digital dina

professional

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

here you’ll find my career-related information & works!

resume

Dina Elhanan

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Engineering Physicist · Nuclear & Energy Systems · Intelligent Control

Canadian engineering physics graduate working at the intersection of nuclear energy, control systems, and applied AI. Experience spans nuclear power plant simulation, safety-critical control, embedded systems, and regulatory-facing research. Motivated by building reliable, real-world infrastructure where physics, software, and public trust meet.

Based in the UAE
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dina-elhanan-66b6b0136
Github: https://github.com/digitaldina
Full CV: master-resume.pdf

Interests

Nuclear power systems & reactor fundamentals (CANDU, NPP operation, transient safety)
Control & automation (SCADA, PLCs, PID, safety-critical systems)
Physics-informed AI & simulation-driven decision support
Embedded systems & energy-aware software

Current Role

Nuclear Research Assistant — University of Sharjah
Sept 2025 – Present

Develop Python-based physics informed AI agents interfacing with nuclear plant simulations.
Participate in technical discussions with UAE regulatory stakeholders (incl. FANR) on feasibility, safety, and implementation of nuclear technologies.
Conduct stakeholder and public perception studies using structured elicitation and multi-criteria decision methods.

Selected Experience

Embedded AI Circuits Engineer, BricksSense — IoT energy monitoring, PID control, STM32 firmware
Research Assistant, McMaster (CERC @ MARC) — V2X systems, real-time data pipelines
Innovation Developer, RBC — Full-stack software in Agile environments

Education

B.Eng. Engineering Physics — McMaster University (2025)
Focused on nuclear power systems, control engineering, and energy infrastructure.

Capstone: Sustainable gravity-powered generator
Joseph & Amy IP Award for Innovation & Feasibility

Technical Skills

Nuclear & Control: NPP systems, SCADA, PLCs, PID, OPC-UA
Software: Python, C/C++, Java, TypeScript, SQL
Modeling & Tools: MATLAB/Simulink, FlexPDE, Ignition SCADA, Altium, ANSYS
AI & Data: TensorFlow, scikit-learn, simulation-driven analysis

Conferences & Recognition

Middle East Energy 2025
NSBE 50th Annual Conference
Quantum Cryptography School — University of Waterloo

creative

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

you’ll find my creative/article writing & blog posts here!

latest:

local_activism

welcome to my web-log!

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Hi! I’m Dina, aka. digitaldina (stylized: d1g1t4ld1n4). Established in 2014 through a tumblr page and later in 2016 on blogspot. For those interested, here’s my resume c:

digitaldina is my online persona/presence centered around technology, music, and writing on politics & culture.

Published writer on politics, culture, music in various zines as well as published researcher on nuclear engineering, musician, McMaster University B.Engineering Physics Graduate Class of ‘25, Rebelle Zine web design volunteer, nuclear engineering research assistant at the University of Sharjah in the UAE, and open-source contributor - every blue moon (when I really have to) I code.

You’ll find my articles on here, I might start uploading pictures in a photobook as well. I really like various types of tea (currently having karak, i enjoy a good jasmine or chamomile as well).

Accompanied by perhaps your own cup of your favorite warm beverage, enjoy your time here.

Feel free to find me as digitaldina anywhere on the webs if you want to chat. Always excited and open to working on something fun, speaking at an event, holding workshops/lectures, and to be a part of anything that brings humans together.

Local Activism as an Antidote to Rising Doomerism and Political/Economic Apathy

Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT

A Call-to-Action by Dina Elhanan, as seen on “The Sanxtuary” Magazine

The term “political apathy” is something used in political science to describe a lack of interest towards politics. In our times this looks like a decrease in voting, lack of trust in government processes, lack of participation in protests/activism, and not participating in discourse that has to do with politics or economics. Essentially, a flood of information because of the internet and the clear failures of our political systems are causing people to feel overwhelmed, anxious, dissociative, and so they disconnect from it all in an attempt to self-preserve.

The biggest internet trends that reflect this apathy include things like Doomers and the cottage-core aesthetic. According to this study published in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 56% of the Canadian and 41.5% of the American population noticed an increase in anxiety as a result of the pandemic and the lockdowns that followed ¹. In terms of social media during this time of high anxiety and rising rates of mental illnesses, aesthetic trends such as cottage core have seen a rise in popularity with people trying to return to simpler, less stressful lives in order to cope with the symptoms of anxiety and various other mental illnesses that are exacerbated by things like stressful work environments with little pay and a lack of human interaction. Doomerism on the other hand is the complete depression and “giving up” resulting from the lower and middle classes becoming more aware during the pandemic that their needs and wants are solely decided by a system meant to uphold the financial interest of those richer and/or more privileged than them, putting their needs in lower priority due to factors they mostly cannot control ².

Instead of the solution to this apathy being fleeting social media trends that are usually washed in pretty privilege, require a flexible job (usually being an influencer), and are generally hard to achieve for the average person, local activism can be a good antidote for those that feel disenfranchised and helpless in our current political situation (specifically in North America, however this applies to other countries as well). I know a lot of people right now are discouraged and feel helpless with not only the overturn of Roe V. Wade in the US but the general negative sentiments towards the current cost of living, the nature of work, and more).

So what is local activism, how can anyone engage in it, and is it actually an effective thing to do? Local activism is the activity of working to bring political or social changes on a level that is the activist’s own community (whether that be a group of friends, a workplace, a city, or a block of houses). A few examples of this include working with a non-profit that specifically looks to solve a deficiency in your local political system. For me, this was using my software development skills and hardware knowledge to contribute code and work with ToMesh, a non-profit organization looking to connect people in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) for free since our local government has overlooked the lack of internet access in lower-income communities in the GTHA making it harder for these communities to find jobs or better education to improve their economic situation. Another example of local activism is community fridges ³. These fridges are built, decorated, managed, donated to, and used by people that live around the area where the fridges are located all for free in an effort to bridge the gap that still exists in government assistance when it comes to food insecurity and the rising costs of groceries due to inflation ⁴. These organizations are present everywhere, and in the areas they aren’t there is always going to be a need for people to bridge these gaps and an opportunity for anyone, including you the reader, to build those bridges.

What about those of us who don’t have the time in our schedules due to work and other obligations like caregiving? Aside from donating to non-profits and possibly offering remote services to some of these organizations there’s also work that can be done within our homes, workplaces, friendships, relationships, and engagement in politics that can be considered local activism. Hearing perspectives from those our political and social systems tend to silence such as Indigenous groups and other minorities is a good start. A really easy and enjoyable way of doing this is engaging in art, entertainment, and literature coming from these communities. Other examples would be creating a culture within our relationships and the workplace that support those with disabilities to be able to have the social, economic, and even physical mobility that everyone else enjoys. Getting our communities to vote, to run for office if they are able, to write to our local politicians about our concerns, to protest, and put political pressure on those who are supposed to be working for our interests are also great ways to perform local activism.

Although it is true as that individuals we do not have as much power and ability to change these systems as corporations, the wealthy, and politicians, local activism makes a direct impact to lessen the issues resulting from the inaction of our politicians and corporations and at the very least helps us feel like we are making a difference instead of being apathetic, anxious, depressed, isolated and most importantly complacent.

PHYSOR'26

Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Lancia Lambda (1930) display at the MAUTO Turin, Italy. A historic point in automobile engineering as the first car to feature a load-bearing unitary body, with the Lancia brand founded in 1906 in Turin.

On April 19–23, I had the honour of presenting research I worked on as part of the University of Sharjah at the 36th International Conference on the Physics of Reactors PHYSOR 2026 established by the American Nuclear Society held at the Centro Congressi Lingotto, Turin, Italy.

Since 1990, this conference has been has been the leading showcase for the latest innovations in reactor physics advancements. Looking back at the proceedings of PHYSOR’90, the main topics of software for modelling reactor physics and operations, research into advanced reactor designs, code validation, methods, and more were similarly the focus of a large portion of the plenary, technical, and poster sessions that were presented 36 years later. Yet still, within the same fields of research, it’s clear how far reactor physics has advanced in such a short time span, especially given the new topic categories. From nuclear space systems to nuclear non-proliferation, novel and pertinent applications that will shape the future of clean power generation are still being generated, validated, and designed today.

The sun was shining particularly bright (hence the squinting) that spring morning in front of the Centro Congressi Lingotto in Turin, Italy.

For every 3 editions of the conference hosted in the U.S, a bid is opened to host it outside the U.S. This year’s bid was won by newcleo and Politecnico di Milano. Hosted at FIAT’s first automobile factory, it was a treat to experience the city’s rich engineering history along it’s advancement towards the future, which were outlined in some of my favourite talks that I attended presented by researchers at Politecnico di Turino, including the innovative paper presented by Lorenzo Tutolo investigating the possibility of using Lunar Regolith as a thermal buffer for heat pipes in reactors used for space applications, and Carolina Introini’s presentation of work on switching between high and low fidelity simulations (as each has trade-offs & advantages) using shallow recurrent decoders (a novel ML technique) to essentially be able to (for example) solve a multi-group diffusion equation using time-series data from a simple point kinetics model, this was incredibly impressive and I’m glad the researchers open-sourced this work as it’s applications are clearly endless! Very excited to try it out myself.

Posters around the Centro Congressi Lingotto showcasing FIAT’s history, and the automobiles that the center used to manufacture during it’s days as a factory.

Other sessions were of great benefit in terms of learning more about the current state of reactor physics, and were also a joy to experience in real life to get to know the presenters as the conference went on. My favourites included Dr. Akio Yamamoto’s talk about the future of reactor simulation codes & nuclear education, Dr. Walid Metwally’s presentation on the IAEA’s collaboration with academic institutions (including Uos!) to develop a Nuclear Security Education program, the technical session detailing the elegant solution by Dr. Roberto Ponciroli et al at Argonne National Laboratory using Greene’s theorem to solve the challenge of accurately reconstructing core power distributions for reactor designs where in-core sensors may not be viable [1]. The simplicity & robustness of this method blew me away, as well as Logan Burnett et al at MIT & the University of Michigan who reconstructed a full CAD model of a Westinghouse PWR using only publicly available information to study in core flow field reconstruction using CNNs for digital twins! [2] The dedication of their team to comb through and extrapolate on the (relatively minimal) information available about this reactor design to make such a high fidelity simulation was inspiring. I’ve linked the related papers below for those interested in learning more.

[1] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.09766
[2] (will edit to include, upon release of conference proceedings)

Dr. Akio Yamamoto’s presentation on the future of reactor physics simulation codes & the future of nuclear education.

Looking towards the future of reactor physics, (while assessing the current reliance on simulations & physics code validation on data that is aging and often not reflective of accurate conditions in new generation reactors) the closing plenary session which included talks given by Dr. Nicole Virgili from the US Department of Nuclear Energy and Prof. Luka Snoj from the Jozef Stefan Institute highlighted the importance of investment in experimental reactors for validation data. I couldn’t agree more with the points raised here. I asked the plenary speakers about their experience & thoughts on sharing reactor experimental data between academic institutions and government or private institutions in charge of the experimental reactors. Their response reflected the (at least European) prevailing attitude of open access within approved organizations to facilitate this type of collaboration, which I can see is already becoming a trend internationally as well.

It was an honour to present NucBench: A Benchmark Framework for Evaluating Multimodal Large Language Models in Nuclear Engineering as part of the Nuclear Energy System, Simulation and Safety (NE3S) research group. In our paper we developed datasets for image classification and epistemic testing of LLMs. The benchmark also includes schemas and loaders to help automate the benchmarking process (API call handling, packaging of prompts & dataset elements, etc..) Various models were tested using the benchmark using deterministic vs. stochastic settings and the results can be found in the full paper linked below!

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2026.112223

I presented the NucBench Benchmark as part of the Poster Sessions for PHYSOR’26, my first published paper!

Special shoutout to Dr. Muhammad Imron, together we were the only 2 representing the UAE at the conference, it was honor to meet the developer of KOMODO which our students at UoS at myself use often for reactor simulation (often paired with COMSOL). Incredibly impressive work given it was written before the “vibe coding” era we find ourselves in, and his current research with Khalifa University looking into approximating compression MC tally data while still retaining accuracy to reduce the memory requirement for running such codes was incredible to learn about.

Dr. Muhammed Imron (right) and myself (left) in front of his research with Khalifa University presented at the PHYSOR’26 Poster Session!

I’d like to acknowledge my predecessor Polina Matesha for her work on NucBench that I am currently expanding on, and I want to extend my gratitude to my research supervisor Dr. Bassam Khuwaileh for granting me the wonderful opportunity to present this work, and to fulfill my dream of joining the international community advancing reactor physics, contributing to a future of clean energy & nuclear non-proliferation. Thank you to the organizers of the event, everything down to the registration process and the catering was spectacular, and the kindness of the people at the event and the residents of Turino itself was unmatched.

Best, Dina.

For mortal humans, time is the most finite resource. Hence, I consider it a form of respect to fairly exchange your time in reading this with my time in developing my writing. No ML/AI/generative/automation tool whatsoever is used in any piece I publish. I type it out letter by letter, drafting and editing as I go along, hoping to craft a reading experience worthy of your most finite resource.