UC San Diego launches Fusion Engineering Institute

The University of California San Diego has launched a new engineering institute led by the Jacobs School of Engineering focused on making sure humanity’s recent advances in fusion science translate into safe, abundant and affordable clean energy for California, the nation and the world. 

The new campuswide effort is called the Fusion Engineering Institute – and it is the term “engineering” that makes this project unique and compelling. 

In recent years, the international fusion research community has made significant advances in its understanding of the science of fusion. At the same time, a series of fusion energy pilot projects have produced exciting preliminary results. 

But there are still significant gaps – many directly tied to the engineering challenges that must be addressed for commercially attractive fusion. These gaps are between where different fusion-related technologies are now – and where they will need to be to realize the positive benefits of cost-competitive fusion energy power plants that can be deployed at scale to make a positive impact on the world’s energy needs. 

It is these engineering gaps and related workforce training that UC San Diego aims to help fill, and the launch of this new institute is an important step in that direction. 

“The launch of the Fusion Engineering Institute marks a significant milestone in our ongoing commitment to advancing fusion technology. This institute is a pivotal step in deepening our collaborations with UC campuses, national laboratories, startups, long-established companies and a variety of local, national and global partners,” said Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation Corinne Peek-Asa. “The institute embodies UC San Diego’s commitment to build a coalition capable of tackling the engineering challenges facing this dynamic, complex and rapidly evolving field.”

As part of the launch of this institute, UC San Diego is recruiting for two mechanical and aerospace engineering faculty positions in fusion engineering (assistant professor in fusion engineering and associate or full professor in fusion engineering) within the Jacobs School of Engineering.

Faculty affiliated with the institute will strive to get the word out to potential graduate students from many different technical backgrounds that this is an exciting time to get involved in fusion engineering research.  

“In many ways, the challenge of fusion engineering hits the sweet spot for a top-tier engineering school like ours. The challenges are imposing, but they are not impossible. With strengths in many of the relevant areas, we have the responsibility to step up and organize what is needed in order to turn visions of fusion energy into practical realities,” said Albert P. Pisano, Dean of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and Special Adviser to the Chancellor. “Our message is simple. When it comes to fusion, it’s engineering time; and we are ready to collaborate to get the work done.”

Now is the Time

In the last several years, there have been significant advances in fusion energy generation and milestone achievements by both government laboratories and private industry. Due to these recent results and the growing need to eventually decarbonize energy production, there is a renewed interest in fusion energy. Private investors have made significant investments, to the tune of more than $6 billion. 

The U.S. government also has an increasing interest in fusion energy. In March 2022, the White House held a summit hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, where they discussed building multiple fusion pilot plants operating as part of new fusion technology hubs around the country within the next 10 years.

Fusion Engineering Challenges

Fusion engineering research projects vary widely, from roll-up-your-sleeves mechanics challenges, to materials science, lasers, magnets, artificial intelligence, controls, data science, supercomputing and more. No matter what the sub-field, the big picture goal is the same: to develop a safe, abundant and inexpensive source of clean energy for the nation and the world. 

“The challenges are cross disciplinary and require deep collaborations. When it comes to fusion, we are engaged in many of these collaborations and partnerships already, and we are in conversation regarding many others,” said Javier Garay, Associate Dean for Research and Mechanical Engineering Professor at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Garay is the founding director of the new institute. “Priorities will evolve as the field advances, and we will collaborate as we go.”

Developing cost-effective materials that can withstand extreme temperatures and pressures and the radiation environment produced from fusion will require solving a set of interrelated engineering challenges. These challenges are shared across two of the primary ways fusion has been achieved in the lab: inertial confinement fusion and magnetic confinement fusion. 

Scaling up production of the hydrogen isotopes that serve as fuel for fusion reactions is another significant engineering challenge. Additional engineering advances are needed to increase the performance and reduce the cost of lasers used in fusion reactions. In addition, informing and educating the general public, policymakers and other stakeholders about fusion energy is an important area for future collaborations. And this is by no means an exhaustive list of challenges. 

San Diego’s Fusion Strengths

UC San Diego is already hard at work collaborating on the wide range of engineering challenges that must be overcome before fusion energy can successfully transition from the laboratory to commercially viable power plants.

UC San Diego is located within one mile of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) DIII-D National Fusion Facility, which is operated by General Atomics (GA). This facility is home to DIII-D, one of the largest tokamak fusion reactors in the country. Tokamaks use powerful magnetic fields to confine plasmas that are heated by an internal current, microwaves and neutral beams to the temperatures required for fusion. Many UC San Diego researchers and students spend significant time working at the facility. In addition to magnetic field research, GA is a center for producing the targets that are used in inertial fusion research at laser facilities at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the National Ignition Facility, and at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, the OMEGA laser.

UC San Diego's fusion work includes a wide range of experimental research in materials science, magnetic confinement, inertial confinement, laser technologies, robotics, diagnostics and manufacturing. Much of this work is tied to both the UC San Diego Center for Energy Research and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Jacobs School. 

Theoretical research efforts at UC San Diego addressing fusion engineering challenges include the use of scientific theory, simulation and data science approaches to validate models using experimental data and to facilitate predictive capability to address fusion engineering challenges. 

Artificial intelligence and other computation-dependent tools and resources are expected to play critical roles in solving a variety of difficult fusion engineering challenges. Computer scientists at UC San Diego are leaders in these efforts. 

Researchers with the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute will provide resources and expertise that strengthen our research and education efforts in fusion engineering. Both are founding pillars of the campus’ new School of Computing, Information and Data Science (SCIDS). The school is home to many of the computational and data science experts and resources that are being deployed to address fusion engineering challenges. 

“With momentum building all across UC San Diego for fusion energy, this is an exciting time to be a graduate student working on related projects. There are great opportunities for graduate students with many different technical backgrounds,” said Garay. “We are looking for motivated students who are interested in getting involved in some of the most important challenges in fusion engineering research. There are so many opportunities to make a real difference in how and when fusion energy is deployed at scale.”