Bonano Consortium for Integrating Energy Systems in Engineering and Science Education (CIESESE) briefing

1. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin
Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. SAND2016-XXXX PE
Center for Energy, Security & Society
A Joint Center of the University of Oklahoma and Sandia National Laboratories
energy.sandia.gov
Evaristo J. (Tito) Bonano, Ph.D.
CIESESE Visit
December 12-13, 2016
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation,
for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. SAND2016-12529 PE.

2. Purpose of CES&S
 Motivating problem: the widespread incidence of technical
solutions that face daunting social and political hurdles
 Vision: to enhance the nation’s security and prosperity
through sustainable, transformative solutions to our most
challenging energy, climate and security problems
 Mission: to identify, understand and integrate social and
physical sciences to effectively address energy, climate, and
security needs for the nation
 Tools: bridging disparate fields of study requires us to
innovate in the nature and kinds of data we employ
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3. OU-SNL Shared Vision
 26-Year collaborative effort between OU and SNL researchers
related to nuclear fuel cycle created a shared vision for
 How physical scientists and engineers and social scientists should
work together toward finding and implementing sustainable solutions
to nuclear fuel cycle problems
 How states and local communities need to be effective participants in
the development and implementation of national nuclear energy
policies
 The education of new generations of leaders, an essential component
of the successful implementation of national nuclear energy policies
 Solving the technical aspects of a nuclear energy problem is
“easy” in comparison to the policy, social and economic
aspects
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4. Three Decades of OU-SNL
Collaborations
 Initiated in 1990 with early studies of perceived risks of
chemical and nuclear materials, and perceptions of
transuranic waste transportation
 22 SAND and DOE reports (at last count), over 30 peer-
reviewed articles, book chapters and a book
 Early collaborations concerned the weapons stockpile, non-
proliferation, and nuclear materials transportation
 Extended to terrorism, climate change, technology and
security, the nuclear fuel cycle, and renewable energy
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5. CES&S Structure
 OU and SNL Co-Directors
 Prof. Hank Jenkins-Smith
 Dr. Tito Bonano
 Joint projects involving OU and SNL researchers
 Establishment of “quick” contracting mechanisms
 Collaborative projects to date:
 Nuclear energy and nuclear waste management
 Domestic use of unmanned aerial vehicles for law enforcement
 Renewable energy options and water challenges
 National security
 Future projects:
 Impact of man-made and natural disasters on national infrastructure
 Management and analytics of “Big Data”
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6. Addressing Wicked Problems with
Integrated Data
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Where has the focus been?
• Natural Systems
• Technological Systems
What is missing?
• Coupled human, natural, and
technological systems
• Where are the connections?
Motivation?
• Saving lives, reducing risks
• Reducing societal friction
• Reducing costs
• Individual choice and liberties
Data from
Human
Systems
Data from
Natural
Systems
Data from
Technological
Systems

7. Multiple Data Streams
 CES&S projects require integration of data across geospatial,
temporal, and institutional dimensions
 The goal is to combine streams of social, engineering and physical
data to inform solutions to pressing societal problems
 This requires integration of:
 Survey data
 Meta-coding of survey data spanning decades
 Annual cross-sectional “backbone” surveys
 Panel surveys integrated with dense weather monitoring
 Text-based observational data (non-intrusive measures)
 Government documents (e.g., hearings; laws/regulations; reports)
 Social media (Twitter, Facebook)
 News media (Lexis-Nexis data back to 1945)
 Experimental data
 Experiments administered to randomized groups used to estimate model
parameters
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8. Social Media as a Data Source
 A great deal of public expression, discussion, and attempted
persuasion takes place via social media
 Voluntary, continuous, unsolicited, and posted publicly – tracking
events, new information, and changing concerns
 But the program-relevant portions of these data are submerged in an
ocean of text, and if not captured in real-time they are lost
 Requires a methodology for collecting, identifying, sorting and
analyzing social media
 CES&S has developed a suite of tools that permit continuous
data collection of Twitter traffic for specific project purposes:
 Severe weather; nuclear weapons; nuclear energy/waste;
drones/UAVs; electric grid failures (since 2012)
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9. Analytical Uses of Twitter Data
 Disaster reporting – such as NOAA’s post-tornado
assessments
 Inclusive of text, graphics, video, other links
 Tracking public perceptions, beliefs, and concerns
 A continuous supplement to CES&S’ backbone survey series
 Electrical outage reports, locations, effects
 Supplement to grid sensors
 Analysis of evolving social “narratives” associated with
technologies (e.g., nuclear energy) or events (e.g., Fukushima
nuclear event)
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10. Conclusions
 Major cross-section between technological solutions and
societal values and the implementation of those solutions
 Physical scientists/engineers and social scientists working
together
 OU-SNL shared vision over 30 years of collaboration of how to
approach this challenge led to the establishment of CES&S
 Opportunities for CIESESE to collaborate with/leverage
CES&S?
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