Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) officials have awarded a pair of $50,000 grants to winners of the organization’s Nuclear Security Index Challenge, which seeks to improve nuclear security conditions worldwide.
The first grant was awarded to Travis Carless (RAND Corporation), Kenneth Redus (Pittsburgh Technical), and Sola Talabi (Pittsburgh Technical) for their Estimating Nuclear Proliferation Risks proposal. The endeavor uses NTI Index data to help experts quantify nuclear security risks of Generation III and IV nuclear power plants in emerging markets.
The second grant was awarded to Carlos Soto, Shinjae Yoo, and Yonggang Cui from Brookhaven National Laboratory for their Towards a Predictive Nuclear Security Threat Model plan, which seeks to create a predictive nuclear security threat model by integrating NTI Index data into machine learning and sentiment analysis.
NTI said the grants were awarded based upon the centrality of the NTI Index data in the project, creativity and feasibility of the method proposed, focus on key nuclear security challenges and policy issues and the project’s ability to reach its target audience.
NTI is also awarding multiple prizes totaling $5,000, $3,000, and $1,000 for completed, creative uses of the NTI Index data, which could include new data analysis, curricula, infographics, apps, games or other new tools and research.