houck2040/tees huggingface dataset:
huff is the assistant agency director of financial operations for the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) over the past 26 years she has held several fiscal positions within tees and the texas a&m system with 23 of those years being with tees huff joined the texas a&m system in 1981 as an accounting systems analyst she quickly moved up to the coordinator of systems policies and procedures where she was responsible for the preparation of the systems annual financial report her most notable roles at tees were serving as the assistant vice chancellor for finance for six years and serving as the controller for 16 years the regents professor award honors individuals at the rank of professor or equivalent whose distinguished performance in teaching research and service have been exemplary the award is the highest honor bestowed by the a&m system on faculty members the performance of those selected is considered meritorious and worthy of recognition of their achievements that had an impact on not only their institution or agency but also the community the state of texas and/or at the national and international levels the regents fellow service award honors and recognizes extension research and service professionals within the agricultural and engineering agencies health science center and veterinary medical diagnostic laboratory these professionals must have demonstrated a significant commitment and contributions to their respective agency by providing exceptional leadership in educational or program delivery/scholarship research or service that have resulted in significant impact and lasting benefits to the state of texas and beyond
dr m sam mannan director of the texas a&m engineering experiment stations mary kay oconner process safety center and regents professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university was named the first holder of the ma naser chair by bangladesh university of engineering and technology (buet) mannan was introduced during a ceremony to mark the launch of the chair by rahman murshed president of the buet chemical engineering association and professor maa shoukat choudhury department head of chemical engineering at buet the chair was established by the buet chemical engineering alumni association to recognize the contributions made by professor ma naser former vice chancellor of buet and a pioneer in the field of chemical engineering education in bangladesh dr toufiq ali ceo of karnaphuli fertilizer company ltd professor nooruddin ahmed and professor iqbal mahmud both former vice chancellors of buet gave presentations at the ceremony also in attendance were representatives from the bangladesh national authority of chemical weapon convention the armed forces division chevron and dutch-bangla bank
dr stratos pistikopoulos associate director of the texas a&m energy institute and tees distinguished research professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university has been named editor-in-chief of the journal computers & chemical engineering computers & chemical engineering is primarily a journal of record for new developments in process systems engineering and the application of computing and systems technology to chemical engineering problems serving as an editor of the journal since 2010 pistikopoulos has handled manuscripts in the areas of modeling control and optimization of process and energy and systems engineering applications he earned a phd in chemical engineering from carnegie mellon university under the supervision of professor ignacio e grossmann in 1988 and he worked for shell chemicals in amsterdam until 1991 for the next 24 years (1991-2015) he was at imperial college london where he was a professor of chemical engineering and the director of its centre for process systems engineering between 2002 and 2009 he has authored or co-authored more than 350 major research publications in the areas of modeling control and optimization of process energy and systems engineering applications and he has co-edited 10 books and holds two patents he is co-founder of process systems enterprise (pse) limited and a founder of parametric optimization solutions (paros) limited pistikopoulos research interests lie in the field of process and multi-scale systems engineering with particular emphasis on the developments of model-based optimization theory and computational tools for multi-parametric programming and explicit model predictive control and an integrated framework for design control and scheduling of complex multi-scale networks with applications in sustainable energy systems smart manufacturing and personalized healthcare systems engineering he is a fellow of the royal academy of engineering uk he is a fellow of the institution of chemical engineers co-editor of the book series in computer aided chemical engineering (elsevier) and process systems engineering (wiley-vch) and he is on the editorial boards of the journal of global optimization energy systems and the journal of computational management science
solving global energy problems will require a collaborative effort across disciplines as well as across institutions as part of an initiative to encourage multidisciplinary collaborations and cross-institutional partnerships the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) the texas a&m university dwight look college of engineering and texas a&m university-kingsville have awarded $150 000 in seed grants to researchers from texas a&m and texas a&m-kingsville the grants of $50 000 each represent the first jointly funded projects of this kind between texas a&m and texas a&m-kingsville to be eligible for the grants proposals were required to include investigators from both institutions the seed grants provide researchers with enough funding to generate preliminary results and foster the collaborations needed to facilitate the pursuit and development of future center level multidisciplinary projects the three proposals selected for funding are: graphene embedded porous conducting polymers as a binder to improve energy density specific power and cycle life of li-ion batteries investigators: dr dervis demirocak department of mechanical and industrial engineering texas a&m-kingsville; and dr micah green department of chemical engineering texas a&m nanotechnology based selective heavy metal and petroleum hydrocarbon removal of wastewaters generated in energy production processes investigators: dr jianhong-jennifer ren department of environmental engineering texas a&m-kingsville; dr jingbo louise liu department of chemical engineering texas a&m-kingsville; and dr li ying department of mechanical engineering texas a&m adding income to the unconventional revenue stream: recovering geothermal energy and strategic elements from hydrocarbon wells investigators: dr ruud weijermars department of petroleum engineering texas a&m; dr lee clapp department of environmental engineering texas a&m-kingsville; dr david burnett department of petroleum engineering texas a&m; and dr lucy camacho department of environmental engineering texas a&m-kingsville
dr bonnie j dunbar retired nasa astronaut engineer and educator has joined texas a&m engineering as a texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) distinguished research professor in the department of aerospace engineering she also has a joint appointment as the director of the tees institute for engineering education and innovation (ieei) dunbar who is a member of the prestigious national academy of engineering comes to texas a&m from the university of houston where she provided leadership in the development of a new integrated university science technology engineering and mathematics (stem) center she was an md anderson professor of mechanical engineering and she developed a new innovative course for the introduction of engineering to freshmen students she also directed the sicsa space architecture graduate program she has devoted her life to furthering engineering engineering education and the pursuit of human space exploration dunbar worked for the rockwell international space division company building space shuttle columbia and worked for 27 years at nasa first as a flight controller; then as a mission specialist astronaut where she flew five space shuttle flights logging more than 50 days in space; and then as member of the senior executive service (ses) her executive service included assistant nasa jsc director for university research; deputy director for flight crew operations; and as nasa headquarters deputy associate administrator for the office of life and microgravity sciences and applications (olmsa) after retiring from nasa dunbar became president and ceo of the museum of flight in seattle where she established a new space gallery and expanded its k12 stem educational offerings she has also consulted in aerospace and stem education as the president of dunbar international llc and is an internationally known public speaker dunbar holds bachelors and masters degrees in ceramic engineering from the university of washington and a phd in mechanical/biomedical engineering from the university of houston she is a fellow of the american ceramic society the american institute of aeronautics and astronautics and the royal aeronautical society she has been awarded the nasa space flight medal five times the nasa exceptional leadership medal and the nasa distinguished service medal dunbar was inducted into the royal society of edinburgh and in 2002 was elected to the us national academy of engineering in 2013 she was selected into the astronaut hall of fame
six current faculty members of texas a&m universitys dwight look college of engineering have been named fellows of the institute for electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) those receiving the prestigious honor include: dr timothy davis (computer science and engineering); dr anthony guiseppi-elie (biomedical engineering); dr jiang hu (electrical and computer engineering); dr peng li (electrical and computer engineering); dr daniele mortari (aerospace engineering); and dr xi zhang (electrical and computer engineering) guiseppi-elie who joined the texas a&m faculty in august of last year is on the list under his previous university clemson university the ieee fellow is one of the most prestigious honors of the ieee and it is bestowed upon a very limited number of senior members said m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of engineering having so many texas a&m engineering faculty members named fellows in one year speaks to the excellence we have within our ranks the ieee fellow distinction is bestowed upon a very limited number of senior members who have contributed importantly to the advancement or application of engineering science and technology bringing significant value to society the number of ieee fellows elevated in a year is no more than one-tenth of one percent of the total ieee voting membership davis professor in the department of computer science and engineering was honored for contributions to sparse matrix algorithms and software guiseppi-elie tees professor and head of the department of biomedical engineering was honored for contributions to organic electronic materials in biotechnology and biomedicine hu professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering was honored for contributions to gate interconnect and clock network optimization in vlsi circuits li professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering was honored for contributions to the analysis and modeling of integrated circuits and systems mortari professor in the department of aerospace engineering was honored for contributions to navigational aspects of space systems zhang professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering was honored for contributions to quality of service in mobile wireless networks ieee is the worlds leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity through its 400 000 members in 160 countries ieee is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering electric power and consumer electronics dedicated to the advancement of technology ieee publishes 30 percent of the worlds literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields and has developed more than 900 active industry standards the association also sponsors or co-sponsors nearly 400 international technical conferences each year for more information about ieee or the ieee fellow program visit the ieee website
the texas a&m engineering experiment stations nuclear security science and policy institute (nsspi) at texas a&m university and pandit deendayal petroleum university (pdpu) co-hosted a two and half-day nuclear security training workshop for the indian academics from feb 10-12 the workshop was held at the pdpu campus in gandhinagar (gujarat state) india and was sponsored by the us department of states partnership for nuclear security (pns) with support from crdf global the audience for the workshop included 21 faculty members and 43 students from ten different universities in india the workshop covered 16 lectures on nuclear security fundamentals nuclear security culture insider threat and insider threat mitigation the us team included pns program officer priya sethi along with nsspi interim director dr sunil chirayath and nsspi senior research engineer and assistant professor of nuclear engineering dr craig marianno both of whom lectured at the workshop indian faculty delivered approximately half of the lectures at the workshop these faculty were trained through various pns-sponsored programs including the nuclear security training series an annual summer program for indian academics that takes place at texas a&m and the us national laboratories and the advanced nuclear security workshop for indian universities a four-day workshop in india led by nsspi faculty indian faculty and technical experts from sandia national laboratories all of these activities are intended to promote the integration of nuclear security topics into the normal course of study for students in indian nuclear engineering programs (top photo: dr sunil chirayath lectures at the workshop)
the 2015 clean air through energy efficiency (catee) awards were handed out during the texas a&m engineering experiment stations energy systems laboratorys annual catee conference in december the awards were presented by texas rep tony dale the annual catee awards recognize individuals organizations and companies that have demonstrated outstanding or unique contributions to clean air through energy efficiency and renewable energy actions or programs brian yeoman was awarded the gregg cooke award for excellence in environmental leadership a new award the energy systems laboratory partner of the year was awarded for the first time the inaugural award went to the houston airport system the categories and honorees selected for recognition were: outstanding government organization travis county texas outstanding non-profit organization the south-central partnership for energy efficiency as a resource (speer) energy systems laboratory partner of the year houston airport system city of houston gregg cooke award for excellence in environmental leadership brian yeoman city advisor houston c40 the cities climate leadership group the awards ceremony was held dec 3 2015 at the hotel galvez & spa
dr alan needleman tees distinguished research professor in the department of materials science and engineering at texas a&m university chaired the program committee for the 2016 annual conference of the academy of medicine engineering and science of texas (tamest) the program was held in dallas and the theme was challenges and opportunities in materials science and engineering in the 21st century founded in 2004 and with 260-plus members tamest is composed of the texas-based members of the national academies of sciences engineering and medicine and the states nobel laureates tamest brought the states top scientific academic and corporate minds together to further position texas as a national research leader this years event marked the 10th anniversary of the edith and peter odonnell awards established in 2006 to recognize the states most promising young researchers the odonnell awards have honored a total of 44 individuals for their achievements in medicine engineering and science following welcoming remarks by kenneth arnold tamests 2015 president and dr cd mote jr president of national academy of engineering needleman a member of national academy of engineering introduced the program the 2016 tamest annual conference highlighted recent developments in materials science and engineering that are and will be leading to qualitative changes in the way products are manufactured in the way medicine is practiced and the way energy is provided to our society said needleman it provided a window into materials science and engineering developments that will affect how we will live and how we will do business in 21st century texas the program highlighted advances in the fundamental understanding of the behavior of materials and in transitioning that understanding into products and processes that people can use to meet 21st century grand challenges in health care in providing energy in improving environmental quality and in providing a robust economy there were presentations by individuals whose work is defining the frontiers of materials science and engineering on new manufacturing technologies novel materials system design and performance on earth and in space materials for sustainable energy advances in biomaterials including drug delivery and tissue engineering and computational modeling that is making the virtual design of materials an emerging possibility texas a&m attendees associated with the department of materials science and engineering included dr dimitris c lagoudas deputy director of tees associate vice chancellor for engineering research and university distinguished professor; dr ibrahim karaman head and chevron professor i in materials science and engineering; and dr amine benzerga associate professor in the department of aerospace engineering and an affiliated faculty member in materials science and engineering
dr ben zoghi assistant agency director for corporate relations for the texas a&m engineering experiment station and the victor h thompson professor in the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution at texas a&m university has been appointed editor-in-chief of the international journal of automated identification technology (ijait) ijiat is a peer-reviewed journal that addresses issues of automated identification technology (ait) which relies on advanced computer technology ait is used in disciplines such as medical and health care systems product and asset tracking production and manufacturing streamlining supply chain management access control and criminal identification zoghi joined the faculty at texas a&m in 1993 as an associate professor in 1999 he was named a professor and in 2009 was named holder of the victor h thompson endowed chair professorship he received his bachelors degree in electrical engineering from seattle university and his masters degree also in electrical engineering from the ohio state university he earned his phd in bioengineering/electrical engineering from texas a&m in 1993 his research interests include rfid/sensor system applications and emotional intelligence
scoliosis is typically defined as the curvature of the spine which in severe cases can lead to severe physical deformity in addition to pulmonary and cardiac problems early-onset scoliosis refers to spine deformity that is present before 10 years of age children with early-onset scoliosis often spend their entire childhood undergoing several surgical procedures to correct the curve in their spine surgeons implant metallic growing rods in the spine and expand them in bi-annual surgeries to keep up with the childs growth as the body moves the screws attaching the rods to the bone become loose increasing the chances of additional complicated surgeries to keep the rod in place dr ji ma texas a&m engineering experiment station assistant research scientist and dr ibrahim karaman chevron professor i and head of the department of materials science and engineering at texas a&m university have designed a growing rod material that can significantly reduce the complications from corrective surgeries the material a superelastic adaptive alloy is five times more flexible than any currently available growing rod implants it allows natural movement of the body and adjusts itself depending on the stress applied by the growing spine this could potentially improve the success rate of the treatment materials composing the implant are required to be biocompatible fatigue and corrosion resistant and they have to be compatible with the biomechanical environment of the patients body and the bone
the bone is a living tissue that responds to the change in forces that arise once an implant is mechanically fixed to the skeleton unfortunately the large mismatch between the mechanical properties of the metallic implants and the bone frequently result in complications such as implant loosening bone atrophy from stress shielding and bone disease near implant extremities these problems become increasingly important in young patients with osteoporotic or immature bones where implant-related complication rates are markedly higher the researchers say using a series of thermo-mechanical processing steps ma and karaman engineered a new titanium shape memory alloy it possesses stress-dependent elastic properties that gradually decrease as the stress on it is increased by modifying these properties to fit the biomechanical environment of the bone it is now possible to create a device that satisfies the seemingly conflicting requirements of rigidity and flexibility required in growing rods said ma the adaptive alloy allows growing rods to bend at the ends and stay stiff in the middle giving the necessary support to the spine the patients natural movements stay flexible due to reduced friction and stress this is not something you can do with all materials said ma we preserve the strength and add flexibility to the implants without compromising the mechanical properties karamans national science foundation grant design and in-vitro characterization of ni-free biocompatible shape memory alloys led to the present-day technology and its application in early onset scoliosis treatment the researchers set out to develop a titanium-niobium alloy as an alternative to nickel titanium shape memory alloy since it has better biocompatibility and corrosion resistance similar to the human bone they later found evidence that nickel titanium alloy offered the same properties as the titanium niobium alloy currently they are using both the alloys as candidates for the application in growing rods the adaptive alloy is designed to have bio-inert constituents less sensitivity to impurities and inclusions better corrosion resistance more stable fatigue response and predictable fatigue life ma and karaman are now working with dr dennis devito at childrens orthopedics of atlanta to get a surgeons perspective on effective application of the technology all children experience at least one complication during their treatment said devito ma and karamans research offers a potential solution to some of the complications the researchers have begun to commercialize the adaptive alloy technology in 2015 they co-founded adallo llc with eric flickinger ceo at meditech spine llc to develop prototype testing top photo: dr ji ma with a sample of growing rod developed with the adaptive alloy technology at the microstructural engineering of structural and active materials (mesam) laboratory
dr satish bukkapatnam and dr cèsar malavè of the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university have been selected to receive the fellow award from the institute of industrial and systems engineers (iise) bukkapatnam is a professor in the department and director of the texas a&m engineering experiment stations institute for manufacturing systems and malavè is the head of the department the fellow award recognizes outstanding leaders who have made significant nationally recognized contributions to industrial engineering this is the highest classification of iise membership
bukkapatnam and malavè are both leaders in promoting industrial engineering and continue to enhance the impact of the industry through promotional activities they have each served in national and international groups relating to industrial engineering and work to enhance the visibility of the industry these qualities among others qualify bukkapatnam and malavè for this honor the pair was selected by the fellows committee to attend a reception and awards banquet at the iise annual conference and expo in may
the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m university and the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) presented awards for excellence in retention as part of the hispanic serving institutions (hsi) pre-conference on retention and transition on march 30 mountain view college–dallas county community college district dallas; san jacinto college–south houston; and south texas college mcallen were each awarded $1 500 in recognition of their promising practices for innovative retention and transition programs through virtual environments learning communities dual enrollment programs and dedicated faculty and staff the award winners created model programs with proven student success these award-winning programs exemplify what it takes to help students succeed in science technology engineering and mathematicsnot only at their two-year institutions but also in the four-year institutions where the students transfer said dr teri reed assistant vice chancellor of academic affairs for the look college and assistant agency director of workforce development for tees we chose each of these colleges because their ability to inspire students inspired us held the day before the annual mid years engineering experience conference the pre-conference provides hispanic serving institutions from across texas the opportunity to address barriers and challenges for students transitioning from two-year to four-year engineering institutions and is funded by a national science foundation grant elaine mendoza vice chairman of the texas a&m university system board of regents presented the awards during a ceremony at the hilton college station & conference center photo from left: regent mendoza; dr kelli davis interim university relations officer south texas college; andrew vines department chair chemistry engineering geology and physics san jacinto college–south; dr karen duston engineering program coordinator san jacinto college–south; and dr stephen l jones executive dean of the science technology engineering and mathematics division mountain view college
donald bruss a graduate student in the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university won an outstanding poster award at the national nuclear security administrations (nnsa) 2016 stewardship science academic programs (ssap) symposium in bethesda maryland the ssap symposium serves to highlight the accomplishments of the different academic programs nnsa sponsors through promoting academic interaction between programs and fostering a collegiate and interactive spirit between members of the scientific community and the attending students brusss poster was entitled uq for radiation transport problems with uncertain cross sections bruss and other students in the department were taken to the symposium under the guidance of dr jim morel director of the center for large-scale scientific simulations and professor of nuclear engineering at texas a&m morel presented the work the students were doing as a part of the center for exascale radiation transport (cert) at texas a&m a multidisciplinary project within nnsas predictive science academic alliance program sponsored by the advanced simulation and computing program cert is dedicated to the development of computational techniques that simulate the transport of thermal radiation and predictive science techniques to quantify uncertainty in simulated results the center for large-scale scientific simulations which is a joint center of texas a&m and the texas a&m engineering experiment station organized the proposal for cert and locally administers the project we are examining uncertainty in radiation transport calculations due to uncertainty in the nuclear data bruss said the problem is challenging because of the sheer size of the uncertain data there are thousands of uncertain correlated cross sections that must be provided as material properties for the simulation our method relies upon a physics-based dimension reduction an uncertainty-based dimension reduction and an adjoint sensitivity method to reduce the dimensionality of the problem to a size we can analyze in a reasonable amount of time the two-day conference featured speakers from nnsa and several partnership universities within the ssap program and other collaborative programs underneath nnsa morel gave a presentation that included an overview of cert and its project components integration methods and more the conference was a fun experience and it was a very pleasant surprise to win the outstanding poster award bruss said
the texas a&m university system water-energy-food nexus initiative (wef nexus) was one of a select group of projects presented march 22 at the first-ever white house water summit dr rabi h mohtar texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) endowed professor in the biological and agricultural engineering and civil and environmental engineering departments at texas a&m university leads the wef nexus initiative mohtar participated in the white house summit which coincided with international water day and included presentations and demonstration activities our wef nexus initiative links science to policy and utilizes holistic approaches and integrative modeling for sustainable water energy and food resources management mohtar said the project brings together broad expertise from engineering agriculture policy geosciences behavioral sciences law and others to help bridge the anticipated water gap in texas it will utilize a set of new analytical tools to aid in municipal water management according to researchers the tools will initially be deployed in the san antonio region with a goal of adapting and expanding their application throughout texas and nationally the initiative will develop a community of practice to identify and respond to national and global opportunities to assist in developing wef management practices the group will develop an educational framework to teach stakeholders about using the nexus approach to achieve the development of new analytical tools for planning and management of water resources in municipal areas and to develop a diverse community of wef nexus-informed leaders the initiative is supported by the texas a&m vice chancellor for research the texas a&m vice president for research 41 institute texas a&m agrilife college of engineering college of agriculture and life sciences college of geosciences george bush school of government and public service and tees mohtar said more than 250 scientists from across the texas a&m system have joined those contributing to the initiatives work wef nexus project leaders include mohtar; dr john tracy texas water resources institute director; dr kevin wagner texas water resources associate director; dr christodoulos floudas texas a&m energy institute director; dr jack baldauf texas a&m executive associate dean for research; dr elsa murano norman e borlaug institute for international agriculture director; dr bruce mccarl texas a&m agrilife research economist; and arnold vedlitz bush school of government and public service executive associate dean director institute for science technology and public policy
the inaugural asia turbomachinery and pump symposium (atps) organized by the texas a&m engineering experiment stations turbomachinery laboratory debuted feb 22-26 2016 at the marina bay sands in singapore asias market center the event serves as an ideal training and networking opportunity for professionals in both turbomachinery and pump industries building on the outstanding success of the longstanding turbomachinery and pump symposia held annually in houston texas the success of atps 2016 notably marks the turbo labs largest foray into asia with more than 900 individuals in attendance 42 companies in 67 booths 90 hand-selected technical sessions and plans for an atps 2018 already underway atps 2016s technical program presented by engineers and selected by an advisory committee of industry experts included topics such as maintenance design and troubleshooting as well as case studies describing in-the-field problems and their real-world solutions the extensive program featured 24 case studies 16 lectures 10 short courses 6 technical briefs 22 tutorials and 12 discussion groups for a total of 90 sessions by attending all or part of the sessions working engineers earned continuing education credit the technical program is neatly coupled with a cutting-edge exhibit hall with booths of leading companies from the oil and gas petrochemical power pumping and turbomachinery industries exhibitors and attendees from 38 countries networked within the marina bay sands exhibit hall a from its inception atps was met with great enthusiasm receiving considerable financial academic and partnering support from a diverse array of institutions including mitsubishi heavy industries ltd elliott group ebara corp the national university of singapore nanyang technological university the korea rotating machinery engineers association the singapore workforce development agency the singapore exhibition and convention bureau and the gas turbine users forum much needed in the region atps has established a vital forum for interchange of ideas among users oems and service providers said dr luis san andrés atps advisory committee chairman and turbo lab associate director there is an obvious interest in the engineering community in the knowledge provided by the atps program content and in the interactive forum of atps since the close of atps 2016 the enthusiasm has not diminished on the contrary plans for a stand-alone technical program in singapore 2017 are currently under discussion and atps 2018 is already confirmed with planning underway
for 20 years industry professionals from across the globe have flocked to college station texas for the process engineering r&d centers (formerly the food protein research and development center) short course snack food processing why do people travel so far for a short course about snack food this is the only course where companies can send their employees to learn about extruded snack and tortilla chips and can see practical demonstration in one place said dr mian riaz center director and head of the extrusion technology program at texas a&m university the course provides an overview about snack food processing from raw material all the way to coating and packaging its a great opportunity for new employees and research and development to learn the practical aspects of snack manufacturing the annual short course has three main objectives: to train production personnel in principles and characteristics of extruders and support systems for effective selection and operation; review current practices for preparation of fried corn chips corn tortilla chips half products and other extruded snacks; and demonstrate equipment in operation and familiarize attendees with practical aspects of snack foods processing technology this year 51 attendees from 12 countries including colombia great britain korea malaysia myanmar and pakistan attended the weeklong short course the course is a blend of classroom lectures and practical demonstrations conducted at the centers facility on the texas a&m riverside campus and on the texas a&m university campus the next scheduled short course is extruded pet foods and treats on july 25-28 photo: short course attendees watch a demonstration of snack food production using a single screw extruder
with more devices connected to the internet homes have become smarter its possible for a refrigerator to send shopping reminders and to control the lights or thermostat while away from home but as the things around us become smarter there is a growing need to ensure that they also become safer texas a&m university has long been a leader in cybersecurity but with the formation of the texas a&m cybersecurity center the university looks to take on a larger role in tackling some of the biggest challenges of the 21st century dr daniel ragsdale a retired army colonel and distinguished texas a&m alumni who received his phd in computer science from texas a&m in 2001 is leading those efforts as the director of the center which is a joint endeavor between the university and the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) ragsdale joined texas a&m in 2015 as a professor of practice after working for the defense advanced research projects agency (darpa) where he was awarded the secretary of defense medal for exceptional civilian service the highest decoration for non-career federal employees we believe that texas a&m can contribute not only to national and economic security but also to the social good and thats the really inspiring vision for our center ragsdale said cybersecurity is a subject that covers a vast array of disciplines with a definition so technical that ragsdale believes the subject has been hard for people to grasp most people understand the data and information aspect of cybersecurity but he believes many dont fully understand what the industry calls the internet of things as more and more components are connected they can have an influence on the physical world he said most people dont fully appreciate what that means through hacking into any one of these systems they can change something in the physical world thats very different from traditional information technology (it) it systems focus almost exclusively on processing transmitting and storing data if the information stored on these systems were stolen modified or deleted that could be highly disruptive but with the internet of things and industrial controls systems weve integrated components that dont just manipulate data they change the physical world around us potentially in scary life-threatening ways
dr robin murphy raytheon professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university has been named one of the 30 most innovative women professors alive today by the best masters degrees a website that provides reviews and rankings to help narrow down the field when it comes to selecting which programs to pursue in higher education the female professors on this list are some of the most impressive and innovative in the united states they have been chosen and ranked based upon their individual successes in their respective fields including politics robotics mechanical engineering literature and law to name but a few murphy is director of the texas a&m engineering experiment stations center for emergency informatics which includes the center for robot-assisted search and rescue (crasar) at texas a&m crasar is one of only two centers in the world specializing in disaster robotics she established the field of disaster robotics in 1995 alongside dr satoshi tadokoro of the international rescue systems institute at tohoku university along with directing crasar murphy also founded roboticists without borders a program designed to bring together groups of professionals in ground aerial or marine robots or emergency response to aid in the recovery after an incident occurs at no cost to responders and agencies as stated in her tedwomen talk in may 2015 if you can reduce the initial response by one day you can reduce the overall recovery by 1 000 days or three years she works tirelessly to reach her ultimate goal of saving lives with robotics among her numerous awards murphy recently received the association for computing machinery eugene lawler award for humanitarian contributions within computer science and informatics beyond innovative research murphy has employed innovative means of engaging students and the public she created robot petting zoos which have been held at south by southwest and other venues introducing robots to over 5 000 participants she has a blog and a new book robotics through science fiction which uses classic science fiction stories to explain robotics her research interests include human-robot interaction heterogeneous teams victim management perceptual directed behavior-based control and artificial intelligence as applied to emergency informatics and research especially with tactical land sea and air vehicles
offshore innovation may get easier – and less expensive – with a new online database launched by the ocean energy safety institute (oesi) through its partnership with the university of houston the ocean energy technology portal (oetp) allows companies to search proven technologies developed by federal agencies and other organizations that could address some of their own research problems the database currently includes about 100 000 projects including research by nasa the bureau of safety and environmental enforcement (bsee) the national energy technology labs and the european space agency several other international organizations have expressed interest and more partners will be added said paul robinson program manager for oesi who has directed the project the portal is a great example of how we are bringing together the many stakeholders in offshore oil and gas to further enable safer and environmentally responsible ocean energy operations said jim pettigrew oesi director of operations this project goes directly to our primary focus of creating opportunities for dialogue and developing collaborative research efforts oesi was established by bsee in november 2013 to provide both industry and federal regulators reliable information about safety issues in offshore drilling three texas universities – the university of houston texas a&m university and the university of texas at austin – are partners in the institute which is managed by the texas a&m engineering experiment stations mary kay oconnor process safety center a federal advisory group comprised of representatives from industry federal agencies non-governmental organizations and the academic community recommended forming the institute after the 2010 deepwater horizon oil spill it does not have regulatory authority but is charged with providing unbiased independent and science-based information bsee asked us to review the state of research involving deepwater oil and gas robinson said i found that most companies were working independently with little interaction or input from other industries there was obvious financial resource waste and limited collaboration he said the portal was proposed to allow people to better coordinate making publicly funded research more readily available robinson said private companies can offer their own research catalogues – either complete technologies or just the abstract many of the technologies included in the oetp include contact information for people who want to learn more now with low oil prices forcing producers to cut their capital and research budgets is the perfect time for the project allowing them to keep up with technology without starting every project from scratch robinson said they know they have to keep advancing or theyll be behind when the market comes back for additional information about the ocean energy safety institute visit oesitamuedu
dr bonnie j dunbar director of the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) institute of engineering educations and innovation has been awarded membership into the international honor society for systems engineering by the omega alpha association board of directors the omega alpha association was organized as the international honor society for systems engineering to recognize and honor truly distinguished individuals though election to membership and to celebrate contributions by individuals to the advancement and practice of systems engineering the objective of the association is to advance the systems engineering process and its professional practice in service to others dunbar a retired nasa astronaut joined texas a&m engineering in january and also serves as a tees distinguished research professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university dunbar who is a member of the prestigious national academy of engineering came to a&m from the university of houston where she provided leadership in the development of a new integrated university science technology engineering and mathematics (stem) center she was an md anderson professor of mechanical engineering and she developed a new innovative course for the introduction of engineering to freshmen students she also directed the sicsa space architecture graduate program she has devoted her life to furthering engineering engineering education and the pursuit of human space exploration
two texas a&m university students in the department of computer science and engineering ryan vrecenar and zach varnadore completed all four tiers of the third annual national security agency 2015 codebreaker challenge – an impressive feat very few have accomplished more than 2 000 students from colleges and universities nationwide competed in the prestigious challenge which lends students the opportunity to test their creative problem solving abilities in order to solve a fictitious but realistic cyber threat texas a&m ranked fifth in student participation only 54 students solved all four tiers the nsa builds the challenge in a way that each tier becomes progressively more difficult and poses a completely new problem to be solved by the students varnadore said that he has learned a lot of what he used for the challenge through the education he is receiving at texas a&m i was able to complete the challenge using knowledge tactics and intuition that i have learned over the past year or two from studying certain computer engineering topics such as reverse engineering he said the challenge designed to create a platform for students across the nation to develop the mindset required to solve real world problems is anticipated to grow and continually improve in the years to come the codebreaker challenge was a truly intriguing experience vrecenar said i embrace the challenges and entered the phd program to gain advanced training in math modeling and algorithms design it is truly an invaluable experience to better grasp safe programming and have fun taking apart binary in addition to vrecenar and varnadores success the university also performed well as part of a sponsored activity by the recently-formed texas a&m cybersecurity club the university finished seventh overall out of the 329 schools and ranked first as the school with the most level 1 solutions dr dan ragsdale director of the texas a&m cybersecurity center and professor of practice at texas a&m and dr philip ritchey instructional assistant professor are the faculty advisors for the cybersecurity club which serves as an open forum for students to engage in community service projects and to compete against students at other universities in cyber defense and "capture the flag" competitions photo left to right: ragsdale varnadore vrecenar and dr steve liu professor department of computer science and engineering
dr costas georghiades associate dean for research and texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) associate agency director for strategic initiatives and centers has been appointed texas a&m universitys new senior associate vice president for research his appointment is effective april 1 we are grateful for dr georghiades many contributions to the texas a&m engineering program during his distinguished career said m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of engineering we wish dr georghiades the best in his new position and look forward to continued collaborations and interactions