NNSA Announces Selection of the next round of Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program Centers

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced the selection of the new Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program (PSAAP) Centers whose primary focus will be on the following major technical areas:

• Discipline-focused research needed to further predictive science and enabled by effective exascale computing technologies;
• Developing and demonstrating technologies and methodologies to support effective exascale computing in the context of science/engineering applications;
• State-of-the-art machine learning and data science technologies for predictive science and engineering;
• Predictive Science based on verification and validation and uncertainty quantification (V&V/UQ) for large-scale simulations; and
• Workforce development of the next-generation computational scientists and engineers.

Nine universities have been selected either as a Predictive Simulation Center (PSC), or as a Focused Investigatory Center (FIC). Each PSC will receive up to $17.5 million, and each FIC up to $5 million total over the course of five years under NNSA's PSAAP IV cooperative agreements. We congratulate the following nine universities which have been awarded cooperative agreements:

• University of Florida: Center for Multiscale Modeling of Multiphase Combustion (PSC)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Center for the Exascale Simulation of Coupled High Enthalpy Fluid-Solid Interactions (PSC)
• University of Michigan: Center for AI-enabled Exascale Prediction of Long-time Events in Multimaterial Shock-assisted Chemical Reactions (PSC)
• Oregon State University: Center for Advancing the Radiation Resilience of Electronics (CARRE) (PSC)
• University of Virginia: Center for Stochastic Simulations of Ablative Geometries with Error-Learning in Space and Time (PSC)
• Brown University: Center for Information Geometric Mechanics and Optimization (CIGMO) (FIC)
• University of California at San Diego: Exascale Driven Topology Optimization of Nonlinear Metamaterial Systems under Impact, enabled by Machine Learning Accelerated Meshfree Modeling Methods (FIC)
• Michigan State University: High Order Plasma Turbulence Modeling for Z-Pinch (FIC)
• University of New Mexico:  Center for Optimized Modern Parallel Adaptive System Software (COMPASS) (FIC)

Dr. Stephen Rinehart, Assistant Deputy Administrator for the NNSA Office of Advanced Simulation and Computing and Institutional Research & Development, lauded the new PSAAP selections, saying: “The PSAAP program has a proven track record of advancing predictive science and exascale computing technologies, which has been valuable for strengthening the NNSA’s national security mission. With the selection of these PSAAP IV Centers, we anticipate new breakthroughs in V&V, UQ, and data-driven methodologies, expanding the frontiers of large-scale simulation science. Equally important, PSAAP fosters the development of the next generation of computational scientists and engineers, individuals who will play critical roles in safeguarding our capabilities in the decades to come.”

The PSAAP IV Centers will be funded by the NNSA Office of Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (NA-11). The program oversight will be conducted by the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program whose mission is to provide the simulation capabilities and computational resources to support the NNSA annual stockpile assessment and certification process, study advanced nuclear weapons design and manufacturing processes, analyze accident scenarios and weapons aging, and provide the tools to enable stockpile Life Extension Programs (LEPs) and the resolution of Significant Finding Investigations (SFIs). 

Recognizing the need for a strong portfolio of strategic collaborations with leading U.S. academic institutions, the Academic Strategic Alliance Program was formed in 1997 to engage the U.S. academic community in advancing science-based modeling and simulation technologies. In 2008, the next phase of the Academic Alliance program, PSAAP I, added an emphasis on validation, verification, and uncertainty quantification. The program continued in 2014 with the establishment of the PSAAP II Centers with an additional focus on extreme-scale computing that continued in 2020 with the launch of PSAAP III Centers which will be concluding performance later this year. The PSAAP IV Centers, with the added focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) for predictive science and engineering, are expected to successfully conclude in 2030.

Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program | PSAAP