houck2040/tees huggingface dataset:
dr robert randall made me feel important no matter what my grades were and found the spot for each person teaching us to be all we could be from a fun educational and career-building way smith said in 1997 he decided to embark on a journey of his own to provide save-the-day products and services to oil companies deep down inc was founded and has since supported companies on some of the most important field developments in the world and some of the most critical catastrophes it was mine and patrice chemins president of stolt comex seaway effort to talk our respective bosses into forming an alliance between kvaerner and stolt comex seaway to provide turnkey supply and installation of our steel tube umbilicals smith said shell decided to form a frame agreement on who would supply all their complete subsea systems and fmc technologies was awarded the contract shortly afterwards shell consolidated the controls into fmc and agreed to start using kongsberg controls an fmc owned company with fmc and shift to an all-inclusive frame agreement of fmc supply shell could no longer support smiths company from kvaerner fssl as they were competitors to fmc while discussing my predicament with patrice he told me ‘ron deep down youll never be truly happy until you have your own company hey you should call it deep down smith said so i took his advice and formed deep down inc in the following days what was once one person and then one specialized team on the deck of the vessel is now a team of about 100 people with a concentrated effort to keep it lean and mean in order to maintain all the expectations set out our client at bp once said ‘ddi is a small company that does big things which is something close to my heart smith said we now have all the systems in place to either maintain this 100-person level with all the safety and quality that goes with it or increase to two or three times the size providing exponentially more to our clients and still maintain our core values and skill sets today his job description goes beyond ocean engineering and includes words such as influencer professional mentor and role model smith is a platinum level sponsor of the aggie ocean discovery xprize student team that has now reached the finalist level of the international shell ocean discovery xprize competition it meant a lot to be there for the faculty and the students to share how their education and my experience has been a good blend to help both the professors in their teaching and the students in their learning smith said my niche is promoting that balance i keep talking about also by opening my shop and team to the students in an internship makes me proud to see our influence start to take roots and see the students grow in front of our very eyes i want to continue to do this
smith was named the inaugural department of ocean engineering outstanding alumni last fall in recognition of his work and support of the department smith credits his teaching and mentoring style to another mentor of his own captain peter bamber a marine superintendent from his days at odeco he was a british sea captain in the british and cajun navys in which education was focused on academic growth and internships as they did in the united kingdom smith said he pushed me to develop the skillsets to solve the offshore problems and find the best balance of education and experience i think this is where i get much of my training aptitude and desire to have interns like the xprize team in my company i want to give back smith encourages new graduates to take the time to learn from those who have been in the industry for a while as he did respect those old guys in the field and learn from them by listening and working with them smith said get as much offshore experience as possible and blend it with the education and find your own balance whether it is most education with a little experience or most experience with a little education or smack down the middle
kyle fields hall of champions was packed for the sixth annual engineering project showcase the annual celebration of the technical accomplishments of texas a&m universitys engineering undergraduate students more than 200 teams with freshmen to seniors across all engineering departments participated and presented their team projects through posters and prototypes to industry judges in competition for top awards while not mandatory a great deal of the projects at showcase this year relied on functioning prototypes to demonstrate their progress and mastery of the need statement they chose to answer the student team behind the low-cost field-use nystagmus (fun) recorder demonstrated their goggles much to the delight of showcase attendees while the ultimate purpose of the goggles is to assist law enforcement in the conviction of duis by recording rapid eye movement the demonstrator entertained the crowd with over-enlarged eyes from magnifying glasses people will be charged but not convicted because a lot of evidence is thrown out said christopher vega biomedical engineering senior these will record the eyes illuminate them and make it a lot more constant so that in a court of law the evidence is fully admissible and it can actually assist in getting a drunk driver off the streets and keeping the streets a lot safer the students worked with the local sheriffs department as well as a local ear nose and throat physician when the biomedical engineering department was presented with the conviction challenge as well as the overall hopes for an end result the student team came up with the fun goggles
a senior design course capstone team in the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university won first place in the texas space grant consortium (tsgc) design challenge for their presentation on 3d printed antennas the tsgc design challenge is a unique academic experience offering undergraduate students an opportunity to propose design and fabricate a solution to a toward solving research objectives of importance to nasa and its mission the team isen team 10 nasa won first place in top design second in best poster and best model and third in best oral presentation at the event team members included undergraduate students gregory bair cindy zuniga stephanie urrutia and cameron wagner dr nancy currie-gregg professor of practice in the department of industrial and systems engineering and former astronaut was the teams faculty advisor as space exploration deepens resupply missions are become more and more complex making 3d printing a preferred solution said urrutia if a part breaks or is missing a 3d printer could print a part in a matter of hours rather than having to wait weeks or months for a resupply mission the challenge tasked competitors with evaluating the performance of commercially available 3d conductive filaments in antenna applications with recent advances in 3d printing methods a wide variety of new filaments have been developed including conductive filaments said urrutia we selected two pla filaments; graphite pla by proto-pasta and f-electric by functionalize we then made a model of a horn antenna using solidworks and printed it at the engineering innovation center with the help of the department of electrical and computer engineering the team conducted an impedance and radiation pattern test while the antennas were not conductive enough to perform as antennas the team learned valuable information from the experience as an industrial engineer i only had a basic understanding of electrical engineering concepts and 3d printing said urrutia i spoke to subject matter experts and brought their knowledge together to complete the project this was the first time i had the opportunity to work with a multidisciplinary team and i thoroughly enjoyed it currie-gregg enjoyed mentoring the students and was proud of the manner in which they represented the department college and university the students were extremely enthusiastic and learned a tremendous amount throughout the semester including technical skills such as cad design and additive manufacturing project management skills and the importance of collaboration with other engineering disciplines said currie-gregg
team gleans new insights on key material engineers from texas a&m university and virginia tech report important new insights into nanoporous gold--a material with growing applications in several areas including energy storage and biomedical devices--all without stepping into a lab instead of conducting any additional experiments the team used image-analysis software developed in-house to mine the existing literature on nanoporous gold (npg) specifically the software analyzed photographs of npg from some 150 peer-reviewed papers quickly measuring key features of the material that the researchers then correlated with written descriptions of how the samples were prepared one of the results a recipe of sorts for how to make npg with specific characteristics
water is a resource that is not only in constant demand but also has the power to cause catastrophic damage to urban communities these communities need a resilient infrastructure as a resource in order to be adaptable and effective stewards of the resources
texas a&m university zachry department of civil engineering doctoral student kambiz rasoulkhani has dedicated himself to studying the long-term resilience of water infrastructure systems in urban communities he evaluated these communities using simulations based on current day data creating projections on how resilient a communitys infrastructure might be over a period of 50 to 100 years in the future the goal of his work is to see the effects of natural disasters on a citys long-term infrastructure sustainability work for which he was recognized at the 2018 american society of civil engineers construction research congress im interested in applying technical and infrastructure solutions that can enhance the urban water infrastructure resilience on both the demand and supply side of water utilities said rasoulkhani on the demand side i attempted to identify pathways leading toward [increased] adoption of conservation technologies for water users like you and i and on the supply side i examined the effectiveness of physical infrastructure solutions for the water utilities professionals who are making decisions on how the water infrastructure system is managed in his research rasoulkhani used a simulation research approach applying multi-agent based modeling to look at the long-term effects of the mechanisms underlying a water distribution infrastructures behavior he has developed simulation models to capture long-term performance metrics based on data collected in cities across the country such as fort collins colorado
im not looking at just a single pipeline rasoulkhani said im looking at the whole system in this which is what is called a complex system approach in looking at the data from fort collins we can capture the dynamics of singular and dual water distribution systems and compare them over an extended 50-year horizon through simulation to understand all the dynamics and life cycle costs rasoulkhani believes these models can be used by the city decision makers to implement strategies that can improve or enhance the resilience of urban infrastructure systems and help short- and long-term recovery from disasters like droughts and floods moving forward the next step in his research is to validate the findings of his study he looks to expand his study to include costal water infrastructure resilience by evaluating areas like miami florida that are more exposed to extreme weather events my ultimate goal in all of this is to help in the creation of sustainable cities rasoulkhani said for our future we have to make sure that we will have access to more water we have to make sure we have infrastructure that is resilient in order to be sustainable and thrive and this is part of that answer"
seven faculty members from the college of engineering were selected to receive a 2018 distinguished achievement award from texas a&m university and the association of former students they were among a group of 24 outstanding members of texas a&m faculty and staff who were honored first presented in 1955 the university-level distinguished achievement awards have been awarded to more than 1 000 professionals who have exhibited the highest standards of excellence at texas a&m the 2018 distinguished achievement awards were formally presented to the recipients on april 27 during ceremonies in rudder theatre on the texas a&m campus the 2018 recipients from the college of engineering were:
mark t holtzapple artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering
krishna r narayanan department of electrical and computer engineering
nancy amato department of computer science and engineering
perla b balbuena artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering
mladen kezunovic department of electrical and computer engineering
daniel a mcadams department of mechanical engineering
nk anand executive associate dean
nine sophomore and junior mechatronics engineering technology (mxet) students from texas a&m university took their first industry field trip to fort worth texas to visit and tour bell helicopter glenn isbell 96 vice president of rapid prototyping and manufacturing innovation and glenn rodriguez quality operations manager hosted the students visiting from the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution
isbell provided an introduction to bell helicopter including an update on their newest aircraft the v-22 (vertical take off and landing) osprey and the bell air taxi a joint project with uber through this overview and discussions it became very clear that the mxet curriculum which integrates mechanics electronics embedded computers control and communications is a perfect fit for entry level positions and rewarding careers at bell students then toured the bell manufacturing facilities of particular interest was the production and testing of composite helicopter blades and other major components used to manufacture advanced military and commercial aircraft
the group then visited the bell training center here students had the opportunity to learn about the different levels of simulators that bell has to train and certify helicopter pilots afterwards students visited the aircraft maintenance training facility where bell provides hands-on training for maintenance personnel from around the world the trip allowed the first cadre of mxet students to see the types of entry-level positions that will be available in the aerospace industry segment when they graduate having the opportunity to interact with these bright and inquisitive young men and women also generated interest in bell engineers and managers to engage in the new undergraduate program in mechatronics established by dr reza langari department head of the engineering technology and industrial distribution department mxet faculty and students are hopeful that bell will be ready to sponsor the first mxet capstone project in fall 2018 and take a leadership role in the development of the mxet industry advisory committee the mxet program will continue to visit and interact with the private and public sectors so students get a better idea about opportunities in other industry segments such as oil and gas and automotive to learn more about the mechatronics program contact dr joseph morgan
the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university was well-represented at the annual physics and engineering festival hosted by the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m on saturday april 7 the event boasted over 200 interactive demonstrations and lectures and over 5 000 visitors attended dr krishna narayanan the eric d rubin 06 professor and david gent a former student represented the electrical and computer engineering department during the festival and their presentations resonated with the community and drew interest in the field of electrical engineering and all the department is doing narayanans presentation centered on the voyager spacecraft which launched in 1977 there were two space probes in the original launch – one devoted to studying jupiter and saturn and the other to study uranus neptune and pluto voyager sent back pictures of jupiter saturn and the moons of jupiter then it continued on its way now billions of kilometers away we are still receiving signals from the spacecraft the question is ‘how are we still getting signals from there narayanan said you have to keep in mind that voyager was launched in 1977 in 1977 there wasnt a lot of technology the cell phone today is a more powerful computer than the computer that is on the voyager and we are still getting signals from there we talked about how electrical engineering and communications technologies make this possible
gent showcased several demonstrations including telegraphs a replica titanic transmitter an orange powered digital clock a morse code keyboard and more the hit of the show was my morse code keyboard gent said i let visitors type in their name so i would decode their name by ear as they typed many people thought i was a mind reader or at least had a hidden camera watching them type both narayanan and gent said that there was no shortage of interest in their demonstrations and that parents and children alike were excited and engaged the physics and engineering festival provides a venue for the department to highlight and share the exciting work that is being done with the public
innovation and advancements in biomedical and engineering research was the theme of this years lasker lecture and spring biomedical imaging symposium hosted by texas a&m university and the houston methodist hospitals enmed program event attendees came together april 25-26 to share best practices and attend sessions led by some of the nations most renowned experts in the fields of medicine and engineering dr roderic i pettigrew ceo of enhealth and executive dean of enmed gave the 2018 lasker lecture the prestigious lasker lecture is an honor bestowed upon a distinguished individual serves to advance public understanding and discourse about the ways in which we collectively pursue answers to questions posed by science and are intended to boost public understanding of the importance of biomedical research to society in conjunction with the lecture was the daylong spring biomedical imaging symposium which brought together interested parties for discussions concerning education ways to spur innovation and the future of the biomedical and engineering fields speakers included researchers and faculty members from md anderson ucla the mayo clinic harvard medical school houston methodist research institute rice university texas a&m the center for airborne pathogen research and tuberculosis imaging and the texas a&m institute for preclinical studies we are bringing together experts who share our vision to elevate discussion and inspire new ideas at the intersection of engineering and medicine said dr m katherine banks dean of texas a&m engineering in an opening address to attendees in the not-so-distant future we could engage robo-diagnosticians who prescribe custom 3-d printed pills conveniently delivered by drones to the patients location i am confident texas a&m and houston methodist will be well-regarded as pioneers in this new age dr carrie byington dean of the college of medicine at the texas a&m health science center echoed banks sentiment we will all benefit as the domains of scientific discovery technological innovation and health care converge the enmed program and the symposium embrace this future enmed is recognized as a first of its type innovative inter-institutional and intercollegiate academic and scholarly program launched as a venture among the college of engineering led by banks; the college of medicine led by byington; and the houston methodist research institute led by president and ceo dr mauro ferrari enmed has emerged as a national model for convergence at the level of the practice – the unified practice of engineering and medicine enmeds curriculum was recently approved by liaison committee on medical education (lcme) accreditation and the program is currently recruiting the inaugural class which will enter in 2019 each student enrolled in enmed will have an undergraduate degree in engineering or computing science then in four years they will earn their medical degree and a master of science in engineering enmed graduates will be both practicing physicians and trained engineers poised to tackle some of health cares greatest challenges through the invention of novel technologies
dr daniel a jiménez professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university has been appointed the interim chair of the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) computer society technical committee on computer architecture (tcca) tcca is a community of researchers and practitioners involved with the architecture (integrated hardware and software design) of general- and special-purpose computers this committee oversees ieee computer society activities related to computer architecture research including sponsorship of the ieee international symposium on high-performance computer architecture (hpca) and the association for computing machinery (acm)/ieee international symposium on computer architecture (isca) (shared with acm sigarch) as well as a number of other conferences as chair jiménez leads an executive committee of 18 highly qualified computer architects including many former program chairs and general chairs of isca hpca and other prestigious conferences this includes former chairs of tcca who also provide advice among other responsibilities tcca selects the program chairs and general chairs for the hpca conference and oversees the selection of the program committee for hpca they also cooperate with acm sigarch to select the program chairs and general chairs for the isca conference tcca also sponsors a number of awards many in cooperation with acm sigarch recent initiatives from tcca include improving diversity in their conferences as well as finding new ways to highlight the contributions of computer architecture research and researchers one of the main activities this year will be the 2018 isca conference during which david patterson and john l hennessy will give their acm turing award lecture jiménez and his acm sigarch counterpart will lead the isca business meeting where he will present outcomes of recent tcca activities and discuss new proposed activities including future venues for tcca sponsored conferences jiménezs term as interim chair will extend through september 2018 when a new election will determine the next tcca chair preceding his appointment as interim tcca chair jiménez served as a member of the tcca executive committee for several years as program chair of hpca 2017 and general chair of hpca 2011 as tcca chair he also become a member of the steering committee for the isca conference jiménezs research focuses are computer architecture and compilers he was inducted into the acm/ieee international symposium on microarchitecture (micro) hall of fame in 2017 and the ieee international symposium on high performance computer architecture (hpca) hall of fame in 2015 and is notable for inventing the perceptron branch predictor published with co-author dr calvin lin professor at the university of texas at austin as well as other impactful research
secretary of the us air force heather wilson and more than 400 invited guests from academia and industry gathered at texas a&m university for the air force science and technology 2030 forum texas a&m is honored to host secretary wilson and other distinguished guests on our campus today said michael k young president of texas a&m as a tier-one research university discovery and innovation are paramount to our mission in education and also in supporting the us air force in foreseeing tomorrows technology wilson launched an initiative in september 2017 to update the air forces science and technology strategy by hosting discussions about research innovations with the scientific community prestigious research universities and business professionals with this initiative we are going out to listen to americans from higher education to small and large businesses to understand what basic and applied technologies will help us create the next game-changing inventions for 2030 and beyond said maj gen william cooley air force research laboratory commander ­ texas a&m has a long history of producing talented graduates who go on to distinguished careers in the air force and our other military branches said wilson we look forward to engaging with the university on the basic and applied research that will shape the future of our air force as one of only 17 institutions in the nation to be designated a land- sea- and space-grant university texas a&m was the perfect setting for this unique opportunity to help shape discussions on research innovations for the next generation of technology used by the us air force some of the most important and high-stakes research in the country is going on right here at texas a&m university said texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp aggies can always be counted on to help with matters of national security panel discussions at the workshop focused on four important research areas: space situational awareness; nuclear delivery systems; hypersonics lasers and electromagnetics; and engineering and military medicine texas a&m has one of the largest and most diverse defense research programs in the nation and a long history with the air force in advancing key technologies said m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of texas a&m engineering we are honored to host this forward-thinking and vision-inspiring event as the air force prepares for a technology future that for many is difficult to fathom ideas generated from the forums will be gathered and those with the greatest promise will be considered by a panel chaired by the chief scientist of the air force selected research opportunities will then be documented in a formal report to the secretary of the air force in september to help shape air force research investments over the coming decade texas a&m is one of six university locations across the country to host the air force science and technology 2030 forum the forums were held earlier in the year at the university of nebraska university of south florida indiana university and university of washington the final forum will be held at the university of utah
the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) and the texas a&m university division of research hosted a national science foundation (nsf) faculty early career development (career) proposal writing workshop featuring dr george hazelrigg a former nsf program officer who has been speaking at similar workshops for more than 15 years the prestigious nsf career program is a foundation-wide activity that offers the nsfs most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization which offers funding for five years activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research this workshop was organized at the initiative of dr zj pei who has participated in similar workshops in earlier years while he was at nsf said dr narasimha reddy associate agency director for strategic initiatives and centers at tees associate dean for research in the college of engineering and a career award recipient the strong participation from young faculty is a welcome sign that this workshop is addressing a clear need we hope the experience from this workshop will lead to better proposals and outcomes
nearly 100 junior faculty from tees texas a&m and texas a&m university system schools attended the workshop which included a lecture a question and answer session group exercises a mock review panel and a reception with hazelrigg tees leadership former nsf program directors senior faculty recent career awardees and other participants ive been working with junior faculty on their career proposals for over 15 years and this is one of the best overall workshop formats ive seen highlighted by strong interactions with multiple nsf program officers said dr laurie garton tees senior research development officer and organizer of the co-workshop
the department of biomedical engineering hosted biomaterials day at texas a&m university on june 1 it marked the ninth annual biomaterials day conference in texas and the fourth time it has been held at texas a&m the goal of biomaterials day which is sponsored by the society for biomaterials is to enhance networking between academic and industrial sectors and increase student exposure to exciting biomaterials research dr daniel alge assistant professor in the biomedical engineering department and lead organizer of the conference said the turnout was impressive there were 191 registrants for the conference representing texas a&m the university of texas at austin the university of texas at san antonio the university of texas at dallas rice university texas state university trinity university the university of oklahoma the us army institute for surgical research abbott and integra life sciences in addition 100 abstracts were submitted for the poster session it was a testament to the vibrant biomaterials research community in the area alge said
the keynote address was delivered by dr steven little the william kepler whiteford endowed professor of chemical and petroleum engineering bioengineering pharmaceutical sciences immunology ophthalmology and the mcgowan institute for regenerative medicine at the university of pittsburgh littles research has resulted in 80 peer reviewed publications four us patents and the founding of two spin-out companies located in pittsburgh pa he serves as the 12th chairman of the department of chemical and petroleum engineering the event also included invited talks by leading texas biomaterial scientists dr duncan maitland from the biomedical engineering department at texas a&m spoke of his work developing and translating occlusion devices using shape memory polymer foams other invited speakers were dr liping tang (department of bioengineering the university of texas at arlington) dr junghae suh (department of bioengineering rice university) dr eric brey (department of biomedical engineering the university of texas at san antonio) dr julie hakim (pediatric and adolescent gynecology baylor college of medicine) and dr jerome klawitter (integra life sciences) students presented during a poster session and nine were selected to deliver five-minute rapid-fire presentations awards were given to the top undergraduate and graduate student presenters in each category the winners for best rapid-fire presentation were marissa wechsler (graduate student in dr nicholas a peppas lab at the university of texas at austin) and michael talanker (undergraduate student in dr elizabeth cosgriff-hernandezs lab at the university of texas at austin) the winners for best poster were courtney shrode (undergraduate student in dr melissa grunlans lab at texas a&m) and kabir dhada (graduate student in dr laura suggs lab at the university of texas at austin) in addition to alge other biomedical engineering faculty who helped organize biomaterials day were dr melissa grunlan dr akhilesh gaharwar and dr corey bishop the student chapter of the society for biomaterials at texas a&m which is advised by alge also played a key role in planning the conference and ensuring its success the conference was sponsored by the society for biomaterials the texas a&m college of engineering the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m the office for commercialization and entrepreneurship at texas a&m the national center for therapeutics manufacturing at texas a&m the stephenson school of biomedical engineering at the university of oklahoma the paths-up engineering research center at texas a&m integra life sciences malvern panalytical anton paar netzsch and apl bioengineering
for decades biomedical engineers have used their acumen to revolutionize healthcare through the development of devices tools equipment techniques and pharmaceuticals that have advanced the medical field in ways previously unimaginable while patients around the world have benefited from this ingenuity those patients almost exclusively have had one thing in common-theyve all been human researchers in the texas a&m college of veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences (cvm) and the texas a&m college of engineering have teamed up to begin filling that gap in the biomedical engineering field--that of veterinary medicine-­by exploring the possibilities of what can be accomplished when innovative minds come together
getting to the heart of the problem dr ashley saunders a professor of cardiology and clinician in the veterinary medical teaching hospitals (vmth) small animal cardiology service began using 3d imaging and printing to create models of the heart to aid in the teaching of anatomy and preparing for complex surgeries for animals but while 3d models are useful in this regard the technology has not been a definitive training tool especially in the case of treating minimally invasive cardiology defects cardiology residents are taught heart and blood vessel catheterization through observation and practice relying on an understanding of the anatomy and the feel of inserting a catheter to perform a procedure teaching catheterization using 3d printed models is difficult because doctors cant see inside the blood vessels theyre trying to navigate and its also difficult to replicate the feel of an animals blood vessels; therefore doctors have to learn catheterization on a beating heart "thats how you learn" saunders said "thats how i learned" because heart defects like patent ductus arteriosus (pda)--a congenital defect characterized by an opening between two blood vessels leading from the heart--are the most commonly addressed congenital defect by cardiologists at texas a&ms small animal hospital (sah) saunders began looking to create a safer environment in which residents could learn and practice one in which the stakes werent quite so high enter dr duncan maitland the stewart & stevenson professor i in the college of engineerings department of biomedical engineering and dr mark wierzbicki a postdoctoral researcher in maitlands biomedical device laboratory
dr h gene hawkins a professor in the zachry department of civil engineering at texas a&m university has been named this years public-sector recipient for the john jake landen memorial highway safety award the annual award is supported by the american road and transportation builders association and traffic safety industry division and recognizes individuals from public and private sectors who have made significant contributions to roadway infrastructure safety previously hawkins was the former division head of the transportation and materials division within the department and before joining the department he was a research engineer with the texas a&m transportation institute for 18 years hawkins has done extensive research studies and presentations on traffic control devices and the manual on uniform traffic control devices that involve evaluating signs markings and other traffic control devices although signs and markings can be taken by granted by some users they play a pivotal role in our ability to travel safely from one place to another hawkins said as simple as signs and markings are i have spent most of my professional career researching ways of making them better hawkins has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than 20 research projects with a cumulative budget of $6 million his research interests include traffic control infrastructure retroreflectivity and visibility of traffic signs and pavement markings driver response to traffic control devices traffic engineering policy and guidelines signal design work zone traffic control freeway operations and historical aspects of transportation engineering according to hawkins the award was unexpected he said that he first became interested in traffic safety as a child when his father who was also a traffic engineer was explaining signs markings and signals to a young boyive worked with many great people during my career in consulting research and education said hawkins i learned a lot from them and they deserve a part of this award as much as i do
texas a&ms formula sae team is less than a month from international competition and the 22 members are revving their engines since august 2017 the team has been discussing designing building and testing a race car they created from scratch along with racing the car the students are judged on design cost of manufacturing their presentation of a business model and other vehicle components on top of building a car from scratch all the students graduated in may some will pursue masters degrees while others already have jobs lined up in the automotive and other industries
for many of the members their interest in the program was piqued when they first started at texas a&m although their interest in cars may have started long before growing up i bonded with my family by working on cars so then coming into college i wanted to study mechanical engineering so i could work on cars and this was the perfect opportunity to make a childhood dream come true said project manager spencer weaver over the past two semesters adam isaacks said he has been impressed by the work ethic of the group its pretty common that whenever youre put into a group where theres a project theres always going to be that one person who doesnt carry their weight he said but somehow on a team of 22 members theres not a single person who doesnt carry their weight and i think thats going to help us be successful
unlike other university teams texas a&ms team also doesnt pass along designs year to year instead they bring in a fresh approach to the design and data we do a full redesign every year while others will take the old design and tweak it said team member zach beck we make a new car from scratch every year there are a number of rules the students follow within the dimensions of a formula car so that the car remains safe for drivers this years team added another challenge by redesigning the cars chassis or frame which has been similar in the past several years were taking a whole new approach to it and the biggest challenge is figuring out does it fit into the rules can we actually build this and how will we package everything around this new design weaver said
the car is test drove on a concrete runway at the rellis campus but even with the practice weaver said the track will be different at competition making it hard to predict how the car will handle sarah rohmer team lead of the electrical subgroup crew chief and a purchasing manager for the team said she has appreciated the hands-on experience with automotive she has gained through the project ive seen firsthand how designs get implemented and problems that can happen she said when you look at a drawing on a computer its really hard to see and visualize all the problems that might arise but when youre working on the car you see ‘ooh a wrench cant fit in there that isnt the best design you see a lot more complications the team will head to lincoln nebraska in mid-june for the sae international competition june 19-23 where they will face 80 teams from schools across the country and world
renewable energy sources such as wind and wave can power our world currently mechanical gears are used inside of these energy conversion systems to connect a high-speed electric machine to a low-speed physical energy source improving the design of the systems that convert these sources into electrical energy has far-reaching benefits matthew gardner a doctoral student in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university is studying the use of magnetic gears and their advantages over the traditional mechanically geared machines
just like mechanical gears magnetic gears transform rotational power between different speeds and torques but instead of physically interlocking teeth they use magnetic fields by using magnets to transmit torque between the input and output shafts of the gear they avoid mechanical contact this provides a number of advantages such as reduced maintenance reduced acoustic noise and vibrations and improved overall reliability if too much torque is applied to mechanical gears they may break; if the same happens to magnetic gears the magnets will simply slip past each other without causing any damage in regard to wind and wave energy some gearing is necessary in machines to avoid the use of an extremely large and expensive generator for example special turbines convert the kinetic energy in the wind and water into power gearboxes within these mechanically geared systems are subject to severe loads and are often in locations where it is extremely expensive to replace or repair a failed gearbox with the use of magnetic gears the cost of maintenance would be significantly reduced magnetic gears drew my interest because they represent a potentially disruptive innovation in the field of electric machines gardner said much of the research in electric machines represents incremental improvements on the technology that has been developed over the last few hundred years however magnetic gears are a relatively new area of research and are currently not an industry accepted alternative to mechanical gears gardner looks to change that he has worked on a project sponsored by the us department of energy that reduced the cost of wave energy using magnetic gears together with the power and automation company abb gardner and his team built a magnetically geared machine prototype that is one of the largest in the world for its particular set of properties this machine is rated for about 4 000 newton meters of torque to put that into perspective most magnetic gears and magnetically geared machine prototypes in literature are rated for less than 150 newton meters our analysis found that using a magnetically geared generator would be about 50 percent smaller 50 percent lighter and 25 percent less expensive than using a generator without any gearing for this wave energy application gardner said on the other hand reliability concerns ruled out systems involving hydraulics or mechanical gearing gardner works in the advanced electrical machines and power electronics lab under dr hamid toliyat raytheon professor his work has been conducted largely in part with former doctoral student dr matthew johnson "matthew has done a lot of work that has the possibility to significantly transform the field of electric machines toliyat said i am excited about the opportunity to make a disruptive change in the field of electric machines gardner said magnetic gears and magnetically geared machines offer the possibility to provide a significant not just incremental improvement in systems involving electric machines
dr maria koliou an assistant professor in the zachry department of civil engineering at texas a&m university has been awarded a rapid grant (cmmi 1829433) from the national science foundation (nsf) to investigate the seismic resilience of wood frame building systems and explore the efficiency of various seismic retrofit/repair solutions in enhancing urban community resilience koliou is serving as the lead principal investigator in conjunction with dr shideh dashti an associate professor at university of colorado boulder dr keri ryan an associate professor at the university of nevada-reno and dr chris pantelides a professor at the university of utah who are serving as co-principal investigators this grant will allow researchers from the united states and japan to collaborate as a team to conduct experimental seismic studies on wood frame building systems the systems will be tested on the worlds largest earthquake shake table (e-defense) in miki japan in early 2019 past studies have made progress on understanding structural systems and nonstructural component response but this study will focus on building interactions with lifeline components and soil-structure interaction during seismic events kolious research interests consist of multi-hazard performance-based design of buildings and non-building structures engineering risk analysis post-disaster system functionality and community resilience collapse assessment of structural systems experimental methods in earthquake engineering and timber structures she has previously been awarded research grants on different aspects of her research portfolio including a seed grant through texas a&ms program to enhance scholarly and creative activities a rapid grant from the texas sea grant program through the national oceanic and atmospheric administration and a project on seismic testing of cross laminated timber structures from the us department of agriculture koliou has also recently received the structural engineering institutes young professional scholarship from the american society of civil engineers and an nsf-supported travel grant to attend the 2018 engineering mechanics institute conference
during the annual pregraduation celebration held in the harold vance department of petroleum engineering graduating students are recognized for outstanding performance service and other worthy attributes as voted on by faculty and their peers but senior students also have an opportunity to vote on and bestow one of the most coveted faculty awards in the department: the petroleum engineering department award for excellence in teaching established by dennis johnson 74 and amy and tim leach 82 this award recognizes full-time faculty members who maintain high expectations of their students and ensure academic rigor in their undergraduate classes this years excellence in teaching winner is professor of engineering practice dr ibere nascentes alves and this is the second year in a row he has received it
for the past three years alves has embraced teaching at texas a&m university he is the instructor for pete 325 petroleum production systems in this course students follow the path of fluids from reservoir to well to surface flowlines and onward through separation facilities to the sales line (hydrocarbons) or other outlets (produced water re-injection disposal etc) along the way students learn the different components of the flow systems their functions and a bit about how to design systems based on fluid throughput expectations said alves (students) look at improving flow into the well by artificial lift or lowering bottom hole pressure and stimulation (to improve) near-well flow in the reservoir this prepares (students) to have a more positive experience in their internship during the summer due to their greater appreciation for how oil and gas production works when he is not in class alves is in his office passionately explaining theories and practical applications to students who want to know more he actively volunteers for the annual department student paper contest and helped out with the department undergraduate video he recently arranged a demonstration of aggie well no 1 for his students so they could observe the most utilized artificial lift method for bringing fluid up from a reservoir the so-called sucker rod lift system that uses a pump jack mechanism he also gave his students a demonstration in the lohman lab on the three-phase separator where students witnessed the processes that take place inside a separator and learned more about the physical principles that controls the fluids separation process