Strengthening the US Department of Energy's Recruitment Pipeline: The DOE/NNSA Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program (PSAAP) Experience

John K. Holmen, Verónica G. Vergara Larrea, Erik W. Draeger, Eric T. Phipps, Philip J. Smith, Martin Berzins, Sean T. Smith, Jeremy N. Thornock, Suzanne Parete-Koon

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The US Department of Energy (DOE) oversees a system of 17 national laboratories responsible for developing unique scientific capabilities beyond the scope of academic and industrial institutions. These labs strive to keep America at the forefront of discovery and are home to some of the Nation's best minds and the world's best scientific and research facilities. Collaborations between national laboratories and academic institutions are critical to develop and recruit talent for the DOE workforce. Academia's cooperative education model poses challenges for DOE recruitment pipelines centered around traditional internships. This paper discusses a promising DOE recruitment pipeline, the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program (PSAAP) initiative. As a part of this, experiences capturing the successes and challenges faced by the University of Utah's Carbon Capture Multidisciplinary Simulation Center (CCMSC) through their participation in the PSAAP-II initiative are shared. These experiences demonstrate the success of Utah's PSAAP center as a recruitment pipeline with approximately 43% of CCMSC students going to a national laboratory after graduation. Potential opportunities to strengthen the DOE's recruitment pipeline are also discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPEARC 2023 - Computing for the common good
Subtitle of host publicationPractice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages137-144
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781450399852
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 23 2023
Event2023 Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing, PEARC 2023 - Portland, United States
Duration: Jul 23 2023Jul 27 2023

Publication series

NamePEARC 2023 - Computing for the common good: Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing

Conference

Conference2023 Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing, PEARC 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPortland
Period07/23/2307/27/23

Funding

This material is based upon work originally supported by the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, under Award Number(s) DE-NA0002375. This research used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. We would like to thank the NNSA Office of Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) for managing the PSAAP program and providing an invaluable on-ramp to the national laboratories. We would also like to thank Ashley Barker for the constructive feedback on this submission.

Keywords

  • Cooperative Education
  • Experiential Education
  • Recruitment Pipeline
  • Workforce Development

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