2020 Introduction to Fusion Energy and Plasma Physics Course: A Silver-Lining in a Pandemic
Abstract
Every year since 1993, PPPL has hosted a week-long introduction to plasma physics course for the undergraduate interns at the lab. The participants have been, historically, undergraduate interns doing research at PPPL and General Atomics and have numbered less than 100. Starting in 2015, the courses have been web-streamed live and archived for future view in a dedicated website: suli.pppl.gov, but there have always been components of the course that only local students could take advantage of, e.g. a lab tour, an experimental session, and a networking session with PPPL graduate students. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the laboratory in curtailment, we have adapted the course to be fully remote. This new format has reduced the barrier of entry for both speakers and participants and has resulted in an expanded course with more than 600 participants and 36 speakers (up from 15). In this presentation, we will highlight the challenges of the new format as well as the unique opportunities that it has presented to PPPL and the community as a whole.
- Publication:
-
APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020APS..DPPJ12004D