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its said that 95% of the ocean remains unexplored today scientists are one step closer to unveiling the mysteries of the deep aquatic sea because hidden on the ocean floor lies an untapped energy source that could revolutionize the future of energy: ice-like crystalline structures known as gas hydrates gas hydrates form when a gas usually methane combines with water and freezes under high pressure and low temperatures unlike typical ice gas hydrates are highly flammable and unstable at normal sea-level conditions because of this researchers face enormous challenges in trying to safely extract the methane additionally their location on the ocean floor presents additional environmental challenges as destabilizing the sea floor could trigger submarine landslides or tsunamis petroleum engineering graduate student kotaro anno is one of the researchers spearheading the efforts to determine ways to safely access these gas hydrates originally from japan he decided to come to texas a&m university after his previous advisor encouraged him to travel to the united states to study he now researches gas hydrate simulation in dr george moridis lab due to the volatile nature of gas hydrates researchers must first learn to predict their behavior before extracting the methane anno is developing ways to simulate the behavior of gas hydrates under varying conditions by modifying the julia language on a super computer julia is a programming language developed at the massachusetts institute of technology that is used for scientific and numerical computing by rewriting the code using power computing anno can achieve faster computation of gas hydrate simulations
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this is one of the biggest problems the oil and gas industry is facing said anno weve encountered many obstacles with gas hydrates for example in a natural gas hydrate reservoir we are limited by the surrounding sand production which prevents us from accessing and extracting the gas hydrate so if we can simulate when or under which conditions that sand is produced we can better understand the best way to access the reservoir gas hydrates consist mainly of methane gas which is less carbon-intense than other fossil fuels making them eco-friendlier gas hydrates are a viable resource because natural gas or methane is a relatively clean source of energy said anno additionally gas hydrates are estimated to contain twice the carbon than whats found in other fossil fuels this means that we can use these resources for a longer amount of time this is why researchers are considering gas hydrates to be the bridge to renewable energy switching from fossil fuels to a completely renewable energy source on a global scale is a timely process and natural gas can help ease the transition while simultaneously opening doors for future research and production annos research is carving a path for research scientists and engineers to one day extract gas hydrates and fuel a cleaner future
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dr satish bukkapatnam professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university has been selected as the recipient of the 2019-20 fulbright-tocqueville distinguished chair award serving a two-year term as the distinguished chair bukkapatnam will work on collaborative research in france to enhance smart manufacturing capabilities and develop sustainable materials and advanced optical systems in addition to research he will also give seminars across france he will present his first seminar on march 12 the award was created in 2005 by the franco-american fulbright commission together with the french ministry of higher education and research and the us department of state the goal of the award is to enhance cooperation between france and america which bukkapatnam will contribute to during his tenure bukkapatnam was selected as a distinguished chair for his research in smart manufacturing some of which is done through the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) institute for manufacturing systems where he is director he has also previously worked with the arts et métiers institute of technology (école nationale supérieure darts et métiers – ensam) on smart manufacturing research smart manufacturing uses automated sensors and technology to improve and monitor the production process part of bukkapatnams research focuses on the smart sensors used in smart manufacturing and how these sensors can be used to provide more information about the manufacturing process while in france he will work with researchers in the arts et métiers institute of technology and stil marposs a small french company to develop the next generation of smart sensor systems i am very grateful for this opportunity and thankful for the honor of being named the distinguished chair bukkapatnam said i look forward to continuing my research and working with my collaborator dr mohamed el mansori on this project in 2017 a partnership was created between arts et métiers and tees referred to as am2 this partnership was formed to advance the technology surrounding artificial intelligence and data science in smart manufacturing while promoting collaboration between the two organizations graduate student exchanges between the two schools deepens this collaboration and allows knowledge to flow into both countries french graduate and doctoral students actively participate in this transatlantic cooperation through classes conferences and joint research projects said audrey stewart director of international and european development at arts et métiers whereby sharing knowledge to address the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution faced by american and french companies while in france bukkapatnam and his collaborators will launch the am2 consortium for industry of the future which will strengthen the am2 partnership and deepen the understanding and commitment of companies in the consortium said stewart
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deepfake images of people look real they pose in realistic settings and in the case of videos can emote almost naturally however everything about deepfakes is synthetic – just a series of codes that come together to form an image of a person who doesnt exist however as dr freddie witherden assistant professor in the department of ocean engineering at texas a&m university discussed in a paper titled fourier spectrum discrepancies in deep network generated images the images and bots behind the falsified faces are not without fault used largely as bots on social media platforms to spread fake news and sway opinion deepfakes are a global and interdisciplinary issue that begs the question: is seeing really believing it seems initially like something vastly different to what an ocean engineer would normally do day to day but quite a bit of my day to day research involves machine learning applications of machine learning and in the same way that deepfakes try and synthesize realistic looking pictures of people some of my research involves using the same technology to simulate fluid flows or generating fluid flows without having to do a full simulation witherden said
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his research began when ocean engineering doctoral student tarik dzanic approached him with a desire to test ways to differentiate deepfake images from real ones together they dove into the intricate details of pictures – comparing and contrasting how each scaled and differed our approach is a little bit different from what we've seen in the literature witherden said the idea is that if you look at a real photo which is of a person of an object that will typically be taken with a camera and so that photo will have some degree of noise associated with it if you zoom in and look at the pixels of a high-resolution photograph there's typically some kind of noise pattern because that noise does not bother people viewing an image attention is normally not paid to it similarly he explained the algorithms that are trained to generate deepfake images also do not pay attention to the noise either rather deepfake algorithms focus on the big picture and recognizable features of a face such as a mouth nose and eyes and that was the key for witherden and dzanic they're not concerned about the minutia associated with the noise and so they don't make any effort into trying to get that noise profile correct witherden said and so deepfake images that you see online at the moment generally have a different noise profile to those of real images that were captured with the camera and so by doing some very simple signal processing we can identify these discrepancies and thus discriminate between real images or fake images hear more about how witherden and dzanic are exposing deepfakes in a recent podcast interview listen on your favorite audio platform or stream witherdens podcast episode directly from the soundbytes website
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a continuing renewal grant of the industry-university cooperative research centers program from the national science foundation (nsf) will allow researchers to continue working toward extending the life-cycle of civil infrastructure resulting in less maintenance and lower costs to taxpayersthe nsf awarded a five-year $250 000 grant to the center for the integration of composites into infrastructure (cici) led by principal investigator dr anand puppala professor and the ap florence wiley chair in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university the center has university partnerships with other centers housed at west virginia university the university of miami and north carolina state university that are focusing on composite materials and their applications in structural engineering related topicswe received funding for the center for the final phase (phase iii) for five years and we anticipate to recruit more industries and partners to work with us on the centers research activities student recruitment and training as well as developing new patents we also anticipate more collaborative studies with our research consortium partners puppala saidresearchers for the center will use the grant along with annual membership funds (anticipated to be more than $1 million dollars) from several agencies and industries to examine ways to create stronger more sustainable infrastructure such as foundations retaining walls slopes and related structures dr surya sc congress and dr sayantan chakraborty co-principal investigators and postdoctoral researchers will work with puppala on the centers research recruitment and outreach activities faculty working in similar fields will also be recruited to work with specific research studiesthe texas a&m cici site has a strong research background in soil-structure interactions and will work with the partner universities on materials structural retrofits and offshore soil treatment including geosynthetics (synthetic materials used to stabilize terrain)specifically puppala and his partners will continue to examine the utilization of composites including these geosynthetics polymeric materials including geopolymers and other geocomposites in subsurface infrastructure this infrastructure could include pavements runways embankments retaining structures earth dams and levees both life-cycle cost analysis and sustainable utilization of composites will be addressed all cici-related work will be performed at the center for infrastructure renewal (cir) geotechnical laboratories specifically soils and unbound materials labs puppala serves as associate director of cir facilities at the rellis campus in bryan
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ever wish your computer could think like you do or perhaps even understand you that future may not be now but its one step closer thanks to a texas a&m university-led team of scientists and engineers and their recent discovery of a materials-based mimic for the neural signals responsible for transmitting information within the human brain the multidisciplinary team led by dr sarbajit banerjee professor in the chemistry department in collaboration with dr r stanley williams professor in the electrical and computer engineering department and additional colleagues across north america and abroad has discovered a neuron-like electrical switching mechanism in the solid-state material β-cuxv2o5 specifically how it reversibly morphs between conducting and insulating behavior on command the team was able to clarify the underlying mechanism driving this behavior by taking a new look at β-cuxv2o5 a remarkable chameleon-like material that changes with temperature or an applied electrical stimulus in the process they zeroed in on how copper ions move around inside the material and how this subtle dance in turn sloshes electrons around to transform it their research revealed that the movement of copper ions is the linchpin of an electrical conductivity change that can be leveraged to create electrical spikes in the same way that neurons function in the cerebral nervous system a major step toward developing circuitry that functions like the human brain their resulting paper metal-insulator transitions in β-cuxv2o5 mediated by polaron oscillation and cation shuttling features texas a&m chemistry graduate students abhishek parija (now at intel corporation) justin andrews and joseph handy as first authors it is published in the cell press journal matter the nuances of neuromorphic computing in their quest to develop new modes of energy efficient computing the broad-based group of collaborators is capitalizing on materials with tunable electronic instabilities to achieve whats known as neuromorphic computing or computing designed to replicate the brains unique capabilities and unmatched efficiencies nature has given us materials with the appropriate types of behavior to mimic the information processing that occurs in a brain but the ones characterized to date have had various limitations williams said the importance of this work is to show that chemists can rationally design and create electrically active materials with significantly improved neuromorphic properties as we understand more our materials will improve significantly thus providing a new path to the continual technological advancement of our computing abilities while smart phones and laptops seemingly get sleeker and faster with each iteration parija notes that new materials and computing paradigms freed from conventional restrictions are required to meet continuing speed and energy-efficiency demands that are straining the capabilities of silicon computer chips which are reaching their fundamental limits in terms of energy efficiency neuromorphic computing is one such approach and manipulation of switching behavior in new materials is one way to achieve it the central premise and by extension the central promise of neuromorphic computing is that we still have not found a way to perform computations in a way that is as efficient as the way that neurons and synapses function in the human brain said andrews a nasa space technology research fellow most materials are insulating (not conductive) metallic (conductive) or somewhere in the middle some materials however can transform between the two states: insulating (off) and conductive (on) almost on command by using an extensive combination of computational and experimental techniques handy said the team was able to demonstrate not only that this material undergoes a transition driven by changes in temperature voltage and electric field strength that can be used to create neuron-like circuitry but also comprehensively explain how this transition happens unlike other materials that have a metal-insulator transition this material relies on the movement of copper ions within a rigid lattice of vanadium and oxygen we essentially show that a very small movement of copper ions within the structure brings about a massive change in conductance in the whole material handy added because of this movement of copper ions the material transforms from insulating to conducting in response to external changes in temperature applied voltage or applied current in other words applying a small electrical pulse allows us to transform the material and save information inside it as it works in a circuit much like how neurons function in the brain andrews likens the relationship between the copper-ion movement and electrons on the vanadium structure to a dance when the copper ions move electrons on the vanadium lattice move in concert mirroring the movement of the copper ions andrews said in this way incredibly small movements of the copper ions induce large electronic changes in the vanadium lattice without any observable changes in vanadium-vanadium bonding its like the vanadium atoms ‘see what the copper is doing and respond demands deficiencies and the global data glut transmitting storing and processing data currently accounts for about 10% of global energy use but banerjee said extrapolations indicate the demand for computation will be many times higher than the projected global energy supply can deliver by 2040 exponential increases in computing capabilities therefore are required for transformative visions including the internet of things autonomous transportation disaster-resilient infrastructure personalized medicine and other societal grand challenges that otherwise will be throttled by the inability of current computing technologies to handle the magnitude and complexity of human- and machine-generated data he said one way to break out of the limitations of conventional computing technology is to take a cue from nature specifically the neural circuitry of the human brain which vastly surpasses conventional computer architectures in terms of energy efficiency and also offers new approaches for machine learning and advanced neural networks to emulate the essential elements of neuronal function in artificial circuitry we need solid-state materials that exhibit electronic instabilities which like neurons can store information in their internal state and in the timing of electronic events banerjee said our new work explores the fundamental mechanisms and electronic behavior of a material that exhibits such instabilities by thoroughly characterizing this material we have also provided information that will instruct the future design of neuromorphic materials which may offer a way to change the nature of machine computation from simple arithmetic to brain-like intelligence while dramatically increasing both the throughput and energy efficiency of processors because the various components that handle logic operations store memory and transfer data are all separate from each other in conventional computer architecture banerjee said they are plagued by inherent inefficiencies regarding both the time it takes for information to be processed and how physically close together device elements can be before thermal waste and electrons accidentally tunneling between components become major problems by contrast in the human brain logic memory storage and data transfer are simultaneously integrated into the timed firing of neurons that are densely interconnected in 3d fanned-out networks as a result the brains neurons process information at 10 times lower voltage and an almost 5 000 times lower synaptic operation energy in comparison to silicon computing architectures to come close to achieving this kind of energetic and computational efficiency he said new materials are needed that can undergo rapid internal electronic switching in circuits in a way that mimics how neurons fire in timed sequences parameters of perfection in principle handy notes that the team still needs to optimize many parameters such as transition temperature and switching speed along with the magnitude of the change in electrical resistance by determining the underlying principles of the metal-insulator transition in β-cuxv2o5 as a prototype material within an expansive field of candidates however the team has identified certain design motifs and tunable chemical parameters that ultimately prove useful in the design of future neuromorphic computing materials a major endeavor that has been seeded by the texas a&m x-grant program this discovery is very exciting because it provides fertile ground for the development of new design principles for tuning materials properties and also suggests exciting new approaches to researchers in the field for thinking about energy efficient electronic instabilities parija said devices that incorporate neuromorphic computing promise improved energy efficiency that silicon-based computing has yet to deliver as well as performance improvements in computing challenges like pattern recognition tasks that the human brain is especially well-equipped to tackle the materials and mechanisms we describe in this work bring us one step closer to realizing neuromorphic computing and in turn actualizing all of the societal benefits and overall promise that comes with it the multi-year project incorporates team members from four disciplines (chemistry physics materials science and engineering and electrical and computer engineering) and researchers from texas a&m lawrence berkeley national laboratory the university at buffalo binghamton university and texas a&m university at qatar while also relying on work performed at berkeley labs the molecular foundry and the advanced light source the advanced photon source at argonne national laboratory and the canadian light source the research was funded primarily by the national science foundation with additional support from a texas a&m x-grant and the qatar national research fund this article originally appeared on the college of science's news site
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the gut microbiome which is a collection of numerous beneficial bacteria species is key to our overall well-being and good health recent studies have linked the gut microbiome with several beneficial properties such as aiding in the development of our immune system and warding off pathogen infections many deadly pathogens are motile meaning they can move spontaneously and their ability to infect is based on their response to different environmental cues major cues for the pathogens are the molecules (or metabolites) produced in the gut pathogens interpret distinctive metabolites differently and are either attracted or repelled by them (ie migrate toward or away from them) the metabolite indole is an example of a microbiome-produced small molecule that is abundant in the gut and is a powerful repellent for bacteria according to dr pushkar lele assistant professor and dr arul jayaraman professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university this fact led to a simple question: why does indole – which is produced by many of our beneficial bacterial species – not repel the good gut bacteria along with the bad ones to answer this question a research team including lele jayaraman and dr michael manson from the department of biology at texas a&m studied the response of the beneficial gut bacteria e coli to indole in an article in the proceedings of the national academy of sciences the researchers describe the discovery of a previously unknown response to indole in which the molecule seems to both repel and attract bacteria this janus response – named after the roman god janus who had two faces one looking into the future and one looking into the past – has to do with the way indole is interpreted by the bacterial chemo-receptors
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we found that there are two receptors in e coli that sense indole lele said one senses indole as a repellent and one senses indole as an attractant sustained exposure to high concentrations of indole desensitizes the receptor that interprets it as a repellent this leads to indole being sensed only as an attractant according to jayaraman the janus response displays a large amount of sophistication and the discovery could lead to a better understanding of the complexities of the gut microbiome beneficial bacteria aggregate on the surfaces within the gut based on some common feature said jayaraman we propose that one such feature is the ability to produce or sense indole bacteria that produce indole could group together and be attracted to niches where indole concentrations are high
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since the bacteria that produce indole in the gut typically are enmeshed in mucus layers among other bacteria the indole concentration drops as one gets further away from the source of indole since pathogens tend to pass through the gut relatively far from the bacteria that produce indole they are not likely to encounter high concentrations of indole for a sustained period therefore they are not sensitized to indole and any indole they encounter repels them studies continue to show that it is important to have a diverse mix of beneficial bacteria in the gut according to lele this research is a step toward understanding how the gut microbiome might change with time the key question is ‘how do different species of bacteria colonize specific niches we have addressed a part of that question said lele the next step is to examine the response of multiple species of bacteria to a mix of different metabolites that are found in the gut this research was supported by the national institute of general medical sciences and the us department of defense army research development and engineering command army research laboratory
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dr dallas little received his doctoral degree from texas a&m university in 1979 now 40 years later he has been awarded the highest faculty honor by the university he has served so welllittle regents professor and eb snead chair professor of transportation in the zachary department of civil and environmental engineering has been named a texas a&m distinguished professorthe title identifies faculty members who are preeminent in their fields and exemplified by outstanding teaching mentoring discovery and service"i feel very humble and very honored for such a wonderful recognition when you get something of this magnitude you question whether or not you deserve it and i feel that way right now " little said "a number of things brought this to be and one was having a great faculty mentor when i was getting my phd here dr jon epps he is a recognized leader in our industry and gave me a tremendous start i owe a lot to him"i'm also fortunate to have a position here on the faculty in a department where we are provided with such an accommodating and supportive environment for research and learning i learn every single day he said it's a joy to be able to apply the principles of physics and chemistry to help solve problems for an industry with such a profound impact on our nations transportation systems"little referred to as the father of chemo-mechanics by some of his colleagues is a recognized international leader for his work on predictive performance modeling and design of structural pavement systems characterization and modeling of damage and healing mechanisms in asphalt paving composites and chemical soil stabilizationwhen one considers the significant influential contributions dr little has made to the development and improvement of millions of miles of highways airports and other paved surfaces around the world very few individuals can claim his impact said dr robin autenrieth head of the civil engineering departmentduring his distinguished career little has been making critical contributions to the transportation industry he applied the principles of chemo-mechanical processes to micro-damage and micro-damage healing in asphalt and concrete composites that comprise the majority of multi-trillion-dollar pavement infrastructure his work on micro-damage healing began a revolution in the way the damage process is considered in asphalt pavement structureslittle said his breakthroughs in chemical stabilization of soils and the extended model for the way pavements perform are two of his pride pointslittle's pioneering contributions are followed by researchers globally taught in undergraduate and graduate courses and adopted in professional design and analysis manualslittle is the primary author with two other co-authors of an 800-plus-page textbook released in 2017 and has more than 230 refereed journal publications contributed to five books and given 420 invited lectures and 40 keynotes and plenary presentations
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as a child stephanie cruz ‘21 dreamed of living in cinderellas castle her internship with walt disney world allowed her to experience that magic firsthand and put her industrial engineering knowledge to the test while she did not get to live in the castle her internship was pretty magical cruz a junior industrial engineering student has always had a passion for new experiences she grew up in brazil was an exchange student in spain when she was in high school and speaks three languages: english portuguese and spanish she has accomplished many things including starting a new student organization on campus club of aggie females in engineering (cafe) this semester she is a member of the sorority kappa kappa gamma and the brazilian student association in addition she is an industrial engineering student ambassador and mentor for the institute of industrial and systems engineering but it hasnt always been mickey mouse ice cream bars and mickey-shaped pretzels for cruz
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attending a career fair as a freshman was a rough wake up call cruz said ‘because of my lack of experience recruiters were not interested in what i had to offer taking this setback in stride cruz got a research internship in her native brazil that summer to gain experience and was published in the journal elsevier since then she has interned with exxonmobil and the walt disney company this summer she will intern with accenture in consulting this variety of experiences has prepared her to tackle the real world after graduation the best part about my diverse experiences is that they have allowed me to see what my potential is in the real world so that when i graduate i can be certain and confident in the path i choose i hope cruz said this semester she brought the magic to texas a&m and spoke with us about her internship in the happiest place on earth what was it like interning with disney as a young girl i grew up visiting the disney theme parks knowing every character and imagining living in cinderellas castle completing an industrial engineering internship at disney gave me the unique opportunity to combine a personal passion with an incredible professional experience that has added tremendous value to me and my career while i can dream along with disney movies i also realize that disney like any other major company is a business with people working behind the scenes to make it what it is i was that person the person working behind the scenes helping to create the disney magic for others that has always captivated me as walt disney said you can design and create and build the most wonderful place in the world but it takes people to make the dream a reality
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disney is all about storytelling yes even for us engineers my projects began with data collection leading to comprehensive analyses such as workload planning forecasting capacity utilization and process optimization from there it was my job to craft and present the story to our clients giving them an unbiased and holistic perspective of their business situation what were you doing while on the job during your internship i had the incredible opportunity to create magic as an industrial engineering intern for the walt disney company the planning and industrial engineering team acts as internal consultants providing recommendations through data analytics to all areas of the business – ranging from the beloved parks and resorts to the back-of-house operations that deliver the magic i was part of the facilities and operation services (fos) team that focuses on textiles and distribution the textiles area support the day-to-day activities of 30 000-plus resort rooms in addition to costuming services and more the distribution area includes anything from food and beverages to merchandise and events
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what was your favorite part of your internship luckily for me my internship was during a very exciting time for the company i was fortunate to support the opening of star wars: galaxys edge which includes the rise of the resistance and millennium falcon: smugglers run in addition to the opening of the disney skyliner and riviera resort it was truly unique to be there experiencing the adrenaline of the opening of the new star wars land seeing the expressions on the guests faces when they saw the space that the incredible minds of so many individuals had been working years to bring the movies to life was truly magical
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my favorite moment happened at 6 am on the opening day of a new groundbreaking ride rise of the resistance executives were next to me making last-minute decisions while operators moved around to warm up and get ready to manage the massive wave of people about to come through it was then that i saw an incredible and true moment of teamwork all cast members got together no matter their position for a quick pre-opening pep talk then i heard three two one break! as they all began to cheer and prepare for the large rush of guests it was a moment ill never forget what did you learn from your disney internship did you have any learning experiences on the job this internship was an incredible experience to develop myself both personally and professionally my biggest takeaway was centered around the art of simplicity all of my projects included parsing through various excel spreadsheets with thousands of data inputs it requires a certain ability to take all of this information and condense it into high-level actionable solutions
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i learned that the real world isn't as black and white as we would like it to be or as school teaches us while hard data is an extremely important tool while trying to understand a business or a process you also need to pay attention to the intangible factors along the way in many situations the intangible factors helped bridge the gaps where the data didn't fully make sense at disney i truly had the opportunity to leverage both sides of the equation: the data and the people/processes to truly understand the fascinating ecosystem that the walt disney world operation is
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two faculty members from the texas a&m university college of engineering were among seven faculty appointed as university distinguished professors the recipients are dr helen reed regents professor presidential professor for teaching excellence and holder of the edward "pete" aldridge '60 professorship in the department of aerospace engineering; and dr dallas little regents professor and snead chair professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering the title is among the highest honors awarded to texas a&m faculty members the designation identifies faculty members who are preeminent in their fields and who have made at least one landmark contribution to their discipline their research and advancements are considered central to any narrative of the field past recipients of the lifetime title participate in the selection process growing the ranks of distinguished professors by just a handful of scholars each year distinguished professors retain their current title but add the new distinction along with additional salary support during the summer for three years and an annual bursary of $5 000 for five years the honorees will be inducted at a ceremony in march it is a privilege to recognize these faculty and honor the impact they have made on the world through scholarship and advancements in understanding provost and executive vice president dr carol a fierke said distinguished professorships celebrate the high caliber and global significance of research underway at texas a&m university dr dallas little little is a senior research fellow at the texas a&m transportation institute where he was the first researcher to hold that position he is a distinguished member of the american society of civil engineers (asce) one of about 200 to hold that rank out of over 150 000 members in 2016 he was presented with two awards from asce: the francis c turner award and the carl l monismith lecture award turner is considered the father of the interstate highway system as the first administrator of the federal highway administration monismith professor emeritus at uc berkeley is considered by many as the father of modern structural pavement design his research interests include asphalt technology pavement design soil stabilization fracture mechanics soil mechanics and foundation engineering he has served as principal investigator on over $35 million in research during his academic career and has chaired the doctoral committees of a number of nationally and internationally prominent leaders in academia little has published over 230 refereed journal publications over 80 refereed proceedings has contributed to five books and has given over 420 invited lectures he has served on many advisory and executive committees and remains a widely sought-after consultant and expert witness on projects related to infrastructure performance and forensic studies dr helen reed in addition to small satellite design reed is widely regarded as an expert in hypersonics boundary-layer stability and transition and energy-efficient aircraft in addition reed directs the computational stability and transition lab as well as the aggiesat lab satellite program she is a licensed professional engineer in the state of texas and has received numerous professional awards and honors including being named a fellow of the american institute of aeronautics and astronautics (aiaa) the american physical society and the american society of mechanical engineers (asme) she is the recipient of the 2018 aiaa/national academy of engineering (nae) yvonne c brill lectureship in aerospace engineering the 2018 aiaa fluid dynamics award the 2016 kate gleason award from asme the 2007 atwood award from the american society for engineering education and aiaa and the 2014 minnie stevens piper professor award from the state of texas reed is a member of the united states air force (usaf) scientific advisory board the usaf studies board development planning roundtable the nae intelligence science and technology experts group and the nato science and technology organization applied vehicle technology 346 technical team in hypersonic transition she is a co-founder of chandah space technologies reed was also inducted into the academy of engineering excellence and the committee of 100 in the college of engineering and the inaugural class of the academy of aerospace and ocean engineering excellence all at virginia tech
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a team of mechanical engineering seniors is bringing music back to the childrens museum of the brazos valley by refurbishing a large walk-on piano as their capstone senior design project falls into a decrescendo the team wishes to not only inspire an appreciation for music but also hopes that the distinctive mechanical characteristics stimulate a want to explore engineering as well the importance of this project is to help out the people of this community said senior madelyn dudley who is partially responsible for the fabrication of the design as well as team communication as a student at texas a&m it is sometimes hard to remember that there is so much more to the community than just the university this is a small way that the mechanical engineering department can say thank you several years ago students from the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university created the piano for the museum serving as an interactive way to expose children to music by utilizing pressure sensors a child can step on a piano key and the corresponding key plays music after years of excited children bouncing on the keys the piano has several parts that no longer function
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the mechanical engineering department used this as an opportunity for a new group of students to develop their skills along with dudley the team includes randall mozingo charlie green reagan tucker etoroabasi nwoko joanna steele and moyinoluwa adejumo assigned as a capstone senior design project and funded by an endowment from the departments namesake dr j mike walker the team of seven students are responsible for reconstructing the piano in a way that provides more durability realizing that the pressure sensors would only work for short time periods it became evident that a whole new design was needed one of the main issues that we have had to overcome is trying to figure out how the old piano worked said dudley we had to spend a lot of time planning how we wanted everything to be laid out
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the design that hit the right notes was deemed connecting plates there is one metal plate resting under each key and the other on the floor of the tray that the key resides in when a child steps on a key the top plate will deflect the two plates connect and electrical signals cue the music as an added part of the design the students hope they will be able to add a unique feature by having the piano keys light up when stepped on the most significant design change lies within the way the piano converts energy rather than work through pressure it now uses a switch-like function which the team believes will be more suitable for the environment the piano is in we are changing the way that the piano actuates energyhow the piano detects someone stepping on a key and turning that into a sound and light response dudley said we have redesigned the piano to use a switch-like function which we are expecting to last much longer we have also designed a code that enables the piano to hold notes as long as a child stays on the key which was not the case beforehand the team plans to have the piano fully functioning and back at the museum by the end of march for more information about the senior capstone design program or to sponsor a future capstone project email dr joanna tsenn at joannatsenn@tamuedu
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john r 86 and gina m dickerson 86 have established the gina m dickerson engineering scholarship this endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time freshman students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in the college of engineering at texas a&m university the dickersons had early exposure to the engineering industry through their fathers both having worked in the petrochemical industry they both have a passion for math and science so the highly ranked college of engineering at texas a&m led to their decision to attend texas a&ms reputation as a top engineering school was certainly a key factor for each of us selecting the university gina said john and gina say their time at texas a&m has impacted their careers in numerous ways aside from the technical foundation the strong work ethic and leadership skills we gained in college the undeniable bond among aggies has opened up common ground for networking and collaboration gina said when asked what the inspiration behind their gift was john and gina mentioned their children having two kids who currently attend and two kids who graduated from college john and gina understand how motivational recognition is to them and aim to honor students like them we were looking for ways to give back to the university and recognize strong academic students interested in pursuing an engineering career gina said gina has served on the external advisory and development council for the college of science since 2008 i get to see first-hand how the university and its professors continue to try and improve and enhance the students education through efforts like the science leadership scholar program and outreach like the physics festival she said john and i want to be a part of improving that experience and helping to attract the best and brightest students to pursue an engineering degree
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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 stephanie lampe director of development
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stephanie walker is a biomedical engineering sophomore from houston texas she is a member of engineering honors and was inducted into the zachry leadership program (zlp) in fall 2019 q: what drew you to study biomedical engineering i am interested in going to medical school biomedical engineering offered an opportunity to study math and science which i loved in high school and an opportunity to go into health care whether thats being a doctor or working as an engineer thats what drew me in q: why texas a&m in general a: i come from a huge aggie family so you could say ive bled maroon since i was born my siblings my parents and all my aunts and uncles attended texas a&m i also was drawn to texas a&m because of the unique traditions and the welcoming aggie family texas a&m is an amazing university and i could not imagine ending up anywhere else q: did you come and visit campus a lot growing up a: both of my brothers were in the corps of cadets so i would drive up to college station and see march in before every home game during the fall semester i would be in college station almost every weekend so i definitely knew the campus well before i got here q: do you have a favorite tradition a: my favorite tradition at texas a&m is aggie muster i think this tradition is really special and unique i was able to attend muster last year and it was an amazing experience remembering the lives of aggies who have died is what makes tecas a&m so special and different from other universities q: so far hows your experience been within engineering a: engineering is extremely tough i have had to learn how to structure and organizing my time to make sure that i have time to do everything both social and educational however i do enjoy studying engineering its not an easy major but if you are devoted and have a goal you can accomplish so much q: but it makes the degree that much more worthwhile right a: for sure i think i will be very glad when i graduate i feel like i can make difference in this major whatever route i decide to take q: shifting to the zachry leadership program how did you first hear about it a: i heard about zlp through someone in my organic chemistry lab last year she was in zlp and she said hey i think you should look into this i think this would be a great fit for you so i looked into it and i just loved the program i think it sounded really great and something that i could be involved in to help me become a more well-rounded person q: based on what youve been told what are some of your goals going into the program a: some of my goals going into the program are to become a more well-rounded person learn more about leadership and different styles of leadership and also just become better friends with everyone in the program we had some older students come talk to us at the reception and they said you will make some very close connections within this program and also they said it was one of the best experiences of college so far q: are you involved in any other organizations a: i am a member of tri delta an on-campus sorority i absolutely love it its a great way to meet other girls who share a common bond we get to grow and develop during our four years here together its just great to be able to experience this family relationship during my years at texas a&m and beyond q: has anything surprised you coming to college a: one thing that has surprised me when coming to college is how independent you must become you are responsible for yourself and there is no one looking out for you of course your parents and friends are checking in on you but you have to make the decision to get up every morning go to class see how you can get involved on and off campus and determine how to be the best version of yourself if you want to do research get connected with people its all on you you have to make that change and be responsible q: what are your goals for the spring a: i would like to get involved in research i havent looked into any current research projects but i plan to look into different research opportunities in the spring i am currently interested in the bioinstrumentation track so im hoping to get involved in research in that area the biggest problem will be trying to find the time for it in my busy schedule
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matthew j mason has established the matthew j mason 21 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 as an out-of-state student mason understands the impact that scholarships can have on lessening the financial burden of attending college he has chosen to establish this scholarship to help students attend texas a&m and offset some of those financial hardships my endowment is designed to help students with tuition costs a very similar endowment is what allowed me to attend texas a&m and devote myself to learning and networking mason said additionally he hopes to leave a lasting legacy at texas a&m and encourage future students i hope that my gift will allow students to focus more on school and extracurriculars instead of worrying about paying tuition mason was initially drawn to texas a&m for a few reasons i came to texas a&m because i believe in the power of the aggie network and loved the traditions surrounding the school he said although he has not yet graduated mason knows that texas a&m has prepared him for whatever he may face after graduation and wants to give students like himself this same opportunity
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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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major hospitals in the houston area reached out to texas a&m university and the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) to determine if researchers and staff could use their rapid manufacturing expertise to assist with the shortage of medical devices and personal protective equipment (ppe) as the nation responds to the unprecedented emergency that is the covid-19 pandemic texas a&m engineering has 21 000 students but now that theyre not on campus weve converted some of our spaces like the susu and mark a fischer 72 engineering design center into manufacturing facilities said dr yossef elabd associate dean for research and chemical engineering professor elabd who is leading texas a&ms covid-19 rapid response team added we now have a system in place to produce face shields and diffusers for metered dose inhalers and were continually producing ppe every day and delivering to hospitals
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as an america makes satellite center tees boasts one of the largest concentrations of core manufacturing subject matter experts in the country the knowledge base is multidisciplinary comprised of representatives from various colleges within texas a&m and the texas a&m university system we have advanced manufacturing and additive manufacturing capabilities to support us in our learning objectives and to help us in productivity and in reducing costs said rob gorham executive director of manufacturing initiatives at tees gorham elaborated that it is texas a&ms and tees' unique approach placing service above self that sets them apart from their peers and enables them to rapidly deploy solutions across the state and nation in order to solve some of the worlds hardest problems
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manufacturing anything requires diversity in approach gorham continued we have to focus not just on making a functional solution but a functional solution that works and is safe to use by the many people depending on our answers texas a&m as a tier one university has all of that in-house ordinarily a university campus where the tees headquarters is located would not be manufacturing medical devices and delivering them directly to hospitals but these unusual times have called for a new way of doing things internal staff and legal teams are executing agreements in a matter of hours or daysinstead of monthsin order to meet urgent demands from medical professionals this situation highlighted a lot of discussions that we probably were not having between physicians at hospitals and a lot of engineers at texas a&m said elabd once the nation overcomes covid-19 i look forward to new directions for research informed by our recently developed working relationship with texas hospitals
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the susu and mark a fischer '72 engineering design center is an exclusive academic makerspace and design center that focuses on learning designing and building through partnerships with industry and non-profit sponsors the center is an environment where concepts become solutions to real-world problems and student teams come together to build new prototypes acquire new skills and develop new relationships it is supported with differential tuition funds and it is open to engineering undergraduate students
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dr jn reddy is the winner of the 2020 sec faculty achievement award for texas a&m university sec achievement award recipients must hold the rank of full professor have a record of extraordinary teaching particularly at the undergraduate level and have a record of research that is recognized nationally or internationally university winners receive a $5 000 honorarium from the sec and become their campus nominee for the sec professor of the year award reddy professor in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering is a member of the national academy of engineering and holds the titles of oscar s wyatt endowed chair professor university distinguished professor and regents professor he also serves as a foreign fellow of the indian canadian brazilian chinese and spanish national academies of engineering reddy is the author of 21 textbooks nearly 700 journal papers and has been a leader in the applied mechanics field for more than 45 years he is internationally known for his significant contributions to the field of applied mechanics through the authorship of widely used textbooks on the linear and nonlinear finite element analysis variational methods composite materials and structures and continuum mechanics and elasticity he has been recognized as the most highly cited researcher in the college of engineering at texas a&m and number six worldwide among engineers according to a study conducted by stanford university not only is dr reddy a superb researcher and teacher but in some respects he is a research celebrity recognizable around the world and he is also a very caring colleague especially for our junior faculty said dr andreas polycarpou mechanical engineering department head
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steady hands and uninterrupted sharp vision are extremely critical when performing surgery on delicate structures like the brain or hair-thin blood vessels while surgical cameras have tremendously improved what surgeons see during operative procedures the steady hand remains to be enhanced new surgical technologies including sophisticated surgeon-guided robotic hands cannot prevent accidental injuries when operating close to fragile tissue in a new study published in the january issue of the journal scientific reports researchers at texas a&m university show that by delivering small yet perceptible buzzes of electrical currents to fingertips users can be given an accurate perception of distance to contact this insight enabled users to control their robotic fingers precisely enough to gently land on fragile surfaces the researchers said that this technique might be an effective way to help surgeons reduce inadvertent injuries during robot-assisted operative procedures one of the challenges with robotic fingers is ensuring that they can be controlled precisely enough to softly land on biological tissue said dr hangue park assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering with our design surgeons will be able to get an intuitive sense of how far their robotic fingers are from contact information they can then use to touch fragile structures with just the right amount of force
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robot-assisted surgical systems also known as telerobotic surgical systems are physical extensions of a surgeon by controlling robotic fingers with movements of their own fingers surgeons can perform intricate procedures remotely thus expanding the number of patients that they can provide medical attention also the tiny size of the robotic fingers means that surgeries are possible with much smaller incisions since surgeons need not make large cuts to accommodate their hands into the patients body for operations to move their robotic fingers precisely surgeons rely on live streaming of visual information from cameras fitted on telerobotic arms thus they look into monitors to match their finger movements with those of the telerobotic fingers in this way they know where their robotic fingers are in space and how close these fingers are to each other however park noted that just visual information is not enough to guide fine finger movements which is very critical when the fingers are in the close vicinity of the brain or other delicate tissue surgeons can only know how far apart their actual fingers are from each other indirectly that is by looking at where their robotic fingers are relative to each other on a monitor said park this roundabout view diminishes their sense of how far apart their actual fingers are from each other which then affects how they control their robotic fingers
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to address this problem park and his team came up with an alternate way to deliver distance information that is independent of visual feedback by passing different frequencies of electrical currents onto fingertips via gloves fitted with stimulation probes the researchers were able to train users to associate the frequency of current pulses with distance that is increasing current frequencies indicated the closing distance from a test object they then compared if users receiving current stimulation along with visual information about closing distance on their monitors did better at estimating proximity than those who received visual information alone park and his team also tailored their technology according to the users sensitivity to electrical current frequencies in other words if a user was sensitive to a wider range of current frequencies the distance information was delivered with smaller steps of increasing currents to maximize the accuracy of proximity estimation the researchers found that users receiving electrical pulses were more aware of the proximity to underlying surfaces and could hence lower their force of contact by around 70% performing much better than the other group overall they observed that proximity information delivered through mild electric pulses was about three times more effective than the visual information alone park said that their novel approach has the potential to significantly increase maneuverability during surgery while minimizing risks of unintended tissue damage he also said their technique would add little to the existing mental load of surgeons during operative procedures our goal was to come up with a solution that would improve the accuracy in proximity estimation without increasing the burden of active thinking needed for this task he said when our technique is ready for use in surgical settings physicians will be able to intuitively know how far their robotic fingers are from underlying structures which means that they can keep their active focus on optimizing the surgical outcome of their patients other contributors to the research include ziqi zhao minku yeo and stefan manoharan from the texas a&m department of electrical and computer engineering and dr seok chang ryu from ewha womans university south korea
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most vehicles today come with their fair share of bells and whistles ranging from adaptive cruise-control features to back-up cameras these advanced driver-assistance systems or adas are in place to make driving easier and safer however increasing evidence shows that older seniors who are also an age group at higher risk for motor vehicle crashes do not use many of these driver-assistance technologies in a new study research partners from the texas a&m transportation institute and texas a&m university have found that older adults are likely to use adas if they are taught how to use these technologies through interactive videos rather than through manuals or live demonstrations they also reported that once adas-trained older adults find it easier to access and use driver-assistance technologies without compromising their attention on the road older adults have a higher rate of vehicle crashes because of degradations in physical mental and motor capabilities said dr maryam zahabi assistant professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering and director of the human-system interaction (hsi) laboratory with adas some of the mental workload related to driving can be taken off and weve shown that instructional videos are the best way to introduce adas to seniors we hope that this insight will lead to better video-based training materials for this age group so that senior safety while driving is enhanced their findings were published in the january issue of the journal applied ergonomics according to the national highway traffic safety administration in 2016 18% of all motor vehicle crashes involved people 65 years and older with the population of seniors expected to increase in the decades to come the number of people vulnerable to vehicle crashes is also estimated to increase proportionately think of the risk for motor crashes as a u-shaped curve said zahabi following the shape of the letter ‘u the chances of crashes among younger adults and teens is very high then with age the risk for crashes lowers and remains at a small relatively constant value until about 60 years after which it shoots up once again risk of a vehicle crash among seniors is largely related to the fact that they find it difficult to perform multiple activities while driving for example starting the adaptive cruise control while still paying attention to the road and looking up to see what is the acceptable speed limit while adas is designed to relieve some of the driving-related tasks these technologies need to be introduced to seniors in a manner that is conducive to learning at their age said zahabi
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ashley shortz a graduate student researcher from the neuroergonomics laboratory at texas a&m narrowed down four main ways to provide adas instructions manuals videos driving simulators and live demonstrations from an instructor based on prior research and existing training best practices however little is known about which one of these methods best fit seniors more importantly while there is substantial evidence that men and women adopt different learning strategies research on adas design and training delivery methods have largely overlooked such gender differences said dr ranjana mehta associate professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering and director of the neuroergonomics laboratory to address this the researchers included 10 male and 10 female drivers ages 58-68 for their study for this age group the team concentrated on video-based and demonstration-based adas training rather than manuals or driving simulators their choice was guided by prior studies showing that drivers dont read detailed instructions from manuals or have easy access to driving simulators after receiving training for either adaptive cruise control or the lane-keeping assist system which are both popular adas technologies the participants driving performance was evaluated in a laboratory-housed driving simulator that provided an immersive experience of driving along a roadway then while the drivers switched between adas and manual control the researchers kept track of where the drivers directed their gaze and the activity in the part of the brain that regulates attention and mental workload among other things the team found that for both male and female drivers video-based training was more effective than demonstration-based training for introducing adas technologies to seniors however the researchers also found some subtle gender differences we were surprised to find that while male drivers were faster at activating adas they were also the most distracted by it said zahabi so from a neurological standpoint older female drivers were more efficient at using adas technologies and reducing their mental workload after video-based training this finding is important as it not only emphasizes how training methods impact different groups of people but also provides the foundation to develop more equitable and thus more effective training paradigms said mehta the researchers noted that more comprehensive studies involving a larger number of older adults a broader age range of participants and a wider option of driving scenarios still need to be done they said that these studies might shed light on other gender-based differences that may have not been uncovered in their present study but even if preliminary zahabi said that their results still indicate why videos work best for teaching adas to seniors
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videos we think are effective because they can be paused rewound and reviewed multiple times giving seniors a sense of control over what they are learning and at what pace said zahabi our work does not diminish the importance of manuals and other forms of instructional materials instead our results challenge the way we normally think about communicating adas technology-related information to seniors the results of their work have important real-world implications these results and others from the project have already been shared with driver education and training agencies throughout the united states and abroad to aid in the design of curriculum for all ages this was a great opportunity for work conducted at texas a&m to impact driver safety said dr michael manser from the texas a&m transportation institute another contributor to the research includes ashiq mohammed abdul razak from the department of industrial and systems engineering
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disaster events from hurricanes earthquakes wildfires and even the covid-19 pandemic can cause disruptions in infrastructure services and the impact on the social fabric of communities is inevitabledetermining how to decrease these disruptions by targeting the most significant vulnerabilities and needs is keyfor the last year jennifer dargin a doctoral student in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university has been researching how to integrate social inequality considerations into infrastructure resilience analysis by examining the interactions between human and infrastructure system networksdargin's paper on this topic received the best paper award in the infrastructure systems and sustainability track of the 2020 american society of civil engineers construction research congress the largest and most important construction research conference in north americathe distinguishing point of this paper and the research we are working on as a whole at our lab is highly interdisciplinary converging engineering social sciences and fields of hazards and disaster to examine social inequalities in infrastructure resilience " she said "the findings present novel insights to understanding the role of infrastructure resilience in household well-being as well as inequalities in well-being impacts across various sub-populations the research approach and findings enable a paradigm shift toward a more human-centric approach to infrastructure resilienceaccording to dargin the results specifically show that disruptions in transportation solid waste food and water infrastructure services resulted in more significant well-being impact disparities as compared to electricity and communication services they also show households were more likely to feel helpless have difficulty doing daily tasks and feeling distance from their community as a result of service disruptions"while working on this research what strikes me most is the inherent complexities and dependencies of our infrastructure systems and why it is so important to understand these interactions to reduce risks and minimize their impacts on our communities " she said "my research and the work in our lab (the urban resilience networks and informatics lab) highlight that infrastructure disruptions are much more than an engineering problem"current infrastructure resilience models can predict when a system will face failure but they cannot predict or measure the social consequences of disruptions who suffers for how long and why"integrating social inequality considerations into infrastructure resilience is critical for addressing these questions and essential for building communities that are both sustainable in the long term and resilient in the face of future disasters " dargin said "a human-centric approach is the key to advancing our fundamental understanding of household-infrastructure service disruption"taking this approach will effectively reduce the risk disparity of vulnerable populations to service disruptions and integrate social equity into prioritization and planning of infrastructuredargins work is a part of dr ali mostafavis national science foundation career award one of the most prestigious awards for up-and-coming researchers that provides funding to support promising integrated research and educationmostafavi assistant professor in the department hypothesizes that there is a disparity in the impact of risk and his research aims to increase the theoretical and empirical foundations in the interdisciplinary area of urban resilience researchjennifer's work is highly interdisciplinary and is part of our nsf career project which aims to advance the fundamental understanding and modeling of social inequality aspects in infrastructure resilience assessments " he saidthe project uses machine learning social sensing and complex networks simulation to analyze people's responses to infrastructure disruptions following disasters"factors such as ethnicity and household income affect the amount of tolerance that a household can emotionally and mentally withhold when experiencing hardships due to service disruptions " dargin said "using the correlation analysis this study discovered disparities in well-being experience due to disruptions in infrastructure services primarily among racial or ethnic groups"these events alone are a reminder of why this line of research is so critical and serves as greater motivation for me to keep working on these issues which i continue to address in my ongoing research she saiddargin and mostafavi will investigate the influence of other factors such as preparedness previous experience expectations and social capital on the well-being impacts of infrastructure disruptions
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over the course of their journey from the open fields to the produce displays at grocery stores fresh vegetables and fruits can sometimes get contaminated by microorganisms these items can then spoil other produce spreading the contamination further and increasing the number of food items that can cause illnesses to prevent cross-contamination between fresh produce researchers at texas a&m university have created a coating that can be applied to food-contact surfaces like conveyor belts rollers and collection buckets in addition to being germicidal the researchers have designed their coating to be extremely water-repellent they said without water bacteria cant stick or multiply on surfaces thereby drastically curbing contamination from one produce item to another consuming contaminated raw foods causes hundreds of people to get sick annually and so food contamination is not only a huge health concern but is also a significant economic burden said dr mustafa akbulut associate professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering in our study we show that our new dual-function coating one that can both repel and kill bacteria can greatly mitigate bacterial spread averting cross-contamination the results of their study are in the february issue of the journal acs applied materials & interfaces foodborne illnesses can be caused by a whole swarm of pathogens that include multiple strains of viruses and bacteria to remedy any infection after harvest fresh produce is generally washed and then sanitized in powerful antimicrobials like hydrogen peroxide or acetic acid however bacteria can still escape unscathed if they manage to hide in hard-to-reach places on the skins of fruits and vegetables also if the number of bacteria is large enough they can form protective sheaths called biofilms that further protect them from the action of sanitizers contaminated produce items can spread the pathogens either directly by touching other food items or indirectly via food-contact surfaces currently there are several ways to prevent indirect transmission ranging from antimicrobial surface coatings to antifouling polymer surfaces that act like springs to push bacteria away however the researchers said for a variety of reasons these approaches although efficient at first can lose their effects over time to overcome the obstacles posed by the current technologies akbulut and his team proceeded to create an antimicrobial surface coating that is also extremely hydrophobic they noted the coatings water-repelling property can help food-contact surfaces retain their germicidal action much longer most bacteria can only survive in an aqueous environment said akbulut if surfaces are superhydrophobic then water and along with it most of the bacteria will be repelled away with fewer bacteria around less germicides are used up increasing the overall lifetime of the coating to make their dual-function coating akbulut and his team started with an aluminum sheet a metal commonly used in the food industry for contact surfaces onto the surface of the metal they chemically attached a thin layer of a compound called silica using high heat then with this layer as a substrate they added a mixture of silica and a naturally occurring germicidal protein found in tears and egg white called lysozyme
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together the silica-aluminum layer bound to the silica-lysozyme layer made a coating that had a rough texture when viewed at microscopic scales the researchers noted that this submicroscopic roughness or the tiny bumps and crevices on the coating is key to superhydrophobicity in general if you increase roughness the hydrophobicity of a material increases but there is a limit said shuhao liu a graduate student in the college of engineering and the primary author of the study if the coating is too rough bacteria can once again hide behind crevices and contaminate so we tweaked the proportion of silica and lysozyme so that the roughness yielded the best possible hydrophobicity without compromising the coatings overall function when their superhydrophobic lysozyme-infused coating was fine-tuned and ready the researchers tested if it was effective at curbing the growth of two strains of disease-causing bacteria salmonella typhimurium and listeria innocua upon examination they found that the number of bacteria on these surfaces was 9999% lesser than that on bare surfaces despite the high efficacy of their coating in preventing bacterial spread the researchers said that more investigation is needed to determine if the coating works equally well for mitigating viral cross-contamination although longer-lasting than other coatings they noted that their coating too would need to be reapplied after a certain amount of use thus as a next step akbulut and his team are working on developing more permanent dual functionality coatings our goal is to create smart surfaces that can avert any kind of pathogen from attaching and multiplying said akbulut in this regard we have developed surface coatings that can prevent bacteria from collecting on surfaces which is one of the major reasons for cross-contamination we are now working with researchers in agriculture to take our invention from bench to practice other contributors to the research include michael bae and dr ethan a scholar from the texas a&m department of chemical engineering; jeremy zheng and beril ulugun from the texas a&m department of biomedical engineering; dr li hao from zhongkai university of agriculture and engineering china; dr thomas matthew taylor dr luis cisneros-zevallos and yagmur yegin from the texas a&m department of nutrition and food science; and dr jun kyun oh from dankook university republic of korea this work is supported by the food manufacturing technologies program and the united states department of agriculture
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ocean engineers are no strangers to weathering the storm and uncharted waters adaptability and resourcefulness – be it from a natural disaster change in tides or covid-19 – are skills honed by the unique dual-campus set up of the department of ocean engineering at texas a&m university for the safety of students faculty and staff the college of engineering transitioned all classes to an online format for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester and the following summer sessions while this change from physical to virtual classes may have been a shock to some students in the ocean engineering department are well versed in learning from a distance – those in college station taking courses from professors in galveston and vice versa all year round with years of experience under their belts ocean engineering graduating seniors anna oconnor from the galveston campus and loicka baille from the college station campus are sharing their experience and advice on how to succeed in an online world of education
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i think the transition has gone really well said oconnor all of my professors seemed to adapt very quickly and have been very understanding of any issues we may have texas a&m has been handling this new situation very well and i am glad the university took the appropriate measures to keep us all safe said baille however for graduating seniors this particular semester is not like any other it is an exciting and stressful semester where students often are trying to finish their academic curriculum find a job and also enjoy their last moments as college kids unfortunately the conditions we were put in just do not enable us to live the full experience nostalgic but looking toward the future with determination both oconnor and baille took a look back on their many years of experience with virtual classes to provide those around them with their top tips and tricks – hoping that their final semester could help bolster and bring together every student facing the covid-19 pandemic oconnor explained that while studying for online classes hasnt been very different to her from studying for in-person courses taking advantage of new online resources has been extremely helpful since my professors record the classes we are able to go back and re-watch them if we have any issues while studying and doing homework said oconnor it also makes taking notes much easier since you can pause if needed and go back to things you missed
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in addition to utilizing these new avenues of learning oconnor encourages her peers to create a group chat for classes as it often quicker to ask questions and get answers through it than by emailing a professor however while having a class full of aspiring engineers is a great asset for studying and learning from one another she also stressed the importance of reaching out to professors when needed they are there to help and support students however they can while studying in pajamas and having snacks readily available all day might sound like paradise studying from home blurs the lines between professional and personal life to this end both baille and oconnor stress one thing: time management i found it very difficult to draw a line between study/work time and personal time said baille it is easy to either ‘over work or ‘under work because the physical boundary of campus does not exist anymore most of my classes are done through zoom which helps a lot with staying on top of the material but i have a class that is video-recorded and that can be challenging as it is so easy to put off until later but my overall advice would be to consider virtual class as an 8 am – 5 pm job (assuming you dont have classes after 5 pm) try and follow a schedule: set times to do homework and study like you would during a normal semester said oconnor if you have a morning class wake up 30 minutes or so before so that you have time to wake up and get in the right mindset it also helps to have a specific place to work on school things to keep school and home life separate if you try and do homework in the same place you usually sit and watch tv it can often be hard to focus find a quiet spot somewhere in the house and make that your school work area
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while this was not the end of her undergraduate experience that baille expected she is excited to begin her graduate career at the massachusetts institute of technology - woods hole oceanographic institution (mit-whoi) joint program personally i wish i knew that the friday before spring break was going to be my last day as an undergraduate said baille i am a bit of a nostalgic in general but i wish i knew it would be the last time id see all my classmates together it is just sad that we didnt get to have closure that we wont get a chance to say a formal goodbye to professors that followed us for the past four or five years to the buildings we spent so many hours working at and to texas a&m as a whole for baille and oconnor like many students college is a time of discovery and charting new horizons it is the bridge into a career and adulthood filled with friendship educational experiences and inspiration that drives innovation and success while this time is not the norm students are most certainly not alone
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in addition to their entire aggie network the college of engineering is continuing to support students however possible for more information and resources visit the university's covid-19 webpage
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the student engineers council (sec) has established the texas a&m student engineers council engineering entrepreneurship excellence fund this endowment will support the engineering entrepreneurship program in the college of engineering at texas a&m university and its funds will be used at the discretion of the director of the program abhi dhillon senior chemical engineering major and current sec president first heard about the student engineers council during their career fair his freshman year he soon joined the organization and served as chair of the sec career fair before serving in his current position most recently dhillon has led the charge in the creation of the new entrepreneurship excellence fund the student engineers council has an established tradition of generosity in 2013 the sec donated $1 million to the renovations of the zachry engineering education complex and named the fourth floor of the building after their student organization in 2019 the sec created five new scholarships to benefit students in the college of engineering dhillon and his fellow officers knew that it was time for another gift the sec executive committee began to look at supporting one of the colleges programs dhillon said we spoke with rodney boehm professor of practice and engineering entrepreneurship director who taught us more about the engineering entrepreneurship program we saw that the programs relevance to students outlived their undergraduate or even graduate degree program engineering entrepreneurship could teach them things that they could use 30 years into their careers many of the sec students had already participated in engineering entrepreneurships largest functions like aggies invent a 48-hour intensive design experience where students in multidisciplinary teams push their innovation creativity and communication skills to compete for cash awards events like aggies invent are a tangible way that students can get out of their comfort zone and work with students in other disciplines said dhillon in recognition of this gift aggies invent will be renamed aggies invent powered by student engineers council for the next three years dhillon hopes that this gift will bring more attention to engineering entrepreneurship from current students looking to stretch themselves outside the technical learning that happens in the classroom we want the college to know that students care about engineering entrepreneurship dhillon said we support it and we believe in its mission enough to put money behind it we truly believe that this program can change students lives while theyre in college and even after they leave texas a&m
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as classes have moved to an online format during the covid-19 pandemic advisors in texas a&m universitys college of engineering have also moved online having already implemented some elements of online advising previously they were well prepared for this transition the general engineering advising team began providing virtual advising in 2016 offering large group advising webinars and evening hours for walk-in advising during peak times like pre-registration bonnie bustos-rios director of engineering academic operations said her team tested various technology tools prior to launching virtual advising those early tests helped us determine key features of each platform and ways to make the students experience seamless and less clunky she said engineering advisors are using various tools to meet with students virtually including zoom and google hangouts as well as phone calls advisors continue to support students in the transition to online courses point them to critical resources and serve as keen observers and reporters of what our students are really dealing with she said the latter is incredibly important as the college works to provide timely information about support services and other important resources
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in the department of electrical and computer engineering windy lala assistant director of undergraduate programs said she misses visiting with students in person though my favorite part of being an academic advisor is meeting with students learning about them and the successes and issues they experience she said despite this she and her team have taken things in stride we want to make sure that we are staying connected with our students and that they are still feeling connected to our advising team and the department she said ashlea schroeder academic advisor iv in the department of biological and agricultural engineering said students have reported that their online classes are going well for the most part i have spoken with a few students who struggle with time management being back home and keeping up with classes but most students feel they will pass their classes though she said laura olivarez assistant director of general engineering academic advising services said they are operating as normally as possible with wait times less than 15 minutes the students are keeping us going she said we are passionate about advising and helping our students during this time we do this because we genuinely care for them and know this is a tough transition for them bustos-rios said shes grateful to her team that has stepped up during these difficult times they could be resistant to change especially in this time of uncertainty but im so thankful for their trust adaptability and flexibility during this time she said we cant serve our students if i dont take care of my team and the health and well-being of my team is of utmost importance bustos-rios said shes thought a lot about what the students must be going through as well i would be so worried but thankful to have academic advisors who care about me and my success she said i am also incredibly grateful for our college leadership the academic deans continue to exercise care and caution as they make the best possible decisions to keep our students staff and faculty safe
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for millennia metallurgists have been meticulously tweaking the ingredients of steel to enhance its properties as a result several variants of steel exist today; but one type called martensitic steel stands out from its steel cousins as stronger and more cost-effective to produce hence martensitic steels naturally lend themselves to applications in the aerospace automotive and defense industries among others where high-strength lightweight parts need to be manufactured without boosting the cost however for these and other applications the metals have to be built into complex structures with minimal loss of strength and durability researchers from texas a&m university in collaboration with scientists in the air force research laboratory have now developed guidelines that allow 3d printing of martensitic steels into very sturdy defect-free objects of nearly any shape strong and tough steels have tremendous applications but the strongest ones are usually expensive the one exception being martensitic steels that are relatively inexpensive costing less than a dollar per pound said dr ibrahim karaman chevron professor i and head of the department of materials science and engineering we have developed a framework so that 3d printing of these hard steels is possible into any desired geometry and the final object will be virtually defect-free
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although the procedure developed was initially for martensitic steels researchers from texas a&m said they have made their guidelines general enough so that the same 3d printing pipeline can be used to build intricate objects from other metals and alloys as well the findings of the study were reported in the december issue of the journal acta materialia steels are made of iron and a small quantity of other elements including carbon martensite steels are formed when steels are heated to extremely high temperatures and then rapidly cooled the sudden cooling unnaturally confines carbon atoms within iron crystals giving martensitic steel its signature strength to have diverse applications martensitic steels particularly a type called low-alloy martensitic steels need to be assembled into objects of different shapes and sizes depending on a particular application thats when additive manufacturing more commonly known as 3d printing provides a practical solution using this technology complex items can be built layer by layer by heating and melting a single layer of metal powder along a pattern with a sharp laser beam each of these layers joined and stacked creates the final 3d-printed object however 3d printing martensitic steels using lasers can introduce unintended defects in the form of pores within the material porosities are tiny holes that can sharply reduce the strength of the final 3d-printed object even if the raw material used for the 3d printing is very strong said karaman to find practical applications for the new martensitic steel we needed to go back to the drawing board and investigate which laser settings could prevent these defects for their experiments karaman and the texas a&m team first chose an existing mathematical model inspired from welding to predict how a single layer of martensitic steel powder would melt for different settings for laser speed and power by comparing the type and number of defects they observed in a single track of melted powder with the models predictions they were able to change their existing framework slightly so that subsequent predictions improved after a few such iterations their framework could correctly forecast without needing additional experiments if a new untested set of laser settings would lead to defects in the martensitic steel the researchers said this procedure is more time-efficient testing the entire range of laser setting possibilities to evaluate which ones may lead to defects is extremely time-consuming and at times even impractical said raiyan seede a graduate student in the college of engineering and the primary author of the study by combining experiments and modeling we were able to develop a simple quick step-by-step procedure that can be used to determine which setting would work best for 3d printing of martensitic steels
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seede also noted that although their guidelines were developed to ensure that martensitic steels can be printed devoid of deformities their framework can be used to print with any other metal he said this expanded application is because their framework can be adapted to match the observations from single-track experiments for any given metal although we started with a focus on 3d printing of martensitic steels we have since created a more universal printing pipeline said karaman also our guidelines simplify the art of 3d printing metals so that the final product is without porosities which is an important development for all type of metal additive manufacturing industries that make parts as simple as screws to more complex ones like landing gears gearboxes or turbines other contributors to the research include austin whitt and dr raymundo arróyave from the texas a&m department of materials science and engineering; david shoukr bing zhang and dr alaa elwany from the texas a&m department of industrial and systems engineering; and dr sean gibbons and dr philip flater from the air force research laboratory florida this research is funded by the army research office and the air force research laboratory approved for public release by the air force; distribution is unlimited 96tw-2019-0336
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as members from around texas a&m engineering come together to find ways to help the community in dealing with the covid-19 pandemic the team in the susu and mark a fischer 72 engineering design center (fedc) in the zachry engineering education complex is working around the clock to make solutions to those needs a reality the design centers skeleton crew of essential research members last week kicked off a project to provide baylor college of medicine in houston with 3 000 face shields to help protect its medical workers while treating sick patients to help meet the health care providers urgent need the team at the design center had to innovate – their specialty starting with a face shield design made publicly available by the georgia institute of technology the team worked to modify the design to work with the materials they had available the main challenge for completing the face shield design – essentially a re-sizeable headband with a curved plastic sheet covering the users full face – was in finding a way to use a thicker plastic than is typically utilized
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dr david staack director of engineering laboratory instruction said due to supply shortages staff technicians had to find a way to make the design work with the materials they had on-hand – including supplies he had available in his research lab as well as those able to be sourced from the college of architecture it was ‘what materials do we have this is something where the technicians figured this out said staack they know these machines; they know these materials we can work with the materials we have on-hand and make a nice durable shield the staff here is all behind that kind of mentality of ‘lets turn around a product and lets get it back into peoples hands within a week of baylor college of medicines request over 300 face shields were delivered with the remaining less than 2 700 units on schedule to be delivered by the end of april
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staack who also serves as associate professor and the sallie and don davis 61 career development professor in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering said typically during this time of year the design center would be operating at full capacity helping students complete their senior design projects with all classes going online in march due to covid-19 the team has extra capacity given their experience aiding thousands of students each semester with a wide variety of projects the design center staff is well suited to take on the task at hand the crew here is working very hard staack said were doing a public service and in this case with the immediate need where were providing something that may protect somebody from getting covid-19 or may directly go into a patients hand i think its more of this great sense of purpose that they come in with every day without the typical student projects to work on jim wilson general manager of the fischer engineering design center said he and his team are glad to have found another way to be of service during these trying times we miss the students but what were doing right now we know is helping a lot of people wilson said the covid-19 projects are our top priority right now and its a team effort wilson said technical laboratory coordinators adam farmer and todd williams are part of the team – including nathan panak cody ricther brey caraway richard mccalley iran ramirez and tobias gualandri – that has stepped up to help lead the efforts to fulfill the design centers mission through the production of the face shields as well as several other projects currently in progress
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both farmer and williams said getting the ability to contribute in some way to those on the front lines of treating sick patients is an incredibly rewarding experience its nice to know that were doing something farmer said you see all kinds of stuff online and on tv of people just trying to do something to help for us to be able to do something and know that what were doing is going to people who are doing more good than we are to help them is a happy feeling as the staff at the design center continues to bring these impactful projects to fruition staack said they are also a part of a wider texas a&m community coming together – from loading dock attendants to members of the legal team – to make sure these pieces of equipment make it to those in need the impact is obvious and everyone is behind it so its been very nice to see very inspiring staack said its been inspiring to see how people have come together to try to solve these problems
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lee (bender) coleman 81 and keith w coleman ‘81 have established the lee (bender) coleman 81 and keith w coleman 81 endowed chemical engineering fellowship this endowment will be used to provide one or more fellowships to full-time students pursuing a graduate degree in chemical engineering and working in safety-related areas in the college of engineering at texas a&m university the colemans have also established the lee (bender) coleman 81 and keith w coleman 81 deans education scholars award in the texas a&m college of education that will support first-generation students keith and lee met on campus at texas a&m on a blind date set up by lees roommate at the time lee was studying finance and accounting and keith was en route to becoming a chemical engineer lee came to texas a&m at the encouragement of her parents who were not aggies keith grew up in el paso and chose a&m without ever visiting the campus because it was the best engineering school around keith younger sister and brother and his wife also graduated from a&m after graduation lee and keith were married and went to work for chevron after staying home a few years to raise their four children lee went back to school to become a kindergarten teacher it was there that the colemans hearts were first touched by the hardships young graduates face i was able to see up close that these young people my classmates were really struggling lee said its a high calling choosing to teach young people and for many of the education students i met they worked very hard just to get by meanwhile keiths career took him to downstream refining within chevron and he became passionate about process safety during this his time at texas a&m continued to play a role in his life texas a&ms six core values of loyalty integrity excellence leadership respect and selfless service influenced me throughout my career keith said from my first day at chevron until i retired in 2015 i could see how those values instilled in me from my days at a&m inspired and guided me in my life they made me a better person in recent years the colemans reflected on their time at texas a&m and their careers the idea of giving to texas a&m came up in a conversation somebody created the texas a&m that i knew when i was there keith said the traditions the values and the technology that were available to us didnt appear out of thin air someone contributed i began to think that it was my obligation to do the same and give back to the place that gave me so much without much discussion the colemans decided to give back not just to one program at texas a&m but two each gift would reflect the passion of the colemans lives the deans education scholars award will benefit young aspiring teachers the endowed chemical engineering fellowship will help graduate students pursuing a process safety focus in their chemical engineering careers weve given gifts to other organizations like ministries and charities before were giving to texas a&m because like those other causes we value their mission and believe that aggies will continue to make a profound positive impact on the world texas a&m changed our lives i cannot thank the people who steered me here enough this school instilled values in me that i try to follow daily they are the values we tried to teach our children lee said
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the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment 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 haley jennings director of development
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the southwest electrical metering association (swema) has established the mike compton memorial scholarship this endowment will be used to provide scholarships to a full-time student in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university swema was inspired to establish this scholarship to honor the memory of mike compton former swema president who passed away in 2017 mikes dedication to swema inspired the organization to establish this gift said jay dee wilkins former swema president although compton did not attend texas a&m both of his children graduated from the university this led to swema choosing to establish the scholarship with texas a&m in electrical and computer engineering because of his involvement with the department while his children attended our hope is to affect the life of a deserving individual in the texas a&m electrical engineering program and honor the memory of mike wilkins said
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the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering or would like more information on how you can give please contact true brown senior director of development
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due to the coronavirus pandemic seniors preparing to graduate from colleges across the country will face one of the most precarious economies since the financial crisis of 2007-08 the college of engineering at texas a&m university is responding by offering texas a&m engineering students graduating in may or august 2020 with a 30 gpa or higher expedited admittance to engineering graduate studies to help those without jobs weather the economic storm these students are eligible for the special quick admit program which includes a simplified application and does not require application fees gre scores or letters of recommendation some employers of our students have furloughed or eliminated significant segments of their workforce due to the pandemic and job offers have been impacted said dr m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of engineering when the economy stabilizes recent college graduates will face a highly competitive marketplace this program is one way we can support our students through the economic downturn while helping them build a more competitive skill set the college offers several master of engineering and master of science in engineering degree programs graduate study advisors are offering virtual office hours on tuesday april 14 from 1-2 pm to assist students interested in learning more about this program additional information and a link to the short application can be found on the colleges website
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mary hovden (spivey) 78 and jack hovden have established the mary hovden (spivey) 78 industrial distribution endowed scholarship this endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in industrial distribution at texas a&m university mary said she was inspired to establish this scholarship by her own experiences in the industrial distribution program at texas a&m the industrial distribution program the curriculum the professors and the classmates were a profoundly positive influence in my life and career and i'd like to give back to this program that made such a difference mary was drawn to texas a&m by the universitys values traditions quality education and friendliness my years at a&m were some of the best of my life while i was there i learned the value of service hard work and perseverance which served me well in my life and career she said mary said that graduating from texas a&m is the proudest achievement of her life and she hopes that her scholarship can help students complete their education at texas a&m giving back financially to the industrial distribution program which made such a difference in my life and career is really important to me she said as to what impact she hopes her scholarship will have mary said i hope that this endowed scholarship will help students complete their education at texas a&m and then go on to have a rewarding career and make a difference in the world
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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 thadd hargett senior director of development
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bob 86 and sandra judge 86 have established the robert bob a 86 and sandra k judge 86 study abroad scholarship this endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in the college of engineering and participating in the study abroad program at texas a&m university both bob and sandra appreciated the small-town feel of texas a&m and the traditions that are respected and practiced by the students there's nothing better than a big 'howdy' from a fellow student to make new arrivals feel at home bob said our time at texas a&m really drove home an appreciation of hard work bob said we've both been open to taking diverse difficult and unfamiliar paths in our careers and our time at a&m prepared us well for dealing with anything that comes up bob and sandra decided to establish their scholarship at texas a&m because they feel that the school prepares students to excel in the real world both of us have benefited a great deal from our time in aggieland and we are blessed to be in a position to help others in the future bob said the judges established a study-abroad endowment to allow students who might otherwise not get to experience a semester abroad a chance to take advantage of the opportunity we both have learned so much from our travels that have benefited us during our careers and personal lives bob said people need to be able to work and understand some of the cultural drivers behind people across the globe bob and sandra hope that their endowment is impactful and will encourage students to study abroad we hope that students who think they can't afford it will be able to say yes to the study-abroad experience bob said sandra and bob judge both graduated from texas a&m in 1986 sandra received her degree in ocean engineering and bob received his in mechanical engineering together they have a son griffin who graduated last december he followed in his fathers footsteps earning a degree in mechanical engineering but with a minor in aerospace engineering
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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 stephanie lampe director of development
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in light of the emergence and spread of covid-19 researchers across many disciplines are using their expertise to address these and future pandemics and texas a&m university urban resilience lab researchers are joining the global effortdr ali mostafavi assistant professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering recently received a grant from the national science foundation (nsf) to better understand predict and effectively respond to the risk of infectious disease outbreaks in urban areasmy urban resilience lab has been investigating the robustness and resilience of urban systems in the face of different disruptions such as floods earthquakes and wildfires urban resilience to pandemics is a relatively under-studied dimension for us and other researchers in the field we are honored to receive this award from the nsf to advance the fundamental understanding and methods in this area he said in this project we will harness urban-scale big data and create novel artificial intelligence (ai) and data-driven network science models to help better monitor and predict hidden pandemic spread riskscovid-19 outbreaks have had dire societal and economic impacts across the globe and its spread has become a major societal threat in the united states the majority of epidemic spread models however do not adequately consider the tremendous uncertainty associated with human response behaviors (both populations and individual actors) and anxiety in urban system supply chains during an epidemic outbreakmostafavi and his team will analyze the data through spatial modeling network analysis and machine learning techniques to reveal hidden pandemic spread risks in urban areas the outcomes will suggest new ways for better prediction of pandemics and offer new insights on ways to conduct urban-scale surveillance of epidemic spread risks the findings will inform strategies and possible data-driven tools and methods to prevent help contain and mitigate the effects of future epidemics and pandemicsour urban resilience lab at texas a&m is uniquely positioned to undertake this work in addition to our expertise in ai and complex urban networks we also have close collaboration with multiple local and state agencies and technology companies mostafavi said in the initial stage our goal is to disseminate data and findings to help agencies contain the pandemic and its impacts in the next stage we will make our computational data-centric models available as open-source tools to help predict and mitigate future epidemic outbreaks more proactively and effectively
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texas a&m engineering former students and friends i would like to express my sincere wish for the good health of you and your loved ones during the covid-19 pandemic although there is much to cause concern and worry i am reassured daily by the strength integrity and can-do spirit of aggies during this crisis texas a&m university is committed to the safety of our students and ensuring that they are being fully supported in their educational endeavors as you will see in the stories in this newsletter we have transitioned operations to deliver courses virtually and only essential staff are working on campus most of our coe employees are working remotely from home yet the core value of selfless service is being manifested in many ways as our faculty staff and students respond to community needs if you have technology-related ideas that could address covid-19 challenges please see more details about our covid-19 research program texas a&m engineering is utilizing resources in unprecedented ways to support our governing bodies and health care providers you are welcome to join us best regards m katherine banks phd pe dean
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proud aggie karen olson class of 87 and her husband louis turner recently gave back to texas a&m university in the form of a generous gift to establish the karen e olson 87 and louis h turner endowed excellence in research faculty award in the harold vance department of petroleum engineering being an aggie is very identifiable said olson people recognize my ring even on the other side of the world it has opened doors for me the award will provide recognition for a faculty member who performs outstanding research recipients of this award will be determined by the head of the petroleum engineering department per university guidelines my education at texas a&m has made a difference in my career said olson i have applied that knowledge to everywhere ive worked without that degree i wouldnt be where i am now olson has been a completion or reservoir engineer for several companies during a career that spans more than 30 years she has handled challenging duties and leadership roles both onshore and offshore in the us and overseas she has amassed considerable expertise in the design modeling and operational execution of hydraulic fracturing but has always recognized the value of keeping an open mind to learning new things its very important to stay in contact with your professors theyll be on that leading edge of research olson said just through the oil and gas industry weve stayed in touch one of the things i can do now is give back to them to a&m a distinguished member of the society of petroleum engineers olson holds a bachelors degree in petroleum engineering from louisiana state university and a masters degree in petroleum engineering from texas a&m she currently serves on the industry board for the petroleum engineering department
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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 kelly corcoran senior director of development
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ken c kavalew '89 has established the tabitha h kavalew '91 memorial aerospace 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 aerospace engineering at texas a&m university kavalew says he was interested in texas a&m because of its excellent engineering program rich history and traditions as a mechanical engineering graduate i was able to join dupont right out of school he said the aggie network at dupont has helped me have access to opportunities that i otherwise don't believe would be available to me kavalew says his late wife tabitha was the inspiration behind this gift my wife tabitha passed away in august of 2015 after a long but hard-fought battle with breast cancer he said both graduates of texas a&m kavalew says his and tabithas love of the university contributed to his decision to establish the scholarship with texas a&m in aerospace engineering the endowment is in honor of my wifes love of a&m aerospace engineering and work with nasa at the johnson space center kavalew said i want future recipients of the scholarship to be inspired by her and her hard work and passion for space exploration by either choosing a career with nasa or a partner company the couple has two children and kavalew hopes they can be involved with their mothers endowment for years to come my kids and i want to get to know the future recipients of the scholarship he said we hope this scholarship will help reduce the burden of college tuition so future recipients can focus on their school work
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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 stephanie lampe director of development
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megan and jonathon shuhart '96 have established the megan and jonathon shuhart '96 scholarship this endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time first-generation students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in the college of engineering at texas a&m university as a first-generation college student jonathon attended his first texas a&m football game his freshman year of high school and was set on being an aggie i only applied to a&m and wasnt interested in any other school jonathon attributes the inspiration behind his gift to the financial aid he himself received at texas a&m i am a first-generation college graduate and was able to attend texas a&m as a recipient of the president's achievement scholarship which made it possible for me to graduate without student loans he said i have always wanted to provide a similar opportunity for a deserving student that may not otherwise be able to attend a&m jonathon hopes his scholarship will have a positive impact on the recipients i wanted to give back to allow someone the same opportunity i was given and hope this will provide another pay it forward moment he said i am thankful for the generosity of previous donors that helped me with my education at texas a&m and want to provide the same opportunity for someone else
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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 thadd hargett senior director of development
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texas a&m university through its unique engineering medicine (enmed) partnership with houston methodist hospital is stepping up to help the health care system keep up with the demand for medical supplies brought on by the increasing number of confirmed and suspected covid-19 cases a team led by dr michael r moreno has already delivered 200 3d-printed diffusers for metered dose inhalers (mdi) to the houston hospital and stands ready to produce more if needed the spacer or diffuser that we created will allow the doctors to use metered dose inhalers to treat diagnosed and suspected covid-19 patients who are not yet in need of ventilator therapy without using nebulizers that may aerosolize the virus moreno said and this is important because if this early stage intervention is effective then it is possible that these patients may recover before reaching that critical point where ventilator therapy is required moreno assistant professor in the j mike walker ‘66 department of mechanical engineering and director of innovation for engineering medicine said the hospital was facing a critical shortage after being unable to find the diffusers from its normal suppliers he said one of the most powerful aspects of the project is that it came from direct communication with doctors who at the forefront of this crisis are identifying emerging unanticipated needs in some cases the solutions are not that complicated but you have to know that the problems exist moreno said and the only way youre going to know that as an engineer is if you have an open line of communication with the doctors
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while ventilators are reserved for patients experiencing severe symptoms respiratory inhalers are a part of the early treatment plan for most hospitalized patients exhibiting signs of covid-19 infection bronchodilator drugs used for treatment of asthma can be utilized in covid-19 patients to improve their ability to breathe in the hospital setting these would typically be administered using nebulizers the concern is that the use of nebulizers could aerosolize the virus placing those in the area at higher risk of contracting the disease consequently inhalers are the preferred method of delivery for these drugs with confirmed and potential covid-19 patients the inhaler devices require precise timing of inhalation for proper delivery to the lungs which is something moreno said even experienced users like himself can find challenging with the help of a diffuser patients are better able to get more of the medication into their lungs these spacers work like diffusers and allow the patient more time to draw the entire dose of medication into their lungs moreno said and when you're suffering from respiratory illness this may be very important
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dan metzen system director of pharmacy services at houston methodist said diffusers – such as the commercially available aerochamber - are currently in short supply due to the increased use of inhalers for both confirmed and suspected covid-19 patients leaving the hospital itself with a limited supply
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although metzen said nebulizers could also be used to administer the medication metered dose inhalers are preferred due to a concern that nebulizers used by patients with covid-19 in the hospital could spread the virus houston methodist has a partnership with the texas a&m college of medicine and college of engineering through the enmed program an integrated educational and research medical program with a focus on innovation dr roderic pettigrew executive dean of enmed said this rapid response by moreno and his team to develop a use-inspired solution in the 3d printed diffuser serves as a perfect example of the programs concept in action engineers are great at solving problems that benefit society and the health care delivery system right now is very much in need of help with problem solving as we struggle with this pandemic and all of its associated challenges pettigrew said enmed has risen to the occasion right here in houston to serve people in need were working with our colleagues at houston methodist hospital in order to devise practical solutions to real problems on the front lines of treating covid-19 patients although the concept being utilized for the diffusers is not new this is among the first times it has been locally 3d printed and delivered on this scale
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anticipating that this shortage is likely not unique to houston methodist moreno and his team are making the stereolithography (stl) file for the 3d-printable design publicly available at no cost on the enmed website people will be able to go to the site download those stl files and then print these spacers for their local hospitals as well if they find that they have need for it moreno said
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additionally the team has designed an alternate smaller 3d-printable device designed for areas that may be more resource limited this device is essentially an inhaler interface that allows one to use a common plastic water bottle as the diffuser chamber moreno said his team as well as several others throughout the texas a&m university system have worked tirelessly to make sure they would be able to deliver the diffusers to patients in need as soon as possible as an aggie biomedical engineer and mechanical engineer working in this biomedical space times like these are when we really want to rise to the challenge moreno said right now there are patients that are using these spacers or diffusers and were very hopeful about addressing future problems as well this is just what we do as aggie engineers
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as more than 20 000 students transition into an online learning environment the quality of the education students receive in the texas a&m university college of engineering continues to be of utmost importance engineering personnel have stepped up in many ways to make the transition as easy as possible the engineering studio for advance instruction & learning (esail) has been conducting seminars on using applications such as mediasite for lecture capture google classroom ecampus and zoom along with other applications like packback which encourages students to ask and answer open-ended questions each faculty member conducts their online teaching with their preferred methods dr sunay palsole assistant vice chancellor for engineering remote education said the initial goals were to introduce and train faculty on the various technologies available to them during this transition introduce them to best practices using evidence-based approaches (research and faculty panels) and guided pedagogy the process loosely follows three steps: create course content deliver course content and assess learning faculty seem to be adapting reasonably well overall palsole said the kinds of questions we are getting now also speak to their adopting the technology and thinking about how to creatively engage the students and assess learning shayla rivera director of engr[x] and professor of practice in the college of engineering teaches engr 482 engineering ethics she said everyone teaching the course brainstormed to decide the best teaching approach for the students each team recorded lectures using lecture capturing which they showed to students live via zoom allowing students to connect with faculty if they had questions or comments followed by a comprehensive discussion using packback so the result is that our students still attend class at the appointed time and have open discussions about what is presented rivera said so far i am exceedingly impressed with the attendance and the participation of our students
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palsole said for course creation some faculty choose to come in to the classroom they might have been using for lecture capture using mediasite these lectures are processed captioned and then delivered in ecampus or in some cases on-course sites they have built some faculty use zoom to deliver live lectures that are recorded closed captioned and shared with the students either on ecampus google docs or other modalities other faculty like rivera use the mediasite desktop recorder or zoom (or other tools such as camtasia) to create the lecture content and distribute it engineering was better positioned than most i think for the transition palsole said we have a great team in esail and engineering it has been fantastic in provisioning the technologies needed by the faculty to make the change and providing the necessary support any issues that come up is dealt with fairly quickly by the administrative teams in place and even in this rapid move to online i think we have done well overall junior industrial distribution student anjali dhanani said that while her professors have chosen various ways to teach their classes they have a common goal all my professors and my lab instructors are trying to help us any way they can as they are going the extra mile to be more accessible to us during this time and making sure we understand key concepts in the curriculum she said dhanani said that while learning online cant replace the hands-on approach she had in her regular classroom instruction she has seen advantages to online learning which has even seemed to bring the faculty closer to the students most of my professors have changed how they teach she said for example one of my professors would only just go through the content and answer the couple questions and end the lecture now he has become more conversational getting to know us asking about our dogs in the background or why our background looks like were in hawaii what has happened currently has impacted us all one way or another the professors have adapted in a way that i feel we have all gotten even closer to becoming an aggie family even though all classes are online rivera agrees that their perspectives have changed as teachers she said everyone has had to work together and support each other in order to succeed they had to reassess what needed to be in the curriculum going forward which made them take a deeper look at the material since they were not going to be face to face with students they also discussed how to be more engaging and become better lecturers personally i see this moment in time as a great ‘correction of sorts she said a time when we are all having to look into areas we had not considered before in our teaching we are adapting and looking for ways to help our students participate more and feel more included these are ideas we tend to leave behind when routine sets in sometimes so i see the wake-up call to be the best we can all be for our students and for ourselves this feeling of connection is one that exists throughout the college of engineering which has set up numerous online programs and other opportunities for students education along with a covid information site to provide the latest updates i think it is great that the college of engineering has created competitions/programs online now and made many of their in-person workshops into webinars this will definitely help students to continue applying the knowledge they are learning and help with professional development dhanani said i am one of the many students who had their internships pushed back or canceled because of covid-19 and because of this i know we are all trying to get back up and show companies we are an asset to them and the college is helping us do just that i could not be more grateful that as aggies we always have each others back
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dr jodie lutkenhaus axalta coating systems chair holder of the william and ruth neely faculty fellowship and professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university has been appointed to serve a three-year term on the board on chemical sciences and technology (bcst) of the national academies of sciences engineering and medicine the bcst acts as an advisory board bringing together the top minds in chemistry and chemical engineering to provide the us governments decision-makers with the highest quality scientific and technical advice the main aim of the bcst is to bring together information and experts to find solutions to scientific issues relating to chemistry and chemical engineering to ensure that the us remains on the cutting edge of the field this is just the latest in a long line of honors and recognitions for lutkenhaus including being named a chancellor edges fellow and a texas a&m presidential impact fellow 2019 and 2018 respectively in 2017 she was invited to participate in the world economic forum's young scientists program selected as kavli frontiers of science fellow and named an acs rising star
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scientists in the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university are developing new ways to advance the field of regenerative medicine and cancer treatment they are developing a 2d nanosheet that is 1 000 times smaller than a strand of hair dr akhilesh gaharwar associate professor has developed a new class of 2d nanosheets called molybdenum disulfide that can adsorb near infrared (nir) light and modify cell behavior these nanosheets are an emerging class of materials that have shown distinct physical and chemical properties due to their unique shape and size recently some nanosheets have been explored for biomedical applications due to their light-responsive ability despite strong potential gaharwars research is entering new territory as few studies have investigated their cellular compatibility and none have explored their ability to modulate cellular functions using light to explore the possibility of controlling the cell response via light gaharwars research group has synthesized an atomically thin nanosheet that can adsorb nir light and convert it into heat nir light can penetrate deep inside the tissue compared to other types of light including ultraviolet and visible light and can be used to stimulate natural biological repair mechanisms in deep tissue due to the high-surface area of nanosheets they can stick to the outer membrane of cells and transmit a cellular signal to the nucleus thereby controlling their behavior some of the nanosheets are also eaten by the cells and can influence cellular functions from inside light-responsive biomaterials have a strong potential for developing the next generation of noninvasive precise and controllable medical devices for a range of biomedical applications including drug delivery cancer therapy regenerative medicine and 3d printing gaharwar said
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his research was recently featured in the journal proceedings of the national academy of sciences in collaboration with dr irtisha singh assistant professor in the department of molecular and cellular medicine of the texas a&m health science center gaharwars team used a next-generation sequencing technique to decipher the effect of light and/or nanosheets on the gene regulation of cells picture a cell as a blank canvas and gene regulation as the paint that turns the canvas into something unique or interesting for stem cells that would mean determining what kind of cell they will be such as muscle bone etc slight agitations in gene expression either from light or these nanosheets can significantly affect the functions of these cells such as movement reproduction and expression global gene expression profiles of cells reveal that light stimulation of the nanosheet can have a significant influence on cellular migration and wound healing they demonstrated that cancer cells treated with a nanosheet and light are not able to move freely which is good news this is important as cancer spreads in the body by moving from one tissue to another the combination of the nanosheet and light may provide new approaches to control and regulate cellular migration and functions the team found that the nanosheets bind to a cell surface receptor known as an integrin a simple protein with a sugar attached these integrin proteins are important in normal cell functioning by providing information to cells about its surroundings if these proteins are covered by nanosheets they cannot tell the cells to move around effectively stopping the cells for an indefinite time gaharwars research is funded by the national institute of biomedical imaging and bioengineering of the national institutes of healths directors new innovator award
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a texas a&m university team of scientists and engineers is leading the development of a device that can be used to rapidly identify antibodies produced by human b cells that can neutralize infection by sars-cov-2 the causative agent of covid-19 as we all see from the unfolding covid-19 pandemic when a new viral threat emerges there are neither therapeutics nor vaccines available developing new therapeutics and vaccines is extremely difficult time-consuming and costly and possible mutation of viruses makes it extremely challenging the team led by dr paul de figueiredo associate professor in the college of medicine and dr arum han professor and presidential impact fellow in the department of electrical and computer engineering in collaboration with dr julian leibowitz a coronavirus expert and professor in the college of medicine; and dr mike criscitiello immunologist assistant dean for research and graduate studies and professor from the college of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences received a national science foundation rapid response research (rapid) grant to pursue this work the difficulty of developing therapeutics and vaccines against emerging viral threats can also be obviously seen from the fact that we still do not have therapeutics or vaccines against two previous major viral outbreaks namely sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2003 and mers (middle east respiratory syndrome) in 2012 where no fda-approved vaccine or therapeutic exist said han some of the most promising strategies to combat these types of viruses include the use of pathogen-specific neutralizing antibodies (nabs) these are molecules produced by human b cells that can bind to invading viruses and neutralize their capability for infection identifying nabs is a first step toward developing therapeutics and vaccines han explained that conventional approaches for identifying nabs are extremely time-consuming inefficient and costly due to the billions of potentially unique b cells in the human body that produce antibodies to find those that neutralize a specific viral infection such as sars-cov-2 a very large percentage of the billions of cells have to be tested one at a time to see whether the antibody they produce prevents infection this pursuit is essentially like finding a needle in a haystack and cannot be easily performed using current technology enter the microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device prescient (platform for the rapid evaluation of antibody success using integrated microfluidics enabled technology) this hunt for neutralizing antibodies takes place at the sub-microscopic level in reaction vessels that are more than a million times smaller than a cup of coffee (this device) utilizes droplet microfluidics technology where millions of such pico-liter-volume bioreactors each containing unique antibody-producing cells are generated and each of the cells in the pico-liter bioreactors are tested one at a time to assess whether they produce antibodies that can prevent infection han said this entire process can be conducted at very high speed up to hundreds of tests per second so far the team has successfully built a prototype device and tested its feasibility using the hepatitis virus a type of coronavirus and demonstrated that antibodies produced by a single cell could neutralize infection of the virus within the pico-liter-volume bioreaction chamber this work has now been accepted by the journal lab on a chip and will be published in an upcoming issue as the ongoing covid-19 crisis unfolds the team is currently working to repurpose the prescient microfluidic device to rapidly identify neutralizing antibodies against the current pandemic the team hopes that once neutralizing antibodies are discovered they can then be quickly utilized to develop therapeutics and vaccines to combat covid-19
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if youre familiar with iron mans arc reactor or the tesseract in marvel movies you may recognize the eerie blue light emitted by these fictional energy sources popular culture and science fiction have taught us that advanced nuclear gadgets tend to release an intense blue or green light while this certainly helps establish the other-worldly aesthetic that pervades science fiction you may be surprised to learn that some reactors actually do radiate a unique light blue color water-cooled power reactors are contained in a pressure vessel and are one of the most common types of reactors found around the world some water-cooled research reactors such as the triga (training research isotopes general atomics) reactor at the nuclear engineering and science center (nesc) are operated at atmospheric pressure and look like a big swimming pool bathed in blue light this glow is the result of cherenkov radiation which occurs when free electrons travel faster than the phase velocity of light in a medium such as water its the equivalent of a sonic boom except with light and not sound its also the focus of texas a&m university postdoctoral researcher jason hearnes work the blue light that you see is proportional to the radiation density hearne said by positioning a camera toward the core to examine how much blue light is present i can discover the power density in different parts of the reactor as well as the total power of the reactor
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because the amount of visible blue light in a given area corresponds with the amount of power scientists can measure not only the total power of a reactor but the power in various parts of the reactor as well this power profile determination can help quickly detect anomalies in a reactor such as flux tilts or the approximate size and location of a blockage in a coolant channel as an additional instrumentation system for a reactor this method of data analysis allows scientists to better increase optimization efforts and reduce the likelihood of reactor failure so far hearnes work has been computer-model based using whats known as the monte carlo n-particle (mcnp) transport code monte carlo simulations are used across a variety of fields to predict the multiple outcomes of a process when there are many unknown variables statistically we know how a particle will behave at any point in time hearne explained mcnp uses random numbers to simulate what one particle does and then another and then another then we have millions of particles and we can find an average and that helps us understand how the triga reactor would behave under certain circumstances hearne soon hopes to begin experimental implementation of his cherenkov project using the triga reactor at the nesc his research proves that reactor safety does not have to be compromised for power and that despite the stigma reactors are becoming more efficient effective and secure by the day
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with technology always evolving health care has to adapt as well using telehealth to reach patients who cannot easily travel to a physical clinic or hospital a senior capstone design team in the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university developed a new phone app to help diagnose neurological issues our application is sort of a first test to see how your vision is doing and see if that's manifesting as a symptom of a larger issue matthew armstrong said our assignment is to design something that can be deployed remotely it's our job to narrow down the problem statement enough to a tangible opponent
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the team worked with the university of texas southwestern medical center to design a low-contrast visual acuity test currently these tests take the letter test seen in any eye doctors office but adjust the shade of the letters instead of black the letters are at 25 percent grayscale contrast the standard for low contrast visual acuity testing grayscale letters are harder to distinguish against a white background for certain neurological deficits including multiple sclerosis this eye test can help doctors diagnose conditions there are no versions of this test for phones nor is there an app to test vision in this way outside of a clinic while that put the team on the cutting edge of this type of project it brought its own challenges as well the team had to configure the camera app on a phone to run their program effectively along with learning a coding system they had not used before in class despite the challenges the team celebrated milestones along the way and recognized the larger impact of their work joseph mcmahan said their goal of changing the landscape can be easily applied to their jobs after graduation
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i think in the long term this will help significantly improve our skills when we go into the workforce because we have a different mindset going in mcmahan said we can say ‘hey why don't we try approaching it this way which has never been done before it gives us that motivation and that insight as opposed to sitting down and going through the same old scenarios other team members including andrew purnadi and austen kaul agreed that the two-semester project prepared them well for life after graduation we come up with our own deadlines we have to come up with our own plan purnadi said having to plan out everything and to essentially take charge of the project is a really good experience since we're about to enter the workforce careers don't end in a semester kaul said you don't do your three months of it and then say ‘okay well i got my grade in this class and im done no your job is your job and you're going to stick to it until the design is actually finished
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dr nk anand executive associate dean in the texas a&m university college of engineering was awarded the american society of mechanical engineers (asme) james harry potter gold medal the formal presentation of the award will take place during the asme 2020 power conference in august anand who is also associate director of the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) a regents professor and the james m and ada sutton forsyth professor in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering received the award for outstanding contributions as a teacher of thermodynamics and related topics and as a researcher who has advanced the state-of-the-art design of alternate refrigerant condensers cooling strategies for electronic packages and aerosol transport lines i am honored and humbled by this recognition i thank my family teachers mentors and colleagues for their continued support and inspiration anand said anand's research focuses on the development and application of computational techniques to study turbulent flows and particle transport in nuclear power applications his research has been recognized through several honors and awards most recently having received a university level faculty distinguished achievement award for administration from the association of former students at texas a&m other honors include being inducted into the kansas state university engineering hall of fame receiving an outstanding graduate teaching award and being named a distinguished alumni and tees fellow anand was also named a fellow of asme which has 120 000 members and is the oldest professional engineering society in the world he has served as an associate technical editor of the associations journal of heat transfer and currently serves as a member of the editorial board of numerical heat transfer the james harry potter gold medal was established in 1980 in honor of james h potter it recognizes eminent achievement or distinguished service in the science of thermodynamics and its application in mechanical engineering
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the family and friends of alan v thompson have established the alan v thompson 70 endowed memorial scholarship this endowment will be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university alan thompson graduated from texas a&m with a degree in agricultural engineering in 1970 he and his high school sweetheart mary were married after his freshman year and spent 52 years together before his passing the couple had three children together matthew amy and michael both matthew and amy followed in their fathers footsteps and graduated from texas a&m in 1994 and 1998 respectively during the course of their marriage alans job as a civil engineer moved them from state to state eventually landing them back in texas texas a&m left a mark on his career and our lives as the aggie network is wide and the love of the school reaches many mary said mary explains how education was top priority to alan he always thought learning something new every day was the most important thing to do in ones life he never passed up an opportunity to learn something new in fact he often went and took classes to continue learning education and civil engineering were both extremely important to alan through his work and volunteer efforts we wanted to establish a way to pay his legacy forward for young engineers who want to gain a quality education and need a little help along the way said mary after moving to boerne texas in 2015 alan taught water resources engineering to seniors at the university of texas at san antonio for four summers water and wastewater engineering were his passions and he always took the time to mentor and assist his fellow engineers and those new to the field mary said his desire was to make others better and give the best of himself our hope is for his legacy to carry on through this endowed scholarship alans brother doyle previously worked for the texas a&m foundation before he retired mary explained how it was doyle who suggested that they honor alans memory by creating a scholarship with texas a&m engineering we would like to further the education of young aspiring civil and environmental engineering students at texas a&m mary said this gift will serve to expand opportunities not only for these young professionals while at a&m but also as they enter the professional ranks through the wide-reaching contacts they will make through the aggie network and ultimately through paying it forward in the future themselves
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the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering and its departments or would like more information on how you can give please contact true brown director of development
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several petroleum engineering students from texas a&m university placed high in the society of petroleum engineers (spe) gulf coast regional student paper contest hussain albahrani won first place in the phd division and will represent texas a&m in the spe international student paper contest later this year ahmed elkady took second place in the regional master's division gabrielle joubran and steven winn took second and third place respectively in the undergraduate division
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the spe gulf coast contest regional competition held in april was virtual due to travel restrictions and pandemic fears in contrast the local harold vance department of petroleum engineering student paper contest in january was live and very well received by both industry judges and faculty hundreds of students had the opportunity to gather on campus give their technical presentations before judges and peers receive questions and feedback on their research and have the chance to listen and interact on a large scale regional paper competitions are usually far smaller only featuring top students who take first and second place in local undergraduate master's or phd divisions yet there is still a chance to receive feedback and hear other student presentations going to an online format meant regional organizers had to narrow contestant experiences down to a minimum albahrani elkady and joubran took the time to share their thoughts on competing virtually and the student paper contest in general by answering a few questions q: what was it like to compete remotely as compared to the live competition held on campus joubran: we only logged in during our specific time and we were not allowed to listen in on other people whereas on campus we listened to others elkady: i definitely prefer the in-person contest like the one we had in the department but obviously a remote contest was the preferred choice due to the pandemic albahrani: i felt less stress and nervousness than with the in-person presentations in the local competition spe did a great job in planning as i was able to communicate my research both audibly and visually without a glitch the discussion with the judges was also smooth i was able to interact with them clearly elkady: i suffered from some technical difficulties the judges couldnt hear three minutes from my presentation recording although i prepared it beforehand and it didnt have any problems albahrani: spe informed us that the quality of the presentations was not a part of the evaluation process which i believed balanced things q: did you get more feedback from the judges or less elkady: i received questions about my work but unlike the in-person contest i didn't get feedback or recommendations joubran: the questions i got from the judges weren't as technical as the questions i got when i presented on campus albahrani: i have to say that the questions i received during our school local competition prepared me very well for the discussion with the judges in the regional competition as they were very similar and focused on the same points q: will this experience help you in your future albahrani: participating in the competition has definitely been a rewarding experience not only was i provided with an opportunity to present and validate the new ideas of my research to different panels of industry experts but i was also able to test my performance under pressure joubran: i feel like the contest is a valuable tool because it allows you to practice public speaking and present over a technical topic i had a lot of practice while at texas a&m these experiences have helped me become more confident when i am speaking in front of others and help me better express my ideas in a work setting elkady: i gained a lot of experience and self-confidence from participating and being asked my research details i was directed to some adjustments and additions that will hopefully improve and strengthen my work q: what are your hopes for your career joubran: i am going to graduate in december 2020 and i hope to secure a full-time job by then albahrani: i also will be graduating in december 2020 since i'm a sponsored student the validation i received from my participation in the competition gives me more support to present my research to the management of my sponsoring company saudi aramco as for my career i anticipate working in research and development for the foreseeable future elkady: i hope to graduate this summer i plan to continue doing graduate studies by joining the phd program in petroleum engineering and to eventually achieve my dream of being a successful researcher and professor
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sharli nucker has been honored as one of the 2020 presidents meritorious service award recipients for texas a&m university nucker serves as administrator in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering where she acts as chief of staff recipients of the prestigious award have demonstrated their commitment to the aggie core values of excellence integrity leadership loyalty respect and selfless service i am very happy to have recruited sharli in the department more than five years ago said dr andreas polycarpou mechanical engineering department head her contributions to the department have been substantial and i am very thankful for all her hard work to make our department better nucker and the other honorees will be recognized at a ceremony on august 10 at 10 am in the memorial student center bethancourt ballroom all university employees are welcome to attend the ceremony along with a reception following
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two doctoral students in the department of materials science and engineering at texas a&m university won prestigious graduate fellowships this spring rebeca gurrola received a national science foundation graduate research fellowship while ciera cipriani won a nasa space technology graduate research fellowship gurrola will work with materials science and engineering assistant professor dr patrick shamberger on developing energy-efficient electronic circuits that emulate neurons in the brain i am especially drawn to energy materials research as it has repercussions in all fields and to all in society regardless of their social standing said gurrola cipriani who wanted to be an astronaut as a child will work under the supervision of materials science and engineering assistant professor dr emily pentzer on 3d printing low-mass materials to lighten the load on spacecrafts i am grateful for the opportunity to merge my passions for materials science 3d printing and space said cipriani
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the french society of nuclear energy was founded to support the french nuclear industry and research programs as part of their effort to support and recognize nuclear scientists the society awards the jean burgois prizes every year to the best phds in fields related to nuclear energy visiting assistant professor dr mauricio e tano was the recipient of one of these awards in 2019 this highly competitive prize distinguished tano as an outstanding researcher during his doctoral studies tanos phd dissertation explored the design of molten salt reactors (msrs) a gen-iv type of nuclear reactor unlike other reactors msrs use a liquid nuclear fuel consisting of a molten salt while this allows for innovative use it also complicates the reactors design which must now be thought of in terms of other fields such as thermal hydraulics and chemical species transport tano developed and experimentally validated a new series of coupled models that allowed for more efficient design and study of msrs his scientific developments will help nuclear engineers better understand the coupled multiphysics phenomena in msrs thus leading to the significant improvements in design and safety standards
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the united states army research laboratory is lending support to a texas a&m university research project investigating potential improvement of ballistic performance of armor materials the project led by dr justin wilkerson assistant professor and james j cain 51 faculty fellow ii in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering focuses on identifying what damaging effects could be caused by particular flaws known as vacancies in the atomic structure of aluminum wilkersons research paper on the topic evolving structure-property relationships in metals with nonequilibrium concentrations of vacancies was recently featured on the cover of the journal of applied physics the paper was co-authored with wilkersons former postdoctoral advisee dr sara adibi although similar research has been conducted by dr celia reina and coworkers from the california institute of technology wilkersons study delves deeper into the subject by calculating the effect of changes due to vacancies over time on the materials mechanical properties mechanical behavior of these materials could not be understood via the lattice kinetic monte carlo simulations alone which was what had been done prior to this said wilkerson to take the next step forward we made use of supercomputing facilities to conduct a suite of large-scale molecular dynamics simulations atoms are arranged in a highly ordered pattern referred to as a crystal lattice and if an atom is missing from a perfect lattice structure this defect is called a vacancy at high temperatures the vacancies can come together forming vacancy clusters wilkerson said a large concentration of vacancies in a material may be generated under shock loading which could impact ballistic performance metrics including spall strength the effect of vacancies on the mechanical behavior of materials on short timescales such as microseconds has remained largely unexplored said wilkerson even on such short timescales we find that vacancies may also play a significant role in the high-temperature failure of metals subject to very high tensile pressures a prospective idea from the findings is that it may be possible to use this knowledge to improve the ballistic performance of next-generation armors for the us army now that we better understand the importance of this mechanism to ballistic performance the next step is to develop material processing strategies that slow vacancy production rates in shocked materials said wilkerson visit the journal of applied physics to read the full research article
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american nuclear society (ans) executive director and ceo craig piercy visited texas a&m university recently to hear from texas a&m ans chapter students in the department of nuclear engineering new to his position as ceo piercy wanted to hear from students about how the organization could improve and better support the individual chapters he sat down with ans student president ihsan yuksel to discuss how work done at the corporate level affects constituents yuksel: thank you for coming here to meet with us its a pleasure to have you here i know that youre visiting many ans chapters at universities across the united states why did you choose texas a&m as your first stop piercy: texas a&m nuclear engineering is the largest nuclear engineering department in the nation i have a fascination with the state of texas because theres a certain economic and demographic vibrancy that you dont find many other places in the country texas a&m students in particular have a level of excitement and enthusiasm that you dont find elsewhere since i became ceo ans has been reorganizing how we do things our goal is to create an organization that is more supportive of the next generation of scientists and i think that begins with texas a&m
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yuksel: what are some of your other goals for ans what do you hope to change piercy: one of our priorities is to focus on improving external communication surrounding nuclear exposure specifically low-dose radiation and its impacts at their core many nuclear issues are driven by a fear of radiation we want to provide factual information to the public to increase the literacy on nuclear energy when we see stories in the media that are factually incorrect we want to do a better job of confronting those stories and changing that narrative to inform the public about the benefits of nuclear energy but thats not an easy task to undertake yuksel: right its quite challenging how do you suggest we do that where do we even begin piercy: it really begins with the individual members of the society as some point in our lives each of us will be called on as experts to share our knowledge about nuclear science everyone should be prepared to openly discuss with their community about low-dose radiation and why people shouldnt worry as much as they do
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