News

2015

September
Work starts on SBIR Phase II: Additive manufacture (3D Printing) of plasma diagnostic components and assemblies for fusion experiments

September
WSI establishes a second office in San Diego

September
The 2nd annual Scientific Computing Bootcamp is held at WSI; students were receptive and appreciative and came away with a good grounding in the subject. Guest speakers including Dr. Alan Glasser, Dr. Erika Harnett, Prof. Philippa Browning, Dr. David Keyes, Dr. John Mandrekas and others made appearances.
2015 Bootcamp Summary (pdf)

2014

September
The first annual Scientific Computing Bootcamp is held at WSI; students learned a lot and interesting discussions were held by all.

January
Associates newsletter sent out, planning for scientific computing ‘bootcamp’ begins (likely in June – announcement to follow).

2013

December 6
Physics point design for CT-based reactor and neutron source presented to IAEA CRP on compact neutron sources (WSI organized conference call).

November 11 - 15
Presentation of ITER VDE results at American Physical Society Divsion of Plasma Physics meeting in Denver, CO

September 27
Sam Schetterer presents his summer internship poster ‘Mesh optimization for 3D MHD codes’ to NASA Space Grant Workshop, held at the University of Washington.

September 25
WSI welcomes Steven Diesburg as Design Engineer II. Steven will be helping to manage all the revamping of the website, and hold us to task with capability development.

September 21
HH coils shipped to LANL

September 3
WSI welcomes Myunghee Choi as associate.

June 24
New contract to LANL secured for design, and fab of Helmholtz coils.

June 24
New contract to USTC secured for MHD simulations of mirror plasmas.

June 16
WSI welcomes Sam Schetterer (BSc Physics) as this year’s NASA Space Grant Summer Intern.

May 20
WSI welcomes Tim Gray, Karsten McCollam, Nate Hicks, Chris Raastad, Carlos Romero-Talamas to newly started Associates Program.

May 8
White paper published on possible future fusion facility, as part of the FESAC Future Facilities panel.

April 8
Invited talk: 2nd design point for compact fusion system at the University of Washington, Aeronautics and Astronautics Monday Plasma Physics Seminar

March
James Stuber completes ITER stray-light modeling contract onsite at the IO in Cadarache. One Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion paper published, one Rev. Sci. Instrum. paper near to submittal.

February 14-17
WSI presents 2nd design point for costing analysis of compact fusion system and initial results from disruption mitigation studies at the Exploratory Plasma Research workshop in Fort Worth, Texas

2012

November 4-6
WSI presents at IAEA CRM in Vienna, Austria, outline of compact fusion neutron source for concept design review.

October 29 – November 2
WSI presents results on costing analysis for compact fusion systems at the American Physical Society DPP, Providence, Rhode Island

October 6
Contract to ORNL for disruption simulations won.

September 20
WSI receives invitation to IAEA CRP on compact neutron sources to present work ongoing on our compact fusion concept.

August
1st plasmas on STPX achieved.

July 31
FESAC Panel on MFE Priorities (except ITER Project, HEDLP and Basic Plasma Science) held its second meeting. WSI submitted short white paper on Path to Market based on longer J. Fusion Energy paper.

July
Installation of STPX completed

June
Compact Fusion Systems Inc started as vehicle for IP protection of compact fusion energy systems.

March
WSI welcomes Nate Hicks as Physicist to assist with new and continuing contracts.

February
WSI wins ITER contract for optical diagnostic design.

February
WSI presents to NW Energy Angels.

2011

December 14
‘Path to Market’ presentation and white paper presented to the Fusion Power Associates on Capitol Hill, Washington DC (shortly after Steve Koonin).

October
WSI relocates to Wallingford.

September
WSI secures SAIC contract for simulations of stability of Field Reversed Configurations for the compressional heating experiment at AFRL.

September
Journal of Fusion Energy accepts paper for publication, titled ‘Path to market for compact modular fusion power cores’

August
WSI starts work with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory NSTX project to update passive structure model.

August
WSI shipped and received STPX device at FAMU.

June
WSI welcomes James Stuber as Design Engineer.

April
Woodruff presents a short History of Fusion to the Earth and Space Sciences department, University of Washington.

April
First Look Forum finalist presentation

March
WSI has made it through to the top 12 in the Northwest Entrepreneur Network’s ‘First Look Forum’, and will be presenting to a wide investment community on April 12th.

2010

July
WSI welcomes Chris Raastad, James Stuber, and Audrey Knight as summer interns.

June
WSI welcomes James Stuber and Sara Bucht as this years NASA Space Grant Summer interns.

February
Fusion internal combustion engine presented at the Innovative Confinement Concepts workshop, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey

February
Fusion engine patent filed

2009

April
Design work for the Spheromak Turbulence Physics Experiment (STPX) begins.

March
FAMU places order for world’s largest Spheromak device, as a Phase III of our 2007 DOE Phase II SBIR.

2008

November 17-21
Results of compression experiment presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics (DPP), Dallas, Texas

November 6
The report of the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee Toroidal Alternates Panel (FESAC TAP) released – WSI had been major contributor to the CT section of this report.

September
WSI welcomes Jennifer Baerny as Research Assistant to help with work on both Phase II SBIR projects and other private projects.

August
1st plasmas in the device built for SBIR on compressional heating and current drive.

June
WSI welcomes Jennifer Baerny as WSI summer intern through the Washington Space Grant Program.

June
2nd DOE Phase II SBIR won! Analytic and Computational Study of the Adiabatic Compression of Simply Connected Magnetized Targets.

2007

December 4
Summary of the 2007 Innovative Confinement Concepts workshop presented at the Fusion Power Associates meeting, Capitol Hill, Washington DC.

June
1st DOE Phase II SBIR won! Compression of Compact Tori for Current Drive and Heating.

June
Presentation of results from SBIRs at the 2007 IEEE Pulsed Power and Plasma Science Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico

June
1st order for HPC received.

June
Woodruff Scientific Lab opens in Ballard.

February
2nd DOE Phase I SBIR won! Analytic and Computational Study of the Adiabatic Compression of Simply Connected Magnetized Targets.

February 12 - 14
Woodruff chairs ‘New Concepts’ session at the 2007 Innovative Confinement Concepts Workshop, College Park, Maryland

2006

November
1st results of SBIR presented at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

June
Work starts on the Phase I SBIR.

February
1st DOE Phase I SBIR won! High Energy Collisions of Field-Reversed Configurations.

February 13-16
Woodruff chairs the ‘New Concepts’ session of the Innovative Confinement Concepts Workshop 2006 Austin, Texas

2005

October:
47th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics – summary presentation on innovative confinement concepts.

May 6:
Woodruff Scientific founded and registered