NMSU’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is part of a research consortium that has been awarded $5 million over five years by the National Nuclear Security Administration through the Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program. Through this award, four prominent Hispanic-serving institutions, UNM as consortium lead, UTEP, NMSU and New Mexico Tech, one historically Black college and university, Prairie View A&M, and Sandia National Laboratories will form The Rio Grande Consortium for Advanced Research on Exascale Simulation or Grande CARES. Associate Professor Krishna Kota will serve as NMSU’s lead. The team will develop and integrate cutting-edge computational modeling and simulation tools using high performance computing, machine learning and data analytics for conducting in-depth investigations and gaining an understanding of the complex physical phenomena of intricate systems of interest to NNSA. 
 
The consortium brings together researchers from mechanical engineering, civil engineering, computer science, computational science, mathematical science and physics. The consortium will also cultivate scientists and engineers in STEM fields belonging to underrepresented groups, educated in integrative skills needed for the advancement of large-scale modeling and simulation. Kota will work on studying the high temperature and surface engineering effects on thermal-fluid transport phenomena with applications in thermal management of nuclear reactor rods and high-energy lasers. 
 
Learn more about Grande CARES at https://sites.google.com/view/grande-cares/.