UOIT faculty and students impress at world’s largest nuclear engineering conference

Nuclear Engineering students from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) made a remarkable impression on the world stage from July 7 to 11 at the International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-22), in Prague, Czech Republic.

UOIT’s team of nine students representing the Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science (FESNS) comprised the largest single university student group at ICONE-22 – the most prestigious annual international nuclear-engineering conference. There were 850 attendees from around the globe at this year’s conference.

UOIT students presented 11 of the 75 student papers at ICONE-22. Among the highlights: current Nuclear Engineering PhD students Wargha Peiman, Jeffrey Samuel, Amjad Farah and recent UOIT Master of Applied Science (MASc) graduate Alexey Dragunov shared the prestigious Akiyama Medal for best student paper (Study on Neutronics and Thermalhydraulics Characteristics of Supercritical Water-cooled Reactor) with Czech PhD student Marija Miletic.

“This is the third time the University of Ontario Institute of Technology has been part of the Akiyama Medal since it was established at ICONE in 2009 by the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers,” said Dr. Igor Pioro, Professor, FESNS and the faculty supervisor of most UOIT attendees, who also was in the Czech Republic. “A further seven UOIT-based student entries won Best Paper and Best Poster awards. No other university participating at ICONE can boast such incredible achievements.”

UOIT team at ICONE-22 (from left to right in above image):

• Khalil Sidawi¹ (MASc student)
• Eugene Saltanov^1,2 (PhD student)
• Sahil Gupta¹ (2014 MASc graduate)
• Rand Abdullah¹ (MASc student)
• Phillip McNelles³ (PhD student)
• Dr. Igor Pioro (FESNS Professor)
• Jeffrey Samuel^1,2 (PhD student)
• Matthew Baldock¹ (2014 BASc graduate)
• Wargha Peiman^2,4 (PhD student)
• Juan Jouvin¹ (MASc student)

¹ Supervised by Dr. Igor Pioro, Professor, FESNS

² Supervised by Dr. Glenn Harvel, Associate Professor, FESNS

³ Supervised by Dr. Lixuan Lu, Associate Professor, FESNS

⁴ Supervised by Dr. Kamiel Gabriel, Professor, UOIT Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science

• Download UOIT papers published in refereed proceedings at ICONE-22 (PDF)

About ICONE

The International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE) is the premier global conference for addressing the needs of the nuclear industry. The focus of ICONE is on the technical state-of-the-art and the current status of nuclear power around the world. It has been jointly sponsored by the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers since 1991, and co-sponsored with the Chinese Nuclear Society since 2005.