houck2040/tees huggingface dataset:
this program will educate future physicians on how to effectively use their engineering skills to translate medical research into promising solutions for patients in a timely fashion said dr tim boone co-director of the institute for academic medicine at houston methodist and associate dean of the houston campus for texas a&m health science center several students with engineering backgrounds are piloting the new curriculum in preparation for the inaugural class set to begin in 2019 technology integration is the future of medicine and we anticipate that our graduates will be on the forefront of new developments in the field of medicine and engineering said dr m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of texas a&m engineering our students will be immersed in one of the greatest medical centers in the world and encouraged to revolutionize health care technology as it is known today enmed will initially hire 25 faculty members and utilize instructional and research space in the texas medical center including space in houston methodist hospital the texas a&m health science centers institute of biosciences and technology and the adjacent 1020 holcombe building in the texas medical center that will be renovated to serve as the education and training campus for enmed and enhealth students the program will be reviewed for ongoing accreditation during the next lcme meeting in february 2020 applications for the specialized program are expected to open this spring
in the latest us news & world report survey americas best graduate schools 2019 the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineerings ranking rose by six places the survey ranked the department as the 21st best graduate chemical engineering program in the country overall and the 12th best among public institutions according to dr m nazmul karim head of the department and holder of the t michael oconnor chair ii the rise in rankings reflects a long-term vision and a commitment to excellence we have dedicated ourselves to recruiting and retaining the highest quality faculty members providing all of our students with a world-class education and maintaining state-of-the-art facilities said karim this jump in rankings is a testament to our success in each of these areas since 2015 the department has risen 10 places in the us news & world report best graduate chemical engineering programs
eighteen outstanding faculty members from the texas a&m university college of engineering received one of the highest honors in academia at the investiture ceremony held tuesday march 27 the faculty members who were awarded the designation of a chair or professorship were invested during the ceremony and presented with bronze medallions the medallions are engraved with the name of their chair or professorship and symbolize the honorees commitment to teaching research and service the 2018 recipients include: mark a barteau halliburton chair in engineeringchemical engineering gerard l cotéjames j cain professor i in biomedical engineeringbiomedical engineering yossef elabdjoe m nesbitt professor in chemical engineeringchemical engineering melissa a grunlancharles h and bettye barclay professor in engineeringbiomedical engineering m cynthia hipwelltees distinguished research professormechanical engineering james e hubbardtees distinguished research professormechanical engineering moo-hyun kimtees research professorocean engineering mark a lawleysugar and mike barnes department head chair in industrial and systems engineering w john leekelly l ‘87 and william d ‘87 von gonten jr dvg chair in petroleum engineeringpetroleum engineering hong helen liangoscar s wyatt jr professormechanical engineering m sam mannantees distinguished research professorchemical engineering daniel a mcadamsrobert h fletcher professor in mechanical engineeringmechanical engineering michael mcshanejames j cain professor ii in biomedical engineeringbiomedical engineering george j moridisgeorge and joan voneiff professor in unconventional resourcespetroleum engineering nobuo moritamichael and heidi gatens professor in unconventional resourcespetroleum engineering anastasia h mulianag paul pepper 54 professor in mechanical engineeringmechanical engineering marc perlinwh bauer professor in dredging engineeringocean engineering j alex thomassonendowed chair in cotton engineering ginning and mechanizationbiological and agricultural engineering
the american institute for medical and biological engineering (aimbe) has announced the induction of dr duncan maitland holder of the stewart and stevenson professorship i and associate department head and dr melissa a grunlan holder of the charles h and bettye barclay professor in engineering both in the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university to its college of fellows they were nominated reviewed and elected by peers and members of the college of fellows for outstanding contributions their fields election to the aimbe college of fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer the college of fellows is comprised of the top two percent of medical and biological engineers college membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering and medicine research practice or education and to "the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education" a formal induction ceremony was held during the aimbe annual meeting at the national academy of sciences in washington dc on april 9 maitland and grunlan were inducted along with 156 colleagues who make up the aimbe college of fellows class of 2018
whitney souery a student in the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university has been accepted into harvards neonatology summer student research program at boston childrens hospital and beth israel deaconess medical center students are selected by the directors of the program based on an assessment of each applicants application the objective of the summer student research program is to provide motivated students with an intensive laboratory and clinical research experience under the guidance of faculty and fellow mentors from their academic program souery is also actively involved in the engineering department and several campus-wide organizations including texas runners against cancer the university disciplinary appeals panel the society of women engineers and serves as a leader in the engineering honors executive committee souery has been working in dr corey bishops pharmacoengineering laboratory since the fall of 2016 and is currently endeavoring to automate an injection system for microbubbles used for drug delivery applications
joshua harris a december 2017 graduate from the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university has been recognized with two prestigious research awards harris is the 2018 us department of transportation/federal aviation administration research student of the year master of science level this award was created to recognize outstanding students from the university transportation centers for their achievements and accomplishments in the transportation field during the year awardees are selected based upon technical merit and research capability academic performance and leadership harris was recognized for significant contributions and leadership on two projects funded by the federal aviation administration: weather technology in the cockpit (wtic): general aviation weather alerting and characterization of derived angle-of-attack and flight path angle algorithms for general aviation platforms both projects seek to improve general aviation flight safety by utilizing advanced technologies that assist pilots in critical decision making and improve their piloting skills harris received the award at the annual transportation review board meeting and council of university transportation centers banquet in washington dc on january 6 harris is also recipient of the 2018 association of former students distinguished graduate student award for excellence in research – masters he defended his masters thesis titled nonlinear adaptive inversion control for variable stability small unmanned aircraft systems in october 2017 and he is being recognized for his outstanding academic record and contributions in aerospace engineering by a distinguished committee of reviewers recipients will be honored at a ceremony at the clayton williams jr alumni center on april 23 harris was a graduate research assistant in the vehicle systems & control laboratory working with his advisor dr john valasek for six years he earned his bachelors degree in aerospace engineering summa cum laude in 2014 and his masters degree in aerospace engineering in 2017 both from texas a&m he is a recipient of the national defense science engineering graduate fellowship the nasa aeronautics scholarship the federal aviation administrations pegasas center of excellence outstanding student researcher award the texas a&m college of engineering outstanding engineering master of science graduate student award and the sigma gamma tau outstanding texas a&m university aerospace engineering senior for 2014 harris is currently a member of the american institute of aeronautics and astronautics intelligent systems technical committee and is a software engineer with lockheed martin aeronautics in fort worth texas
after finals the first thing many students think about is a relaxing break at the end of a long semester however 30 aggie engineering students took that time as an opportunity to give back through a 15-day volunteer internship with the federal emergency management agency (fema) among those students was civil engineering junior anh duong who participated in the internship by assessing damages to public infrastructure sites impacted by hurricane harvey
when we went to a site in houston affected by hurricane harvey i was able to shadow a site investigator at a community park that had been under about five feet of water during the flooding duong said it was a very unique experience before going out on a 10-day field exercise as a part of the internship duong and the other engineering students attended a 40-hour certification course put on by fema at texas a&m universitys main campus they learned site inspection practices and culminated in a two-day exercise at the texas a&m engineering extension services disaster city® training facility in college station during the last two days they would run us through scenarios where we would look at damaged sites take pictures and record everything duong said we had a week of training before we went to houston and i felt like the actual practice was much more beneficial to our learning experience rather than just sitting in a classroom duong was paired with another student and they were assigned to a site inspector who guided them in assessing damages within the park he was also able to interact with other fema engineers and drew some connections to his civil engineering education getting to see different people come in during the process was cool duong said we were able to see mitigation practices applied at the site and learn how they might reduce the damage with future structures they build there i learned a lot; it was a really good experience according to duong the experience ultimately framed his career in a new perspective and made him think about various career paths now that i have this experience i know that it is always something i can pursue he said i know that if i ever wanted to do something technical with fema i could do the mitigation work and working this internship has allowed me to see opportunities in areas i wouldnt have been aware of duong was also able to make connections during the internship both with fellow aggies and industry professionals such as the site inspector he was teamed with providing the students with this fema public assistance program is the result of a unique partnership created as a part of the governors commission to rebuild texas (gcrt) which texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp is the gcrt commissioner by appointment from governor abbott for students like duong the experience has proved valuable and a true example of the texas a&m selfless service core value im glad i had the opportunity to do this because i got so much out of it during the short time i spent duong said i had never planned on making these connections but it taught me that you never know what an opportunity will bring
dr m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of engineering has appointed dr michael j mcshane head of the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university the appointment will be effective june 1 mcshane joined the biomedical engineering department as an associate professor in 2006 and is currently the james j cain professor ii he served as the director of graduate programs for the department from 2015-17 and has served as interim department head since september 2017 biomedical engineering is a dynamic field that is rapidly growing in importance texas a&m is already making a strong impact with our translationally focused faculty and students now the opportunities created by the paths-up national science foundation engineering research center will allow us to expand our influence into underserved populations mcshane said it is an honor to be selected by my colleagues and the administration to serve in this role my intention is to work with faculty student staff alumni and our clinical and industry partners to prioritize research and educational initiatives wherein texas a&m can truly lead and set the standard for medical device innovation in an academic setting in addition to biomedical engineering mcshane has an appointment in the department of materials science and engineering and is affiliated with the center for remote health technologies and systems prior to joining texas a&m he served as the doctoral program chair in biomedical engineering and interim director for the center for biomedical engineering and rehabilitation science at louisiana tech university mcshanes research program spans the nano­ to-macro in merging responsive materials and optical instrumentation to create biochemical monitoring tools for use in the body inside cells and in cell culture environments he has secured more than $20 million in federal funding from the national institutes of health national science foundation army research office state sources private companies and foundations and has received honors for excellence in research teaching and service he is a fellow of the american institute for medical and biological engineering senior member of the institute of electrical and electronics engineers and member of the biomedical engineering society american chemical society and spie the international society for optics and photonics mcshane received his doctoral degree in biomedical engineering from texas a&m in 1999
sophia esteban encourages her peers and prospective college students to find something to be passionate about and stick to it esteban a sophomore in the department of ocean engineering at texas a&m university has pursued her own advice and followed a passion to eventually work for the ocean view maps department at google inc
i want people all around the world to be able to explore our ocean with a simple click of their mouse esteban said in order to do that i want to develop technologies that will map our oceans identify species and collect data to help us get a sense of the vastly unknown
contrary to most prospective ocean engineers esteban always feared the ocean when she was growing up dr sharath girimaji ocean engineering department head caught her attention when he spoke of the student organizations in the department and the things students were working on the aggie ocean discovery xprize teams mission spoke directly to her passion i was drawn to ocean engineering when i heard dr girimaji talk about the xprize team and the amazing things they were doing esteban said i knew that ocean was the major for me these people were living out my dream to map the bottom of the ocean and i just had to be a part of it the aggie ocean discovery team is vying for the $7 million prize in the shell ocean discovery xprize competition challenging competitors to develop a means to map the ocean floor by overcoming the initial challenges of the extreme environment cost and technology thirty-two original teams of industry professionals and higher education research teams answered the call to attempt the challenge nine final teams currently remain for the last round of the competition that will be held in december 2018 before xprize i was on the texas a&m women in engineering vex robotics team and that was a great experience with an amazing cause to advance women in the field of engineering esteban said i am also a member of the texas a&m womens ultimate frisbee team and it has taught me so much about teamwork leadership and hard work by joining the xprize team esteban only expected to gain experience through the three-year journey of the competition she quickly learned she would gain so much more i went into this project knowing absolutely no one and nothing but now i have people that are like moms and dads to me at deep down inc and my teammates are my annoying brothers who are always there for me esteban said her greatest accomplishment thus far into her collegiate career is joining the team and advancing to the final round of the xprize competition it has been so rewarding learning from industry professionals meeting ceos of major companies and learning what it is really like in the world beyond college esteban said while she may have decided to join the team all on her own esteban credits an entire support system for where and who she is today i have to thank my parents for raising me to be a strong intelligent young woman and for supporting me in all my endeavors esteban said i also have to credit dylan blakeslee for giving me a chance to grow myself as an engineer and show the world what i am made of lastly i have to thank ron smith and mary budrunas for really making the impossible task of undergraduates competing against industry professionals possible esteban encourages students to utilize all resources at their fingertips to explore various career fields and get involved as soon as possible had i known i would be in this position sometimes working until two oclock in the morning designing things or modeling structures i would have taken those classes in high school esteban said really take advantage of the time you have now to put into learning and exploring and i promise it will pay off ten-fold in the long run
rice is a primary dietary component for half of the worlds population and is grown on every continent on earth in light of the important part rice plays in the human diet this international crop also has a history of causing health issues from heightened levels of arsenic consumption researchers at the texas a&m university college of engineering are conducting research on how to reduce arsenic uptake in rice plants during their cultivation with the goal of decreasing the number of health issues caused across the globe from this important staple crop leading this effort is dr xingmao samuel ma an associate professor in the zachry department of civil engineering ma explains that the process of cultivating rice makes it much more open to absorbing arsenic however the amount of arsenic absorbed can depend on where the rice is grown in the chemicals present in the soil and a variety of other factors that occur on a nanomolecular scale our goal is to understand the uptake process ma said when you water plants the water contains some of the arsenic and other chemical compounds so we want to know how these compounds the soil and (other) factors affect the level of the arsenic uptake in the plant one chemical compound used in mas research zinc oxide nanoparticles has been shown to inhibit the uptake of arsenic in certain varieties of rice while also acting as a fertilizer treating rice paddies with this chemical could potentially limit arsenic uptake while still producing a high yield crop rice has very special chemical transporters that allow the easy transport of arsenic into the rice crop ma said but how easily that rice takes up the arsenic depends on the speciation of the arsenic which is another factor that we are considering arsenic speciation refers to the different species of the arsenic and what forms they can take which can affect how the chemicals are absorbed into rice roots and then transported to the shoots and grains going forward ma and his research team are reaching out to the us department of agriculture with the intent of expanding their work beyond the smaller hydroponic studies which involves growing rice without soil into studies within soil systems to better understand how zinc and other elements can affect arsenic uptake were planning to grow them in soil in the future ma said within the soil system there are microorganisms which will also impact the speciation of the arsenic we will see how it is changed when you expose the arsenic to these nanoparticles while mas research will require further exploration the concept that this work could impact the health of millions of people for the better has remained a positive motivation over the course of the project which is in its second year we as a species eat a lot of rice which means we have a lot of people that suffer from arsenic contamination ma said i think that highlights the importance of this study and we think that if we can limit the arsenic uptake by 50 percent the levels of exposure to people would be so much less harmful
on may 8 texas a&m universitys department of residence life and utility & energy services announced the winners of the 2nd annual u-challenge the team that took first place at the graduate level included five doctoral students from dr mm faruque hasans research group in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering – ishan bajaj (team leader) shachit shankaran iyer salih emre demirel akhil arora and spyridon tsolas – and one masters student from the subsea engineering program – mohammad alvi the team was assigned davis-gary hall the u-challenge tasked each of the eight teams – four undergraduate and four graduate – to come up with ways to increase the efficiency of an assigned residence hall the teams were given access to utility and energy consumption data for their assigned hall and then presented infrastructure and student engagement recommendations improvements to decrease consumption when examining the data the team was able to determine that chilled water heating hot water and electricity have the largest impact on the buildings utility costs through their research the team was able to come up with novel approaches to cut the costs associated with each of these areas for the chilled water and heating hot water the team recommended utilizing desiccant-based dehumidification as well as replacing the pneumatic water valves with direct digital control valves to solve the high electricity costs the team made the largest and most novel solution: the implementation of a biogas digester to provide energy across campus essentially food waste goes into the biogas digester where it is then fermented the process results in biogas – which can be used in the same was as other natural gas sources – and compost – which is a high-quality fertilizer in addition to the infrastructure recommendations the team also made student engagement recommendations such as a sustainability orientation monthly utilities flyers and student competitions to promote active engagement for their efforts the student teams who made it to the final round will have the have the chance to see their recommendations implemented at texas a&m in the future residence life representatives are excited to work on implementing student suggestions in their efforts to make sustainability an aggie tradition
according to the national petroleum council 95 percent of oil and gas wells drilled in the us today are hydraulically fractured this is because the reservoirs containing much-needed hydrocarbons that attract the attention of current us production efforts are unconventional meaning they are formed of tightly-compacted layers of shale rock fracturing the shale does provide better channels for flow but hydrocarbons in these reservoirs are often confined in spaces of 100 nanometers or less by comparison a strand of human hair is between 80 000 and 100 000 nanometers in diameter in these small pores hydrocarbon reaction to changes in pressure and temperature is unexpected often changing phase from liquid to gas in conditions not seen in conventional reservoirs made of porous rock where hydrocarbons move freely this has a direct impact on both reservoir flow and the amount of gas and oil produced at the surface dr hadi nasrabadi assistant professor in the harold vance department of petroleum engineering is working in collaboration with professors in the chemical and mechanical engineering departments at texas a&m university to better explain and predict hydrocarbon phase behavior in the nanometric spaces of unconventional reservoirs we are focused on pores 100 nanometers and below said nasrabadi these pores form a significant portion of the pore volume of unconventional reservoirs in these pores the phase behavior is different from what we know in conventional reservoirs
nasrabadi a douglas von gonten faculty fellow has studied phase behavior of hydrocarbons in conventional reservoirs for years and feels the answer to the phase behavior issues is actual experimental data he is currently gathering this data from controlled laboratory experiments that use physical testing techniques not usually associated with normal oil and gas research one of the gaps i saw in phase behavior research in unconventional reservoirs was experimental work said nasrabadi there have been several (computer) modeling efforts but there are not as many experimental efforts especially on the phase behavior in shale nasrabadi is working with dr jodie lutkenhaus an associate professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering on a technique called differential scanning calorimetry in this technique the sample temperature is programmed to steadily increase and the temperature at vaporization and the heat change during the vaporization event is measured (lutkenhaus) is an expert in this technique and she was using it for understanding the behavior of polymers in nanoscale confinement said nasrabadi i had a meeting with her and we thought this technique could be used on hydrocarbons
their experiments the first recorded use of differential scanning calorimetry on hydrocarbons in nanoscale confinement are a means of accurately predicting the bubble point of hydrocarbon samples based on heat signatures the research is funded by the texas a&m engineering experiment stations crisman institute for petroleum research and several papers have been published documenting their work nasrabadi is also collaborating with dr debjyoti banerjee from the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m in the use of nanofluidic devices these devices are microscopic chips with intricate nanoscopic grooves etched in a glass base normally slated for biomedical and pharmaceutical research nasrabadi uses these chips as a housing for different hydrocarbons which he and his students subject to temperature variations to see under a microscope exactly what temperature is required to change the liquid particles to a gas state these experiments again funded by the crisman institute are also part of cutting-edge research in phase behavior studies nasrabadi believes the data from both types of experiments will lead to a better understanding of the phase behavior changes and eventually to the development of models to better predict oil and gas production from unconventional reservoirs conventional models cannot answer the questions that we have for unconventional production said nasrabadi there are several pieces in this puzzle but one of them is phase behavior and nanopores may not answer all the questions but our experiments and models show they cannot be ignored
it may one day be possible to power electronics using your body heat based on research conducted by a team that included texas a&m university professor dr jaime grunlan waste heat generated by engines air conditioners human beings etc is abundant and can be converted to voltage that could power portable/wearable electronic devices and critical equipment in remote off-grid locations our hope is to one day have a shirt that will recharge someones cell phone while they are out jogging because of the excess heat they are generating grunlan said researchers are seeking new ways to harvest waste heat and put it back to work as consumable voltage while the research is currently focused on waste heat from critical energy sectors such as the transportation and electricity-generation sectors and manufacturing processes the team reported that improved energy generation efficiency in materials will naturally lead to widespread use in clothing capable of powering various devices from body heat
a team consisting of grunlan the linda & ralph schmidt 68 professor in the department of mechanical engineering along with dr jeffrey blackburn and dr andrew ferguson scientists from the national renewable energy laboratory and grunlans postdoctoral student dr chungyeon cho recently published a review of carbon nanotube-based thermoelectric materials that are capable of converting wasted heat into useful voltage this publication was featured on the cover of the march 15 issue of advanced materials (carbon-nanotube-based thermoelectric materials and devices vol 30 art no 1704386) one of the highest impact journals in the field of materials science carbon nanotubes (cnts) represent a unique form of carbon with structural electrical and thermal properties that enable efficient thermoelectric-energy conversion the researchers reviewed the progress that has been made to understand the properties of single-walled cnts and the role they could play in thermoelectric devices the thermoelectric work in grunlans lab has been sponsored by the air force a private foundation and a battery company his group has recently spoken to some major sporting goods companies along with a professional rugby team in australia about investing in the development of this important technology in the sports world there is a desire for players to wear jerseys that contain soft sensors that will transmit health information to the sidelines if the jersey fabric were thermoelectric the players own body heat would serve as the power source for those sensors grunlan said the researchers also ran models to demonstrate the harvesting potential of cnts with encouraging results finding that the carbon-based material could act as a thermoelectric material with the same level performance as semiconductor systems while remaining lightweight and flexible grunlans research focuses on thermal and transport properties of nanocomposite materials especially in the areas of thermoelectric energy generation gas barrier and fire prevention he also holds joint appointments in the department of chemistry and the department of materials science and engineering at texas a&m
during the second annual "aggies celebrate teaching! – recognizing transformational learning" reception three faculty members from the texas a&m university college of engineering were honored by the center for teaching excellence at texas a&m this years award reception was part of the inaugural texas a&m university transformational teaching and learning conference dr yucel akkutlu associate professor in the department of petroleum engineering was nominated by mohamed eid a senior in the department dr tracy hammond professor in the department of computer science and engineering was nominated by vijay rajanna a graduate student in the department; and dr timothy jacobs professor in the department of mechanical engineering and director of interdisciplinary engineering for undergraduate and graduate programs was nominated by clayton mulvihill a graduate student in engineering students across all disciplines wrote essays giving evidence of and reflecting upon the instructors impact on their learning and lives this annual teaching award celebration provides a unique view of teaching excellence students share their personal experiences of the relationship between teacher and learner growth and change difficulties and triumph – experiences that shifted their thinking and perspectives in a personal way the college of engineering instructors were among six honored by students as inspirational and transformational mentors each faculty-student pair shared unique stories related to their personal experiences making it clear that there are many ways to teach as well as many individuals at texas a&m that promote transformational learning and foster student growth and development
a texas a&m university-led consortium has received support from a local innovative telemonitoring device and service company to support diabetes and heart disease research the texas a&m precise advanced technologies and health systems for underserved populations (paths-up) has been working since september 2017 to study remote wearable technology to help people monitor and manage diabetes and heart disease in underserved communities the paths-up project received funds from a national science foundation (nsf) engineering research center (erc) grant
recently members of the consortium including dr mark lawley head of the department of industrial and systems engineering and deputy director of the center for remote health technologies and systems visited with coordination centric a telemonitoring device and service company with offices in bryan and mcallen the parties involved sought to collaborate to better enable advanced technologies to improve the health of those in underserved communities the telemonitoring services provided by coordination centric assist health care providers in preventing delaying the onset and managing diabetes and cardiovascular disease by using advanced technologies and medical devices "texas a&m and coordination centric have similar goals " said ives soto director of provider relations at coordination centric "we believe that we can help improve healthcare in our communities through the use of advanced technologies and ultimately reduce healthcare costs" lawley said there are four phases to the research starting with developing biometric sensors to measure readings such as blood glucose and those seen as symptoms of cardiovascular disease and then developing an optical reader that can activate the sensor well be designing a sensor thats going to be about the size of grain of rice that will be inserted underneath the patients skin lawley said it has no power in it no battery or anything like that researchers aim to make the wearable readers light and sleek so they can better integrate into a persons lifestyle the last research thrust is to develop a way to look at the data from the sensor through different techniques such as artificial intelligence machine learning and statistical learning one thing were quite interested in is studying the way physicians use the information coming from this technology how it affects their workflow and helping them integrate that better into their daily activities so that they improve not only the quality of their patients lives but also the quality of their own lives lawley said this is where telemonitoring with coordination centric can play a role as it involves a physician remotely monitoring patients who suffer from these diseases patients can be taught to take daily vital signs that are then automatically and securely sent to their physician which helps the physician take proactive measures when necessary "we believe this relationship will be meaningful in developing transformational healthcare technologies and most definitely propel our efforts in solving high risk healthcare problems lawley said the outcome is the relationship and a remote health study using patients and clinicians from the rgv as a test group to determine remote patient monitoring efficacy the nsf erc is an interdisciplinary initiative with florida international university rice university and the university of california at los angeles as well as several companies and other federal agencies
anita brown a doctoral student in the zachry department of civil engineering at texas a&m university has received a scholarship as part of the science mathematics and research for transformation (smart) scholarship program smart is a scholarship for service program that funds the remainder of a recipients education in exchange for service in research roles to department of defense (dod) entities following graduation the goal of the scholarship program is to help produce the next generation of dod science and technology leaders ill be working with the us army corps of engineers in the harbors entrances and structures branch of the coastal and hydraulics laboratory said brown on the nature of her work after the completion of her doctoral program they do a lot of work with hydraulic structures and navigation channels and other kinds of things that my civil engineering background can help me to investigate brown has already been acquainted with the armys engineer corps having worked with them last summer on some finite element modeling research it was there that brown was told about the smart program and encouraged to apply as a civil engineering student brown is conducting research with dr john niedzwecki a cain 13 chair and regents professor in the department were looking at modeling debris flow during disasters such as floods and hurricanes brown said when a storm comes and there is debris floating in a waterway were looking at tracking the motion of that debris to see how it accumulates around a structure or waterway brown is currently in the process of evaluating current literature and models in relation to debris flow looking to see how existing models might be improved or future models developed this kind of research is important because there is a lot of attention around understanding how debris accumulate in certain sections of the oceans and how it interacts with structures that may be near waterways browns goal with her research is to take the models that have been developed for specific scenarios and create a methodology that can extend to applications beyond what current models are used for im excited to get the opportunity to fund the rest of my degree and also work in this capacity afterwards brown said
more than 40 engineering students from the texas a&m university college of engineering shifted into high gear the week of april 30 to may 5 placing second overall in the first competition milestone of the general motors and society for automotive engineers autodrive challenge in yuma arizona comprised of eight universities across north america the competition is a three-year event that challenges university teams to develop and demonstrate the capabilities of an autonomous vehicle the texas a&m engineering team known as the 12th unmanned participated in four events including a stop sign challenge a lateral driving challenge an obstacle avoidance course and a graded technical report presentation each event tested the cars autonomous driving ability and the teams technical competence in a different way
the stop sign challenge required the car to maneuver on a straight three-lane road and successfully detect and stop for a series of stop signs a challenge in which the team reached a top speed of 20 mph before stopping the fastest in the competition during the lateral driving challenge the vehicle was tested on its ability to drive down a curved road and make sharp turns while staying within the same lane the team also achieved the fastest performance time on the obstacle avoidance course where the car had to drive down a three-lane road covered with obstacles while successfully detecting and avoiding them the team credits their high overall placement at this years competition to their performance in the technical driving challenges im incredibly proud of my students said dr alireza talebpour assistant professor of civil engineering at texas a&m and the faculty project lead for the competition we had students that were spending day and night working on this car and the teams success is a testament to their amazing work ethic in the coming year the team will focus on expanding the strong technical foundation they built this year each year the end of spring driving challenges will grow more complex culminating in a fully autonomous vehicle field test at the end of the three-year competition the team wont know the upcoming challenges for spring 2019 until later this summer but they already have ideas on how they plan to move forward for this coming year the team will definitely have to add in radars to account for the complexity of the more complicated driving events said alex greene former electrical engineering student and the former autodrive challenge team captain the team will eventually be put in a more urban scenario with moving obstacles to simulate things like pedestrians
the team also had many of its senior students such as greene graduate in may they will need to fill in the ranks of the team with new talent and a diverse multidisciplinary group of young engineers students that participated in the may 2018 challenge came from a variety of disciplines including civil computer science electrical industrial systems and mechanical engineering to make the car a reality computer engineering student juan vasquez the teams new captain was one of the team members who worked on the cars systems integration engineering the cars different components to work in concert i worked on the can (controller area network) bus team which is all about how the cars different systems talk to one another to do what we want vasquez said well be going in and tackling new problems based on what we learned from this last year and making it better in the same way the engineers will work to better integrate the vehicles systems theyll work to strengthen and build their relationships with one another through team social events according to talebpour managing such a large team of multidisciplinary engineers is challenging as students with different engineering backgrounds can struggle to communicate with one another or understand the larger picture however he said the teams management leaders plan to make the challenge of interdisciplinary communication a priority and coming together to meet such challenges head on is a hallmark of the aggie spirit this success shows the dedication aggies have when they take on a serious challenge like this talebpour said there is no way we could be here if we didnt have dedicated students and that dedication is what surprised me the most and is what i am proudest of
quentin baker class of 78 graduate from the department of mechanical engineering was recently recognized as a 2018 college of engineering outstanding alumni honor award recipient an honor he said he was stunned and honored to receive we have so many qualified and capable aggie engineers this is an incredible honor to be named an outstanding alumni he said baker (pictured right) president of baker engineering and risk consultants inc has 40 years of experience in risk and hazards analysis research and development he serves as a member of the department of mechanical engineerings industry advisory council (iac) which he said has a critical part for the department one role council members play is to provide feedback on what industry is looking for in graduating engineers what do (the graduates) really need in terms of their training their coursework their capabilities baker said industry gets to say ‘hey for our current situation we would like engineers to be better in these areas and the emphasis shifts over time which is good the department needs to stay current baker said the proof of success is in the high demand for aggie engineers after graduation employers know when (the aggie students) come in theyre qualified and they know how to work he said baker said iac members can also make suggestions to the department to make it a better organization as many members come from management company ownership roles and entrepreneurial roles baker said one highlight of the job is visiting campus throughout the year when he graduated in 1978 he was one of 80 mechanical engineers in his class although the growth causes some feelings of crowding he said he has found the department to still be as tightknit as it was when he was in school the department is near and dear to all of our hearts baker said its a special place for us and its important to us to have contact with students and see what theyre doing thats one of the highlights of the iac meetings is getting the students in and seeing what theyre doing
the qatar general electricity and water corporation (kahramaa) recently signed a collaborative research agreement with the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) smart grid center and the centers extension in qatar on the study optimizing kahramaas smart grid capabilities and setting its future roadmap kahramaa attendees included his excellency engineer essa bin hilal al-kuwari president of qatar general electricity & water corporation and chair of the sgc-q steering committee and mohamed ali s a almuhannadi manager of the public relations and communications department the purpose of the agreement is for kahramaa and the smart grid center both in qatar and in college station to investigate smart grid technologies and challenges to implementation on the qatar grid it is harmonious with qatar national vision 2030 and qatar national strategy the study aims to give recommendations to advance efficient use of electric energy and transform electricity grid in qatar into a smart grid; promote collaboration to investigate smart grid challenges and deliver innovative and effective smart grid solutionsthe smart grid center and the extension in qatar will assess the current kahramaa grid in terms of smart grid applications and solutions; conduct a gap analysis study to define challenges and limitations of smart grid solutions implementation; develop a subtle and practical plan for successful smart grid application in kahramaa and ultimately the state of qatarthe final outcome of the project will be recommendations for benchmarking and assessment criteria for the smart grid roadmap in the state of qatar and to present a final report that outlines the above recommendations