NPRE undergrads share Best Paper Award

Four students in nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering (NPRE) shared a Best Undergraduate Paper Award for their presentation at the 2013 American Nuclear Society Student Conference.

Kathleen Weichman of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Kristin Schoemaker of Carpentersville, Illinois; Benjamin Russell of Olney, Illinois; and Jaspreet Rehal of Naperville, Illinois; shared the prize for the paper, “SEE RADS Platform: Social, Every Day, and Emergency Radiaiton Detection System,” presented during the conference held April 4-6 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. NPRE Assistant Professor Clair Sullivan served as the students’ advisor.

SEE RADS is a platform designed to educate the general public about radiation and provide authorities with information in the event of an emergency response scenario. In the event that radioactive material is smuggled into a populous city or the public is exposed to radiation through a large release, authorities and the general public need a reliable source of education and networked real-time information regarding radiation levels.

SEE RADS is based on the nodal acquisition of detection data via a number of deployed radiation detectors that upload the raw detection data to a central server for processing. Results are then compiled into a simple, easy-to understand format and returned to a mobile device such as a cell phone or a police-car-based computer and displayed along with data from other sources through an easy-to-use interface. With a network incorporating many types of detectors (both mobile and stationary), SEE RADS can deliver valuable radiation information to educate the masses and to enable intelligent response in case of emergency.

Creative Electron’s iRad Geiger detector was examined as an example of a readily-available small mobile detector. Detector tests revealed, however, that this detector is not a good choice as the primary detector for the SEE RADS network.

SEE RADS was developed in conjunction with the NPRE 458 Design in Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering senior design course.
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Writer/Contact: Susan Mumm, editor/alumni affairs coordinator, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, 217/244-5382.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.