May 27, 2021

As a computer engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Gina Accawi has long been the quiet and steady force behind some of the Department of Energy’s most widely used online tools and applications. She has written the code that industry throughout the United States relies on – from MEASUR, the platform allowing manufacturers to assess the efficiency of energy systems and equipment within a plant, to the Building Science Advisor, the website advising builders on how to construct energy efficient envelope systems.

Carly Hansen, a water resources engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is rethinking what’s possible for hydropower in the United States.

Using her skills in engineering, remote sensing and data science, Hansen asks big questions about new hydropower development and what role this unique power source might play in accelerating the country’s transition to clean, flexible and secure energy.

Consumer buy-in is key to the future of a decarbonized transportation sector in which electric vehicles largely replace today’s conventionally fueled cars and trucks. Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists have for several years now steadily advanced a wireless charging technology that can make powering an EV just as easy, or easier, than filling up a car with gas. The researchers are now nearing the completion of a new system to charge EVs while they’re in motion.  

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Center of Science and Industry and the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network have partnered to deliver hundreds of free science kits called Learning Lunchboxes to STEM-designated schools in East Tennessee. The program, named the Tennessee Distance Learning Initiative, provides engaging, hands-on activities aligned with Next Generation Science Standards.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory expertise in fission and fusion has come together to form a new collaboration, the Fusion Energy Reactor Models Integrator, or FERMI, which aims to apply a suite of predictive simulation platforms originally created for fission nuclear reactors to the challenges of designing the first generation of fusion reactors.