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approximately 30% of promising medications have failed in human clinical trials because they are found to be toxic despite promising preclinical studies and about 60% of candidate drugs fail due to lack of efficacy ncats in collaboration with other nih institutes and centers and the us food and drug administration is leading the tissue chip for drug screening program to develop tissue chips that more accurately model the structure and function of human organs to better predict drug safety and efficacy in humans more rapidly and effectively as part of this effort ncats has just launched a new $355 million clinical trials on a chip program providing grants to 10 teams to support research in studying diseases and test drugs using organ-chip models han is leading one of the 10 teams organ-on-a-chip systems can more accurately recapitulate the complex 3d structure and functions of organ systems thus research using such a model system can lead to far superior and more relevant research outcomes han said while organ-on-a-chip research has progressed a lot in the last decade the fetal membrane a key tissue that maintains pregnancy and promotes childbirth has been neglected hans project will develop an organ-on-chip model that reproduces the structure function and responses of the feto-maternal tissue interface the chip will recreate healthy and inflammatory conditions and allow testing of compounds that can inhibit inflammation in this interface available drugs are extremely limited against preterm birth this is due to the numerous reasons that can cause preterm birth not just few factors and the complexity of the feto-maternal interface han said one of the reasons that it is so difficult to develop drugs against preterm birth is due to the limited experimental model and the difficulty of conducting clinical trials we expect that the development of fetal-maternal organ-on-a-chip models can be used as a powerful and efficient model system that can greatly accelerate new drug development this is indeed precisely what this newly launched ncats program is trying to do to see the feasibility of using organ-chip technology to generate pre-clinical data and accelerate clinical trials han expects their organ-on-a-chip research will make preterm birth research including understanding the mechanisms of preterm birth and new drug development far more effective because the chip is a far more accurate physiological model of a human organ system so the outcome of experimental results will be far more physiologically relevant this could not only save lives but also save billions in health care costs and prevent other preterm-related health issues the preterm birth rate has not declined in the past several decades he said the success of this research will produce a personalized feto-maternal interface organ-on-a-chip model that can mimic either the healthy or diseased state of pregnancy which can be used to test the effect of candidate therapeutic molecules to expedite processes toward clinical trials and/or eliminate or minimize certain steps from expensive clinical trials
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the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university recently launched a new student organization geared toward students with an interest in competitive programming competitive programming is an intellectual sport usually held over the internet or a local network involving participants trying to write programs to solve well-defined problems within a specified amount of time the aggie competitive programming clubs (acpc) mission is to give students the opportunity to learn practice and teach competitive programming techniques and algorithmic problem-solving skills as well as promote a healthy environment overall we just want to create a love for learning and an increased level of competitiveness for texas a&m students in local regional national and international programming competitions said tanner hoke founder and president of the acpc the club holds weekly meetings where members teach a skill or present a topic in competitive programming for discussion as well as solving practice problems all students are welcome to attend the meetings to become a member they must attend six acpc events per semester competitive programming brings an aspect of problem-solving to light that is often neglected or underappreciated said logistics officer adil rasiyani by giving students an opportunity to pursue problem-solving as more than just a means to land a job we hope to create a higher level of competence and understanding as well as strengthen critical thinking skills the acpc is also involved in organizing programming contests each semester the club hosts a big contest thats designed to allow programmers of all skills levels to participate the club also holds practice contests every few weeks exclusively for members so they can continue to build upon their skills and experience in a competitive environment in october the club held its fall programming contest on the texas a&m campus during the competition which was open to all texas a&m students participants were challenged to solve as many problems as they could within three hours on the codeforces platform in the past i have participated in some of the departments programming contests and even before i knew what competitive programming was i found the problems in these contests interesting and satisfying to try to solve said web officer alex labbane as i learned more about competitive programming i was introduced to interesting new data structures and algorithms and my problem-solving skills began to rapidly improve when i heard about the acpc i was excited to have a community of other individuals to learn alongside it has proven to be a very rewarding and motivating experience to stay up to date on the club's meetings and events visit the acpc website
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loren and shaw ottis 00 have established the loren and shaw ottis 00 chemical engineering endowed scholarship distributions from their generous endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at texas a&m university shaws path to texas a&m started in the fields surrounding his hometown in southeast texas his family was in the farming industry and he spent several summers growing up helping in the rice fields the agricultural roots of texas a&m combined with its superior engineering program were a great match for my background and academic interests coming out of high school he said during much of his first few years of college shaw worked full time during the summers and part time during the semesters in order to help pay for his education i was very fortunate that my parents were able to contribute to my college education but like parents of many college students there was only so much financial support they could provide he said and upper-level chemical engineering classes do not make it easy to both work part time and stay on top of your studies so i made the decision to commit full time to school during my last few semesters as i was getting to the point that i needed to take out student loans to complete my degree the department offered me several scholarships that allowed me to complete school without needing student loans now it is my turn to give back so that future students can get the same help that was so important to me at the time it was the college of engineerings commitment to shaw in the later years of his collegiate career that provided the motivation to establish this scholarship it was a debt that i had to pay back as well as an opportunity to help students that may be in similar situations as i was i really appreciated dr charles glover looking out for scholarship opportunities for me during my junior and senior years and im sure that future professors in the department will find great students that our scholarship can help as i was helped shaw said texas a&m continues to impact shaws career immensely the spirit of the university has stayed with me throughout my career he said it was an honor graduate from a&m and i feel a personal and professional responsibility to protect and grow a&ms reputation loren and shaw have three sons ages 12 10 and 5 who they hope will add to their familys aggie legacy shaw comes from a long line of aggies including his grandfather frank w perrin '40 his brother brian '98 as well as many cousins uncles in-laws and other extended family members shaw currently works at freeport lng as vice president and deputy general counsel and his family resides in houston texas
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the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering and its departments or would like more information on how you can give please contact haley jennings director of development
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engineering a spaceship is as difficult as it sounds modeling plays a large role in the time and effort it takes to create spaceships and other complex engineering systems it requires extensive physics calculations sifting through a multitude of different models and tribal knowledge to determine singular parts of a systems design dr zohaib hasnains research shows that data-driven techniques used in autonomous systems hold the potential to solve these complex modeling problems more accurately and efficiently applying high-functioning artificial intelligence to physics-based processes he aims to automate modeling reducing the time it takes to produce solutions and cutting production costs if i am trying to undertake something along the lines of say designing a pencil there's a process involved in designing that pencil hasnain said i have a certain set of steps that i would undertake given the knowledge that i have available to me based on what others have done in the past anything that can be described by a process or an algorithm on paper can be automated and analyzed in the context of an autonomous system an assistant professor in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering hasnain realized while working in the aerospace industry the delay in projects due to modeling efforts while conducting traditional modeling processes scientists and researchers must create various models many of which require testing additionally filing through individual models takes far too long to produce answers an example of a traditional modeling for space systems is computer fluid dynamics or cfd which uses numerical analysis to determine solutions resulting in hefty costs computationally and in human labor for verification i always thought that there was work to be cut out because there are autonomous systems and machines that seemed capable of handling the bottleneck that is modeling hasnain said my research is a first step in understanding how and when data-driven techniques are beneficial with the ultimate goal of taking a process that consumes months or weeks to solve and producing a solution in hours or days hasnain accompanied by assistant professor dr vinayak r krishnamurthy and graduate research assistant kaustubh tangsali conducted a study to understand how commonly used machine-learning architectures such as convolutional neural networks (cnn) and physics informed neural networks (pinn) fare when applied to the problem of fluidic prediction the data-driven approach uses a pre-existing modeling database to train a model over carefully controlled variations in fundamental physics of the fluid as well as geometries over which the fluid flows the model is then used to make a prediction their research found that both cnn and pinn have the potential to optimize modeling processes if targeting very specific aspects of the solution process they are now working on a hybrid learning approach to achieve their final goal of speeding up the design process we're looking at a different set of tools that will replace the old tools said hasnain we are trying to understand how these new tools behave in the context of applications traditionally governed by first principles-based solution techniques the researchers published their findings in the journal of mechanical design their article generalizability of convolutional encoder-decoder networks for aerodynamic flow-field prediction across geometric and physical-fluidic variations focuses on understanding dimensional tools that have the potential of replacing modeling tools that are the current industry standard from the research results hasnain hopes to build an autonomous infrastructure that pulls from a collection of data to produce modeling solutions through hybrid machine-learning architectures through algorithms and pre-existing data the infrastructure will be a modeling process that can be applied to various systems in real-life applications eventually he plans to share this infrastructure for widespread free usage i would like this infrastructure to be a community initiative thats offered free to everyone hasnain said perhaps more importantly because it can produce near on-demand solutions as opposed to the current modeling state-of-the-art which is extremely time-consuming the infrastructure is in its early stages of development hasnain and his fellow researchers are working to produce a prototype in the near future
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the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university announced the recipients of the 2020 distinguished graduate award and distinguished graduate legacy award at the annual scholarship and fellowship banquet held virtually on nov 12the department also recognized its donors and scholarship recipients during the eventdistinguished graduate awards
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paul w denham 80in his senior year of high school paul w denham 80 made a campus visit to texas a&m with his high school sweetheart elisa and his best friend both of whom had aggie relatives that visit was pivotal for denham he became the first in his family to attend and graduate from texas a&m with a civil engineering degree and his high school sweetheart later became his wifetoday as a licensed professional engineer denham leads a single-family design group in the land development division of civil engineering consultants (cec) throughout his career he was directly involved in the design and subsequent development of approximately 50 000 single-family lots in bexar county prior to cec he was the president/owner of denham-ramones engineering acquired by cec in 2016along with his full-time job as an engineer denham has also held a position on the randolph-brooks federal credit union board of directors for several years he is currently secretary of the board he has also concentrated his efforts on economic literacy within the bexar county community he served previously as chairman of the board of consumer credit counseling services of san antonio along with the subsequent transition into the financial literacy of south texas foundation
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john d doucet 81for as far back as he can remember john d doucet 81 was always told by his parents dudley and nita doucet that he had to attend college neither of them did but they understood the importance and the value of a college degree of all the universities he applied to texas a&m was his choice for financial reasons but it quickly became obvious to him that going there was a true blessingdoucet spent the early years of his career managing complex public and private projects with large engineering firms in texas and california in 1992 doucet and his wife amy also an aggie engineer with a bachelor's degree in industrial distribution co-founded doucet & associates inc growing the texas-based firm from the original three employees to over 80 in 2020as executive vice president doucet manages and provides oversight to geospatial planning and engineering services transportation and public works/water resources he is also responsible for contract negotiations and client relationship management having over 38 years in the civil consulting field doucet has built a solid reputation as a valuable industry resource and is regularly called on to provide expertise to panels advisory boards and professional committees
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raymond r longoria 77when raymond r longoria 77 arrived at texas a&m in 1974 as a civil engineering major the enrollment had just reached around 20 000 students he was looking for a smaller university experience and when he looked at the 1971 texas a&m catalog there were only about 14 000 students he thought he would give it a try and transfer to a smaller school if it didnt work out but as fate would have it there was no need longoria said texas a&m felt like the smallest large college that there ever was and he felt right at homelongoria is known for his expertise in water and wastewater treatment throughout the state of texas having served as engineer of record on some of the largest wastewater and water plant expansion and renovation projects in the state throughout his career he has directed hundreds of water and wastewater treatment projects across the state as engineer and advisor thus improving the quality of drinking water for millions of texas citizens and protecting texas rivers and streams by designing resource recovery facilities that consistently produce outstanding waterhe currently serves freese and nichols an account director and senior treatment advisor for the firm he is working on major initiatives along the gulf coast including fnis efforts in seawater and brackish groundwater desalination in corpus christi and with the north alamo water supply corporation
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dr rich s szecsy ‘92both of dr rich s szecsys grandfathers elmer szecsy and arthur collier worked with their hands they both knew what it was to be a practitioner a tinker a problem solver and thats where szecsy feels like he got his strong genetics to propel him into engineeringszecsy started his collegiate career at another university but it was limited on engineering opportunities and he found his way to texas a&m there was no question where he needed to be and it became life-changing szecsy met his wife amanda lindley 94 while sitting in a survey classnow szecsy is the chief operating officer of charley's concrete he has worked internationally as a technical expert for a $4 billion ready-mix and aggregate company a university department head and as an independent engineering consultant he serves on several state and national committees as well as boards of direction for texas aggregates and concrete association the american society for testing and materials the american concrete institute the american society of civil engineers and astm aci asce and the national ready mixed concrete association he has written and collaborated on over 40 articles and publications ranging from concrete material science to technology management and integration for various periodicals including concrete producer concrete construction and concrete international
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distinguished graduate legacy awarddean fred j benson '36the distinguished graduate legacy award was established in 2014 to honor remarkable former students whose life-long contributions and service have had an immeasurable impact on the civil engineering profession and society the inaugural recipient hb pat zachrys lifetime achievements serve as the benchmark against which future consideration of recipients are judged dean fred j benson ‘36 was selected as this years recipientbenson began his service to the civil engineering profession in 1936 as an instructor at purdue university when he retired in august 1980 he was deputy chancellor of engineering for the texas a&m university system and vice president of the texas a&m university research foundation he earned a masters degree in civil engineering from texas a&m in 1936his career positions at texas a&m included instructor to professor from 1937-55; executive officer texas a&m transportation institute from 1955-62; dean of engineering from 1957-78; director texas a&m engineering experiment station from 1959-80; and vice president texas a&m research foundation from 1963-80many of his friends and hundreds of former students continued to affectionately and respectfully call him dean long after he no longer officially held that title his advice to students was always to strive to do the best in every task given you tasks are a learning process and how we gain experience at his retirement in 1980 his message was simple strive for excellence
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a student organization in the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university is not letting the challenges that come with virtual learning stop them from flourishing – even in the middle of a pandemic women in nuclear is an organization of men and women who want to advance nuclear energy and technology in the united states through advocacy education and the advancement of women the texas a&m chapter consists of 63 people were in a unique time of history where these challenges are affecting everyone on the planet in different ways in every way of life said morgan rogers women in nuclear president for students the challenge of completing a nuclear degree has been exponentially increased with the online format and social isolation win took the opportunity to find new ways to communicate and come together as students and learn outside of the classroom despite the inability to meet in person or hold large gatherings win continues to meet throughout the semester oftentimes inviting prominent researchers in the industry to speak virtually most recently theyve heard from christine czismadia director of state government affairs & advocacy at the nuclear energy institute who instructed them on how to become better advocates former student dr luz martinez sierra a space environment engineer also presented at a meeting to discuss her career and nuclear applications in the space industry this year the texas a&m chapter decided to concentrate on expanding their outreach and advocacy efforts through community education as well its a common misconception that nuclear energy is something to fear and many nuclear scientists believe that part of their duty is to educate the public about the realities of nuclear energy and its many benefits for nuclear engineers outreach and advocacy efforts include increasing community awareness and education about nuclear energy so far weve prepared materials and reached out to local school districts about training teachers how to teach nuclear science said rogers if the coronavirus continues to delay outreach plans in the spring they will look into giving virtual presentations to local school districts about the various sectors in the nuclear engineering industry rogers credits their success to the enthusiasm and determination of the students in the organization and the officers we have an incredible group of women in the officer positions this year who are ambitious hardworking and creative said rogers without the officers taking on additional responsibilities on top of their studies i dont think we would have had such an exceptional line of speakers this semester nor as much drive to continue to meet every week and find new ways to engage students
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the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university welcomes assistant professor stephen raiman who joins the department after four years as a staff scientist at the materials science and technology division of oak ridge national laboratory raiman received his undergraduate degree in physics at the university at buffalo before continuing with his doctoral degree in nuclear engineering and radiological sciences at the university of michigan he studies how materials behave in extreme environments more specifically he studies how the materials in an advanced nuclear reactor wear down and corrode over time lately ive been working on material interactions and compatibility with molten salts he said other research interests include radiation effects in nuclear materials ion irradiation stress corrosion cracking and high temperature corrosion over the years raiman has encountered many former aggies in different positions throughout the industry he noticed that they always had great things to say about their time at texas a&m and it was eventually this detail that encouraged his transition the department has great resources both in terms of people and facilities said raiman i believe i will have what i need to run the kind of research program i want to run and train excellent students who go on to make contributions to our field raimans biggest strength that he brings to the department is his willingness to collaborate and work with others the people ive met in the department have been very welcoming and im excited to work with colleagues who have been doing research that i have admired for a long time in addition to being a nuclear engineer raiman is also an environmentalist with interest in clean energy alternative transportation and sustainable cities
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dr brent bielefeldt '16 20 discovered his interest for structural design in middle school when during career day his friends dad designed an entire airplane on the computer in less than 30 minutes he was fascinated by the tools and their capabilities at this engineers fingertips eventually bielefeldts interest in engineering led him to pursue his masters and doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering at texas a&m university where he began developing a tool of his own that would solve a current concern in the field of topology optimization topology optimization is the process of taking a preliminary structural design like an aircraft wing and adjusting where material should be placed to maximize the efficiency of the structure and its performance to achieve this designers rely heavily on not only math and engineering but also their intuition for both the materials they're working with and the problem they're trying to solve however designers that are unfamiliar with the responses of adaptive materials to different physical fields may be unable to effectively utilize their complex behaviors creating a major drawback if someone asks you to design an aircraft wing of a certain material how are you going to do that if you dont have experience with what that material is what its going to do and how its going to react and respond my research has focused on a tool that is flexible enough to explore the design space generate solutions that are well-performing and identify trends to give designers a starting point he explained according to bielefeldt his framework will allow aircraft designers to tailor the material and structure to a given application and discover non-intuitive solutions the added ability to consider multiple physical fields will also allow for more realistic models of complex materials and combined loading conditions potentially expediting the design process the need for this solution and the promise of bielefeldts research presented him a significant opportunity upon receiving his doctorate since graduating in may bielefeldt has been able to devote full-time effort to working on his project with leading scientists and engineers at the air force research laboratory in ohio as part of a year-long research associateship the opportunity was awarded to him by the national academies of science engineering and medicine through their highly competitive national research council (nrc) research associateship programs
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applications for the nrc research associateship programs go through an extensive review process by panels of distinguished scientists and engineers who evaluate the applicants academic and research record and scientific merit of their proposed research applications are assessed for quality likelihood for success and contribution of the research its always good to be doing research that you enjoy and that other people think is worthwhile and worth pursuing and that youre the person who should be pursuing it said bielefeldt so far the opportunity has given bielefeldt the space to interact with world-class engineers and be exposed to different approaches to research projects giving him a fresh perspective on engineering research in addition to getting to work with incredibly talented researchers ive enjoyed being able to collaborate on multiple projects and having the potential to shape the direction of research in the medium and long term said bielefeldt stepping outside of his area of expertise when collaborating on other projects though has been challenging for bielefeldt as well as making progress on his research in an environment affected by covid-19 he attributes his success to some of the experiences from his time at texas a&m texas a&m taught me to be self-reliant said bielefeldt i was challenged to learn critical thinking skills and become a problem solver which has helped me stay productive and continue to make progress on my research bielefeldt says the level of expectations at texas a&m and from his former advisor dr darren hartl assistant professor in the aerospace engineering department has also stuck with him and he hopes is resulting in better and more impactful research brent represented exactly the kind of student i seek to recruit to texas a&m said hartl he is hardworking with a great personality self-critical but optimistic and above all truly curious he is certain to be a strong technical leader for our nation and i hope to work with him more in the coming years
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lja engineering has established the lja engineering in memory of calvin t ladner 80 endowed scholarship distributions from this endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university lja engineering established this scholarship in honor of their founder calvin t ladner who served as president and ceo from 1997 until his passing in august 2020 he graduated from texas a&m in 1980 with his degree in civil engineering lja is honoring calvins legacy and love of texas a&m university by establishing this scholarship in his name he was never far from his prized possession his texas a&m football coffee mug and his aggie enthusiasm seeped into everything he did said ljas current president and ceo james d ross 96 ross is also a graduate of texas a&m with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering i was drawn to the engineering school at texas a&m because of the great people and great traditions he said the lessons learned and relationships that i built at a&m have had a big impact on my career and me personally ross said lja has many aggie former students walking the halls of the company and they wanted to honor calvin through his love for texas a&m calvin loved texas a&m and having his scholarship established at his alma mater is so fitting to his legacy and to the history of our firm as well he said ross said that he and all of those at lja engineering hope that everyone who benefits from this scholarship can follow in calvins footsteps in some way there is so much to admire about him he was not only an amazing businessman but a wonderful person loved by family friends clients and employees ross said
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the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering and its departments or would like more information on how you can give please contact true brown director of development
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michelle scudder 80 and brooks w herring 80 have established the michelle s 80 and brooks w herring 80 endowed scholarship distributions from their generous endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at texas a&m university both michelle and brooks attended texas a&m along with their two sons mason and marshall brooks said he was determined to be a chemical engineer and attend texas a&m because it had a strong reputation as a top-notch engineering school my father had also attended a&m for a year in 1947 and he was always a strong aggie fan he said although brooks parents weren't able to complete their college education they made sure that their two sons had a path to complete theirs that was an enormous blessing that has allowed me and michelle to work around the world and experience a great diversity of cultures and business practices he said it has been a terrific experience that has resulted in friendships across the world michelle and brooks hope their scholarship will allow students to complete their chemical engineering degree at texas a&m and that in turn leads to a fulfilling professional career of their own aggie engineers have such great opportunities to help make our world a better place through their professional and personal service brooks said the high-quality chemical engineering education i received in the college of engineering changed the course of my life and we want to help provide that same opportunity to others michelle and brooks both graduated from texas a&m in 1980 michelle with her degree in journalism and brooks with his in chemical engineering while attending school brooks was president of the msc chair of msc town hall and served on the student engineers council while michelle was the chair of msc town hall their youngest son mason 07 has a degree in agricultural economics and later graduated from the south texas college of law in 2010 marshall 09 graduated from the mays business school professional program in accounting (ppa) in 2010 with a bachelors degree in accounting and a masters degree in management information systems
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the texas a&m college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering and its departments or would like more information on how you can give please contact haley jennings director of development
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brian and jennifer l boutte 89 have contributed to the camp build fund in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering camp build is a one-week summer camp designed for high school juniors and seniors that gives them the opportunity to explore the civil and environmental engineering program at texas a&m university and experience the aggie culture jennifer originally decided to attend texas a&m because of its civil engineering reputation and when she later received a scholarship she said the stars aligned while i didn't stay in the professional field of engineering my time at a&m impacted my career in that i learned how to collaborate tackle problems methodically and establish protocols and procedures she said initially jennifer was first inspired to establish this gift with camp build when dr robin autenrieth civil and environmental engineering department head described the program to her i hope to help future engineers attend camp build she said i would like to see more people in underrepresented communities go into the engineering field this camp allows potential students to see all the opportunities a degree civil engineering has to offer jennifer said her time as a student with autenrieth was immensely impactful and she admired that autenrieth was one of the few women in the civil engineering department while she was there her intellect and confidence was inspiring to me jennifer said both jennifer and her husband brian hope to help future aggies learn more about civil engineering and what a great field it is to get into our main desire is to help students gain a quality education jennifer said we are happy to be able to help expose young people to the field of civil engineering jennifer graduated from texas a&m with her degree in civil engineering in 1989 she and brian have two children their son matthew is a 2020 graduate of the university of michigan and their daughter marilyn is currently a student at the university of north carolina at chapel hill 22 jennifers sister michelle adams earley is also an aggie and graduated from texas a&m in 1993
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if you are interested in impacting the lives of future aggie engineers and would like to support the camp build program please contact patrick wilson director of development
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for as long as she can remember electrical engineering junior alyssa brown has enjoyed math and science more recently she has become painfully aware of the effects of global warming on the world combining her love for stem with her desire to help in the fight against climate change she decided to pursue a degree in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university
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i wanted to do something where i could make an impact on the environment but still be within the realms of math and science and i figured electrical engineering was the best route to do that brown said i wanted to be part of the industry that could make a difference in power production and renewable energy to get a head start on accomplishing her goals brown has been working on research with dr prasad enjeti ti professor iii in analog engineering in fact she is currently enrolled in his graduate-level course on power electronics as an undergraduate student and is working on a project in his class to design an ac to dc power adapter with built-in features to make it similar to a typical "brick" on a laptop charger dr enjeti provided some specifications for the project but gave my partner and i design liberty for the most part brown said this project is very similar to something power electronics engineers would be working on at companies like dell microsoft apple and many others since we are also taking into consideration the cost of materials and trying to optimize the design with this in mind brown hopes to earn her doctoral degree in electrical engineering and is excited that she has the opportunity to pursue research as an undergraduate student undergraduate research has provided an avenue for brown to hone her skills and knowledge of power electronics even if she hasnt taken a course covering the subject yet
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brown hopes to earn her doctoral degree in electrical engineering and is excited that she has the opportunity to pursue research as an undergraduate student undergraduate research has provided an avenue for brown to hone her skills and knowledge of power electronics even if she hasnt taken a course covering the subject yet renewable energy is one of the most effective tools in the fight against climate change power electronics can increase the efficiency of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power brown is eager to contribute in this area and her work as an undergraduate student is setting her up for a future filled with possibilities
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dr yan zhou 14 a former student from the department of materials science and engineering at texas a&m university received the 2020 ronald p harrelson outstanding young manufacturing engineering award from the society of manufacturing (sme) this honor recognizes the achievements of 15 individuals age 35 or younger who have made exceptional contributions and accomplishments in the manufacturing industry i feel humbled to receive this award a significant recognition of our work in manufacturing industrial process fluids he said zhou received his doctoral degree in materials science and engineering from texas a&m in 2014 and focused his research on the interfacial interactions between biomaterials and biological systems at different scales for his graduate work now a senior research and development engineer at quaker houghton zhou is developing industrial process fluids to the primary metals and metalworking markets the courses he took and the research he did at texas a&m equipped him with the right knowledge and expertise needed to excel in his career in particular zhou attributed his current success to the materials science and engineering interdisciplinary program at texas a&m the interdisciplinary program has many exciting research areas to choose from said zhou i am grateful to my phd advisor dr hong liang who had provided me the platform and the opportunity at texas a&m zhou was the recipient of multiple awards and honors including the society of tribologists and lubrication engineers (stle) young tribologist award (2012) and the george bush presidential library foundation grant (2012) zhou also served as president of the stle texas a&m section (2013–14) materials science and engineering is an exciting program and provides a lot of opportunities for people with career goals in academia and industry said zhou if i could go back to my time at texas a&m i would like to reflect more on my projects and try to gain bigger pictures why am i doing this project why is it important why am i using x technique but not y technique besides working in the lab i would also like to take as many courses as possible to broaden my horizons sme is a nonprofit association of professionals educators and students committed to promoting and supporting the manufacturing industry
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dr lin shao professor in the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university was recently awarded a university professorship he was one of four faculty members honored for having demonstrated significant and sustained accomplishments in their discipline earning them national and international recognition the award also highlights the recipients commitment to inclusivity accountability climate and equity in their departments colleges and throughout their service at texas a&m shao has been teaching at texas a&m for 14 years he is well-known by his students for his passion to always focus on the fundamentals and big-picture-scenarios as well as his ability to explain complex theories in a simple manner he strongly supports students gaining hands-on research experience as much as possible and as early as possible in their career paths and has hired about 50 undergraduate student interns so far he designs research mentoring plans for each of them while taking into consideration their individual backgrounds and interests shao has graduated 16 doctoral students so far three are assistant professors at peer institutes three are mangers at intel inc and most of the others are researchers at national laboratories as the undergraduate program advisor shao is dedicated to improving student advising retention and outreach his biggest challenge is helping prospective students better understand the variety of career paths offered by an education in nuclear engineering the efforts to further optimize our curriculum diversify career tracks and develop innovative teaching methods are forever important to us said shao shao enjoys his work as a researcher and educator and hopes his students learn to understand the value of their lifes work many people continue a career because they get used to doing the things they are doing said shao i want my students to understand that passion should be the driving force behind what they do
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shao is internationally known for his pioneering work in radiation materials science he directs the accelerator laboratory which is the largest university ion irradiation facility for nuclear materials testing the lab is a us department of energy national user facility and helps the nation for various alloy developments for advanced reactors shaos major interests are to understand materials behaviors under extreme conditions accelerators are used as a unique tool to emulate a reactors harsh environments he has published 230 journal papers and holds 11 us patents shao frequently served as general chair for international conferences he has been funded for more than 40 projects with a total budget of $16 million he has received many teaching and research awards including the inaugural ibmm prize in 2008 the national science foundations career award in 2009 and the tees senior faculty fellow award in 2019 shao is a fellow of american nuclear society created in 2019 the university professorship has a unique feature that allows the holder to personally name the professorship for a significant emeritus or deceased texas a&m faculty member who has served as inspiration or motivation for the holder shao hopes to name his professorship after dr robert cochran the founder of the nuclear engineering department
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from nov 16-19 scientists and nuclear engineers from across the globe will gather to share research and deliberate on the future and forces of nuclear energy at the 2020 american nuclear society (ans) virtual winter meeting this years theme nuclear: good for you brings positivity and hopeful aspirations to the field during a time of tension the goal is to highlight the ways in which nuclear science and technology contribute to improving the environment health care and the betterment of society the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university will have a prominent presence at the event with nine faculty members scheduled to lend their expertise and present in either a technical or plenary session dr pavel tsvetkov associate professor in the department and program chair of the reactor physics division is helping kickstart the annual event on nov 16 tsvetkov will be an alternate chair for a technical session on the versatile test reactor project a sodium-cooled fast test reactor that could become critical as early as 2026 similarly assistant professor dr shikha prasad will lead two events as chair of the local sections committee: a business meeting and a workshop the workshop will include a student-mentor mixer as well as a presentation regarding the new ans chapter in the united arab emirates and a presentation by the ans idaho chapter another key focus of the meeting is refining the way in which scientists communicate the value of nuclear technology to society as an expert in the field of radiation protection and dosimetry assistant professor dr shaheen dewji will be speaking in the presidents special plenary session panelist experts will discuss the best communications practices when it comes to informing the public and non-scientists about the risks associated with low-dose radiation levels additionally dewji will present in a technical session with one of her doctoral students hadyn kistle other speakers from texas a&m include dr sean mcdeavitt dr rodolfo vaghetto dr warren pete miller dr stephen raiman and dr jean ragusa
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the peer teacher program in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university has become an indispensable resource for undergraduate students despite facing budget restraints due to covid-19 the department is hoping to expand their services with the financial support from engineering former students peer teachers are high-performing undergraduate students with a desire to help others succeed in the classes that they have previously done well in they help other students to understand the material taught in classes and labs practice computational thinking and improve programming skills they are in the best possible position to assist with difficult coursework having just taken the same classes the program supports 100- 200- and 300-level computer science and engineering courses students consistently rate peer teachers as a positive impact on their performance the peer teacher program was started with a generous grant but has continued as part of the departments budget after the grant expired over the years the needs for the peer teacher program have grown and the department is seeking out ways to hire more peer teachers and provide more resources
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senior lecturer dr teresa leyk has overseen the peer teacher program since the fall of 2007 what i dont think people realize is that that these students are bridging a gap between faculty and students that has only grown due to physical distancing measures leyk said for example the csce 121 course has over 850 students enrolled in multiple sections with only four instructors and nine teaching assistants not only that but our peer teachers are mature with an uncommon willingness to selflessly serve their fellow students leyk said when we moved all services online it was the peer teachers who set up the new discord server to allow students to continue to receive help these students organized this new server and the programs new modus operandi as their programs budget was cut by 50% due to the pandemics effect on the department they spent many unpaid hours helping the staff and students migrate to a digital landscape leyk said a typical day for a peer teacher is always filled with tons of student interaction students have the freedom to come to scheduled labs or walk-in (now virtually) during office hours to seek help with their classwork
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the computer science department has experienced a surge of growth in recent years but the peer teacher program has been working with the same amount of resources said scott wilkins 21 a peer teacher this semester our peer teachers are stretched thin especially during office hours and assisting with 300-level classes in fact the department has seen a 15% increase in undergraduate students in the last year alone beyond simply helping students fix their code or understand a concept i try to form a relationship with the students so that they feel comfortable coming for help on a regular basis its extremely rewarding when they've become comfortable enough that they seek you out as a resource beyond their current computer science classes wilkins said and the peer teachers services have evolved to thrive on a digital platform
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usually students enter the digital queue system to wait to receive help said nkemdi anyiam 22 a peer teacher peer teachers quickly pull them into separate channels and have the students share their screen and communicate via voice chat then we solve problems and correct confusion together in real time i wasn't expecting peer teaching to be as fun and effective as it currently is when asked why peer teachers are so effective anyiam said peer teachers are more in-tune with how other students think and process information and are usually able to communicate subject matter in a way students can understand i can remember review sessions given by peer teachers were a godsend to me because the peer teacher explained things so well anyiam said sometimes students don't pick up certain syntax or techniques that they need for current assignments peer teachers are the ones who catch the students who fall through the net and fill in those knowledge gaps i've seen firsthand both from the perspective of a regular student and as an official peer teacher already how lost some students can get until they receive help from a fellow student
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jassin zaki 22 said professors also benefit from the program as for educators students who use peer teachers feel more prepared coming to class and in general will perform significantly better and with greater confidence zaki said the peer teacher program is a system that works great in tandem with the current classroom experience the department of computer science and engineering is asking former students to consider giving to the peer teacher program support fund with any gift even as small as $25 to benefit the program and contribute to the hiring of more peer teachers for next semester
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i think i would want former students to know that the classes we help students with are the foundation of students degrees said peer teacher hanna mitschke 21 these challenging courses are the first computer science courses that a student takes and their difficulty and intensity can really take students by surprise students need as strong of a support system as possible to help them through these classes which is why i think the peer teacher program is really valuable both to the department and to the school
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contributions to the peer teacher program support fund will allow the department to have a direct and immediate impact on the peer teacher program and student experience if you are interested in supporting the departments goal or would like more information on how you can give please contact true brown director of development
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christa hvidsten is a senior in the department of ocean engineering at texas a&m university at galveston (tamug) originally from dallas her enthusiasm for ocean renewable energy led her to pursue a degree in galveston where she is surrounded by the very thing she came to study – the sea when i was younger i did a whole bunch of sailing and watersports and i originally wanted to do oceanography but i was also really good at math said hvidsten ocean engineering combined by love for the ocean and the environment and renewable energy plus my love for math and science so once i found ocean engineering texas a&m just made the most sense now as the shortened fall 2020 semester comes to a close hvidsten took a moment to reflect on her time as an ocean engineering student q: what's it like studying ocean engineering right by the ocean a: it's pretty cool because a lot of the stuff you see happening around you just while you're living on the island you end up relating back to your major and we've gotten to do a bunch of cool things like we got to tour an oil rig and go to this oil rig museum and for my chemistry lab freshman year we got to go on a boat and take samples you're engulfed in the industry that your major is going to be in so even when youre just looking off the beach you're looking at ships and you're looking at oil rigs it puts it all into perspective q: one of the unique things about ocean engineering is the duality of our campuses where you get this great waterfront location with galveston but you're still part of texas a&m what's that like for you as a student
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a: i personally love it because you get all the advantages of going to a big school and a small school you have the low student-to-teacher ratio and you really get to know your professors super well and everyone knows who you are but then you also get to go to the football games and get to go participate in the big aggie events and aggie traditions it's just kind of the best of both worlds in that sense q: if you could describe the ocean engineering department in one word what would it be and why a: dynamic they're very willing to adjust to every single student and figure out ways to make it work whether that's taking an online class through college station even though i attend galveston or whatever just very dynamic and able to maneuver and help each student individually q: aside from ocean engineering what organizations are you a part of a: i was the tamug lacrosse manager and that was fun i was on the sailing team and i competed in the collegiate sailing nationals in 2018 i work for the math department grading papers and in galveston we're opening up an engineers without borders club and i got selected to be the secretary q: looking back what's something you wish youd known when you first started in the department a: it's super challenging but your professors are there to help you do not be scared to ask questions or go to office hours or to raise your hand during class or any of that because i would get really shy during class and not want to ask questions but professors are so understanding when it comes to asking questions and such i wish i'd known that it's not as intimidating as it seems q: what do you plan to do after college a: my dream career would be working in any sort of ocean renewable energy whether that's wave energy or tidal energy or offshore wind farms i would love to be working off the pacific ocean doing all that q: what led you to that career path a: i think my love for the environment and for sailing in general and the technology behind it is incredibly fascinating ever since i was a young kid renewable energy always kind of stood out to me and then i was able to combine that with my love for ocean-related topics
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four undergraduate students from the texas a&m university college of engineering were part of a team that placed third at the 2020 cybersecurity challenge organized by the society of hispanic professional engineers (shpe) the competition which took place during the virtual shpe national convention and included 18 teams with 64 total competitors was a capture-the-flag exercise sponsored by the national security administration shpes cybersecurity challenge focused on empowering the next generation of cyber operators throughout the country to build our tomorrow together
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the team consisted of jonathan gaytan 22 (computer science) abraham sanchez 22 (computer science) alexander gomez 22 (aerospace engineering) jonathan saenz 21 (computer engineering) and francisco rangel ‘22 a computer engineering student at the university of texas rio grande valley the third-place ranking earned the team a $750 prize saenz expressed that he is very optimistic about the future of this team our team was really young compared to the first- and second-place teams he said they had graduate students on their teams overall it was a great competition and next year we will be better we learned a lot
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more than five million americans are diagnosed with heart valve disease each year and for some of these patients a heart valve replacement may be an inevitable option mechanical valves have proven to be lifesaving for many however due to their design they fall short in their ability to replicate physiological blood flow directly impacting patients' health to further improve the health outcomes of patients with artificial heart valves dr iman borazjani associate professor in the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university uses his understanding of fluid-solid surface interactions to simulate blood flow through mechanical valves as their name suggests heart valves are flaps of tissue that are attached to ventricles and allow unidirectional flow of blood from one side of the heart to the other if a valve becomes impaired due to disease or aging it can be replaced with a mechanical valve however research shows mechanical valves currently cannot exactly replicate a natural heart valve's movement in particular they create unnatural blood flows thereby increasing the patients susceptibility to clotting mechanical valves can replace damaged valves and can restore unidirectional blood flow but we are now finding that the flow patterns are not entirely physiological said borazjani this nonphysiological flow triggers an immune reaction causing clotting and so these patients remain on blood thinners for the duration of their lives to determine the causes of unnatural blood flow borazjani focused on the design of the mechanical valves that are made of polycarbonate a material known for its rigidity and toughness although durable polycarbonate is not flexible unlike a natural valve that can bend or bulge out of the way by the pressure coming from blood flow the leaflets of mechanical valves cannot distort their shape and stay in the middle of the flow the presence of the leaflets in the middle of the orifice when the valve is open causes the blood to form swirls called eddies picture a rock in a river as the water flows past the rock ripples form around the rock borazjani said the eddies created by the leaflets of mechanical valves are conceptually similar they hinder the streamline motion of blood borazjanis research reveals that the eddies are a result of the design mechanical valves that are currently on the market have two leaflets but bioprosthetic (tissue) valves have three leaflets the presence of the rigid leaflets in the middle of the flow creates eddies even when they are fully open however the leaflets of bioprosthetic valves bend out of the way when fully open and do not produce significant eddies looking ahead borazjani hopes their findings lead to new mechanical valve designs that provide not just symptomatic relief to patients suffering from heart valve disease but cuts their dependence on blood thinners over time he is working with a heart valve company novostia sa whose new valve design might achieve this we are still in the early stages of research and development and there is still a lot of work to be done before we can introduce new valve designs to patients said borazjani having said that my team has leveraged its knowledge in fluid-structure interaction and computational fluid dynamics to come a step closer to elucidating the mechanics that guide cardiovascular flow in our body
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the friends and family of walter r wilcox 81 have established the walter r randy wilcox 81 memorial endowed scholarship distributions from this generous endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university walter wilcox graduated from texas a&m with a bachelors degree in civil engineering in 1981 and a masters degree in civil engineering in 1982 he came from a long line of aggies including his mother gladys (boyett) poston 78 along with numerous of her cousins siblings and grandchildren his wife of 40 years sarah also graduated from texas a&m in 1981 with her bachelors in management poston and the rest of wilcoxs family and friends decided to create this scholarship in his honor after he passed away this august at age 61 due to covid-19 one of walters favorite things was to mentor young engineers poston said my family felt that a scholarship was the perfect way to honor my son and create an opportunity for someone else wilcoxs family and friends hope that this scholarship will provide great opportunities for someone who might not otherwise have been able to attend texas a&m we hope that the funds will be used by someone who will love texas a&m and be a role model for others poston said wilcoxs memory is carried on through his mother his children and his friends and family a successful civil engineer and lifelong aggie his legacy will be remembered not only through this scholarship but by those he impacted throughout his life
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the texas a&m college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering and its departments or would like more information on how you can give please contact patrick wilson director of development
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for the kall family the 2020 aggie ring day was special in more ways than one though scheduled to be jacqueline kalls ring day she and her family decided to surprise her dad larry with his very own aggie ring that he never got during his time at texas a&m university larry graduated from texas a&m in 1988 with a degree in civil engineering he was initially inspired to attend texas a&m by his father and the schools reputable engineering program similarly larrys daughter jacqueline was interested in texas a&m through her fathers association as well as the college of engineerings reputation and the tradition of the university jacquelines mom yvonne said jacqueline is most like her dad; they both have an engineering mind and i know he had a lot to do with her choosing texas a&m for school and followed in his footsteps however jacqueline decided to study industrial and systems engineering instead of civil engineering like her father i chose industrial and systems engineering because i knew it was broad but could still be applied in the aviation industry she said after graduation jacqueline hopes to follow her passions in the aviation industry whether thats flying or working as an engineer i hope my aggie ring can remind me of the values i hold and help me connect to those in the aggie network while larry was at texas a&m he recalls not quite understanding the tradition of the aggie ring and didn't pursue ordering one however as he grew older he realized the importance of the ring and its symbolism over the years it was evident that there was a strong former student tradition as people always asked to see the ring that i never got he said
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when jacquelines ring day finally came she felt as though she couldn't receive her ring from her father without him having his own my dad is such a proud aggie who gives love and support for everything a&m as well as represents everything an aggie is so it was fitting for him to finally get his aggie gold! jacqueline and her family presented larry with his aggie ring while they were all gathered not only for jacqueline and her cousin nathaniels ring day but also to celebrate larrys birthday i was extremely surprised! family and friends gathered outside the cavalry hotel to have birthday cake and sing happy birthday larry said afterward my daughter started to say nice things about me i thought for my birthday but she started making all these references to my time as an aggie and how well i represented the aggie spirit etc before handing me my brand new aggie ring! i was thrilled to get it but even more honored to get my ring with her who knew that 32 years later i would have a daughter getting an aggie ring and she would present me with one too! for both jacqueline and larry this was a day they would never forget and shows just how strong the aggie family is this was a really proud father moment and i am glad i unknowingly had the patience to wait for such a memorable event larry said yvonne who helped orchestrate the surprise is extremely proud of her family since the first day i met larry i knew he was an aggie she said i know he had to pay his way through school and when he graduated he concentrated on paying for his education he is very humble and kind and always thinks of others first as the years went by i realized he would have never bought himself anything i knew one day i wanted to purchase his ring for him but when jacqueline was ordering her ring i knew then it was the right time for them to share this special ring day together larry and yvonne also have two sons who attend texas christian university the couple is proud of all of their children and are thankful that their entire family got to experience this unforgettable day during these challenging times
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the texas a&m college of engineering loves to share stories about our former students if you know an aggie who is celebrating an accomplishment and would like them to be recognized by the college please contact the office of alumni relations in addition if you are like the kall family and have multiple generations of aggie engineers in your family wed love to hear your story!
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a team of more than 40 engineering students from the college of engineering at texas a&m university placed second in the overall cumulative score ranking at the 2020 autodrive challenge they are currently the top team in the united states hosted by general motors and the society for automotive engineers the competition challenges teams to develop and demonstrate a fully autonomous vehicle that can navigate an urban driving course the competition events which increase in difficulty each year test both the teams car and their technical skills the texas a&m engineering team known as the 12th unmanned included students from multiple departments across the college including mechanical electrical and computer civil and computer science engineering dr dezhen song professor in the department of computer science and engineering served as the faculty project lead we are extremely proud of our team and how they overcame the unforeseen challenges brought by the covid-19 pandemic to achieve this great success said song this year was the third competition milestone of the challenge which was held virtually it was originally scheduled to be held last spring at the transportation research center in east liberty ohio but was postponed while last years competition focused on driving scenarios with static and dynamic objects the goal of this years challenge was to design a robot taxi in order to simulate an autonomous ride-sharing scenario the year-three competition went deeper into the application domain of autonomous driving said song not only did we have to deal with the known issues in a self-driving car but we also had to consider realistic challenges in robot taxi applications such as the handling of street closures or interacting with passengers with the live events postponed the teams were judged on their static event team scores which were based on presentations and technical reports that they submitted remotely these included an overall conceptual design several computer simulations and an analysis of the social responsibility aspect of their design originally designed to be a three-year competition the autodrive challenge has been extended to a fourth year which is scheduled to take place sometime in 2021 in the coming year the team will focus on updating their previous report and gearing up to show what the past three years of development and learning have produced due to the pandemic the team did not get the chance to show off their proudest development which is the vehicle itself said song but the progress that theyve made will be shown in the year four competition so we are really looking forward to that
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lamees el nihum received the outstanding engineering graduate student award from the texas a&m university college of engineering at the virtual engineering student awards banquet held on thursday nov 5 it is given to graduate students who have demonstrated excellence in their field and comes with a $5 000 scholarship at times it is almost surreal to be on the crossroads of engineering and medicine as if i am on a bridge between worlds el nihum said had it not been for the engineering medicine (enmed) program and its rerouting me through a year of research in the midst of medical school i may never have experienced the chance to apply my undergraduate knowledge of pipes and fluids to the more nuanced and complex world of human vasculature in addition to fulfilling her academic requirements as a master of engineering student in the newly created department of multidisciplinary engineering el nihum is also a fourth-year medical student in the texas a&m college of medicine as a pilot student in the enmed program through the multidisciplinary engineering department she helped refine the curriculum for this budding program a collaborative endeavor between houston methodist hospital and the texas a&m university system involving personnel from both the college of engineering and the college of medicine established in 2017 enmed is a new initiative that develops innovation-trained health care professionals with prior academic training in engineering el nihum is a passionate driven and motivated student with an amiable personality and professional attitude said dr debjyoti banerjee professor in the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering james j cain '51 faculty fellow and a fellow of the enmed program she demonstrates selfless service in her extensive mentorship to premedical and medical students and demonstrates leadership in the enmed program as its first pilot student the first education track of its kind students in enmed earn both md and me degrees in four years and are required to pursue the design of innovative medical technologies el nihums curriculum differs slightly from that of her fellow enmed students in the inaugural class el nihum is a participant in the college of medicines robust and visionary md plus program in which several five-year dual-degree programs are offered to medical students she will obtain her me in spring 2021 and md in spring 2022 el nihum is also one of five research scholars recently selected to participate in the texas a&m university academy of physician scientists program ($25 million grant) with support from the physician scientist institutional award ($125 million) granted by the burroughs wellcome fund she is conducting various forms of research at houston methodist to gain insight into heart disease and develop her knowledge of the cardiovascular system for her future as a surgeon in having the unique opportunity of simultaneously being an enmed pilot student and burroughs wellcome scholar i have reaped the engineering mentorship of my enmed faculty the clinical mentorship of my interventional cardiologist and cardiovascular surgeon mentors at houston methodist and the tutelage and guidance of the many physicians and research scientists who dedicate their invaluable time knowledge and efforts to the burroughs wellcome fund curriculum all of whom i am deeply indebted to said el nihum el nihum is well on her way to achieving her dream of deploying innovative engineering tools while also becoming a heart surgeon banerjee said she is dedicated to enhancing her skills in engineering research for advancing the fields of cardiovascular surgery and interventional cardiology el nihum received her bachelors degree from the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m but always had the ultimate goal of attending medical school an aspiring congenital heart surgeon she is using enmeds unique partnership to research and pursue the development of diagnostic tools that can be used to treat patients with cardiac diseases my research team and i at houston methodist have two invention disclosures in the works both centered on catheter intervention techniques for cardiovascular surgery and interventional cardiology particularly geared toward congenital heart lesions said el nihum we are further studying the hemodynamics of the geometrically complex right ventricle through 4d mri (magnetic resonance imaging) and cfd (computational fluid dynamics) toward co-validation of acute and chronic flow patterns in the right heart and ultimately diagnostic and therapeutic applications el nihum has earned her title as an outstanding student through her dedication to both engineering and medicine as she continues to push toward her goals she is continually in awe of the opportunities and people texas a&m has aided her in finding i am but one small part of a colossal effort surrounded by individuals of all walks of life and equally passionate about their work and their role in striving by the grace of god to make the world a better place she said
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nuclear power plants have supplied about 20% of the annual united states electricity generation since 1990 according to the us energy information administration but that energy creates high-level radioactive waste that has to be storeddr yong-rak kim professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university has been awarded a us department of energy nuclear energy university program grant to develop a novel system in engineered barriers to permanently isolate and contain nuclear fuel waste kim is collaborating with researchers from the sandia national laboratories and the university of nebraska lincolnwe need to find a way to store nuclear fuel waste for a long time in a very safe manner this is a huge challenge for many countries where nuclear power plants have been operated kim said we need to find a better material that is less permeable and more resistant to cracking and chemical degradation than conventional materials in challenging geological environments all of the nuclear waste that a power plant generates in its entire lifetime is currently stored on-site in dry casks which is a temporary solution for nuclear waste disposalthe fundamental understanding and resulting novel material will vastly improve nuclear waste management and support the enhanced safety and security of nuclear-generated electricity in the united states kim saidthe new engineered barrier material reinforced by inorganic microfibers will significantly reduce the threat from the long-term disposal of spent nuclear fuel this will enable sustainable nuclear energy cycles in the united stateswe are very excited to be working on this project kim said the impact is huge as we can better engineer the nations nuclear waste management more safely for the next several centuries it is also a great opportunity to work with the department of energy national laboratories and technology centers
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laura e and gary c timmermann 77 have established the laura e and gary c timmermann 77 endowed scholarship distributions from this endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in the college of engineering at texas a&m university growing up gary was immersed in the texas a&m culture through his father curtis g timmermann who graduated in 1949 my parents had four children and over the years we attended many activities and events at texas a&m so we all grew up with a love and appreciation of texas a&m he said though laura did not attend texas a&m she shared garys love of texas a&m which they passed down to their three children shannon 98 dustin 04 and aaron their youngest aaron attended the united states air force academy on a baseball scholarship and graduated in 2007 the timmermanns hope their scholarship will help recipients to build and grow an aggie history of their own we are hoping that this endowed scholarship will enable many future aggie students to create their own family legacies for generations to come gary said laura and i feel immensely blessed and thankful to have the opportunity to give back to texas a&m and to hopefully help future students experience the aggie spirit and achieve their life goals we look forward to helping make this happen gary graduated from texas a&m in 1977 with his degree in civil engineering garys brother and sister linda j jeanie 74 and david 84 both graduated from texas a&m as well laura graduated from the university of texas permian basin with a degree in art and a minor in education
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the texas a&m college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering and its departments or would like more information on how you can give please contact true brown senior director of development
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david s zachry '85 advisory council member of the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university is the 2020 recipient of the american road and transportation builders association's (artba) highest honor the artba award the award was presented on oct 20 during a special ceremony at the organization's national conventionzachry has more than 30 years of professional success at zachry corporation and was recognized for his artba volunteer leadership service as a two-term (2015-17) chairman senior vice chairman first vice chairman vice chairman at large and vice chairman of the transportation development foundation zachry holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from texas a&m and an mba from the university of texas at austin he served three years of active duty in the united states army including domestic and international assignments and airborne school"david zachry is always ready to give of his time and expertise to our students and his professional community " said dr robin autenrieth department head and ap and florence wiley professor "our department bears the zachry name which reflects the enduring success of three generations of graduates from this family who have helped to transform the built infrastructure around the state and beyond and generously supported the next generations of our graduates"he is a third-generation zachry in the company founded by his grandfather hb "pat" zachry in 1924 today the san antonio-based firm builds unique large-scale projects worldwide with high integrity and innovation highways bridges waterways museums music halls hotels and hospitals are among the many projects that provide noteworthy infrastructure solutionszachry helped develop and advance an innovative revenue and tax reform package to increase federal transportation infrastructure investment by providing long-term stability for the highway trust fund (htf) the htf is the source on average of more than 50% of highway and bridge capital investments made by state governments annuallyhe launched the safety certification for transportation project professionals™ (sctpp) the construction industry's only internationally accredited safety program the sctpp seeks to significantly reduce the number of safety incidents in and around us transportation project sites nearly 500 industry professionals have earned the certification credential since its late 2016 launchzachry also played a significant role in moving the artba women leaders council strategic plan forwardestablished in 1960 the artba award recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions that have advanced the association's broad goals recipients have included more than 25 us senators or representatives two us secretaries of transportation several governors and dozens of top leaders and executives from government and the private sector of the transportation construction industry
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the texas a&m college of engineering is proud of our former students like david s zachry who display aggie core values such as loyalty selfless service and leadership if you know an aggie who is celebrating an accomplishment and would like them to be recognized by the college please contact the office of alumni relations
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even in the era of smartphones and self-driving cars the grim reality of our ever-modernizing world is that there are communities that still lack electricity and potable water making matters worse these underserved communities are often isolated from centralized power and water treatment plants making them largely dependent on infrastructure development for access to basic amenities researchers at texas a&m university have come up with an economical green solution that can help underprivileged communities with their water and electricity needs their standalone water-energy nanogrid consists of a purification system that uses solar energy to decontaminate water furthermore the setup they said is mathematically tuned to utilize solar energy optimally so that the water filtration is unhindered by the fluctuations of solar energy during the course of the day to serve areas that are remote and isolated the infrastructural cost of laying down new water pipes or setting up an electricity grid is enormous and can take a very long time said dr le xie professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering to overcome these hurdles we presented a cost-effective solution that uses solar energy to both purify water and generate electricity for basic household use the researchers have described their technology in the journal applied energy in the united states the colonias represent one of the many rural low-income communities along the texas-mexico border where basic resources are not readily available since the colonias are very remote their residents consisting of mainly migrant workers are isolated from major utility and water treatment facilities and thus have limited means for electricity and more essentially safe drinking water moreover even methods like boiling water are extremely cost-prohibitive and inadequate boiling water is one of the most expensive ways of decontamination because it takes a lot of energy to heat water said dr shankar chellam professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering also although boiling gets rid of biological contaminants it does not remove many chemical contaminants we needed a solution that could address both these problems at the same time an efficient way to decontaminate water is by passing it through purification systems these machines utilize pumps to push water through a filter however the pumps require electricity which is again scarce in the colonias so the researchers looked for a solution that would help with both the power and water requirements of the colonia residents first to cut the dependence on centralized sources of power and water xie chellam and their team conceptualized an energy-water nanogrid which is a standalone truck-mountable filtration system whose pumps could run on solar-generated electricity next they developed a cost-minimization mathematical scheme called scenario-based optimization framework that minimized the total expenditure for the standalone setup by selecting the type of filter the number and size of solar panels and the size of the solar battery
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this model revealed that if nanofiltration a type of purification technique was used harvesting solar energy just during peak availability was sufficient to run pumps and purify water in other words the water nanofiltration system was largely unaffected by the day-to-day vagaries in solar energy and could purify enough water to meet the weekly water needs of the community in this way any excess solar power that was not used for filtration could be stashed away either for storage in the battery pack or for other minor basic household needs like charging cell phone batteries overall the researchers noted that although the nanofiltration system is more sophisticated and expensive than other filtration methods its overall merit is that it can successfully desalinate and remove chemicals like arsenic present in local groundwater thus they said nanofiltration is a preferable method for desalination and water purification for other remote regions where the contaminants within the water are not already known we have for the first time used a very rigorous mathematical approach to interlink water purification and energy provision said chellam this lays out a quantitative framework that can be used in not just the colonias but in any scenario based on local conditions other contributors to the research include m sadegh modarresi from burns & mcdonnell in houston who obtained phd from texas a&m; bilal abada from the civil and environmental engineering department at texas a&m and s sivaranjani from the electrical and computer engineering department at texas a&m this work was supported in part by the texas a&m engineering experiment station the texas a&m energy institute and the national science foundation
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texas a&m university alumni david henderson was recently named the department of nuclear engineerings distinguished former student an award given annually to alumni who embody texas a&ms core values in their research and career henderson received the award for his exceptional years of service with the department of energys office of nuclear energy henderson chose to study nuclear engineering at texas a&m university on a gut instinct the nuclear engineering program stuck out to me because i saw it as one of the bigger challenges to tackle said henderson the challenge and the complexity of the field excited me as a graduate student henderson completed his masters thesis under dr john poston he wanted to pursue the topic of nuclear waste however the department didnt have an established set of courses available for that area of study together they created a custom interdisciplinary track for henderson and he completed his thesis work on the radiological consequences of a range fire over the hanford nuclear waste ponds my classmates would jokingly say that i wasnt a ‘real graduate student but i made my own path said henderson soon after graduating henderson was offered a position with the department of energy (doe) to help manage nuclear research and development within months they began putting him in charge of his own projects and by his first year he was developing a program on nuclear hydrogen research henderson who said he barely passed chemistry was a bit terrified at being referred to as the hydrogen expert i found that with the government while you may start off with a lower salary the opportunity for advancement is much quicker than in industry he said while henderson still works with the doe he took three years off to move to paris where he worked at the nuclear energy agency i had minored in french as an undergraduate and i really wanted to give my kids exposure to life outside of america said henderson this time henderson was looking at nuclear reactor deployments and technology development on a global scale he would review various countries energy policies and try to determine for example whether they were setting reasonable goals for the future in late 2018 henderson and his family returned to the united states where he currently works as a program manager for advanced modeling and simulation research and development with the doe he recently managed the close out of one major program – the consortium for advanced simulation of light water reactors – and the reorganization of another – nuclear energy advanced modeling and simulation – to ensure that does modeling program would effectively address the needs of both existing light water reactors and the future deployment of non-light water reactors henderson has some advice for current students first he advises that undergraduate students take at least one class outside of the nuclear engineering curriculum especially social sciences or communication for one the industry needs to communicate and relate in order to survive said henderson but also most people in the nuclear industry do not have a nuclear degree while many reactor designers and operators have a nuclear degree henderson spends most of his time collaborating with colleagues who have a background in chemical mechanical or electrical engineering for example and his biggest piece of advice dont give up especially to a nuclear engineering student stick with it he said because its very difficult but youll come out with a degree that enables you to understand a range of technologies speak intelligently and be proficient in related engineering fields as well
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over the past two years a texas a&m university team in the department of aerospace engineering has been working to make personal flying vehicles a reality as part of the gofly prize competition sponsored by boeing the gofly prize a two-year $2-million international competition to create a personal flying device launched in september 2017 and had almost 3 000 innovators across 110 countries competing in phase i the challenge was to create a device that can be flown by anyone regardless of experience 20 miles without refueling or recharging with vertical or near vertical takeoff and landing capability under dr moble benedict associate professor in the department of aerospace engineering a team of eight texas a&m aerospace engineering graduate students and two researchers from nasa created harmony as outlined in their written report harmony is a compact rotorcraft designed to minimize noise and maximize efficiency safety reliability and flight experience as part of phase i the team built a 1/8 scale prototype to demonstrate their vehicle design they were awarded $20 000 as one of the 10 winning teams in phase i and went on to build a prototype named aria to win the $50 000 prize for phase ii the texas a&m team was the only united states university team out of the five phase ii winners winning both phases i and ii of the gofly prize especially with such fierce competition brought a lot of excitement and confidence to the team said benedict
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phase ii involved hundreds of hours of lab testing to successfully verify their full-scale aerodynamic and acoustic predictions despite the countless hours the team has put in to developing aria they have never lost their positive energy or focus on the end goal although the hours have been long and exhausting i'm very excited about gofly said team member farid saemi i would not have enjoyed such a hands-on opportunity to develop a new field of aviation even if i had gone straight to industry as a recent graduate throughout the process the team worked to address practical issues that needed to be overcome including the size of the personal flying vehicle and the high noise levels generated the vehicle has to be less than 85 feet – something that can fit in a garage like a car and take off almost vertically helicopter rotors are very big because of the trade-off between efficiency vs compactness of a rotor said benedict we have carefully chosen a configuration that can give you very high efficiency for the given footprint to address the noise the team shaped the blades to minimize the rotor noise as much as possible at 73 decibels 50 feet in the air (the equivalent of highway noise in a car) aria was also the quietest prototype at the competition and is also believed to be the quietest rotorcraft in the world at this size scale the final personal flying vehicle can be no larger than 85 feet capable of carrying a payload of 200 pounds and must travel at a speed of at least 30 knots because the teams vehicle crashed during a flight test 10 days prior to competition they were only able to fly their one-third scale prototype for phase iii in february 2020 however harmony was one of the four teams that could fly at any scale during the final fly-off since none of the competing teams could meet the gofly requirements in the final fly off the competition still remains open benedict and his team at texas a&m intend to continue competing for the $1 million grand prize provided they can obtain university support to build the next prototype based on the new gofly rules (to account for covid-19) harmony could even demonstrate the flight capabilities of their new prototype at the rellis campus and win the grand prize benedict is confident that had the team flown the full-scale model they would have won the competition; he intends to compete in the next gofly phase with a stronger and more innovative prototype theyre currently analyzing what theyve learned from the gofly competition to improve their design in the next competition since their phase ii success the team has also built and successfully tested both the one-third scale prototype (at 22 pounds and the full-scale prototype (at 550 pounds) benedict said the visibility and success the team has had from the gofly challenge has put texas a&m on the map for evtol (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aviation this also paved the way for two research grants we recently obtained one from the army research lab on hybrid-electric aviation the other from air forces agility prime program to develop quiet propulsors for evtol aircraft the team is also grateful for the financial and commercialization support from brad worsham 88 associate professor of practice in the department of aerospace engineering texas a&m engineering experiment station office of commercialization and entrepreneurship and ray rothrock 77 texas a&m team members include david coleman farid saemi carl runco atanu halder bochan lee hunter denton vishaal subramanian and benedict more information on benedicts research can be found at his website
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dr yassin hassan from the department of nuclear engineering and the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university recently received the regents professor award from the texas a&m university system established in 1996 the regents professor award program was created to honor individuals at the rank of professor whose distinguished performance in teaching research and service has been exemplary it is the highest honor bestowed by the texas a&m system on faculty members these individuals exemplify the commitment to excellence in research and service that sets a&m system employees apart said elain mendoza chair of the board of regents hassan joined the nuclear engineering department at texas a&m as an associate professor in 1986 and has since served as the associate interim and full-time department head (from 2013-18) he is a fellow of the american association for advancement of science the american nuclear society and the american society of mechanical engineers he was the recipient of the 2020 distinguished alumni award from the grainger college of engineering at the university of illinois hassan is a subject matter expert regarding nuclear microreactors for the department of defense
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glioblastoma multiforme or glioblastoma is the most common cancerous brain tumor originating fully in the brain and never spreading outside of brain tissue although a glioblastoma is common its a very aggressive tumor that currently has no known cause and no known cure a team of researchers led by dr shiren wang associate professor in the wm michael barnes 64 department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university received a texas a&m x-grant for research on photothermal therapy to treat glioblastomas this research topic was one of eight topics chosen out of 142 submissions the eight proposals will share a total of $7 million in funding over three years with wangs initiative being awarded $1275 million a glioblastoma has tentacles that stem from the mass of the tumor and spread throughout the brain so even when a patient has an operation it is almost impossible to remove the tumor in its entirety all glioblastomas are classified as stage iv tumors because of the abnormal cell makeup and because of how quickly they can appear a glioblastoma is exceptionally difficult to operate on because it resembles healthy brain tissue so closely that the two are indistinguishable from the other when a patient undergoes surgery to remove the tumor making smaller tumors inoperable current treatments include chemotherapy or radiation therapy but these treatments at best only keep the tumor from growing and a glioblastoma is often resistant to these treatments the average life expectancy of a patient with a glioblastoma is approximately 14 months with a 5-year survival rate of 56% the photothermal therapy that wang is researching uses a noninvasive infrared light used to smartly ablate the brain tumor tissues with the use of this infrared light coupled with smart gold/peptide nanoparticles surgeons will be able to remove the unhealthy cells without any damage to the healthy ones the smart gold/peptide nanoparticles are given intravenously which then assist the infrared light in providing a localized site to effectively show the tumor against healthy brain tissue because of tumor microenvironment-induced light response the particles will stay in both the normal cell and the tumor cell but in the tumor cell the nanoparticles were responsive to the light in this case we can selectively remove the tumor wang said the infrared light heats up to around 46 degrees celsius to burn the tumor in approximately five minutes you dont know which cell is which it makes (the tumor) difficult to identify you cannot label it but you do not want to remove brain matter by mistake wang said in another part of the body like the lung or if you are dealing with breast cancer you can cut the tumor out and its not as difficult to identify but in the brain it is a much bigger deal if the cut you make is wrong the patient will lose some kind of brain function wang said there are two main drivers behind his initiative to improve the survival rate of individuals diagnosed with glioblastoma and pain reduction to improve the quality of life in patients individuals diagnosed with glioblastoma currently have a very low survival rate because of the recurrence of the tumor with this initiative the survival rate will improve significantly and there are less prescription pain killers involved it is impossible to completely remove the tumor by surgery this is noninvasive and can improve the life quality and reduce the pain for the patient wang said we can reduce the recurrence of the tumor and as a result the survival chances will be significantly improved the transdisciplinary team from texas a&m also includes: zi jing wong department of aerospace engineering karen wooley college of chemistry fadi khansawneh college of pharmacy roland kaunas department of biomedical engineering robert tsai institute of biosciences and technology jun zou department of electrical and computer engineering about the x-grants programthe x-grants program is an initiative by texas a&m to bring faculty and researchers together across disciplines as part of the presidents excellence fund the aim is to introduce creative ideas and research to address important issues in our modern-day world spanning from cancer therapy and treatment to agriculture the commitment is $100 million over 10 years to fund faculty research
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the 2020 atlantic hurricane season was one for the record books there were 30 named storms and 12 hit the united states coastlinedr james kaihatu professor and associate department head of research in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university joins a team of researchers to examine and address the vulnerability of petrochemical facilities along galveston bay to flood-induced chemical spills and releasesin a robust partnership with the college of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences the college of engineering the school of public health and the college of architecture at texas a&m and the galveston bay foundation researchers with the environmental defense fund will conduct modeling and analysis to identify which facilities are most at risk and what solutions such as natural infrastructure might reduce those risks and lessen impacts to nearby communities and ecosystemsthe unique collaboration leverages expertise across multiple disciplines that will inform strategies for other vulnerable coastal areas with heavy industrial footprints such as in neighboring louisiana the gulf research program of the national academy of sciences engineering and medicine awarded the three-year grantin his role kaihatu will create and run computer models for flooding of petrochemical facilities due to urban runoff and hurricane-induced surges hes done related work with the texas a&m superfund center in recent years
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the model will use information on incoming flood and surges to simulate and analyze flow patterns in the vicinity of these facilities and determine what would happen if chemicals inside these facilities were released in the floodwaters he said a significant portion of the land use around these facilities are residential in addition to these facilities proximity to the baychemical spills carried in floodwaters would pose a substantial risk to residents and the ecosystem of the bay low-income underserved communities along the gulf coast are at the most significant risk from releases of chemical contaminants these releases can also result in closure of fishing grounds with devastating effects to commercial fishing fleets and related jobspart of the work will include identifying how and where natural features can reduce flood risks and environmental impactsnature-based solutions for flood mitigation will be examined to minimize the effects of these possible contaminant spills kaihatu said
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two faculty members from the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university were named 2020 distinguished members of the association for computing machinery (acm) for their outstanding scientific contributions to computing the two inductees were dr tracy hammond and dr shuiwang ji all 64 of the inductees are longstanding members of the acm and were selected by their peers for their significant accomplishments in the field of computing computer science or information technology that have moved the computing world forward hammond is a professor and director of both the institute for engineering education and innovation and the sketch recognition lab she also serves as chair of the engineering education faculty hammond is an international leader in artificial intelligence data science machine learning haptics intelligent fabrics smartphone development and computer-human interaction research ji is an associate professor and director of the data integration visualization and exploration lab he is also an associate editor for the journals institute of electrical and electronics engineers transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence acm transactions on knowledge discovery from data and acm computing surveys jis research interests include machine learning deep learning data mining and computational biology view the full list of the 2020 acm distinguished members inductees
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robin rae and william p bill jensen 85 have established the jean p and william m jensen endowed scholarship distributions from their generous endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in industrial engineering at texas a&m university bill and robin established this scholarship in bills parents' names because of the love they have for texas a&m and their support of higher education although neither of them attended texas a&m bill says his father saw himself as an adopted aggie and loved every aspect of the university as for bill he was a first-generation aggie and was initially drawn to texas a&m because of the engineering program but was also attracted by its rich history and tradition the analytic skills i learned at a&m while earning a degree in industrial engineering have served me well in my practice but most of all the a&m core values and network have made a tremendous impact on my career he said
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additionally bills grandfather was a college professor and lifelong educator at both the university of wyoming and texas a&m his grandfather felt strongly about paying it forward and bill shares those same beliefs i am also a firm believer in paying it forward and want to be able to give back to students in financial need he said bill and robin hope their scholarship will have a positive impact on its recipients and that it will inspire them to one day help future aggie engineers i am hopeful that the endowment will provide a lasting scholarship for many students attending a&m and that likewise they will pay it forward he said since graduating with his degree in industrial engineering in 1985 bill went on to earn his law degree from st mary's law school in 1989 and has been a patent attorney for 31 years bill and robin have two children parker and alexandra parker is a junior at schreiner university and may attend graduate school at texas a&m and alexandra has been accepted to mays business school at texas a&m
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the wm michael barnes 64 department of industrial & systems engineering is celebrating its 80th anniversary in the coming years the departments goal for this celebration is to have 80 scholarships for the 80 years the department has existed endowments supporting the students in the department have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the departments goal or would like more information on how you can give please contact john berheim senior director of development
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amanda gibbens a former student in the department of biomedical engineering recounted her time at texas a&m university expressing her love for the time she spent here and all the things she was able to accomplish gibbens journey at texas a&m started with her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and led her to continue her academic career earning a masters degree during this time she participated in the engineering entrepreneurship program earning her concept creation and commercialization (c3) certificate among her many achievements gibbens received the jackie price dunn 02 endowed aggie ring scholarship which has been her proudest accomplishment the moments i cherished the most were those when i received my aggie ring gibbens said wearing my aggie ring is an honor i have hoped for ever since i first stepped foot on campus at the university she realized the ring represented everything she loved about texas a&m including core values comradery and the aggie spirit because of this she decided to pursue everything the university had to offer without abandon she immediately delved into the engineering entrepreneurship program by competing in aggie invent competitions i was lucky to start my first competition with an outstanding and diverse team that achieved first place after developing a hands-free functioning prototype to solve opening/closing and unlocking/locking doors for the visually impaired gibbens said after her first competition gibbens said she was hooked and went on to challenge herself in three more competitions gaining recognition in all three it was clear to her that the engineering entrepreneurship program was meant for her from making music production software more accessible to those with low vision to reducing carbon emissions in urban buildings i loved being able to tackle real-world problems outside of my degrees area of expertise gibbens said she decided to pursue the c3 certificate because she found its classes to be a great supplement to what she learned in her classes in biomedical engineering this certificate provided by the engineering entrepreneurship program aims to give undergraduate and graduate engineering students a chance to hone their entrepreneurial skills and become a self-starter of the many projects she has worked on through the certificate program gibbens said that she has developed a concept and gained customer validation for a device that allowed nonintrusive early detection of events that lead to infant mortality she hopes to one day continue the project into the prototyping phase and establish it as a potential start-up endeavor her time at texas a&m did not come without its challenges however in the bulk of the toughest coursework in her undergraduate degree her gpa dropped and she nearly lost her organization leadership positions to academic probation it was a struggle to overcome the stress that accompanied what in my eyes at the time was a complete failure gibbens said luckily i soon came to realize that a gpa is not what defines the knowledge you have gained
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she found new knowledge through perseverance during tough times as she wrapped up her engineering academic career at texas a&m gibbens said she is very thankful for the aggie network and the mentorship she has gained from faculty of the most meaningful she appreciates the professors of practice in the biomedical engineering department and members of the engineering entrepreneurship program network building warm introductions to job recruiters learning by example and a plethora of advice and insight into the engineering industry are just a few of the perks that professors of practice have imparted on my education gibbens said my sincerest thanks go to rodney boehm jim machek and alan brewer they truly make an impact on aggie engineers gibbens now works at fannin innovation studio in houston as an entrepreneurship fellow she chose this position specifically because it aligns with the career path she has in mind and because she was ready to jump into a workplace where she could contribute meaningfully gibbens knows that regardless of where she ends up the skills and knowledge she has gathered through texas a&m will further build her career
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both a machine-learning algorithm and an engineer can predict if a bridge is going to collapse when they are given data that shows a failure might happen engineers can interpret the data based on their knowledge of physics stresses and other factors and state why they think the bridge is going to collapse machine-learning algorithms generally can't give an explanation of why a system would fail because they are limited in terms of interpretability based on scientific knowledge since machine-learning algorithms are tremendously useful in many engineering areas such as complex oil and gas processes dr akhil datta-gupta is leading texas a&m university's participation in a multi-university and national laboratory project started sept 2 and initially funded by the us department of energy (doe) with $182 537 to reduce this limitation he and the other participants will inject science-informed decision-making into machine-learning systems creating an advanced evaluation system that can assist with the interpretation of reservoir production processes and conditions while they happen hydraulic fracturing operations are complex data is continually recorded during production processes so it can be evaluated and modeled to simulate what happens in a reservoir during the injection and recovery processes however these simulations are time-consuming to make meaning they are not available during production and are more of a reference or learning tool for the next operation the doe project will create an advanced system that will quickly sift data produced during hydraulic fracturing operations through physics-enhanced machine-learning algorithms which will filter the outcomes using past observed experiences and then render near real-time changes to reservoir conditions during oil recovery operations these rapid visual evaluations will allow oil and gas operators to see understand and effectively respond to real-time situations the time advantage permits maximum production in areas that positively respond to fracturing and stops unnecessary well drilling in areas that show limited response to fracturing "it takes considerable effort to determine what changes occur in the reservoir " said datta-gupta a university distinguished professor and texas a&m engineering experiment station researcher "this is why speed becomes critical we are trying to do a near real-time analysis of the data so engineering operations can make decisions almost on the fly the texas a&m teams first step will focus on evaluating shale oil and gas field tests sponsored with doe funding and identifying the machine-learning systems to use as the platform for the project next they will upgrade these systems to merge multiple types of reservoir data both actual and synthetic and evaluate each system on how well it visualizes underground conditions compared to known outcomes
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at this point datta-guptas research related to the fast marching method (fmm) for fluid front tracking will be added to speed up the system's visual calculations fmm can rapidly sift through track and compress massive amounts of data in order to transform the 3d aspect of reservoir fluid movements into a one-dimensional form this reduction in complexity allows for the simpler and faster imaging using known results from recovery processes in actual reservoirs the researchers will train the system to understand changes the data inputs represent the system will simulate everyday information like fluid flow direction and fracture growth and interactions and show how fast reservoir conditions change during actual production processes we are not the first to use machine-learning in petroleum engineering said datta-gupta but we are pioneering this enhancement which is not like the usual input-output relationship we want complex answers ones we can interpret to get insights and predictions without compromising speed or production time i find this very exciting
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lucia (lucy) and kevin leonard have established the lucia a '93 and kevin p leonard '92 undergraduate petroleum ventures program scholarship endowment distributions from this endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in petroleum engineering at texas a&m university both lucy and kevin were the first in their families to attend texas a&m and were drawn to the university specifically for its engineering program i knew i wanted to study engineering and texas a&m was known for having an outstanding engineering program kevin said plus college station offered a distance from home that was far enough away to be on my own but close enough so that my parents could visit occasionally lucy also knew she wanted to be an aggie growing up texas a&m was the only school i applied to and it was five hours away from my hometown i was drawn to the engineering program at a&m and petroleum was the perfect fit she said the leonards feel that texas a&m not only gives students an outstanding education but so much more being an aggie teaches you about respect service leadership loyalty and more they said its the overall experience that makes a great student a great employee and a future leader we are thrilled to help aggies get this education and experience they felt that now was a good time to establish an endowment to help support future aggie petroleum engineers and leaders in the industry the petroleum industry has been good to us weve enjoyed the friendships comradery and career opportunities that it has provided our family over the past 25 years and hope that others enjoy what it has to offer for the next 25 years and beyond they said the leonards know how important financial support of any kind is for students they also hope that their gift to future aggie petroleum engineers as they reflect on their lives and careers will inspire them to establish a gift to texas a&m when they feel the time is right kevin and lucia graduated from texas a&m with their bachelors degrees in petroleum engineering -- kevin in 1993 and lucia in 1994 together they have two children their oldest is a freshman at texas a&m majoring in public health and is in the class of 2024 their youngest is in third grade and they hope he will also attend texas a&m
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the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering and its departments or would like more information on how you can give please contact kelly corcoran senior director of development
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an essential component of engines used in aircraft and power generation is a gas turbine the efficiency of these machines can be significantly amplified if they are made of materials that can endure harsh environments such as high temperatures these high-performance futuristic turbines will have the potential to benefit not just the aviation and power industry but also consumers by reducing their energy costs to develop such ultrahigh temperature-resistant materials particularly those that can tolerate 1 300 c or at 1 800 c with coatings the us department of energy recently awarded $16 million to 17 projects as a part of phase 1 of the advanced research projects agency-energys (arpa-e) ultrahigh temperature impervious materials advancing turbine efficiency (ultimate) program a team led by dr raymundo arróyave professor in the department of materials science and engineering at texas a&m university has received $12 million to investigate a class of metals called refractory high entropy alloys (rheas) that can withstand higher operating temperatures finding a ‘printable refractory that would enable the next-generation ultra-efficient gas turbines is quite a scientific and technological challenge that will require that we at texas a&m university and our partners at brown university oak ridge national laboratory ames laboratory and thermo-calc inc push our scientific know-how to the limit we are very excited to take on this project said arróyave arróyaves project batch-wise improvement in reduced design space using a holistic optimization technique (birdshot) aims to identify the chemistry of promising rheas alloys by using an interdisciplinary approach that combines physics-based modeling machine learning and artificial intelligence as well as integrated high-throughput synthesis and characterization platforms arróyave said this investigation has the potential to discover alloys that can withstand the extreme environments retain compatibility with protective coatings and can be 3d printed to make custom parts for gas turbines all of these enhancements can result in significant energy savings in power generation and transportation a major challenge that our society faces is how to do more with less consuming less fossil fuels while sustaining and even augmenting our energy sources and expanding our options for safe faster and more convenient air travel is an imperative if we are to maintain our economy and keep our environment healthy arróyave said as indicated by the department of energy in their news release phase 1 will have ultimate teams demonstrate proof-of-concept alloy compositions coatings and manufacturing processes through modeling and laboratory scale coupon testing of basic properties as phase 1 concludes the findings of the teams will be reviewed and assessed for additional funding in phase 2 up to $14 million in additional funds will be available to selected teams i believe that ultimate is just the start of a broad technology development program that has significant opportunities for further development said arróyave finding materials capable of withstanding increasingly harsher operating conditions is an imperative in the energy civilian aerospace and defense sectors and the truth is that much of the science of materials under extreme conditions remains to be done there are very exciting years ahead of us
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hospital-acquired infections are a global health problem that threatens patients treatment in intensive care units patients who require intubation are at a higher risk of contracting life-threatening cases of ventilator-associated pneumonia dr vanderlei bagnato a hagler faculty fellow with the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university is testing a new cleaning method that may stop these bacteria from spreading bagnatos work based out of his lab in brazil is focused on using the power of light to destroy bacteria living on the endotracheal tube (ett) a medical device placed in the patients trachea to assist breathing and deliver oxygen into the lungs bagnato said that while the trachea tends to be filled with different bacteria that an individual breathes in these microorganisms can be attacked by the bodys immune system when people are intubated very often they do develop pneumonia because that strange surface has no contact with the bodys circulation so your body cannot fight it bagnato said the immune system cannot get to it thats why its dangerous the doctor has to come with very strong antibiotics which fight an infection theres also concern that aggressive use of antibiotics will lead to more antibiotic-resistant bacteria also referred to as superbugs
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as a physicist bagnato professor in the department of physics and materials science at the university of são paulo in brazil works with light as a physical element one common technique he uses is photodynamic inactivation where certain molecules are exposed to light and produce a free radical oxygen molecule which is destructive placing these molecules in the body can help with a variety of treatments including cancerous tumors the same thing happens to the microorganism bagnato said if i put a molecule and the microorganism close together that molecule in the presence of light will produce the reactive oxygen and then destroy the bacteria the aim of bagnatos work is to prevent the progression of an infection as soon as possible after a patient is intubated i consider this a very nice addition to the present technology of artificial breathing because infection developed in the mechanical ventilators is a problem bagnato said bagnatos team has identified the molecule that works best against the microorganisms on the tubes a challenge that involved making sure the identified molecule would harm the bacteria without negatively impacting the patient the molecule sticks to the tube and then a one-millimeter fiber optic is fed into the tube to light and activate the molecule its a low intensity bagnato said this means that if we prevent infection we give a better chance to the patient who is already on the mechanical ventilator his research was recently published in the journal proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america bagnatos team is now using an artificial trachea to evaluate how long the antimicrobial effect lasts since these tubes typically remained placed in a patients trachea for days i hope that in six seven months were going to do the first clinical trial bagnato said
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hydraulic fracturing an oil-recovery process in shale reservoirs uses tremendous amounts of fresh water to crack the shale rock and free trapped oil and gas some of this water eventually flows back to the surface where it can be reclaimed and treated for reuse however this flowback water flushes out another kind of fluid from the reservoir called produced water since produced water is severely contaminated and considered a waste product it is commonly injected underground where it poses a threat to clean water supplies and ground stability dr berna hascakir associate professor in the harold vance department of petroleum engineering at texas a&m university is investigating simple and cost-effective methods that can significantly clean produced water so it can be further treated and used in hydraulic fracturing processes saving millions of gallons of fresh water for better use elsewhere her research is part of a water management project headed by the berg-hughes center for petroleum and sedimentary systems and funded by university lands with a $771 500 grant university lands manages the surface and mineral interests of over 2 million acres in west texas and its governing board is highly involved in environmental stewardship so they are keen to find a way to reuse produced water rather than write it off as waste if the water can be cleaned enough for use in hydraulic fracturing this saves fresh water supplies and benefits both the environment and the public injecting pressurized fresh water underground is necessary for oil recovery in shale while much of this water remains in the underground reservoir what flows back up to the surface contains dissolved salts minerals and other solids that must be removed before reuse however the fluid flushed out the reservoir known in the industry as produced water has a far greater level of total dissolved solids (tds) because it has been in the reservoir for centuries for instance the salt levels in produced water can be 10 times higher than seawater about 70 teaspoons per quart or 350 grams per liter factor in the other contaminant levels in produced water and the volume of tds is incredibly tough to remove since produced water is unfit to recycle for human consumption it has been considered for reuse in hydraulic fracturing activities to save available fresh water sources for other needs however hascakir noted that this use of produced water is hardly advantageous unless its tds levels are significantly reduced opening fractures underground by injecting produced water into the tiny shale fractures means the fractures can get blocked immediately by any solids suspended or dissolved in the water said hascakir this becomes an obstacle for oil production pathways the salts in produced water are dissolved as free ions currently these ions can only be removed using advanced water treatment methods such as reverse osmosis ultrafiltration and nanofiltration however the salt levels of produced water are too high for these methods to handle so hascakir must reduce the salinity before they can be used this catch-22 situation makes removing the salts difficult but not impossible many of the other solids in produced water naturally attract salt and are suspended in the form of colloids which are larger in size than the salt ions hascakir and her student researcher damir kaishentayev are exploring three basic water treatment methods alone and in combinations to remove these larger solids while also reducing salt levels enough for the advanced treatment methods to work for the first method coagulation hascakir is taking advantage of some colloids ability to chemically or electrically attract together for example blood platelets a type of colloid can form clots hascakir said that many of the suspended solids have negative electrical charges she is using chemicals to reverse these negative repulses so these colloids cling to each other and pull salt ions in with them when they form heavy clots of molecules for non-charged colloids hascakir is using flocculation a chemical process that pulls the colloids into clumps called flocs with the use of polymers she is testing various polymers to see which ones allow the captured solids to take salts with them into the flocs the third method is sedimentation coagulation and flocculation need rapid stirring or agitation for chemical reactions to occur the stillness of sedimentation encourages larger solids coagulations and flocs to either gradually float to the surface or sink to the bottom of the treatment tanks
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hascakirs work is the initial cycle of the berg-hughes study each of her treated water samples goes on for further testing a chemical researcher will determine how well the samples respond to reverse-osmosis and other treatments agricultural researchers will test plant reactions to the treated water economic researchers will calculate water treatment costs based on hascakirs methods to see if it is cost-effective for companies to fund finally geologists will analyze how the treated water could affect groundwater should the two intermingle the project aims to find methods that can treat tremendous quantities of produced water cheaply and effectively so it can be used instead of stored away as waste that might contaminate the environment that goal is crucial said hascakir the majority of new wells drilled in the us are hydraulically fractured with an average of 3-7 million gallons of water used for every hydraulic fracturing treatment the amount of produced water flushed out of reservoirs is increasing rapidly produced water is a huge problem said hascakir if we find a solution a reuse for the university lands produced water it can be applied to every other area using hydraulic fracturing this is really exciting for me because the project connects my environmental engineering background with my petroleum engineering work and is producing a unique solution for hydraulic fracturing water needs
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a self-portrait after the spanish flu was painted by edvard munch in 1919 after the disease infected an estimated 500 million people around the world sir isaac newton discovered gravity when cambridge university shut down due to the great plague of london forcing him to return home where an apple mysteriously fell onto his head a team of students has paired with rosemarie fiore a pyrotechnic painter to make sure that art creation and discovery continue during the covid-19 pandemic every member of the team was drawn to the project because it lies at the intersection of art and engineering jon williamson said the teams project manager creating a robust tool that provides a substantial improvement from each of the previous three tool iterations would give the team a sense of accomplishment founded on the importance of art in each members life fiore is a renowned artist based out of new york known for her firework paintings crafted by custom-made pyrotechnic art tools fiore began collaborating with texas a&m university in 2018 when she used a tool created by students as part of painting smoke painting #44 which now hangs in the zachry engineering education complex i was one of the few artists chosen to be a part of the collection in zachry and thats my connection to texas a&m fiore said its been a joy working with the students on capstone projects and im always impressed with their creativity thinking outside of the box and their openness to my unique process of using tools that harness pyrotechnics williamsons team was passed down this senior capstone design project after a previous team had made significant developments on the tool which they called the smoke paint tool (spt) the team provided a terrific starting point but identified structural issues/flaws that werent able to be completed through hands-on troubleshooting and redesigning due to covid-19 complications
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the current team composed of katy armitage raul carrillo nicholas harper faith leskowitz and williamson took the spt and sought several modifications this included making the tool more robust allowing the dispersion chamber at the center of the tool to rotate fully stopping smoke leakage and mitigating soot buildup on the tool's bottom plate these improvements required adding several pieces such as a detachable platform to collect soot making modifications to the dispersion chamber to allow for rotation and many other adjustments to ensure the tool's usability their new design is called the pyrotechnic art tool (pat) although the pat differs in many ways from the spt it is also based around the chassis and chamber subassemblies said williamson the modifications to the spt were based on direct client feedback the current design stemmed from a concept dubbed the ‘platform tool due to the presence of a detachable platform to collect soot and mitigate soot blockages on the bottom plate of the tool the tool works as a pressure vessel by lighting smoke canisters and placing them in the tool the canisters are able to produce large amounts of smoke the smoke moves into the dispersion chamber causing a rise in pressure in the chamber the difference in pressure between the chamber and the environment draws smoke through holes in the tools bottom plate and onto canvas creating varying marks as the artist manipulates the tool the pat's function is to create broad and soft marks on fiores pieces that typically make up elements of her arts background
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what the tool does which is different than other tools that ive created is that the interior of the tool rotates as well as the exterior when you use it fiore said it has both rotation and counter-rotation that depends on movement and how i am working with the tool this device is not only complicated but potentially dangerous if not constructed correctly the team began working on their project at the end of may but could only meet virtually much of the time although the first part of their project which included conceptualization and understanding the customer worked on this platform the second part presented challenges the second phase of the project was slightly more difficult to overcome in a virtual environment due to the fact that this entailed actually fabricating and assembling the tool said williamson the team was able to achieve our goals throughout this process by clearly communicating with each other along every step of the way fiore who also communicated virtually with the team was incredibly happy and impressed with the students ability to continue the project despite the odds stacked against them the students have had a unique experience because of covid-19 restrictions said fiore their flexibility and professionalism when they were unable to collaborate in person has been impressive as an artist in the creative field which can include engineering social interaction is needed however they continued to hit deadlines which i give them a lot of credit for i look forward to finishing with williamsons team for more information about the senior capstone design program or to sponsor a future capstone project email dr joanna tsenn
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with the growing global concerns over climate change scientists are looking for cleaner energy sources and other ways to minimize the carbon footprint in the world researchers at texas a&m engineering and the ecole nationale superieure d'arts et métiers (ensam) are collaborating to look at the materials and products we use daily a carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions that come from the production use and end-of-life of a product or service it is expected that in the next few decades there will be a major transformation in the materials used in civilian and military applications or in the aeronautics automobile and other industries and there will be a need to use materials and products that are more environmentally friendly dr satish bukkapatnam director of the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) institute for manufacturing systems and dr mohamed el mansori professor in the department of mechanical materials science and manufacturing engineering at ensam combined their complementary strengths to advance the science and technology for biocomposite manufacturing to form the am² transatlantic partnership this partnership aims to effect change to a global manufacturing industry through extensive research collaborations education programs and mutual faculty and student exchange initiatives a biocomposite is a composite material formed by a matrix (resin) and a reinforcement of natural fibers the matrix phase is formed by polymers derived from renewable and nonrenewable resources hemp cotton jute and flax are some common natural fiber reinforcements in biocomposites that have good mechanical properties the work with professor el mansori was initiated to adapt methods for studying the machining process to create precisely shaped slabs of natural fiber composite materials for the emerging industrial applications said bukkapatnam the interest in biocomposites is rapidly growing due to their great benefits they can be used alone or as a complement to standard materials such as carbon fiber a significant market driver for high-volume applications is the potential to disassociate material costs from the fluctuating price of oil and energy el mansori said in many cases biobased materials offer weight reduction added functionality eg damping (restraining of vibratory motion) or impact absorption and occupational health benefits prior to their collaboration both bukkapatnam el mansori and their respective teams had been studying components related to smart manufacturing with various materials systems and manufacturing processes for many years in 2017 they combined their collaborative strengths: texas a&m in smart manufacturing focusing on advanced in situ sensing and ensams strengths in multi-scale modeling and analysis which led to several outcomes first was the creation of a smart experimental setup to study forces vibrations and acoustic emissions generated during the machining of natural-fiber composite materials and thereby using the signal patterns themselves to understand the physical phenomena underlying the way the material is removed from the surface of the composite material during the cutting process this guided the setting of the various conditions such as the speed at which the tool should move the cut the best orientation of the composite material to achieve an efficient cut and quality products the work also led to the development of mathematical finite element models to simulate how forces are generated during the cutting process and how they vary under the influence of the heat generated during the process
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el mansori said biocomposites especially those with long continuous fibers present many challenges during near net-shape processing where requirements include accurate dimensional tolerancing drilling holes for assembly and controlled surface characteristics finishing operations such as machining or polishing are mandatory for fabricating the biocomposite part to meet service requirements however finishing operations should not cause excessive damage in order to preserve the required industrial functionality of the biocomposite part (ie mechanical frictional thermal acoustic or damping properties) the main damage source emanates from the severe contact between the abrasive tools and the biocomposite due to the high-generated tribological and thermal stresses addressing these challenges required expertise in multiple areas understanding the mechanism of the cutting process is essential for creating quality products especially those of interest to the automotive industry bukkapatnam said besides the two of us this research effort brought together the expertise of drs jn reddy and bruce tai of mechanical engineering (at texas a&m) and two project associates drs zimo wang and faissal chegdani who have since graduated and now serve as assistant professors in suny binghamton us and arts et métiers france respectively because of the wide range of applications that exist for these natural composites the impact of their research on cutting techniques can be enormous combinations of natural fibers and biobased polymers have been shown to have appealing composite properties offering the enticing prospect that fully biobased composites are an increasing commercial reality el mansori said green image weight savings shorter cycle times scratch resistance and above all a lower (carbon) footprint are important factors for this development plus the demand from designers manufacturers and consumers for environmentally friendly products will inevitably drive the rapid development of other biocomposite materials and products as well and future developments in fully biobased composites of consistent quality natural-fiber products could also be required at an affordable price in appropriate forms for composite molding and secondary mechanical processing technology the next few decades will witness a major transformation in the materials that we use in our daily lives and for various applications bukkapatnam said there will be a major push toward using materials and products that use a minimal carbon and economic footprint and are environmentally benign this research leverages texas a&ms initiatives in smart manufacturing to lead a major thrust toward smart secure and sustainable manufacturing systems these efforts are central to the current transatlantic partnership led by texas a&m and arts et métiers
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from corpus christi to canada and around the world salt marshes and other ecosystems act as barriers for coastal communities against storm surges and natural disasters normally the resiliency of these natural barriers – or the ability for them to bounce back and recover – allows them to continue to function and protect the communities they separate from the sea however with changing climates and rising sea levels these natural barriers are being broken down across the globe engineers like dr orencio duran vinent assistant professor in the department of ocean engineering at texas a&m university are taking a deeper look into the fundamentals of coastal ecosystems and how engineering with nature elements can be used to fortify and in some cases recreate these vital protections for these coastal ecosystems to be more useful in engineering applications we need to know how they respond how they adapt how easy they are restored and in case they fail how easy it is to create them said duran vinent salt marshes are some of the most valuable and vulnerable ecosystems in the world duran vinent and his team have discovered that their threshold for recovery is lower than previously thought using a simplified formulation for sediment transport his research identified that the marshes do not need to completely fall beneath rising sea levels to begin degrading but instead begin to fragment and drown piece by piece at a lower water level every ecosystem that adapts to external conditions has a limit of adaptation a threshold above which they don't really adapt anymore and they drown or disappear said duran vinent in the case of ecosystems that are adapting to rising sea levels the threshold is dependent on how fast the sea level is rising if they're able to keep above the water then they restore themselves and stay healthy the issue that coastal engineers and scientists have been facing he continued is that they dont know what that threshold is meaning that they dont know which regions of the ecosystem are most vulnerable or at risk of degradation
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through the use of computational modeling duran vinent and his team determined a vital new piece of information to aid in solving the mystery of salt marshes: there is more than one threshold he explained that while it was originally believed that the drowning of a marsh occurred when the sea level rose above a certain point and overtook the land in an almost flooding manner they discovered there was a second lower threshold in which the marsh was degraded and broken down from within so what does fragmentation in a coastal wetland or marsh look like at this threshold imagine the seawater poking holes in the land little by little each hole becomes a new pond that grows larger in size and density and then stabilizes as the ecosystem bounces back and recovers in that area but then more and more appear over time we think that this is very informative of how degradation is actually taking place in many sites said duran vinent we knew that wetlands tend to develop ponds we have seen it in louisiana and maryland but it was interesting that while they are stable at first there are more holes opening with time and eventually the whole ecosystem will degrade in addition to better understanding of the current landscapes duran vinent said that he hopes the research will help to fortify the complex and ever-changing coastal environment through informed engineering decisions in the future billions of people live in coastal areas and they face the outcome of rising sea levels and increasing storminess he said the question becomes what part of the landscape can survive what part of this wonderful complex landscape whose stability is dictated by its vegetation can actually withstand these changes will all of those islands and wetlands and the value they provide disappear this is very useful information for engineering
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the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university presented its 2020 outstanding alumni award to cindy haven 79 who spent most of her career launching literally innovative biologically based programs at nasa cindy always took that one more chance to make an impact at nasa and now we're thrilled to recognize her many accomplishments here today said dr mike mcshane department head after graduating from texas a&m with her bachelors degree in bioengineering haven went to work in the biomedical engineering department at texas childrens hospital from there haven connected with other aggie bioengineers and took a job at nasa where she worked for 31 years she started in the life sciences project division in 1988 and was involved in various roles in spacelab missions dedicated to life sciences research i did continue to use my biomedical engineering education and relationships haven said i wasnt one of those people who got a degree and changed fields it served me well my entire career haven was a key member of the initial team that laid the groundwork for the biomedical and biological research on the international space station (iss) an effort known today as the human research facility (hrf) in 2001 haven served as hrf increment lead to watch the launch and installation of the first rack of payload equipment that started human research aboard the station an effort that continues today she also managed the iss medical project worked with the human research programs international science office to establish processes risk management and data sharing principles across all iss international partners and helped nasa transition to the exploration phase just as she had when the agency had moved from the shuttle to iss initiatives throughout her career haven made sure to maintain connections to the department and texas a&m she connected with fellow graduates used social networking to stay in touch and attended events in the college station and houston areas she gives financially and plans to leave a living legacy in the department i do believe in what the department is doing and that they're doing some amazing things haven said ive seen some of the amazing students already come past here and it makes me feel like things are in good hands over the years haven has also mentored students and provided advice especially to students who may not have received the best career guidance regarding job opportunities and the importance of preparing for the workplace beyond the knowledge gained from the classroom haven said she had not known about biomedical engineering until she came to texas a&m i want to help students with the challenges of getting into the business understanding what i call lessons learned what went wrong what went right haven said some of these lessons learned included: create your own destiny and define your goals understand why you want to do something before doing it establish your success criteria early you don't have to be the best at what you do but you want to be good at it decide what return on investment basis is to make sure you focus your energy in the right place a lifetime of learning is something that's very important haven said i've tried to make sure that i didn't stagnate make sure you get smarter change your mind along the way but never never stop learning and share with other people what you know the departments outstanding alumni award is given annually to former biomedical engineering students who shoot for the stars the award is based on peer nomination
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three faculty members in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university shared their experiences and explained what it is really like to be an assistant professor as an assistant professor one wears many hats – from teaching classes and advising students to drafting research proposals and applying for the top research grants – making this a very dynamic position the typical day a typical day is filled with preparing for classes teaching and mentoring students and setting aside time to work on research my typical day can be summarized in three key words: finding the balance said dr sung ii park i think if you ask any assistant professor to describe their day in one word it would probably be ‘busy said dr dileep kalathil it is challenging and busy but at the same time it is extremely enjoyable rewarding and satisfying passion for research one thing that each faculty member shared was their desire to make a difference in our world through research and perseverance the thing is that interestingly enough if you really work on something you may find that not many people are working on the same thing and that all people think differently dr hangue park said there are so many opportunities the reason i chose academia over probably a much better paying desk job in silicon valley is i am passionate about research kalathil said i work on artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning which is a really exciting research area especially at this time the opportunity to work on this research is something that i really cherish i get the opportunity to read the latest papers and then i also get a chance to contribute to this outcome which hopefully will push the boundaries of artificial intelligence having the ability to contribute to humanity even in my own minor way is a very rewarding experience the initial spark sung ii park and kalathil both shared that their initial interest to pursue this career path began in high school hangue park explained that he once worked on a project that focused on tracking tongue movement through circuit design this intrigued him but also led to his desire to study further into the human nervous system instead of just assisting a disabled individual he had a desire to make it possible for an individual to regain their lost function i am confident that state-of-the-art electronics technology arrived at the level to interact with the human nervous system hangue park said during my phd study i really saw that electronics could help the nervous system and help them regain their function which is really fascinating career goals and aspirations i am a member of the institute of neuroscience at texas a&m university so right now what we are trying to do is push the boundaries of neuroscience sung ii park said we are working at the interface of electrical engineering and neuroscience and we are trying to push the boundary toward neuroscience so hopefully in the near future we can do tool development and study neuroscience i really want to contribute to human kind with my research outcome hangue park said kalathils goals are to publish several research papers; help train and assist his students to be successful; receive research awards and grants to fund his research; and gain recognition for his work in his area of interest parting advice if you are really passionate and committed then this is the best job that you can get kalathil said no other job will give you the opportunity to learn continuously because clearly i am not going to teach the same thing that i am teaching now 20 30 years down the line no job will give you the opportunity to learn things by yourself and teach that to new generations of students there are several opportunities to pursue research more than you expect hangue park said if you are interested in research you should just go for it there is a road for you
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josiah coad received the craig c brown outstanding senior engineer award during the texas a&m university college of engineering student awards virtual banquet that was held last month via zoom first presented in 1947 it is the most prestigious award bestowed on graduating engineering students who demonstrate outstanding achievement leadership and character originally from idaho coad was drawn to texas a&m because both of his parents are former students he began his college career at texas a&m at galveston where he developed a strong interest in computer science after completing a project where he was tasked with building and coding an extreme weather station after transferring to texas a&ms main campus in college station texas he made the decision to pursue computer science mathematics and statistics degrees simultaneously so he could explore all of his interests i like computer science because it finds applications in nearly everything said coad furthermore as a tinkerer i like that i can implement an idea quickly and see it working almost immediately i can have the craziest idea and theres no resource or financial limits to hold me back from trying it out during his time at texas a&m he has accomplished a lot both inside the classroom and out while maintaining a near 40 gpa driven by his passion for data science and education coad founded the tamu datathon which is considered to be the first data science hackathon of its kind since its inception two years ago more than 3 500 students from 120 universities around the world have participated in it he has also had internships with facebook microsoft the central intelligence agency and robotics start-up company continuous composite it was during this time that he received an international patent for the foundational path planning code that he wrote for a continuous composite manufacturing robot other honors and distinctions include being named texas a&ms most influential student in 2016 and winning first place in the la bike share data science competition walmart computer vision competition and oxford hackathon he is also a member of the engineering honors and university honors programs coad will graduate this may in the future he hopes to become a professor and do research in the areas of robotics and reinforcement learning through his work he hopes to develop educational programs to inspire talented students from underrepresented backgrounds to get involved with stem in an effort to pass forward what was done for him i'm very thankful and honored by this award because i greatly respect the donors mr and mrs brown and the review committee that selected me for it said coad in the process of applying for this award i have had the opportunity to reflect on my time at texas a&m and the amazing faculty and professors that have made my wildest dreams become possible and i am filled with gratitude texas a&m has truly lived up to its values during my time here and i am inspired to live out these values myself going forward
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when it comes to giving back it's just what aggies do for jay stafford a graduate of the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering supporting the university that provided him with the education to launch a successful career was not a big deal it was simply the right thing to do like stafford however not all who join the department had a straight path to mechanical engineering the houston native first came to texas a&m university in 1943 to study in the college of agriculture and his journey included many twists and turns along the way as a sophomore stafford was drafted into the us navy where he served for nearly two years before returning to complete his agriculture degree at texas a&m but when he graduated in 1948 his path diverged from those of his classmates while many of his peers set off to serve as county agents he knew that path wasn't for him "i'm not a public speaker so that didn't fit me at all " stafford said "so i kind of drifted off into something else" something else it turned out was geophysical work a decision that would take him around the world by december 1948 he was living and working in saudia arabia stafford would stay there for five years a time he remembers fondly for frequent summer vacations in europe before getting married and moving first to australia then guatemala in 1958 stafford returned to texas a&m determined to forge a new path for himself he decided to pursue a new bachelor's degree in the mechanical engineering department having felt drawn toward mechanical engineering work during his career in geophysics as a married student several years older than his peers stafford said he remembered being a bit of a loner during his return to college station despite this he was ultimately thankful for the strong foundation the mechanical engineering department provided after graduating in 1963 stafford went to work for conoco designing seismic vibrators for their geophysical explorations equipment he would remain there until 1985 during this time stafford experienced professional success in his work developing better more efficient seismic vibrators to support conoco's explorations department holding several patents in his name for the parts he created at the same time he also experienced personal loss with the death of his wife in 1975 in 1978 stafford remarried and by 1988 he had retired now living in oklahoma stafford said he wanted to give back to the department to pay forward the education he received in mechanical engineering he and his wife millie have funded an undergraduate scholarship established in 2006 which this year supported 14 students they have plans for several additional avenues to support the department including three professorships three faculty fellowships and two graduate fellowships in looking at the impact their scholarship has already had stafford said he hopes it will continue to help students to stay in school and to achieve their goals whatever they may be "there are many students that need help and i'm able to do it at this point " stafford said "it's the right thing to do aggies stick together and that's what i'm trying to do there are many more that do the same thing i just do what i can do" dr andreas polycarpou james j cain chair professor and department head of the mechanical engineering department said the support the staffords have provided to the department will serve to make a positive impact for many years to come mr stafford embodies the aggie spirit through his sincerity perseverance and commitment to supporting future generations of mechanical engineers polycarpou said through this he exemplifies many of the valuable qualities we strive to promote in the department looking toward the future stafford said current students have a range of exciting options available to them if they're willing to work hard and adapt to all the twists and turns life often presents much as he did throughout his life and career "things occur that you don't even think about and you really can't plan for it it just happens " stafford said "either you find a way to improve things for yourself or the decision will be made for you you have to be ready mechanical engineering is a big field and there is all kinds of stuff to pursue for anyone interested"
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the united states generates a colossal seven million tons of sewage sludge annually enough to fill 2 500 olympic-sized swimming pools while a portion of this waste is repurposed for manure and other land applications a substantial amount is still disposed of in landfills in a new study texas a&m university researchers have uncovered an efficient way to use leftover sludge to make biodegradable plastics in the september issue of the journal american chemical society (acs) omega the researchers have shown that the bacterium zobellella denitrificans zd1 found in mangroves can consume sludge and wastewater to produce polyhydroxybutyrate a type of biopolymer that can be used in lieu of petroleum-based plastics in addition to reducing the burden on landfills and the environment the researchers said zobellella denitrificans zd1 offers a way to cut down upstream costs for bioplastics manufacturing a step toward making them more competitively priced against regular plastics the price of raw materials to cultivate biopolymer-producing bacteria accounts for 25-45% of the total production cost of manufacturing bioplastics certainly this cost can be greatly reduced if we can tap into an alternate resource that is cheaper and readily obtainable said dr kung-hui (bella) chu professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering we have demonstrated a potential way to use municipal wastewater-activated sludge and agri- and aqua-culture industrial wastewater to make biodegradable plastics furthermore the bacterial strain does not require elaborate sterilization processes to prevent contamination from other microbes further cutting down operating and production costs of bioplastics polyhydroxybutyrate an emerging class of bioplastics is produced by several bacterial species when they experience an imbalance of nutrients in their environment this polymer acts as the bacterias supplemental energy reserves similar to fat deposits in animals in particular an abundance of carbon sources and a depletion of either nitrogen phosphorous or oxygen cause bacteria to erratically consume their carbon sources and produce polyhydroxybutyrate as a stress response one such medium that can force bacteria to make polyhydroxybutyrate is crude glycerol a byproduct of biodiesel manufacturing crude glycerol is rich in carbon and has no nitrogen making it a suitable raw material for making bioplastics however crude glycerol contains impurities such as fatty acids salts and methanol which can prohibit bacterial growth like crude glycerol sludge from wastewater also has many of the same fatty acids and salts chu said that the effects of these fatty acids on bacterial growth and consequently polyhydroxybutyrate production had not yet been examined there is a multitude of bacterial species that make polyhydroxybutyrate but only a few that can survive in high-salt environments and even fewer among those strains can produce polyhydroxybutyrate from pure glycerol said chu we looked at the possibility of whether these salt-tolerating strains can also grow on crude glycerol and wastewater for their study chu and her team chose the zobellella denitrificans zd1 whose natural habitat is the salt waters of the mangroves they then tested the growth and the ability of this bacteria to produce polyhydroxybutyrate in pure glycerol the researchers also repeated the same experiments with other bacterial strains that are known producers of polyhydroxybutyrate they found that zobellella denitrificans zd1 was able to thrive in pure glycerol and produced the maximum amount of polyhydroxybutyrate in proportion to its dry weight that is its weight without water next they tested the growth and ability of zobellella denitrificans zd1 to produce polyhydroxybutyrate in glycerol containing salt and fatty acids and found that even in these conditions it produced polyhydroxybutyrate efficiently even under balanced nutrient conditions when they repeated the experiments in samples of high-strength synthetic wastewater and wastewater-activated sludge they found the bacteria was still able to make polyhydroxybutyrate although at quantities lower than if they were in crude glycerol chu noted that by leveraging zobellella denitrificans zd1 tolerance for salty environments expensive sterilization processes that are normally needed when working with other strains of bacteria could be avoided zobellella denitrificans zd1 natural preference for salinity is fantastic because we can if needed tweak the chemical composition of the waste by just adding common salts this environment would be toxic for other strains of bacteria she said so we are offering a low cost a sustainable method to make bioplastics and another way to repurpose biowastes that are costly to dispose of other contributors to this research include fahad asiri chih-hung chen myung hwangbo and yiru shao from the civil and environmental engineering department at texas a&m this research is supported by the kuwait institute for scientific research the ministry of higher education of kuwait fellowship and the fellowship from the ministry of science and technology of taiwan
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dr tanmay lele has been named unocal professor in the biomedical engineering and chemical engineering departments at texas a&m university the professorship awarded by the texas a&m college of engineering is in recognition of leles exceptional record as a researcher and educator lele joined the department of biomedical engineering as a full professor in summer 2020 after moving up through the ranks at the university of florida where he began his career as an assistant professor in chemical engineering in addition to his primary appointment lele also serves as a professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering he received his doctoral degree in chemical engineering from purdue university and conducted his postdoctoral research in vascular biology at harvard medical school and boston childrens hospital leles research focuses on mechanobiology the mechanical aspects of biology where he works to understand how cells sense external mechanical forces as well as how they generate mechanical forces and how these mechanical forces impact cell function a key interest is in the field of cancer mechanobiology with a focus on the role of the nucleus in the development of abnormal tissue structure and function he also holds a courtesy appointment in the texas a&m health science center and is building an experimental lab at the institute for biosciences technology in the texas medical center in may lele received a $5 million recruitment of established investigators grant from the cancer prevention and research institute of texas to further knowledge about cancer and how it progresses as such lele represents a major investment of the state and university in applying engineering to solve important problems in cancer in collaboration with world-leading life medical researchers his professorship further recognizes his leadership and will support his continued pioneering cancer research on the cutting edge of onco-engineering
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each waking moment our brain processes a massive amount of data to make sense of the outside world thus by imitating the way the human brain solves everyday problems neuromorphic systems have tremendous potential to revolutionize big data analysis and pattern recognition problems that are a struggle for current digital technologies but for artificial systems to be more brain-like they need to replicate how nerve cells communicate at their terminals called the synapses in a study published in the september issue of the journal of the american chemical society researchers at texas a&m university have described a new material that captures the pattern of electrical activity at the synapse much like how a nerve cell produces a pulse of oscillating current depending on the history of electrical activity at its synapse the researchers said their material oscillates from metal to insulator at a transition temperature decided by the devices thermal history materials are generally classified into metals or insulators depending on whether they conduct heat and electricity but some materials like vanadium dioxide lead a double life at certain temperatures vanadium dioxide acts like an insulator resisting the flow of heat and electric currents but when heated to 67 degrees celsius vanadium dioxide undergoes a chameleon-like change in its internal properties converting to a metal these back-and-forth oscillations due to temperature make vanadium dioxide an ideal candidate for brain-inspired electronic systems since neurons also produce an oscillatory current called an action potential but neurons also pool their inputs at their synapse this integration increases the voltage of the neurons membrane steadily bringing it closer to a threshold value when this threshold is crossed neurons fire an action potential a neuron can remember what voltage its membrane is sitting at and depending on where its membrane voltage is with respect to the threshold the neuron will either fire or stay dormant said dr sarbajit banerjee professor in the department of material sciences and engineering and the department of chemistry and one of the senior authors of the study we wanted to tweak the property of vanadium dioxide so that it retains some memory of how close it is to the transition temperature so that we can begin to mimic what is happening at the synapse of biological neurons the transition temperatures for a given material are generally fixed unless an impurity called a dopant is added although a dopant can move the transition temperature depending on its type and concentration within vanadium dioxide banerjee and his teams objective was to imbue a means of tuning the transition temperature up or down in a way reflecting not just the concentration of the dopant but also the time elapsed since it had been reset this flexibility they found was only possible when they used the boron when the researchers added boron to vanadium dioxide the material still transitioned from an insulator to a metal but the transition temperature now depended on how long it remained in a new metastable state created by boron biological neurons have memory of their membrane voltage; similarly boron-spiked vanadium dioxide has a memory of its thermal history or formally speaking how long it has been in a metastable state said dr diane sellers one of the primary authors of the study and a former research scientist in banerjees laboratory this memory determines the transition temperature at which the device is driven to oscillate from metal to an insulator while their system is an initial step in mimicking a biological synapse experiments are currently underway to introduce more dynamism in the materials behavior by controlling the kinetics of the relaxation process of vanadium dioxide said dr patrick shamberger professor in the materials science department and a corresponding author on the study in the near future dr xiaofeng qiang professor in the materials science department and banerjees collaborator on this project plans to expand on the current research by exploring the atomic and electronic structures of other more complex vanadium oxide compounds in addition the collaborative team will also investigate the possibility of creating other neuromorphic materials with alternative dopants wed like to investigate whether the phenomenon we have observed with vanadium dioxide applies to other host lattices and other guest atoms said dr raymundo arróyave professor in the materials science department and a corresponding author on the study this insight can provide us with several tools to further tune the properties of these types of neuromorphic materials for diverse applications erick j braham from the department of chemistry is a co-primary author on this study other contributors to this research include baiyu zhang drs timothy d brown and heidi clarke from the materials science department; ruben villarreal from the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering; abhishek parija theodore e g alivio and dr luis r de jesus from the department of chemistry; dr lucia zuin from the university of saskatchewan canada; and dr david prendergast from the lawrence berkeley national laboratory california this research is funded by the national science foundation and the air force office of scientific research
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when former student dr kelli humbird came to texas a&m university she had one primary goal for the future: to find a career in which she would be able to cultivate her love of caring for and owning horses instead she ended up pursuing a double major in nuclear engineering and physics before beginning what would soon be a prominent career as a researcher and engineer most recently humbird was named the recipient of the 2020-21 department of nuclear engineering young former student award which was established in 2018 to recognize and honor former students excellence in professional leadership and their contributions to the nuclear field as an undergraduate at texas a&m humbird worked with dr marlan scully studying quantum optics works in the field of physics and dr william marlow who mentored her as an undergraduate marlow is now retired but humbird would sit in his office for hours talking about different ideas and credits him as one of her primary motivators humbird received her masters degree and began her doctorate under dr ryan mcclarren at texas a&m but moved to northern california to finish it she ended up applying for and receiving a fellowship from the philanthropic education organization (peo) which created scholarships for women pursuing a phd in any field had i not had their support i definitely would not have gotten to the place i am said humbird now employed at lawrence livermore national laboratory as a design physicist humbird helps create and model physics experiments for a variety of different applications until recently her work has revolved around inertial confinement fusion the process of making lab-created miniature stars shes also ventured into the nuclear forensics field and has assisted the global security directorates nuclear forensics group
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one of humbirds favorite parts about her background in nuclear engineering is how diverse it is people think that nuclear engineering is a very specific field and that if you have a nuclear engineering degree youll just get stuck working in a power plant said humbird but thats so far from the truth even at livermore we have a dozen different jobs for a dozen different engineers that are all very unique humbirds dissertation focused largely on machine learning and artificial intelligence something that came in handy when she was recently asked to help model the spread of covid-19 one of the teams i work on was asked to help model the spread of covid-19 and we were all suddenly thrown into this very immediate and tangible problem explained humbird it cant be understated how great it feels to be able to work on a problem that is actively affecting us and then to try to be a part of that solution humbirds love and care for animals never diminished in fact she still has a horse having not gone a month without having one since she was a child and continues to be passionate about animal welfare her only wish is that her mother who passed away in august was here to share the news with being recognized with this award means a lot to me because she supported me relentlessly during college and graduate school said humbird while i wish she were here pushing forward and trying to make an impact in this world is exactly what she always wanted for me
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when ashwin gadgil a doctoral candidate in the department of ocean engineering at texas a&m university at galveston was tasked by the us army corps of engineers to design beneficial-use islands in the corpus christi bay made using dredged sediment pulled from the channel several things were on his mind perhaps most important was to design the islands in such a way that the least amount of sediment was transported back into the channel by nature this was a common theme that i observed in all the coastal projects ive worked on: everybody is really worried about where sediment ends up in a coastal region said gadgil especially when it ends up in a ship channel because dredging up millions of cubic yards of sediment from a ship channel is exceedingly expensive particularly when sediment starts showing up in places where you're not expecting it taking this observation and expanding upon it gadgil now works alongside faculty advisor dr john "bert" sweetman ocean engineering professor on several projects to develop models and/or methods to predict the movement of sediment in coastal areas gadgils research not only expands upon current knowledge but can also be applied by industry engineers and researchers to reduce both the cost and challenges of research and implementation when it comes to the prediction of sediment transport such as in dredging projects removing randomness the first of these projects gadgil explained aimed at removing the randomness associated with ocean waves in sediment transport through a new statistical model ocean waves are random; random waves cause random sediment transport he said at any particular location you can have this wide range of values of sediment transport that may occur depending on the underlying phases (of the ocean) one simulation might suggest its 15 million cubic yards of sediment; one might say it's 17 million one might say it's 2 million so what's the exact answer because of this wave randomness the results of time-domain simulations – those which measure parameters over a given time – can vary significantly in a given coastal environment to counteract this researchers must run multiple simulations to find the average sediment transport
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the problem with that method gadgil said is that it is computationally expensive the simulations are run with time steps of a half- or quarter-second and are used to predict sediment transport over days weeks or months this requires a huge amount of computational resources to get enough data to average into an accurate prediction to remedy this gadgil developed a statistical method titled prediction of sediment transport in evolving probability space (prosteps) that predicts the average sediment transport in a single computation eliminating the randomness in prediction with an overall accuracy of more than 99% unifying pressure gradient research gadgils second project revolves around pressure gradients (the direction and rate of change in pressure at a particular location) under the mud line while pressure gradients have been studied by many researchers the literature about it is segmented and inconsistent to gain a comprehensive fundamental understanding of how pressure gradients affect sediment transportation he combined previous work on the subject to create a new formula that accounts for pressure gradient forces on the top layer of the sea bed once (the sediment) starts to move there are various transport functions and equations that you can use to predict the total transport were not going in that domain said gadgil we are trying to study and make clearer under what conditions the sediment will move or not in the first place gadgils equation which builds on the critical shields parameter that determines whether a particle will move explains how the pressure gradient at any given time will affect the critical shields parameter and thus increase or decrease the likelihood for sediment to move the effect of ship wakes the third project focuses on the effect that the immediate ship wake (the wave pattern caused by a moving boat) behind a vessel has on sediment transport immediately behind the ship is a very interesting area from a hydrodynamic standpoint because you have this huge transverse ship wake that starts with a trough and this massive drop in pressure which is combined with the propeller wash that's shooting out of the propeller of the ship a combination of these effects can affect sediment transport significantly he said he explained that this particular aspect of his research which is still in the early stages focuses on ships in a bay like corpus christi or galveston where engineers need to minimize the amount of sediment that ends up in ship channels to reduce dredging costs maintenance needs etc like my advisor dr sweetman often says: science for the sake of science can be interesting but if it's not applicable then it's never going to be used said gadgil so you want it to be interesting and new but you also want it to be applicable to real-life scenarios and to make a meaningful difference that in my opinion really is what makes a good phd thesis
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dr shadi balawi feels that as a professor it is his job to ensure every student who walks into his classroom fully grasps the concepts he is teaching it is this connection that inspires his passion for academia i think one of the things to maintain as a professor is that we need to encourage and inspire said balawi an associate professor of instruction in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university we need to help the students fulfill their potentials we need to make sure they are engaged and that they like what theyre doing when he gets the opportunity to see a student truly understand a topic balawi said it is gratifying to know they will be able to move forward independently that type of interaction is something that i really treasure he said balawi comes from a history of academia beginning with his graduate studies at the university of cincinnati where he was adjunct faculty in the department of aerospace engineering and received his phd it was then when he realized his passion for teaching others i liked the idea of clarifying issues that people may not have understood said balawi i figured out that i could do that i had always liked academia and i felt that maybe i had some kind of talent there with nearly 20 years of teaching experience balawi has worked for texas a&m since january of 2018 he currently teaches materials and manufacturing (meen 360 and 361) balawi wants his students to learn skills that can be applied to make important decisions to balawi teaching goes beyond numbers and words i always tell my students that you are not hired for your ability to do math and figure out what to do with the numbers in terms of equations and models balawi said it is about what these numbers actually mean and how you make use of them in real-life applications
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two faculty members from the texas a&m university college of engineering are among 175 scientists elected to the 2020 class of fellows by the national academy of inventors (nai) the new fellows are dr duncan j maitland director of research and stewart & stevenson professor i in the department of biomedical engineering and dr richard miles tees eminent professor in the department of aerospace engineering maitland and miles were named to the inaugural class of nai senior members earlier this year dr bill mccutchen associate professor and center director for the texas a&m agrilife research and extension center in stephenville was also named a 2020 nai fellow i applaud the nai for selecting these three outstanding researchers as 2020 fellows said dr mark a barteau vice president for research at texas a&m university and an nai fellow this honor recognizes their scholarship talent and innovation as well as their ongoing commitment to texas a&ms mission to produce innovations and solutions that address our worlds greatest challenges maitlands research focuses on novel treatments of cardiovascular disease with an emphasis on stroke his research projects include endovascular interventional devices microactuators optical therapeutic devices and basic device-body interactions and physics including computational and experimental techniques he founded shape memory medical inc to commercialize vascular embolic devices the company has fda-approved products intended to obstruct blood flow to treat vascular abnormalities such as aneurysms that occur in the brain as well as peripheral vessels miles research includes the use of microwaves nanosecond high voltage pulses surface dielectric barrier discharges electron beams magnetohydrodynamic devices and lasers in driving and controlling aerodynamic phenomena; stand-off detection of explosives hazardous gases and greenhouse gases by laser or microwave techniques; flow velocity measurement by laser ionization and molecular tagging; microwave and laser control of flame propagation ignition and lean combustion operation; and development of advanced laser diagnostics for surfaces and for equilibrium and non-equilibrium gases and plasmas miles is a member of the national academy of engineering fourteen current or past texas a&m faculty members have been selected as nai fellows since the organization named its charter fellows in 2012 the nai fellows program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life economic development and the welfare of society election to nai fellow is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors to date nai fellows hold more than 42 700 issued us patents which have generated over 13 000 licensed technologies and companies and created more than 36 million jobs in addition over $22 trillion in revenue has been generated based on nai fellow discoveries the class of fellows will be inducted at the 2021 fellows induction ceremony at the tenth annual meeting of the national academy of inventors in june in tampa florida
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how has energy consumption changed during the covid-19 pandemic this is a question that researchers in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university are hoping to answer dr le xie professor in the department and his team and collaborators have created a first-of-its-kind cross-domain open-access data hub to track the impact of the pandemic and subsequent social distancing and work-from-home policies on us electricity markets published in the september issue of joule a prestigious academic journal focused on bridging diverse disciplines of energy research the coronavirus disease – electricity market data aggregation+ (covid-emda+) hub combines data across disciplines that showcases how human and environmental habits have impacted electricity usage theres a lot to take into account when it comes to electricity consumption related to a pandemic and data hubs similar to this one have already been attempted so what makes this one different the difference is that covid-emda+ incorporates seemingly extraneous information that turns out to be quite important to our understanding of the impact of the pandemic on the electricity sector the data hub contains five major components: electricity market data public health data weather data mobile device data and nighttime light satellite data weather definitely affects electricity usage said xie for instance texas had quite a hot summer so although everyone was quarantining inside the month of august saw a surge in energy consumption from air conditioners the gps location of mobile devices a dataset that has never before been used in the analysis of the electricity sector helps illustrate patterns in mobility how many people are social distancing versus how many people are still visiting shopping centers
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the phenomenon of human mobility became an even greater factor to understanding electricity consumption once nasa published nighttime satellite images of large cities when looking at images of houston and new york city lit up at night from before and during the covid-19 pandemic the stark contrast is clearly visible in manhattan alone the city light at night was dimmed by about 40% between february and april this meant that as quarantine progressed fewer people were venturing outside in the evenings for a romantic dinner for two a family movie night or a visit to the shopping malls less human mobility meant less electricity needed to keep the busy cities lit their research uncovered a key finding: mobility is a strong indicator of electricity consumption changes in new york the strongest indicator of electricity consumption is the visits to the retail sector – the shopping malls and grocery stores said xie we didnt realize how much that impacts electricity consumption when visits to the retail sector decrease electricity consumption plummets moving forward xie hopes to incorporate data regarding socioeconomic status to shed more light on how the pandemic has impacted economically disadvantaged communities someone who works minimum wage on an hourly basis will be affected much differently than someone who does not have to worry about their next paycheck said xie the hub can serve as a unique lens to examine questions related to socioeconomic disparities and hopefully uncover areas of energy poverty where families may have trouble accessing reliable and affordable energy the data hub is updated daily after careful quality control to provide the most up-to-date information to the public xie and his team hope this data hub can serve as an open-access tool for system operators as well as for state and federal policy makers not only will it help policymakers make more informed decisions when it comes to allocating resources but it will also help society become more aware of how much energy we consume and how we consume it it helps everyone to be more energy conscious and cognizant especially during this once-in-a-lifetime societal crisis said xie
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l david black '59 is the recipient of the 2021 wm michael barnes 64 department of industrial and systems engineering distinguished former students award for his significant success and contributions in management manufacturing marketing and sales industries throughout his 41-year career in 1990 black was recruited as president and chief operating officer for jlg industries inc the worlds leading designer and manufacturer of access equipment headquartered in mcconnellsburg pennsylvania he retired in 2001 as chairman of the board president and chief executive officer black established the marilyn and l david black faculty fellows in industrial and systems engineering a fund to support one or more faculty fellows in the department this fund also helps support the teaching research service and professional development of the recipient black grew up in morgans point texas and graduated from la porte high school where he met his wife of 61 years marilyn he graduated from texas a&m university with a bachelor of science in industrial and systems engineering he received his graduate degree from the university of houston dr lewis ntaimo department head of the industrial and systems engineering department was a recipient of the marilyn and l david black faculty fellow award in 2017-18 i am grateful for the marilyn and l david black faculty fellow award it helped me fund my research travels during those years ntaimo said john bernheim our senior director of development and i had the pleasure of meeting both marilyn and david at their house in san antonio back in february of this year i can tell you that they are among the most humble and generous people i have met not to mention davids sense of humor! the distinguished alumni award recognizes graduates who distinguish themselves by achieving significant accomplishments in their careers and who possess the highest standards of integrity and character that enhance the reputation of the department to be eligible for this award all nominees must possess an undergraduate or graduate degree from the wm michael barnes 64 department of industrial and systems engineering early career alumni nominees must be less than 15 years from the receipt of their last degree from the department i can attest to you that given his significant achievements and generosity to our department mr black deserves the honor of being awarded the distinguished alumni award ntaimo said
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in a new study published online in the journal american chemical society (acs) applied polymer materials scientists at texas a&m university reported they have designed a hydrogel membrane that may be used to house optical glucose sensing materials toward building a biosensor for monitoring sugar levels in diabetics by incorporating dangling comb-type molecular chains within a type of hydrogel called poly(n-isopropylacrylamide) or poly nipaam for short they showed that the membrane could prevent leakage of small-sized molecules like the ones for glucose-sensing while still allowing glucose to freely diffuse in and out when ready for clinical use the researchers said these membranes could be used to form biosensors that could be easily implanted under the skin of the wrist and might offer a more comfortable alternative to transdermal implants which sit partially outside the skin moreover unlike transdermal implants that need to be changed every few weeks this type of subcutaneous implant may only need to be replaced every few months we've done a lot of work on hydrogel materials looking at mechanical properties and foreign body reactions but our grand goal has always been to use poly nipaam membranes to build a subcutaneous glucose biosensor said dr melissa grunlan professor and holder of the charles h and bettye barclay professorship in the department of biomedical engineering in this study we have been able to fine-tune the diffusion properties of these hydrogels that we have previously identified as a promising candidate for building long-term functioning glucose biosensors poly nipaams are a class of organic hydrogels that have a soft texture like contact lenses one of their attractive properties is that they can undergo cyclical swelling and deswelling with small temperature fluctuations in the body since their surface is dynamically changing with temperature they deter the attachment of cells and biomolecules this active self-cleaning mechanism makes poly nipaam hydrogels appealing for implants since they minimize the attack from the immune system to use the poly nipaam membrane for monitoring blood sugar it must house enough glucose-sensing molecules or assays furthermore the longevity of the hydrogel also depends on the membranes ability to retain these assay molecules without their leaking out think about the nipaam hydrogel like a knitted sweater where the spaces between the meshes are formed by the crossing stitches right now these spaces or windows in the hydrogels are too big letting the assay molecules go right through said grunlan if the assays keep leaching out this way we're not going to have a long functioning sensor therefore grunlan and her team focused their efforts in fine-tuning the properties of poly nipaams to limit the leaking of glucose-sensing molecules while still allowing the glucose to freely diffuse through the hydrogel to decrease the size of gaps the researchers inserted dangling molecules of different charges lengths and concentrations to the poly nipaam hydrogel when incorporated into the hydrogel these molecules create comb-shaped barriers whose teeth are designed to block diffusion of small assay-sized molecules to test if this comb-like architecture can limit diffusion of glucose sensors they also put within the hydrogel fluorescently tagged molecules called dextrans which served as proxies for glucose-sensing molecules next they placed the hydrogel into water and measured the amount of fluorescence in the water due to the leaking of dextrans from the hydrogel the researchers found that when they used a negatively charged molecule called poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid) or pamp the combs prevented the diffusion of dextrans furthermore they also observed that glucose molecules were unhindered in their flow in and out of the hydrogel
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