Name: Kelli Rankin
Major: Petroleum Engineering
Year: 3rd

Supervising Professor: Dr. Erich Schneider (Mechanical Engineering)
Position: Undergraduate Research Assistant (paid)
Project Title: Econometric Modeling of the Uranium Market
Project Description: Produce a model for natural uranium supply and demand that is both explanatory, in that it will ‘predict’ past price behavior, and predictive, in that it will forecast future price trends given appropriate input estimates.

Experience: I started looking for an undergraduate research opportunity as a freshman, but had difficult finding work as a freshman within my department. During my sophomore year, I took an introductory class in nuclear engineering from Dr. Sheldon Landsberger. After one class, he asked for all students who were interested in doing research to stay after. When I expressed my interest in working on a computational project, Dr. Landsberger arranged for me to work with Dr. Schneider. For the first semester, my role in the project was to acquire the necessary data series to serve as inputs into the model. I worked with a graduate student for the first semester, but after he left to work elsewhere, I was the only person involved in the project. Over the last year, I have had to learn advanced econometric methods and SAS, a statistical analysis software package, as the model’s rigor increased. This summer, Dr. Schneider and I are going to present the final version of our work at the American Nuclear Society meeting in Boston. I am even listed as a co-author on the paper.

Advice: If you are interested in getting research experience in the nuclear engineering field as an undergraduate, take ME 136N (Concepts in Nuclear/Radiation Engineering) or contact Dr. Landsberger or Dr. Schneider expressing your interest. They always employ undergraduates and are constantly receiving funding for new projects, which include funding for paid undergraduate positions. Also, there are experimental projects as well as computational.