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leading a double life as both solids and liquids liquid crystals occupy center stage for creating smaller faster and more efficient technologies even at the level of single particles liquid crystals can bend light and react to external forces like electric fields or physical pushes and pulls and so a tiny quantity of liquid crystals is usually enough to achieve high performance in many applications ranging from monitor screens to solar panels but in order to fully tap into a liquid crystals wondrous properties its constituent particles must be systematically assembled in a new study texas a&m university researchers have discovered that applying a small difference in temperature to a watered-down mixture of a compound called zirconium phosphate initiates its liquid crystallization as zirconium phosphate particles move toward warmer temperatures they start aligning themselves with each other and eventually turn into pure liquid crystals the researchers said ours is the first proof-of-concept study to show that temperature gradient is an effective yet simple tool to assemble high-quality liquid crystals said dr zhengdong cheng professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering also our results indicate that we can move liquid crystals by just varying temperature a property that can potentially be used to transport liquid crystal particles from one place to another thus paving the way for applications beyond those that are commonly associated with liquid crystals today the researchers reported their findings in the october issue of the journal acs nano liquid crystals represent a state of matter that lie somewhere between solids and liquids like molecules in solids that form crystals those in liquid crystals are arranged in a semi-systematic fashion like cars in a partly-full parking lot but liquid crystals are also runny and can assume any shape like liquids furthermore in their liquid crystal avatar materials often show exotic properties for example they split up light beams or change their molecular alignments in response to electric fields but whether or not a material can assume a liquid crystal state depends on the overall shape of their constituent particles substances made up of spherical particles do not form liquid crystals on the other hand materials consisting of particles that are elongated like rods or flat like discs do form liquid crystals cheng and his team were particularly interested in zirconium phosphate because its disc-like particles have the ability to self-assemble into larger flat 2d structures in their liquid crystalline state
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many particles found in nature like red blood cells nucleosomes and clay particles are disc shaped and under the right circumstances they can self-assemble into liquid crystals said cheng so we used zirconium phosphate as a proxy to investigate if there is a way to experimentally control the liquid crystallization of these particles zirconium phosphate has been shown to assemble into liquid crystals on its own if large enough quantities are added to water but the resulting liquid crystals often have defects and are unstable so cheng and his team came up with an alternative approach cheng had shown previously that applying a temperature difference could make spherical particles assemble into clumps of crystals using the same principle his team investigated if varying temperatures could be used to assemble zirconium phosphate into liquid crystals for their experiments the texas a&m team made a mixture of zirconium phosphate and water and filled it into thin two-inch-long tubes making sure that the quantity of zirconium phosphate was small enough to not trigger automatic liquid crystallization next they applied heat in such a way that the temperature difference between either ends of the tube was around 10 degrees within an hour cheng and his team found that the zirconium phosphate particles in the cooler end of the tube began to creep toward the warmer end triggering liquid crystallization from the tubes warmer end
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just like water in a boiling pot circulates from the bottom where it is hot to the top of the container where its cold water in our tubes was also circulating from warmer to cooler temperatures said dali huang graduate student in the texas a&m college of engineering and a primary author of the study accordingly the zirconium phosphate particles also moved in the direction of the water flow and arranged themselves into liquid crystals the researchers speculated that the push from the flowing water helps zirconium phosphate particles to position themselves systematically until they form liquid crystals also they found that the liquid crystals created with temperature gradients were less defective than those formed by other methods cheng noted that their findings open new doors for use in a variety of contexts by virtue of their shape disc-shaped particles have a larger surface area compared to their volume said cheng if we think of the next generation of biomedical devices for example we can potentially take advantage of this geometry to load medicinal particles on their flat surfaces and then vary temperature to transport them to target a specific part of the body other contributors to the research include dr abhijeet shinde dali huang mariela saldivar hongfei xu dr minxiang zeng ugochukwu okeibunor dr ling wang carlos mejia sasha george and dr lecheng zhang from the texas a&m department of chemical engineering; and dr padetha tin from the nasa glenn research center ohio this work was supported by nasa
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imagine a tool that can discover problems on utility lines before outages before power failures spark deadly wildfires or before fears of wildfires prompt massive pre-emptive power outages such as those suffered recently by millions of californians well the tool exists it is available today and it works engineers at texas a&m university have developed the tool a one-of-a kind diagnostic software called distribution fault anticipation (dfa) it is a software that interprets variations in electrical currents on utility circuits caused by deteriorating conditions or equipment it warns utility operators to respond to particular problems before they cause outages and possibly spark fires electric power companies have nothing else like it dfa has been tested successfully by more than a dozen utilities in texas and elsewhere over the past six yearsnow dfa is being tested by two of californias biggest utilities pacific gas & electric (pg&e) and southern california edison (sce) with encouragement from the california public utilities commission (cpuc) the cpuc administered a 2018 state law requiring utilities to submit wildfire mitigation plans texas a&m researchers also are preparing to test dfa at utilities in australia and new zealand dfa uses a sophisticated set of algorithms based on patterns discovered and refined through 15 years of research research that involved monitoring in-service distribution lines at more than a dozen electrical utilities the technology was developed by a texas a&m research team led by dr b don russell distinguished professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and carl l benner research professor in the department research support for dfa was provided by the electric power research institute the state of texas and various electric utilities russell and benner likened dfa to the computer-based diagnostic tools found in modern cars ones that warn when fluids are running dry or that an engine part is close to failure utility systems operate today like my 1950s chevy russell said they have some fuses and breakers and things but they really dont have anything diagnostic they dont have that computer under the hood telling them whats about to go wrong electrical power outages are commonly caused by falling trees tearing down lines or failures of devices such as clamps switches conductors and connectors the devices often deteriorate over weeks or months impacting electrical currents in small ways before an actual failure perhaps triggered by high winds dfa continuously monitors current sensors and applies its algorithms to detect and report abnormalities for investigation and repair until now utility companies have had little choice but to wait and react to failures electrical equipment is extremely durable and deterioration of devices is difficult or impossible to see that makes visual inspection and preventive maintenance only marginally helpful utilities have long recognized that something new is needed especially given the nations aging infrastructure dfa answers this need texas a&m engineers developed dfa to help utility companies improve reliability in general but they also saw its potential for preventing wildfires
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while russell and benner emphasize that dfa will not detect all utility failures they say it is the only diagnostic tool available to analyze in real time miles of working circuits and identify explicitly what is failingnot only could the dfa technology prevent fires it could give utility companies a tool to reduce the number and size of pre-emptive power outages which now are based on dry conditions and weather forecastspower is being turned off with nothing known to be wrong with a given circuit russell said utilities need a crystal ball something telling them which circuit is going to start a fire tomorrow because it is already unhealthy we are kind of that crystal ballpacific gas & electric is now testing six dfa circuit monitoring devices; southern california edison is testing 60 dfa monitors both utilities are conducting the tests under two-year research contracts with texas a&mcommercial installation for widespread use in california would cost far less than the billions of dollars in recent wildfire damage or the billions in spending being discussed for other types of preventive measuresfor example san francisco based pg&e the states largest utility would need several thousand devices to cover all 106 681 miles of distribution circuit lines a dfa device costs up to $15 000pg&e filed for bankruptcy this past january citing potential liabilities of more than $30 billion stemming from wildfires it estimates it will need another $75 billion or more to comply with a judges maintenance planwidespread use of dfa could lower maintenance costs and prevent future tragediesdfa is a new tool allowing utilities to transform their operating procedures to find and fix problems before catastrophic failures " russell said utilities operators need real-time situational awareness of the health of their circuits…dfa does that this article originally appeared on the texas a&m university system's news site
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dr daniel alge assistant professor at texas a&m university received the montague-center for teaching excellence (cte) scholar award from the university making him the first biomedical engineering faculty member to receive the award i became a professor because i wanted to teach and impact students so i am extremely honored to be named a montague-cte scholar i'm also very humbled alge said every year each college can select one faculty member to receive this award award recipients receive $6 500 to research and develop innovative teaching techniques alge said he enjoys finding ways to enhance his teaching with technology facilities such as the learning studios in the zachry engineering education complex and the upcoming 21st century classroom building are equipped with state-of-the art technology and alge said theyre just the tip of the iceberg i would like to see more development and use of technologies that improve how we deliver and interact with information alge said he is planning to use his award to develop a virtual learning assistant for a biomaterials course which he envisions will provide students with an invaluable tool for self-directed learning it is easy to keep doing things the same way alge said however adopting new technologies or implementing new strategies in the classroom can help faculty become more effective teachers which is something we should all strive for our students also benefit because they receive a high-quality education and are better equipped for their future regardless of where their degree takes them the center for teaching excellence exists to provide leadership and services that contribute to improvement of teaching quality at texas a&m the montague-center for teaching excellence scholars program was initiated in 1991 as a cornerstone effort in this quest for sustained excellence
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the frank and jean raymond foundation inc have established the frank and jean raymond foundation inc endowed professorship the endowed professorship will support the teaching research service and professional development activities of the director of the craig and galen brown engineering honors program in the college of engineering this fund will support a professor of practice professor of instruction or a tenured track faculty member the raymonds while not former students have been longtime supporters of the university in multiple facets frank attributes their involvement with the university to his business partner of 42 years and friend craig brown craig who received his undergraduate degree from the college of engineering and masters degree from mays business school supports the college of engineering in many ways and he talked to me about opportunities to use my business experience to support mays raymond said the relationship grew from there to where we are today aside from the encouragement of brown raymond said there is an emotional connection to texas a&m that encourages them to be apart of the university on a larger scale it started with going early to football games and walking beside the corps as they marched into kyle field raymond said as a former athlete it got me emotionally committed and perked my interest in learning more about a&m as they continued to learn about both the university and browns involvement raymond jumped at the opportunity to get involved starting with the mays school of business the frank and jean raymond foundation inc currently supports five to seven students in the mays school of business each year every year we come to college station and interview students for our scholarships raymond said it is one of the highlights of the year for us and we enjoy getting to know the students who will one day change the world with the ideas sparked by what theyre learning in the classroom the raymonds realize that college students are often on the forefront of the next great product service of solution and worked with texas a&m university to create the raymond ideas challenge a campus-wide competition that challenges undergraduate and graduate students to submit their ideas through a 45-second video pitch if chosen as a finalist the student will present a three-minute pitch to a panel of eight to 10 judges the top three pitches will be awarded their share of $10 000 to take their idea to the next level the ideas challenge really makes you feel good about the next generation and the positive impact theyll have on our world raymond said after years of supporting the mays business school the raymonds decided to expand their reach to students in the college of engineering through the establishment of a professorship within the craig and galen brown engineering honors program the raymonds commitment to texas a&m is admirable gifting five to seven scholarships a year to students at the university to aid in the funding of their education additionally the raymond family establishes two gifts a year at california state university fullerton for international students frank attended the machine design school at rhode island school of design is the emeritus chairman and co-founder of houston-based bray international inc he has been the founder of two other companies has numerous patents to his credit and over 50 years of experience in the process industry he also serves as an advisory council member for mays business school a board member of the fayetteville chamber music festival and is a director of brown raymond brown (brb) investments
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the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment faculty endowments encourage and reward faculty members who embody the passion for and commitment to the education of engineering students they bring years of rich experiences from the field and add tremendous value to the college of engineering if you are interested in supporting faculty or would like more information on how you can give please contact jay roberts assistant vice president for development
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dr anand puppala researches expansive soils and ways to mitigate their distress to built infrastructure and his research solutions concentrate on sustainable materials and practices most recently he has focused on the impact of hurricanes on urban infrastructure with most of these focused on the resilient solutions for strengthening the built infrastructure for these research works the ap florence wiley professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university was recently recognized by the american society of civil engineers (asce) and geo-institute with the 2020 ralph b peck award i met professor ralph peck very early in my faculty career as he was the keynote speaker for a professor training class held in colorado in 2000 i had some interactions with him during that conference and i always remember his friendship and mentoring toward us in particular young faculty members puppala said i am truly humbled and honored to receive this distinguished award and i attribute this success to my faculty advisors and my research team members puppalas research has been instrumental in fundamental advances in expansive soils and unsaturated soil mechanics along with the practical implementation of soil improvement technologies for supporting transportation infrastructure the research he conducts for the national science foundation (nsf) us department of transportation texas department of transportation (txdot) us army corps of engineers tarrant regional water district and other entities helps infrastructure last longer and take on less distress during their usage specifically puppalas recent works with txdot and nsf included the use of drones to monitor the condition of roads embankments rail tracks as well as address infrastructure conditions in the wake of hurricane harvey he is the current chair of the geotechnical engineering section of the transportation research board and a member of the asce technical coordination council the ralph b peck award is presented for outstanding contributions to the geotechnical engineering profession through the publication of a thoughtful carefully researched case history or histories or the publication of recommended practices or design methodologies based on the evaluation of case histories
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in many of the older buildings across the texas a&m university campus maintenance rooms suffer from lack of security monitoring and flooding during the significant rains and storms that frequent college station throughout the year floods can cause significant equipment damage resulting in monetary loss as well as disruption in educational and administrative activities these issues are currently present in fermier hall and thompson hall home to the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution (etid) these two buildings have a total of 11 such mechanical rooms many of which have experienced flooding and loss in the recent past
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department head dr reza langari and facilities manager frank cervantez decided that action was required to address the problem and to find a way to better monitor these rooms and be alerted when problems such as flooding or unauthorized entry was detected once this decision was made a plan needed to be developed and implemented to mitigate these issues langari decided to challenge students in the department to design and implement a solution seniors dustin tish and brandon bowen stepped forward to take on the design and development of the maintenance room internet of things project over the summer semester tish is a student in the departments multidisciplinary engineering technology program with an emphasis in mechatronics and bowen is in the electronic systems engineering technology program (eset)
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working with cervantez the team defined the overall objectives of the project its functional requirements and performance specifications during the initial design phase they decided that implementing an acceptable solution could best be accomplished through the application of internet of things technology both tish and bowen had helped develop the internet of things coursework used in a nation science foundation-funded itest workshop offered by principal investigator dr michael johnson over the last three summers to selected texas middle school math and science teachers they decided to put their newly developed expertise in building internet of things systems to the test by solving the costly problem faced by etid during the project langari took on the role of customer dr ana goulart eset program coordinator agreed to be the technical advisor and cervantez accepted the role of subject matter expert tish was the embedded systems lead while bowen took on the internet of things broker and dashboard software development efforts the team met weekly to provide status update reports and to seek decisions and approval for resource procurement the project resulted in a new embedded system module that uses the universitys wireless network to monitor and publish environmental data from each maintenance room to an internet of things program the dashboard created by the team allows authorized personnel to log into the program and subscribe to the information presented in graphical format in addition if certain environmental parameters such as water or light levels are exceeded the internet of things program informs cervantez about which parameter of which maintenance room is out of tolerance having this information essentially anywhere internet access is available allows cervantez to quickly address the problem and resolve the specific issue before costly damage is realized
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in august the team delivered the first unit for operational testing during the test phase the system alerted cervantez to a problem allowing him to resolve the issue in a timely manner and avoid costly repairs and disruption of service the team is now in the final delivery of 20 operational units to etid together with the video-based documentation for continued support and servicing of the units as the project wraps up langari has strongly encouraged tish and bowen to seriously consider taking their design to the next level and becoming entrepreneurs
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it happens in a flashthats how it got its name it quickly rushes through homes vehicles and entire communities leaving behind a devastating path of destruction its among the top weather-related killers in the united states flash floods hit with little lead time or warning but dr nasir gharaibeh and a team of scientists are working to reduce flash flood fatalities and injuries through better mitigation measuresthis project will increase our understanding of why unsafe conditions exist during flash flood events and how to reduce or eliminate these conditions said gharaibeh associate professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university problems are best solved by correcting their root causes rather than reacting to their symptomswork began in september 2019 with the development of algorithms for searching the web and social media for data on approximately 41 307 flash flood events that have occurred over the past 10 years in the united statesgharaibeh said a primary goal is to enhance public safety by creating the data and framework for disaster mitigation efforts employed by local and state governmental agencies this would include enhancing emergency response and capital improvement planswe are working with community civic groups (nonprofit organizations) in six cities in the balcones escarpment a line of low hills that extends through central texas and is often referred to as the flash flood alley he saidflash flood alley includes the hays county cities of san marcos dripping springs wimberley and kyle and the bexar county cities of san antonio and schertz in urban areas flash flood formation and impacts are affected by land cover and the built environment such as drainage networks streets tunnels and building
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the study is not limited to urban floods but the flash flooding process is more complex in urban areas and will require a focused approach he said we are excited about this project because it allows us as engineers to help communities mitigate the risks of flash flooding in a holistic way gharaibeh said an interdisciplinary approach is needed for this study for several reasons engineering because of infrastructure and hydrology; social sciences because low-income populations living in poorly protected housing and neighborhoods are most vulnerable to flooding; geography because of the spatial nature of floods; and public health because of the need to understand the medical causes of injury or death from flash floodingthe team working on this research includes co-principal investigators dr fancisco olivera associate professor of civil engineering at texas a&m; dr lei zou assistant professor in the geography department at texas a&m; dr michelle meyer director of the texas a&m hazard reduction and recovery center; and dr garett sansom research assistant professor in the school of public health at the texas a&m university health science centerthis research is funded by a $350 000 grant from the national science foundation researchers estimate the project will take three years to completeread more about this study from the national science foundation
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the houston gpa midstream association has established two houston gpa midstream association scholarships both annual and endowed to provide scholarships to full-time students pursuing a degree in the college of engineering at texas a&m university the houston gpa midstream association is a 501c nonprofit organization committed to serve as a forum for exchanging ideas and information regarding the midstream industry (transportation of oil and gas) and provide opportunities for social interaction with others involved in the industry in the local houston area david street houston gpa midstream scholarship chair said the organization is one of six regional us based chapters associated with the national gpa midstream association with an additional three internationally our organization works to support and promote the use of natural gas as an energy source by being primary advocates for a sustainable midstream industry focused on enhancing the viability of natural gas and natural gas liquids said street providing scholarships to universities whose graduates have historically worked in the midstream industry is essential to bringing students into the energy sector who may at some point enter the midstream business in their career street said the organization has been supporting texas a&m rice university lamar university the university of houston and the university of texas for over 30 years recently adding texas a&m university at kingsville in the last five years in 2002 we established endowments of equal size at each of the initial five universities then in 2016 brought texas a&m kingsville onboard with an endowment as well he said the houston gpa midstream association recently expanded their scholarship offerings in addition to periodic contributions to our endowments we also give out annual scholarships said street this allows the chapter to provide scholarships to students who may not meet the annual and endowment scholarship requirements but deserve a scholarship nonetheless
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the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering or would like more information on how you can give please email haley jennings director of development
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one of the most memorable experiences of scott moses undergraduate career at texas a&m university took place on the first day of engr 101 the professor addressed the class with a classic line take a look to your left now look to your right by the end of the year two of the three of you will no longer be an engineering major out of his two neighbors scott was the one that made it through graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering scott said his professors warning wasnt unfounded the academics were demanding but the years i spent at texas a&m were some of the most enjoyable times of my life he said scotts academic tenacity paid off; he now serves as president of oil state industries where he has worked ever since leaving texas a&m after completing his undergraduate degree scott decided to pursue a graduate degree alongside his wife and fellow aggie rene who was studying for her masters degree in education and now serves as the principal of johnson elementary school in the carroll industrial school district as a graduate student scott received grant money from the mechanical engineering department to support his studies and research however halfway through completing his degree an available position opened up at oil state industries and scott left texas a&m before receiving his diploma it bothered me greatly that i never fulfilled the research obligation associated with the grant money i received said scott i decided that once i was able i would pay back the department of mechanical engineering by funding scholarships and fellowships this was what led the couple to endow the rene and scott moses 90 fellowship fund to benefit full-time students pursuing a graduate degree in mechanical engineering from texas a&m scott hopes his gift can help students like himself who would otherwise be unable to complete a graduate degree without financial aid despite their unconventional beginning to philanthropy scott and rene say they are motivated by the success of their scholarship recipients giving back to texas a&m began as a way to pay back money i didnt feel i had earned said scott but after meeting with our scholarship recipients it has become more about the joy rene and i get from sharing some of the blessings weve received in life with some incredibly talented young men and women who we think are destined to accomplish great things in their future
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the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment fellowships encourage collaboration between the faculty students and industry mentors while allowing graduate students to further their education and thus having a greater impact on the industry if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering or would like more information on how you can give please contact stephanie lampe director of development
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in the perennial clash between man and microbe ultraviolet light has emerged as one of mans powerful tools against many pathogens although ultraviolet light can wipe out several germs the exact mechanisms that orchestrate the radiations damaging action have long been elusive in the september issue of pnas texas a&m university researchers reported that ultraviolet radiation creates holes in the microbes outer protective sheath by dislodging tryptophan a molecule that is an important component of the bacterias outer covering the researchers said that these holes provide gateways for ultraviolet radiation to go into the bacteria and disrupt its dna which then stops the microbes from replicating our study provides the science behind the germicidal action of ultraviolet light said dr peter rentzepis tees eminent professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and a member of the national academy of sciences wed like to use this knowledge to develop better ways to monitor bacteria inactivation in various settings including the food industry and health care ultraviolet light is a highly energetic beam of radiation that has been harnessed for a variety of applications ranging from food contamination prevention to infection control although ultraviolet radiation has been used for over five decades to kill bacteria the means by which it enters microorganisms and then accesses their genetic material has not been clear to reach the interior of the bacterium where the dna-containing nucleus is located ultraviolet radiation must pass through an outer layer surrounding the microbe called the cell membrane attached to this membrane are tryptophan molecules although tryptophan is popularly known for its sleep-promoting effects in humans in bacteria tryptophan anchors proteins made within the microbes onto the cell membrane consequently the bacterial outer covering is studded with tryptophan molecules
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also unlike most other biological molecules tryptophan interacts with ultraviolet light when hit by ultraviolet light tryptophan molecules absorb the radiation and get energized and when they lose this absorbed energy they reemit a much weaker ultraviolet light dubbed fluorescent light rentzepis and his team investigated if these ultraviolet light-tryptophan interactions played a role in killing bacteria for their experiments the texas a&m team looked at the fluorescent light emitted by tryptophan molecules in escherichia coli and bacillus subtilis bacteria after shining a beam of ultraviolet radiation on them as expected they found that at the end of radiation which typically lasted several minutes the fluorescent light emitted by the tryptophan molecules was drastically reduced indicating that the radiation was killing the bacteria however to their surprise this decreased fluorescent light came after an initial increase immediately after the radiation was turned on the surge of the emitted ultraviolet light just after the radiation onset made us suspect that changes happening to tryptophan molecules before they are ultimately destroyed by ultraviolet light may be involved in how radiation gets into the bacteria said rentzepis past studies have shown that when hit by ultraviolet light protein molecules that are normally wound up in complicated shapes unfold and as a result expose tryptophan rentzepis research groups findings suggest that in bacteria ultraviolet light might unfold membrane proteins and detach tryptophan molecules which may then cause the initial increase in the emitted light signal with tryptophan plucked out of the cell membrane the space left behind forms gaping holes for the ultraviolet light to enter and damage dna he said while the general profile of emitted light is similar for different strains of bacteria rentzepis noted that there are subtle differences that are unique to each species and keeping track of these differences might help in identifying and cataloging different species of bacteria rentzepis and his team have also developed and patented the technology for a handheld device that can collect emitted light from bacteria during irradiation bacterial invasion can happen in different contexts from food processing centers to operation theaters he said but we now have both the science and technology to address these real-world problems since we have a grip on the biological basis behind ultraviolet-induced bacteria inactivation and an instrument that can within minutes and in situ determine how many bacteria are dead after radiation other contributors to the research include dr runze li and dinesh dhankhar anushka nagpal and arjun krishnamoorthi from the texas a&m department of department of electrical and computer engineering; dr maria king from texas a&m biological and agricultural engineering; dr jie chen from shanghai jiao tong universitys center for ultrafast science and technology and dr thomas c cesario from university of california at irvines school of medicine this work was supported in part by the welch foundation the air force office of scientific research and the texas a&m engineering experiment station funds
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the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university installed a new driving simulator to use in research pertaining to driving autonomous vehicles and other vehicle technologies here are the top three things you need to know about the simulator including what types of research is currently being done and future areas of research that will help increase safety on the road including a future with self-driving vehicles
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1 a one-of-a-kind feature the state-of-the-art simulator features a 270-degree field of vision which provides a realistic driving experience for the user field of vision is the area you can see on each side your peripheral vision while you look straight ahead this is a very rare field of vision for a simulator and there are only a few simulators with this capability in the united states
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the driving simulator can also be run autonomously allowing researchers to conduct experiments about self-driving vehicles and how users react to these vehicles as self-driving vehicles become more prevalent this simulator will be helpful to researchers working to understand how self-driving vehicles will impact safety and traffic
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2 current research projects the human factors and machine learning laboratory is using the simulator for research on autonomous vehicles and cyclist safety in partnership with researchers in the department of landscape architecture and department of psychological and brain sciences this research looks at how bias may play a role in cyclist interactions with vehicles realistic driving scenarios were created for the simulator that allowed the researchers to measure the impact of bias on driver and cyclist interactions this work was funded by the t3 grants awarded through the office of the president the human-system interaction laboratory uses the simulator for research on emergency responders specifically law enforcement the simulator will be used to determine the effects of in-vehicle technologies such as laptop computers driver fatigue and vehicle autonomy on the emergency responders performance these results will then be used to develop in-vehicle systems that adapt to emergency responders and training programs that will improve emergency responder safety on the job this work is funded by the north carolina occupational safety and health education and research center
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3 interdisciplinary teamwork many different types of research can be done on the driving simulator including research on drowsy drivers autonomous vehicles on-road sign evaluation driving education driver behavior and much more the driving simulator is available to researchers interested in these areas of research or others
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dr jaime grunlan and his team are helping lead the effort to pursue safer more effective ways to protect flammable objects through the development of flame-retardant surface treatments grunlan the linda & ralph schmidt 68 professor in the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering is an international leader in the field of flame-retardant surface treatments and recently published a review in nature reviews materials describing the state of the art in this important field of research the team's goal alongside their peers is to produce surface treatments that serve to be more effective in their fire protection and less damaging to the environment "many current flame-retardant treatments are ineffective or not effective enough and contain toxic chemistries " grunlan said "we and others around the world are seeking to make flame-retardant treatments safer and much more effective at stopping fire" current research by grunlan's team aims specifically to protect telephone and transmission line poles to prevent forest fires treat textiles for military use and reduce the flammability of a variety of foams and fabrics used in vehicles including planes trains and cars while much progress has been made over the last decade there is still much work to be done "as flame-retardant regulations are changing around the world and new fire threats are constantly presenting themselves this review of flame-retardant surface treatments is especially timely " grunlan said through the use of these surface treatments researchers hope to make commonly used flammable materials including polyurethane foam and polyester fabric anti-flammable or self-extinguishing in some cases the treatments can even be used to reduce smoke production "the field of flame-retardant treatments is seeking to prevent loss of life and property damage by imparting self-extinguishing and anti-flammable behavior to various materials " grunlan said "plastics are inherently flammable and are often the cause of spreading fire more rapidly in buildings and transportation appropriate treatments make it much more difficult for materials to ignite and spread the fire" while surface treatments like those developed by grunlan's team have their benefits over the more commonly used method of mixing in the fire-retardant agent to the materials of interest there are drawbacks that researchers are seeking to address "durability of these treatments to washing and environmental damage is one key issue along with the need for more effective and environmentally friendly chemistries " grunlan said "my research group is working to address both of these challenges and we are at the forefront of the field in this regard" the nature reviews materials journal publishes reviews by invitation only and seeks out the leaders in a given topic nature reviews materials has quickly established itself as the second-highest impact factor journal in the world among any field of research
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solar energy is one of the cleanest renewable energy resources available and it is now being utilized by the power grid in the smart grid the cyber and physical layers are heavily intertwined the cyber layers such as computers networks sensors and controls and the physical layers such as the power transmission lines and transformers work together to generate power more efficiently this collaboration between the different layers is extremely valuable however the presence of cyber layers opens up the grid to potential threats dr le xie and his collaborators dr pr kumar and dr prasad enjeti are addressing this by working on a research project to defend the grid from potential cyberattacks through a real-time check of the actions occurring on the grid
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there has been an increase of grid intelligence such as advanced sensors and photovoltaic (pv) panels that enhance the impact of solar power on the grid pvs work by generating electric power through solar cells that convert energy from the sun into a flow of electrons this is called the photovoltaic effect the team is working to develop and demonstrate an active defense mechanism of the pv distribution system operation using a dynamic watermarking technique to monitor the cybersecurity the technique involves injecting a probe signal onto the grid to authenticate grid actions the team will test and validate the integrated communication control and computational framework using an existing system the goal of this project is to design and test a scalable robust and online framework that provides much-needed secure monitoring of pv generation in the presence of potential cyberattacks in the distribution grid xie said this project will directly fill the gap between academic research and real industry need because the research team has opportunities to test their proposed defense mechanism in a real-world testbed that has been configured based on a commercial distribution system the team has received a $44 million department of energy grant for this research project the funded project is built upon the research on automatic generation control which has been published in ieee transactions on power systems lie is professor kumar is regents professor distinguished professor and college of engineering chair in computer engineering and enjeti is ti professor iii in analog engineering all in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university doctoral students tong huang jorge ramos and jaewon kim and post-doctoral associate woo hyun ko are also involved in this project alongside their faculty mentors
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dr mi lu professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university and her team received the outstanding achievement award from the 2019 international conference on computational science and computational intelligence (csci) csci 2019 presented the award to the team at the conference held dec 5-7 in las vegas nevada for their research contribution titled dilated fully convolutional neural network for depth estimation from a single image their paper received high scores in all the categories in the peer review csci invites paper submissions from diverse communities including researchers from universities corporations government agencies and standardization bodies accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings by conference publishing services papers are sought that address solutions to problems in all areas of computational science and computational intelligence
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researchers at texas a&m university have recently developed a more comprehensive mathematical framework that can help engineers at petrochemical plants to not only reduce production costs and increase economic gain but also make these factories safer and more environmentally friendly the researchers said their new algorithm is a one-stop solution that can assist engineers in selecting the most optimal design for chemical processing units within their operating plants the novelty of our algorithm is that it provides a sophisticated decision-making tool that can be used by project engineers to decide between competing designs for their chemical processing units said dr prerna jain who worked in the mary kay oconnor process safety center as a graduate student at texas a&m and is currently an engineer at an oil and gas company our tool integrates data from potential equipment hazards economic data and more importantly complex man-machine interactions to generate a single numerical output this number then points to a design that maximizes profit while still lowering environmental and hazardous impacts an article on the research teams findings was published in october in acs sustainable chemistry and engineering before petroleum-based products are used for everyday purposes like heating homes or powering-up vehicles crude oil passes through a series of processing steps for refinement and packaging however each processing phase can be designed in a variety of ways using different technologies and a variable amount of manpower and so each design may differ vastly in terms of cost safety environmental impact and maintenance to select one design among many possible options engineers often resort to a numerical value called the return on investment this metric in its simplest version indicates the financial benefit or profit resulting from a certain initial monetary investment on a given design however engineers often use more extensive algorithms that include factors such as environmental impact and worker safety to compute return on investment values but jain noted that even these more complex algorithms have largely overlooked social factors such as how often operating procedure manuals at a chemical plant are updated or how frequently equipment maintenance is performed this human element is important to include while computing the return on investment she said because faulty man-equipment interactions often underlie chemical plant disasters like fires and explosions dr mahmoud el-halwagi professor and the bryan research and engineering chair in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m pointed out that social and safety factors are typically considered after major design decisions regarding the chemical plant have been made at this stage key design components are already finalized and it becomes rather difficult to make substantial design modifications he said to address these deficits jain and her team developed an even more elaborate mathematical framework that could be implemented when designing chemical processing units furthermore their algorithm now included man-machine interactions in the new algorithm they plugged in a quantity called resilience or the ability of a chemical plant to recover from a stressed state just as a rubber band can only be stretched to its elastic limit before it breaks chemical plants if used to their maximum capacity and without safety measures in place can degrade leading to catastrophes said jain by incorporating resilience into our algorithm we wanted to include the complex interactions between man and technology that can affect resilience and by extension the estimation of the return of investment once the algorithm was fully developed the researchers used it to compare different designs of gas compressor systems frequently used in chemical plants in particular they contrasted the value of the return on investment for a compression system existing in a chemical plant with five other hypothetical designs
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jain and her colleagues found that after taking social factors into account the most promising compressor system design was not the one that was already in the existing plant but the one that the researchers had created jain noted that their observations indicate the feasibility of using their algorithm to evaluate new process design ideas that exist in theory but havent been put to the test in an existing plant there is often a hesitation in the energy industry to invest in a new process design if it hasnt been evaluated yet said jain with our algorithm we now have the ability to brainstorm ideas for new process designs and test them virtually without really needing them to be physically set up and running moreover we can feed the algorithm with numbers corresponding to different social factors pertaining to chemical plants in the process we might stumble upon a new better design that is safer for workers and kinder to the environment other contributors to the research included kariana mareno-sader tenorio from the department of chemical engineering university of cartagena colombia; luis carlos ballestas from ecopetrol sa columbia; and dr m sam mannan from the chemical engineering department and executive director of the mary kay o'connor process safety center at texas a&m this work was supported by funds from the mary kay oconnor process safety center
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by studying the events that precipitate gas explosions on earth a team of researchers led by dr alexei poludnenko may have uncovered why some stars known as white dwarfs end their life by detonating violently in a supernova explosion although the conditions within these stars are vastly different from those on earth the researchers have shown in the november issue of science that the basic mechanisms that set off detonations in stars are similar to those that trigger terrestrial explosions consequently their findings might help in taking preemptive steps to avert explosion-related accidents and also advance novel propulsion and energy conversion systems here on earth for this study the researchers developed a theory of detonation initiation in gases based on the concept of turbulence simply defined as a chaotic and rapid motion of parcels of air or liquid in an ignited gas turbulence can rapidly mix unburned fuel with hotter products of burning as a consequence the rate of burning and energy release is vastly accelerated turbulence action in these flows is similar to what happens when we add cream to coffee left alone the cream takes a long time to mix with the coffee said poludnenko associate adjunct professor of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university and associate professor of mechanical engineering at the university of connecticut but if we stir it with a spoon we can cause turbulence; so the motion of the spoon forces the cream and coffee to move faster greatly accelerating their mixing to investigate if turbulence could be a reason why volatile gases detonate the research team designed an experimental setup consisting of a 15-meter-long channel with a spark plug installed on one end along the length of the chamber they positioned perforated plates at different carefully chosen locations these plates were designed to promote turbulence in a flammable gas mixture after igniting the gas researchers measured the speed of the resulting flame along with the pressure generated by it at different locations along the chamber poludnenko and his team observed that the experimentally-induced turbulence within the chamber caused the flame to become unstable accelerating rapidly and creating shock waves that traveled much faster than the speed of sound as their theory predicted these shock waves grew in strength and sped up the rate of burning even more eventually causing a detonation since their theory described gas detonations well they next investigated if the same theory could also explain stellar explosions that is the detonation of material undergoing nuclear fusion inside white dwarf stars upon simulating the turbulent conditions in the blistering core of these stars poludnenko and his team found that their theory predicted that much like the events leading up to gas explosions turbulence can also cause supersonic shockwaves within the star these waves force the star to chew through its nuclear fuel vigorously triggering a massive detonation that ultimately blows up the star within a few seconds producing an explosion capable of outshining the entire galaxy poludnenko noted that while their findings have numerous applications in cosmology and astrophysics their work also has important applications on earth as well wed like to use our theory to predict why and when explosions on our planet will happen he said if we can accurately calculate the propensity for detonations in industrial settings for example we can fine-tune our safety procedures and hopefully circumvent major catastrophes other contributors to the research include dr jessica chambers and dr kareem ahmed from the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering university of central florida; dr vadim gamezo from the naval research laboratory washington dc; and dr brian taylor from the air force research laboratory florida this work was supported by grants from the energy combustion and non-equilibrium thermodynamics portfolio of the air force office of scientific research in the areas of turbulent combustion and detonation nasa and the alpha foundation for the improvement of mine safety and health
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before dr qingsheng wang became an associate professor of chemical engineering at the mary kay o'connor process safety center at texas a&m university he was a doctoral student working there wang answered a few questions about his journey from texas a&m and back and how this experience has shaped him into the researcher and mentor he is today q: can you tell us a little bit about what brought you to texas a&m university as a student a: dr f albert cotton brought me to texas a&m university it was 2005 and i had just completed my undergraduate and masters studies in chemistry from zhejiang university in china i wanted to pursue a phd and at that time dr cotton was a distinguished professor in the department of chemistry at texas a&m he was a very famous chemist with his name appearing in a few textbooks i really wanted to join his lab he was studying the chemistry behind metal-metal bonds an area of research i was interested in so i applied to the universitys graduate program in chemistry and i got in q: cotton was part of the chemistry department and you spent the majority of your graduate studies at texas a&m working as a researcher for the mary kay o'connor process safety center in the college of engineering how did you wind up there a: when i was in my second year of graduate school dr cotton passed away and so i was on the lookout for a new lab for my doctoral studies i did speak to many professors in that regard but the conversations i had with dr sam mannan really stood out he was the director of the mary kay o'connor process safety center which is a part of the department of chemical engineering i was fascinated by the kind of research they did at the center particularly on the reaction mechanisms that trigger chemical explosions i could apply a lot of my knowledge in quantum chemistry to study how volatile chemicals break down and eventually explode also i had the opportunity to work on projects that were industry-focused which made sense since most incidents of chemical explosions happen in industries q: are explosions common in chemical industries a: oh yes they happen pretty often and some of them are really big for example in 1947 there was an incident in texas city where ammonium nitrate which is a common fertilizer exploded because it accidentally caught on fire in 2013 in west texas the same chemical exploded and just last year the chemical safety board investigated a few incidents in fact the mary kay oconnor process safety center was established to educate engineers to identify and prevent potential fires and explosions before situations become irreversibly dangerous q: did you continue studying fires and explosions after graduate school a: yes i wanted to remain in academia and do more research on that topic oklahoma state university had an opening in the department of fire protection and safety engineering i applied interviewed and got an offer to join as an assistant professor almost immediately after in my lab i studied mostly fire safety and the combustion dynamics behind fires caused by burning different materials i was very fortunate that my training in chemistry and chemical engineering at texas a&m uniquely positioned me to study this topic q: in 2019 you returned to texas a&m after spending eight and a half years at oklahoma state university what made you come back a: my phd advisor dr mannan i was doing really well at oklahoma state; i was an endowed professor and was supervising several phd and masters students dr mannan called me one day and said that the mary kay o'connor process safety center was expanding and there were a few faculty positions that were available he said that the number of phd students at the center had increased a lot he wanted my help and i wanted to help but i also knew that coming back gave me the opportunity to give back to the institution i learned so much from it was win-win
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q: what is it like being on the faculty at texas a&m a: my journey has come full circle unlike when i was a student i now see the organization from a different vantage point i hope to bring all my experience in leadership and research to manage the safety engineering academic program i also now collaborate with several senior professors from other departments to enhance my research q: what career advice do you give your students a: i encourage all my students to have an open mind about their career pursuits i chose to be in academia because i really enjoy teaching and research but the wonderful aspect about being at the mary kay o'connor process safety center is that you also get to work on industry-related projects so i highly recommend that my students do at least one internship in industry before they make up their minds about the direction of their careers but if they enjoy research more and want to stay in academia they have my full support as well
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some kids grow up knowing they want to go to texas a&m university entrenched in the aggie traditions from an early age andrew salazar '19 is not one of them in fact hes a first-generation college studentin high school the san antonio native realized he wanted to study civil engineering and at one of the best programs in the nation so salazar jumped in with both feethe became part of the student engineers' council the society of professional engineers the american society of civil engineers and even the water polo club team but one of his favorite things was being a zachry department of civil and environmental engineering student ambassadoras an ambassador for the department salazar loved giving tours to prospective students"i find that we can really recruit and inspire some of the smartest and unique high school students not only in texas but around the country as well " he said "it also gave me a chance to answer questions i know they have since i had many of the same questions when i was a high school student"
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salazar attended a conference hosted by the student engineers council during the fall of his junior and senior year in high school"i was inspired that college students would care so much about the kids that come after them and want to inspire them to study engineering and attend texas a&m " he saidsalazar has nothing but love for the civil and environmental engineering department his favorite place to study and socialize is in the dwight look engineering building or dleb as the students call it"this department is a family " he said "for me this is the place where i see all my friends and the advisors i could spend the entire day chatting with different people who come through the doors it truly is the home of the civil and environmental engineering department it's the one area we can all meet to eat talk and study"the recent graduate has some advice for future and current civil and environmental engineering students"the best piece of advice i ever received was 'don't be afraid to put your pride to the side '" he said "i struggled my freshman year since i was not willing to accept help or tutoring the ones who are open to learning are the ones who grow and succeed most in the end"throughout salazar's undergraduate journey he said the department's mentors and professors helped him along the way"for me it was the advisors specifically ms (kasey) sims and mr (bob) appleton both of their personalities are perfect for developing relationships with students and giving advice during their many open office hours " he said
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he said dr michael brackin taught him statistics in a way that made new and complicated subjects easier to understand and that dr petros sideris taught one of the hardest classes in concrete"the passion he (sideris) came in with to a 4 pm class was refreshing " salazar said "along with the candor he had for teaching us a subject that many people don't enjoy yet challenged us to learn the proper methods and not cut corners"salazar said his most memorable class was urban traffic facilities with dr gene hawkins"he is a professor who is very passionate and knowledgeable on his subject of study " he said "almost all of my peers in the class were transportation engineers we bonded a lot over the class since we will be seeing a lot of each other during our professional careers"in february salazar will begin work for pape-dawson engineers in san antonio he will likely start in their transportation/roadway group and explore their traffic group as he decides which area he wants to specialize in for the company
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when kaya mariello was 10 years old her mother was diagnosed with cancer which she survived from a young age she witnessed firsthand the profound impact illness can have on a family i began to notice how many people are affected by not only cancer but basic diseases said mariello mariello herself lives with a degenerative eye disease that affects her vision and her husband has hearing loss her experiences with genetic disorders led her to texas a&m university where she studies nuclear engineering with the hopes of studying genetics and cancer research in medical school originally from maine mariello wanted to move south in search of a more advanced engineering education and warmer weather as soon as she came to texas a&m she says she fell in love while she didnt plan on majoring in nuclear engineering she soon realized that the major provided her with everything she needed to be prepared for medical school not only does a bachelors degree in nuclear engineering help medical school applicants stand out with a unique undergraduate education the rigorous math and science-dependent curriculum help prepare students for the complexity of medical school additionally many subsets of nuclear engineering such as radiological health and radiation biology are core components of cancer research i never thought that i was smart enough to study nuclear engineering said mariello but i learned that its a great way to get where i want to be in life
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in addition to her nuclear engineering major mariello is also pursuing a minor in biomedical sciences and a leadership certificate through to corps of cadets as a member of the corps mariello works with career readiness and scholastics helping prepare cadets for life after college the corps also fostered her interest in other disciplines such as veterinary medicine as she spent a year assisting with reveille texas a&ms beloved mascot in the corps mariello was a member of company e2 as a sophomore where she was an assistant handler to reveille ix we bonded over our mutual love for peanut butter laughed mariello working with the mascot even prompted mariello to consider veterinary school something thats still on her mind for any incoming freshmen considering a degree in nuclear engineering mariello urges students to take a step back and consider the bigger picture i think any freshman pursuing a specific type of engineering should ask themselves what they really want to do with it said mariello what are their goals and are there other ways to reach them than a singular major you might be surprised at what you find
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utilities can keep the lights on prevent fires with new diagnostic tool interest is spreading across the globe in a new technology developed at texas a&m university to help electric utilities keep the lights on and prevent horrific wildfires its a one-of-a kind hardware and software system called distribution fault anticipation (dfa) it can diagnose problems on utility lines before outages darken neighborhoods before power failures spark wildfires or before fears of wildfires prompt massive preemptive power outages dfa interprets variations in electrical currents on utility circuits caused by the deteriorating equipment it warns utility operators to respond to particular problems before they cause outages and possibly spark fires electric power companies have nothing else like it
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‘a game changer engineers at texas a&m developed dfa over 20 years of research and testing at more than a dozen utilities across the nation including texas utilities such as pedernales electric cooperative mid-south synergy and bluebonnet electric cooperative dfa is now being tested by two of californias biggest utilities pacific gas & electric and southern california edison where utilities have been linked to some of the most destructive wildfires ever texas a&m researchers also are working on tests with utilities in new zealand the united kingdom and australia the texas a&m research team is led by dr b don russell distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering and research professor carl l benner due to the widespread interest in preventing wildfires russell testified in december before the us senate energy and natural resources committee to explain the technologys advantages afterward sen angus king of maine described dfa as dramatic and important sen catherine cortez masto of nevada called the technology a game changer like your ‘check engine light russell and benner liken dfa to the computer-based diagnostic tools found in modern cars ones that warn when fluids are running dry or that an engine part is close to failure utility systems operate today like my 1950s chevy russell said they have some fuses and breakers and things but they really dont have anything diagnostic they dont have that computer under the hood telling them whats about to go wrong electrical power outages commonly are caused by falling trees that tear down lines or failures of devices such as clamps switches conductors and connectors the devices can deteriorate over weeks or months impacting electrical currents in small ways before actual failures perhaps triggered by high winds dfa continuously monitors currents and applies its algorithms to detect and report abnormalities for investigation and repair until now utility companies have had little choice but to wait and react to failures electrical equipment is durable and deterioration of devices is difficult to see that makes visual inspection and preventive maintenance only marginally helpful utilities representatives have long recognized that something new is needed given the nations aging infrastructure dfa answers this need 4 000 texas wildfires texas a&m engineers developed dfa to help utility companies improve reliability in general but they also saw its potential for preventing some wildfires early research funding came from the electric power research institute a nationwide group of utility companies and other industry stakeholders in recent years the state of texas funded dfa testing in response to wildfires in 2011 more than 4 000 texas wildfires were caused by power lines in 2009 2010 and 2011 the texas a&m forest service found the largest was the deadly bastrop fire in 2011 which started when winds shook some loblolly pine trees into electric lines in the area served by the bluebonnet electric cooperative bluebonnet is among several texas utilities that have kept using dfa after the four-year test period thomas ellis manager of engineering said bluebonnet is expanding its use of dfa beyond areas most prone to wildfires dfa has provided greater insight into our system health ellis said it allows us to be proactive in equipment repair and replacement keeping the lights on not only does dfa improve reliability and help prevent fires it could potentially give california utilities a tool to limit preemptive power outages such as those endured by millions of californians last fall the utilities turned off the lights based only on dry conditions and weather forecasts utilities need a crystal ball something telling them which circuit is going to start a fire tomorrow because it is already unhealthy russell said dfa is kind of a crystal ball
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dr emily pentzer associate professor in the department of materials science and engineering with a joint appointment in the department of chemistry at texas a&m university has been elected as one of two alternate councilors for the division of polymer chemistry (poly division) of the american chemical society (acs) along with dr phil costanzo professor in the chemistry and biochemistry department at california polytechnic state university pentzer will serve in place of a councilor not being able to fulfill their duties acs is the worlds largest scientific community with a vision to improve peoples lives through the transforming power of chemistry the poly division of acs has members from around the world in academia industry and government with the common goal of supporting polymer education and research to meet the global challenges of today and the future pentzers research uses organic synthesis to access new materials and assemblies as a route to understand structure-property relationships and access properties not possible with current state-of-the-art systems
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safety culture in the offshore oil and gas industry is challenging to quantify especially with 80% of personnel being third-party contractorsdr ivan damnjanovic associate professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering and the director of engineering project management at texas a&m university has been awarded a $733 631 grant from the gulf research program (grp) of the national academies of sciences engineering and medicine to develop quantifiable measurements of safety culture improvementscurrently the safety climate is assessed mostly from the organizational viewpoint; however the industrys reliance on external contractors means team members may not share the same training experiences or even language he said we are looking to develop processes that can help offshore plant managers better understand how project requirements affect safety culture and what could we do to improve itthe grp awarded $725 million in grants for eight projects including damnjanovics focused on strengthening safety culture in the offshore oil and gas industry
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ready set start your computers!texas a&m university engineers are looking to develop software for industry-standard computers and sensors for race cars at speeds of up to 200 mph the prize is $1 millionthe indy autonomous challenge is a competition among universities that enables self-driving dallara il-15 indy lights formula cars to compete head-to-head at the indianapolis motor speedway (ims) texas a&m was a part of the team that developed the competition and is one of 21 universities to enter the race so farthe texas a&m team led by dr ivan damnjanovic associate professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering and the director of engineering project management is composed of faculty and graduate and undergraduate students
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the indy autonomous challenge represents a unique opportunity for our faculty and students to get involved in what is arguably the most exciting racing competition in recent years he said this race brings a whole new set of challenges that need to get addressed having a car on a self-drive mode cruising on an interstate highway is one thing… now just imagine formulas racing autonomously at speeds close to 200 miles per hourthe contest involves a progressively difficult five-round sequence that provides teams with experience and resources in the runup to the final challenge the race on oct 23 2021 at the speedway's 205-mile ovalwe are in the process of developing an interdisciplinary team that will be composed of students and faculty from multiple engineering departments and beyondthe competition is sponsored by ims and energy systems network
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since she was young ocean engineering graduate student lisa bratton has taken to the water as a swimmer – playing multiple sports in her childhood before committing herself to the pool now she is preparing to take on the 2020 olympic trials her olympic dreams started when she tried out for the global competition in 2012 when she was 16 and were rekindled in 2016 with another shot at the olympics her achievements and experience in the water inspire her to continue pushing forward for more i've been through not making it to the olympics and i think that kind of adds to the desire to go bratton said but it also helps me know where i need to be mentally in order to get there so the spring is just going to be managing the mental game having always loved the ocean bratton was introduced to the department of ocean engineering at texas a&m university through an undergraduate event – excitedly discovering how it merged her passion for water with her desire to dive into renewable energy i come from a family of civil engineers she said my dad my dad's dad and my mom's dad are all civil engineers so from a very early stage i kind of knew i was going to be an engineer what i have loved about the ocean engineering department throughout my undergrad was how small it is and really getting to know people i think that's our biggest plug to incoming general engineers: you get to have a face here and that's something really special so what can an aspiring ocean engineer take away from competitive swimming drive determination and focus i always strive to do my best she said you dont become a college athlete unless you really want to put in the hours its kind of the same thing with your education: you dont get an engineering degree if you dont put in the hours that said bratton stressed the importance of focus when she is swimming that is her priority when she is in the classroom her education takes the torch when she is taking some time for herself she commits to relaxing and recovering both mentally and physically what i always like to tell everyone is to find the balance she said engineering is obviously crazy especially freshman and sophomore year with all those general credits theres a lot to do but there is time to get it all done just learn to manage your time and once you get that down its smooth sailing
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from tracking ill cows on a ranch to safely restraining animals after a surgery students from texas a&m university were given 48 hours to develop impactful solutions for the animal kingdom during aggies invent: vetmed the 36th aggies invent kicked off jan 10 and challenged eight teams of students with various academic backgrounds ranging from engineering to animal science to develop solutions to a variety of problems the winning team seabisket developed a tube to safely and effectively deliver colic treating medication to horses the tube is inserted into the horses nose and fed to the stomach a really big challenge was being innovative about the solution because this a pretty simple very common procedure said diego sol aerospace engineering junior a lot of people have looked at trying to make it better and there havent been a whole lot of breakthroughs there were two main innovations the team added to the project a balloon that will read the pressure around the tube to determine if it has entered the trachea or the esophagus and wires at the end of the tube that form an incomplete circuit
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stomach acid can conduct electricity said peter winsauer biomedical engineering junior once the tube is in the stomach acid it will complete the circuit and turn on an led outside the body that the technician can see teams are encouraged to include members with a variety of backgrounds to enhance the amount of shared knowledge ashley saddler biomedical sciences junior noted that for seabisket it was especially helpful with their prototypes design i would never have thought of the incomplete circuit but (the biomedical sciences members) thought of the balloon it was just a really nice mix of ideas and a constant flow of knowledge from different fields which was really cool saddler said gayle millard a senior technical services veterinarian at boehringer ingelheim animal health based in san antonio was an industry representative and judge she said events like aggies invent not only help students gain educational knowledge about working with people in different disciplines they also have an innovative impact in preparing them for the working world in the real world youre going to work with people that come with all kinds of educational backgrounds and different perspectives and different objectives and you have to work with them millard said
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for some students like first year vet student chloe bening participating in aggies invent has adjusted their career goals my eventual plan is to be a professor but i really want to learn more about the engineering side of veterinary medicine bening said if i can be a professor (id) teach an elective in the vet school about more ingenuity and engineering in the veterinary field because there are a lot of veterinarians in industry that are not in private practice dr eleanor green dean of the school of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences acted as a judge she said students can take away much from the event from gaining confidence in using their own skills to learning how to respect and leverage the talents of others it also helps people understand that we have a lot of problems in our world and if we get the right people together we can solve them and come up with something pretty quick green said its amazing i think every single one of these projects could be built upon other teams that placed were: second place: hows my cow third place: under pressure honorable mention: padguard the next intensive design experience is invent for the planet where more than 40 student teams across the world will collaborate to address need statements that impact us all the event runs feb 14-16 and registration ends on feb 3
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dr matt pharr has been awarded national science foundation (nsf) support for his work on developing improved rechargeable batteries pharr an assistant professor in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university was selected for the 2020 nsf faculty early career development (career) award for his work an honor designed to allow promising junior faculty to pursue cutting-edge research while simultaneously advancing excellence in education in addition to supporting pharrs research the award will also provide resources toward developing interactive and immersive augmented and virtual reality-based learning modules with the goal of improving undergraduate and graduate students' understanding of the mechanics of materials in electrochemical systems i am honored to receive this award pharr said the funding will provide key resources to develop my research program at an important stage in my career in particular it will allow me to continue to pursue mechanics of materials-based research in nontraditional areas in this case that of electrochemistry from portable electronics to electric vehicles rechargeable batteries are abundant in daily life with lithium-based batteries often selected as the power source of choice by properly distributing batteries into a connected grid pharr said energy storage from renewable resources - such as wind solar and wave could be enabled coupled with broader integration with electric vehicles the emission of greenhouse gases could be reduced however challenges still remain commercial batteries utilize materials with relatively low energy densities: batteries add substantial weight to vehicles and occupy huge volume in portable electronics but must be recharged every few hours pharr said pharrs research is investigating lithium and sodium metal anodes and key alloys as potential components of next-generation batteries and how to overcome the challenges of safety and durability currently associated with these chemistries while the electrochemistry of lithium and sodium has been studied extensively at the heart of the issue lies a mechanics of materials problem pharr said unstable deformation occurs during operation producing so-called dendrites and damage materials and mechanics-based studies are thus necessary to enable safe and durable operation pharr said the goal of this project is to provide an understanding of the interplay between functional and structural behavior of lithium and sodium anodes combined with materials discovery of alloys these studies will guide appropriate charging conditions applied pressures and material properties that prevent damage with an eye toward enabling safe and durable operation pharr said
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dr justin wilkerson has received a grant benefiting his research on dynamic cavitation and fracture of soft matter which could have an impact in several areas from emergency first aid to robotics wilkerson an assistant professor in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university was recently one of four researchers awarded a haythornthwaite foundation research initiation grant by the applied mechanics division of the american society of mechanical engineers the objective of wilkersons research is to develop a high-strain rate strength testing capability for cavitation in soft matter hydrogel-like soft materials are used in a broad range of applications from wound dressings to soft robotics to disposable diapers wilkerson said from a scientific perspective they are a fairly interesting class of materials for fundamental studies hydrogel-like soft materials are transparent which enables real-time visualization of cavitation and fracture processes with high-speed optical cameras in structural metals this type of real-time visualization of internal dynamic failure processes can only be achieved by synchrotrons a type of circular particle accelerator wilkerson heads the laboratory for nonequilibrium phenomena which carries out fundamental research on rate-dependent deformation and failure processes in a broad class of materials including lightweight metals metallic glasses aerospace and hypersonic materials geologic materials energetic materials hydrogels and biological tissue the grant program is funded by the haythornthwaite foundation and targets new university faculty engaged in research involving theoretical and applied mechanics
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two world-renowned researchers both members of the national academy of engineering will be joining the faculty of the texas a&m university college of engineering this spring semester dr ali erdemir joins the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering in january and dr ned thomas will join the department of materials science and engineering in june dr ali erdemir erdemir joins texas a&m as a tees (texas a&m engineering experiment station) eminent professor from argonne national laboratory where he served as a distinguished fellow and senior scientist he received his bachelors degree from istanbul technical university in metallurgical engineering and his masters and doctoral degrees in materials science and engineering from the georgia institute of technology his current research is directed toward the development of novel tribological technologies for a broad range of applications in manufacturing transportation and other energy conversion and utilization systems erdemir has served as president of the international tribology council and the society of tribologists and lubrication engineers he has published more than 300 papers holds 23 us patents and has generated more than 18 000 citations he was elected to the national academy of engineering in 2019 dr ned thomas thomas who will join as a professor and hagler fellow previously served as dean of rice engineering and also as department head of massachusetts institute of technologys department of materials science and engineering he earned a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from the university of massachusetts–amherst and a doctorate in materials science and engineering from cornell university thomas founded mits institute for soldier nanotechnologies in 2002 with support from the us army research office he developed several new materials and pioneered research areas that led to the discovery of important technologies for better soldier protection and revolutionized minimally invasive surgeries he has over 20 patents issued three of which are commercially licensed he was elected to the national academy of engineering in 2009
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dr yong-rak kim has come full circle in a way you could even say he's home the newest professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university once walked the building as a graduate studenttexas a&m engineering is one of the best engineering programs in the world and that was the main reason i chose it for my masters and phd degrees now i am back to my education home as a faculty member to teach students and work together with my former teachers and many colleagues he said this is extremely special to me and it is a great opportunity i am honored to be a part of this great programkim joins the transportation and materials division specializing in materials he will contribute research excellence technological innovation and workforce development as a core team member of the departmenti enjoy teaching courses on materials with a primary interest in infrastructure materials and their understanding to design our infrastructure better he said i like to integrate fundamental science (physics mechanics and chemistry) with practical applications for better materials and structures under various challenges i look at teaching as a core integration with my research"kims primary research area is understanding and predicting behavior of materials and structures that are subjected to various loads (mechanical and environmental) and different conditions (ordinary to extreme)"to do this i integrate experimental approaches with computational modeling in multiple length-time scales " he said "i believe this way we can make our understanding analysis prediction design and manufacturing of different classes of materials and structures much better than conventional methods"kim said to prepare students for the professional field he will focus on bridging the gap between fundamental understanding and practical applications"i like to train students who will be fully responsible and technically and ethically prepared engineers who can contribute to our society " he said "classroom instruction and advising graduate students help my research and new research outcomes and findings enrich my teaching"kim plans to team up with other researchers not only within the department but also with other departments and colleges and the center for infrastructure renewal (cir)"i expect my materials research focusing on fundamental mechanics and science can bring and develop opportunities to collaborate " he said "in particular my research background and experience are very well-suited to the mission and vision of the cir
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the 2019 boeing innovation challenge (bic) an ongoing multi-university competition put student teams ingenuity and creativity to the test as they developed new ways to advance the commercial aviation industry six of the 19 student teams that advanced to the next stage of the competition hailed from the texas a&m university college of engineering – representing the largest number of teams coming from a single institution their goal to design solutions to real-world problems faced by the aviation industry inspire industry leaders and present creative ideas to better a field that connects cultures around the world this years competition focused on three main areas of impact: simplifying commercial airplanes creating adaptable and flexible airplane cabins and bringing advances from other industries to commercial aviation i believe that the bic can benefit me in two ways said taha rahman student at the texas a&m engineering academy at blinn-bryan professionally it could open doors for potential internships and allow me to network with boeing and students from other universities nationwide on a much more personal scale representing texas a&m on a national level means the world to me"
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the second-round texas a&m teams are time flies reveilles engineers pbetamu wright on pbebc and soar higher time flies included moss misiaszek vic lee and joshua tharakan reveilles engineers consisted of nathanael markle and korbin san miguel team pbetamu included jesus covarrubias kyle jungbluth and jose maldonado making up wright on was ali hasnain khowaja brady allen and mitchell mu pbebc consisted of connor mcmunn and blake neuendorf finally soar higher included taha rahman rushi patel and rami ayari on jan 10 all teams had a chance to pitch their idea in a virtual meeting and the 10 best ideas were selected for the hackathon event from here students were assigned new teams based on their interest in the selected ideas and partnered with other students across the nation to develop solutions in a hackathon-style event from jan 20-22 in mukilteo washington there they will be meeting with boeing leaders to discuss project ideas career aspirations and upcoming internship opportunities at the end of the event they will present their ideas to a panel of boeing judges students who have worked on creating new inventions for the company during this process will be included on any future patent applications as an inventor we were incredibly excited to see so many of our students selected for the boeing innovation challenge said magda lagoudas executive director of industry and nonprofit partnerships it demonstrates the innovative spirit of our students and their interest to pursue new challenges solve real-world problems and gain valuable skills outside the classroom
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shivaranjan raghuraman took first place in the doctoral division of the three minute thesis (3mt) finals competition for his presentation on green mechanochemistry a doctoral student in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university raghuraman said it was a great honor to be recognized by the office of graduate and professional studies and texas a&m for his work as a researcher in the exotic area of mechanochemistry presenting my scientific work efficiently has always been a challenge raghuraman said it took a tremendous amount of thought and planning to successfully recast five years of my research into a condensed talk in a more accessible language while still preserving the intricacy of the work the three minute thesis experience taught me the essence of effective communication which is an invaluable asset to an engineer like me raghuraman added that his faculty advisor mechanical engineering assistant professor jonathan felts has provided invaluable support to him in the growth and development of his career dr felts has been a crucial influence in my scientific career he said his penchant to invent novel elegant and sustainable solutions to grand engineering problems defined my attitude towards research he always instilled a sense of creativity freedom and responsibility that motivates me to take the ideas beyond our lab into real lives i am ever grateful for the time effort and other resources he devoted to my success the three minute thesis developed by the university of queensland is a research communication competition designed to challenge students to consolidate their ideas and research discoveries and present them concisely to a nonspecialist audience
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a recent texas a&m university graduate helped oversee the production of a boeing space capsule that made history last month as the first crew-capable capsule to make a land-based touchdown in the united states mitch carson 17 a graduate of the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering is making the most of the skills he learned while at texas a&m carson who started with boeing by interning as a student now works as a shift engineer helping oversee the production of the companys starliner space capsule at kennedy space center in florida carson took the time to share his thoughts on several topics including what first interested him in mechanical engineering and the historic achievement to which he contributed q: what interested you in mechanical engineering a: growing up i spent a lot of time taking things apart figuring out how they worked and putting them back together again i played with legos built props for plays and even restored a 1976 camaro i knew that i had a knack for all things mechanical but needed more than just intuition to really build things well with that in mind i started seeking a career that would both employ my talents and provide financial stability to the family i hoped to have after researching different fields it became clear that mechanical engineering was the perfect discipline to meet these goals q: how did your time in the mechanical engineering department help prepare you for your career a: it made me tough and gave me the grit i need to persevere through difficult situations it also taught me how to effectively manage my time work productively with a variety of people from diverse backgrounds and create tools to solve mechanical problems
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q: what opportunities were most impactful during your time as a student a: the mechanical engineering department put an emphasis on learning how to use matlab and c++ i didnt understand why at the time but can now see how useful those skills are already at boeing ive been able to take what ive learned and automate processes that other engineers have been doing manually for years as a result im able to create more robust designs and complete my work much more quickly and correctly than many of my peers q: what do you do in your job now a: many engineering designs look great on paper but turn out to be unviable when it comes time to build them my job is to work with technicians to identify these issues during spacecraft construction modify the design so that it can be built analyze my modifications to make sure that they maintain the spacecrafts design intent and integrity and finally oversee the solutions implementation i really enjoy it; ive gotten to work on several satellites and for the past seven months have been helping build the starliner space capsule q: what excites you most about your work a: i feel like an artist i get to take ideas as they pop into my head and then go build them its really cool getting to see a picture in my head become a physical structure in front of me especially one that gets put on top of a rocket and shot into space q: how does it feel to be a part of this historic achievement a: it feels kind of like how you feel when you beat your record time in a race: proud excited and exhausted q: what advice do you have for current and future students a: first learn to use matlab for more than whats instructed by your professors; its an invaluable tool for engineers and texas a&m gives you a unique opportunity to learn it second do whatever you can to get an internship every year even if its not your dream job the experience will be valuable and help you get the job you want in the future texas a&m does an excellent job with career fairs and giving you resources to find a job/internship; remember though that its up to you to use them effectively i also advise that you pursue job-seeking avenues outside of those offered directly by the school you never know what might end up working out
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for nearly five decades the department of ocean engineerings center for dredging studies (cds) at texas a&m university has hosted an annual dredging engineering short course (dsc) for professionals across north america and around the world bringing in esteemed lecturers from the dredging industry government and academia to present the latest science and technological advances in the field the five-day course creates a world-class continuing education environment for participants this year 73 participants representing the federal government (us army corps of engineers and the environmental protection agency) consulting firms ports and dredging companies from around the world attended
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its cool to meet all the people from industry and have such a diverse group of owners engineers and contractors like us coming together said connor tennant a participant from manson construction in jacksonville florida its led to interesting conversations youre learning what everyone does differently and how they approach problems its good to be able to hear from all those voices in the room and thats how people come together to deliver a successful project i feel like its been beneficial to get a wide breadth of the industry and of the different considerations when it comes to dredging projects its been very eye opening said joseph mcmahon a participant from the us army corps of engineers in norfolk virginia topics covered in the dsc included basic dredge laws hydraulic and mechanical dredges dredge pumps and performance characteristics dredging best management practices and claims avoidance beach and dune restoration ecosystem (wetlands) restoration hydrographic surveys and dredge cost estimation the course also included a geotechnical laboratory and two dredging project exercises dr ram mohan an adjunct professor in the department led the course in coordination with the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) continuing education office tees edge
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we have been fortunate to get the best from the industry for our short courses these past years our classes get filled to capacity by around the end of october showing their high demand in the industry said mohan established in 1968 by dr john herbich the cds is currently under the direction of dr robert randall professor emeritus and wh bauer professor emeritus in dredging engineering in addition to research and industrial testing the center's activities include teaching university courses and providing annual seminars and short courses concerning advances in dredging engineering technology over the years more than 2 000 dredge professionals have participated in the dredging short course the 50th dredging engineering short course is scheduled from jan 11-15 2021 at texas a&m the course fee is $1 700 applications and more information will be available on the cds webpage by august 2020
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dr xia "ben" hu assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering and a lynn ‘84 and bill crane 83 faculty fellow has recently been given a national science foundation (nsf) and amazon joint award under their fairness in artificial intelligence program with this research funding hu will now take deep dives into investigating the causes behind biases in machine learning algorithms and ways to remedy them algorithms based on machine learning have seamlessly permeated into our everyday lives particularly to help us with decision making for example many businesses use artificial intelligence-powered applications to give people employment-related suggestions or to provide product recommendations however overwhelming research now shows that these algorithms are inadvertently discriminatory the bias in machine learning algorithms is quite ubiquitous and people have begun to notice it said hu take for instance employment-oriented services that use machine learning to match users with job opportunities for reasons that are currently not completely known these algorithms recommend stem jobs only to male users this bias he said can hurt both employers who hope to hire the best candidate regardless of their gender and women seeking stem jobs moreover machine learning algorithms specifically those based on a specialized form of artificial intelligence called deep learning are often considered impenetrable black boxes making the task of fixing them extremely hard compounding the problem is that the bias could also be caused by a multitude of other factors including faulty data for training the machine learning algorithm hu noted that his upcoming research will for the first time detect understand and correct the unfairness in deep learning algorithms in a quantitative way he said that once the bias is addressed the newer deep learning algorithms will be more sensitive to features that are most relevant to the decision-making task if we again think of the deep learning algorithms in the context of employment-oriented services we want to develop better algorithms that are insensitive to features such as gender and race and more sensitive to the candidates past experiences or what their expertise is said hu our goal is to reduce the bias in deep learning algorithms so that they are much more valuable to both the user and the service provider the nsf-amazon joint award under their fairness in artificial intelligence program is a highly competitive grant funding just six to nine applicants each year funding size varies between $750 000 up to a maximum of $1 250 000 for periods of up to three years to receive the award grant applications must be interdisciplinary projects that include contributions from various fields including computer science statistics mathematics and information science hu shares the award with dr james caverlee from the department of computer science and engineering dr na zou from the department of industrial and systems engineering and dr chaitanya lakkimsetti from the department of sociology at texas a&m university
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since 1876 the keepers of the spirit of aggieland and guardians of its traditions the corps of cadets has fostered bonds among cadets as they live and attend school together at texas a&m university on a hot summer day in aggieland in 1962 squadron 13s newest members had their first encounter with louis w zaeske jr 64 zaeske served as first sergeant and commanding officer of squadron 13 which required him to ensure freshman cadets were welcomed to texas a&m in true corps fashion wayne roesler 66 a member of the squadron 13 freshman class shared his first memory of zaeske we had no idea what to expect and from what we had heard corps life seemed scary so we were prepared for the worst roesler said the first person to greet us was first sergeant louis zaeske and from that moment on we experienced what being an aggie was all about while it was difficult to adjust to life in the corps of cadets roesler said zaeske took on their freshman class of cadets taught them what it meant to be an aggie and turned them into fine young men lou was hard on us but through it all he taught patriotism honor and camaraderie roesler said our group really bonded with lou over the two years we had him as a commanding officer and maintained our connection with him well after we all graduated another member of the freshman class of cadets buzz rogers 66 credited zaeske with instilling values into each of them that they hold dear to this day lous influence was widespread on all members of our fish class and as a result of his leadership direction and unique military training methods we all grew up significantly rogers said rogers pointed to zaeskes leadership for the success of the freshman class many of our class held high ranking positions within the corps of cadets and after graduation yielded a large number of officers in the military from the air force to marines rogers said rogers fostered a deeper relationship with zaeske as they shared a hometown san antonio texas and would share rides home together often he softened a little on our trips home but the respect was always there rogers said through my subsequent years both in military and civilian life after retiring from the air force i can think of no other individual who had a greater impact on my life than lou a third member of the class david decker echoed roeslers and rogers affirmations of zaeske zaeske set the tone for our squadron he hammered into us what it meant to be an aggie by demanding we devote time to the process of being the corps of cadets decker said i thought less of other outfits lacking a real first sergeant like zaeske he made us into aggies and graced us with a vintage fish year
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honoring zaeske dick burns a graduate of the texas a&m college of engineering and a member of the 1962 freshman class received an invitation from the texas a&m college of engineering to purchase a commemorative brick after looking at the examples of bricks previously purchased burnss immediate thought was to place a brick in honor of fellow engineering graduate and first sergeant of his squadron zaeske i reached out to our little group of ‘fish buddies and asked if they would want to contribute to a brick in memory of lou who passed away in august of 2011 burns said the response of ‘yes count me in was overwhelming and after getting everything in order i ordered the brick after ordering the brick burns worked with college of engineering alumni relations coordinator abby tiemann to coordinate a brick setting ceremony we invited lous wife jo ann their two daughters jeannine koll and cheryl wenck along with their families burns said on sept 14 members of our freshman class of cadets and lous family met at the zachry engineering education complex for the tribute to our first sergeant mentor and friend members of the class of 66 and 1962 freshman class of cadets of squadron 13 who contributed to the brick include: burns terry callaway decker james darden bob henslee buddy jackson john nelson rogers diego sanchez bill wright and roesler
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louis w zaeske jr zaeske was born dec 17 1941 at randolph air force base in san antonio texas he was the son of louis w zaeske sr and agnes (prihoda) zaeske zaeske traveled throughout the united states as his dad served in the air force a member of the class of 1964 zaeske graduated from texas a&m with a degree in mechanical engineering he was a member of the corps of cadets and a member of the esteemed ross volunteers after graduating from texas a&m he pursued advanced studies at purdue university zaeske married his high school sweetheart jo ann maha (macha) in 1964 they moved to bryan texas where he founded and operated zaeske engineering company for 35 plus years love of country was very important to zaeske in 1989-90 he ran for the texas senate and in 1993 he ran for the us senate he also worked on and contributed to many candidates' campaigns zaeske was always very open direct and honest in his political business and personal affairs zaeske is survived by his wife jo ann of 47 years; his two daughters jeannine koll and husband chris koll of lewisville and cheryl wenck and husband fred wenck of college station; and his grandchildren jennifer koll lauren koll adam wenck fallon wenck and faith wenck
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if you are interested in purchasing an engraved brick on the engineering walk at the zachry engineering education complex or have questions please contact engineeringbricks@tamuedu
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reaching for something on the top shelf in the grocery store or brushing one's teeth before bed are tasks many people can do without thinking but doing these same tasks as an upper limb amputee while using a prosthetic device can require more mental effort dr maryam zahabi assistant professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university and her team are studying machine learning algorithms and computational models to provide insight into the mental demand placed on individuals using prosthetics these models will improve the current interface in these prosthetic devices the researchers are studying prosthetics that use an electromyography-based human-machine interface electromyography (emg) is a technique which records the electrical activity in muscles this electrical activity generates signals that trigger the interface which translates them into a unique pattern of commands these commands allow the user to move their prosthetic device unfortunately using such prosthetics can be mentally draining for upper limb amputees – even for accomplishing simple daily tasks like operating a toothbrush there are over 100 000 people with upper limb amputations in the united states zahabi said currently there is very little guidance on which features in emg-based human-machine interfaces are helpful in reducing the cognitive load of patients while performing different tasks
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testing different interface prototypes through virtual reality and driving simulations will allow researchers to provide guidance to the engineers creating these interfaces this will lead to better prosthetics for amputees and other technological advances using emg-based assistive human-machine interfaces this research is a collaboration between texas a&m north carolina state university and the university of florida and is supported by the national science foundation
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texas a&m universitys online graduate engineering program was again ranked no 1 in the state of texas according to the 2020 rankings released jan 14 by us news & world report best online graduate engineering programs the program was tied for no 5 in the us among public universities and was no 7 overall the program also was tied for no 4 among public universities and was no 6 overall for best online graduate engineering programs for veterans the college of engineering at texas a&m is known for producing high-quality engineers who are ready to tackle the challenges and needs of now and the future our faculty and staff are experts in their fields and dedicated to student learning and development said dr sunay palsole assistant vice chancellor for remote education our commitment to quality and student engagement is carried through to all our students be it in the physical or digital realm this ranking reflects our efforts to leverage distance learning technologies to expand high-quality educational opportunities and eminence in the field of engineering in texas and the nation the rankings include public and private colleges and universities with degree-granting programs offering online classes needed to complete the degree programs are rated on graduate indebtedness course delivery and academic and career support made available to students remotely the college of engineerings online graduate program currently offers 10 online masters degree options with more planned for the future and a doctoral degree in interdisciplinary engineering
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four hours 30 minutes and 49 secondsthats how long it took for kentaro iio 19 to finish sixth overall in the 262-mile course at the antarctic ice marathon on dec 13 it was also his master's graduation day at texas a&m universityjust 600 miles from the south pole the temperature was a little bit different than college station iio was one of 56 runners to complete the race in 5-degree temperaturesduring the race i faced the hardest wind i have ever experienced iio said the wind was harsh but the most challenging part was snow terrain because it was slippery it felt as if i was swimming without knowing how to swimkentaro has run several marathons in asia and north america he first heard of the antarctic ice marathon when he was in high school
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this race had been my teenage dream and it wasnt cheap but i thought i would never do this if i kept saying ‘someday he said the best part was meeting new people as they were all very adventurous great runnersand since the race fell on the day of his graduation he packed his graduation cap and gown but his checked luggage didn't arrive on time it was actually losti didnt have my running gear when we flew to union glacier he said fortunately some other runners let me use their extra gear but the fact that i could not wear my cap and gown on graduation day was mentally challenging too i couldnt do the probably-southernmost aggie ring dunk either but i still had a great time thereiio has run so many races that he has lost count but some stand out more than others in may 2019 he ran in the inaugural chuck norris 5k in college station and came in first crossing the finish line with a fake red beard taped to his face he was the first of more than 5 000 runners from 48 states and seven countries to shake hands with chuck norrisi like running because its simple most of the time he said there is no referee controversy instead running reflects who you are at the time of the race
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whether it is running or research iio said the fundamentals are essentialfor me winning a race or doing research are both fun but i cannot run fast if i do not care about basic practice he said similarly i cannot do good research without learning basic knowledge and academic integrity that knowledge and academic integrity helped him complete his master of science in the civil engineering transportation program his research bid-based priority signal control in a connected environment: concept was published in june 2019 in the transportation research record: journal of the transportation research boardnow that he has graduated iio is working for a traffic engineering consulting firm in houston but hell also continue runningif i have a chance i want to run on the icy continent again he said i have no words to describe how spectacular the whole experience was
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recently texas a&m university engineering undergraduate students transformed their inventive projects into competitive content for the 2019 virtual project showcase for a chance to win prizes and present their work the virtual project showcase is a platform that the college of engineering has created to explore the minds of texas a&ms students previously meant for only senior capstone students 2018 was the first year it was opened up to all undergraduate engineering students the virtual project showcase provides the college an opportunity to show industry professionals around the world the amazing engineering solutions developed by students to address real-world problems said magda lagoudas executive director of industry and nonprofit partnerships and instructional associate professor industries sponsoring senior capstone design projects are able to augment their technical teams while supporting our college goals to prepare our students for successful careers in this platform student teams are able to make a video of their end-of-year project and enter it into the competition where it is judged each video is assessed by three judges who can access videos remotely these three judges determine and rate the projects innovative qualities among other components within the showcase there are two categories that the participants videos are judged capstone and noncapstone projects the winning teams in the capstone category are: the sandbox from the department of mechanical engineering schlumberger anti-clog nozzle from the department of mechanical engineering jetblue from the department of industrial and systems engineering joshua vancura member of the sandbox team said their goal was to develop a large-scale test apparatus that would allow for the controlled experimentation on granular materials while the team had challenges of its own he said the bond he was able to form with his teammates was valuable and they were able to work well with each other to apply their skills
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vancura next plans to pursue his graduate degree and said that the bonds that he formed with his teammates sponsor and the universitys staff have completed his undergraduate degree in the best way possible the winning videos in the noncapstone category are: a low-cost motion capture system using smartphones to resolve healthcare issues in low-income countries from the aggiee_challenge texas a&m university sounding rocketry team for design competition robomaster robotics standard robots for design competition chiseung lee member of the motion capture system and his team began the project initially as a way to gather and build their skills in communication and apply their engineering backgrounds productively to a place in the real world i learned more about the skills required in engineering by teaching myself or learning as a team lee said because of the projects invaluableness to him lee said he undoubtedly knows that it will help him in the biomedical field in the future this year additional top-placing teams in the industrial and systems engineering electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering departments also received distinction for their projects as a culmination of the projects these teams have worked so hard on for the past semester the students are able to flaunt their creations in this outlet winning teams from the capstone and noncapstone categories received monetary prizes for their project videos ranging from $100-$1 000
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a conversation with carolyn '05 and john fenn jr '05 former students in the texas a&m university college of engineering carolyn and john fenn jr have established the carolyn '05 and john fenn jr '05 endowed engineering scholarship to support freshman first-generation students in the college of engineering at texas a&m their generous gift made through the texas a&m foundation will help bolster students as they break barriers and become the first in their family to obtain a college degree q what inspired you to give back to texas a&m and the college of engineering a we've continued the tradition of giving back via the association of former students that we started upon graduation however we lived in doha for five years and our up-close experience with texas a&m university at qatar inspired us to give in a more focused way via the texas a&m foundation to support the development of aggie engineers with a focus on global issues after moving home we were able to support dr mark weichold and the global engineering program and have been tremendously impressed with how impactful they are with donor support fortunately we both work for exxonmobil which provides an outstanding matching contribution to educational donations q why did you choose to focus on supporting first-generation freshmen a we recognize that going to college is a huge transition for everyone but it can be especially tough for freshmen who haven't had a voice speaking to that experience in their family anything that we can do to help with that transition and help an aggie make it through that rough first year is great plus bringing in a first-generation student means that we're growing the aggie family q what have you been doing since graduation a we have both worked for exxonmobil since graduation we've had the amazing opportunity to travel to a variety of places (nigeria alaska papua new guinea china australia etc) and have lived overseas in both doha and singapore as well as back home in houston this experience of the benefit of a global perspective further reinforced the criticality of making sure today's aggies are learning how to succeed in a global workplace q how did your experience at texas a&m influence or impact your career a it is impossible to overstate how essential texas a&m was to our careers first off the college of engineering was a rigorous training ground that forced us to learn how to work hard but it also challenged us to grow intellectually and find new creative ways to solve challenges while we both have gone into the commercial side of the oil and gas business and the engineering specifics haven't applied in a while the exercises in learning how to think analytically and dig into the core of an issue apply far more broadly then add the instant connection you have with other members of the aggie family and the fact that the aggie family is huge in houston and the global oil and gas business it's easy to say that the skills we honed at texas a&m put to use through the aggie network have been an invaluable asset to both of our careers
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the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering or would like more information on how you can give please contact haley jennings director of development
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drilling into the earth to tap energy reservoirs is expensive and risky rapid decisions based on accurate information could reduce equipment failure or accidents and quicken the time it takes to drill a well yet current well imaging only gives a limited static picture of the underground environment to drilling operators to improve safety and cut costs the united states department of energy small business innovation research program has awarded a phase i grant to e-spectrum technologies and dr eduardo gildin associate professor in the harold vance department of petroleum engineering at texas a&m university to create an advanced advisory system that accurately depicts underground conditions in real time during drilling operations
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e-spectrum has a hardware package that can be installed behind the drill bit the software in it currently uses algorithms provided by gildin to gather and filter data from bit vibrations speed or sound changes and temperature or pressure changes but while the e-spectrum unit can quickly assess underground conditions and refine the data it cannot do much more the system in the well hole is robust but has limited space and memory to store and process all the data collected by the sensors said gildin with our new algorithm it processes the information in the hole and transmits the detection of abnormal bit behavior in real time to the surface for review and storage this way the surface unit can refine the information to see the conditions in the hole from a 360-degree birds eye view and better predict issues so the driller can take action before problems happen
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historically drilling is not associated with sophisticated technology the harsh environments of geothermal and petroleum reservoirs can be disruptive that is as a drill bit travels underground it chews into challenging rock compositions and encounters high temperature and pressure fluctuations any of which can severely damage delicate electronics but even if a technology is designed to survive such harsh conditions it still must function rapidly without real-time data from the underground environment a drilling operator could force a drill bit into a hard rock formation at higher speeds than what the bit was designed to handle causing a dangerous and costly reaction to solve this problem e-spectrum and gildin have come up with a two-system solution in addition to the system developed by e-spectrum that operates in deep earth where temperatures can reach up to two and a half times the boiling point of water gildin has developed a surface-bound detection system thus the underground unit handles the jarring motions of passing through rock while it filters and wirelessly transmits this information about the drill bit vibrations rotation speed and other measurements to the unit above the ground the dysfunction detection system on the surface uses publicly open software gildin programmed it to sift through the information and look for abnormalities the drilling operators need to know quickly for instance if a bit strongly vibrates while traveling through a particular rock the system knows to warn the operator who will slow the bit speed and reduce the chance of equipment failure at other times the bit could smoothly cut through meaning the speed could be increased since the programming is based on machine learning the surface system records these patterns of vibration and bit behavior and learns from them gildin noted that his software can pinpoint drill bit position and unusual behavior faster and with better accuracy than current systems after the successful completion of phase i e-spectrum and gildin plan to apply for additional funding to move forward with phase ii in february 2020 in phase ii gildin will prepare the surface system not just to monitor what is going on underground but come up with suggestions for the drilling operator should problems arise this updated advisory system will be designed to assist the operator so that decisions are made faster without losing accuracy
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right now this is an open-loop advisory system telling drillers what is happening what might happen and why said gildin it gives drillers a chance to adjust their plan of attack during drilling manually the closed-loop automated system is next where action can be taken by machines though still guided and approved by human choice it also opens up the door to autonomous drilling in a way that the operation can be done with minimal human intervention gildin said that in the future as companies gather more data the open-source software can be adapted to many other drilling applications no matter what hardware system is in the hole the downhole algorithms and surface system functions can use gathered data and machine learning to improve the drilling process said gildin this can advise in any drilling application whether using drill bits or water jets on the earth or even remotely in space
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alyssa walz has always had a passion for service and knew she wanted to serve others in her careerit came down to engineering or pre-veterinary medicine ultimately engineering won out and walz graduated in december from the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university with a perfect 40civil engineering can be a very service-oriented field she said we build many necessary projects that people use every day and can easily be taken for granted i enjoy how civil engineering work is all about helping others live a better lifeit was associate professor dr francisco olivera who inspired her during a study abroad in peru not meeting in a traditional classroom setting walz said she got to know olivera differentlyin a short three-week span he showed me how to be a positive role model in and out of the classroom she said he showed that it is not only possible but important to be a leader who can get things done efficiently while also serving others with a heart of humility and compassionwalz also served outside the classroom giving tours of the campus the memorial student center (msc) and the bonfire memorial for msc hospitality and was also active in st marys catholic church ministriesthe bonfire memorial is hands down my favorite place to go on campus she said i find it very peaceful there and it has been a place for reflection in my college career it reminds me of the most important things in lifeimportant things like tradition and family there was never a debate on where walz would go to school she grew up in an aggie familyboth my parents and my two older sisters graduated from a&m so it has always been on my radar she said "success in my academics cannot be attributed only to my own effort with the support of god my parents siblings professors and friends i was able to succeed i will be forever grateful for the time each of them spent with me to become a better person and leader"but she can take some of the credit for her academic success it takes work to graduate with a 40 one of her favorite classes was the structural design capstone she took her last semesteri enjoyed it because the class combined a lot of what we had learned in previous classes into a single project walz said this was a class where i got to see how all the small details fit together into the bigger pictureas for advice for other civil and environmental engineering students walz said networking is vitalyour network can help you get an interview for a job or help in a class you may be struggling in " she said "people in your network can also help you become a better leader by setting the example both good and bad that will help you discover what kind of leader you want to be in the future"as for her future walz will begin a full-time position with exxonmobil in february as a cost engineer
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dr eyad masad will be inducted this spring as a fellow of the american association for the advancement of science (aaas) for his contributions to the field of infrastructure materials and systemshes being recognized for his work on the development of innovative methods for characterization of material microstructure and computational modeling of road performance this work has improved the design of long-lasting and sustainable road infrastructuremasad is the zachry professor in design and construction integration ii in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university and professor of mechanical engineering at texas a&m at qatar he also is the executive director of global partnerships in the texas a&m engineering experiment stationi am quite pleased to be selected as a fellow of this prestigious organization masad said it is a privilege to be recognized for making scientific contributions that advance science and its applications"he has active research groups and programs in the united states and in qatar and has published more than 350 technical papers and reports he is a fellow of the american society of civil engineers and has served as associate editor of two major engineering journals through the years he has received several prestigious academic and professional awards in recognition of his professional academic research and administrative contributionshe is the co-author of a book pavement design and materials which is adopted for teaching pavement courses in many universities around the world based on google scholar he has an h-index of 61 and total citations of 12 337 citations as of dec 12 2019 masad has established several research laboratories and chaired/co-chaired many conferences symposia and workshops sponsored by professional organizations all over the world he received his bachelors degree from the university of jordan in 1993 and his masters (1995) and doctoral (1998) degrees from washington state university all in civil engineeringmasad will be recognized during the associations annual meeting in seattle washington in february formed in 1848 aaas is the worlds largest multidisciplinary scientific society with members in more than 91 nations
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by incorporating the architecture of city drainage systems and readings from flood gauges into a comprehensive statistical framework researchers at texas a&m university can now accurately predict the evolution of floods in extreme situations like hurricanes with their new approach the researchers said their algorithm could forecast the flow of flood water in almost real-time which can then lead to timelier emergency response and planning not knowing where flood water will flow next is particularly detrimental for first responders who need to gauge the level of flooding for their rescue operations said dr ali mostafavi assistant professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering our new algorithm considers the underground drainage channels to provide an accurate representation of how floods propagate this tool we think can vastly help disaster management because first responders will be able to see which way flood water will flow in real time a description of the researchers algorithm can be found in the december issue of the journal computer-aided civil and infrastructure engineering hurricanes are notorious for wreaking havoc on shorelines toppling trees tearing down power lines and above all causing severe floods conventionally scientists have used physics-based models to predict where water might collect overflow and cause flooding in essence these models capture how physical features of the earths surface and urban landscapes affect the flow of water over the ground while robust at predicting when and where floods will happen under most rainfall conditions mostafavi said these traditional models do not perform as well at predicting floods during incidents of torrential rainfall like hurricane harvey physics-based models offer one perspective on how floods can spread which is extremely useful but the picture they provide is somewhat incomplete he said we wanted to use existing data on how past floods have spread through the drainage channels to develop a model that would be able to predict within a certain level of preciseness how future floods will spread drainage channels are an elaborate network of intertwined channels that meet together at junctions called nodes thus flooding in one channel can directly or indirectly affect other channels and cause floods to spread much like a domino effect
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to predict which way flood water will flow along drainage channels and cause an inundation mostafavi and his team developed a probability-based model that was fed as one of its inputs the water-level readings on flood gauges these readings were for different time points during two major flooding events in texas hurricane harvey in 2017 and houstons memorial day flood in 2015 once their algorithm was trained on water flow patterns through the drainage network for these heavy rainfall events the researchers tested if their model worked by checking if it could predict the flood patterns that had been observed during houstons tax day flood in 2016 they found that their model achieved an accuracy of 85% in predicting how the flood propagated through the citys drainage system during the tax day flood although the model was validated using a past flood event mostafavi said that the models success suggests that it will also be able to predict how new floods will propagate through the citys drainage networks this insight could help emergency responders take preemptive steps towards evacuations he said noting the caveats of their model mostafavi said that the performance of their algorithm could be compromised if the sensors on flood gauges fail however complementing the predictions coming from physics-based models with those from their teams new algorithm can once again restore the accuracy of flood prediction traditional models and our data-driven models can be used to complement each other to give a more precise picture of where flood water will go next said mostafavi hurricanes of the magnitude of harvey or katrina are generally considered a one-in-a-thousand-year event but they may not be as rare if we consider the changes in global weather patterns because of climate change but we now have more robust tools to weather the storm other contributors to the research include dr shangjia dong and dr hamed farahmand from the texas a&m zachry department of civil and environmental engineering this research is funded by national science foundations rapid project and crisp 20 type 2 project
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braden beasley is currently pursuing an interdisciplinary engineering degree at texas a&m university that combines architectural engineering and mechanical engineering beasley found this the perfect fit between his passions in energy consumption and thermodynamics from his former mechanical engineering classes as it broadened his perspective into how that interplays with architecture last summer he was able to use these skills and find an internship that truly spoke to him giving him new goals for the upcoming year q: how did you choose your major a: coming into college i knew that i wanted to pursue mechanical engineering i didnt get in initially but i found a way to keep taking mechanical engineering classes after a few classes i realized i didnt find certain aspects interesting but i loved all of the classes that involved energy consumption and thermodynamics when i learned about the architectural engineering mechanical track i thought it was the perfect major for me its one that combines various aspects of mechanical engineering civil engineering and architecture q: what is your career goal a: my career goal is to eventually work for a consulting company in dallas whether its with a financial or an engineering firm i want to be able to work face-to-face with clients and enjoy that social aspect i interned at a mechanical electrical and plumbing firm in dallas this past summer and really enjoyed learning from them and i realized that i might also go work for them after graduation another goal of mine is to acquire my professional engineer license in mechanical engineering
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q: why did you become a student ambassador for interdisciplinary engineering a: i became an ambassador because i came into the interdisciplinary engineering program looking to get into architectural engineering and now that ive been in it for 1 1/2 years i wouldnt have changed anything about my decision the advisors are so welcoming and willing to help and i jumped at the opportunity to spread the word of this great major by talking to recruiters and firms in texas i have found that a lot of companies have been waiting for texas a&m to establish an architectural engineering program and the demand for them around the state is high i immediately volunteered to have the opportunity to help others through this process and inform engineers about this great major q: what organizations are you involved with a: im currently involved in the big event as part of this years staff i have worked with the big event for the past two years i am also involved in revelation outdoors which is an organization that has bible studies every week for guys who like the outdoors and want to grow in their faith with other guys that have similar interests i am also an avid member of the american society of mechanical engineers and plan on joining the american society of heating refrigerating and air-conditioning engineers this fall q: what advice would you give someone considering interdisciplinary engineering studies a: i would definitely say for students to come in the office and talk to one of us we have had plenty of time and experience in this major and if we cant help with what you are looking for then we can definitely point you in the direction of someone who can its a great opportunity to create your own plan and the advisors are always willing to work with you to get whatever you need because its a small major right now everyone knows each other and are always willing to help anyone interested with questions
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nuclear engineering graduate dr x george xu 94 was recently awarded the edith h quimby award for lifetime achievement in medical physics the american association of physicists in medicine (aapm) awarded him the prestigious achievement for his renowned work in the fields of radiation dosimetry and safety medical physics is an interdisciplinary field that combines the principles of nuclear physics and engineering to address challenges in medicine this includes things such as radiation treatment and radiology and medical imaging although a lesser-known discipline of nuclear engineering medical physics trains scientists and engineers who work within hospitals and have a direct impact on patient health care throughout his professional career xu has spearheaded research projects involving clinical software tools that have since been used in hospitals throughout the world virtualdose a software tool developed by xu tracks organ doses for patients who have received x-ray ct examinations in 2019 the software was accessed more than 26 million times making it the most widely used software for its purpose currently xu is a faculty member in nuclear engineering at rensselaer polytechnic institute and a holder of the edward e hood chair in engineering since joining rensselaer in 1995 he has received more than $16 million in funding for research grants from agencies such as the national science foundation (nsf) the department of energy and the national institutes of health among his professional recognitions are an nsf career award the professional excellence award from the american nuclear society and the distinguished scientific achievement award from the health physics society the quimby award from the aapm recognizes significant contribution to the clinical practice of medical physics through research education and leadership said xu it reflects the quality and lasting impact of the phd education i received from texas a&m as a graduate student at texas a&m university xu was a member of the health physics society chapter and performed his doctoral research under dr dan reece an expert in monte carlo radiation transport simulation methods and dr john poston former president of the health physics society other faculty members who directly influenced xus interest in health physics also included dr wes bolch and dr milton mclain looking back i feel that i was greatly inspired by these faculty members i had the opportunity to work with during my time at texas a&m said xu my experience as a phd student provided me the technical and mental preparation for a very challenging but equally rewarding job as a faculty member
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fatigue is something most individuals deal with daily with work culture stress and long hours all contributing while some can still manage their jobs and remain safe when fatigued workers in the offshore oil and gas industry need to be alert and ready for work in order to avoid accidents oil and gas workers have long shifts and high physical and mental demands while working causing them to have greater fatigue than average workers if excessively sleepy or fatigued they are 70% more likely to be involved in industrial accidents than alert well-rested individuals fatigue was identified as a contributing factor in the bp texas city incident of 2005 as some operators had been working 12-hour shifts for as many as 29 consecutive days a team of researchers from texas a&m university are using a wearable device and developing an interactive dashboard tool to help fatigued oil and gas workers avoid accidents and empower their front-line supervisors to make informed decisions about staffing the interactive dashboard uses periodic self-reports of safety culture elements such as the commitment to safety and performance management submitted using digital devices the wearable devices will measure how long workers sleep and how well they sleep this will be measured through total sleep time and sleep efficiency the ration of time spent asleep to time spent in bed but not asleep the wearable device will use different visualization techniques to provide this information to managers through an interactive dashboard called empower for evaluate measure promote offshore worker engagement and readiness offshore workers are often left to self-manage their fatigue – there is a critical need to integrate fatigue monitoring reporting and management practices into an organizations existing safety culture strategies such that stakeholders at all levels are empowered to make safer work choices said dr ranjana mehta associate professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering the dashboard will allow managers to see how physiologically ready – rested and alert – workers are before their shifts and over the course of their time on the rigs offshore many work 20 consecutive days on the rig it will also display their psychological data which indicates the level of importance the worker places on safety this information will aid managers in their staffing decisions including stopping work for a particular employee and helping to promote a culture of safety in traditionally unsafe workplaces this technology enables remote monitoring of oil and gas workers health readiness and perceived safety culture said dr farzan sasangohar assistant professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering using novel participatory ergonomics methodologies we hope to build a dashboard that provides sustainable benefits to front-line supervisors the dashboard will provide real-time data enabling managers to make data-based decisions in the moment and help protect workers from danger by combining research into fatigue and safety culture it will give managers tools to help them make safer choices when assigning employees to duties or making decisions about work schedules and priorities the funding from this grant will not only help develop reliable fatigue assessment tools that can be utilized in any industry but address a key question on whether fatigue and safety culture are interlinked said mehta the funding guarantees that this research effort continues and enables a dual focus on fatigue and safety culture in this industry this project is funded by a grant from the national academies of sciences engineering and medicine – gulf research program the research is a collaboration between mehta sasangohar and dr stephanie payne project lead and professor in the college of liberal arts visit here for more information about the projects in the gulf research program
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glen david sanders has established the glen "david" sanders 92 endowed chemical engineering scholarship this endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from texas a&m university sanders said that his decision to attend texas a&m became clear when he visited the campus for the first time and was able to meet the faculty and students i grew up in a small town and even though the school was huge i felt like a small-town guy could still make it there he said having come from a small town sanders was not sure he had what it took to become a chemical engineer or make it in the industry however he said that his time at texas a&m and his experiences in the co-op program gave him the confidence to accomplish anything he set his mind to he decided to establish this scholarship for a multitude of reasons the great chemical engineering faculty the dedicated employees of the foundation the history of the program and the experiences i had at texas a&m all led to my decision to give he said sanders hopes that his gift will be able to help students get past whatever might be holding them back some students just need confidence to reach their potential and i want to help other students have that same experience i had regardless of financial means he said the gift is about much more than me without gods help through some rough spots unwavering support from my family and 25 years with a great employer i would not be in the position to make this donation
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the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering or would like more information on how you can give please contact haley jennings director of development
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chemical engineering student allison van beveren joined the zachry leadership program her sophomore year of college the challenges she faced during her high school career taught her persistence determination and compassion: all the qualities of a strong leader q: can you tell me about your high school experience you graduated as the valedictorian but it wasnt an easy path what was that like a: in the middle of my high school career my family moved across the country from ohio to texas and i had to start over as the new girl in town our home in texas was still being built when we moved so we had to stay with a family friend until our house was finished i slept on the floor of a spare bedroom while my two taller siblings took the bed for about five months we lived entirely out of moving boxes to make the situation worse i had been experiencing some abdominal pain which i assumed was just from the stress of moving but when i spiked a 105-degree fever we thought it was my appendix and went to the hospital after a ct scan the doctors diagnosed me with crohns disease i ended up staying in the hospital for three weeks during which they gave me a long-lasting nutrition line via iv i was fed with only iv nutrition for three months because my body couldnt handle solid food after multiple hospital visits i finally had to have surgery to remove about a foot of my intestines when i applied to the zachry leadership program (zlp) they asked me what my biggest accomplishment was i said that it was graduating as valedictorian despite the many challenges i faced it was a humbling experience but im quite proud of myself
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q: is that why youre studying chemical engineering to find a cure for crohns disease a: not necessarily but its in the back of my mind im still learning about everything that i can do with my degree really i just want to serve people i want to impact the world thats the thing about chemical engineering – no matter what you do or what aspect of the field you study youre still solving real-world problems and making a difference thats what i love q: what is the zachry leadership program (zlp) how do you expect it to influence your future career a: the zlp is a partnership between the college of engineering and the zachry group basically it helps you become a better leader in the engineering world and it gives you tools for your toolbox that arent strictly academic the first class we have to take is about becoming a self-aware leader which is what the zlp is all about its about refining our leadership skills so that when we graduate we can play active roles in our careers
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i think having leaders and mentors like the ones running the program will help me grow as an individual and become the woman i need to be in the engineering field im excited about all of the students ill get to work with everybody is different and unique i learn something from everyone i meet because we all have different strengths q: what advice would you give to incoming engineering students a: its not about the money its about what you love to do if youre only in it for the money youre not going to last because engineering is hard my advice would be to not give up everybody in the major is so smart and talented and its easy to feel like you dont belong you have to remember that youre just as smart and capable too instead of being overwhelmed and intimidated dive right in and embrace the challenge with grit and determination
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volcanic tsunamis triggered by an underwater eruption typically occur with little warning – devastating the coastal areas and communities they impact richards sunny a doctoral candidate in the department of ocean engineering at texas a&m university at galveston is developing and improving computational fluid dynamics simulations to map predict and research volcanic tsunamis
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results from this work would help us to predict the propagation and inundation of potential underwater volcanic tsunamis and help emergency managers and agencies create evacuation plans and save lives said sunny sunny started his ocean engineering journey 10 years ago at the indian institute of technology madras one of the top universities in india diving into the field as a freshman he quickly fell in love with it it had all the elements i wished for said sunny challenging optimization problems such as designing deep-water floating platforms the potential to develop innovative ideas in the field of renewable ocean energy to help humankind and the ability to study analyze model and predict natural disasters such as tsunamis to save lives inspired by the wide range of applications and opportunities found within ocean engineering sunny traveled overseas to pursue a masters and doctoral degree from texas a&m where he found a new passion: research
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a catastrophic problem since he was a graduate student sunny has worked under dr juan horrillo associate professor in the department of ocean engineering and leader of the texas a&m university at galveston tsunami research group on a national science foundation-funded project focusing on volcanic tsunami modeling in the last 250 years they said about a fourth of all fatalities directly attributable to volcanic eruptions are due to the tsunamis caused by the eruption additionally the two deadliest non-tectonic tsunamis are from the 1883 krakatoa eruption and japan's mount unzen lava dome collapse in 1792 more recently in december 2018 a tsunami followed an eruption and partial collapse of the anak krakatau volcano leaving more than 400 dead and over 14 000 people injured while the technology behind tsunami research has modernized and advanced there are still many unknowns associated with underwater volcanic tsunamis including the characterization of tsunami waves and the relationship between the source eruption mechanism and wave generation a calling for more the project done in collaboration with georgia institute of technology and oregon state university started with the galveston team conducting numerical simulations of an eruption of the underwater kick ‘em jenny volcano in the caribbean sea as sunny described their simulations and models served as a foundation for physical experiments conducted at oregon state university
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with the physical tests complete sunny and his fellow team members are numerically reproducing the experiment based on the input conditions and results therein – combining traditional experimentation with modern technology to fill in the data gaps that physical experimentation cannot provide due to cost safety or resources as such the teams models will serve as a vital tool in the assessment and mitigation of the submarine volcanic tsunami hazard disaster response and planning along this same line sunnys thesis is expanding upon these models by developing an algorithm that will help in interfacial tracking of fluids and their fluxing for computational fluid dynamics simulations we are also working on implementing this algorithm into tsunami3d (the model horrillo developed in the tsunami research group) to evaluate its performance and to model and simulate full-scale volcanic tsunami cases said sunny this algorithm is expected to improve the accuracy of interface tracking and thereby increase the accuracy of simulations as they progress in time breaking waves for example in addition to saving lives through the research implementation of accurate tsunami simulations and providing a greater understanding and insight into how underwater volcanic eruptions cause devastating tsunamis sunny is looking toward his future career in research with excitement at the end of the day i believe all our decisions need to be based on what we are called to do rather than what our interests are said sunny i believe it is my call to serve others and i will try my best to choose a career option which fulfills my calling
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a conversation with chris lourenco a doctoral student in the department of industrial and systems engineering chris lourenco will graduate in august with a phd in industrial engineering and set sail on a new adventure he will be serving as a tenure-track assistant professor in the department of mathematics at the united states naval academy before coming to texas a&m university he earned a bachelors degree in industrial engineering at clemson university in 2015 lourenco excelled in his operations research courses during his undergrad and after visiting texas a&m decided to pursue his graduate degree in aggieland lourenco spoke about his new role and how he has prepared to take on an academic career q what drew you to the us naval academy a the us naval academy is a very unique institution in that every student becomes an officer in the navy or marines after graduation as a faculty member at the us naval academy i feel like i will have the opportunity to make a huge impact on the next generation of us leaders q what will you do as an assistant professor a my job is primarily focused on teaching research and service on the teaching front i will be teaching undergraduate operations research linear algebra and general mathematics courses research-wise i plan to continue to expand on the methods i have developed during my phd specifically i plan to continue developing novel algorithms which can revolutionize our ability to solve systems of linear equations exactly and continue my work in computational mathematical programming lastly the service component involves duties such as helping to develop new courses and curriculum serving as a faculty mentor to student organizations serving on faculty committees and reviewing scientific papers and conferences
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q how did your experiences at texas a&m prepare you for this role a one thing i love about texas a&m is how supportive the community is the faculty are truly committed to the success of every student my advisor dr erick moreno-centeno has helped me immensely over the course of my studies professionally he has pushed me to be the best researcher and instructor that i can be personally he has been an excellent mentor always caring about my success and well-being and going well above what i could ever expect from an advisor on the teaching front last semester i won the texas a&m graduate teaching fellowship which allowed me to teach a course i taught my departments undergraduate introduction to operations research course which actually is the course that inspired me as an undergraduate to go to graduate school it was an excellent opportunity to serve as the courses instructor while also having the help and mentorship of my advisor i believe this experience will help me hit the ground running as an instructor at the us naval academy
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