houck2040/tees huggingface dataset:
photo (right): dr rusty harris (far left) associate professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering gave board members a tour of the labs within the giesecke building following the meeting board members toured the recently dedicated frederick e giesecke engineering research building the next advisory board meeting will be held in october members of the board are alok das (air force research laboratory); pascal joly (airbus); warren "pete" miller (former undersecretary of energy); todd grove (american bureau of shipping); gerry griffin (golden spike company); ernest leyendecker (anadarko petroleum); gregory powers (halliburton); john pellegrino (army research laboratory); mark potter (hewlett packard); mario ruscev (baker hughes); ram shenoy (conocophillips); steve altemus (intuitive machines); michael beck (lockheed martin); larry graviss (eagle engineering group); jay schnitzer (mitre corporation); bob chalker (nace international); james phillips (nanomech inc); dennis koehl (south texas project nuclear operating co); lauri hansen (nasa/johnson space center); susan crumrine (southwest research institute); jim osullivan (technip usa); germán curá (tenaris); peter matic (naval research laboratory); andres alcantar (texas workforce commission); keith graf (office of the governor of texas); jeff trent (translational genomic research institute); cindy taylor (oil states international); stephen mcnair (pioneer natural resources); brian stoner (rti international); stein rasmussen (sbm offshore); stephen rottler (sandia national laboratories); brian rogers (schlumberger); gail hahn (boeing); edward mcgruder (elanco); james turner (fluor corporation); zach kokel (fmc technologies); and kevin nowka (ibm)
the engineering genesis award for multidisciplinary research was presented to three texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) researchers and their research teams during the tees external advisory board meeting may 29 the award which is presented to tees researchers who have secured significant research grants of $1 million or more was given to dr john killough dr duncan maitland and dr arul jayaraman killough the michael and heidi gatens development professor in the harold vance department of petroleum engineering at texas a&m university was awarded a grant for $32 million from the skolkovo institute of science and technology for his proposal advanced computational and numerical modeling techniques for hydrocarbon recovery his research team included co-pis dr eduardo gildin dr zoya heidari dr berna hascakir and dr yucel akkutlu all from petroleum engineering and dr vivek sarin from the department of computer science and engineering the research activities of killoughs group involve enhanced reservoir simulation from the nanoscale to the scale of large fields with thousands of producing wells and with the goal of creating realistic simulations to improve hydrocarbon recovery from the complex reservoirs currently being produced
maitland is the stewart & stevenson professor in the department of biomedical engineering and assistant agency director for commercialization and entrepreneurship for tees his collaborators included dr fredd clubb from the college of veterinary medicine and biological sciences and dr elizabeth cosgriff-hernandez from biomedical engineering the team received the award for their proposal shape memory polymer embolic foams for treating cerebrovascular aneurysms to develop a shape memory polymer (smp) foam embolic device for treating cerebrovascular aneurysms that will acutely clot faster and more completely throughout the aneurysm jayaraman is a professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering and holder of the ray nesbitt professorship jayaraman was awarded a $19 million grant from the department of health and human safety/national institute of health/national institute of allergy and infectious diseases his co-pi is dr robert alaniz from the texas a&m health science center his research project modeling and analysis of the role of microbiota metabolites in t-cell differentiation seeks to understand the role that the microbiota metabolites play in mediating an anti-inflammatory environment in the gut which will potentially improve treatment for inflammatory bowel disease
nuclear engineering faculty members from the universidade federal do rio de janiero (ufrj) in brazil visited the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) nuclear security science and policy institute (nsspi) to learn about the nuclear security courses being taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university the visit was sponsored by the us department of states partnership for nuclear security the faculty members professors su jian paulo frutuoso and fernando carvalho all have interest in incorporating nuclear security education into the traditional nuclear engineering curriculum at ufrj nsspi staff and faculty shared information on the courses currently being taught in the area of nuclear security at texas a&m as well as other nsspi activities contributing to the practical education of students in nuclear security and research projects produced by graduate students in areas relevant to nuclear security these were conveyed through presentations discussions and tours of texas a&m and tees facilities the faculty members from ufrj are looking to incorporate nuclear security topics discussed in this visit into their curriculum in the near future as well as implementing a new nuclear security research area at their university based on the interactions between nsspi and ufrj during this visit the two institutions plan to work together to hold a nuclear security week event at ufrj in the fall of 2015 this event will consist of a one-week 10-hour-long course for graduate students and faculty members on nuclear security concepts two undergraduate lectures in nuclear security-safety integration and a 20-hour workshop for brazilian participants from across the country in nuclear security principles and culture
first responders and researchers braved scorching temperatures this week to demonstrate the latest in life-saving technologies at the summer institute on flooding hosted by the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) center for emergency informatics (cei) in conjunction with the texas a&m engineering extension service (teex) it is the 8th summer institute held at teex facilities and the second one focused on flooding which is the number-one type of disaster in the world the summer institute brought together 60 practitioners academia and industry for concept experimentation with informatics technologies for preventing responding to and recovering from flooding and to discuss lessons learned from the recent texas floods as well as to evaluate existing and emerging technologies generate mission protocols and try them out through field experimentation participants included researchers from the tees center for robot-assisted search and rescue (crasar) the center for autonomous vehicles and sensor systems and the hazards reduction and recovery center at texas a&m along with the lone star unmanned aircraft systems center of excellence and innovation (lsuasc) based at texas a&m university-corpus christi discussion topics included how effective crowd sourcing computer vision map-based visualization packages mobile phone apps and unmanned aerial vehicles (uavs) were used for real-world search and rescue situations as well as how they could be used for assessing damage to power lines roads homes and critical infrastructure
with parts of texas experiencing devastating flooding this past spring the summer institute was a timely review of what was used at the floods and a look ahead to new and developing technologies that can help first-responders in emergency situations where quick response time is vital one session focused on uavs that were used to assess damage due to devastating flooding earlier this year throughout the state wimberley fire department austin fire department lsuasc and crasar flew uavs in the wimberley texas area and discussed how they helped responders see into areas in which they couldnt in order to look for survivors the uavs also reported back data about the water levels and debris fields the take-home message for researchers was that the emergency response community needs advances in organizing and visualizing data they are comfortable with social media smart phones and uavs but are drowning in data thats where the center for emergency informatics can help said dr robin murphy the ceis director while uavs conducted four exercises in the field (missing person search power infrastructure assessment storm surge assessment and home damage and debris estimates) the data was routed to situmap a new mapping software created by dr richard smith a professor at a&m-corpus christi situmap is an easy-to-learn multi-user multi-touch software which acts as a tablet-like digital command center that shows emergency managers maps of crisis areas situmap is being commercialized along with the geosuite common operational picture mobile app and the skywriter visualization app that have also been tested and refined at previous summer institutes situmap was unveiled at last years summer institute and with the feedback we received last and this year we are able to validate existing features and walk away with great ideas for future situmap development smith said three undergraduate computer science students from the national science foundation computing for disasters research experiences for undergraduates program won $900 in prizes for their work in creating computer vision apps to detect signs of missing persons in images and to display where uavs canine teams and ground searchers have collected data other students presented technologies such as an expert system app for allocating wilderness search and rescue teams advising on how take better photos of home damage and a robot airboat representatives from 12 agencies including texas task force 1 los angeles county fire department fort bend county office of emergency management texas parks and wildlife law enforcement division south east texas regional advisory council texas a&m forest service and the texas insurance commission participated along with 15 universities and five companies
texas a&m universitys dwight look college of engineering and the indian institute of technology kharagpur (iitkgp) have signed a formal affiliation agreement to promote institutional collaboration in education and research the primary objective of the agreement is to promote interaction and collaboration between faculty staff and students of the two institutions carry out academic and research programs and provide joint supervision of doctoral and masters students collaboration is the key to innovation in engineering said dr nk anand executive associate dean of engineering regents professor and associate agency director for the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) working with an exceptional international partner like the indian institute of technology kharagpur enables us to increase research and learning opportunities for our faculty and students while gaining valuable input from international colleagues dr debjyoti banerjee associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering will serve as coordinator for texas a&m and professor souvik bhattacharyya deputy director and professor of mechanical engineering at iit kharagpur will serve as coordinator for iitkgp ares of cooperation identified under this agreement include: exploring opportunities for interaction among members of faculty as well as creating visiting faculty positions; hosting short-term visiting students at the respective institutions; collaborating on joint research projects (including researchers from the texas a&m engineering experiment station); and joint academic activities and events such as short courses seminars workshops or conferences based on mutual interests and available expertise at both institutions iitkgp is a public engineering institution located in kharagpur india the institute was established in 1951 and is recognized as an institute of national importance by the indian government nearly 9 000 undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled at the institute
nine students from the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m university were named recipients of the 2015 kaneka scholarship given by the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) polymer technology center the scholarship awards $1 000 in tuition to graduate and undergraduate students who display academic excellence and research interest in the polymers industry kaneka americas holding inc a japanese bioplastics and organic technologies company established the scholarship fund in 2013 it partnered with the university to launch a new research and development facility on campus we appreciate kanekas contribution to our students conducting research in materials science or organic chemistry said dr hung-jue sue director of the center and a tees professor in the department of materials science and engineering it helps us attract top talent in the field we are grateful for the scholarship and hope to continue building our relationship with kaneka the polymer technology center is a cooperative program of the departments of aerospace engineering chemical engineering chemistry mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering the center features seminars for students faculty and industry partners and an educational component with an emphasis on polymers 2015 kaneka scholarship recipients: ying-pin chen graduate student department of materials science and engineering peng liu graduate student department of mechanical engineering anna kristen means graduate student department of materials science and engineering parvin karimineghlani graduate student department of materials science and engineering xiaosong liu graduate student department of materials science and engineering morgan plummer graduate student department of materials science and engineering yasheng liu graduate student department of materials science and engineering jose leonardo gomez graduate student department of chemical engineering kevin dong undergraduate student department of chemical engineering
answering the nations call for viable solutions to its energy and manufacturing needs requires the input and collaboration of experts from a variety of disciplines those experts were on the texas a&m university campus monday (aug 17) as part of the council on competitiveness dialogue series the focus was to identify common challenges and opportunities in the areas of clean energy and advanced materials manufacturing in the united states the event is the third in a series of themed dialogues the council and us department of energy (doe) are hosting this year to engage thought leaders from industry academia national laboratories and non-profit organizations on the topic of accelerating the production of advance materials the discussions are part of an overarching partnership between the council and doe to enhance the countrys energy and manufacturing competitiveness we are honored to host these discussions in college station said m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of texas a&m engineering and director of the texas a&m engineering experiment station bringing together top experts from industry and academia is critical to solving todays challenging technology problems the future of us manufacturing depends increasingly on the novel research deployment and commercialization of advanced materials said deborah l wince-smith president and ceo of the council on competitiveness bringing together the nations top leaders from academia industry national laboratories and government to uncover the steps to partner and accelerate advanced materials development in the united states is a critical step to boosting americas long-term productivity potential and prosperity the event was hosted by the council on competitiveness us department of energy office of energy efficiency and renewable energy (eere) and office of fossil energy and texas a&m engineering the series is part of the american energy and manufacturing competitiveness (aemc) partnership a three-year effort between the council and eere to increase american competitiveness through advanced clean energy manufacturing and increased energy productivity
the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) nuclear security science and policy institute (nsspi) hosted the first part of the 2015 nuclear security training series (nsts) for indian university faculty and students at texas a&m university june 20-30 the nsts is sponsored by the us department of states partnership for nuclear security (pns) and is the fourth in its series the participants included 25 nuclear engineering students and five faculty members from nine universities across india: amity university (noida) delhi university delhi technological university the indian institute of technology in mumbai the indian institute of technology in kanpur jadhavpur university (kolkata) mody university (rajasthan) pandit deendayal petroleum university (gandhinagar) and the university of petroleum and energy studies (dehradun) half of the participants in this years program were female dr costas georghiades associate agency director for strategic initiatives and centers for tees officially welcomed the group to texas a&m at the nsts inaugural event and priya sethi pns program manager gave the nsts opening remarks dr sunil chirayath nsspi interim director gave the keynote address on nuclear security and nuclear security culture instructors for the nsts at texas a&m included nsspi faculty members chirayath dr craig marianno and claudio gariazzo former texas a&m nuclear engineering students dr james miller dr matthew sternat chris ryan and current phd student julia eigenbrodt gave presentations of their student research to the group as a means of generating ideas for future student research projects in the area of nuclear security and stimulating discussion on nuclear security research the aim of the nsts was to inculcate the tenets of nuclear security as a research best practice and to interweave discussions of nuclear security culture into the presentation discussions while at texas a&m the participants attended lectures on nuclear security and nuclear security culture attended nuclear security related thesis and dissertation presentations from former nuclear engineering students participants visited the nuclear science center took part in an outdoor radiation source recovery exercise at the texas a&m engineering extension services disaster city facility and toured nasa and the george h w bush library and museum dr yassin hassan head of the department of nuclear engineering gave the concluding remarks and distributed the nsts participation certificates on the final day of the texas a&m portion of the nsts after their time at texas a&m the group continued their training series at oak ridge national laboratory and sandia national laboratories the nsts participants also attended the 56th annual meeting of institute of nuclear materials management held in indian wells california
the 44th turbomachinery and 31st international pump users symposia (tps 2015) was held at the george r brown convention center in houston texas sept 14-17 2015 the turbomachinery laboratory part of the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) and the texas a&m university system organized the event which saw 5 542 unique attendees representing 48 countries and a record-breaking 350 exhibiting companies as with previous installments tps 2015 proved to be a high-quality event for everyone involved the exhibit hall comprised 71 100 net square feet of exhibit space which hosted 350 leading companies from the turbomachinery and pump industries (up from 343 companies in 2014) companies displayed full-size equipment cutting-edge technology and emerging industry trends highly qualified technical personnel were on hand to address business needs of attendees and exhibitors enjoyed the opportunity to support current customers as well as form positive business relationships with new clients during the event exhibit space selection took place for next years event; the tps 2016 floor plan is currently 85 percent booked in addition to visiting the exhibit hall symposia attendees participated in a combination of 16 short courses 20 lectures 19 tutorials 27 discussion groups and 18 case studies led by industry experts from around the world topics covered included compressors steam and gas turbines expanders pumps and drivers and auxiliary equipment such as couplings bearings gearboxes dry gas seals and annular seals attendees engaged in industry related topics leading to a quality exchange of technical knowledge the turbomachinery symposium began in 1971 and the pump symposium began in 1984 in 2011 the symposia were combined and are now held jointly every fall in houston tps has become a staple event for industry professionals and leading companies built on a history of success this annual event promotes professional development technology transfer peer networking and information exchange among industry professionals for more information on tps 2015 including the full technical program list exhibiting company list and more please visit http://tpstamuedu/ or email info@turbo-labtamuedu proceedings from previous symposia are available to freely download online at turbolabtamuedu/proc/ the technical content from tps 2015 will be added to this collection in march 2016 next years event will be held sept 13-15 2016 with short courses running in conjunction with the event on sept 12
from sept21-23 the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) nuclear security science and policy institute (nsspi) hosted students and faculty from the tokyo institute of technology for the third annual academic exchange held at texas a&m university between students from texas a&m and the dojo nuclear security education program at tokyo tech who are studying nuclear nonproliferation and security issues the team from tokyo tech consisted of seven students two faculty members and two staff members on the first day students from the two universities participated in group discussions over current nuclear issues the topics covered were: 1) learning from fukushima and three mile island; 2) communicating with the public as a nuclear community; and 3) iran deal or no deal: joint comprehensive plan of action the discussions culminated in each group developing a presentation that was given at that evenings meeting of the texas a&m student chapter of the institute of nuclear materials management the following day nsspis radiological emergency response research group lead a field exercise for the visiting students at the texas a&m engineering extension services (teex) disaster city training facility working with nsspi students the tokyo tech students used vehicle detection systems health physics instrumentation personal radiation detectors and radio-isotope identification devices to execute a consequence mission students were asked to locate identify and map radiation areas around the disaster city rubble pile 1 (rp1) prop using a 30 mci cs-137 source once they identified a low radiation entry point students entered the rp1 tunnel system in teams to locate and identify sealed radioactive sources that had been hidden within the pile this exercise was meant to provide student hands-on experience with field detector systems and executing a field mission safely as a team the group also toured various other facilities at texas a&m including the triga research reactor at the nuclear science center the teex brayton fire training field the thermal hydraulics laboratory the simulator laboratory and the nsspi nuclear security nuclear forensics and emergency response laboratories this exchange is part of a larger program of cooperation between toyko tech and texas a&m-nsspi texas a&m students have previously attended three international symposia on nuclear safety security and safeguards conducted by tokyo tech in japan plans are also underway for tokyo tech to sign a memorandum of understanding with tees nsspi and the department of nuclear engineering and for nsspi to host tokyo tech graduate students as interns in the near future
faculty and staff from the texas a&m engineering experiment stations nuclear security science and policy institute (nsspi) at texas a&m university organized the second nuclear facilities experience (nfe) for american students and young professionals through a grant from the national nuclear security administrations next generation safeguards initiative this experience which took place in the united kingdom from sept 13-18 included students from five us universities (texas a&m the university of michigan the university of new mexico the university of tennessee and penn state university) faculty from texas a&m and the university of utah and young professionals from three national laboratories (argonne savannah river and pacific northwest national laboratories) the five-day tour of the uk included visits to the urenco uranium enrichment plant in capenhurst the thermal oxide reprocessing plant at sellafield the worlds first commercial nuclear power plant at calder hall (consisting of four magnox reactors) and the heysham nuclear power plant (consisting of four advanced gas-cooled reactors) the nfe also included a stop at kings college london where participants interacted with faculty and students from the centre for science and security studies in the department of war studies at kings college both host faculty and visitors presented lectures on nuclear security topics over the course of the nfe the participants traveled more than 900 miles by rail and had the opportunity to see some of the best examples of operational nuclear science security and safeguards the world has to offer this years international nfe is the latest in a series of similar experiences organized by nsspi since 2006 past nfes took students and faculty to facilities in france the uk and japan photo: nfe group prepares to tour the sellafield facilities
six faculty members in the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m university have received a $15 million grant from the national science foundations (nsf) designing materials to revolutionize and engineer our future (dmref) program to speed up the development and application of high temperature shape memory alloys (htmas) the project dmref: accelerating the development of phase-transforming heterogeneous materials: application to high temperature shape memory alloys is led by dr raymundo arróyave associate professor in the department of materials science and engineering collaborators on the project include: dr ibrahim karaman head and chevron professor i in materials science and engineering; dr amine benzerga associate professor in the department of aerospace engineering; dr dimitris lagoudas deputy director of the texas a&m engineering experiment station and associate vice chancellor for engineering; dr theocharis baxevanis tees assistant research professor in aerospace engineering and dr edward r dougherty robert m kennedy 26 chair and distinguished professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering the nsf in support of the multi-agency federal materials genome initiative (mgi) seeks to target one of the primary mgi goals to halve the current time and cost for transitioning breakthroughs from the laboratory to the marketplace a process that can take as long as two decades texas a&ms project attempts to accelerate the development of htsmas for compact and efficient solid-state actuation devices with applications in the aerospace and automotive industry it combines ideas from informatics and design with experimental and computational materials science the project aims to shorten the time necessary for the development of htsmas equipped with tailored properties it builds from the past and current research projects with nasa the air force office of scientific research and other leaders in the aerospace industry
the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) external advisory board held its fall meeting nov 13 at the national center for therapeutics manufacturing building in college station texas advisory board members shared updates from their subcommittees and also heard updates from tees administrators about research and commercialization initiatives corporate relations efforts workforce development programs seed grant funding regional division partnerships and national and global initiatives our advisory board members are very involved and provide us with insightful input on how we can better serve our partners and the state of texas through our research technology transfer workforce development initiatives and opportunities said dr dimitris lagoudas deputy director of tees dr daniel ragsdale director of the texas a&m cybersecurity center and dr christodoulos a floudas director of the texas a&m energy institute gave presentations on their respective centers and discussed current and future research and outreach initiatives following the meeting board members viewed a demonstration at the texas a&m engineering extension services brayton fire field and also toured disaster city the next advisory board meeting will be held in may 2016 members of the board are pascal joly (airbus); warren pete miller (former undersecretary of energy); todd grove (american bureau of shipping--abs); gerry griffin (golden spike company); ernest leyendecker (anadarko petroleum); gregory powers (halliburton); john pellegrino (army research laboratory); mark potter (hewlett packard); ram shenoy (conocophillips); steve altemus (intuitive machines); michael beck (consolidated nuclear security); larry graviss (eagle engineering group); bob chalker (nace international); james phillips (nanomech inc); dennis koehl (south texas project nuclear operating co); lauri hansen (nasa/johnson space center); susan crumrine (southwest research institute); jim osullivan (technip usa); germán curá (tenaris); peter matic (naval research laboratory); andres alcantar (texas workforce commission); keith graf (office of the governor of texas); stephen mcnair (pioneer natural resources); stein rasmussen (sbm offshore); steve rottler (sandia national laboratories); brian rogers (schlumberger); edward mcgruder (elanco); james turner (fluor corporation); zach kokel (fmc technologies); and kevin nowka (ibm); rustom mody (baker hughes); chad evans (council on competitiveness); norm byrne (dow chemical company); adam berg (fmc technologies); bill hanson (great lakes dredge & dock company); alan gatherer (huawei); whitney kilgore (idesignedu); ron bessire (lockheed martin); rich staats (mitre corporation); jeff nichols (oak ridge national laboratory); brian lukoff (perusall); grant swartzwelder (petrogrowth advisors); jana bell (rmg networks); joe cunningham (sante ventures); luis cifuentes (texas a&m university-corpus christi); lance kinney (texas board of professional engineers); dave rintoul (us steel)
the master of science in safety engineering degree conferred by the texas a&m engineering experiment stations mary kay oconnor process safety center (mkopsc) has been recognized by the institution of chemical engineers (icheme) as satisfying the requirements to register as a professional process safety engineer it is considered a preferred pathway to obtaining the qualification
icheme presented the program certification to dr m sam mannan director of mkopsc and regents professor at the 2015 mkopsc international symposium we are excited to have our degree program certified mannan said this provides a new and recommended avenue for engineers to become recognized as process safety experts in addition to the program certification icheme conferred the title of professional process safety engineer on mannan at the event he joins a pool of less than 100 engineers who have achieved this qualification im honored to be the first professional process safety engineer from mkopsc mannan said im looking forward to working with many students as they go through our program professional process safety engineers are globally recognized the title holds the same level of status as chartered engineer and professional engineer icheme established the program to distinguish practitioners as professionals in process safety mkopsc has worked with icheme the leading professional engineering organization in europe since 2014 they have collaborated on process safety education chemical product design and strategic leadership and direction for more information about the mary kay oconnor process safety center please visit the website
dr m sam mannan and researchers in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university were featured on the cover of the american institute of chemical engineers (aiche) journal
mannan director of the texas a&m engineering experiment stations mary kay oconnor process safety center and regents professor was assisted by olga reyes-valdes a graduate student in the department and drs sonny sachdeva hao chen yi liu and delphine laboureur all former postdoctoral researchers with the center the research article titled trends and challenges in process safety was featured in the november issue of the peer-reviewed aiche journal in addition to the publication of the article and being chosen as the cover story their research was highlighted in a summary article in the november 2015 issue of the chemical engineering progress which highlights the importance of this article chemicals play a key role in todays high-tech world mannan wrote the chemical industry is linked to every technologically advanced industry; only a handful of the goods and services we enjoy on a daily basis would exist without essential chemical products the focus of the research process safety is a concept that is applicable across various industries it introduces base knowledge of chemical interactions into everyday engineering procedures this understanding assists experts working with complex and dynamic chemical interactions the research brings together the science of material characteristics and behaviors human-machine interfaces and management systems to assist with equipment design sustainability reliability engineering and organizational science the researchers suggest a systematic approach to process safety is needed to ensure safety of the public researchers and the environment such an approach would ensure safety not only during normal production but also during abnormal and disaster situations an engineer must function as a member of the global community mannan wrote this means not only competing in a global marketplace but also acting as a professional who shares global responsibilities for more information about the mary kay oconnor process safety center and process safety please visit the centers website
two researchers from the texas center for applied technology (tcat) have been named 2015 texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) center fellows dr keith biggers director of computing and information technology and dr dean schneider director of manufacturing operations were recognized for their outstanding individual initiative and performance in support of the tees mission of research workforce development technology development and transfer and international outreach and collaboration biggers research focus is on the development of simulation to support large-scale training exercises tools for supporting command and control and the decision-making process and visual analytics he has led the development of the emergency management exercise system (em*es) a constructive simulation that has been used to train more than 10 000 responders from around the united states he has also led the development of various information dashboards helping to provide decision support and enhance situational awareness of end-users customized dashboards have been developed for the department of defense department of homeland security department of agriculture and other organizations schneiders research projects include process improvements for various industry sponsors development and implementation of water and power distribution technologies to improve conditions in border communities along the texas/mexico border as well as teaching high school students about engineering by helping them design and build eight-foot wind turbines previously schneider was chief of the technology requirements branch for the us air forces air education and training command leading a team of information and training technology experts in the evaluation of existing and emerging training and educational technologies and evaluated them for inclusion into the air forces learning processes photo from left: dr jim wall executive director of tcat; biggers; schneider; dr costas georghiades associate agency director for strategic initiatives and centers; and dr dimitris lagoudas deputy director of tees
extreme weather conditions increased demand and changing technologies are fueling researchers to search for near-term solutions to modernize and secure the united states aging power grid dr mladen kezunovic director of the texas a&m engineering experiment stations smart grid center and his co-authors have released a report on the outcome of the executive forum and workshop on physical and cyber infrastructure to support the future grid held in may the event which focused on the 10-year horizon for improvements to the power grid was organized by the power systems engineering research center (pserc) with support from the national science foundation attendees included thought leaders from the utility and manufacturing industries as well as government non-profits and academia the diverse group of researchers engaged in discussions on emerging research issues and how to resolve them in the next decade this forum was an excellent opportunity for researchers from a variety of backgrounds to bring their perspectives to the table and brainstorm ideas for upgrading the power grid said kezunovic who is also the texas a&m university site director for pserc by working together we can better meet the challenge of providing research deliverables within the next 10 years that will improve the functionality and security of the power grid
the final report includes input and viewpoints from more than 100 participants key takeaways included the need for the future power grid to move toward incorporating real-time technologies in order to address resiliency challenges as well as the need for resilience metrics with weighted indicators based on economical electrical and social factors report authors were kezunovic coordinator; jay caspary southwest power pool (vice chair pserc industry advisory board); flora flygt american transmission co (chair pserc industry advisory board); george gross university of illinois at urbana-champaign; ward jewell wichita state university; mirrasoul j mousavi abb; and dennis ray pserc a full copy of the report is available online top photo from left: panel moderator flora flygt strategic planning and policy advisor american transmission co; a wade smith president and chief operating officer aep texas; tony montoya executive vice president and chief operating officer western area power administration; bob mitchell ceo atlantic wind connection and trans-elect development co; and h b trip doggett president and ceo ercot
after serving 10 years in the reserves and active duty as a supply sergeant and chemical operations specialist tanya nixon was honorably discharged in 2010 while in the army nixons primary responsibilities involved chemical disposal and decontamination her postgraduate studies in counseling educational administration and psychology led her to a career in education that spanned from assistant principal to dean although she was quite successful at it nixon felt that being an educator was not her true passion in life so she sought change when she learned of the military veterans manufacturing vaccines (mvmv) program offered by the national center for therapeutics manufacturing (nctm) a joint center of texas a&m university and the texas a&m engineering experiment station she immediately jumped at the opportunity and applied for a scholarship nixon was accepted into and recently completed nctms biomanufacturing technical certificate program which is comprised of 180 continuing education hours of online instruction and hands-on training in upstream and downstream manufacturing processes sterile environment protocol bioprocess equipment operations quality unit operations good documentation and manufacturing practices regulatory compliance and standard operating procedures common in the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry the nctm is an interdisciplinary education institution that provides multi-generational technical training and professional development programs for the biopharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing industries the mvmv program was made possible by a grant received from the governor of texas office which allows nctm to offer texas military veterans cost-free professional development and training to enter the biopharmaceutical industry immediately following completion of the program nixon was hired at lonza one of the worlds leading pharmaceutical contract manufacturing organizations nixon reports that the training she received at nctm provided a foundation to understand the big picturewhere it came from and where it is going she feels the program is not only rewarding but also lucrative in one month i was marketable! nixons supervisor finds tremendous comfort in the fact that tanya brought to the company the necessary skills to get the job done; and the biopharmaceutical industry is ready for more employees just like her nixon is convinced that the principles learned during her military serviceincluding attention to detail timeliness and integrityare equally important in the biomanufacturing field soldiers are perfect candidates for [the biomanufacturing] field because they are keenly skilled with thinking on their toes and are very flexible nixon said nctm is currently enrolling for the spring 2016 cohort of the mvmv program interested military veterans can learn more at nctmtamuedu
a new study by researchers in the department of materials science and engineering at texas a&m university and los alamos national laboratory has led to a new principle to control macroscopic thermal expansion response of bulk materials including obtaining zero thermal expansion metals currently researchers rely on manipulation of either the materials composition and/or complex fabrication of composites to reduce thermal expansion to obtain tailored thermal expansion change in temperature can cause almost any material to change shape area and/or volume this can be a problem when dimensional stability of structures and devices is desired in applications that undergo a temperature fluctuation a possible solution is an alloy with controlled thermal expansion or zero-thermal expansion the research teams manuscript tailored thermal expansion alloys was published in acta materialia a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of the structure and material properties the study demonstrates the possibility of tailoring thermal expansion response of a single material without manipulating its composition researchers include dr james monroe entrepreneur in training at texas a&m engineering experiment stations office of commercialization and entrepreneurship; dominic gehring phd student in materials science and engineering; dr ibrahim karaman chevron professor i and head of the department of materials science and engineering; and dr raymundo arroyave associate professor in materials science and engineering collaborators from los alamos national laboratory include dr donald brown and dr bjorn clausen the thermal expansion characteristics for these new tailored thermal expansion alloys can match those of polymers ceramics and other metals and even be made perfectly zero which means the alloys do not change shape with temperature the key to obtaining a tailored thermal expansion coefficient is the alignment of the alloys atoms to harness the natural thermal expansion and contraction at the atomic level this new approach can provide a means to control a metals thermal expansion response without the tradeoffs associated with changing materials composition or complex composite fabrication the study was supported by the national science foundations division of materials research metals and metallic nanostructures program the us air force office of scientific research and the international materials for multi-function materials for energy conversion at texas a&m photo: dr james monroe in the mesam lab
students from texas a&m university and the university of sydney in australia participated in the aerial international robotic racing of unmanned systems (airus) where teams were able to successfully demonstrate remote piloting of an unmanned aerial vehicle (uav) more than 8 000 miles away pilots in texas used a joystick to control a uav (also known as a quadrotor or drone) in australia while at the same time pilots in sydney controlled a uav in texas a camera mounted on the front of the uav captured video which was sent over the internet to the pilot on the other side of the world the top pilots achieved an international landing they controlled the sideways movement to land the uav on a small target additionally everyone in attendance at the event had the opportunity to pilot the uav by controlling the spinning motion (yaw) of the uav they also gained an appreciation for the difficulty of dealing with the half-second delay through the international communications despite this delay it is believed to be the lowest latency (delay) achieved for controlling an aircraft internationally having successfully demonstrated the international piloting airus members have applied for a world record for the longest distance remote piloting of a uav which is now pending assessment at the texas event there was also a showcase of uavs with students in attendance given the opportunity to test their skills in a race of small uavs this first successful event is a stepping stone to the full plans for airus to involve many more universities around the world each having local pilots controlling and racing uavs at the different international locations
the immediate plans for the coming year are to further develop the control systems to grant the international pilot a higher level of control and to build towards being able to race the uav around an obstacle course on the other side of the world this work also will lead to research on enhancing long distance remote control of aircraft and robotics at both universities the texas a&m team is comprised of aerospace engineering students who are members of the american institute of aeronautics and astronautics the competition was funded in part by the texas a&m engineering experiment stations aerospace technology research and operations center (astro) and center for autonomous vehicles & sensor systems (canvass)
dr nancy m amato and carol a huff were named recipients of the texas a&m university systems regents professor award and regents fellow service award respectively
amato is the unocal professor in the department of computer science and engineering senior director of engineering honors programs co-coordinator of the computer science and engineering track of engineering honors and co-director of the parasol lab amato joined the faculty at texas a&m in 1995 as an assistant professor in computer science she became a full professor in 2004 and was appointed the unocal professor in 2011 she received undergraduate degrees in mathematical sciences and economics from stanford university and her master of science and phd in computer science from the university of california berkeley and the university of illinois at urbana-champaign