Integrated Database on Nuclear Education

Transcription

1 Nuclear Section July Contents Integrated Database on Nuclear Education Integrated Database on Nuclear Education... 1 New Coordinated Research Project - Sustainable Education in Nuclear Science and Technology... 3 Organization Systems and Semantic Technology... 4 Combined Expertise for Nuclear Solutions in South Africa... 5 Nuclear Accidents Base... 5 International Nuclear Academy... 6 Latest Updates... 7 Reflections of a Departing Staff Member 8 Upcoming Meetings... 8 Announcements Capacity building in the nuclear sector is more important than ever and it deserves powerful IT tools to support education and training. The information technology has improved considerably in the past few decades and should be used to maximize the value that Member States obtain from the knowledge and expertise of the IAEA and its cooperation partners. Nuclear Section Department of Nuclear Energy IAEA P.O.Box 100 Vienna International Centre 1400 Vienna, Austria Tel: Fax: To extend the capabilities of the IAEA s cost effective, scalable and user friendly online educational platform CLP4NET, which we introduced in our last e-bulletin, the Integrated Nuclear Education Database was developed and integrated into the platform. The database was designed to help users from the nuclear education community, students and teachers, to find learning resources and opportunities easily, both in the CLP4NET learning management systems and among the large amount of resources available elsewhere. It centralizes information from organizations in regional nuclear education networks from Africa (AFRA-NEST), Latin America (LANENT) and Asia (ANENT). Other education networks and organizations are joining as well. cont. on page 2

2 Message from the Section Head Dear readers, The past several months have been quite busy for NKM Section. We are pleased to say our first ever meeting of the newly established Technical Working Group (TWG) for Nuclear was held in February. The TWG is a group of experienced and senior nuclear energy sector managers who provide strategic and practical advice and assistance to the IAEA for programme development and implementation, reflecting global, regional and national issues and priorities of concern in the area of nuclear knowledge management. The TWG-NKM provides periodic input and guidance on nuclear knowledge management issues or priorities in Member States and helps to identify new or changing topics or focus areas of interest from the perspective of various nuclear organizations and stakeholders and over the whole nuclear technology life cycle. This first meeting was primarily to orient the TWG members to the NKM programme in detail. Valuable feedback was received from the TWG members. A tour of the Vienna TRIGA Research Reactor was also conducted. For more info on TWG-NKM see: For more info on Vienna TRIGA Research Reactor see: John de Grosbois, SH-NKMS cont. from page 1 The database is organized in six main areas: training courses, university degrees, PhD topics, opportunities, educational material and organizations. Its search capabilities are powerful and the information is rich in meta-data, which allows the users to search and browse according to their needs and preferences very efficiently. The data is uploaded by the content provider in a user friendly manner by filling in forms. The external users receive rich information in several languages. Locations are visualized in maps, using geo-localization. 2 The database was financially supported by the IAEA s Technical Cooperation Department through project RLA0048, technical specifications were designed by educational organizations from the different educational networks (ANENT, LANENT and AFRA-NEST), and it was installed and is being operated and maintained by the National Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina, under a Practical Agreement signed with the IAEA. There are plans for further improvements, which are being discussed with the different stakeholders. Installing the system in the cloud is one of the possibilities considered, ensuring uninterrupted accessibility and high-speed access. Alternative architectures are also being studied for the next version of this product, including distributed data and centralized management. Furthermore, semantic web technology functionalities may be added. You now have an opportunity to increase the visibility of your educational material and services, share and preserve your information. Upload your data into the new Nuclear Education Integrated Data Base! Check out this link: and don t hesitate to contact us for further information or assistance. Article by M. Sbaffoni, NKMS

3 New Coordinated Research Project Recently Launched: Sustainable Education in Nuclear Science and Technology The IAEA has successfully facilitated a number of coordinated research projects (CRP), focused on specific knowledge management needs in nuclear organizations. However, a CRP which addresses tendencies in nuclear education has not been formulated so far. That is why it was decided to formulate a research scope, which will focus on supporting sustainable education in nuclear science and technology. The crosscutting nature of the CRP was appreciated by potential stakeholders, who were invited to submit their research contract or agreement proposals. Education in power and non-power nuclear applications is relevant for a vast majority of countries. Teaching methods and techniques have evolved, tendencies about enrolling into science and engineering studies vary from country to country. Understanding the current trends and context, identifying and sharing best practices, methods and tools, identifying present conditions and proposing new strategic actions, might help enhancing sustainability and quality of nuclear education, contributing to ensure safe usage of nuclear technologies and to foster efficacy and efficiency in the teaching/learning process. The overall objective of the formulated CRP is to provide Member States' organizations involved in nuclear education and training with relevant and validated information, which will support them in advancing nuclear education. The knowledge obtained from the CRP should contribute to improving sustainability and quality of the teaching/learning process, and foster effectiveness and efficiency through increased cooperation and adoption of innovative practices. The research objectives of this CRP are to: 1. understand the impact of adopting modern information and computer technologies in nuclear education; 2. formulate main principles for cooperation and collaboration approaches and formats between industry, university and government, and among countries and regions (e.g. networking and resource sharing mechanisms); 3. collect outreach best practices applied by academia to address schools and society 4. understand and analyse demographic situation in nuclear education (including supply and demand correlation as well as gender issues); 5. develop a set of benchmarking approaches for nuclear education; 6. collect experience and methods of addressing challenges in nuclearization of non-nuclear engineers and scientists; and 7. map nuclear competences in and for nuclear education. So far, 28 proposals were received and will be evaluated in July. The final outcomes of the coordinated research project would be defined in close cooperation with the participating organizations to provide better awareness of the most appropriate contemporary practices and clear understanding of trends and tendencies in nuclear education in different countries. Qualification and competence is critical for the safe use of nuclear technologies. Current research is focusing on innovations for and tendencies in nuclear education, to ensure that graduates' qualification meet the requirements of the nuclear field. The research results will directly impact and enhance capacity development capabilities in countries that use and/or embark in using nuclear technologies. The first CRP meeting will take place in Vienna, from 5 to 9 October Article by M. Sbaffoni, NKMS 3

4 Organization Systems and Semantic Technology The rapidly increasing amount of information in every knowledge domain poses challenges to the retrieval, integration, and reuse of information relevant to a specific context. To cope with this situation, methods of knowledge modelling and representation play an increasingly important role. organisation system (KOS), a term summarizing knowledge structures such as taxonomies, thesauri and ontologies, provide the basis for describing knowledge domains. For KOS, standards such as SKOS (Simple Organisation System) have been developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Standardization allows creation and maintenance of KOS over their lifecycle, enables linking between KOS, and allows publication of KOS on different media on the Web as well as in traditional document formats. By expressing KOSs with standards, the organisation systems may now be interpreted by machines, while still being comprehensible by humans. This opens up the world of Linked Data, the Internet of data in which data are treated in a similar way to documents. Obeying the naming conventions of each single term by URI s (Unified Resource Identifiers), data may be interlinked with other, forming a knowledge network. The number of information sources published in this way grows continuously (see figure above). This allows the construction of huge knowledge graphs as e.g. used by Google to enable discovery of knowledge, meaning that a search will return not only results by full text search, but also related items. For representing knowledge domains, this technology, often referred to as semantic technology, allows the generation of content-rich knowledge models, providing the user with a navigable knowledge map which may be queried with a specific query language (SPARQL), and which are often supported by visualization and refined semantic search tools. In particular, much progress has been made in utilizing KOSs for entity extraction out of unstructured text. As document repositories are growing, manual tagging becomes extremely cumbersome and error-prone. The auto-tagging of documents (assigning subject-related metadata to documents) based on entity extraction, while still not perfect, automates tagging with a high level of confidence, and improves search and retrieval. In addition, describing KOSs with standards allows for programming interfaces to KOSs, making them available within a wide variety of custom applications. In general, a widely accepted way of improving information management consists in assigning metadata describing the information in various ways, e.g. title, author, subject keywords etc. As organizations strive to improve integration, retrieval, and reuse of their information, complex knowledge structures such as taxonomies and ontologies play an increasingly important role. Intelligent Topic Manager (ITM) supports the management of complex knowledge structures throughout their lifecycle, from authoring to delivery. As a result, knowledge representations can be created and maintained more efficiently, as well as used more effectively to classify, federate, and inter-link information. ITM can be either used independently to store and manage complex domain-specific knowledge structures, or as a service that enhances enterprise search, knowledge discovery, and text mining solutions. The advantages are: Generates data forms based on the desired ontology models; ITM user interfaces can be accessed from any major web browser. ITM server can be either installed on-site or hosted by Mondeca; Built-in rules engine for reasoning, such as inference and validation; Multilingual support allows to manage knowledge representations in multiple languages; Compliance with widely used semantic standards for better data interoperability: RDF, SKOS, OWL; Seamless export of semantic resources to search, text mining, and content management tools via a Web service API and triple store synchronization. Article by D. Beraha, consultant in NKMS 4

5 Combined Academic Expertise for Nuclear Solutions in South Africa A week-long workshop to formalizing a unique academic network kicked-off on 3 November in Potchefstroom. The academic network is the first of its kind in South Africa and links institutions that conduct research and education in nuclear science and engineering to collaborate on the goal to deliver nuclear scientists and engineers to the industry. The network, known as South African Centre of Excellence for Nuclear Education, Science and Technology (SACoE-NEST) is supported by the Department of Energy (DoE) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). According to Dr Anthonie Cilliers, programme manager: nuclear engineering at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University (NWU), it is clear that South Africa is serious about utilizing nuclear energy as part of the solution to the electricity needs of the country in future. For this specialized personnel are required, something South Africa has been developing for years. The reality is that we need more to achieve this; various mechanisms are required to speed up the rate of specialists released to the industry. SACoE-NEST is the ideal mechanism to achieve this. The network is based on the outcomes defined in the National Programme Framework (signed between South Africa and the IAEA in 2013) and unlocks collaboration on research and education. It breaks down traditional walls between tertiary education institutions. The network will focus directly on the needs of the nuclear industry and the national nuclear regulator (NNR) and can adapt dynamically to the needs of the nuclear build programme as it changes over time. The DoE, IAEA, Necsa, the NNR as well as representatives from the main tertiary institutions were present at the workshop and are very excited about the future state of nuclear science expertise in South Africa. Nuclear Accidents Base Article by U. Ugbor, NKMS The General Conference (GC) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has continuously recognized the IAEA s important role in assisting Member States preserve and enhance nuclear knowledge and in facilitating international collaboration in this domain, and this was reiterated recently in the resolution of the General Conference September 2014 (GC (58)/RES/13). Moreover, and in line with the IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety, the IAEA was requested to assist Member States in enhancing transparency and effectiveness of communication among operators, regulators and various international organizations, and in supporting wide dissemination of safety related technical and technological information enhancing nuclear safety. In this context, the IAEA was further asked to analyse and preserve lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident, as well as from other major incidents and radiological events in the past. Identifying, selecting and preserving information related to nuclear accidents and organizing it for accessibility to end users, while ensuring its long term preservation for future generations, has been set as priority by national nuclear authorities of Member States. There is an abundance of heterogeneous information sources relating to nuclear accidents, including portals and databases and other electronic medium available out there, particularly on the internet. Moreover, significant information on actual incidents has been reported documented/collected in different formats and stored in repositories in Member States and at the IAEA. Due to various reasons such as proprietary, political, technical, legal, etc., access to such information is limited, which reduces its potential benefit if properly analyzed. The Nuclear (NKM) Section at the IAEA has launched the NA-KOS project, which aims at collecting and preserving data, information, and knowledge from trusted sources related to nuclear accidents and making this knowledge system available through one single access point, while ensuring their long term preservation for future generations. The NKM Section has developed the Nuclear Accidents Taxonomy, which is currently being finalized. This taxonomy will be used, along with other nuclear relevant taxonomies, as the backbone to enhance search and retrieval. Such knowledge organization system would encompass necessary elements and tools to benefit from advanced information technology solutions, including (Continued on page 6) 5

6 (Continued from page 5) semantic technologies, data mining and linked data to support users finding buried/hidden information that the traditional search facilities can no longer support. The platform will accommodate member s area where participants will dispose of mechanism for collaboration to registered members only. The overall objective of this initiative is to capture and preserve lessons learned from reliable and trusted sources relating to studies and past nuclear accidents in view of avoiding managerial and technical mistakes. This could assist to find predefined measures in a timely manner that could prevent, or at least minimize the adverse effects of incidents. If our understanding of our past is incomplete or inaccurate then we are not well equipped to make sense of the present. For example, to simply characterize the Three Mile Island accident as a minor mechanical failure, which was allowed to escalate into a major accident through serious operator errors, is a gross and dangerous distortion of the truth, actively concealing important human errors in nuclear plant design organizations, operating utilities and the regulatory authorities. If we cannot identify these errors in the glare of hindsight, then we have little hope of anticipating them in the future - David Mosey International Nuclear Academy Article by T. Atieh, NKMS Seven assist visits to world-leading nuclear engineering universities were conducted between June 2014 and March 2015 to further develop the framework of the International Nuclear Academy (INMA) and the first peer review assessment has been conducted in the UK. Assist visits were conducted to the following universities: University of Tokyo, Japan University of Manchester, UK Texas A&M University, USA Engineering Physics Institute at the National Research Nuclear University of Moscow, Russian Federation University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa North-West University, South Africa Tsinghua University, China The evaluation of their existing courses allowed us to develop common minimum requirements for universities to comply with in order to offer IAEA certified INMA nuclear technology management programmes. The INMA framework is in its final development stage and will be introduced to Member States in an upcoming technical meeting. The first ever IAEA Peer Review Assessment of a university INMA Master s Programme in Nuclear Technology (NTM) was conducted from 30 June to 3 July at the University of Manchester. John de Grosbois led the review team, which was comprised of 4 university professors from international universities that have been participating in the development of the INMA framework. Manchester is the first university to offer a full Masters Programme in NTM and to request a formal IAEA peer review. The review is based on a draft technical document (TECDOC), which contains the requirements for the programme and defines the peer review process to be followed. The University of Manchester submitted a complete package for review well in advance of the visit. The professor responsible for each module presented to the review panel an overview of each course, including its objectives and design, and answered specific questions. Several programme stakeholders from the UK nuclear industry also participated and expressed strong support for the programme and their intention to both send students and hire the graduates. As this was the first ever INMA Peer Review, there were several useful lessons learned and suggestions made to both improve the INMA framework and requirements and also the peer review process and criteria. We are pleased to hear the review went very well and a positive recommendation for endorsement is expected to be forthcoming, along with a few suggestions from the reviewers to strengthen the programme. Valuable observations and good practices were also made and can be shared with the other universities in the process of designing and implementing their programmes. The Manchester University NTM programme draws on the strengths of their existing masters programmes and is already accepting student registrations for September It will allow busy working nuclear professionals to study by distance learning and complete the degree over a 5-year period on a part-time basis, literally from anywhere in the world. Congratulations to Manchester University! Visit our INMA website to find out more about this initiative: 6 Article by Fumio Adachi, NKMS

7 LATEST UPDATES - IN BRIEF The First Regional Workshop for Operating Organizations of Latin America Countries The workshop, jointly organized by the Nuclear Section and the Operational Safety Section under the Technical Cooperation Project for Enhancing Nuclear Power Plant Life and Safety Culture Practices, was held in Laguna Verde NPS, Mexico from 8 to 12 June. The participants from Nuclear Power Operating organizations from Argentina, Brazil and Mexico get familiar with the basics of the knowledge management, workforce planning, leadership and listen good practices from industry leading organizations. During the workshop a facilitated knowledge maturity assessment was performed through the IAEA developed tool for KM maturity of NPP followed by a gap analysis and identification of the strategic KM directions and activities for Laguna Verde NPS. Z. Pasztory AFRA-NEST Workshop on Education Capability Assessment and Planning Under the Regional Technical Cooperation Project RAF0043, the AFRA-NEST Working Workshop on this subject was held at the IAEA HQ from 1-5 June The workshop brought together nominated AFRA-NEST National Coordinators, with responsibility for establishing national nuclear education science and technology (NEST) networks in their countries to develop a basis and approach to establishing sustainable nuclear education and training programmes based on a selfassessment of current capability, and on-going indicators and benchmarks. This continuous monitoring will provide feedback on the development and sustainability of the programmes. The results of this initiative are to be reported at the 2nd AFRA-NEST General Assembly, scheduled for the October 2015 in Lusaka Zambia. U. Ugbor NEM School - Updates The Nuclear Energy School, was organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in cooperation with the Khalifa University (KU), the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and the Critical Infrastructure and Coastal Protection Authority (CICPA). It was held from 17 to 28 May 2015 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. A total of 44 students participated in the event, 11 being international students not from the region. For more information see: nuclearknowledge/schools/nem-school/2015/ nemschool-uae/. The purpose of the Joint UAE-IAEA Nuclear Energy School is to provide a unique, international educational experience aimed at building future leadership to manage nuclear energy programmes, to promote and foster knowledge of a wide range of issues related to the peaceful use of nuclear technology, and to provide a unique worldwide networking opportunity for future managers in the area of nuclear energy. J. de Grosbois NKM School 2015 The 11th edition of the NKM School organized by IAEA in cooperation with ICTP will take place in Trieste, Italy, form 7 to 11 September More than 200 young professional applied, and about 120 went through a pretraining course done on-line. 80 finalized it very successfully. About 50 selected candidates will attend the face-to-face stage, and will have the opportunity to work in NKM group projects, and discuss their ideas with internationally renowned knowledge management experts. M. Sbaffoni Consultancy to Plan CRP on Sustainable Education in Nuclear Science and Technology Modelling Competencies in Nuclear In the framework of the coordinated research project on Sustainable Education in Nuclear Science and Technology recently launched by IAEA NKMS, a preliminary consultancy was convened on May 2015 to appraise existing and emerging initiatives and practices in the establishment and use of taxonomies and competency models, e.g. in relation to the: - characterisation of job profiles - definition of nuclear disciplines - outcomes of academic programmes. During the consultancy, potential benefits of harmonizing and interconnecting different such frameworks were discussed along with the possible use of semantic technologies to achieve this objective. The consultancy brought together experts from academic, industrial and non-governmental institutions, as well as international organizations, who were engaged in lively discussions sharing their experience and different perspectives. M.E. Urso First Learning on e-learning Course in Spanish being Developed by LANENT With the support of the TC project RLA0048, an introductory course to train teachers and trainers on how to develop, deliver and administrate courses supported by e-learning, is being developed. The first part will be done using internet resources and CLP4NET, and a face to face stage will take place in Santiago de Chile, in the Pedagogy Faculty of the Metropolitan University of Education Sciences, in collaboration with CCHEN ( Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission) and IAEA., to reinforce concepts through practical exercises and group projects. M. Sbaffoni 1st Regional Nuclear School for Asia Under the name Regional Training Course on Innovative Approaches for Nuclear Using e-learning System, and sponsored by the Technical Cooperation Project RAS0064, 25 professionals from 20 Asian countries participated in the first regional school, which took place from 24 to 28 November in Daejeon. The regional training course was hosted by KAERI, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. All participants showed strong commitment, high level of engagement in all activities, and demonstrated at the end a good level of understanding of the nuclear knowledge management basics. Once more the usage of a blended learning modality (pre-training via internet plus face to face stage) proved to be a very effective way of improving the training. M. Sbaffoni 7

8 Reflections of a Departing Staff Member Why the One-house Approach worked for me It was the 1st of February 2008, when I started to work for the IAEA as a consultant. Half a year later I ve received the Group Leader s position in the Nuclear Unit. One of the very first terms I ve come across during the orientation course was the so-called one-house approach, which, to my understanding, emphasizes the importance to carry out activities in a structured manner across departmental borders. This approach has actually been of great value for me as I got to meet many colleagues from all six departments of the IAEA. It enabled me to build up my network in the Agency, to communicate and share experiences of its integration regularly with them. The one-house approach gave us a solid base to work effectively together when organizing joint activities. I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity to work together on numerous activities with staff members from all over the Agency. We ve run training courses, expert missions, conferences, all kind of meetings in Vienna as well as in other IAEA Member States. One of those joint initiatives was the capacity building project, which was part of the Action Plan for Nuclear Safety. It was implemented together with the departments of Nuclear Safety and Security and Technical Cooperation. Some of the current joint initiatives are the: Cyber Learning Platform for Nuclear Education and Training (CLP4NET), Integrated Nuclear Education Database, International Nuclear Academy (INMA), Organization Systems and Semantic Technology, Plant Information Models, Nuclear Accidents Base, Education Capability Assessment and Planning (ECAP), International Terminology Repository (NE Glossary) and many more small initiatives implemented and planned to be implemented jointly with other IAEA departments. Owing to the IAEA s rotation policy, I will be leaving the IAEA very soon and it is time to reflect on the lessons learned during the past seven years. Open communication was always a key factor when trying to reach common goals through the onehouse approach. I will always remember that working together on joint activities saves both personal as well as financial resources. Therefore, my comment on the title is: stay tuned, listen to others, be proactive and share experiences to help others in faster orientation and integration in order to increase the effectiveness of our common efforts. Article by Z. Pasztory, NKMS Upcoming Meetings in 2015 Date Title Place Contact July Technical Meeting on the Review of the International Nuclear Academy (INMA) Requirements for a Master s Degree Programme in Nuclear Trieste, Italy F. Adachi 7-11 September Joint IAEA/ICTP Nuclear School Trieste, Italy M. Sbaffoni 5-9 October Research Coordination Meeting to Facilitate Innovation for Sustainable Education in Nuclear Science and Technology Vienna, Austria M. Sbaffoni 2-13 November Joint IAEA/ICTP Nuclear Energy School Trieste, Italy T. Karseka-Yanev 2-6 November Technical Meeting on Issues in Decommission, Waste and Remediation of Nuclear Facility Sites Karlsruhe, Germany M.E. Urso Dates, venues, etc. might change according to Member States needs and availability of participants. 8

9 ANNOUNCEMENTS In 2016: 29 Aug. - 2 Sep. In 2016: 3-14 October 9

10 Over the coming months, in collaboration with other IAEA departments and sections as well as with cooperating organizations, we will work on the planning of this important event, which will take place in November Stay tuned - The Announcement and Call for Papers for the conference is coming soon under this link: Nuclear Section Core Team John de Grosbois Section Head Monica Sbaffoni Group Leader Zoltan Pasztory Group Leader Maxim Gladyshev Specialist Fumio Adachi Senior Officer Maria Elena Urso Specialist Taghrid Atieh Information and Content Specialist Ugochukwu Ugbor Specialist Vitalii Kolomiiets Specialist Tatiana Karseka-Yanev Analyst Elena Ivanova Team Assistant O. Rita Ogunfojuri Team Assistant Mio Isshiki Assistant Nixon Pereppadan Assistant Andrea Kamara Information Assistant Impressum Nuclear e-bulletin July 2015 Prepared by the Nuclear Section, Department of Nuclear Energy Editor: Andrea Kamara, a.kamara@iaea.org International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre, PO Box 100, 1400 Vienna, Austria