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misra and liu searched for the causation of each of these turnings to confirm their source they couldnt rely on the computer to complete this step because machine learning is not the best interpreter during the heat of the summer ice cream sales increase and drowning deaths increase said misra if you use machine learning or simple statistical methods they might say people are drowning because people eat ice cream that's a correlation though they are both related to the summer heat they are not connected to each other they each have a different cause we are looking for causation for these turnings because that's when they become meaningful misra and liu created a workflow that could generate scenarios of various fracture propagations and measured waveforms then they increased the workflows speed to rapidly run up to 20 000 different simulations of possibilities for each event this allowed the researchers to discover the best cause-and-effect explanations we didnt control how the discontinuity propagated so there's a lot of randomness said misra yet as the fractures grew despite the differences in direction or length results showed a similar increase in amplifications or positive and negative turnings across the zero point in the waveforms so this is a definite signature of rock failure which to the best of my knowledge was not known prior to this research while the signature discovery is exciting the project still has several months to go misra intends to explore the limits of the data-driven simulations and causal discovery approach he will also test other methods to see if similar or different results occur what we need to do as scientists as engineers is to find causality find causation said misra we tried a lot of different techniques to discover this signature and its causal relationships a lot of approaches didn't work but one did now we need to find the limits of what it can do
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wildfires have devastated communities globally in recent years urging researchers to continue their pursuit of finding new ways to help protect lives and property researchers led by a texas a&m university professor have created a coating treatment with the potential to mitigate the spread and damage of fire without many of the drawbacks typically associated with fire retardant solutions leading the team is principal investigator dr jaime grunlan leland t jordan '29 chair professor in the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering and his former graduate student dr thomas kolibaba who is currently a nuclear regulatory commission postdoctoral fellow at the national institute of standards and technology "if the pandemic hadn't happened fire would have been a top story this past couple of years due to major fires in places like california and australia " grunlan said according to the national fire protection association home fires result in billions of dollars in property damage each year and are the leading cause of fire deaths as a native of the pacific northwest kolibaba said he hopes to see this coating become accessible to the average person allowing those who live in high-risk areas to treat their own homes and property with the coating to protect against fire damage "the solution could be sold put into a backpack sprayer like what many people use for staining wood siding or spraying herbicides on farms and then applied to structures of concern such as houses fences and barns during fire season to keep their homes safer " kolibaba said the team shared their findings during the 2022 american chemical society spring meeting on march 22 the group's test showed that when exposed to flames wood treated with the coating saw less heat released during burning produced less smoke and developed a layer of char on the surface that helped to protect the wood underneath all features that could help to reduce fire damage and spread in addition to protecting structures and homes grunlan said this coating technology could also be applied to a variety of materials often found in furnishings including foam and fabric and vehicles like cars planes and trains the developed coating is also environmentally benign thanks to its water-based nature and adds very little weight to the material to which it is applied grunlan said their approach improves upon other coating technologies seeking to achieve similar results but include drawbacks like substantial added weight and toxic properties for people or the environment "the ability to make wood or wood composites such as oriented strand board or plywood 'self-extinguishing' without changing any other beneficial properties will be a tremendous benefit to everyone " grunlan said "forests homes and buildings will be much safer"
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bryton praslicka doctoral student in the department of electrical and computer engineering and daniel zamarron master of business administration student in mays business school at texas a&m university received the first-place award at the 2022 aggie pitch competition on march 7 for their startup company fluxworks llc claiming the mcferrin cup and $7 500 toward their venture a total of 20 startups were selected as finalists for the competition which was separated into three divisions: full pitch for current students full pitch for former students and elevator pitch which was open to both fluxworks is a developer and manufacturer of magnetic gears and magnetic gear-integrated motors which it will be using for unmanned aerial vehicles (uavs) and future electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxi vehicles praslicka and zamarron both have experience building magnetic gears in the advanced electrical machines and power electronics lab at texas a&m unlike mechanical gears which create their torque effect through the meshing of teeth magnetic gears create torque through magnetic fields in the air providing contactless force transfer by using magnetic gears fluxworks can reduce acoustic sound and maintenance requirements and increase the lifetime of the aircraft significantly while keeping the size and weight the same by combining this technology with motors fluxworks can offer a competitive alternative for future delivery drones and air taxis that provides clean quiet and affordable electric aviation i believe in the technology zamarron said this is the future i feel it praslicka started fluxworks in october 2021 and zamarron joined a few months later in january 2022 one month after its inception praslicka won first place in the mcferrin centers raymond ideas challenge and then in february the duo competed in the regional energytech up challenge this collegiate competition challenges multidisciplinary student teams to develop and present a business plan that leverages lab-developed and other high-potential energy technologies it is sponsored by the office of technology transitions at the us department of energy praslicka and zamarron are set to virtually compete in the energytech up national pitch finals on march 24
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they have now completed their phase-one fundraising goal and are now moving into phase two which is product development currently they are continuing with competitions to help with funding in addition to pursuing government grants looking ahead they are aiming for a summer 2024 flight demonstration of their technology we'd like to see our magnetically geared motors on a uav so people can see the technology in action firsthand and express interest praslicka explained as a doctoral student working under electrical and computer engineering raytheon professor dr hamid toliyat praslicka has issued five patent applications related to magnetic gears and has designed and fabricated five magnetic gears and magnetically geared motors he has also written multiple successful phase i small business innovation research proposals and a phase ii small business technology transfer proposal zamarron received his bachelors degree in electrical engineering at texas a&m and previously served in the united states marine corps before pursuing his master of business administration he leveraged his past experiences as a mechanic and electrical engineer to help develop two magnetic gear prototypes and file a patent both praslicka and zamarron encourage other students to step into the entrepreneurial space and to not be afraid when people say they don't like their job i just don't get it praslicka said i do not have that in common you know i have a lot of fun also don't do it alone it has been incredibly important to take advantage of being here on campus there's not a book that you can read that's like ‘here's how to start a company because each company just looks so different so you need to be put in contact with people that can help you take advantage of the resources available at texas a&m
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thomas edison henry ford frances ligler all three are internationally recognized inventors two are long gone but the other is now on the biomedical engineering faculty at texas a&m university the department of biomedical engineering and the entire university community welcomed dr frances ligler as a chaired professor starting spring 2022 ligler will help faculty strengthen research programs facilitate new research partnerships and mentor aspiring leaders within biomedical engineering i am looking forward to working with talented faculty and students in biomedical engineering and to building collaborations across the university ligler said pioneer in the field liglers background is a fantastic fit for the departments current research efforts she has published research on biosensors microfluidics tissue-on-chip systems and regenerative medicine she has also performed research in biochemistry immunology and analytical chemistry most recognizably she is a leader in the optical biosensor industry ligler was the first to invent and develop a usable tactical biowarfare defense system for the united states at the us naval research laboratory her work was instrumental in producing tactical sensors for detecting botulinum toxin and anthrax during operation desert storm i like doing things with my hands and finding out about life in a hands-on way she said i got interested in biosensors from the molecular side a biosensor is a piece of hardware that incorporates a biological molecule to do detection so the biological molecule can be an antibody or a piece of dna or anything that can bind to a target that youre interested in
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in recognition of her invention of portable optical biosensors ligler was inducted into the national inventors hall of fame (nihf) in 2017 out of over 11 million inventors who are named on us patents only 608 of them have received this distinction ligler is one of only 20 living women to be honored and the only current member of the texas a&m faculty to be an inductee the biosensors she pioneered were developed for protection against exposure to hazardous agents providing rapid response in identifying and quantifying pathogens toxins pollutants drugs of abuse or explosives she has 37 issued us patents and 11 commercially produced biosensor products which have been critical pieces of security and health safety systems ligler is an elected member and former councilor (governing board member) of the national academy of engineering (nae) the most prestigious body in the united states recognizing the societal impact of engineering work she is also a fellow in the international society for optics and photonics the american institute for medical and biological engineering the american association of arts and sciences and the national academy of inventors liglers many other recognitions including two honorary doctorates are significant in quantity and quality including domestic and international awards of particular note are some rare honors: presidential rank of distinguished senior professional awarded by president george w bush and presidential rank of meritorious senior professional awarded by president barack obama christopher columbus foundations homeland security award (biological radiological nuclear field) naes simon ramo founders award dedication to service service is a priority in liglers life from encouraging other engineers to supporting the engineering and health care professions on a national and international scale since being elected to the nae in 2005 ligler has served on several academy committees to advise the nation working on projects related to topics such as how to keep the united states competitive in science and technology; science engineering and medicine public policy; and combating misinformation on the internet service in student training and mentorship has been an extensive part of her professional life ligler has mentored more than 200 undergraduates for research experiences and more than 150 undergraduates are included as co-authors on her papers the most important part of what i want to leave behind is people who are open to new ideas to continue learning throughout their entire lives and understanding what other science and engineering disciplines and people with different backgrounds knowledge and understanding can contribute to a project that benefits society she said
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researchers at texas a&m university have found a way to control the charge of nanoparticles on a two-fluid interface to create a more stable system in which its charge can also be switched and controlled the ability to change the charge of nanoparticles on a two-fluid interface specifically an oil-water interface would result in a surface that could acclimate itself to fit many diverse applications such as a more durable firefighting operation and even controlled release in certain medications based on this idea we proposed a concept that this will be a ph-responsive material if we change the ph value we can control the molecular diffusion said dr qingsheng wang associate professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering and holder of the george armistead ‘23 faculty fellowship at texas a&m the teams research was published in the american chemical societys journal acs applied materials & interfaces emulsion is a mixture of two or more incompatible and unmixable liquids much like oil and water that can be stabilized by the interference of solid particles these solid particles tightly assemble at the fluid-fluid interface like swim lanes in a lap pool to prevent coalescence this process is known as pickering emulsion the success of this system is ultimately made possible by the use of graphene quantum dots (gqds) containing zwitterionic properties using several sheets of gqds stacked together the research team is able to not only stabilize emulsion but also control the molecular diffusion on the interface by adjusting its ph values much like flipping a light switch these sheets together measure less than 5 nanometers in thickness to put this into perspective the average human hair is anywhere from 80 000 to 100 000 nanometers wide the functionalized gqds are composed of nanocarbon materials containing zwitterionic structure which is formed from nanoparticles that contain an equal amount of both positive and negative charges while still remaining electronically neutral after the nanoparticles are added to the interface they separate the two fluids by making one side hydrophobic and the other side hydrophilic this electronic makeup also makes it possible to control the overall ph of the interface by adjusting the ph values these gqds can be finely tuned to both block and unblock an oil-water interface changing the nanoplatelets on the interface to the same charge means that they will be disassembled thus creating a more stable emulsion system this is going to help us design a good system in high-performance fire suppression in addition because we can control the release this could be promising for drug delivery and enhanced oil recovery wang said usually this is very difficult to do and sometimes if we can control the release but the system itself is not stable it may only be possible to do one or two cycles of this before the system collapses the research team consists of chemical engineering doctoral student rong ma and former chemical engineering doctoral students dr minxiang zeng now a research scientist at the university of notre dame and dr dali huang now a process engineer at formosa plastics corporation
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demand response a measure taken to reduce the energy load in response to supply constraints within the texas electric grid has been a topic of recent conversation as we continue to question the stability of the electric grid after the wake of winter storm uri just one year ago demand response can enhance the reliability of the grid through renewable energy penetration and also significantly reduce price volatility or fluctuation in the wholesale electricity market to reduce the energy load across the entirety of the states grid traditional demand response studies focus on reducing the energy load in high population centers such as houston and dallas however dr le xie professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university and his team found that focusing on a few strategic locations across the state outside of those high-population areas is much more cost-effective and can have a greater impact on the price volatility of the grid a machine learning algorithm is utilized to strategically select these demand response locations based on a synthetic texas grid model this research was published in the february issue of the journal iscience suppose todays electricity demand results in high prices and yesterdays electricity demand resulted in low prices said postdoctoral researcher ki-yeob lee who designed the algorithm used in the paper can we move todays electricity demand closer to yesterdays electricity demand so that this change can result in low prices if this is not successful can we move todays electricity demand closer to the day before yesterdays electricity demand based on this simple idea our machine-learning algorithm searches for the day where electricity results in low prices and the amount of demand response is minimal although previous studies have demonstrated the benefits of demand response in mitigating price volatility there is limited work considering the choice of locations for maximal impact we're taking a technology-agnostic approach xie said we're showing the current market design and the consequences of this design by pointing these things out we can hopefully reduce the price volatility of the grid which we believe would be best for society in addition to xie and lee contributors to the research include dr xinbo geng dr sivaranjani seetharaman and dr srinivas shakkottai from the electrical and computer engineering department at texas a&m; dr bainan xia from breakthrough energy; and dr hao ming from southeast university in china who received his doctorate from texas a&m
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dr theodora chaspari assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university received the montague-center for teaching excellence (cte) scholars award in recognition of her passion for teaching undergraduate students i am very honored to receive the montague teaching award chaspari said during the ceremony it was also very exciting to learn about the work of assistant professors from other colleges who received the award this high-quality work and dedication to student learning from my peers makes me proud to be part of texas a&m every year the award is given to only one tenure-track assistant professor from each college in addition to receiving the montague-cte scholars award each recipient also receives a $6 500 grant to develop new innovative teaching methods since its initiation in 1991 the award has been granted to 289 faculty members chaspari was inspired to pursue a career teaching in academia by her own academic mentors and advisors whose expertise spanned across many different domains she said that some of the most rewarding aspects of her position are conveying knowledge about computing interacting with her students and witnessing their success i believe that through this bi-directional and open exchange of information students can better understand the material of the class and we can also better adapt the class material as instructors said chaspari she plans to use the funds from the award to develop a research-inspired interdisciplinary university education program to shape future leaders in artificial intelligence (ai) data science and machine learning which also includes teaching them the social responsibility that comes with practicing computer science in an ethical and fair manner it has become increasingly evident that solving authentic problems in the world now requires cross-domain conversations and collaboration between engineering computing and the humanities chaspari said as learning about ai has become one of the most discussed topics in the field of education it is equally important to follow an education agenda that conveys the ethics and the social responsibility that comes with designing and deploying ai systems
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lithium-metal (li-metal) batteries show great potential for packing more significant amounts of energy than the current lithium-ion batteries for example a li-metal electric battery in a car could travel more miles and a li-metal phone battery could have longer battery life however the metal surface of li-metal batteries is highly reactive and there is limited understanding of the chemistry of these reactions dr perla balbuena professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university is using quantum chemical methods to track specific reactions that occur on the surfaces inside li-metal batteries understanding li-metal battery reactions and predicting products will enhance usability by decreasing their reactivity this research was recently published in the american chemical societys acs applied materials & interfaces journal and was co-authored by graduate student dacheng kuai from the department of chemistry at texas a&m we need to understand what type of reactions happen how to slow down the reactions what the components are what the morphology of the evolving products is and how the ions and electrons move through the surface said balbuena understanding these critical issues will allow us to commercialize li-metal batteries in the near future when li-metal batteries are manufactured a thin film forms on the anode commonly referred to as solid-electrolyte interphase (sei) this film is made of multiple components and produced by electrolyte decomposition the chemical makeup of the sei is critical for ensuring peak performance from the battery and extending its lifespan through experimental efforts theoretical predictions can reveal the details in this phenomenon at the atomistic and electronic levels in this study the researchers targeted a polymer that develops due to electrolyte reactions on the batterys internal surfaces pinpointing this specific polymer reaction is challenging but necessary to optimize the sei the researchers simulated the interface at the atomistic level and solved accurate quantum chemical equations to map a time evolution of the polymer formation reaction what differentiates this research is starting from the microscopic-level description and letting the system evolve according to its electronic redistribution upon chemical reaction balbuena said there are many experimental techniques that can follow and monitor the reactions but theyre challenging with this simulation we can get new insights we isolate the part of the system that is responsible for important chemical events we follow that specific group of molecules and analyze the reactions spontaneously occurring at the surface of electrodes unique to this research the computational tools used can determine the minimum energy configurations and the arrangement of the molecules during the reaction thus charting the reaction from beginning to end the researchers found that the species polymerizing in the sei could be beneficial for li-metal batteries because they can aid in controlling the level of reactivity of the battery materials we are pleased about the results as they provide insight into what could happen when using real electrodes said balbuena these findings illustrate the use of computational tools that can contribute to creating batteries that are more friendly to the environment have longer lifespans and are cheaper to produce as better chemistries evolve balbuena hopes the methodologies found in her research will be helpful for years to come this research can be a driving force for batteries in a greener more efficient direction she said i know that this work will be helpful 10 years from now because 10 years ago we made our initial contributions on li-ion batteries and our findings helped on the development of todays successful technology it is a cycle of continuous improvement
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jean and mark froehlich have established the jean and mark froehlich 76 family endowed scholarship distributions from this endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing who are pursuing an undergraduate degree in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university mark froehlich grew up in harris county texas and followed his cousins footsteps by attending texas a&m and studying engineering he admired his cousins success in his engineering career and he wanted to participate in the same educational and cultural experience my attending texas a&m and majoring in engineering had everything to do with my cousins successful career froehlich said a large number of froehlichs family attended and graduated from texas a&m including two of his children graduation class years in the family have ranged from 1955 to 2003 however in 1972 when froehlich stepped foot on texas a&ms campus as a freshman he was the first in his immediate family to attend college a variety of small scholarships helped froehlich receive his degree now after a fulfilling career in civil engineering he decided to give back weve been greatly blessed he said we feel it is important to pass this blessing on together with his wife jean froehlich established a scholarship specifically for first-generation students from harris county pursuing a degree in civil engineering my hope is that someone can benefit from my gift just as i was helped in my day by the generosity of others he said froehlich hopes that their gift will give students opportunities that could be pivotal to their future there were a number of mentors along the way that impacted me and the high quality of my education he said i want to provide the same thing for others
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endowments supporting 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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tanner hoke a senior in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university received the craig c brown outstanding senior engineer award the most prestigious award bestowed upon a graduating senior in the college of engineering at texas a&m the award recognizes a student who demonstrates outstanding academic and leadership achievements and whose character exceeds standards "i'm extraordinarily grateful to mr brown and the brown foundation for the award " hoke said "mr brown gives to this university in so many ways and he's given me and countless others an example to follow in exemplifying the core values" a lifelong aggie from boerne texas hoke first garnered interest in computer science after developing a few iphone apps in high school with growing interest in math theory and algorithms hoke decided to pursue degrees in computer science and applied math simultaneously "i like that computer science involves thinking about and solving difficult problems " hoke said "of course this is also true of math more broadly but for me computer science is particularly exciting because often solving a problem means a new idea for an algorithm that you can implement and see the effect of immediately" hoke is the founder and president of the aggie competitive programming club a student organization that provides a healthy environment to learn practice and teach competitive programming techniques and algorithmic problem-solving skills for students of all skill levels he is also a member of texas a&m's international collegiate programming contest (icpc) team the team recently qualified to compete in the 2022 icpc world finals in dhaka bangladesh they are the second texas a&m programming team to reach this stage of the contest in the last 20 years hoke is studying linear algebraic graph algorithms via sparse matrices and conducts research alongside dr tim davis professor in the computer science and engineering department "my main focus is to implement a set of algorithms for quickly counting various types of subgraphs in a graph using suitesparse: graphblas which is an implementation that dr davis has created and which is widely used " hoke said during the summers of 2020 and 2021 he worked as a trading intern with jane street while there he worked on trading strategies and models building trading intuition programming after graduating this may he will join the company as a full-time trader "in the long run i hope to be someone who works hard cares deeply about others leads well and gives generously " hoke said
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the fifth annual lockheed martin ethics in engineering case competition took place on feb 28 and march 1 in this competition students are given a fictional case based primarily on ethical business and engineering dilemmas and must present their solutions in hopes of advancing to the next roundin this year's remote event 24 institutions participated with two students on each universitys team ritika bhattacharjee senior in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering and laura smith senior in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering represented texas a&m university for this years dilemma about two competing satellite companies at risk of collisionit was a lot of fun working with laura to research the solution bhattacharjee said learning so much about a subject that is outside of my typical area of study was really gratifying and inspiring and i wish everyone had the freedom to pursue knowledge for the sole reason of growing intellect because of how much fun it can benot only did bhattacharjee and smith work together to find their solution but they also had the help of their faculty advisor dr shayla rivera director of engr[x] and faculty co-advisor dr magda lagoudas executive director of industry and nonprofit partnerships who both feel that participation in this event is a great educational and professional benefit to studentsproviding students an opportunity to immerse themselves in a challenging case that involves technical business and ethical issues where they have to develop a solution defend the company they represent and at the same time compromise and reach an agreement that benefits both companies is an amazing way to demonstrate to students the importance of all three in making good decisions as a leader said lagoudaslockheed martin stresses the importance of a students prior knowledge of and experience with ethics before they enter the workforce rivera believes this competition directly enhances the education of an engineering studentas members of the engineering profession these students will have a direct impact on the quality of life for people all over the globe rivera said this demands professionalism focused on the highest standards of honesty and integrity and participating in this competition brings these young to-be-engineers the awareness of the importance of their role in societystudents of all majors and backgrounds participate in this competition regardless of experience this kind of variety offers different perspectives in each casei have never had any debate experience before and while this was not exactly a debate it was similar smith said this competition has helped me develop my communication skills and i have practiced writing research papers but i have never had to pull facts to support my thesis on the fly beforesmith and bhattacharjee were unable to advance to the next round on the following day of the competition despite being eliminated early on both smith and bhattacharjee took away very valuable lessons and experiences from the competitionwe didnt win this year but we built new relationships and upheld relationships from previous years bhattacharjee said relationships are so much more important than victory and thats a value we aggies cherish i feel so grateful to represent a university that has such a strong team mentality and that i got the opportunity to represent our amazing college of engineeringsmith also said that even though she wishes they could have continued texas a&ms winning streak she loved working with bhattacharjee rivera lagoudas and everyone else who helped them the support from texas a&m and its faculty helped them throughout the entire processsmith is preparing for life after graduation and is currently in the middle of job interviews with different companies including lockheed martin bhattacharjee plans on moving to austin after graduation to start her career at a business consulting firm and to continue freelancing as a musicianstudents can complete this survey if interested in participating in the next lockheed martin ethics in engineering case competition
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the department of biomedical engineering is celebrating its 50th year as a program in 2022 in recognition of this milestone we interviewed current students to learn what drew them to biomedical engineering their favorite part of the major and what advice they have for prospective students
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samuel briggs class: phd 22hometown: logan utah q: why did you choose biomedical engineering as your major and career path a: my decision to choose biomedical engineering came largely from two factors the first was my ap biology teacher in high school he did a great job of tying the lectures to everyday life and encouraged us to not only understand the material but also think about how we could use it to better our lives the second factor was the diagnosis of my father with congestive heart failure i remember being frustrated by not really understanding what was happening and when i learned about biomedical engineering i realized it would allow me not only to understand medical conditions but also to help find solutions for others q: what steps have you taken to make it where you are today a: i surround myself with people who support encourage and challenge me my high school ap biology teacher larry litizzetti started my love of biology my undergraduate research mentor fernando agarraberes gave me hands-on experience with the scientific method my mentor at ge healthcare joseph camire showed me how research happens in an industry setting and encouraged me to pursue a phd my current advisor dr duncan maitland has taught me how to perform novel research publish papers and network in the biotechnology industry however for my personal journey the support of my wife and kids day in and day out has been the critical "step" in making it to where i am today and for that i am thankful
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melanie painter class: md/phd 25hometown: farragut tennessee q: what has been your favorite part about majoring in biomedical engineering so far a: the biomedical engineering department at texas a&m has excellent resources to guide students as we develop skills necessary to reach our potential as entrepreneurs inventors and engineers one of my favorite parts has been sling health (student organization) through sling health i've had the opportunity to further my knowledge of patent law the business side of medical technology and how to successfully pitch an idea to investors using the connections and skills i've gained i co-founded a medical technology startup with a surgeon and another texas a&m graduate student i am excited to continue to grow this startup during my time at texas a&m and beyond q: what advice would you give to prospective students a: intentionally seek out the opportunities that excite you and align with your interests and it is okay to turn down good opportunities that don't excite you there are so many great opportunities at texas a&m that you couldn't possibly take advantage of every single one prioritizing the classes projects and organizations at texas a&m that truly excite me and align with my goals has allowed me to more fully realize my potential (and enjoy it)
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rithika adavikolanu class: bs 22hometown: san francisco california q: why did you choose biomedical engineering as your major and career path a: i always knew that i wanted to go into a field that was very hands-on but there was something about the intersection of medicine and engineering that really drew me in what's amazing about biomedical engineering is that it is such a multifaceted field and brings together so many traditional engineering disciplines like electrical mechanical chemical and computer engineering as long as you have the passion to bridge gaps in health care through innovation there's so many different routes you can go with one degree q: what advice would you give to prospective students a: this is a field that can be involved with all sorts of disciplines if youre interested in research look into getting involved early on no one expects freshmen and sophomores to know everything so dont be nervous to put yourself out there i encourage everyone to give research a shot to see if its something that interests you but if not take some time to explore all the other ways to gain academic enrichment outside of the classroom (aggies invent hackathons biomedical engineering society (bmes) student ambassadors etc) theres a lot that can only be learned by doing were so lucky to have the resources that we have at texas a&m and the best thing you can do for yourself is to take advantage of them q: what steps have you taken to make it where you are today a: the most helpful thing throughout my college career has been learning to accept failure with an open mind instead of meeting it with discouragement i've learned so many new technical and soft skills just by learning from mistakes in terms of understanding what worked and what didn't work in addition treating every experience as a resource has been a huge step toward realizing what i take a liking to i've learned to think about bad experiences as a way to gain insight on what you are not interested in instead of a waste of time
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ruby ross class: bs 22hometown: bryan texas q: what advice would you give to prospective students a: to people interested in biomedical engineering i would say talk to as many people in the field as you can while it may seem intimidating to reach out to people you've never met most people love to talk about their passions there are so many aspects to the field that you may have never considered because you didn't know it existed building connections helps you gain soft skills grow your network and learn more about the career you're deciding to dedicate four years of your life to pursue q: where do you see yourself in 5-10 years a: in 5-10 years i see myself managing diverse teams of people to exceed their potential through the organizations i've joined in college i've learned that i am inspired by the potential for growth i love bringing together people with unique skills as they combine their talents to achieve more than they could on their own i've seen this during my internship at ibio in my senior design group and in engineers without borders as a project manager i hope to empower teams to develop novel vaccines therapeutics and devices that improve human health
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hamzah ahmed class: bs 22hometown: plano texas q: what has been your favorite part about majoring in biomedical engineering so far a: my favorite biomedical engineering course i've taken has to be the two-semester physiology sequence i had through the (department of veterinary physiology and pharmacology) in my sophomore year taught by dr jayanth ramadoss at the time the course did an excellent job of blending scientific knowledge with practical application and it really set the foundation for the rest of the major q: what steps have you taken to make it where you are today a: i engaged with research as early as i possibly could through the aggie research scholars program i also read industry news on a daily basis to develop familiarity with key players in the market my early research exposure and industry familiarity allowed me to seek out professional experiences earlier than i would have been otherwise able to my 15-month co-op with regeneron and my three-month internship with bristol myers squibb in addition to my summer research with the university of illinois urbana-champaign were all integral to getting me to where i am today
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hunter syas class: bs 23hometown: beaumont texas q: what has been your favorite part about majoring in biomedical engineering so far a: biomedical engineering is a great major for learning medicine engineering-leveled math design anatomy and the components that operate medical devices i think its the greatest "all-round" engineering major that texas a&m has to offer plus i could not be prouder to be in one of the most diverse departments in engineering within the university there are so many opportunities for research team projects understanding your passion learning how to save lives and building a career q: where do you see yourself in 5-10 years a: i think that a person's path and/or career choice can shift constantly depending on experience and there does not have to be a set destination but there can be different rates at which people obtain their goals i ultimately want to pursue biomedical engineering within corporate health care interrelations; helping to reform systemic gaps within the medical industry and innovating medical devices that further support under-supported communities
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michelle and eric edwards recently established the michelle l 93 and eric w edwards 92 endowed scholarship distributions from this endowment will provide one or more scholarships to students who are pursuing an undergraduate degree in the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution at texas a&m university the edwards have set aside this scholarship to be awarded to industrial distribution students who are veterans reservists or active-duty service members i felt so much gratitude from the university as well as from many wonderful donors who recognized my military service with my scholarships being able to do the same for someone else is our way of saying ‘thank you said eric in the fall of 1990 only two months after meeting michelle at a texas a&m dorm social eric was one of many students activated and deployed to serve in operation desert shield and operation desert storm after a year of combat service he returned to school to finish his undergraduate education eric faced many difficulties upon his return including the cost of tuition thankfully he was supported by donors who awarded him scholarships in recognition of his military service i had to overcome many challenges so having my school paid for was a big relief eric said it allowed me to focus on my education and future eric obtained his master of business administration from the university of houston in 2010 but he still credits texas a&ms industrial distribution program for giving him the skills that he uses every day what i have always seen from those who are successful is a ‘can-do attitude that doesnt crush others but pushes others to succeed together he said it is a winning team attitude while the marine corps taught me discipline it was my experiences at texas a&m that taught me the way forward in establishing the michelle l 93 and eric w edwards 92 endowed scholarship michelle and eric hope to instill future students with the same core values that have carried them both through their careers we want the recipients of this scholarship to know it is their obligation to be the best they can be and someday they will answer the call to lend a helping hand for the next generation eric said the edwards have been married for over 27 years and live in sugar land texas their son harrison 22 is an industrial distribution major their daughter sophie ‘26 is a senior in high school and will be attending texas a&m this fall they own lone star recreation of texas where they create beautiful and safe play areas for communities throughout southeast texas with the support and dedication of their team which includes seven texas a&m graduates
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endowments supporting the students in the college of engineering 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 meredith brown assistant director of development
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smart manufacturing or the use of emerging advanced technologies to increase the efficiency of traditional manufacturing processes is creating a more agile and productive industrial base experts with the secureamerica institute (sai) and texas a&m university college of engineering explain why leveraging these innovations is crucial to advance the industry forward smart manufacturing is a national priority as detailed in the white house critical and emerging technologies report said rob gorham sai executive director the secureamerica institute continues to integrate these capabilities into manufacturing ecosystems across texas and the nation the term smart manufacturing arose in the mid-2000s prompted by the arrival of new technologies such as 3d printing (additive manufacturing) and artificial intelligence other concepts like digital manufacturing and cyber manufacturing converge under the smart manufacturing label at this time global standards are still being developed to further define smart manufacturing approaches smart manufacturing processes provide better connection and communication across manufacturing systems said dr alaa elwany associate professor in the wm michael barnes 64 department of industrial and systems engineering at the texas a&m university college of engineering they help to streamline procedures so systems are not operating as silos asset management and quality assurance are two areas smart manufacturing processes can vitally enhance the manufacturing industry said dr satish bukkapatnam professor of industrial and systems engineering and director of the texas a&m engineering experiment station institute for manufacturing systems remote servicing of machines ensures plants can focus on producing parts instead of repairing them while the introduction of sensor technology assures product quality and production efficiency imagine standing inside a single large manufacturing plant with multiple machines and operators each system should be communicating to share resources trigger maintenance activities order spare parts and more all at one location this type of connectivity is also needed between multiple plants at different locations across the united states within an enterprise that demands all machines communicate effectively with one another smart manufacturing technologies aid in identifying problem areas so the overall network of connected manufacturing devices produces competent and profitable operations elwany said digital twins are a powerful smart manufacturing tool that support production a digital twin is the creation of an identical virtual product or system before a physical prototype is manufactured this virtual environment allows manufacturers to run simulations iterations and testing on the design of a product to ensure viability before extensive production costs are incurred the widespread industry adoption of smart manufacturing still faces barriers especially for small-to-medium manufacturing enterprises (smes) due to cost and lack of workforce training if small and medium companies dont adapt they will be at a great disadvantage bukkapatnam said there will be a digital divide between businesses who have advanced capabilities and others who dont smart manufacturing helps the industry create a level playing field where large companies can thrive and smes who are given digital resources are not left behind organizations like the secureamerica institute are integral to provide technical expertise needed for the wider digital transformation of manufacturing elwany said sai thought leadership is our strongest resource to develop more certificate programs continuing education programs and courses to train the future manufacturing workforce in emerging technologies
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the secureamerica institute and its network of partners are committed to leveraging technology solutions to address nationally impactful challenges please contact chief technology officer dr darrell wallace at dwallace@tamuedu to discuss how we can work together to develop integrate and deploy technology solutions to ensure the security and resilience of the domestic manufacturing base
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saheli majumdar a doctoral candidate in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university was awarded a 2021 robert farvolden scholarship from the groundwater foundation for her presentation at the 2021 virtual groundwater summitmajumdar's presentation "managed aquifer recharge using enhanced infiltration systems in houston texas " focused on a study that could help mitigate the effects of groundwater depletion in heavily stressed aquifersthe robert farvolden scholarships are given every year at the summit in honor of former national ground water association (ngwa) senior science council member dr robert farvolden ngwa's primary goal is to advocate responsible management and use of groundwater students each chose a topic and were evaluated on their presentation and insight and on how their work contributed to groundwater science engineering management or policyi was elated to learn that i received such a prestigious national scholarship majumdar said dr farvolden was a distinguished hydrogeologist known for his pioneering work in siting landfills so i hope to live up to his reputationco-authors include dr gretchen r miller associate professor in the department and majumdars faculty advisor steve albert of binkley & barfield inc and dr zhuping sheng of the texas a&m agrilife research center at el pasomajumdar who specializes in water resources engineering research said the study is vital as more people move to more populous cities"population growth in cities is accompanied by higher demand for water which is generally met by groundwater abstraction " she said "this often leads to groundwater overdraft where the groundwater use exceeds the amount of recharge into the aquifer which leads to a decline in groundwater level"
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lower groundwater levels jeopardize future availability of water and result in the aquifer system becoming more compact which results in gradual settling of the earth's surface a phenomenon called land subsidence"it could disrupt the existing stormwater drainage system " majumdar said "in coastal areas land subsidence could lead to higher sea levels and increased risk of flooding this research aims to mitigate the consequences of groundwater overdraft by promoting recharge"according to the study engineered systems such as trenches backfilled with recycled aggregates and soil amendments help promote recharge throughout the year for small and big rain events which can be used to redevelop existing stormwater detention basins"this study opened my eyes to a whole new world of research where field techniques can be coupled with numerical analysis to better understand real-life systems " majumdar said "the fact that the results from this study could be directly implemented in stormwater management planning piqued my interest"for future study majumdar and miller are developing a numerical model that replicates the physical system based on data from the monitoring period"we plan to use the model to evaluate its performance under different rainfall scenarios depths of inundation and depths to groundwater " majumdar said "the results from this future study could be used to develop guidelines for design engineers to effectively design and operate stormwater detention basins with or without engineered systems"
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logan kluis a doctoral student in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university was selected for the 2022 class of the matthew isakowitz fellowship program he is the first student from texas a&m to receive this highly selective fellowship which offers students a paid summer internship at cutting-edge commercial space companies with one-on-one mentorship from leaders in the commercial spaceflight field the fellowship is a privilege and honor to receive and is an amazing opportunity to represent matthew isakowitz and his passion for commercial spaceflight said kluis as a fellow i will benefit from numerous opportunities for mentorship and real-world experience over the summer kluis will intern with the aerospace corporation in the extravehicular activity office at nasas johnson space center at the end of the summer the fellows will attend a summit hosted by the program to learn about startups network with top industry leaders and develop entrepreneurial skills the internship with aerospace corporation will be extremely educational and help kick-start my career in the aerospace industry said kluis more than 200 students from over 90 colleges applied for the fellowship program this year applicants are selected based on academic excellence relevant experience and demonstrated passion for innovation entrepreneurship and commercial space kluis research interests include human-spacesuit interaction and spacesuit technology development someday he hopes to travel to the moon and mars in the meantime he is involved in research with the bioastronautics and human performance laboratory at texas a&m
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dr michael liu 21 never expected to start his own company but his research mentors and ambition led him down the entrepreneurial path by the time he earned his doctoral degree from the department of materials science and engineering at texas a&m university in december 2021 liu had already established his startup company freefuse liu came to texas a&m in the fall of 2015 to pursue his masters degree and went on to obtain his doctoral degree in materials science and engineering under the guidance of dr mathew a kuttolamadom associate professor in the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution and affiliated faculty with the department of materials science and engineering liu learned how to use engineering principles to bring his creative and impactful ideas to fruition "texas a&m provided the perfect balance of a supportive community and rigorous learning environment which allowed me to flourish as a student entrepreneur said liu "the research experience i received from the materials science and engineering department coupled with the entrepreneurial experiences i received from the owlspark university accelerator program and the mcferrin center truly shaped my development as a person i cant express how grateful i am for the opportunities i was presented with here lius research focuses on compositionally graded metals built using laser-engineered net shaping (lens) an additive manufacturing device that primarily prints metals through his startup freefuse liu found an intersection between his own research and his desire to help others during the covid-19 pandemic texas a&m like many universities transitioned to remote and virtual learning students professors administrators and staff all had to quickly adjust the way information was being processed and presented many professors began recording lectures and placing them online; however these files were often long and hard to navigate in turn many students lost interest and focus without the in-person interactions present in traditional teaching liu recognized the need to address this issue and decided to use his experience with student teaching and helping students reach their learning objectives to develop a solution "my experience as a teaching assistant provided great insights into the types of problems students and educators both face within universities said liu "from this process we developed a solution that transforms how students experience lectures through a simple easy-to-use tool for educators freefuse uses an algorithm written by liu to quickly and accurately process video files and create interactive and visual link trees these link trees break the video down into smaller bites of information similar to a table of contents and allow users to directly click and interact with the content in a new and customizable way "one of the most validating parts of this journey is the positive feedback weve received from students said liu "a student mentioned that the segmenting of videos made it easier to jump from topic to topic and gave insight on how concepts are connected to one overarching idea i thought that was a really cool way to explain what were doing so ive kept that quote in my mind ever since since graduation liu has continued to grow his startup bringing on more employees and advisors he is currently in the funding phase and hopes to expand the services freefuse currently offers "without my time at texas a&m i would not have felt comfortable enough to expand my goals beyond engineering and find a true passion for entrepreneurship and solving the problems of others said liu "its the service mindset ingrained in the culture of the university that has really imprinted an eagerness to help people our company is built off those same principles of being bold and serving others we hope to change the landscape of education for the better throughout the rest of 2022 and beyond
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dr gerard coté recently celebrated 30 years with the biomedical engineering program at texas a&m university and he expects to continue to make an impact for years to come coté joined what was then called the bioengineering department as an assistant professor in 1991 i didn't think i would be here that long because you never know if you're going to make tenure when you first start out coté said you try your best and see how the chips fall but i think that being with (texas) a&m has overall been fantastic when coté first started he had an entrepreneurial angle along with the academic one early on i decided to take a leave of absence and work for a small company in california coté said although back then some of the administration thought it might be counterproductive to tenure i was able to get that experience and still satisfy the research teaching mentoring and service required for making tenure based on that experience he also started several companies early in his career two of which are still running today and one has been bought out by a larger medical device company cotés research in the development of macro-scale to nano-scale biomedical systems and point-of-care devices has had a great impact in the biomedical field he founded the center for remote health technologies and systems and the national science foundation-funded precise advanced health technologies and systems for underserved populations engineering research center known as paths-up there interdisciplinary researchers aim to engage with patients and health care providers in these communities toward developing creative ways to combat diabetes and cardiovascular disease he and his team develop innovative ways to monitor patients through unique wearable and handheld diagnostic and monitoring devices and use modeling to understand the data that may be used for behavior modification beyond developing the devices his team innovates solutions for better health in these communities such as prescribing food like fresh vegetables as a drug and then assessing whether there is a positive outcome like reducing the hemoglobin a1c a known biomarker that when elevated is an indicator of poor control of diabetes a career in biomedical engineering has allowed coté to facilitate dialogues between doctors engineers computational experts behavioral psychologists and a variety of experts in biomaterials biomechanics and more if i can facilitate it and be a part of it and contribute my expertise thats ideal coté said i think everybody has strengths and weaknesses if i do not have the expertise then i go find somebody that has that expertise and collaborate coté has sought to fulfill his two passions in all parts of his career make an impact and be a mentor there's two ways to make an impact he said one is to advance the research field through publications i call that fundamental research and i've done that and i continue to do that but then i feel like i need to take a little step further and actually impact clinical medicine or clinical workflow through translational research advances you can only go so far in the translational process at the university then you either have to spin out a company or license the technical advancement to an existing company the thing i really believe may have the strongest legacy is the mentoring coté said as with most senior faculty you win a lot of awards as you progress in your career but probably the award i'm most proud of is the graduate mentoring award from the university to me where i love to spend a lot of time energy and effort is mentoring people across the board now with his share of academic children and grandchildren coté continues to help his students find their own strengths learn to work with others with varying backgrounds and disciplines and help them mitigate their weaknesses to make the greatest impact possible it's all about helping others and how can you do that in an effective way he said whether that's mentoring students that go on to do wonderful things or directly influencing the field by performing fundamental research that gets published or by performing translational research that ends up being licensed or spun out to a company to me whatever you do strive to positively impact the world
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messenger ribonucleic acid (mrna) vaccines have become more popular as they can help prevent viral infections ranging from zika to covid-19 but their thermal stability remains a drawback to store and transport mrna vaccines requires ultracold freezers and cold-chain assurance making it costly and challenging to provide vaccines to rural and developing communities the national institutes of health (nih) awarded dr qing sun assistant professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university $18 million through the stephen i katz early stage investigator research project grant using deep learning sun aims to develop mrna vaccines that are thermally stable and relax the stringent conditions needed for mrna vaccine preparation storage and distribution it is important in the future to improve the thermal stability of mrna vaccines so that if there are other infectious diseases we can respond quickly and distribute vaccines more efficiently said sun using this grant we will focus on using artificial intelligence to develop a system for thermally stable mrna vaccine development messenger rna vaccines function by triggering an immune response within the body protecting us from infection when exposed to pathogens with the onset of the pandemic the importance of vaccinations has grown being able to transport vaccines at cheaper cost without the need for extremely cold temperatures is critical for fighting against covid-19 and other infections such as rabies and influenza to help with this issue sun proposed using a deep-learning platform that has shown success in natural language processing to nucleic acid feature prediction tasks this interpretable end-to-end model can predict mrna vaccine secondary structures directly from sequence information the model has been shown to reduce mrna degradation in solution and mammalian cells after transfection the central dogma of molecular biology states that dna makes rna makes proteins said sun by changing the codons in the mrna structure we can make the same proteins to trigger immunogenic effects but with a much more stable mrna secondary structure with the ability to screen over thousands of mrna vaccine sequences through the deep-learning platform she can predict mrna sequences that are more stable when exposed to higher temperatures she plans to validate the model performance by producing the predicted top-performance mrna vaccine sequences and testing their stability and efficacy in her lab in the future sun hopes her production process can serve as a framework for other mrna vaccine processing for rapid response to pandemics outside of covid-19 by improving the thermal stability of the covid-19 mrna vaccines we could redesign all other mrna vaccines for the better she said i hope to see our deep-learning method applied to predict rna secondary structure stabilities and to study biological functions of rna molecules including noncoding rna riboswitch and therapeutic rnas the method can potentially play critical roles in cellular and viral machinery to inspire novel antibacterial antitumor and antiviral functions
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sun is the principal investigator on the project she will conduct the research in her lab on the texas a&m campus with support from a team of graduate students postdoctoral researchers and lab technicians the stephen i katz early stage investigator research project grant is an r01 grant which funds creative early-stage investigators research ventures in which no preliminary data is needed
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tony and neera talbert have established the tony and neera bansal 87 talbert endowed scholarship ii distributions from this endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing who are pursuing an undergraduate degree in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university neera was drawn to texas a&m when she witnessed the strong ties between aggie former students and their university she graduated from texas a&m in 1987 with her degree in management information systems from the college of business which is now mays business school texas a&m started me on a path of continuous learning she said my sense of curiosity took root while i studied at texas a&m and it has served me well now working for microsoft corporation neera holds a strategic management position for a team that uses data and technology to provide sustainable solutions for the energy industry my education enabled me to leverage technology while understanding how to apply it to real-world problems which has been instrumental in shaping my career neera said her passion for engineering technology has been carried on in the family through the talberts daughter caitlyn she graduated from texas a&m with her degree in mechanical engineering aided by the help of an endowed scholarship through the texas a&m foundation the talbert family was grateful for this generous gift which inspired them to give back when the time was right in 2016 tony and neera established their first endowed scholarship which was created through matching funds contributed by the microsoft corporation two years later in partnership with the shell global match program caitlyn established the caitlyn talbert 16 scholarship in the department of mechanical engineering since then tony and neera have generously established their second endowed scholarship when we received our first thank-you note from the student we helped it was clear to us this was a great way to give to future generations neera said they hope the scholarship will alleviate financial burdens while encouraging texans as they made an additional preference that recipients of the scholarship be a graduate of a texas high school to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering tony and neera now live in houston texas neera gives back to the university as a member of the engineering advisory council for the college of engineering i had a great experience at texas a&m neera said i made lifelong friends received a great education and found a sense of community that endures no matter where i travel in the world
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endowments supporting the students in the college of engineering have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering and its departments or you would like more information on how you can give please contact kelly corcoran senior director of development
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dr ying li is among the most recent class of fellows elected to the royal society of chemistry (rsc) in recognition of his significant contributions to the field at more than 180 years old rsc is the oldest chemical society in the world with more than 54 000 members worldwide the mission of the society is to support and celebrate new research in chemical sciences and to help teach and inspire new generations of scientists members are eligible to be considered for the rank of fellow once they have held a senior position for more than five years and have made a significant impact in the chemical sciences li serves as professor and pioneer natural resources faculty fellow iii in the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university he said his new status as a fellow of rsc will strengthen his leadership within the professional community and help inspire the younger generation to pursue excellence in science and engineering "being both a mechanical engineer and a chemical scientist i strongly encourage engineering students to pursue interdisciplinary research that is needed to solve complex research problems focusing on societal needs " li said throughout his career li has contributed significantly to the research community through the publication of nearly 100 peer-reviewed journal articles "i have worked on interdisciplinary research in materials and catalysis for sustainable energy and environment for about 20 years tackling the grand challenges in climate change and energy security " li said "the most impactful research is the catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide the major greenhouse gas into fuels and value-added products through the design and synthesis of nanostructured catalysts and using sunlight as the energy source to power the reactions" li said this research has the potential to not only mitigate greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere but also produce renewable fuels with low-to-zero carbon emissions opening a new venue for the next-generation energy technology
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joni hennigan lora recently established the stephen 78 and barbara beales powe endowed scholarship for the wm michael barnes 64 department of industrial and systems engineering this scholarship was created in honor of graduate student stephen powe 78 who studied under her late father dr james hennigan 54 distributions from this endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing who are pursuing an undergraduate degree in industrial and systems engineering from texas a&m university loras story with texas a&m began when she was young roller skating the halls of the zachry engineering building with other professors kids during long summer days (texas) a&m was all we knew and we loved it that way lora said my parents instilled a great pride in me deep down for texas a&m and all their contributions to support the aggie spirit she moved to college station as a child when her father returned to texas a&m for his masters and doctoral degrees in industrial engineering hennigan remained at the school as a professor hosting study nights and backyard barbecues for the students jeannette hennigan loras mother dedicated her time to the university as well she worked as an executive assistant for six former university presidents and was also an assistant to the editor for the texas aggie magazine she was skilled in the arts and as an honorary singing cadet she helped create the association of former singing cadets among her most notable contributions to the aggie legacy are her authorship of the poem silver taps at a&m and the sketch muster spiral candle which has been on the cover of multiple aggie muster programs inspired by her parents lora began her undergraduate education at texas a&m and enjoyed extensive involvement in campus organizations after two years she transferred to the university of north texas to finish her degree though lora left college station the aggie spirit followed her making a distinct appearance 40 years later through an email from the university powe who obtained his masters degree under loras father had kept a promise made decades ago sitting in loras inbox in late 2020 was a polished copy of powes final paper a lasting symbol of aggie commitment in 1978 powe was approved for graduation after presenting a report on his independent study however as he became busy with work and raising his family he was never able to turn in a clean copy of his final paper in 2020 with time finally on his side powe wanted to stick to the promise he made to his mentor that he would turn in his final paper he emailed his paper to texas a&m who then connected him with his professors daughter joni lora knowing he valued his promise to my dad enough for it to continue to be a bucket list item for him after 42 years just floored me lora said it struck deep to my core what texas a&m is really all about inspired by powes dedication to professionalism as an aggie engineer and mentee of hennigan lora decided to establish a scholarship in powes name she hopes that powe will be able to continue impacting other aggies by meeting the recipients of the scholarship i know my parents would want me to say ‘thank you in a bigger way than just words lora said i hope that he can share his story the students will be better engineers having met steve texas a&m remains a special place in loras heart it is her goal to one day return to texas a&m to obtain her masters degree in industrial distribution and earn her very own aggie ring i just have to hear the first few bars of the aggie war hymn and i am moved to tears from immense pride and memories of everything aggie lora said
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endowments supporting texas a&m university college of engineering students have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering and its departments or you would like more information on how you can give please contact ryan nichols assistant director of development
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currently there is little research focused on understanding mechanisms and drug discovery of lymphatic vascular diseases however conditions such as lymphedema a buildup of fluid in the body when the lymph system is damaged impact more than 200 000 people every year in the united states alone dr abhishek jain assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university has taken his expertise in organ-on-chip models and applied them to a field theyve never been used in before creating the first lymphangion-chip to engineer this new device jains team first developed a new technique to create microfluidic cylindrical blood or lymphatic vessels consisting of endothelial cells which line blood vessels it could then use this technique to create a co-cultured multicellular lymphangion the functional unit of a lymph vessel and successfully recreate a typical section of a lymphatic transport vessel in vitro or outside the body we can now better understand how mechanical forces regulate lymphatic physiology and pathophysiology jain said we can also understand what are the mechanisms that result in lymphedema and then we can find new targets for drug discovery with this platform the project is in collaboration with dr david zawieja from the texas a&m college of medicine their research was recently published in the journal lab on a chip collaborations with dr zawieja and others in the department played a crucial role jain said they introduced me to this topic and provide their longstanding expertise that has made it possible for us to create this new organ-on-chip platform and now advance it in these exciting directions using contemporary experimental models jain said the impact of this work is far-reaching because there is a new hope for patients with lymphatic diseases they can now learn about the biology of these diseases and reach a point where they can be treated the most exciting part of this research is that it is allowing us to now push the organ-on-chip in directions where finding cures for rare and orphan (understudied) diseases is possible with less effort and money jain said we can help the pharma industry to invest in this platform and find a cure for lymphedema that impacts millions of people
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omar maddouri a doctoral student in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university is working with dr byung-jun yoon his faculty advisor and professor and dr edward dougherty robert m kennedy 26 chair professor to evaluate machine-learning models using transfer learning principles dr francis frank alexander with brookhaven national labs and dr xiaoning qian from the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university are also involved with the project in data-driven machine learning models are built to make predictions and estimations for whats to come in any given data set one important field within machine learning is classification which allows a data set to be assessed by an algorithm and then classified or broken down into classes or categories when the data sets provided are very small it can be very challenging to not only build a classification model based on this data but also to evaluate the performance of this model ensuring its accuracy this is where transfer learning comes into play in transfer learning we try to transfer knowledge or bring data from another domain to see whether we can enhance the task that we are doing in the domain of interest or target domain maddouri explained the target domain is where the models are built and their performance is evaluated the source domain is a separate domain that is still relevant to the target domain from which knowledge is transferred to make the analysis within the target domain easier maddouris project utilizes a joint prior density to model the relatedness between the source and target domains and offers a bayesian approach to apply the transfer learning principles to provide an overall error estimator of the models an error estimator will deliver an estimate of how accurate these machine-learning models are at classifying the data sets at hand what this means is that before any data is observed the team creates a model using their initial inferences about the model parameters in the target and source domains and then updates this model with enhanced accuracy as more evidence or information about the data sets becomes available this technique of transfer learning has been used to build models in previous works; however no one has ever before used this transfer learning technique to propose novel error estimators to evaluate the performance of these models for an efficient utilization the devised estimator has been implemented using advanced statistical methods that enabled a fast screening of source data sets which enhances the computational complexity of the transfer learning process by 10 to 20 times this technique can help serve as a benchmark for future research within academia to build upon in addition it can help with identifying or classifying different medical issues that would otherwise be very difficult for example maddouri utilized this technique to classify patients with schizophrenia using transcriptomic data from brain tissue samples originally acquired by invasive brain biopsies because of the nature and the location of the brain region that can be analyzed for this disorder the data collected is very limited however using a stringent feature selection procedure that comprises differential gene expression analysis and statistical testing for assumptions validity the research team identified transcriptomic profiles of three genes from an additional brain region found to be highly relevant to the desired brain tissue as reported by independent research studies from other literature this knowledge allowed them to utilize the transfer learning technique to leverage samples collected from the second brain region (source domain) to help with the analysis and significantly boost the accuracy of diagnosis within the original brain region (target domain) the data gathered from the source domain can be exploratory in the absence of information from the target domain allowing the research team to enhance the quality of their conclusion this research has been funded by the department of energy and the national science foundation and was published in the january issue of patterns a new open-access journal by cell press that publishes groundbreaking research findings in data science
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in the 2020 invent for the planet (iftp) global competition team hya bioplastics from makerere university uganda placed third with their idea to overcome the challenge of single-use plastics through biodegradable alternatives made from water hyacinths iftp is a competition in which universities from all over the world participate the first round is a 48-hour competition where teams are judged at their local university the first-place winners from each institute are then selected to refine their pitch and compete in the second round finally the top five teams then compete in a final round "my team initially had an idea in the area of plastics and this competition helped us refine what we were working on and build it into something that is more useful and applicable to solving current problems " said team member dennis ssekimpi
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the team consisted of ssekimpi pike kwizera and musinguzi mark musiimenta who have started the company hya bioplastics based on their initial idea they are working with the halcyon incubator in washington dc which supports businesses that focus on sustainable solutions to global problems their innovation would eliminate single-use oil-derived plastics through a biodegradable alternative made from water hyacinths an invasive aquatic weed in the waterways of uganda by clearing the lakes of these invasive aquatic weeds to produce the packaging this design would address multiple local and global problems "as an engineering student you get the opportunity to work through the entire design process from ideation to prototyping and this is good exposure since in the engineering profession this is part of the day-to-day task " said ssekimpi currently hya bioplastics is setting up a pilot plant in uganda to increase production of the first product a compostable fruit and vegetable tray to replace styrofoam trays commonly used in grocery stores "this was my first experience in a global and remote program i was able to learn a lot and meet people i learned collaboration in a remote environment and this has been an important skill in these times " ssekimpi said it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work in such a fast-paced global environment
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manufacturing limitations affect the development of products and technologies ranging from pharmaceuticals and health care to energy harvesting semiconductors and biotechnology stifling innovation with high costs small build areas and slow production times researchers at texas a&m university are seeking to implement a new method of manufacturing 3d nanostructured surfaces consisting of multiple materials by using a high-throughput high-precision technique dr dorrin jarrahbashi assistant professor in the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering is part of a team recently awarded a three-year grant from the national science foundation to continue their pursuit of the advancement "the created technology can be used in multiple applications and expedite the technological advances in sectors where cost or low-speed production inhibits manufacturing multifunctional nanostructured components " said jarrahbashi jarrahbashi is working alongside co-principal investigator dr amir asadi assistant professor in the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution "the results from this research will equip multiple us industries with a new scalable manufacturing technique and thus benefit the us economy and society with increased domestic job opportunities and more public access to smart technology " said asadi
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jarrahbashi said that the team has established a new in-house spray-deposition manufacturing technique it uses supercritical carbon dioxide (co2) to assist with atomization and create very fine and uniform micron-size droplets containing nanoparticles by engineering the self-assembly of multiple materials inside the deposited droplets they can fabricate multifunctional nanostructured components all without the need for costly preparations or the use of hazardous solvents the new process will allow for large-scale reduced-cost fast manufacturing of 3d nanostructured surfaces with sizes ranging from a micrometer to a centimeter examples of functional coating applications include wearable electronics smart textiles and paints antennas and electronic devices the use of this new spray deposition technique along with the combination of multiple materials including polymer carbonaceous and ceramic nanomaterials and tailored patterns is also expected to enable new levels of multifunctionality "nanostructured surfaces often fabricated by depositing and patterning nanomaterials on desired substrates are essential to provide functionalities such as structural electrical thermal magnetic optical and audio in many devices " asadi said "this project supports the development of a manufacturing process that enables scalable and high-precision manufacturing of multifunctional nanostructured surfaces with multiple materials without the need for costly preparations or use of hazardous solvents" the team is seeking to overcome the challenges of current methods such as slow and costly treatments and a narrow selection of materials limited by compatibility and small build areas their proposed method focuses on the use of nontoxic water co2 and pristine nanomaterials that can be integrated into existing manufacturing lines or additive manufacturing stations to integrate large volumes of nanomaterials with high precision the team has filed a patent on this developed technology and expects to start a semi-industrial manufacturing line to start producing new sensors based on light filtering and functional coating solutions that address the needs of different industry sectors they also plan to enhance the current spray system by designing new nozzles for the supercritical co2-assisted atomization technique to prepare for scalable manufacturing of multifunctional surfaces
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scholarships allow family to memorialize loved ones and their legacies the department of biomedical engineering is honored to help the families of jack and wanda mcmahan honor and remember them through the wanda and jack e mcmahan 43 scholarship jack had only texas a&m university in mind when choosing where to attend college but his family did not have the finances to send him immediately after high school instead jack attended junior college and worked to save enough money to transfer to texas a&m in 1940 jacks class of 1943 graduated early due to world war ii and jack promptly joined the us army he served in the 89th infantry division with general george pattons third army in europe which succeeded in liberating ohrdruf in april 1945 the first nazi concentration camp liberated by us troops the horrors of war left a lasting impact on jack though his family said that he rarely spoke of these experiences several soldiers in his unit were fellow aggies which impacted jack both positively with lasting friendships and negatively with the loss of companions in the war after the end of wwii in 1945 jack met his future wife wanda at a new years eve party at camp philip morris in france wanda was serving as a nurse having joined the us army nurse corps after graduating from nursing school in san antonio jack and wanda fell in love quickly and married six months later in july 1946 jack told his children that meeting and marrying wanda were the best things that ever happened to him
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when they arrived back in texas jack continued his military career and wanda took on the role of army wife relocating with jack to some assignments (including japan germany alaska kansas and virginia) but staying in texas with their children during jacks tour in vietnam in the late 1950s wanda also grew to love her husbands alma mater and throughout their lives the mcmahans kept a close connection with texas a&m they celebrated each time another family member joined texas a&m and were thrilled when their daughter married an aggie they had football season tickets for decades until jacks death in december 1998 and he would insist on arriving early to every home game to watch and honor the corps as they marched into the stadium after jack died and until her own passing in january 2019 wanda seldom missed a televised aggie football game often telling her children and friends during game week weve got a big game coming up in 2019 the mcmahan family funded the wanda and jack e mcmahan 43 scholarship in the biomedical engineering department to honor jack and wandas memory and provide financial support to biomedical engineering students with a particular focus on those in the corps of cadets ethan hasty is a senior at texas a&m and will be contracting with the navy after graduation he said receiving the scholarship alleviated financial pressure and enabled him to focus on developing his leadership skills and achieving his academic goals i am incredibly thankful for the generosity of the mcgee and mcmahan families for their financial support and i hope that the impact i will make in the military and in the medical field will honor the memories of jack and wanda hasty said
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dr miladin radovic professor in the department of materials science and engineering and director of the materials characterization facility at texas a&m university has helped curate an exhibit titled fire and earth: the story of ceramics at the brazos valley museum of natural history in bryan texas this is a unique opportunity to educate the general public about ceramics as the first man-made materials and tell an exciting story about their development from materials used in pottery and art pieces to materials used in jet engine parts and energy-conversion devices over the last 25 000 years said radovic ceramics are an essential part of our everyday lives and include everything from teacups to toilets and spark plugs to space shuttle tiles the exhibit highlights the origins of ceramics as well as their current uses and their future visitors will be able to explore traditional clay-based ceramics dating hundreds of years old the unique works of texas ceramic artists and advanced ceramic materials developed by radovic; drs jodie lutkenhaus and micah green professors in the department of chemical engineering at texas a&m; dr chao ma assistant professor in the department of engineerign technology and industrial distribution; dr zhijian pei professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m; and their research teams the exhibit will be on display until may 28
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jeanna and jay porter recently established the jeanna '87 and jay porter 86 endowed scholarship in the texas a&m university college of engineering which will provide one or more scholarships to undergraduate engineering students while jay and jeanna were deciding where to go to college they each had the opportunity to visit texas a&m they both loved the campus culture and traditions jay was the first of his family to attend texas a&m and jeanna was a first-generation college student the couple met in aggieland while they were pursuing their undergraduate degrees and they were married soon after graduation jay graduated with his bachelor of science in electrical engineering and jeanna graduated with her bachelor of science in education our lives were impacted by our education at texas a&m jay said it prepared us for rewarding careers and in many ways gave us some of the most influential opportunities that we have had in our lives jays interest and desire to study engineering at texas a&m did not end when he earned his undergraduate degree he remained to obtain his masters degree in physics and doctoral degree in electrical engineering he began his professional academic career at another institution but after several years an opportunity arose for him to return to texas a&m as faculty for the college of engineering the porters eagerly packed their bags and left for college station excited to raise their family in the place that meant so much to them jay has made many contributions to the engineering technology field has authored many publications throughout his career and has received numerous awards for teaching research and service in 2008 jay received one of twelve university professorships for undergraduate teaching excellence; was the recipient of the american society for engineering education (asee) robert g quinn award in 2009; was recognized with the 2014 asee frederick j berger award; and received the 2016 college of engineering eugene webb faculty fellow service award jay has a passion for supporting undergraduate students and has advised over fifty senior capstone design teams in 2014 he was the faculty advisor to a team awarded the 2014 asee gulf southwest 1st place student paper award jay has also contributed heavily to the development of the engineering programs offered at texas a&m he helped create the multidisciplinary engineering technology program within the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution which is now offered at texas a&m university at galveston he continues to dedicate his talents to improving the engineering programs at the galveston campus where he presently serves as associate dean for the college of engineering the porters have experienced firsthand the challenges that come with being students at texas a&m university they established the scholarship specifically for first-generation students who are pursuing a degree in electrical engineering electronic systems engineering technology or multidisciplinary engineering technology they also prefer that scholarship recipients demonstrate financial need we hope that students can have the same opportunities that my wife daughters and i have been blessed with jay said the porters hope their gift will enable students to reach their goals in the engineering field we know there are many students who can benefit from some financial support in order to pursue a college degree and their dream the porters live in galveston texas while jay spends his time at texas a&m jeanna dedicates her talents to the younger generation as a teacher at holy family catholic school their three daughters lauren 15 sarah 18 and jennifer 21 all followed in their parents footsteps and graduated from texas a&m
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endowments supporting texas a&m university college of engineering students 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 jay roberts assistant vice president for development
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two senior capstone design project student teams from the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university took the top spots in the engineering/mathematics category at the 2021 american medical student association (amsa) research symposium held virtually in november hosted by the local chapter of the amsa within the texas a&m college of medicine the symposium serves as a venue to showcase the impressive research projects being done by undergraduate students from all disciplines the event emphasizes that research is for everyone both teams were part of a capstone project class (csce 482-932) taught by dr tracy hammond professor and director of the institute for engineering education and innovation and sketch recognition lab the first-place team included kara capps lalit bauskar jayant singh ori yonay and alicia yong their project was titled teaching robots to see clearly and was sponsored by the us army combat capabilities development command army research laboratory (arl) the team worked with arl to improve the performance of their machine-learning model on all types of objects making future vehicles safer and contributing to the body of computer-vision research in computer vision scene segmentation involves taking an image or 3d representation of an environment and classifying each pixel of that environment as a type of object when used in 3d sensors for autonomous vehicles it locates objects such as trees bicycles pedestrians roads etc that appear in front of the car so that the vehicle knows what to avoid second place belonged to team members phi thauan au kaylie gonzalez suyesh prabhugaonkar and ruben uribe for their project keycuts: keyboard-based browser extension for boosting browser productivity inspired by features of the popular internet search engine duckduckgo the team developed a keyboard-based google chrome extension that would allow users to perform text-based shortcuts from the search bar on any browser with their extension users will be able to make the shortcuts themselves so that the websites that have these shortcuts will be personalized the team believes that the ability to personalize shortcuts will open up opportunities to increase productivity and time management in addition they added different functions such as workspaces that would enable users to open a custom group of multiple sites/applications at once with a single shortcut
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within 48 hours students from over 31 universities worldwide competed with texas a&m university in the 2020 invent for the planet (iftp) competition to solve critical issues the planet is facing the competition was canceled in 2021 due to covid-19 teams from each institute were locally judged and the top three teams were recognized the first-place teams were then selected to perfect their business venture and compete against each other later the top five teams from each institute competed for a final round students also had the opportunity to apply their product to a startup with the college of engineering's engineering inc program ecotory the team from texas a&m placed second in the final round of the global competition the team's idea was to create a program that provides airlines with an accurate preflight assessment of customer preferences for food and other amenities this allowed airline passengers to exchange unwanted meals and amenities for airline miles it helped airlines gauge passenger needs drastically reducing in-flight waste while potentially saving airlines millions of dollars in fuel consumption due to lighter flights "from all the ideas we discussed with the team we came to this conclusion considering what could be the fastest and easiest innovation to implement for airline companies " said claire gregoire class of 2024 doctoral student in mechanical engineering "the potential of this idea increased while covid-19 issues emerged" the team consisted of students from across the college of engineering which allowed them to implement each person's strengths to create an impactful solution "through iftp i further developed and positively tested many essential skills required to be a successful engineer and one of them was teamwork " said noble gutierrez '23 a master's student in mechanical engineering "our team leveraged our diversity to generate creative ideas navigated differing opinions and hurdles well through effective communication and formed a great team atmosphere that was conducive to developing a winning solution" after the competition gutierrez continued working on the idea with sven lohse a senior mechanical engineer through engineering inc however they could not continue due to the constraints of their schedules "participating in the iftp provided me with a higher level of confidence in my engineering abilities and an increased belief that i have what it takes to lead a successful engineering career " gutierrez said find out more about invent for the planet!
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during the 2020 school year over 26 universities from around the world joined texas a&m university to compete in invent for the planet (iftp) this 48-hour competition challenges students to solve the planet's most pressing issues each university held the competition at their respective schools during the beginning rounds where the top three teams would be recognized however the first-place winners were given the opportunity to perfect their business pitch and compete among each other to narrow down the top five teams the final rounds consisted of the last five teams competing at texas a&m in the final rounds team plasta from the american university of beirut worked on reducing the disposable plastic items in the fast-food industry they focused on using pasta as an alternative to plastic dishes and utensils in restaurants they were unable to continue working on their project due to severe lockdowns in march of 2020 due to covid-19 the pandemic also contributed to iftp being canceled in 2021
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among the team members tarek el khayat a master's student in civil engineering reflected on the competition q: what made you decide to compete in this competition a: the main motivation was that we would be working on resolving a major issue that could potentially make a positive impact q: how have you integrated what you have learned in the classroom into your project a: we had to learn by trial and error how to make pasta dough from scratch what is the optimum water-to-flour ratio (similar to water to cement ratio) the required temperature at which the pasta should dry without being brittle and the relative humidity needed as well we used our knowledge in materials engineering to reach the required pasta properties q: how did participating help you in your engineering career a: the participation in invent for the planet resulted in a lot of interest from my colleagues at work and it certainly showed how a group of dedicated people can achieve innovative solutions this experience allows you to apply the knowledge gained in engineering in new and unconventional ways problems can be tackled from an engineering perspective to reach a solution it was very enjoyable and i would recommend anyone to participate if they can find out more about invent for the planet!
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three students from the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university were each selected to receive the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) power and energy society (pes) scholarship as part of the pes scholarship plus initiative electrical engineering seniors heather chang and johanna hein and recent graduate reece moon were chosen to receive the selective scholarship in recognition of their academic accomplishments and professional aspirations to contribute to the innovation within the electric power and energy industry in addition to financial assistance through a $2 000 scholarship the pes scholarship plus initiative opens doors for students to gain real-world experience while completing their studies on top of being named an ieee pes scholar hein was also selected to receive the john w estey outstanding scholarship as she was the top student selected from ieee region 5 (southwest us) john w estey outstanding scholarship recipients are selected by industry and academic representatives based on academic preparation; extracurricular activities and leadership; interest in engineering in general and power and energy engineering in particular; technical quality of application; and overall assessment of the student's potential for a successful power and energy engineering career this was the second time a student from texas a&m received this honor when i was chosen as a john w estey scholarship recipient it was a complete surprise hein said i'm very thankful to have received both scholarships as the awards helped to pay my tuition for my last semester at texas a&m and give me more stability as i start my career receiving both scholarships and a letter from john w estey also helped to encourage me during my last semester at texas a&m and solidify my decision to pursue the career path in power systems system engineering hein has interned with the electric reliability council of texas (ercot) for two summers as an undergraduate and will start working with them as a full-time engineer development program engineer in july 2022 as an undergraduate chang has worked with dr thomas overbye electrical engineering professor and director of the texas a&m engineering experiment stations smart grid center on projects related to the smart grid this scholarship opens the door to internships research and full-time careers chang said by getting involved in dr overbyes lab and research i have had so many more professional opportunities including this scholarship this summer chang will be completing an internship with exxonmobil as an electrical engineer studying power systems after graduation she plans to continue her education and obtain her phd so that she can conduct research in academia her career focus will center on the integrating of renewable generation into the power system and creating a new smart grid to change the landscape of this field of study moon is a recent graduate who completed his degree in fall 2021 he is currently working as an associate electrical engineer in houston texas with lyondellbasell there he works with the power distribution system and the associated high-voltage equipment throughout the site
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i specialized in energy and power systems because not only did i enjoy the material but i also grew up in the houston area and realized how large this industry is and how vast the opportunity is in the area moon said as the worlds population grows and becomes increasingly reliant on power i want to have an impact on the future power system design whether i am supporting the transmission across our texas grid or the distribution throughout the industry prior to graduation moon completed a co-op and internship received the ercot engineering development program scholarship and completed research with electrical and computer engineering assistant professor dr adam birchfield to develop time-series data for synthetic electric grid simulations since 2011 1 881 scholarships have been awarded to over 1 000 students at more than 200 institutions texas a&m has had 17 recipients since the programs start seven being female and had at least one recipient in 10 of the 11 years the texas a&m engineering program particularly the department of electrical and computer engineering had many outstanding students receiving this award over time which is not only an exceptional achievement of our students but also a recognition of our dedicated faculty that strive every day to guide our students to excel and achieve educational excellence said dr mladen kezunovic regents professor and contact for ieee scholarship awards distribution over the years since this ieee scholarship program was established i witnessed the continuous success of our students under the auspices of the ieee the most recognized professional organization for electrical and electronic engineers in the world with over 400 000 members worldwide this makes me proud and confident that our students heather johanna and reece and many ieee scholarship recipients before them will strive to grow into the national and world professional leaders
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helicobacter pylori (h pylori) have colonized the stomachs of billions of people worldwide once an h pylori infection occurs it is challenging to eradicate this is a significant biomedical problem as h pylori can promote stomach ulcers and gastric cancers how h pylori navigate and colonize specific niches in the stomach remains largely unknown but addressing this gap in fundamental knowledge is crucial for preventing infections moving forward dr pushkar lele associate professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university recently received an r01 research grant from the national institute of general medical sciences totaling over $13 million to investigate the mechanisms that enable h pylori to navigate with the aid of motility appendages called the flagella to do this work his group will combine experimental techniques such as optical trapping and förster resonance energy transfer (fret) with computational modeling inside a bacterium rapid signaling reactions constantly occur to control its movements measuring these reactions is the key to understanding h pyloris navigational strategies however such measurements are incredibly difficult inside a bacterium considering its minuscule size a couple of microns – and the speed at which it moves – almost 30 times its length per second leles group proposes to overcome the challenge by manipulating single bacterial cells through the power of light using what is known as an optical trap the researchers will catch hold of single h pylori cells and release them at distinct separations from their chemical targets to observe their navigational strategies they will develop fret assays to visualize signaling interactions in these cells bacteria rely on numerous signaling mechanisms to adapt their behavior to environmental conditions said lele the pathway we are interested in specifically helps them migrate from an unfavorable location to a favorable environment a process known as chemotaxis how do h pylori sense and respond to environmental cues despite appearing to lack key enzymes in their arsenal there has never been a more opportune time to tackle these important questions in collaboration with renowned research groups in the field the proposed work will build on the groups previous efforts funded by the cancer prevention and research institute of texas in a study published in elife last year researchers developed a novel method to quantify the effect of the environment by exploiting fluid drag on each bacterium their approach helped them characterize the properties of individual motors that operate the flagella the manner in which h pylori swim causes them to retrace their movements every other second nullifying the progress they might have made in the preceding second this complicates the understanding of chemotaxis said lele the group plans to tackle these questions by combining experiments with theory and computation their movements are erratic said lele nonetheless they can be computationally simulated with adequate inputs from experiments rigorous experimental tests of their mathematical models are expected to help unravel major mysteries and predict the probability of infections in the future the proposed research is timely as studies have shown an increased resistance in h pylori to standard treatments if the principles of navigation can be understood using these methods there is potential to discover better ways to eradicate or treat h pylori infections as h pylori continue to become resistant to antibiotics such mechanistic studies on the different facets of host invasion and colonization will address critical medical needs lele said chemotaxis strategies are well understood in only a few bacterial species and successful execution of our projects will provide insights into the diverse strategies employed by pathogens to evade our immune systems
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roshawn bowers '03 '05 a former student in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university has been awarded a northrop grumman fellow for vehicle management systems and flight control systems integration she is also co-sponsoring a new program at northrop grumman that focuses on recruiting and retaining women in senior technical roles bowers is currently an engineering manager who leads the development of advanced engineering systems for northrop grumman aeronautics systems in san diego california "i am very fortunate to have had great teachers and mentors to help me along the way " said bowers "i feel like i got a first-class education at texas a&m and i don't believe any other university could have prepared me better for my career" as an undergraduate and graduate student bowers conducted research in the vehicle systems & control laboratory with dr john valasek professor in the aerospace engineering department she researched relative navigation systems and assisted with flight testing of an unmanned powered parachute vehicle for nasa's x-38 project at the conclusion of her graduate degree she defended her master of science thesis titled "estimation algorithm for autonomous aerial refueling utilizing a vision based relative navigation system" in april 2005 and then joined northrop grumman previously bowers had done co-op tours at lockheed martin space operations in houston on the international space station extravehicular activity test team and the environmental control and life support systems team she also did a co-op on the f-16 block 60 program for lockheed martin aeronautics in fort worth texas while in school at texas a&m bowers researched the automatic carrier landing system as a member of the engineering scholars program and received the texas a&m graduate merit fellowship and the isadore roosth '33 engineering scholarship she was the chairman of sigma gamma tau the aerospace engineering honor society and a member of phi eta sigma the freshman honor society bowers participated in the texas a&m engineering high school conference help one student to succeed (hosts) and aggie replant
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grace and jeff sober 05 have established the grace (ut 09) and jeff sober 05 graduate fellowship distributions from this endowment will provide one or more fellowships to full-time students in good standing pursuing a graduate degree in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university for jeff and grace sober majoring in civil and environmental engineering was a desire deeply rooted in their shared love for the outdoors both first-generation texans jeff and grace spend most of their time swimming kayaking hiking or biking all across the state with their one- and three-year-old daughters if its outside we love it jeff said that love for the outdoors is a big part of what inspired both grace and i to become engineers in the environmental field studying a subject they both enjoy allowed the sobers to spend their careers protecting and enhancing the waters of texas they hold so close to their hearts it is a passion that they hope to pass to their children watching our daughters fall in love with the waters of texas is a great reminder of the legacy we are responsible for passing down grace said it is one of our greatest honors to have the opportunity to give back to a university that inspires other students to go out and do the same jeff began his college education in 2001 not only did he choose texas a&m for the education that would bolster his career but also for the many traditions networking opportunities and life lessons he would learn along the way the community and traditions of texas a&m resonated with me and drew me to the university jeff said i knew that the aggie network would provide me with long-term benefits in faith business and friends after graduating in 2005 jeff decided to head straight into his masters degree in the civil and environmental engineering department while at first shocked by the cost of graduate school jeff was relieved to have some of the financial burden lifted with the gift of a fellowship it took the pressure off and allowed me to focus on school jeff said my graduate degree has now afforded me the opportunity to do the same for another aggie the sobers believe that being able to supply another student with a life-changing gift is about easing their financial strain and setting that student up to help shape the future of civil and environmental engineering my goal is to allow a future graduate student to focus on making the world better through their environmental engineering degree and focus their time on giving back to the community in lieu of worrying about finances jeff said while jeff and grace share a passion for helping the next generation of civil engineers their alma maters could not be any more different grace graduated from the university of texas in 2009 but holds the utmost respect for the values and traditions of texas a&m we love being a ‘house divided jeff said it makes us uniquely texan a pride we both rally around rivalries aside the sobers take their duty of enhancing the education of future civil and environmental engineers very seriously giving back to students whether they study in college station or austin has been an honor for the couple my wife and i couldn't be more excited to help continue the legacy of environmental engineering in texas jeff said whether your family says ‘howdy or ‘hook 'em we are excited to be a part of the next generation of engineers
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endowments supporting students in the texas a&m university college of engineering 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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two mechanical engineering faculty members received a 2022 distinguished achievement award from texas a&m university and the association of former students dr jn reddy and dr matt pharr of the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering were among five college of engineering members honored at the april 25 ceremony the association of former students distinguished achievement award is one of the highest university honors recognizing faculty or staff achievements in teaching research individual student relationships continuing education/extension graduate mentoring staff and administration reddy received the distinguished achievement award for graduate mentoring in previous years he was also recognized with the associations awards for teaching as well as for research "this award for graduate student mentoring is special to me because it is presented to me with the support from the toughest critics of our profession namely the students " reddy said "any meaningful compliment from the students especially after they are long gone gives a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction" along with effective teaching reddy said mentoring students is one of the most important responsibilities of faculty members "teaching students the art and skills of investigation communication technical writing proposal preparation interpersonal skills and so on is very important because such skills help the students in their next job and life in general " reddy said pharr who joined the department in 2016 received the distinguished achievement award for teaching passionate about educating the next generation of engineers pharr said he tries to go beyond the academic content of his courses to inspire his students "i try to show students that science and engineering are fun exciting and good career choices " pharr said "the students at texas a&m are so energetic and full of fresh ideas teaching gives me a chance to provide some guidance and insight along the way such that the students can fully harness their energy ideas and potential" pharr added that he continues to be impressed by the community of students and alumni at texas a&m and he is appreciative of this recognition "i am extremely honored to receive this award " pharr said "becoming a part of that community has been a lot of fun and i am proud to see that my former students have enjoyed my courses"
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every species from bacteria to humans is capable of regeneration regeneration is mediated by the molecular processes that regulate gene expression to control tissue renewal restoration and growth a collaboration between researchers in the department of biomedical engineering and the college of medicine at texas a&m university identifies the crucial role of minerals in regulating gene expression thus controlling the number of proteins that a cell should make thereby encouraging tissue regeneration and redefining cellular identity this research paves the way for future studies to identify the role of specific minerals as well as how they can be assembled to design the next generation of mineral medicine to heal damaged tissue this study was recently published in science advances minerals are inorganic elements that play many vital roles working interactively with vitamins enzymes hormones and other nutrient cofactors to regulate thousands of the bodys biological functions although several minerals have been shown to regulate gene expression and cellular activity very little work has focused on understanding underlying molecular mechanisms
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this engineering research group is led by dr akhilesh gaharwar associate professor of biomedical engineering and presidential impact fellow in collaboration with dr irtisha singh assistant professor in the department of molecular and cellular medicine at texas a&m and the co-corresponding author of the study where a new class of mineral-based nanoparticles has been introduced to direct human stem cells toward bone cells these nanoparticles are known specifically as nanosilicates and with them the team is able to determine the role of minerals in regulating gene expression profiles to direct stem cell differentiation these nanosilicates are disc-shaped mineral-nanoparticles 20-30 nanometers (nm) in diameter and 1-2 nm in thickness these nanoparticles are highly biocompatible and are readily eaten up by cells once inside the cell body these nanoparticles slowly dissolve into individual minerals such as silicon magnesium and lithium nanosilicates dissociate into individual minerals inside the cells and turn on a set of key genes that result in information flow throughout the cells known as signaling pathways these signaling pathways are responsible for instructing the cells to take on specific functions such as converting into another type of cells or starting the healing process by secreting tissue-specific proteins known as extracellular matrix these extracellular matrices are composed of various proteins including glycoproteins and proteoglycans that facilitate tissue healing and support tissue functions combining interdisciplinary techniques and biomedical engineering and genomics methods the lead authors of this study doctoral students anna brokesh and lauren cross identify and characterize significant genes that are turned on and activated by different signaling pathways due to treatment with minerals one of the major findings of this study is that minerals such as silicon magnesium and lithium are involved in inducing endochondral ossification a process by which stem cells are transformed into soft and hard tissues such as cartilage and bone in young humans the singh laboratory managed by singh leverages high-throughput functional assays and perturbations to dissect the functional regulatory programs in mammalian cells in this study they analyzed whole transcriptomic sequencing (rna-seq) data to evaluate the effect of nanosilicates and ionic dissolution products on the gene expression profiles of stem cells rna-seq a transcriptome-wide high throughput sequencing assay provides an unbiased and holistic overview of the gene expression profiles to identify pathways that are perturbed by specific treatments there are a lot of people who want to understand how minerals impact the human body but there is limited evidence to identify how they affect us on the cellular level brokesh said our study is one of the first studies to utilize unbiased transcriptome-wide sequencing to determine how mineral ions can direct stem cell fate the proposed approach addresses a long-standing challenge in current therapeutic approaches that utilize supraphysiological doses of growth factors to direct tissue research such a high dose of growth factors results in a range of complications including uncontrolled tissue formation inflammation and tumorigenesis the production or formation of tumor cells these adversely limit the usage of growth factors as a therapeutic agent in the field of regenerative medicine gaharwar said the impact of this work is far-reaching because understanding the effect of minerals to achieve desired regulation of cellular activity has a strong potential to open novel avenues for developing clinically-relevant therapeutics for regenerative medicine drug delivery and immunomodulation this study was funded by the national institute of biomedical imaging and bioengineering the national institute of neurological disorders and stroke and the texas a&m university presidents excellence fund other authors who contributed to this study are graduate researchers anna l kersey and aparna murali undergraduate researcher christopher richter and dr carl gregory associate professor of molecular and cellular medicine in the college of medicine
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texas a&m university's college of engineering hosted the final aggies invent competition for the year in which teams were challenged to develop technology to keep law enforcement safe while they work within 48 hours students researched and designed a prototype with the help of mentors from the technology and law enforcement industries teams have the opportunity to expand their products into a business venture through the college of engineering's engineering inc program "it's a great opportunity for those of us involved in public safety equipment technology testing to see how the thought processes work " said mentor and judge dr jason moats director of the texas a&m engineering extension service (teex) testing and information center "as judges we get to see the result of the 48 hours of work the kids put in which is phenomenal"
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team perilscope won first place for its members idea to create a device that maps out a clear vicinity near police officers and their vehicles this way police can see clear dangers while at a scene and can write more accurate reports with the ability to look back and see what was happening around them a judge for the competition deputy david wilcox with the brazos county sheriffs office shared the necessity for the teams invention law enforcement is on a path right now where were using an increasing amount of technology so having engineers who are able to innovate this stuff and make it applicable to us is very important we need to stay on that curb and make the best use of these technologies to keep us safe and serve the public
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team spike won second place for designing poison ivy a safer and more effective way to end high-speed pursuits the device deploys spike strips to immobilize the target vehicle remotely once it has deployed and penetrated the target's tires it can be retracted and reused
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third place was awarded to team icfire for creating a device for firefighters that detects major thermal changes in a fire scenario the teams device used a thermal camera-based system to alert the firefighters to extreme temperature changes detected each team had members from diverse engineering backgrounds who helped solve the safety issues and design their products they gathered incredible team-building skills by working together and playing to each other's strengths aggies invent is something that every engineering student should be encouraged to do said jim donnell professor of practice in the engineering entrepreneurship program they pick up wonderful teamworking problem-solving and presentation skills that will suit them well their entire careers no matter what industry they enter
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the student-run organization tamuhack hosted its eighth annual hackathon on campus earlier this year in collaboration with the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university it is one of the largest hackathons held in texas annually the two-day event serves as a space where students can connect and collaborate with other hackers network with the industry representatives in attendance and learn new skills in addition participants can also attend corporate-sponsored workshops and mini-events like this years paper airplane challenge hosted by american airlines and a capture-the-flag competition these events served as fun ways to help sharpen students' skills and boost overall morale this year 620 students from 24 schools across the united states participated according to tamuhack roughly 50% of the students were first-time attendees the current organization members were grateful to have been able to host so many students in person again and make their first hackathon experience a memorable one during the event the teams had the opportunity to work on various unique challenges presented by several company sponsors including ford which challenged the teams to build a hack that improves the way we travel the office of sustainability at texas a&m which served as a partner for the hackathon challenged students to develop an innovative solution to help disenfranchised communities manage food energy and water challenges during and after a natural disaster tamuhack would like to thank all its sponsors volunteers and mentors for helping it make this year's hackathon a success the students look forward to organizing more events for their fellow hackers
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the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university recently welcomed dr jason t george 12 to its faculty and celebrated a statewide award to support his cancer research george a new assistant professor in biomedical engineering has a joint appointment with the school of engineering medicine in houston he has research space in the institute for biosciences and technology at the texas medical center which will accelerate clinical and translational research collaborations this is a unique and exciting opportunity for me and my group to apply our engineering-based approach to solve challenging problems in medicine and computational cancer biology george said his group applies a hybrid theoretical and data-driven approach to understanding cancer evolution and treatment failure his data-driven research efforts focus on cancer classification and prognosis while current mathematical modeling projects focus on the role of the adaptive immune system in treating cancer and based on predictions which interactions or features may be particularly relevant to the disease for a leukemia patient in need of a new immune system our predictions could one day be used by a clinician to optimally select the donor with the best chance of eliminating the patients cancer george said george was awarded the recruitment of first-time tenure-track faculty members award from the cancer prevention and research institute of texas george said the award would help fund his groups research to study cancer evasion at a fundamental level with this award our group will develop and apply theoretical and computational models with the aim of understanding why current treatments fail in certain patients in addition to predicting improved therapeutic strategies george said as a new faculty member george said one place he will focus on is recruiting creative and motivated researchers at all levels who are passionate about solving challenging problems at the interface of engineering and medicine research topics include: computational cancer modeling immunology and cancer immunotherapy probabilistic modeling of biological systems systems biology and stochastic modeling of phenotypic transitions in oncology trainees will be primarily located in the texas medical center in houston they will have the opportunity to leverage collaborations and resources with the college of engineering at texas a&m while simultaneously collaborating with translational and clinical researchers in houston
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funded by the national science foundations designing materials to revolutionize our engineering future (dmref) program researchers from the department of materials science and engineering at texas a&m university used an artificial intelligence materials selection framework (aims) to discover a new shape memory alloy the shape memory alloy showed the highest efficiency during operation achieved thus far for nickel-titanium-based materials in addition their data-driven framework offers proof of concept for future materials development this study was recently published in vol 228 of the acta materialia journal shape memory alloys are utilized in various fields where compact lightweight and solid-state actuations are needed replacing hydraulic or pneumatic actuators because they can deform when cold and then return to their original shape when heated this unique property is critical for applications such as airplane wings jet engines and automotive components that must withstand repeated recoverable large-shape changes there have been many advancements in shape memory alloys since their beginnings in the mid-1960s but at a cost understanding and discovering new shape memory alloys has required extensive research through experimentation and ad-hoc trial and error despite many of which have been documented to help further shape memory alloy applications new alloy discoveries have occurred in a decadal fashion about every 10 years a significant shape memory alloy composition or system has been discovered moreover even with advances in shape memory alloys they are hindered by their low energy efficiency caused by incompatibilities in their microstructure during the large shape change further they are notoriously difficult to design from scratch to address these shortcomings texas a&m researchers have combined experimental data to create an aims computational framework capable of determining optimal materials compositions and processing these materials which led to the discovery of a new shape memory alloy composition when designing materials sometimes you have multiple objectives or constraints that conflict which is very difficult to work around said dr ibrahim karaman chevron professor i and materials science and engineering department head using our machine-learning framework we can use experimental data to find hidden correlations between different materials features to see if we can design new materials the shape memory alloy found during the study using aims was predicted and proven to achieve the narrowest hysteresis ever recorded in other words the material showed the lowest energy loss when converting thermal energy to mechanical work the material showcased high efficiency when subject to thermal cycling due to its extremely small transformation temperature window the material also exhibited excellent cyclic stability under repeated actuation a nickel-titanium-copper composition is typical for shape memory alloys nickel-titanium-copper alloys typically have titanium equal to 50% and form a single-phase material using machine learning the researchers predicted a different composition with titanium equal to 47% and copper equal to 21% while this composition is in the two-phase region and forms particles they help enhance the materials properties explained william trehern doctoral student and graduate research assistant in the materials science and engineering department and the publications first author in particular this high-efficiency shape memory alloy lends itself to thermal energy harvesting which requires materials that can capture waste energy produced by machines and put it to use and thermal energy storage which is used for cooling electronic devices more notably the aims framework offers the opportunity to use machine-learning techniques in materials science the researchers see potential to discover more shape memory alloy chemistries with desired characteristics for various other applications it is a revelation to use machine learning to find connections that our brain or known physical principles may not be able to explain said karaman we can use data science and machine learning to accelerate the rate of materials discovery i also believe that we can potentially discover new physics or mechanisms behind materials behavior that we did not know before if we pay attention to the connections machine learning can find other contributors include dr raymundo arróyave and dr kadri can atli professors in the materials science and engineering department and materials science and engineering undergraduate student risheil ortiz-ayala while machine learning is now widely used in materials science most approaches to date focus on predicting the properties of a material without necessarily explaining how to process it to achieve target properties said arróyave here the framework looked not only at the chemical composition of candidate materials but also the processing necessary to attain the properties of interest
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messages like this item is unavailable due to quality recalls and supply chain disruptions are becoming a common occurrence for customers of many businesses in the united states to help solve this problem 5g technology is poised to offer manufacturers the ability to make rapid real-time decisions bridging existing gaps in the nations industrial base5g is a new global wireless network that is designed to virtually connect all people and all devices for manufacturers the increased bandwidth allows high-capacity information flow resulting in faster conversations between machines and fewer communication delaysincorporating 5g will provide much more timely actionable information decisions in the manufacturing enterprises can be made in real-time with little delays said dr satish bukkapatnam professor in the wm michael barnes 64 department of industrial and systems engineering at the texas a&m university and director of the texas a&m engineering experiment station institute for manufacturing systems the timely information greatly reduces the lag between inception of data and decisionsadditionally 5g will aid in what bukkapatnam calls the uber-zation of manufacturing much like a customer would order an uber to take them to their destination 5g tech will enable companies or industry segments to treat manufacturing like a custom service to receive needed productsthis is one area in which smart manufacturing will be heavily involved in the years to come bukkapatnam said5g could be highly valuable in the production of semiconductors (devices included in various kinds of electronics like diodes transistors and integrated circuits) where complex components are manufactured across multiple machinesin these high-quality and high-end manufacturing environments there will be hundreds of sensors helping monitor the process from beginning to end bukkapatnam said these sensors generate massive amounts of data each day more data than what current enterprise data handling solutions can actually handlemuch of this data is analyzed long after problems have already surfaced bukkapatnam continued with 5g faster decisions are communicated back to sources opening up new possibilities for more efficient decision making this level of automation is going to be a key facilitator for applying artificial intelligence methods in industrial environments as data can be processed locally or in the cloud and with different kinds of computers and controllers in different geographic locations5g will be an important asset for manufacturing conglomerates who are interested in leading the transformation of the industry with a large industry shift toward internet of things (physical objects with sensors processing ability software and other technologies that connect and exchange data) digitization and digitalized operations harnessing data and effective decision making will become increasingly significantclearly articulating the return on investment of a 5g system in a manufacturing environment is currently a major challenge as the industry has yet to fully embrace this technology bukkapatnam said its our job to establish clear context for implementing 5g and determining what types of data should be fused what decisions should be made and what kind of timeliness or delays are tolerable
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for dr francisco olivera traveling to peru during the holiday break meant going home however for the 22 engineering students who joined him in peru from the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university it was a whole new world the study abroad trip gave them an experience in a different cultural frame while learning to use geographic information systemsthey explored and toured the city of lima peru and enjoyed local restaurants serving ceviche and gelato in paracas peru they felt the wind of the desert as their dune buggies glided through the sand and they watched the sunset over the dunes a few tried their hand at surfing in the pacific ocean or sandboarding a boat ride around the ballestas islands provided sweeping views of rock arches wild seabirds and sea lions clouds mist and rain lingered over the peruvian andes mountains as they stood in awe of one of the new seven wonders of the world machu picchu they visited cusco fed alpacas and toured the sacred valley of the incasthe study abroad program lasted three weeks but the students gained experiences that they would remember for the rest of their lives
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new experiencessenior civil engineering major libby roberts had never traveled outside the united states before boarding the plane to peru however as she met up with other students at the airport her nerves dissipated and she began to realize that she was about to have one of the most significant and most fun experiences of her life"my experience definitely made me more outgoing and excited about trying new things i didn't know anyone before the trip but making friends wasn't hard at all because everyone was together all the time and bonding over a trip is one of the fastest ways to get close " she said "the experience also made me see different ways to do things and different values that i could incorporate into my own life the slower pace of life was very enjoyable and refreshing to me and has been something i brought back with me when i returned home"alex ramirez a senior civil engineering major is not new to traveling he was in the military but when he came to texas a&m he knew he wanted to study abroad"the class structure was well planned out to allow us to absorb the learning material through practical applications while giving us ample time to explore lima and its rich culture " he said "i had the opportunity to not only visit a beautiful country but made some new friends and created some amazing memories"elena feghali a senior civil engineering major was born in europe and grew up in the middle east it was not her first experience abroad but traveling and gaining new perspectives is an incredibly important aspect of her life "the opportunities we have to study abroad at texas a&m are far more prevalent than those outside the college sphere " she said "it can be one of the most eye-opening and life-changing experiences if you let it be you have so much to learn if you put yourself out there"
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why study abroadstudying abroad allows learning outside the four walls of a classroom and creates unique learning experiences for studentsolivera associate professor in the department explained that when he goes home to peru for winter break he sees his nephews and nieces watch netflix but the movies are different from netflix in america the business is global but the culture is not"despite globalization people worldwide stick to their cultural values and manifestations " he said "this is a fundamental concept for young engineers to learn if they plan to join an industry becoming more and more global over time studying abroad exposes students to these types of similarities and differences and prepares them for the engineering challenges of the future"in times when engineering companies are looking for good people and good engineers with global experience participating in study abroad allows them to stand out with respect to others"for ramirez he said immersing himself in a different culture was a huge benefit"as a hispanic student i thought going to peru would be like my experience going to my homeland of mexico but although they share the same language there were vast differences between the two cultures " he said "be willing to try new things get out of your comfort zone step into local traditions and eat the local delicacy"roberts said studying abroad has been her favorite thing in college and she only regrets that she didn't do it more"all the food we ate in peru was very different and adventurous compared to what i normally eat but i never regretted trying something even when i didn't like it " she said "having an open mind and approaching everything new with an excited attitude can really shape the whole experience"feghali agreed that getting out of your comfort zone is important when studying abroad"you will thank yourself in the end " she said "the best way to grow in yourself and your connections to others is to learn from those with different perspectives from yourself if you feel comfortable you're not challenging yourself enough"
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lasting impactwhen traveling to his home country olivera sees firsthand the impact the experience has on his students "i enjoy seeing their faces when they discover something they did not expect " he said "many people think peru is just machu picchu and llamas and do not know that lima is a 10-million-person metropolis ranked as one of the top gastronomic destinations in the world life can be good in peru and that is something the students learn in just three weeks in fact some of them wanted to stay"it is evident in how the students speak about their experiences that they connected with olivera on a different level once outside the classroom they agreed the experience left a lasting impact on them and created a community between them and olivera"i would like to thank dr olivera for showing us his home country of peru " ramirez said "this study abroad experience would not have been possible without his passion for teaching and his dedication to ensuring that we got the best of what peru has to offer"roberts said she would love to go back to peru and explore more of the culture history and nature"if dr olivera ever creates a teaching assistant position for the class i'm sure there will be a long line of my classmates all wanting to go with him " she said
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dr keshawa shukla from the college of engineering at texas a&m university published a proceedings paper a new transient model for predicting cooling temperature and cooldown time of a subsea pipe-in-pipe flowline system transporting waxy hydrocarbons following the american society of mechanical engineers 2021 international conference on offshore mechanics and arctic engineering a professor of the practice in the department of multidisciplinary engineering shuklas paper works to understand and predict cooling temperatures and cooldown times of subsea systems that transport hydrocarbons subsea production systems are wells found on the sea floor used to extract and transport petroleum consisting of waxy hydrocarbons from deep-water oil fields while subsea systems make it easier to extract from previously unreachable deep waters they are incredibly complex and require high maintenance its not uncommon for these systems to be shut down for several days or weeks due to emergencies while the well is shut-in and closed off so that it stops producing during a shutdown the subsea pipeline system which typically operates at temperatures as high as 100 degrees celsius will eventually cool down to match the surrounding ambient sea water however this change in temperature also means that the remaining materials inside the pipeline system will cool and harden quickly leading to a buildup of hydrocarbon wax and clogging the system this cooling temperature may lead to solid wax deposition that can clog the pipeline systems and thus cause a loss of hydrocarbon production said shukla in order to prevent the wax buildup the pipeline system should have adequate thermal insulation to help retain heat during the cooldown time then the operator can take active measures to shut down the system before the fluid temperature approaches the wax temperature to help combat this issue shukla developed an analytical transient thermal model to better determine the cooling temperature and cooldown time for emergency shut-ins in subsea systems the analytical model builds upon an inhomogeneous transient method incorporating an internal temperature gradient said shukla the intention of this work was to develop a simple model based on rigorous thermodynamics and heat transfer this approach takes care of the transition of heat to create stable and steady temperatures during shut-in operations this is the first time a method such as this one has been applied to the pipe-in-pipe flowline systems for deep water applications and the model can be applied to any subsea deep-water applications shuklas analytical model has the potential to optimize dry insulation and cooldown time requirements for pipe-in-pipe configurations which could lead to more efficient and economical subsea environments both for engineering and operator companies
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capturing and storing carbon dioxide (co2) deep underground can help combat climate change but long-term monitoring of the stored co2 within a geological storage site is difficult using current physics-based methods texas a&m university researchers proved that unsupervised machine-learning methods could analyze the sensor-gathered data from a geological carbon-storage site and rapidly depict the underground co2 plume locations and movements over time lowering the risk of an unregistered co2 escape project lead dr siddharth misra the ted h smith jr 75 and max r vordenbaum 73 dvg associate professor in the harold vance department of petroleum engineering used seed money from the texas a&m energy institute to begin the research the project was designed to facilitate long-term co2 storage at low risk said misra current physics-driven models are time consuming to produce and assume where the co2 is in a storage site we are letting the data tell us where the co2 actually is we are also providing rapid visualization because if you cannot see the co2 you cannot control it deep underground increasing levels of co2 in the atmosphere raise global temperatures because the gas absorbs heat radiating from the earth releases it back to the earth over a long time and stays in the atmosphere far longer than other greenhouse gases since more co2 exists than can be easily filtered out by earths natural processes its essential to keep it out of the air by other means sequestering the unwanted gas underground isnt new but monitoring its presence within a geological site is challenging because co2 is invisible quickly moves through cracks and escapes without detection current physics-driven models rely on statistics or numerical calculations that match known physical laws backed by research results however the latest geological sensors yield an enormous amount of data suggesting a lot of variety exists in subsurface compositions than was previously thought physics-driven models dont include the information because such variations arent fully understood but misra knew that data contained knowledge useful to the situation misra and keyla gonzalez his graduate researcher began by showing where the co2 was spatially since the entire subsurface data set had to be mined for clues they used unsupervised machine learning to locate the co2 unlike supervised machine learning where computer algorithms are taught which data will answer a specific question unsupervised learning uses algorithms to sift through data to find patterns that relate to the parameters of a problem when no definite answers to a question exist yet
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first the algorithms assessed the presence of co2 in the data using five broad or qualitative ranges from very high concentrations down to zero traces of it colors identified each range for a 2d visual representation with the brightest color for the highest content and black for no co2 these generalizations sped up pinpointing the plume's location how much area it covered and its approximate size shape and density the algorithms learned several workflow methods to read data and model the co2 misra and gonzalez couldnt rely on only one method to find the right answer because using unsupervised learning meant no real solution to the problem existed yet and any answer found would have to be confirmed rigorously so each answer was compared against the others similar results proved the solutions were unique to finding only the co2 no matter which methods were used
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more data was needed to track the movement of the co2 through time so the algorithms were taught to sift through and evaluate data in different formats such as crosswell seismic tomography because the algorithms were already geared to a purely data-driven approach and visualized on a general level the spatial-temporal maps were quickly generated no matter what information was used again similar results proved the researchers were on the right track misra and gonzalez published a paper on the research in the journal expert systems with applications gonzalez has graduated and took a position with tgs an international energy data and intelligence company that was impressed with the work the next step will be the combination of rapid prediction rapid visualization and real-time decision making something the us department of energy is interested in said misra even though the work was hard and required a lot of confirmation to validate i can see so much potential in research like this many more applications and breakthroughs are possible unsupervised learning takes more effort but gives so much insight
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for those diagnosed with colorectal cancer surgery has been the only option that offers a solution unfortunately surgery is frequently complicated by disease recurrence at the site of the original cancer when microscopic cancer cells are left behind at the time of surgery chemotherapy is a treatment option that is often given in conjunction with surgery although it can lead to toxic side effects dr sung ii park assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and researcher in the center for remote health technologies and systems at texas a&m university and his team are working to develop a low cost minimally invasive wireless device that offers precise safe treatment options for cancers the researchers will utilize photodynamic therapy (pdt) during surgery by using a photosensitizer a drug activated by light to kill the cancer cells during this process surgeons will be able to remove the bulk of the tumor then fully irradiate the tumor bed when the photosensitizer is activated by the light this combination would result in a complete treatment in a safe and effective way with no toxic side effects the biocompatible miniaturized implantable led device will enable light dosing and pdt that is tailored to the individual tumor response park said in the long term the work will result in a platform that has the potential to provide clinical-quality health monitoring capabilities for continuous use beyond the confines of traditional hospital or laboratory facilities; it will also allow for treatment options to prevent the development of additional malignancy and therefore significantly improve the quality of life for people with cancer this type of platform would also reduce the huge economic burden on oncology resources which totaled $167 billion us dollars in 2020 alone in 2022 projected global oncology spending will reach $206 billion a 2335% increase
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further details about their device are published in the april issue of nature communications excluding skin cancers colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide according to the american institute for cancer research according to the american cancer society this year an estimated 149 500 adults in the united states will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer and it's expected to cause about 52 980 deaths although photodynamic therapy has been shown to be effective in many solid tumor cancers its clinical application has been limited by an incomplete understanding of the differing response of cancer and normal tissue and a lack of methods to monitor tumor response and adjust light dosage accordingly to address this gap park and his team have proposed a two-step procedure first the photosensitizer drug is administered which is preferentially taken up by the tumor cells and then the tumor is illuminated by non-thermal light at a wavelength that matches an absorption spectrum of the drug activation of the drug induces a photochemical reaction that triggers tumor cell death the intracavity device will provide a minimally invasive biocompatible platform for light detection of residual cancers and delivery to tumor cells located in any part of the body suggesting it could make an impact in the areas of breast kidney lung pancreatic prostate ovarian and rare cancers park said park explained that in the next decade he anticipates this wireless telemetry system to include an oxygen sensor which can lead to a deeper understanding of how low blood oxygen levels affect cancer therapy and the monitoring of such can lead to improved patient outcomes several current procedures such as mri and ultrasound scans address low cancer tumor hypoxia or low blood oxygen levels however there is not a single current method utilized in routine practice this tool would allow healthcare professionals routine insights into tumor health to better assess patient care other contributors to the research include several well-known researchers from the electrical and computer engineering department the university of leeds and sun moon university this work was supported by grants from the interdisciplinary x-grants program part of the presidents excellence fund at texas a&m the 2018 national alliance for research on schizophrenia and depression young investigator awards from the brain and behavior research foundation and the precise advanced technologies and health systems for underserved populations engineering research center this work was also supported by a wellcome trust institutional strategic support fund fellowship a national institute for health research (nihr) research professorship and an nihr senior investigator award
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contrary to what was once popular belief microwaves dont cause cancer its a decades-old concern that may evoke a vague memory of nostalgia: a young child standing in front of a microwave peering through the dimly-lit door only to be told to take a few steps back or they could catch an inexplicable illness or worse radiation poisoning thanks to advancements in science engineering and technology we now know that microwaves are safe effective and efficient however recent research from texas a&m university reveals that exposure to certain extremely high-powered microwave and radio frequencies may result in high stresses within the brain dr justin wilkerson assistant professor in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering in collaboration with researchers at the us army research laboratory and the air force research laboratory began investigating the effects of high-powered pulsed microwaves on the human body most commonly used for rapid cooking microwaves are a type of electromagnetic radiation that fall between radio and infrared light on the electromagnetic spectrum using computational modeling the teams two-simulation approach first calculates the specific absorption rate (sar) of planar electromagnetic waves on a 3d model of a human body the sar values are then used to calculate changes in temperature throughout the head and brain those temperature changes are then used to determine how the brain tissue physically alters in response to the high-intensity microwaves
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the microwave heating causes spatially varying rapid thermal expansion which then induces mechanical waves that propagate through the brain like ripples in a pond said wilkerson we found that if those waves interact in just the right way at the center of the brain the conditions are ideal to induce a traumatic brain injury published in science advances wilkersons research revealed that when applying a small temperature increase over a very short amount of time (microseconds) potentially injurious stress waves are created imagine all of the microwave energy needed to pop a bag of popcorn condensed into one-millionth of a second and then directed at the brain however theres no need to worry about every day exposure to microwaves or radiofrequency levels wilkersons study included magnitudes of power far greater than anything the average human will be exposed to although the required power densities at work here are orders of magnitude larger than most real-world exposure conditions they can be achieved with devices meant to emit high-power electromagnetic pulses in military and research applications said wilkerson wilkerson and the team used finite element simulations as part of their computational modeling the same models that have been used to predict traumatic brain injury in car crashes football impacts and even explosive blasts on the battlefield by applying it to a new energy deposition the microwave wilkerson has opened the door for more research to be conducted on the interactions between the biological body and electromagnetic fields and its applications
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a two-year $400 000 grant from the us department of energys (doe) nuclear energy university program (neup) is helping a texas a&m university nuclear engineering researcher create cost-effective methods for the development of physical protection systems (pps) for nuclear microreactors microreactors are compact nuclear reactors that can produce up to 10 megawatts of thermal power and can be transported to areas with energy challenges such as remote residential areas or military locations according to the doe dr karen kirkland professor and associate department head in the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m is the principal investigator of the grants project she explains that a pps integrates people procedures and equipment to protect assets or facilities against theft sabotage or other malevolent intruder attacks however the current requirements for commercial nuclear reactor ppss lead to oversized microreactor ppss an oversized pps leads to inefficiencies in both up-front capital expenses to design and build the pps and ongoing operational security costs kirklands new design methods look to address this by creating ppss that are appropriately sized while keeping a high level of security a key to the technological contribution of the research is combining consequence modeling with security design and a safety-security framework this combination would set the groundwork for future justification in reactor pps design consequence modeling is planning and preparing for possible accidents from processes or hazardous materials and their effect on people the environment and the process security design uses buffers from trenches moats and fences to security personnel access control and electronic security to protect and secure the reactor site kirkland is not doing this alone the project collaborates with researchers at the georgia institute of technology and sandia national laboratories which kirkland says is enabling the new technology for the microreactor pps design my colleague at georgia tech is an expert on dose estimations and radiological safety and is gaining exposure in the areas of security and reactor safety the sandia collaborator is a security expert kirkland said as a team we are teaching each other and promoting a collaborative effort that the three of us could not conduct individually by 2023 in the grants second year the team will evaluate the success of the new methodology kirkland says if successful this new methodology will not only provide a means for cost reductions of future builds but it will also maintain or possibly increase the security of reactors and promote the nrcs efforts to credit safety features of advanced reactors through proposed amendments to current physical security regulations
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the texas a&m university college of engineering honored four former students during the 2022 outstanding alumni awards banquet which was held on april 7 the outstanding alumni award is the most prestigious honor given by the college and it recognizes the professional accomplishments of its awardeesrecipients of the outstanding alumni award were bill crane 83 holly e ridings 96 lindsley ruth 92 and ken washington 82 outstanding alumni awards bill crane ‘83computer science and engineeringchief executive officer red crown adventuresbill crane 83 is the chief executive officer of red crown ventures an engineering management and early-stage investment company his career as an engineer and businessman has been marked by his mastery of soft skills and his expertise in technology crane started as a software developer at ibm in the san francisco bay area and then worked for sun microsystems as an engineering manager since then he has been the vice president of engineering at network computing devices e-loan redline networks and proofpoint he also joined linkedin as vice president of engineering during its early high-growth period since 2011 crane has served as interim chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at red crown ventures and is an early-stage investor for a variety of startup companies in the silicon valley and europe additionally he is a founding board member of women who code an organization dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology with over 290 000 members located in 134 countriesover the years crane has been committed to bolstering fellow aggies educations having seen the rise of computer science educations importance in the workforce he supported the inclusion of computer programming courses in the college of engineerings general engineering curriculum in 2014 crane received the distinguished former student award from the department of computer science and engineering and in 2020 crane and his wife lynn 84 established the department head chair for the departmentholly e ridings ‘96mechanical engineeringchief flight director nasaholly e ridings 96 is nasas chief flight director responsible for safely and successfully leading human spaceflight missions to the international space station artemis missions to the moon and future missions to marsridings began her career at nasa at the start of international space station assembly working in the mission control center while the orbiting laboratory was being constructed she learned a vast array of technical systems and formed lasting relationships with the human spaceflight community prior to her selection as chief flight director ridings served many years as a flight director for expedition 16 in 2007-08 space shuttle program mission sts-127 in 2009 and the spacex dragon the first commercial vehicle to visit the international space station in 2012 ridings is the first female to hold the position of nasas chief flight director a position held by just over a dozen individuals this distinction has provided her with opportunities to serve as a role model for fellow female engineers share the excitement of human spaceflight and interact with the global leadership community she serves on the j mike walker ‘66 department of mechanical engineering industry advisory council and was inducted into the departments academy of distinguished graduates in 2019 for her extraordinary professional accomplishmentslindsley ruth ‘92engineering technology and industrial distributionchief executive officer electrocomponents plcjohn lindsley ruth 92 is the chief executive officer of electrocomponents plc in london since being appointed ceo in 2015 ruth has been responsible for improving the financial performance of the group and instilling a renewed focus on putting the customer and supplier back at the heart of the business ruth began his distribution career in fort worth texas in 1994 at tti inc he served as regional manager and then general manager for northern california before returning to the fort worth headquarters to serve as the director of global accountsin 1999 ruth joined solectron a large contract manufacturer as vice president of materials in 2002 he joined the fourth largest global electronics distributor future electronics as vice president of sales and global accounts he was a vital member of the core leadership team which transformed the organizations performance and expanded its global reachthroughout his masters program he worked as a lecturer for the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution he often references his teaching experiences when voicing support for texas a&m and notes the importance of understanding students needs and the benefits that industry alliances can bring to aggies educationsken washington ‘82nuclear engineeringvice president consumer robotics software and product management teams amazonken washington 82 is amazon's vice president of the consumer robotics software and product management teams in this role he leads the development and scale up of the home robot astrowashington began his career at sandia national laboratories in a number of management and engineering positions and later became their chief information officer his accomplishments at sandia include leading the development of the world's first cluster-based supercomputer sponsoring the establishment of the distributed information systems lab at their california site and leading the nuclear regulatory commission's primary severe accident analysis code for containment buildingsin 2007 washington joined the lockheed martin space systems company advanced technology center where he served as vice president and led his team in developing first-of-a-kind payloads and technology solutions for space science and defense missions after working at lockheed washington went on to serve as chief technology officer at ford motor company where he oversaw the development and implementation of the automakers technology strategy washington received the 2012 black engineer of the year award in research leadership and was elected to the national academy of engineering in 2020
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lauren lugo a senior in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university has been interested in space exploration since high school when she was first introduced to the space community by her uncle an aerospace engineer he inspired her to participate in the texas high school of aerospace scholars program to launch her into the field and though she has had a lasting enthusiasm for all things space she chose to pursue an education in electrical engineering because of her love for coding and circuits the funny thing is i just don't like the mechanical physics behind it lugo said i learned that that was not the path for me very early on in my classes i really just like the more electrical side behind it the circuits class was really exciting to me i knew that even if i chose to pursue electrical i could still be in the space industry or really in any industry that i wanted to lugo began working with nasa through the pathways internship program in spring 2021 where she completed two semester-long internships focusing on developing hardware code for the space launch system (sls) rocket for artemis 1 she is currently completing her third semester with the program working at the nasa marshall space flight center in huntsville alabama there she is working on nuclear thermal propulsion as well as building and designing circuits when i finally saw a hispanic woman that was an engineer at nasa that's what inspired me to go ahead and chase that lugo said at that point i was like ‘why should i not go for my dreams because for a while i was a little nervous i thought ‘nasa is too big there's no way that i could fit into that group with no previous internship experience but i did it anyway sometimes im like ‘wow this opportunity that i have is out of this world literally
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having dreamed of pursuing space in any form lugo also took part in undergraduate research in astronomy from her previous institution and at the texas a&m munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation lab before her involvement with nasa lugo found her place at texas a&m engineering as an ambassador for the women in engineering program when she transferred to texas a&m in fall 2019 in that group she found a strong community that has continued to help her during her times of transition lugo encourages other young women who have an interest in the field of engineering to follow their dreams and not let the what ifs or the not enoughs impede their progress keep pushing lugo said i had a lot of nos myself even if that means pushing back a semester it's worth it to get that experience if you can and even if you can't don't give up there are so many different paths to get to space or just to being an engineer in general if you have a dream don't be afraid i know it can be really scary to put yourself out there but the worst they can say is no and it may hurt for a little bit but eventually that no will be a yes
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invent for the planet (iftp) the annual global design competition hosted by texas a&m university returned for the fourth year seven teams representing five countries came together to present their final pitches to industry judges during the finals teams from greece thailand qatar and brazil competed alongside those from the us for the grand prize of $5 000 each of the seven finalist teams reported their plans to continue their work beyond this prototype competition the impact of this we dont know yet said rodney boehm director of engineering entrepreneurship and the mind behind invent for the planet were planting seeds; were planting the opportunity for them to go out and design things were planting the opportunity for us and for them to change the world in significant ways that we cant even begin to imagine
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ultimately the team from texas a&m was awarded first place for their innovation aquabox which digitalizes the process of monitoring aquaculture by using sensors that provide real-time feedback on the health of a farm the three-person team was made up of two freshmen and one sophomore really the fact that some of us are freshmen never really played a role because we each have our own specialties and certain skillsets that are really vital for the products said engineering freshman rachel sims if anything it seems that were more open to different ideas because we might not have as much knowledge on the topic beforehand but we are willing to put in all the effort to figure it out we know that once we know exactly what we want to do we have the skillset to be able to do it
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second and third place went to new mexico state university (nmsu) and texas a&m university-corpus christi respectively the team from nmsu created small-scale renewable energy sources in the form of an interactive art installation ecoart kelly the teams cactus-shaped functioning prototype was designed to take hits hugs or tugs to conduct electricity and store it within a battery bank for later use kellys job is to utilize a triboelectric effect to create energy and store it said veronica gurrola nmsu student we really wanted to use an art design to be able to make it fun for users we chose interactive art because it is one of the easiest ways to show off how something is made and it makes it a lot simpler for people to understand what we really want to do is educate people on this triboelectric effect which is basically creating static friction and turning that into energy winning wasnt everything especially to this team their biggest takeaway besides the large check for second place was getting to meet and bond with the other teams particularly the international students we wanted to come and meet so many new people from all around the world which was an awesome experience said gurrola to be around people who kind of think the same way as you and especially people who speak different languages and come from different backgrounds to all be able to communicate and just have this common goal of helping the planet it just makes you feel like you are helping the world in a much bigger way than you could ever imagine
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third-place winners from a&m-corpus christi took on the challenge of making the world a little more accessible for the vision-impaired in third-world countries by using ultrasonic sensors to detect the proximity of objects the team's innovation hero 10 is an automated robot that uses line tracking to guide children along preset paths to get to specific locations it has a proximity sensor that tracks objects four feet in front of it and a pole for children to grasp as they are being guided for non-engineering student participants like doctoral student aurelia oneil iftp might be the first design challenge they participate in through this opportunity to see innovation in action working with engineers from a&m-corpus christi oneil was able to apply her observations and background in instructional design and education technologies to their winning product as i got the opportunity to work with this amazing team of engineers i discussed with them what i go through as a teacher and see in the school for our students that are visually impaired and blind said oneil in our elementary schools right now as students are learning assistive technology they have two options: they can either use a k9 or a cane as an educator oneil has observed blind students experiencing isolation due to their reliance on a k9 because the k9 is on duty o'neil has to intervene when excited peers want to pet it which can create an engagement barrier with that student the ultimate goal of iftp has always been to remove barriers either for international collaborations or access to resources so the extent of the innovative capacity is only limited by students imaginations and capabilities participants often choose the challenge theyll tackle based on personal experiences or interests for a&m-corpus christi this was the case now we are fostering inclusion and relationships finished oneil i just want to be able to tell the parents of my students who are visually impaired that their child made a friend or that they smiled today it means so much to me that we can make that impact although the event resulted in awards for first second and third place boehm was impressed with all the team presentations and prototypes one of the things that i hate about iftp is that we have to choose winners said boehm while we chose the top three teams and congratulations to the top three global winners because they really did a tremendous job there were four other teams that did just as well we wish we could have awarded all of them first prizes and in our hearts all of them took home first prize iftp was sponsored by chevron and rs components - designspark as well as the texas a&m college of engineering read more about invent for the planet on our website
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raiyan seede a doctoral student in the department of materials science and engineering at texas a&m university was selected for the 2022 association of former students distinguished graduate student award for excellence in research doctoral this award will be presented at a ceremony on april 25 at the rudder forum and recognizes graduate students from different disciplines across the university recipients will be presented with a certificate and a custom engraved gold watch from the association i am thrilled about being awarded and so grateful to dr (ibrahim) karaman who facilitated the research and guided me throughout my graduate studies said seede our research in metal additive manufacturing has been really gratifying and i am excited to continue to pursue research in this field at lawrence livermore seede has worked on several projects during his time in the department including research funded by the army research office in which he developed a basic understanding of how the process-structure performance relationships in additive manufacturing (am) change with alloying composition and phase diagram features he has also characterized the effects of am on several novel steel alloys including ultra-high strength steels and lightweight steels he is pursuing a doctoral degree under the guidance karaman department head and chevron professor i in the materials science and engineering department
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fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (ie thermoplastic composites) are emerging in industries as a replacement for metals due to their durability and lightweight composition however achieving high levels of both strength and toughness in thermoplastic composites is challenging hindering their ability to be manufactured at fast rates funded by the national science foundations (nsf) faculty early career development (career) award dr amir asadi assistant professor in the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution at texas a&m university has developed a method using hybrid nanomaterials capable of creating high-performance thermoplastic composites with favorable mechanical properties within minutes
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fiber-reinforced thermoplastics are replacing metals at high rates because of their inherent properties they are light strong recyclable and malleable they can be used in various applications including manufacturing automobile and aerospace industries because they are both cost-effective and sustainable with the premise that a 10% reduction in vehicle weight leads to a 6%-8% increase in fuel efficiency and a 325-kilogram reduction in its annual carbon dioxide emission this project provides a scalable solution to compete with the manufacturing of metal parts in automotive industries said asadi in addition this project addresses the need for reduced weight and cost of manufacturing in aerospace economically justifying manufacturing small aerial vehicles for imaging radars surveillance and deliveries it also accelerates certification of fast-rate manufactured composites for commercial aircraft high-performance thermoplastic composites are usually semi-crystalline containing both crystalline and amorphous regions in polymers crystals are the regions that the polymer chains are in a specific order and amorphous regions are those with random structures however thermoplastic makeup presents a paradox: it will be brittle if strength is improved by increasing the number of crystals but if the brittleness is addressed by having more amorphous regions the strength decreases significantly a fast-rate manufacturing process would induce this paradox due to the quick heating and cooling process that does not allow enough time for crystals to form thus making it difficult to produce strong thermoplastics achieving structures with properties that act against each other is challenging said asadi however these structures exist in nature for example an elephant trunk is strong enough to lift hundreds of pounds is stiff in fights but also soft flexible and delicate enough to handle small vegetables simultaneously it serves versatile functionalities such as communication drinking and showering the key for these incredible functions is the intricate microstructure of the trunk which we can look to as an example of how we can achieve paradoxical properties in one structure to meet this challenge the researchers proposed engineering the crystalline-amorphous microstructure during manufacturing using hybrid nanomaterials these nanomaterials can tailor the crystals into the desired architecture by controlling nucleation growth orientation and the size distribution of crystals developing the microstructure during production produces a thermoplastic composite that is both strong and fracture resistant their new method could potentially produce fiber-reinforced thermoplastics at faster rates and lower costs in addition it could present a scalable solution capable of competing against metals in manufacturing this project accelerates the manufacturing platforms that could benefit the united states economy and national security by equipping automotive aerospace and marine industries with a fast-rate manufacturing technique said asadi in the future the researchers will look to provide physical evidence that their manufacturing process mirrors their molecular simulations to accomplish this task they are collaborating with the air force research laboratory to determine whether their research findings will be compatible with manufacturing processes the nsf career program supports early-career faculty who show potential in the academic community and strive to advance the goals of their department or organization
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its been 50 years since man walked on the moon in those 50 years astronauts have primarily explored low earth orbit now that nasa is preparing to return to the moon its time to reevaluate the practicality of the spacesuit dr ana diaz artiles assistant professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university and graduate student logan kluis have been working on developments for the smartsuit a new spacesuit architecture that would create a safer and better spacesuit environment for extravehicular activity (eva) on planetary surfaces the smartsuit is a spacesuit architecture proposed by diaz artiles that focuses on three key improvements to the current suit design; increased mobility enhanced safety and informed interaction between the environment and the astronaut most recently diaz artiles and kluis in collaboration with dr robert shepherd associate professor at cornell university have been developing prototypes of soft-robotics assistive actuators for the knee joints the current spacesuit has been designed for microgravity conditions; in these conditions astronauts dont need to walk or move around using their lower body they typically translate themselves using their upper body said diaz artiles now when you are on a planetary surface astronauts are going to need to walk bend kneel pick rocks and many other similar activities that require a better mobility in the lower body the soft-robotic knee prototypes they have developed work by using gas pressure to expand the internal chambers so that they push against each other as each one expands the actuator bends and by using a soft material the actuator forms to the human body creating a more comfortable fit and potentially reducing the risk of injury soft-robotics would allow the actuators to conform to the astronauts body greatly increasing their comfort compared to more rigid hard surface actuators said kluis
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being inside the current spacesuit is like being inside a pressurized balloon the astronaut has to fight against the suit which is not only difficult but expends energy that astronauts will want to conserve when conducting eva missions that energy spent moving against the suit contributes to the metabolic cost which the assistive robotic actuators would be able to reduce by 15% based on simulations specifically developed to investigate the effects of these actuators if youre out collecting samples and doing tests you spend a lot of energy said kluis so when we go to missions like the moon and mars were either going to have to bring all that food or were going to have to grow it so any sort of savings you can have on that energy would be very helpful their recent work focused on actuators for the knee joints but ultimately their objective is to integrate actuators into a full-body layer enhancing motion in several body joints that layer would press relatively hard against the astronaut providing extra mechanical counterpressure (mcp) which increases mobility pressure and mobility have an inverse relationship said diaz artiles the more pressure you have in the spacesuit the lower the mobility the less pressure you have the easier it is to move around this pressure refers to the gas pressure the spacesuit provides to protect the wearer the pressure of the atmosphere is about 147 pounds per square inch (psi) the current spacesuit provides about 43 psi which pushes against the astronauts body and contributes to the balloon effect but if a full-body soft-robotic layer could provide 10 psi for example that would lower the amount needed for the suit to only 33 psi: less pressure and more mobility imagine wearing a really tight under armour or really tight leggings that pressure pushing down on your body would be in replace of or in addition to gas pressure said kluis so the idea with the smartsuit is that it would use both mechanical pressure and gas pressure
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another benefit to using mcp is that it could also lower the risk of decompression sickness (dcs) dcs can happen when the gas pressure surrounding us decreases relatively fast so the nitrogen in our bodies emerge as bubbles inside our body tissues the current solution to avoiding dcs within the spacesuit consists of breathing pure oxygen for up to four hours before conducting an eva by implementing mcp astronauts can spend less time on prebreathe requirements and more time on the exploration without extra concern of dcs diaz artiles and her team continue to work on the smartsuit architecture and the actuator prototypes are a promising development in creating a more accommodating and resourceful spacesuit for future planetary missions their end goal would be for it to feel like the wearer is moving without the spacesuit on and without breaking too much of a sweat spacesuits are directly related to space travel which is exciting and theyre at the forefront of that said kluis so its always fun getting to work on new technologies that can be implemented or be part of that evolution into the next spacesuit the results of their research were published in npj microgravity aerospace medicine and human performance and at the 50th international conference of environmental systems
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the college of engineering at texas a&m university recognized several mechanical engineering faculty members at its 2022 awards ceremony four faculty members from the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering were among those recognized for their achievements in the college of engineering and texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) at the march 29 ceremony "i am proud of this recognition of our incredible faculty members " said dr guillermo aguilar head of the department of mechanical engineering "our department strives for excellence and the honored faculty as well as the many like them in mechanical engineering are helping us to achieve that aspiration every day" the faculty recognized at the ceremony include: · dr debjyoti banerjee professor and james j cain '51 faculty fellow i: excellence award service · dr david claridge professor: dean of engineering excellence awards professor level · dr dale cope associate professor of practice: instructional faculty teaching award · dr matt pharr assistant professor and j mike walker '66 faculty fellow i: tees young faculty fellow award additionally dr joanna tsenn instructional assistant professor was recognized for 10 years of service in the department holders of endowed chair and professorship investitures were also honored at the ceremony including dr robert ambrose j mike walker '66 chair; dr choongho yu g paul pepper '54 professor; dr srikanth saripalli j mike walker '66 professor; dr bryan rasmussen leland t jordan professor; and aguilar james and ada forsyth professor
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dr jeffrey bullard professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering and the department of materials science and engineering received a 2019 le châtelier distinguished paper recognition from the journal cement and concrete research for a paper titled dissolution rate spectra of β-dicalcium silicate in water of varying activitythis recognition was announced in early 2022 these awards recognize the significant contributions in research regarding the chemical reactions and physical processes of cementitious materialsin his award-winning paper bullard and his co-authors reported the first-ever measurements of the dissolution rate in water of dicalcium silicate also called belite a component of portland cement the manufacturing of portland cement is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions across the globe and increasing the amount of belite in cement could potentially cut those emissions by up to 30% this is not currently done because belite reacts too slowly with water and prevents concrete from gaining strength rapidly enough to be used in construction understanding the rate and extent to which belite reacts with water is a significant step toward learning how to increase its reactivity and to use it in greater amounts making concrete a more eco-friendly material bullards research focuses on the thermodynamics and kinetics of materials processing using both computational materials science and experimental measurements his group is involved in cement chemistry mineral dissolution and growth computational modeling of microstructure sintering grain growth and granular media shape analysis
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as an extra layer of security several online services have adopted push notification-based two-factor authentication systems whereby users must approve login attempts through a mobile device in current authentication systems especially the "tap to approve" approach there is no explicit link that indicates correspondence between the user's browser session and the notification they receive on their device this vulnerability can be exploited by an attacker to address this issue a team of researchers that includes dr nitesh saxena professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university has designed new easy-to-use methods to counter the vulnerabilities in push notification-based two-factor authentication systems "the mechanisms we designed have a similar usability to the original push notification-based authentication method but they improve security against concurrent login attacks " said saxena "if a user receives two notifications the notification that corresponds to the browser's session of the attacker will differ therefore the user should be able to detect that something is amiss and not accept the wrong notification" the team's paper describing the research was published in the proceedings from the 2021 institute of electrical and electronics engineers' european symposium on security and privacy (euros&p) one of the premier venues presenting cutting-edge cybersecurity research push notifications are clickable pop-up messages sent directly to a user's mobile or desktop device via an installed application they can appear at any time and show various things such as the weather breaking news missed calls or text messages reminders etc they can also be utilized as second-factor authentication (or password-less authentication) which works as an additional layer of security to protect users' online accounts from attackers with push notification authentication a push notification is sent directly to a mobile device usually a smartphone registered to an online account alerting the user that a login attempt is taking place the user can then review the notification details and either approve or deny the request by tapping a button one of the main advantages of this method is that it's a simple way to authenticate login attempts that don't require the users to remember and manage complex passwords for their accounts over the past few years there's been a sharp increase in the adoption of push notification-based authentication systems like duo-push and authy they have also been commercially adopted by major software and service companies like google twitter and several academic entities
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while this method is fundamentally more user-friendly than the one-time password method it contains several security risks one of which is called a concurrency attack introduced in saxena's research during this type of attack a malicious actor will acquire a user's password and launch a login session simultaneously as the primary user gaining access to the user's login credentials if the attacker and user log in simultaneously the user's device will receive two "push to approve" notifications because there is no fundamental difference between the two notifications they could unknowingly accept the attacker's notification giving them access to sensitive information (banking school etc) an early solution the researchers developed which is mentioned in their european symposium on security and privacy paper consisted of using a random four-digit number the user would have to compare and match to accept the notification with this type of approach however there's a high chance that they will not look at it close enough and accept the attacker's notification "there is a large amount of literature in the usability security community showing that people don't pay attention to these security notifications warnings and things of that nature " said saxena "they bypass them by pressing the ok button so that they can connect and pursue their main task they don't anticipate an attack so we didn't want to use this method" to address this design flaw the researchers designed a new method called replicate with replicate users need to approve the login attempt by replicating a randomized interaction presented on the browser session over on the login notification explicitly binding the notification to the user's browser session for example the user would be instructed to drag a key icon in a particular direction in one interaction in another interaction the user would be shown colored buttons and press the correct one while the interactions are simple to perform they will prevent a concurrency attack from occurring because the interaction required to validate the user's session will differ from the interaction the attacker will be required to perform to approve their session to test the effectiveness of the interface the team conducted a usability study with 40-50 participants where they evaluated and compared its efficacy to the "just tap" method they found that the study participants could successfully carry out the simple tasks efficiently with little to no errors "if the attacker were to log in at the same time to carry out an attack against this method they wouldn't succeed because the user is matching their browser session with the notification and wouldn't be able to accept the attacker notification " said saxena in addition to studying replicate's effectiveness with a larger study group to better measure its usability and adaptability in practice the researchers want to increase the randomness of the process of matching the browser session with the notification "for example when you look at the number of options for the key drag interaction the randomness involved in this process is very low if the user receives two notifications one saying 'drag it up' and the other 'drag it down ' the user could pick the attacker's notification perform that operation and accept it although we did not see it in the study there's still a small possibility that it could happen so that would be one thing we need to solve" saxena also recently received a grant from the national science foundation to study the security and usability of push-based two-factor authentication systems and potential security vulnerabilities contributors to this line of research include mohammed jubur the university of alabama birmingham; prakash shrestha jay prakash clarice chua qing yuy silence laboratories singapore; tanvi ravindra thombre andrei bytes lucienne blessing jianying zhou tony quek singapore university of technology and design singapore
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eight graduate students from the texas a&m university college of engineering were recently honored with the 2022 association of former students distinguished graduate student award presented by the graduate and professional school and the association of former students the award recognizes graduate students from across texas a&m who have excelled in either research or teaching and it is divided accordingly into those two categories this year eight research awards were given to engineering students listed below with their departments and faculty advisors: ali akbari biomedical engineeringfaculty advisor: roozbeh jafari hananeh alambeigi industrial and systems engineeringfaculty advisor: anthony mcdonald kaivalya deo biomedical engineeringfaculty advisor: akhilesh gaharwar swarn jha mechanical engineeringfaculty advisor: hong liang xiaoqiang (jack) kong civil and environmental engineeringfaculty advisor: yunlong zhang tanmay mathur biomedical engineeringfaculty advisor: abhishek jain sakina mohammed mota biomedical engineeringfaculty advisor: kristen maitland raiyan seede materials science and engineeringfaculty advisor: ibrahim karaman
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