Modeling nuclear energy
Several years ago, as an incoming freshman, current MIT senior Sterling Harper had no inkling that he’d find his passion in writing nuclear engineering software. But after signing up on a whim for a pre-orientation program with the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE), Harper was hooked, and is now set to graduate from a five-year program with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the field next year. Since Harper had no prior coding experience or specific interest in nuclear energy, it was NSE’s vibrant social community that initially drew him in, and has since kept him motivated in a field with dauntingly steep learning curves. “I think the nuclear department is one of the best-kept secrets at MIT,” Harper says. Shake, rattle, and roll Harper’s first research experience at MIT was in nuclear fusion, the release of energy that comes from combining atoms. Working with an actual fusion reactor on campus in the...