2026: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
In partnership with the Nuclear at McMaster department at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, for our North America program. This year marks the 9th edition of the Nuclear Innovation Bootcamp! For this 5th in-person edition, since the effects of COVID, the theme focuses on “Nuclear Excitation in Canada and Beyond”.
The three main objectives of the Bootcamp are:
Create an environment where participants can meet, develop connections, interact, spark their innovative ideas and build for the future.
Givethese bright minds all the tools to be advocates of nuclear energy in the future, preparing them to interact with their friends, family and colleagues to tell the real facts about climate change and the place of nuclear energy in the energy mix.
Enable the participants to be agents of change, implementing innovative and efficient ideas in their careers.
NIB2026 Schedule
The structure of the Nuclear Innovation Bootcamp is based on a 2-week intensive seminar-style workshop combined with group projects each year.
Participants take courses in a wide range of topics in the mornings and work together on team design projects in the afternoons, which are then pitched to a panel of expert judges on the last day.
Presenters + Judges
NIB presenters and judges are leaders from throughout the nuclear energy sphere and related climate and energy communities and industries who expose our young and talented participants to the cross-cutting needs of clean energy development in the 21st century.
Participants
For this year’s Bootcamp, out of 109 applicants, 26 students and early career professionals from all over the world (16 countries represented) and from various backgrounds were selected to form the NIB2026 Cohort.
Past participants have leveraged their Bootcamp experience to make an impact within various sectors, including industry, academia, and government. Some have even gone on to secure their own funding and founded companies based on the ventures they started at the Bootcamp.
Our latest Impact Report details the Bootcamp’s accomplishments. You’ll find inspiring innovations, testimonials from participants, data on the program participants, presenters, mentors, and contributions that our alumni are making in the nuclear industry.
Team Design Projects :
NIB2026 Winning Team: RadChrom
Raheleh Ashkar, Nick Kozul Francis, Alessia Milenati, Halie Resleff
RadChrom is a paint coating that responds to the presence of nuclear radiation by visibly changing color and saturation according to dose.
Critical Investments Corporation
Patrick Flood, Ana Mendez-Mourelle, Thao Vy Nguyen-Phuon, Matthew Osborn, Luke Taylor-King
Crictical Investments Corporation is a grassroots retail financing for nuclear products. To create a centralized funding platform allowing retail investors to become shareholders of nuclear products. Such products may vary from startup companies offering new and exciting projects (for risk-tolerant investors) to well established reactor technologies providing clean and reliable energy to a given community (for risk averse investors).
L’Assist
Domonkos Fekete, Chirag Guruprasad, Réka Gyimóthy, Jázmin Eszter Szabó
L'Assist is an AI-powered licensing assistant designed to accelerate the regulatory approval process for next-generation nuclear reactors, including SMRs and advanced reactor designs.
LANCR (Lattice-Assisted Nuclei Confinement Reactor)
Lake Dodson, Julian Gluck, Matteo Minotti, Aakash Sunkari
LANCR is commercializing lattice confinement fusion to build smaller nano-reactors
NuclearID
Óscar López Agustín, Samantha Binkley, Marina Buzzi, Inés Alcalá Fabón, Lorena Satillán, Océane Van Geluwe
NuclearID is a secure digital passport for nuclear reactors that centralises licensing, inspection, maintenance, modifications, ownership, and operational records throughout the reactor’s lifecycle.
RADIAVIS
Marchelino Chrisrichy Cosmo Hutama, Mubin Hossain Omio, Maxwell Patterson
RADIAVIS is a compact, affordable, user friendly radiation detector paired with an app for AR/VR visualization of radiation as well as crowd sourced maps of radiation.
Mentors
We are specifically looking for experts in startups, business, nuclear technology, and innovation. We are also open to those outside of these spaces, as we believe that expanded backgrounds only enrich our participants’ experience further.
Continuous Mentors have the larger commitment. These mentors are available on-site as a resource throughout the program for a specific team. One or two mentors will work with each team to provide consistency, perspective, and guidance over the full program. As a Continuous Mentor you will have the ability to set limited hours of interaction, but we expect this to be a more engaged experience lasting the duration of the bootcamp. Past participants consider their Continuous Mentors as one of the most useful resources throughout the program and some groups have continued working with them after the Bootcamp has ended.
Spot Mentors are virtually available to one or several teams to provide feedback on a specific issue. If you have narrow expertise or are only available for a portion of the program, we recommend becoming a Spot Mentor. We expect this participation to be largely virtual and you are free to set the parameters of availability and interaction. For example, you can choose the mode of communication you prefer and provide a set number of hours throughout the week that you are available. Please remember to keep time zones in mind!
If you have questions or interested in applying to become a mentor,
The Nuclear Innovation Bootcamp is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, housed within the Nuclear Innovation Alliance. From the beginning, the Bootcamp has been committed to removing barriers to participation and nurturing an expanded mix of participants and a wide range of new ideas. To do this, NIB keeps costs very low for participants by funding lodging, meals, necessary supplies, onsite transportation, and networking events throughout our 2-week program, with 100% support from our Sponsors. We also offer various levels of support to our presenters.
A special thanks to our sponsors for NIB2026, with their support we were able to fulfill our no-barriers commitment.
Becoming a sponsor of the Bootcamp will link your organization to the only international educational event that trains tomorrow’s nuclear innovators. As a sponsor, your branding will reach our Bootcamp participants, students and nuclear engineers at host institutions, and presenters and mentors. This is the perfect way to reach high-quality potential employees and a community leading the way in clean energy.
Check out the multiple opportunities to become a sponsor on our website.
Sponsors
