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March 10 - 12, 2025
March 13 - optional training
Idaho Falls, ID

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The MOOSE International Workshop is for professionals and students seeking to engage with colleagues using or developing in the MOOSE framework. Whether you are a seasoned expert or budding enthusiast, sessions will be designed to cater to all levels of expertise. Technical tracks cover a wide range of applications and development in MOOSE, including MOOSE for Nuclear Energy, Fusion, Geosystems, Renewable Energy, MOOSE framework and framework development, and MOOSE physics modules. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights, discover emerging trends and connect with like-minded individuals.

Location:
Energy Innovation Laboratory and INL Meeting Center
775 MK Simpson Blvd.
Idaho Falls, ID 83415
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Click here to register

Registration cost: $199

Registration coming soon
Agenda coming soon

Optional training courses | Thursday, March 13

The following training courses are offered after the official workshop Thursday. If interested, please sign up on the registration form. A schedule of the training courses will be provided once interest is determined.

Course 1: The New Engineering Material Model Library, Version 2 (full day)

This six-to-eight-hour course presents a high-level introduction of the NEML2 constitutive modeling library developed by Argonne National Laboratory. Hands-on tutorials demonstrating typical use cases and applications will be provided to attendees covering the following topics:

  • Modular constitutive model composition
  • Flexible batching and vectorization mechanisms
  • Automatic differentiation
  • Evaluation of hybrid computing environments with both CPUs and GPUs.
  • Seamless Python/PyTorch integration
  • Using a machine learning-based model as part of the constitutive model
  • Parameter calibration using stochastic variational inference
  • Coupling with MOOSE for multiphysics simulations
  • Coupling with MOOSE for inverse optimization


Course 2: The Linear Finite Volume system (~3 hours)
In this training we will learn how to use the new linear finite volume system to set up advection-diffusion problems and solve them using segregated solvers.

Course 3: Leveraging Libtorch in MOOSE (~1 hour)
This training will focus on calling LibTorch within MOOSE objects to compute material properties using neural networks.

Course 4: Introduction to Subchannel, a Module for Reactor Core Thermal Hydraulics (~2 hours)
The subchannel module, recently open-sourced, can model single phase fluid flow between channels in numerous reactor designs. In this training, we will learn to set up steady state and transient subchannel calculations and couple them with other modules in MOOSE.

Course 5: Introduction to Stochastic Tools (~2 hours)
Learn about Bayesian uncertainty quantification (UQ), Bayesian optimization, active learning in MOOSE.

Course 6: Introduction to Optimization (~2 hours)
The optimization module leverages the Toolkit for Advanced Optimization (TAO) library to perform inverse optimization. This is the perfect tool to leverage your experimental data to improve numerical models.

Full agenda coming soon.

Topic Areas

Nuclear

TH/CFD • Fuels • Reactor Physics •
Materials • Chemistry • Experimental Design

Fusion

H3 • Breeding Blankets • Confinement • Materials • Plasma • Neutronics • Shielding/material • Activation • Electromagnetism

geosystem

Geosystems

Geothermal • CO2/H2/Heat •
Storage • Environmental •
Mining • Weather

Renewables

Wind • Solar • Hydro • Energy Storage

Framework

CI/CD • Accelerators • Meshing • User Interface • Physics Modules • IGA • Multiapps • Advanced Topics

Special Topics

Medical • Robotics • AI/ML • Materials • Low-Temp Plasma • Integrated Energy Systems

Keynote Speakers

Todd Combs

Todd Combs

INL Science and Technology Deputy Laboratory Director and Chief Research Officer

Andy Wilkins

Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization Mineral Resources Digital Lead

Gaston

Derek Gaston

U.S. Department of Energy Senior Advisor and INL Chief Computational Scientist

Daniel Schwen

Daniel Schwen

INL Computational Mechanics and Materials Distinguished Scientist

Michael Tonks

Mike Tonks

University of Florida Interim Department Chair and Alumni Professor of Materials Science and Engineering

Ben Spencer Computational Scientist

Benjamin Spencer

Idaho National Laboratory Computational Scientist



Dr. Stephen M. Bajorek

Senior Technical Advisor for Thermal-Hydraulics U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Dr. Wen Jiang

North Carolina State University Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering


Daniel Schwen
Daniel Schwen
INL Computational Mechanics and Materials Distinguished Scientist
Michael Tonks
Mike Tonks
University of Florida Interim Department Chair and Alumni Professor of Materials Science and Engineering

Committee Members
Robert Podgorney
Workshop Chair
Gaston
Derek Gaston
Workshop Chair
jodi-grgich
Jodi Grgich
Organizing Chair

Steering Committee

For more information, contact:

Jodi Grgich

Send a Message

Battelle Energy Alliance manages INL for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy

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Idaho National Laboratory
Todd Combs

Dr. Todd Combs

Combs is the deputy laboratory director for science and technology and chief research officer for the Idaho National Laboratory. He previously served as the lab’s associate laboratory director for Energy and Environment Science and Technology, where he managed more than 250 research staff members focused on advancing transportation, clean energy integration, advanced manufacturing and environmental issues.

Before joining INL, Combs served as director of the Global Security Sciences Division at Argonne National Laboratory, where he led a multidisciplinary research team of over 200 that helped protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from a wide spectrum of national and global security threats. He also served nearly 14 months as Argonne’s interim associate laboratory director for Energy and Global Security. He led the applied research and development organization of over 800 people, addressing domestic and global sustainable energy and security issues. In this role, he oversaw research and operational activities of the energy systems, nuclear engineering, and global security sciences division. Combs began his Department of Energy laboratory career in 2008 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as an operations research scientist. He left for Argonne in 2012 while serving as group leader for Transportation Planning and Decision Science.

His research has included energy systems modeling and analysis for DOE, most recently related to critical materials supply chains, as well as applying modeling and simulation to national and homeland security issues for the departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

Combs earned his doctorate in operations research and master’s in operations analysis from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. A colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, his military experience includes assignments at the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Air Force Studies and Analyses Agency. He is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences and the Military Operations Research Society.

Andy Wilkins Photo

Dr. Andy Wilkins

Wilkins is digital lead of the Mineral Resources Research Unit of the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the Australian government’s research labs.  Before CSIRO, he earned his doctorate in string theory, worked in the mathematics departments of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology, and did some scientific consulting.

While at CSIRO, Wilkins has specialized in subsurface modeling and has contributed code to MOOSE’s porous flow, geochemistry and solid mechanics modules.  He’s used MOOSE to study strata deformation in mining, methane emissions and CO2 sequestration, groundwater and geothermal work, and mosquito spread throughout Africa.  Wilkins enjoys woodworking with hand tools, playing the piano and, most of all, hanging out with his wife and four kids.

Gaston

Dr. Derek Gaston

Gaston is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of nuclear reactor multiphysics simulation. During his 20-year career within the U.S. national laboratory system, Gaston has received multiple awards for developing the MOOSE multiphysics platform, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering and two R&D100 awards from R&D Magazine. He earned his doctorate in computational nuclear engineering from MIT and also holds degrees in computer science and computational applied mathematics. While still employed by INL, Gaston recently started a detail at DOE as a senior advisor for the assistant secretary of Nuclear Energy, where he is working to find novel pathways to deploy new nuclear reactors.

Michael Tonks

Mike Tonks

Michael Tonks is the interim department chair and alumni professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Florida. Prior to joining Florida in the fall of 2017, he was an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the Pennsylvania State University for two years and a staff scientist in the Fuels Modeling and Simulation Department at INL for six years.

Tonks created the mesoscale fuel performance tool MARMOT and led its development for five years. He helped pioneer the approach taken in the DOE Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program to use multiscale modeling and simulation to inform the development of materials models for the BISON fuel performance tool that are based on microstructure rather than burn-up, and he won the NEAMS Excellence Award for that work in 2014. He also won the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2017 and the TMS Brimacombe medal (mid-career award) in 2022.

His research is focused on using mesoscale modeling and simulation results coupled with experimental data to investigate the co-evolution of microstructure and properties in materials in harsh environments.

Ben Spencer Computational Scientist

Benjamin Spencer

Spencer is a computational scientist in the Computational Mechanics and Materials Department at the Idaho National Laboratory, where he has worked since 2011. He serves as the lead of the Structural Materials and Chemistry Technical Area in DOE’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation Program. He earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Prior to joining the lab, he worked at Sandia National Laboratories as a developer of the SIERRA mechanics codes.  He is actively involved in developing mechanics-focused capabilities in the MOOSE multiphysics framework and has served as the lead developer of the Grizzly nuclear reactor component aging code since its inception. He has also contributed significantly to the BISON nuclear fuel performance code in the areas of contact enforcement, fracture mechanics and mechanical constitutive models.

Dr. Stephen M. Bajorek Senior Technical Advisor for Thermal-Hydraulics

Dr. Stephen M. Bajorek

Bajorek is the senior technical advisor for thermal-hydraulics at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. He has over 40 years of experience in the nuclear industry.  He provides guidance for development of the TRACE state-of-the-art thermal-hydraulics code, the BlueCRAB suite of codes for advanced reactor analysis, and the NRC’s thermal-hydraulic test programs including the Rod Bundle Heat Transfer program. 

Prior to joining the NRC he was a faculty member at Kansas State University, and he has over 15 years of industrial experience with Westinghouse as a code developer and analyst.  At Westinghouse, he was the main developer of WCOBRA/TRAC and Best Estimate Methodology. He has significant experience analyzing AP600 and AP1000 and participated in the Westinghouse experimental programs supporting those designs.

He has authored or co-authored over 200 publications in areas ranging from boiling and two-phase flow, reactor safety, natural convection and boiling of multi-component fluids. Bajorek is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society and co-chairs the Thermal-Hydraulics Division. Bajorek received his Ph. D. from Michigan State University, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Wen Jiang Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering North Carolina State University

Dr. Wen Jiang

Jiang is an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at North Carolina State University and holds a joint faculty appointment with Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Before joining North Carolina State, Jiang was a computational scientist in the Computational Mechanics and Materials Department at INL, specializing in computational methods for nuclear material modeling and multi-physics simulation. Jiang actively contributes to the open-source finite element framework MOOSE. His key areas of method and code development include solid mechanics, extended finite element methods (X-FEM), level set methods, contact mechanics, phase-field modeling, Navier-Stokes equations, and heat conduction. He is a key developer of the BISON nuclear fuel simulation code, which received an R&D 100 Award in 2022. Additionally, Jiang contributes to the structural component aging simulation code Grizzly and leads the development of additive manufacturing simulation tools in the MOOSE Application Library for Advanced Manufacturing Utilities (MALAMUTE).