Partnership with a national lab gives the University of Utah the opportunity to research cybersecurity.
After a decade of collaboration, the University of Utah’s College of Engineering and the Idaho National Laboratory finally made things official by joining the Strategic Understanding for Premier Education and Research, or SUPER agreement. The SUPER agreement allows both organizations, including U. students, staff and faculty, to work closely together in order to bolster the nation’s energy and security technology.
Now, the partnership transforms personal agreements into a five-year memorandum of understanding between the university and the Battelle Energy Alliance, which oversees the Office of Nuclear Energy for the U.S. Department of Energy. U. students will have access to internship opportunities that John Wagner, the director of INL, considers the “talent pipeline.” The hope is that students will intern at one of their facilities for a summer, establish a relationship and begin to grow their career with INL.
Additionally, the SUPER agreement allows the U. to start researching classified information — a key part of the collaboration. The U. will host INL employees in the Price building where Randall says researchers will conduct “highly sensitive and secure research for government entities.”