MSU Traineeship Program to Address Critical Workforce Needs in Accelerator Science & Engineering
P. Ostroumov, Michigan State University (Principal Investigator)
S. Baryshev, Michigan State University (Co-Investigator)
P. Duxbury, Michigan State University (Co-Investigator)
R. Ganni, Michigan State University (Co-Investigator)
S. Lund, Michigan State University (Co-Investigator)
T. Xu, Michigan State University (Co-Investigator)
S. Lidia, Michigan State University (Co-Investigator)
N. Hasan, Michigan State University (Co-Investigator)
Objectives of the Traineeship Program: Michigan State University (MSU) has successfully established the Accelerator Science & Engineering Traineeship (ASET) to leverage, coordinate, and extend assets at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), Physics & Astronomy (PA) department, Engineering departments (including the MSU Cryogenics Initiative in Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Department of Computational Mathematics Science and Engineering) to address critical workforce development needs in Accelerator Science & Engineering (AS&E). The AS&E Traineeship (ASET) at MSU was launched in 2017 as a novel Program and has presently reached a steady-state enrollment of seven graduate students annually. Both Ph.D and master's graduate students in PA and Engineering will earn a certification in AS&E with specializations in one of the four key need areas identified in the Funding Opportunity Announcement: I. Physics of large accelerators and systems engineering; II. Superconducting radiofrequency accelerator physics and engineering; III. Radiofrequency power system engineering; and IV. Cryogenic systems engineering (especially liquid helium systems). Recruiting pathways have been developed to draw in AS&E student talent – including underrepresented minorities (URMs) and women.
Description of the Traineeship Program: ASET students take existing core graduate courses (Accelerator Systems), and at least two electives emphasizing at least one of the four key need areas 1-4 from courses in the PA, Engineering (including the Cryogenics Initiative), and the US Particle Accelerator School (USPAS) to earn an AS&E Certificate. A new engineering course in RF Systems was developed in Spring 2019 and is led by new MSU faculty and Adjunct Professors from DOE National Labs. Now, there are 17 AS&E-related courses at MSU. Topics such as Project Management, Radiation Safety and other specialized training are covered by sending students to take classes for credit at the USPAS. Existing PA and FRIB Colloquia with regular AS&E content and a new bi-weekly Accelerator Physics and Engineering Seminars (APES) familiarize the students with a broad range of AS&E topics in key need areas 1-4. Students are being trained at MSU facilities, including FRIB, PA, and Engineering, before entering traineeships in labs, industry, or at FRIB. The ASET Program, incepted in 2017, has been very successful. Nine students have graduated with Ph.Ds (including two women and two with URM status), and one graduated with a Master’s degree and decided to continue as a Ph.D candidate within ASET. Five graduates work now in DOE National Laboratories (FNAL, LANL, and SLAC), and two persons in the industry – all remain in AS&E topics. Expected near-term graduates are primarily seeking employment in DOE National Laboratories. Since the AS&E Certificate was established three years ago, twenty-three graduate students (including 4 URMs and 4 women) fulfilled the requirements to receive it, thereby documenting competencies achieved. The ASET program at MSU has evolved to a steady-state configuration with a total of 30 students enrolled in ASET, including 5 URMs and 2 women; eight are presently carrying out thesis research at national labs (ANL, LBNL, LANL, and SLAC).
Methods to be Employed: The ASET program is advertised via the FRIB graduate brochure and website, at the USPAS Fundamentals course, at conferences and workshops, and at various institutions, including those with URM focuses. Successful student recruitment and oversight models already used at FRIB and MSU are being employed. This model is also applied to recruit Engineering students and will feed a quality pool of applicants into the MSU Cryogenics Initiative to address key need area 4. A traineeship entrance and exit questionnaire was developed to quantify program benefits to the students. An Accelerator Traineeship Advisory Panel (ATAP) of distinguished AS&E experts from DOE National Laboratories annually evaluates the program and recommends improvements.
Impact: The renewal project continues to support and improve the robust MSU ASET program and successful partnership with DOE national Laboratories.
