Sandia National Labs Academic Programs Collaboration Report

ACADEMIC PROGRAMS SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES

2021-2022

REPORT COLLABORATION

SAND I A LABS ED I T I ON

Establishing strategic partnerships to solve science and technology problems of national importance

Academic Programs at Sandia is a comprehensive organization that cultivates strategic and enduring institutional relationships, develops research collaborations and grows impacts, stimulates workforce development, and fuels the talent pipeline all in an effort to solve science and technology problems of national importance.

Thank you TO ALL OF OUR SUPN PARTNERS

Georgia Tech

The Georgia Institute of Technology

Purdue

Purdue University

Texas A&M

The Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University

UC Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley

Illinois

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

UNM

The University of New Mexico

UT Austin

The University of Texas at Austin

National/Regional Partners, including our: Securing Top Academic Research & Talent with

START HBCU

Historically Black Colleges and Universities

MSI

Minority Serving Institutions

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ABOUT SUPN

The Value of Sandia’s Academic Programs & University Partnerships Network Building an innovation pipeline though partnerships

University partnerships play an essential role in sustaining Sandia’s vitality as a national laboratory, and the Sandia University Partnerships Network (SUPN), an element of Sandia’s Academic Programs, facilitates recruiting and research & development collaborations with dozens of universities annually. The Academic Programs umbrella encompasses SUPN, the Faculty Loan Program for Joint Appointments, and the Postdoctoral Research Program Office. The largest branch of Academic Programs is SUPN, which establishes and cultivates strategic academic partnerships that are mutually beneficial. The focused set of schools in the university partnerships network

have expertise complementary to that of Sandia and can help amplify access to a diverse and innovative talent pipeline. In concert, Sandia can accelerate technology transfer via partnerships, increase the potential for partnership impact, provide joint funding to seed strategic research, and enable opportunities for advisory board memberships, faculty sabbaticals, and the exchange of staff, faculty, students, and postdoctoral appointees. In addition to engagement with university leadership and faculty, SUPN strives to establish and sustain strategic research partnerships by establishing and supporting federally sponsored collaborations and multi-institutional consortiums

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Academic Programs

The 2021-2022 Collaboration Report

in science and technology priorities such as autonomy, advanced computing, hypersonics, quantum information science, and data science. This past year, Basil Hassan, Sandia’s Deputy Chief Research Officer, visited senior-level staff at numerous partner universities. These campus visits allowed for discussions of ongoing technical work, upcoming priorities, and potential recruiting/internship opportunities. In short, the visits really celebrate all that university partnerships has accomplished in the past and what can be accomplished in the future.

The 2021-2022 Collaboration Report is a compilation of accomplishments in 2021 and 2022 from across Sandia’s Academic Programs. To learn more, visit: www.sandia.gov /academic-programs .

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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

About SUPN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Partnerships Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Overarching Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 SUPN Alliance Partnerships Georgia Tech Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Purdue Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Texas A&M University Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . 38 UC Berkeley Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Illinois Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 UNM Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 UT Austin Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

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SUPN National/Regional Partnerships National/Regional School Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Minority Supporting Institution Partnership Program Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . 92 START HBCU Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Faculty Loan Program for Joint Appointments . . . . . . . 108 Postdoctoral Research Program Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Hyperlink Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

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P A R T N E R S H I P S M A P

Georgia Institute of Technology Purdue University Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University University of California, Berkley

Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University Arizona State University Carnegie Melon University Cornell University Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology New Mexico State University

Norfolk State University North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University North Carolina State University Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University Stanford University University of California, Davis University of California, Los Angeles

University of Colorado at Boulder University of Florida University of Michigan University of Texas at El Paso University of Washington University of Wisconsin, Madison

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of New Mexico University of Texas at Austin

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Academic Programs

TOUCH POINTS NETWORK

SANDIA LABS Sandia collaborates with any and all accredited universities, but the ones featured on this map are Sandia’s corporately supported partners.

ALLIANCE PARTNERS Alliance Partners are institutional partners that have multiple crossover areas for collaboration and innovative pipeline and staffing mechanisms.

NATIONAL/REGIONAL PARTNERS National/Regional Partners are college or research center partners with one or more areas for collaboration and opportunities for talent pipeline development. START HBCU PARTNERS START HBCU Partners are strategic partners that provide Sandia with expertise in complementary fields, joint research opportunities, and a mechanism for increasing diversity in Sandia’s talent pipeline.

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Universities are doing cutting edge research that’s important to our missions – taking things from lower-technology readiness levels on to demonstrations Typically, the national labs are in that mode of demonstrating and then passing it off to industry So, universities play a very important role in furthering research that can end up being vital to national security .

James S. Peery Sandia National Laboratories Director

Excerpt from Texas A&M University Interview

O V E R A R C H I N G A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S

SANDIA LABS ALBUQUERQUE, NM

Growing research and talent through partnerships.. . . . . 12 UT Austin and Purdue LDRD collaborations lead to NASA awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Poster sessions highlight student contributions to Sandia projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Summer interns learn about the small world at CINT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 TracerFIRE program trains top university talent . . . . . . 18 Senior design bonanza highlights exceptional student designs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

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Growing research and talent through partnerships In 2021, the Sandia University Partnerships Network (SUPN) was created. The structure of SUPN includes two categories: Alliance Partners and National/Regional Partners. The goal of the new structure is to establish and cultivate enduring strategic and mutually beneficial relationships with a focused set of schools. The structure provides Sandia with numerous avenues for accomplishing mission and talent pipeline objectives. Under the new university partnerships network, a balanced selection of universities was chosen based on academic standing, strategic research directions, pipeline diversity, ability to attract and retain alumni, and geographic diversity. This approach allows Sandia to partner broadly with universities while investing corporate resources at a level commensurate with the expected partnership impact. The SUPN Alliance Partners category includes schools previously known as Academic Alliance schools (including the Georgia Institute of Technology, Purdue University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of New Mexico, and The University of Texas at Austin). Joining these five as new SUPN Alliance Partners are Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University, and the University of California, Berkeley. The SUPN National/Regional Partners category includes 20 schools across the country representing various areas of expertise complementary to that of Sandia. Half of these academic partners are minority-serving institutions, and five of them are part of Sandia’s Securing Top Academic Research Talent (START) at Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) Program. Each school in the National/Regional Partnership helps Sandia execute top research and facilitate diversity goals. “Sandia is excited by the opportunity to partner with these distinguished institutions. Our nation will continue to reap the rewards of the strong academic collaborations far into the future,” said Deputy Chief Research Officer Basil Hassan.

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“Sandia is excited by the opportunity to partner with these distinguished institutions. Our nation will continue to reap the rewards of the strong academic collaborations far into the future.”

Sandia’s Academic Programs Senior Manager Diane Peebles said, “The value we place on our academic partnerships is readily apparent in our funding. In Fiscal Year 2021, Sandia engaged in research collaborations with a total of 148 universities and

invested $58M into contracts with them. Our academic partnerships make a significant impact in our Research & Development (R&D) projects and in our talent pipeline efforts.”

Sandia University Partnership Network

Alliance Partners • Institutional partnership • Muliple areas of collaboration • Research big problems that neither

National/Regional Partners • College or research center partnership • One or more areas of collaboration • Collaborative, mutually beneficial research • Modest Sandia presence on campus • Opportunities for talent pipeline development

institution could fully accomplsh by itself • Significant and active Sandia presence on campus • Innovative pipeline and staffing mechanisms

The SUPN universities were selected based on academic standing, strategic research focus, geographic and student diversity, and attraction/retention data.

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UT Austin and Purdue LDRD collaborations lead to NASA awards

Research initiated at UT Austin, Purdue, and Sandia led to three NASA University Leadership Initiative (ULI) awards totaling $14.8M. The teams, chosen by NASA, will explore innovations in areas of aeronautical research. The three projects focus on various aspects of autonomous research. Emission & Absorption Spectroscopy Sensors for Hypersonic Flight Control This 3-year, $3.5M ULI award to Purdue resulted from their collaboration on Sandia’s A4H LDRD Mission Campaign. The project will focus on the development of novel in-flight and ground measurement techniques for hypersonic flight. The optical and laser sensor capabilities developed through the A4H project will be used to examine the surfaces and flow of hypersonic vehicles.

Autonomous Aerial Cargo Operations at Scale This 4-year, $8M ULI award to UT Austin came about through three UT Austin PhD students working on Sandia’s Autonomous Detection and Assessment with Moving Sensors (ADAMS) Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) project. Sandia will continue to collaborate on this work and serve on the Technology Recipients Board for the ULI project. FAST: Full Airframe Sensing Technology for Hypersonic Aerodynamics Measurements This 3-year, $3.3M ULI award performed at UT Austin will enable high-fidelity aerothermal simulations of hypersonic vehicles. Work done on Sandia’s Autonomy for Hypersonics (A4H) LDRD Mission Campaign led UT to focus on creating a new paradigm in sensing for hypersonic vehicles that could also be applied to lower-speed craft. Sandia will collaborate on this work by providing expertise in hypersonic vehicle air flow simulations.

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Students who worked on LDRD projects supported through university partnerships supplemental funding in 2021 were invited to present their research at several virtual poster sessions hosted for SUPN Alliance Partners last year. This talent pipeline-focused activity allowed students to showcase their work in a larger forum for their schools and demonstrate their contributions to Sandia research. Andre Claudet, Sandia’s campus partnership manager (CPM) for Georgia Tech, said, “This event has a twofold benefit. It highlights the amazing student work enabled through contributions by our Alliance Partners while also conveying the breadth of problems being addressed by Sandia’s LDRD projects.” Nadine Miner, Sandia’s CPM for UT Austin, added, “By hosting this type of event, we’re also opening up the possibility for new partnerships beyond the initial projects the students are presenting on. It enables attendees to learn about projects and see opportunities for tangential collaborations.” Each student had five to 15 minutes to present their work with a moderator helping to feed them any questions coming through the chat. Students were also invited to sign up for Sandia’s Yello Talent Community list, allowing them to get more information on Sandia career opportunities and be be alerted to any Sandia-hosted events at their schools. Academic Programs Senior Manager Diane Peebles is a strong supporter of these talent pipeline events. She said, “These sessions make student researchers the stars. The supplemental LDRD funding may facilitate the collaboration, but their hard work and insight is an essential ingredient to many projects. We want to further student careers while furthering Sandia missions. ” Poster sessions highlight student contributions to Sandia projects

CONTRIBUTOR Spotlight

Brent Austgen is a PhD student in the Operations Research and Industrial Engineering program at UT Austin who presented last April on his contributions to a power grid resilience LDRD project. “The LDRD project blossomed first into a summer internship directly related to my research and now a year-round internship that is more loosely related under the umbrella of grid planning and resilience.”

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What would it be like as an undergraduate or graduate student to work alongside some of the world’s leading experts in nanoscience? Approximately a dozen interns from across partner universities can answer that question after participating in the 2021 Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) Summer Research Program. In this collaborative, multidisciplinary environment, interns at the Department of Energy funded facility received hands-on experience for eight weeks in areas that explore the path from scientific discovery to the integration of nanostructures into the micro- and macro-worlds. CINT is co-located with Sandia, so students who participate get a sense of just how large Sandia’s campus is and understand the dynamics of working at a national lab that’s a hub of innovation for the nation. Nicole Person, who was a Materials Science & Engineering undergraduate student from Texas A&M University at the time of her internship, said she gained valuable experience from participating in the 2021 program. “I wasn’t completing random technical tasks with no bigger meaning; I was able to sit down with internal and external mentors, understand the specific problem, and then be a part of the discussion on how to best solve the problem. ” During her internship, Nicole said she felt like a “real” scientist in the sense that she was treated and trained like a valuable member of the team and not just some college kid brought on for the summer. She noted, “The lab and public speaking experiences I gained were also extremely helpful for my college career, and I find myself less nervous to do certain tasks because I’ve already done something similar at CINT.” Summer interns learn about the small world at CINT

Electrical engineering students Alyssa Bradshaw, Adia Radecka, and Javi Cardenas conducted experiments at Grainger College of Engineering at Illinois to identify biomaterials that could make effective robotic actuators for implantable medical devices.

Nicole Person conducts experiments for her senior capstone design project.

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Each university participant in 2021 was highlighted at a symposium where they presented their summer research, and the same is true for 2022 interns who were solicited for broad topics including quantum, nanophotonics, optical nanomaterials, and nanomechanics research. Two undergraduate engineering students at Grainger College of Engineering at Illinois, Alyssa Bradshaw and Adia Radecka, received summer internship positions at CINT in 2021 as a part of a collaborative research project between Illinois and Sandia. The students

presented at the IEEE Robosoft Conference on their work developing robotic actuators, robotic actuators, and how they expanded on their research at Sandia through the use of new tools for characterization and fabrication. “Neither one of us realized that so much good can come out of presenting at conferences,” said Radecka on the opportunity to develop their electrical engineering device fabrication skills at CINT.

The CINT summer research program interns from 2021 pause outside of the CINT facility.

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Students from across the country benefit from Sandia’s TracerFIRE cyber training TracerFIRE program trains top university talent There isn’t a company or facility across the nation that doesn’t need cybersecurity professionals and systems, and the same is true for the national laboratories. That’s one reason why the TracerFIRE training program takes Sandia experts from Cyber Security Technologies, Cyber Assurance, Cyber Enterprise Security, and Cyber Security Initiatives outside of the laboratory to teach students the basics of computer science and cybersecurity. In 2021 and 2022, Sandia led numerous high-energy, hands-on TracerFIRE events throughout the country with several hosted by SUPN Alliance or National/ Regional Partners. The TracerFIRE team is increasing its START HBCU outreach programs to further develop a diverse STEM-related pipeline, mainly in cybersecurity, to transition undergraduates to masters programs and bring knowledgeable interns/staff to multiple critical areas at Sandia. In 2021, the TracerFIRE team, in collaboration with START HBCU, ran three cybersecurity workshops. In February, the first two-and-a-half-day cybersecurity workshop was held for 40+ students at Prairie View A&M University, Texas A&M, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, University of Texas (UT) Dallas, UT Austin, and The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). This workshop used TracerFIRE 10 to simulate state government infrastructure. In March, a workshop was held for North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T), Highpoint University, University of North Carolina (UNC)- Wilmington, UNC-Greensboro, and Eastern Carolina students. Over 25 students across all schools participated. In April, NC A&T hosted an event attended by an event attended by students from NC A&T and UTEP.

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The first-place team of four, (facing camera) Sasha Thomas and Waleed Nasr, and (backs to camera) Ethan Emmons and Christie Gorka, compete in Sandia National Labs’ TracerFIRE competition at Purdue on March 26-27.

Another TracerFIRE event in August 2021 allowed engineering and computer science undergraduate students from New Mexico State University, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, UNM, and Eastern New Mexico University to investigate advanced persistent threat style adversaries throughout the simulations. The event gave insight into how to recognize adversarial tactics within the kill chain such as reconnaissance, attack vector, exploitation and exfiltration. In October 2021, more than 50 participants engaged in a TracerFIRE event at Purdue to teach students to investigate multiple advanced persistent threat adversaries in a simulated incident response scenario. Other participating schools included Norfolk, Pacific Northwest, and Illinois. Two teams from Illinois traveled to Purdue for the event, with Illinois Director for Research Don Takahara joining as an observer seeking to bring TracerFIRE to his campus in the future. The annual TracerFIRE challenge at Purdue in March 2022 focused on cyber forensics and security. In partnership with the Purdue Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS), Sandia led the Spring 2022 Symposium, which used TracerFIRE 11 to teach thirty-nine students in a challenge exercise on a voter fraud scenario. Derek Hart

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and Arthur Hernandez, representing Sandia’s Emulytics capabilities, also hosted an in-person two-part Emulytics workshop session highlighting Sandia’s virtualization tools and support for the Scalable Open Laboratory for Cyber Experimentation (SOL4CE) platform. Ethan Emmons from Edina, Minnesota was one of four students on the first-place team. This junior studying cybersecurity and network engineering technology in Purdue’s Polytechnic Institute said, “It gave me a realistic, low-stakes environment to apply the cybersecurity and networking knowledge and skills I have learned in the three years I have been at Purdue.” Kamlesh “Ken” Patel, who manages Sandia’s campus partnership with Purdue and helps host the campus competition, noted, “TracerFIRE is a way for us to expose the next generation of cyber security professionals to research efforts underway at Sandia to solve challenging problems. Students may not know about career opportunities available in defending the nation against cyberattacks. This program allows us to help train top talent while students learn about careers in cybersecurity. It’s a win-win.”

Tracer FIRE is a way for us to expose the next generation of cyber security professionals to research efforts underway at Sandia to solve challenging problems.” “

Students at NC A&T participate in one of the TracerFIRE events in 2021.

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Senior bonanza highlights exceptional student designs

The mechanical engineering Senior Design Bonanza team from UT Austin showcases their project “AM Optical Alignment Structure,” along with two UT Austin students who participated in Sandia’s Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies Summer Research Program in 2021.

Seventy seniors from nine universities participated in Sandia’s annual Senior Design Bonanza throughout the fall of 2021 and spring of 2022. The student design teams were all mentored by Sandia technical staff and challenged to create an additively manufactured system for a space application. The participating universities include the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), Fort Lewis College, Howard University, Missouri S&T, Morgan State University, Rochester Tech, UT Austin, Illinois, and NC A&T. A total of eight awards were given, and five were won by four SUPN academic partners.

• CU Boulder received an award for best experimental design with modeling and simulation validation and another for the most thorough engineering cost analysis award. • Illinois received an award for exceptional project management and execution . • UT Austin received the exceptional use of optical modeling and simulation award. • NC A&T received an award for best engineering analysis for the overall lens system.

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A L L I A N C E P A R T N E R S H I P

GEORGIA TECH ATLANTA, GA

Gaming for electric power grid resilliency. . . . . . . . . . 24 New discoveries in materials fingerprinting . . . . . . . . 25 Racing toward game-changing hypersonic systems . . . . . 26 Engineering super algae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

K E Y L E A D E R S H I P

S AND I A L ABS Diane Peebles Academic Programs Senior Manager Rob Leland

GEORG I A T ECH Chaouki Abdallah Executive Vice President for Research Krista Walton Associate Dean for Research, College of Enginerring Olof Westerstahl Associate Director Strategic Industry Collaborations, Sandia Research Engagements

Campus Executive Rick McCormick Deputy Campus Executive Andre Claudet Campus Partnership Manager Hannah Stangebye Partnership Development Nicole Streu Technical Recruiting Specialist Scottie-Beth Fleming

Recruiting Lead Angela Meyer Administrative Support

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Gaming for electric power grids sounds like fun, but it’s a serious focus for Sandia and Georgia Tech Gaming for electric power grid resilliency The U.S. energy system is under attack, and we have vulnerabilities as a nation. The seven-year Resilient Energy Systems (RES) Mission Campaign is a $40 million investment at Sandia focused on coordinated foundational research and development. The science and technologies that result from the coordinated work with academic institutions like Georgia Tech, regulatory agencies, industry, and public utilities will lead to an electric grid and energy infrastructure that is more resilient to man-made threats. RES is sponsoring a Vertically Integrated Project s (VIP), “Gaming for Electric Power Grids,” that will allow Sandia to engage students in a way that is aligned both with the topic and timescale of the Mission Campaign. The VIP model provides students with the ability to gain deeper insights into their field of study, learn about real-world applications and practice professional skills, engage with industry, and experience different roles on large, multidisciplinary teams. In April 2022, a visit by Sandia’s RES leadership to the GT campus connected RES to the Vertically Integrated Projects faculty sponsor, Dan Molzahn, and the Artificial Intelligence Institute for Advances in Optimization (AI4Opt) National Science Foundation Center, which RES is joining.

CONTRIBUTOR Spotlight

Georgia Tech’s Dan Molzahn, assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, focuses on developing new optimization

and control algorithms to improve the reliability, resiliency, and efficiency of electric power systems.

Sandia’s Resilient Energy Systems Testbed Facilities provide a demonstrator system to prove out capabilities emerging from the Labs’ R&D portfolio, demonstrate success as an aggregator, platform and resource hub, and facilitate experimentation through partnerships.

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Sandia and Georgia Tech leverage AI to discover resilient materials and manufacturing processes New discoveries in materials fingerprinting

CONTRIBUTOR Spotlight

Brad Boyce, a materials scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, leads the Beyond Fingerprinting Grand Challenge at Sandia, and is collaborating with Remi Dingreville and Georgia Tech on related LDRD projects. Boyce was elected president of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society on March 3, 2022.

A three-year LDRD Grand Challenge at Sandia called “Beyond Fingerprinting” is centered on discovering new resilient materials and manufacturing processes by taking an AI-guided approach that integrates human-subject-matter expertise with algorithms that help interpret complex data streams. Such algorithms, trained on high throughput experiments and simulations, serve as surrogate models that can efficiently detect key “fingerprints” in materials data, predict material performance, and guide effective adaptations for almost every hardware component relevant to DOE and NNSA national security missions. This AI-guided approach acts as a force multiplier for subject matter expert technical knowledge/ experience and should enable agile materials processing and accelerate digital engineering... Sandia principal investigators Brad Boyce and Remi Dingreville, a Sandia staff member who also has an adjunct faculty appointment at GT, who specialize in the mechanics of materials, hypothesize that in-process diagnostics and high-throughput materials characterization contain complex “fingerprints” that can be exploited to accelerate the discovery of robust materials and their manufacturing processes. The goal of this collaboration with GT is to increase materials reliability through a fully digital workflow that integrates process awareness. This AI-guided approach, says Boyce, acts as a force multiplier for subject matter expert technical knowledge/experience and should enable agile materials processing and accelerate digital engineering in support of NNSA’s nuclear security mission.

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Racing toward game-changing hypersonic systems

Georgia Tech and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are a part of the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH), an essential component for advancing modern hypersonic flight systems in support of national security. The UCAH network of universities collaborate with Sandia and other national laboratories, federally funded research centers, existing university affiliated research centers, plus government and industry to advance hypersonics in the U.S. Hypersonics systems are game-changing for national security, providing unprecedented speed and maneuverability. They operate at more than five times the speed of sound and are hard to intercept as they can alter course after takeoff. Hypersonic vehicles are capable of traveling at over a mile per second, and those speeds can heat up

vehicle surface temperatures to 2,200 degrees Celsius causing great engineering challenges for hypersonics materials and systems. The expertise of Georgia Tech and GTRI in advanced, high-temperature materials science and aerospace and mechanical engineering research plays a significant role in the UCAH hypersonics grants, which total $6M over the next three years. One of the awards will leverage Sandia’s expertise in hypersonics. Ani Mazumdar, assistant professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, is serving as a co-PI with Jonathan Rogers, associate professor of avionics integration in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. Kyle Williams, co-PI from Sandia, is from the Autonomous Sensing and Controls organization. The team, with the help of researchers from Texas A&M, will build on the previous work of Katya Casper’s Autonomy for Hypersonics LDRD project (in partnership with Georgia Tech) by designing and experimentally validating new multimodal control systems. Hypersonic vehicles have little margin against heating or other aerodynamic loads since they fly on the border of where they are structurally sound so the control systems must be tailored specifically to those challenges. Rogers said, “It’s hard to design margin into the system when we don’t know a lot about what the system will experience.” To combat that uncertainty, the research team will design trajectory models so that vehicle operators can plan the path the vehicle will take in simulations.

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CONTRIBUTOR Spotlight

Katya Casper is well known for her innovative techniques measuring the effects of pressure on hypersonic vehicles using the wind tunnels at Sandia. Her breakthrough in characterizing hypersonic turbulent spots and her work with novel fluctuating pressure instrumentation led to her Lawrence Sperry Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She and Georgia Tech are currently collaborating on other LDRD hypersonic projects.

“ Our UCAH project combines expertise in control and estimation theory from Georgia Tech and Texas A&M with the immense hypersonics experience at Sandia ,” says Mazumdar. “The Sandia hypersonic wind tunnel will play a critical role in this project as it enables our team to experimentally quantify, validate, and improve the performance of our control methods.” This joint effort is addressing problems that directly impact the U.S. hypersonics enterprise.

Over 200 people attended panels focused on “leap ahead” technologies at the UCAH Spring Forum in March 2022.

Sandia’s Dennis Helmich, the director of Integrated Military Systems Development, provided the keynote

address. Dr. Gillian Bussey, Joint Hypersonic Transition Office director, said that the UCAH focus is to leap far ahead where the capabilities of the U.S. will be unmatched and not easily imitated. The mission of the UCAH focuses on delivering time-sensitive applied research and prototype solutions to the Department of Defense in the following areas: Materials, Structures and Thermal Protection Systems Guidance, Navigation and Control Air-breathing Propulsion

Hypersonic Environments and Phenomenology Applied Aerodynamics and Hypersonic Systems Lethality and Energetics

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Sandia researchers operate the raceways growing a consortium of cyanobacteria. The demand for clean, domestically produced, renewable energy has resulted in a lot of research on algae, which is a desirable biofuel source. Tour Sandia’s Algae Raceway .

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Academic Programs

Engineering super algae Partnership enables engineering the future of renewable biofuels/bioproducts through phycoviruses

CONTRIBUTOR Spotlight

Todd Lane has conducted 30 years of research in microbiology and the molecular biology and biochemistry of microalgae. Lane’s recent research focuses on the characterization, detection and prevention of crashes in algal cultivation systems. This work includes the development of methods for pond-side detection of biocontaminants and the manipulation of pond ecology to inhibit grazers and prevent crashes.

Domestic production of next generation renewable biofuels and bioproducts is key to enhancing U.S. energy security. One LDRD team working in this field realized they could facilitate a new system capable of introducing entire metabolic pathways into algae by genetically engineering a new class of viral vectors based on the ubiquitous class of viruses that naturally infect algae. The genetically tractable algal species Tetraselmis striata, known to be easily infected with an isolated virus, is emerging as a potential biotechnology strain and was selected as the project’s algal/viral model system. A novel DNA virus, TsV-N1, that infects T. striata has been isolated with a much smaller genome (30 kB) than most algal viruses, so the team engineered a specialized transducing virus from the TsV-N1 viral chassis to transfer specific, defined DNA fragments with the virus to the host upon infection. Georgia Tech, one of Sandia’s academic partners, was instrumental in identifying a potential chemical compound that can protect algae from deleterious species and prevent pond crashes. These compounds represent several “lead targets” for the engineering of resistance into microalgal production strains through the types of mechanisms that Sandia is developing. Progress made in this three-year project already represents a significant advance in the ability to rapidly create wholescale genetic changes in microalgae—an important first step toward production of critical renewable biofuels.

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A L L I A N C E P A R T N E R S H I P

PURDUE WEST LAFAYETTE, IN

Synergystic opportunities for Sandia and Purdue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Virtual quantum workshop leads to real partnership opportunities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Novel approach to producing thin films . . . . . . . . . . 35 Jill Hruby receives honorary doctorate from Purdue. . . . . 36 Moving target defense for space systems. . . . . . . . . 37

K E Y L E A D E R S H I P

S AND I A L ABS Diane Peebles Academic Programs Senior Manager Reno Sanchez Campus Executive Kamlesh “Ken” Patel Campus Partnership Manager Karli Heying Partnership Development Nicole Streu Technical Recruiting Specialist Michael Spoerner

PURDUE Theresa Mayer Executive Vice President for Research & Partnerships Dan DeLaurentis Professor and President’s Fellow for Defense Initiatives Timothee L. Pourpoint Professor, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics Marcey Hoover Director of Partnership Relations, Federal Laboratories

Recruiting Lead Angela Meyer Administrative Support

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Synergistic opportunities for Sandia and Purdue Collaborative discussions identified beneficial overlap in national security initiatives, including hypersonics, cybersecurity, energetics, and microelectronics In March 2021, Theresa Mayer, Purdue Executive Vice President for Research, and six other esteemed faculty and staff members visited New Mexico to meet with Deputy Labs Director Laura McGill and other Sandia leaders. Ken Patel, Sandia’s CPM for Purdue, facilitated the visit to identify opportunities of overlap in national security initiatives such as the “CHIPS for America Act,” which will provide more than $50 billion in incentives to accelerate and catalyze domestic leading-edge semiconductor production. Other strong areas of synergy were found in hypersonics, cybersecurity, energetics, and microelectronics. Leaders also discussed the Purdue Applied Research Institute (PARI), how Sandia’s Faculty Loan Program can be leveraged to incorporate Sandia staff in the university ecosystem, and ways to utilize Sandia virtual workers in Purdue research areas. Leaders also discussed the classified facilities model and how to facilitate a Sandia classified suite in the Purdue Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, which allows undergraduates to learn about cutting-edge science, engineering, and technology research tools from a faculty member and graduate student mentor during an 11-week summer program. Leaders also reviewed best practices at Purdue to attract underrepresented minority students and Sandia’s diversity initiatives to increase STEM opportunities

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Academic Programs

Sandia cybersecurity researcher Arthur Hernandez presented at an Emultyics TM workshop at Purdue on August 22, 2021.

for Tribal communities and at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) via the Securing Top Academic Research Talent at HBCUs Program. “The overarching purpose for an in-person visit to Sandia” said Patel, “was for Purdue leadership to showcase strategic initiatives and current efforts that are impactful to national security and synergistic with Sandia’s mission. With the alignment in areas of expertise, Sandia’s focus for the future, and Purdue’s initiatives in new cleared facilities, ARI, and talent pipeline approaches, I’d say this mission was successful. ”

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2021-2022 Collaboration Report

Virtual quantum workshop leads to real partnership opportunities In January 2022, Sandia and Purdue facilitated a two-and-a-half hour virtual quantum workshop with 80 participants engaging from the two institutions. There were 19 presenters packed into this quick-hitting forum that included 15 lightning talks and four breakout sessions. Sandia’s Campus Partnership Manager (CPM) for Purdue Ken Patel and David Stewart, Purdue’s Managing Director of the Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute, opened the session. Sandia’s Richard Muller, Deputy Director of the Quantum Systems Accelerator , provided an overview of the National Quantum Initiative roadmap and research needs, and Purdue’s Director of Quantum Science & Engineering Institute Yong Chen gave an overview of the university’s quantum research programs and capabilities. The 19 lightning talks, eight from each institution, covered topics such as photonics, trapped ion quantum computing, spin qubits, characterization/benchmarking of quantum computers, hybrid quantum systems/transduction, atom-based gyros/clocks/ magnetometers, quantum sensing with nitrogen vacancies in diamond, micro-resonator frequency combs, cold atom and nanophotonic integration, computational quantum electromagnetics, and engineering rare-earth ion arrays. The four facilitated breakout sessions focused on quantum sensing, quantum devices and networking, quantum materials, and quantum applications and algorithms. Several areas that lean far into the edge of quantum computing were identified for potential collaboration. Sandia and Purdue are both partners in DOE’s National Quantum Information Science Research Centers . Sandia is in the Quantum Systems Accelerator , and Purdue is in the Quantum Science Center .

CONTRIBUTOR Spotlight

Thomas Roth is an assistant professor at Purdue in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a former Member of Sandia’s Technical Staff. His research interests are in multiscale and multiphysics electromagnetic

modeling and improving the design of quantum electromagnetic devices.

“Purdue is focused on increasing their role in the national security space, which will help me continue to contribute to this important mission.”

Sandia’s QSCOUT provides scientists free and complete access to the world’s only open quantum computing testbed based on trapped ions.

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Novel approach to producing thin films

CONTRIBUTOR Spotlight

Sandia postdoctoral appointee Robynne Paldi, jumpstarted her research at Sandia through the Labs’ Diversity Initiative. While in the program, she helped develop a fabrication method for epitaxial lithium niobate thin film, useful in SAW devices and radio frequency sensors. This work resulted in a patent, which was developed through a Purdue and Sandia collaboration. “As a postdoc at Sandia, I hope to develop the capability of vertically-aligned nanocomposites and see it used in national security applications,” said Paldi.

High quality thin films are an attractive material for electronics and other devices due to their flexibility and other properties that manufacturers find valuable, but they can be difficult to grow and produce. Haiyan Wang, the Basil S. Tuner Professor of Engineering in Purdue’s College of Engineering, developed a new approach to creating these thin films and was supported through an LDRD at Sandia led by Aleem Siddiqui, an expert in micro-electromechancial systems or MEMS, a miniature machine with both mechanical and electronic components. The team’s approach was to create a single-layer film through a nanocomposite-seeded approach . The optimized and grown lithium niobate (LNO) thin films were further developed for the purpose of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices that transduce electrical energy to mechanical energy. Sandia postdoctoral appointee Robynne Paldi, who obtained her PhD at Purdue, helped lead the research. She said, “Our films are grown through a pulsed laser deposition method and growth conditions are optimized to achieve high-quality films that can be easily integrated into devices.” The technological approach for these single-layer LNO thin films was ultimately patented .

A new approach to creating popular thin films used for devices was created at Purdue and supported by a Sandia LDRD project.

This image shows work

on a sample of that innovation

while it was heating up.

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2021-2022 Collaboration Report

Jill Hruby receives honorary doctorate from Purdue Purdue’s College of Engineering honors former Sandia Labs Director and current NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby

“Alliances with academia are an important part of ensuring Sandia remains at the forefront of engineering excellence.”

Jill Hruby became Sandia’s director in 2015 and was the first woman to occupy this position at a national lab. She retired from that role in 2017 and was confirmed as Under Secretary for Nuclear Security at DOE and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. In this role, Hruby oversees efforts to sustain the country’s nuclear stockpile by providing new technologies to lower costs, remain ahead of our adversaries and develop advanced capabilities to enhance nuclear security, arms control and Navy reactors. DOE Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm supported Hruby’s nomination and said, “Jill is one of DOE’s very best success stories — she rose through the ranks at Sandia National Labs to become the first woman to lead a national security lab, and now she’s the perfect person to head up our efforts to maintain a safe and reliable nuclear deterrent and protect our national security. She is a brilliant leader, a model public servant,

and an inspiration to engineers and rising stars everywhere.” Hruby was a major force behind Sandia’s formalized academic partnerships program. At her first State of the Labs presentation in 2015, she said it would take trusted partnerships and alliances to meet the evolving challenges the nation faces in a complicated 21st-century world. “We can’t be insular. Alliances with academia are an important part of ensuring Sandia remains at the forefront of engineering excellence.” Hruby received an honorary doctorate in 2022 at Purdue’s spring commencement after receiving her mechanical engineering degree there in 1981.

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Academic Programs

Moving target defense for space systems

CONTRIBUTOR Spotlight

Christopher Wright is a full time staff member in Sandia’s Strategic Cyber Development organization, but his journey began in the Sandia Extended National Security Externship (SENSE) program. The SENSE internship allows Sandia-employed students to execute a range of research projects throughout the academic calendar on the Purdue campus. Wright is a strong proponent of SENSE. “As a SENSE intern, I applied my knowledge working on real-world problems which

A project, funded by Sandia’s Science and Technology Advancing Resilience for Contested Space LDRD Mission Campaign, developed a patented moving target defense (MTD) algorithm that adds cyber resilience to space systems by improving their ability to withstand cyberattacks. MTDs create dynamic, uncertain environments that seek to confuse the attacker and attempt to defeat cyber threats. Most proposed cyber resilience solutions focus on or require detection of threats before mitigations can be implemented, a significant technical challenge. The new MTD approach avoids this requirement while creating informational asymmetry that favors defenders over attackers. Researchers conducted three key experiments: i.e., functional, cyber resilience, and machine learning (ML), which helped quantify the benefit of the LDRD team’s approach to cyber resilience against different types of cyberattacks. Results show a 97% reduction in adversarial knowledge on a MIL-STD-1553 network. A collaboration with Purdue using ML to defeat the MTD algorithm highlighted the strength of the algorithm by showing a small change in one of the algorithm parameters substantially decreased the success rate of the long short-term memory machine learning model. Further, the generalizable algorithm led to Sandia working with a small business that plans to use this technology to mitigate ransomware and disseminate MTD technology for the U.S. government.

enhanced and aided in the completion of my degree.”

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2021-2022 Collaboration Report

A L L I A N C E P A R T N E R S H I P

TEXAS A&M COLLEGE STATION, TX

Texas A&M becomes a Sandia Alliance Partner. . . . . . . 40 Expert panel for Nuclear Power Insititute Master Class. . . 41 Texas A&M selected as host university for University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics.. . . . . . 42 Exploring innovative fabrication methods for gamma-ray detecting microcalorimeters . . . . . . . . . 43 Developing novel structural metamaterials to mitigate harsh environments. . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

K E Y L E A D E R S H I P

S AND I A L ABS Diane Peebles Academic Programs Senior Manager

T E XA S A&M M. Katherine Banks President of TAMU and Vice Chancellor of National Laboratories and National Security Strategic Initiatives Jack G. Baldauf Vice President for Research L. Diane Hurtado

Chrisma Jackson Campus Executive Hung Nguyen Deputy Campus Executive Nadine Miner Campus Partnership Manager Hannah Stangebye Partnership Development Antoinette Cummings Technical Recruiting Specialist

Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for National Laboratories and National Security Strategic Initiatives Julia R. Pierko Assistant Vice Chancellor for National Laboratories

Isaac Toledo Recruiting Lead Janielle Carnall Administrative Support

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2021-2022 Collaboration Report

Texas A&M becomes a Sandia Alliance Partner

CONTRIBUTOR Spotlight

Chrisma Jackson, Sandia CE for Texas A&M and Director for Cyber Security and Mission Assurance, who previously led the Nuclear Deterrence Special Projects and Use Control Group in the Advanced Systems and Transformation Center, was interviewed for the Texas A&M Nuclear Power Institute (NPI) “ Path of Most Persistence” podcast in May 2022. Jackson emphasized to listeners the value they will receive by coming at opportunities “from a place of ‘yes.’

Texas A&M and Sandia researchers have partnered for many years across key strategic areas. In 2022, Sandia and Texas A&M created a more formal partnership by establishing Texas A&M as an Alliance Partner in the Sandia University Partnership Network. The formal MOU signing ceremony conducted at Texas A&M on October 18, 2021 included Sandia Associate Labs Director and Chief Research Officer Susan Seestrom and Texas A&M Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Alan Sams. This agreement will facilitate collaborations and allow Sandia to leverage Texas A&M’s institutional expertise to tackle national security problems. Sandia strategy will be led by Sandia Texas A&M Campus Executive (CE) Chrisma Jackson and Texas A&M Deputy CE Hung Nguyen. The partnership will receive additional Sandia support through Sandia Campus Partnership Manager Nadine Miner, business development specialist Hannah Stangebye, administrative support Janielle Carnall, and an enhanced recruiting team. As part of this strategic partnership, Sandia principal investigators (PIs) will be able to request supplemental funding to enhance the core funding they receive for their LDRD projects. Sandia employees and their dependents will also receive an additional benefit from this enhanced partnership—they are eligible to receive in-state tuition to all 13 schools in the Texas A&M System.

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