UCBNE at Fung Institute End of Year Showcase 2025
UCBNE Master of Engineering students showcased their capstone team projects at the Fung Institute End of Year Showcase 2025. This event brought together UC Berkeley students, faculty, alumni, industry partners, and members of the broader innovation community to explore cutting-edge work in engineering and technology.
Projects included:
“Optimizing a High-Power Target Design for Actinium-225 Production”
Team: Shereen Aissi [NE], Damanpreet Bhattal [BioE], Isabella Bredwell [NE]
Advisor(s): Lee Bernstein, Andrew S. Voyles
Actinium-225 is a promising medical isotope for targeted alpha-particle therapy, but its scarcity limits clinical use. Our team is developing a high-power target design to increase Ac-225 production using hospital-grade cyclotrons originally used for positron emission tomography. Proton bombardment of a beryllium target generates neutrons for the Ra-226(n,2n)Ra-225 reaction to produce Ac-225 without unwanted byproducts. To optimize target durability, COMSOL Multiphysics software is used for determining the critical heat flux, while Monte Carlo N-Particle simulations are performed to maximize neutron flux. This scalable, cost-effective approach aims to alleviate the global Ac-225 shortage and improve cancer treatment accessibility.
“Next-Generation Neutron Sources for Science and Engineering”
Team: Sophie Pineau [NE], Naomi Ovrutsky [ME], Ace Meng [NE], Jacob Sitemo [ME]
Advisor(s): Lee Bernstein
Accurate measurements of how 14 MeV neutrons interact with nuclei are crucial for fields like nuclear security, space exploration, and national security. Currently, these measurements have large uncertainties due to challenges in accurately determining neutron flux. We helped assemble a new DT-API (Deuterium-Tritium Associated Particle Imaging) neutron source on the UC Berkeley campus, which aims to minimize this uncertainty by precisely determining neutron location. We also participated in a measurement campaign led by researchers from Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) and NASA to measure these data using an existing DT-API system.
“Nuclear Fusion: Advanced Simulation for First Wall Materials in Inertial Fusion Reactors”
Team: Shobhit Brijesh [ME], Jay Darji [MSE], Matthieu Dagousset [NE]
Advisor(s): Max Monange
By 2050, global energy demand is projected to double, while existing energy sources remain unsustainable. Nuclear fusion promises a path to unlimited, clean, and scalable power, paving the way for a future free from resource constraints. Our team is pioneering a comprehensive damage modeling process to evaluate candidate materials for the plasma-facing wall of an inertial fusion reactor. By leveraging advanced simulation tools, we analyze fluid flow, thermomechanical stress, and irradiation resistance to optimize first wall design. Our objective is to provide EX-Fusion Inc. with robust recommendations for future reactor applications, ultimately advancing nuclear fusion designs to power a world with abundant energy.
“Optimizing Tritium Recovery with Commercial Heat Exchangers to Advance Commercial Fusion Energy”
Team: Esteban Labrador [ME], Sean Shitamoto [ME], Sascha Turovskiy [NE]
Advisor(s): Guanyu Su, Ben Li
Tritium is a fuel source for nuclear fusion devices. Manufacturing tritium is highly expensive as it is produced typically in nuclear reactors, so modern fusion energy devices utilize molten salt to produce tritium. The issue comes from extracting that tritium out of the salt such that it can be used for future fuel cycles. Our team is using computational fluid dynamics software to analyze various heat exchanger designs to determine a cost-effective method of tritium extraction from such molten salt.
