Asif Anwar
Purdue University, Nuclear Engineering, Undergraduate
Fewer and fewer nuclear facilities remain available across academic institutions with nuclear engineering programs. The effort, cost, and regulatory requirements associated with maintaining these facilities operational, e.g., research... more
Fewer and fewer nuclear facilities remain available across academic institutions with nuclear engineering programs. The effort, cost, and regulatory requirements associated with maintaining these facilities operational, e.g., research reactors, is increasing exponentially. This limits the pool of interested students and the excitement about the field. Unfortunately, this trend was only exacerbated with the recent COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we present an effort to address this challenge by developing high fidelity, real-time nuclear-based Virtual Laboratories as a means of enriching hands-on laboratory activities and providing more opportunities for students to interact remotely with equipment not feasible otherwise. In this paper, we will describe and discuss in detail the Virtual Labs, the production process including lessons learned, and potential benefits. Our ultimate goal is to demonstrate that Virtual Labs are equally good (if not better) than physical labs.
