Session

In the past few years, fusion technology has experienced a large increase in popularity through media exposure, fusion focused startups, technological breakthroughs, and funding on both a national and global scale. Fusion energy represents a sea-change in power technology which could provide a safe, sustainable, base-load power source at levels well beyond current capabilities. While fusion has a storied past, much of the historical work has been focused on hardware-driven experimentation in small and dedicated research communities. However, as the popularity of fusion technology and research grows, additional opportunities continue to arise in the realm of computational science. These include software solutions for system controls, data handling and scrubbing, data analysis, and high-fidelity physics-based simulations. In this talk, I aim to encourage developers to think about how they might approach some of the real challenges facing the fusion community by diving into three case studies, including the role that Python plays in my own research. Along the way I will highlight what I see as potential areas for development and interaction between the Python and fusion communities, and ultimately, I hope to inspire the audience to seek out ways to get involved in what might become the technological renaissance of nuclear fusion.