Skip to main content

Dr. Kota receives funding from NNSA

photo of Dr. Kota

New Mexico State University (NMSU) is part of a research consortium that is awarded $5 million over five years by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) through the Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program (MSIPP). Through this award, four prominent Hispanic Serving Institutions (UNM, UTEP, NMSU, and New Mexico Tech), one Historically Black College and University (Prairie View A&M), and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) will form The Rio Grande Consortium for Advanced Research on Exascale Simulation (Grande CARES). Dr. Krishna Kota of the mechanical and aerospace engineering department will serve as the lead from NMSU.

The team will develop and integrate advanced computational modeling and simulation tools using high-performance computing (HPC), machine learning, and data analytics to conduct in-depth investigations and understand the complex physical phenomena of intricate systems of interest to NNSA. The consortium brings together mechanical engineering, civil engineering, computer science, computational science, mathematical science, and physics researchers. The consortium will also cultivate scientists and engineers from underrepresented groups, who will be educated in the skills needed for large-scale modeling and simulation advancement in STEM fields.

Dr. Kota will receive $650,000 to study the effects of high temperatures and surface engineering on thermal-fluid transport phenomena with applications in the thermal management of nuclear reactor rods and high-energy lasers. He will also train underrepresented students in this area and work with the rest of the team toward achieving the project’s overarching goal.

 

Grande CARES is led by Dr. Peter Vorobieff (UNM) and Dr. Vinod Kumar (UTEP) and is one of the 30 NNSA MSIPP Consortia in the nation. More details about Grande CARES are available here: https://sites.google.com/view/grande-cares/.

 

About NNSA and the MSIPP program

“NNSA is a semi-autonomous Department of Energy agency responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science. The Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program (MSIPP) is designed to build a sustainable pipeline between the Department of Energy’s (DOE) sites/labs and minority-serving institutions in STEM disciplines and bring heightened awareness of NNSA plants and laboratories to institutions with a common interest in STEM research fields.”

For more information, visit https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-minority-serving-institution-partnership-program-msipp.