  • Additive Manufacturing of Nuclear Materials
  • Plasmas for Health Sciences
  • Molten Salt Reactor
  • Nuclear Security
  • Advanced Fusion Research in the US

YISP alumni go on to make their mark in the discipline –

  • Dr. Jason Haverkamp, Advisor Engineer, US Naval Nuclear Laboratory
  • Mrs. Nicole Homes, Commercial Executive, GE Power
  • Dr. Joseph Cope, Senior Scientist, Mission Support and Test Services, LLC
  • Mrs. Christine (Johnsen) Flynn, Reactor Engineering, Duke Energy
  • Mrs. Alyxandria Wszolek, Senior Reactor Operator, Exelon Nuclear

The Young Investigators’ Summer Program began in the mid-1980s under the guidance of Dr. Stam then, for a couple of years, it was led by Dr. Elleman. Dr. Bourham led the program starting in the early 1990s, and Ms. Marshall has been the program director since 2002. The program has varied from two weeks to a month in length, settling in at three-weeks. Program alumni continue to complete their nuclear engineering degrees at NC State University and universities around the nation.