houck2040/tees huggingface dataset:
as a professor of practice alves offers students at texas a&m a unique focus of instruction based on his vast industry experience and he is excited to share his knowledge with them originally from brazil alves worked for petrobras for 35 years as an engineer academic and researcher before retiring to become a full-time educator a few years ago he gave a graduate student seminar presentation at texas a&m and spoke with some of the professors in the department once he toured campus he was enchanted by our school spirit and gladly accepted an invitation to join the faculty alves was a mechanical engineer fresh from school when he joined petrobras at the time there were refineries in brazil but only a small amount of oil production petrobras had just started offshore exploration he took a short company course and then received a hands-on introduction to petroleum engineering out in the field he enjoyed the challenges and strove for efficiency while supplying his country with energy for economic and social changethrough the years he attained his masters and doctoral degrees and taught courses in addition to doing his professional work he soon learned he loved teaching as much as he loved petroleum engineering there is discovery in a university an exchange with the youth said alves i give the students these ideas and as a return i love to see their faces when they understand what they learn they can start better than i started i want the students here to give a chance to everything to look for new things and grow
a lifesaving device more than 20 years in the making has received 510(k) clearance from the us food and drug administration (fda) the clearance allows a company co-founded by associate department head dr duncan maitland from the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university to begin to market the medical device maitland developed the impede embolization plug a device that could provide doctors with a more effective and less risky method for treating aneurysms – blood-filled balloon-like bulges in the walls of a blood vessel that can rupture and cause vascular damage that is debilitating or even fatal the device quickly clots blood to block it from reaching aneurysms tumors or other issues it creates a different kind of clot than current devices if you put in other devices theyre asking for big clots to form maitland said instead of creating a blood clot that is three or four millimeters in diameter were creating thousands of smaller clots that are connected together
how it works the device is made from polyurethane-based shape memory polymer (smp) foams while small during insertion the porous polymeric materials are capable of growing to a memorized larger conformable shape when delivered into a blood vessel allowing it to obstruct or reduce the rate of blood flow in the vein or artery targeted by the doctor after blocking flow in a vascular target there is also concern that one could reform over time with the impede embolization plug test results have shown that smp foams promote long-term health of the areas of the blood vessel reducing the chances that another treatment is required the benefit to patients is that they dont get reoccurrence maitland said this is a less traumatic deliverable device as its being delivered its not potentially rupturing the blood vessels like some of the current devices would and it heals the site so they dont have to have it retreated while the impede device is built to address issues outside of the brain such as abdominal aortic aneurysms as well as acting as adjunct treatment for tumors or cancer to promote long-term healing where current devices dont maitland said he plans to submit the fda application for a neurological device soon weve created this stepping stone that has value will establish the long-term clinical superiority and it will be a predicate device for future more complicated devices to receive regulatory clearance maitland said maitland and his team sent the impede embolization plug to the fda for review in 2017 while the plug is not available in the united states yet it has been used to treat patients in new zealand and in several countries in the european union
milestones there were several milestones that maitland could look back on in the last two decades of research he started working on stroke related diseases in 1995 the breakthrough idea for the porous structures for embolization was formulated in 1999 maitland worked with dr todd landsman who initially developed the impede device as part of his phd dissertation at texas a&m the teams record in the patent literature documents from 2001 which maitland said proceeds any publications by about two years the first shape memory foams research material that was on the right development path was created in august 2011 the work has also led to the establishment of shape memory medical inc co-founded by maitland to commercialize stable predictable embolization solutions for a variety of clinical applications the company has 26 issued us patents and multiple patents under review on a worldwide basis several of maitlands graduate students have worked in the company over the years maitland moved from the lawrence livermore national laboratory in california to texas a&m with the goal of commercializing the smp foams for vascular occlusion he liked the policies within texas a&m specifically the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) he said dean m katherine banks has created an environment where researchers are able to work on impacts that extend beyond traditional academic metrics at the same time faculty must respect traditional metrics: maitland has graduated 14 phd students and seven ms students since joining texas a&m in 2008 he has also cumulatively published more than 75 journal publications related to the smp technology and devices working on this kind of impact was made possible by the support of tees by conflict of interest management policies of the university and the implementation of those policies out of the division of researchs office maitland said whats next now that the device technology is in the hands of shape memory medical inc which will work on product commercialization maitland said new research directions are opening up in the short term his team has sponsored research with the company and has received some grants that are allowing them to research how the devices interact with the body and a deeper understanding of device safety over the long term his team plans to continue working with the company to modify the material so that it increases the effectiveness or opens up new medical applications maitland is also partnering with researchers in veterinary medicine the health science center and other tees centers to open new application directions for the smp technology along with about 200 people who have touched the project in one way to another over the last 20 years institutions that have provided support include shape memory medical inc the texas a&m engineering experiment station lawrence livermore national laboratory the national institute of biomedical institute of biomedical imaging and bioengineering and the us department of energy maitland was recently recognized with a college of engineering research impact award for his development of innovative shape memory polymers for biomedical applications
from june 23-30 a group of graduate students faculty and national laboratory staff members participated in the nuclear facilities experience (nfe) which took place in various locations across japan the nfe was jointly coordinated by the center for nuclear security science and policy initiatives (nsspi) and argonne national laboratory (anl) with assistance from the japanese integrated support center for nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear security (iscn) the facilities tour was led by dr claudio gariazzo a nuclear engineer in the strategic security sciences group at anl and nsspi assistant research engineer dr evans kitcher the graduate students were selected based on their specializations in nuclear nonproliferation-related topic areas the nine students represented texas a&m university the university of tennessee-knoxville the university of california at berkeley the university of illinois at urbana-champaign the middlebury institute for international studies and virginia commonwealth university they were joined by one faculty member from the university of tennessee-knoxville the five early-career research staff members came from sandia national laboratories los alamos national laboratory brookhaven national laboratory pacific northwest national laboratory and argonne national laboratory
the nfe is a unique opportunity for graduate-level engineering and policy students from us universities and early-career professionals from us national laboratories to visit nuclear fuel cycle facilities in foreign countries it provides experiential understanding of facility operations nuclear materials management and applied material safeguards practitioners and facility operators make presentations and lead discussions on the practical application of safeguards and security measures participants have the opportunity to witness first-hand how nuclear safeguards are implemented at various types of facilities some of which are not found within the us additionally the nfe provides excellent networking opportunities for participants to strengthen relationships among students staff faculty and professionals while travelling and experiencing a foreign country this years nfe began with a trip to the japan atomic energy agency headquarters in tokai-mura where participants visited the tokai reprocessing technology development center the plutonium fuel development center the virtual reality system and the physical protection training field from there they traveled to rokkasho nuclear fuel cycle plant and visited their enrichment facility sub-surface disposal test cavern low-level waste disposal center j-mox construction site and the reprocessing facility including the spent fuel receiving/storage and vitrified waste storage they then spent a day at the tokyo institute of technology where they met with students and faculty and attended a presentation by the international atomic energy agency about the safeguards activities at the fukushima dai-ichi nuclear power plant and the rokkasho nuclear fuel cycle plant they traveled from tokyo to the monju fast reactor the final stop of the nfe was hiroshima where participants visited with a survivor of the hiroshima bombing and toured the hiroshima peace memorial museum and peace park the visit to hiroshima highlights the importance of nuclear safeguards and security to keep the world safe from nuclear weapons the nfe is made possible under a grant provided by the national nuclear security administrations office of international nuclear safeguards the nfe program is set to continue for another five years
smartphones tablets ipads – mobile devices have become invaluable to the everyday consumer but few consider the security issues that occur when using these devices
triad national security llc which includes the texas a&m university system has received official notice to proceed toward managing the los alamos national laboratory in los alamos new mexico the national nuclear security administration notified triad on july 9 to begin the four-month transition this is a significant milestone in the history of texas a&ms commitment to public service john sharp chancellor of the texas a&m university system said in announcing the start of the transition of the los alamos national laboratory from the current management team to triad which includes the texas a&m system the university of california and the battelle memorial institute los alamos is one of the most important nuclear security assets in the world we are committed to working with our partners to enhance safety and security at the lab while advancing its world-class science and executing its vital missions sharp added obviously this is a huge affirmation of the nationally recognized quality of research teaching and national service at texas a&m the texas a&m system brings to the triad team expertise in nuclear engineering criticality safety and workforce development all of which are important to the future of the los alamos national laboratory triad will assume management and operational responsibility for the laboratory when the transition period ends nov 1 dr thomas mason will serve as president of triad and director of the los alamos national laboratory mason brings extensive national lab management experience to the position having served for more than a decade as the director of the us department of energys oak ridge national laboratory in tennessee most recently mason was senior vice president for global laboratory operations at battelle it is a tremendous honor to be selected as director-designate of one of the worlds leading scientific institutions which is working at the forefront of science to solve complex nuclear security and energy challenges mason said
three texas a&m university researchers proposals were among 89 projects selected by the us department of energys (doe) office of nuclear energy for funding for nuclear energy research facility access and crosscutting technology and infrastructure development the projects are part of the nearly $64 million in awards for advanced nuclear energy technology to doe national laboratories industry and 39 us universities in 29 states because nuclear energy is such a vital part of our nations energy portfolio these investments are necessary to ensuring that future generations of americans will continue to benefit from safe clean reliable and resilient nuclear energy said ed mcginnis does principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy our commitment to providing researchers with access to the fundamental infrastructure and capabilities needed to develop advanced nuclear technologies is critical
principal investigators from texas a&m were: dr karen vierow kirkland associate professor and associate department head in the department of nuclear engineering received $748 000 for innovative use of accident tolerant fuels (atf) with the rcic system to enhance passive safety of commercial bwrs dr sean mcdeavitt associate professor in the department of nuclear engineering and director of the nuclear science center was awarded $500 000 for demonstration of a methodology for direct validation of marmot irradiation-induced microstructural evolution and physical property models using u-10zr dr karim ahmed assistant professor in the nuclear engineering department is a collaborator on the project dr marcelo sanchez professor in the zachry department of civil engineering was awarded $608 375 for his proposal impact of coupled gas migration and thermo-hydro-mechanical processes on the performance of repositories for high level nuclear waste three faculty members from the department of nuclear engineering were collaborators with researchers from other universities including: dr pavel tsvetkov associate professor working with the ohio state university on development of optical fiber based gamma thermometer and its demonstration in a university research reactor using statistical data analytic methods to infer power distributions from gamma thermometer response dr yassin hassan department head and the sallie & don davis 61 professor in nuclear engineering working with the university of illinois at urbana-champaign on accurate and efficient parametric model-order reduction for turbulent thermal transport dr lin shao professor working with the university of nebraska-lincoln on bridging microscale to macroscale mechanical property measurements and predication of performance limitation for fecral alloys under extreme reactor applications the awards were dispersed under three doe nuclear energy programs: the nuclear energy university program the nuclear energy enabling technologies program and the nuclear science user facilities program
jeremy osborn won the jd williams student paper award at the 59th annual meeting of the institute of nuclear materials management (inmm) which took place from july 22-26 in baltimore maryland osborn is a phd student in the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university working with the center for nuclear security science and policy initiatives (nsspi) director dr sunil chirayath the award for the best student paper at the meeting is based on the students written paper and oral presentation and includes a $1 000 prize i am honored by the support and recognition from the inmm community said osborn it represents the success of the texas a&m nuclear forensics group osborns paper titled experimental validation of a nuclear forensics methodology for source reactor-type discrimination of chemically separated plutonium presents the results of his dissertation work to develop new methods to determine the reactor origins of weapons-grade plutonium this research is part of a seven-year project funded by the us department of homeland securitys domestic nuclear detection office under an academic research initiative (dndo-ari) grant which is led by chirayath in conjunction with dr charles m folden iii of the cyclotron institute
i believe the greatest strength of the project is the fusion of computational simulations research reactor irradiations radiochemistry laboratory work and experimental measurements osborn explained osborn successfully defended his dissertation this summer and will be graduating in december he recently joined nsspi as a postdoctoral research associate chirayath was also awarded an inmm senior membership appointment at the meeting osborn was one of three nsspi students to present at the meeting; yanuar setiawan and athena sagadevan also had papers there texas a&m nuclear engineering undergraduate student mario mendoza attended the meeting on behalf of the texas a&m inmm student chapter as the incoming president nsspi assistant research engineer dr evans kitcher presented a fifth paper and chirayath also co-chaired a session on education & training: empowering the workforce
around mach 5 interesting things start to happen to vehicles flying in our atmosphere its a harsh flight environment and anything that can go that fast and survive is very expensive a key challenge is that changes in the viscous flow around a vehicle can lead to catastrophic events which are extremely complex and difficult to simulate thats the challenge of the field of hypersonics where researchers dont have the luxury to build flight test and retest which is why the cutting edges in aerospace research are wind-tunnel testing and computer modeling armed with some of the worlds leading faculty staff and students as well as unique laboratory facilities texas a&m universitys department of aerospace engineering is on the front lines of this research hypersonics is basically when vehicles are flying through the atmosphere at speeds sufficient such that the heating causes changes in the internal structure of the air molecules said dr rodney bowersox department head and director of the national aerothermochemistry and hypersonics laboratory (nal) these phenomena begin at roughly mach 5 which is about a mile a second as these vehicles are traveling through the atmosphere theyre creating shock waves and as the molecules go through these shockwaves they get excited dissociate and chemically react its a fair question to ask why even travel at hypersonic speeds and bowersox admits that civilian aircraft traveling at these speeds may be a dream (though companies such as boeing seem to share this dream) however its already a current reality for space exploration space planes and national security earths gravity pulls back any vehicles reentering the atmosphere from space at hypersonic speeds and recent tests of hypersonic vehicles by potential adversaries underscore the national security motivation
student impact the outstanding faculty and laboratories within the department have made texas a&m an exciting destination for students interested in aerospace fields the quality of the students in the program became apparent last year when the texas a&m sounding rocketry team which was a spin-off of bowersoxs laboratory competed for the first time and placed second in a national competition in new mexico despite not being able to launch the rocket due to a sensor malfunction
evan marcotte a former student who now works with blue origin an aerospace manufacturer based out of washington helped start the team a few years ago because he had a hard time getting internships with companies because he didnt have any hands-on rocket experience i think that continued legacy from one student to another is what allows a culture to thrive and grow he said i truly believe that the nal is one of the most unique places in the academic world due to the students who go through there and dr bowersoxs leadership i have no doubt that it will continue to produce top-notch students and do some amazing things marcotte also said that the way bowersox leads the lab is the key to its success he guides and defines big picture plans but allows students to truly take ownership of their projects from design and fabrication to data acquisition and analysis he said he maintains the perfect balance between being there and not to the point where you can make mistakes and learn but always know that if you hit a wall that he is there to help you overcome it similarly reed has created the aggiesat lab student satellite program which has launched four student-developed satellites into orbit the mission of aggiesat lab is to provide students with real systems engineering and leadership experiences develop and demonstrate modern technologies using a small-satellite platform complement students in-class education and teach industry practices all as extracurricular activities bowersox said that another interesting aspect of hypersonics research is that since being able to test and observe some aspects of it is still such a new field there are unique moments you may make a measurement and youll see it and sometimes youll be the first person to ever to see it he said maybe its a fluctuation somewhere even if its a small thing it doesnt matter students love the science aspect of what were doing the students in our department believe in the future of high-speed flight rockets and space exploration and being a part of enabling humans to achieve these goals said reed they closely follow international progress and with their passion and capabilities they will be the leaders the enablers with the quality of research going on with the faculty and students its a good bet that texas a&ms hypersonics program will be involved in helping humans travel faster and farther for years to come
the turbomachinery laboratory at texas a&m university will host its 47th turbomachinery and 34th pump symposia (tps) sept 18-20 in houston at the george r brown convention center full-day short courses will be held in conjunction with the symposia on sept 17
tps is recognized as the premiere conference for rotating equipment engineers and technicians worldwide spanning oil and gas petrochemical chemical power and water industries now surpassing 46 years the symposia have remained steadfast in their founding principles: to enable interested individuals to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field and to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas on a practical engineering level tps accomplishes this mission through two pathways: program delegates may choose from an array of technical sessions including full-day short courses and lectures tutorials case studies and discussion groups technical program content is solicited from engineers and technicians who have relevant field experience to share and is hand-selected by advisory committees of industry leaders who began work on the 2018 program in october 2017 view the technical program schedule at https://tpstamuedu/program/ exhibition the symposia exhibition will feature booths from more than 350 leading companies from the oil and gas petrochemical power pump and turbomachinery industries companies will display full-size equipment cutting-edge technology and emerging industry trends during a portion of the symposia the exhibit hall will be free to the public upon completion of a free pass registration form free entry will be available tuesday 2:30 – 7 pm wednesday 2:30 – 6:30 pm and thursday 9:30 am – noon view the list of exhibiting companies at https://tpstamuedu/exhibition/
tps 2017 originally scheduled for sept 12-14 was postponed three months due to the impact of hurricane harvey on houston and surrounding areas undeterred by the reschedule tps attracted 89 new exhibiting companies and hosted a total of 359 exhibiting companies just one shy of tps 2016s record-setting 360 a total of 4 620 unique delegates representing 46 countries visited the exhibition or attended technical sessions we are pleased to host another symposiathe meeting of choice for users and manufacturers of commercial turbomachinery and pumps said dr eric l petersen turbo lab director this is where the best in the industry come to share their expertise registration remains open online and will be available onsite for paid symposia delegates for more information on tps 2018 including the full technical program event schedule exhibiting company list registration procedures and more please visit tpstamuedu
dr stratos pistikopoulos tees eminent professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university was recently named the director of the texas a&m energy institute
additionally he serves as the course director of the master of science in energy program in the institute co-director of the southern regional manufacturing center in the clean energy smart manufacturing innovation institute (cesmii) and co-lead of the modeling and simulation focus area within the rapid advancement in process intensification deployment (rapid) manufacturing usa institute on process intensification energy including its sustainable production and environmentally responsible use represents one of the grand challenges to human progress and well-being in the 21st century pistikopoulos not only brings outstanding credentials and collaborative leadership to this position but his expertise in the analysis of complex systems will be essential to the integration of the diverse contributions from science technology and policy that must be part of future solutions with pistikopoulos vision and creativity texas a&ms energy institute is well positioned to lead the state and the nation into our energy future says vice president for research dr mark a barteau before joining texas a&m in 2015 pistikopoulos was a professor and director of research in the department of chemical engineering and director of the centre for process systems engineering at the imperial college london he earned a doctorate from carnegie mellon university and worked with shell chemicals in amsterdam before joining imperial pistikopoulos has written or co-written over 400 major research publications and 10 books in the areas of modeling control and optimization of process energy and systems engineering applications he holds two patents and is co-founder of process systems enterprise ltd his numerous awards include co-recipient of the prestigious macrobert award from the royal academy of engineering the computing in chemical engineering award of cast/aiche doctor honoris causa from the university politechnica of bucharest and the university of pannonia and a fellow of the royal academy of engineering in the united kingdom the texas a&m energy institute is a joint institute between texas a&m university and the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) the institute pursues and supports new approaches of multi-disciplinary energy research education and external partnerships these approaches cross departmental and college boundaries to address all facets of the energy landscape that naturally connect engineering science technology economics behavior law and policy decisions
the national center for therapeutics manufacturings (nctm) bioforce summer academy has just completed its seventh year having served a grand total of 566 rising texas high school sophomores juniors and seniors several dozen of whom have gone on to become texas a&m university aggies but the 2018 camps were made much more special by having two bioforce graduates engage with this years participants in special ways bioforce is a stem summer program that provides a three-year series of opportunities for high school students to gain exposure to the biotechnology industry by learning from and working with industry leaders in state-of-the-art laboratories and pharmaceutical companies bioforce students learn how cutting-edge research and medical discoveries become new drugs and pharmaceutical treatments and discover their potential to become a scientist who creates a blockbuster life-saving medicine or an engineer who manufacturers disease-eradicating vaccines when away from these exciting eye-opening experiences students enjoyed simply making memories with their new like-minded friends as they got to tour and explore the texas a&m campus eating breakfast and dinner at sbisa dining hall playing sports at the student recreation center and hanging out in the game room at hullabaloo hall logan ardrey graduated from the bioforce summer academies in 2016 and is now a texas a&m sophomore biology major and pre-med student ardrey served as a 2018 bioforce counselor i cannot stress how glad i am that i went to bioforce when i was in high school ardrey said campers get a chance to tour cutting-edge research laboratories and manufacturing facilities get hands-on experience with experiments and current good manufacturing practices (cgmp) guidelines and meet other like-minded students from across the state i have always been interested in science but this summer academy really helped me to realize what i want to do later in life this years camp began as they all have – buzzing with an air of anticipation and nervous excitement but with curiosity in their eyes and with each session having no greater than 25 students campers made connections in record time diving into lab work and interacting throughout each day campers quickly took hold of the opportunities to bond with different individuals such that hometown friends and camp friends became difficult to distinguish
students selected for bioforce academies are chosen as the most competitive among a large pool of applicants specifically 1 005 to-date within only hours of camp sessions commencing it was obvious that students were just as impressive in person as on paper during the first day of bioforce i (upcoming sophomores) discussions of ap courses choosing the right university drafting perfect college applications and the atmosphere of college courses emerged this ambitious and inquisitive nature of the rising sophomores bode well for them as they encountered experiences on the topic of the camp todays medicine leading them to ask thoughtful intelligent questions in laboratory experiments ranging from pipetting & bacterial plating to microscopy and gram staining to green fluorescent protein transformation and bacterial painting as well as during tours of the sacchettini lab the texas a&m institute for genomics medicine and the texas a&m institute for preclinical studies bioforce ii shifted the focus to tomorrows medicine exposing students to lab experiments and concepts that are pertinent to advanced processes in biotechnology such as sds page western blot and enzyme and elisa labs as well as tours of the microscopy and imaging center and the world-renowned biotechnology company lonza biologics in pearland texas camper rebecca ramirez said i like going to the lab because ive never done any of that never seen that equipment ive learned about it in school but ive never actually done it so having that opportunity was really cool the summer academies concluded with a look into my future in medicine through bioforce iii in which seniors were able to role play a day in the life of a biotechnician during experiments such as surface monitoring plating and incubation restriction digestion pouring and running gels cell staining and counting and gram staining and elisa they also had the opportunity to picture themselves in a biotechnology career during tours with asuragen and bioo scientific in austin texas during the tour of asuragen current intern and former bioforce academy graduate mason ouren said bioforce was very helpful in giving early exposure to the lab setting in high school its a challenge to get good experience and experiments in a classit introduced that ‘cool factor and that awe that spring boards into ‘maybe i want to pursue this moreand that led me to want to do research in college im a bio major now and work in a lab that studies plant genetics and that lab connected me to this internship which is 100 percent molecular genetics which is awesome and exactly what i was anticipating doing [bioforce] was the gateway into learning and discovering ‘i really enjoy this and want to do this as a career
like mason campers of 2018 bioforce iii shared similar thoughts rising senior ankita rao stated i think the best part was going to actual companies because once you learn these skills once you have that education sometimes its easy to forget what you can actually do with all that and to see where you can possibly go with that kind of knowledge i think that was really important to see bioforce summer academies are formative yet fun opportunities for high schoolers of all ages experience levels and backgrounds with a relaxed encouraging and unifying environment bioforce camps allowed high-caliber busy high school students to have a break from the stresses of being the perfect college candidate so that they could make friends and memories with individuals they would not have met otherwise in a short time students were able to revolutionize their perspectives on science biotechnology and medicine and gain insight that will prove incredibly valuable as they choose their college majors and the career paths that best fits their personalities and passions bioforce summer academies are primarily financed by grant funding from the governors summer merit program (smp) awarded by the texas workforce commission the smp sponsors summer youth camps that focus on science technology engineering and math (stem) and inspires texas youth to learn high demand stem skills in fields that will position them for success in the industries of the future
the turbomachinery laboratory at texas a&m university hosted another record-breaking turbomachinery & pump symposia last week the 47th turbomachinery and 34th international pump users symposia (tps 2018) attracted 53 new companies to the george r brown convention center for a total of 365 exhibiting companies topping tps 2016s record by five companies the exhibition featured full-size equipment and emerging technology and industry trends from leading turbomachinery pump and related organizations already 85 percent of the exhibit floor for tps 2019 has been reserved
4 750 unique delegates representing 45 countries visited the exhibition or attended technical sessions engineers and technicians from novice to experienced chose from a combination of 18 short courses 18 lectures 23 tutorials 24 discussion groups and 32 case studies the technical program is selected by the turbomachinery and pump advisory committees and led by engineers and technicians with experience in particular disciplines topics included compressors steam and gas turbines expanders pumps and drivers and auxiliary equipment such as couplings bearings gearboxes dry gas seals and annular seals technical content from tps 2018 will be available to the public in march 2019 proceedings from previous symposia are free for perusal and download at turbolabtamuedu/proceedings the call for papers for the tps 2019 program is now open one- to-three page abstracts are due monday oct 22 for submission details visit tpstamuedu/program i am grateful to all of our authors leaders delegates exhibitors and advisers who make tps a staple event for the industry said dr eric l petersen turbo lab director i am fortunate to be a part of this unique forum where the best in the industry come to share their expertise i look forward to building on this experience for many more successful symposia to come tps 2019 is set for sept 10-12 in houston short courses will be held in conjunction with the symposia on sept 9 to learn more about tps and see photos from this years event visit tpstamuedu to reserve exhibit space email martha@turbo-labtamuedu
dr m sam mannan executive director of the mary kay oconnor process safety center (mkopsc) passed away on tuesday sept 11 2018 mannans work at the mkopsc has influenced the entire chemical engineering industry in the us and worldwide process safety which was once seen as little more than wearing safety goggles or a lab coat has become one of the most important areas of chemical engineering throughout mannans more than 20 years with the center the mkopsc has been a driving force in industrys adoption of more rigorous safety standards mannan regents professor and holder of the t michael oconnor chair i in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university was a fellow of the american institute of chemical engineers fellow of the uk institution of chemical engineers and a member of the american society of safety engineers international institute of ammonia refrigeration and national fire protection association earlier this year mannan was also appointed to serve on the department of energys hydrogen and fuel cell technical advisory committee mannan has received countless awards for his work including the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) engineering genesis award in 2014 the charles w crawford service award at texas a&m in 2014 the bush excellence award for faculty in public service at texas a&m in 2012 american institute of chemical engineers norton h walton/ russell l miller award in 2009 the medal of honor from the technical university of lodz poland in 2008 and the texas a&m university association of former students distinguished achievement award for teaching in 2003 in addition to these awards mannan was named the first holder of the ma naser chair by bangladesh university of engineering and technology; distinguished visiting professor sinopec research institute of safety engineering qing dao china; and distinguished honorary professor rajiv gandhi university of petroleum technology in 2011 the technical university of lodz poland conferred a doctoris honoris causa on mannan he was a prolific author and researcher he co-authored guidelines for safe process operations and maintenance published by the center for chemical process safety american institute of chemical engineers he is the editor of the 3rd and 4th edition of the three-volume authoritative reference for process safety and loss prevention lees loss prevention in the process industries and co-authored a book multiscale modeling for process safety applications he has also published over 300 peer-reviewed journal publications more than 220 proceedings papers and more than 270 technical meeting presentations mannan is survived by his wife afroza mannan and their two daughters joya and rumki
mannan is survived by his wife afroza mannan and their two daughters joya and rumki
on july 22 the center for nuclear security science and policy initiatives (nsspi) led a workshop on the policy and technical fundamentals of international nuclear safeguards that took place in conjunction with the 59th annual meeting of the institute for nuclear materials management (inmm) in baltimore maryland the workshop consisted of a face-to-face session at the inmm meeting and an online certificate course which participants could complete either before or after the meeting the in-person portion of the workshop featured presentations by a panel of international safeguards experts and professionals with current or recent experience in policy technical implementation and/or inspections according to nsspi director dr sunil chirayath who moderated the panel this is the first such professional development workshop to take place during the inmm annual meeting in 20 years and it speaks directly to the mission of the organization to offer such opportunities to its members chirayath is also the president of the us southwest professional chapter of the inmm and the faculty sponsor of the texas a&m university student chapter of the inmm the four-hour panel session began with a presentation by therese renis the director of the division of concepts and planning in the department of safeguards at the international atomic energy agency (iaea) her talk gave participants an overview of the iaeas safeguards implementation policy michael whitaker manager of the international safeguards group in the nuclear security and isotope technology division at oak ridge national laboratory then gave a presentation on iaea inspections at us nuclear weapons production facilities and how the facility prepares for and hosts iaea safeguards inspections this was followed by an overview of the technical aspects of international safeguards by shirley johnson a private consultant and former iaea safeguards inspector jill cooley who is a senior technical advisor for the global security and strategic partnerships program at the y-12 national security complex with 20 years of experience at the iaea spoke about the states system of accounting for and control of nuclear material laura rockwood the executive director of the vienna center for disarmament and nonproliferation addressed the role of the additional protocol from a states perspective finally dunbar lockwood who is a senior advisor for safeguards and safeguards policy in the office of international nuclear safeguards at the national nuclear security administration gave a presentation on the challenges of implementing the state-level concept with emphasis of the issues related to state-specific factors acquisition path analysis and customized state-level approaches after the presentations participants were given the opportunity to interact with the experts in an informal question-and-answer session
there were 67 registered participants at the workshop at the time of the meeting 18 individuals including inmm president corey hinderstein had completed the online coursework and were awarded their certificates during the workshop an additional 12 participants have completed the online portion since this coursework represented approximately 25 hours of training in nuclear safeguards and covered: an introduction to nuclear safeguards and security an overview of the nuclear fuel cycle an introduction to statistics and applied statistics for safeguards nuclear material accountancy containment and surveillance spent nuclear fuel safeguards and uranium enrichment safeguards participants have the option of completing the online course through the end of september to earn a certificate and continuing education credits participants reported to me that the course work was fairly rigorous inmm vice president cary e crawford remarked at the opening plenary session of the inmm annual meeting the institute very much appreciates the effort from texas a&m because it not only brought an educational element and academic credit but it also was able to continue promoting our next generation education the workshop was jointly conducted by the us southwest professional chapter the international safeguards technical division of the inmm and the texas a&m and university of new mexico student chapters of the inmm
when your power goes out you probably assume that your utility provider has a monitoring system quickly telling them exactly where the problem is after all this is the era of smart technology and big data but the electric grid wasnt designed or built in this era utility companies may know if there is an outage but they likely dont know exactly where or what the problem is until crews inspect it and find the problem utility providers are essentially blind to developing problems in the grid other than whether the power is on or off not only is their ability to assess a current outage limited they also have no way of identifying a problem that may not actually be causing an outage or anticipating where a problem may occur in the future for example a failing device could be sparking creating a dangerous situation that nobody is aware of for days or weeks before it completely fails and causes an outage but not anymore applying concepts of pattern recognition and advanced signal processing to more than a decade of data a team of texas a&m university researchers has developed a new technology called distribution fault anticipation (dfa) it has the capability to not only help utility providers find the cause of outages but to also anticipate and predict some failures before outages occur (their published research application of dfa technology for improved reliability and operations was presented at the 2017 institute of electrical and electronics engineers rural electric power conference in columbus ohio) power distribution system electrical signals include specific failure signatures which tell a story for instance whether potential faults and outages are about to occur said dr b don russell a power engineer and the engineering research chair professor and distinguished professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m simply put theyve been ‘listening to the electric grid for more than a decade to analyze signals and identify which ones indicate a potential problem conceptually it is not much different from an auto mechanic who can hear a problem in an old engine and know exactly what is causing it practically however this is an entirely new technology the texas a&m research team led by russell includes carl benner jeff wischkaemper and karthick manivannan their research sponsored by the electric power research institute developed the dfa technology it is an autonomous distributed computing system that provides electric utility operators a continuous situational awareness of the condition of each circuit the result is increased reliability of their network and reduced outages it enables the utility operator to predict adverse power line conditions and events generally not detected by conventional technologies dfa recognizes the impending failure mechanisms of most distribution hardware often allowing operators to find and fix failing devices before catastrophic failure said russell the devices report line events to a master station server which provides access to reports from a fleet of dfa devices on circuits across the power system
this technology is not just lab tested it is field proven as well robert peterson director of control center and emergency preparedness at pedernales electric cooperative the nations largest distribution electric cooperative said dfa has been invaluable in providing information that is not available any other way dfa has enabled us to identify potential issues like trees on lines failing clamps failing arrestors etc and resolve those issues before they create power interruptions he said in one case we were able to pinpoint the location of a branch on an overhead line that could have become an ignition source for wildfire in a rural subdivision we have also used the monitors to provide information allowing us to proactively address issues with capacitor switches in order to keep our power factor within regulatory prescribed limits overall the technology has proven itself to the extent that our plans now include expanding their use to the rest of our distribution system dr comfort manyame senior manager of research and technical strategy and robert taylor engineering specialist at mid-south synergy were also complimentary of the technology taylor said it makes me wonder what we did before dfa while manyame said they are hoping to expand their use of dfa in the coming years