Sandia Lab News

Record-breaking crowds attend Sandia’s New Mexico Family Day

Family and friends walked the usually restricted streets of Sandia’s Albuquerque campus during the Sept. 7 Family Day event, to show support for their loved ones and see where they work. The long tradition of Family Day is an opportunity to show friends and loved ones some of the interconnected teamwork and facilities they don't usually get to see.

Younger: A Sputnik moment is coming

Laboratories Director Steve Younger and Chief Research Officer Susan Seestrom took the stage at the Steve Schiff Auditorium Aug. 26 to discuss “discovery science” and what it means for Sandia. The talk was the latest installment of the New Research Ideas Forum.

PSEL wraps up nonreflective solar panel testing

Sandia’s Photovoltaic Systems Evaluation Laboratory is in the final phase of a collaborative research project with Nishati, a veteran-run manufacturer of light-weight, portable photovoltaic panels. The collaboration will shift to the PV proving grounds project at the end of the fiscal year.

Experiments at sun temperature offer solar model solutions

Physicists at Sandia’s Z machine have found that a widely used astronomical model underestimates the energy blockage caused by free-floating iron atoms. Now, Sandia’s experimental opacity measurements can help bloodlessly resolve a major discrepancy in how the 40-year-old Standard Solar Model uses the composition of the sun to predict the behavior of stars.

Sandia helps Puerto Rico grid resilience

The Sandia-developed Microgrid Design Toolkit provides what-if analysis of microgrid design choices to provide quantitative insights to decision makers for hybrid energy solutions. Using the MDT tool, utilities and other community stakeholders can identify vulnerabilities in infrastructure particularly susceptible to natural disasters and related consequences.

Sandia Labs manufacturing spinoff steps into national market

Sandia’s Entrepreneurial Separation to Transfer Technology program helped Joe Beck and Eric Branson, both former employees, launch their small business. The Albuquerque-based Advanced Manufactured Power Solutions, or AMPS, is a custom manufacturing company builds battery packs, cables and other small components of larger machines.