$480,000, multi-year research collaboration with Ontario Tech University through the Mitacs Accelerate program. The project will develop and test a digital-twin-enabled control platform designed to support the safe, secure and resilient operation of small and micro modular reactor (SMR/MMR) hybrid energy systems in marine environments.

Hosted in Ontario Tech’s Department of Energy and Nuclear Engineering. Academic supervision will be led by Professors Hossam Gaber, Li Yang and Kirk Atkinson, with Professor Khalil El-Khatib serving as co-supervisor. 

The research program advances the digital-twin-enabled energy management and control framework first announced by Aegis on April 1, 2026. It is focused on the safe, secure and resilient operation of SMR/MMR-based hybrid energy systems in marine environments, with the following core activities:

• Digital Twin Modelling and Simulation of integrated SMR/MMR and battery energy storage architectures for marine platforms.
• Reactor-Aware Energy and Power Management (EMS/PMS) control layers that coordinate reactor output, high C-rate battery response and critical loads in real time.
• Cyber-Secure Control Architectures tailored to nuclear-integrated environments and critical infrastructure.
• Transient Load Management and Frequency Stabilization to handle rapidly changing and mission-critical operating conditions.

Progression to Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Testing and Controller Validation to de-risk commercialization and support future certification