houck2040/tees huggingface dataset:
the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) and nasa/johnson space center (jsc) have signed a space act agreement (saa) that establishes a framework for increasing collaboration among the agencies researchers and engineers while tees and nasa have partnered in research for more than 50 years the new agreement will expand research opportunities by enabling tees researchers use of lab facilities at the jsc this historic agreement between the texas a&m university system and nasa will position us at the forefront of space exploration research worldwide said john sharp chancellor of the texas a&m system tees and nasa/jsc have a strong established working relationship said m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of texas a&m engineering and director of tees the signing of the space act agreement however introduces a new level of collaboration with tees researchers working side-by-side with nasa researchers in jsc labs we also hope to expand our partnership to include researcher exchanges and other joint projects utilizing the talent and expertise of both organizations the research areas nasa selected for initial collaboration are human-system interfaces to improve efficiencies for future exploration mission operations; guidance navigation and control capabilities for long-duration crewed missions beyond earths orbit; and advanced materials and monitoring for spacecraft structures and shielding tees and jsc researchers have teamed to develop a number of topics in these areas already as well as in existing areas such as improved space suit performance an ongoing review process will evaluate research collaboration ideas as they are developed and assess emerging priorities for technology development within the nasa/jsc engineering directorate for selecting additional projects we look forward to collaborating with tees as we develop the capabilities and technologies needed for human space exploration said kevin window deputy director of the jsc engineering directorate having tees researchers work side-by-side with our personnel on some of our complex engineering problems will be of real benefit to both organizations top photo: kevin window and m katherine banks (photo courtesy of nasa)
gov greg abbott has appointed dr dan hill director of the crisman institute for petroleum engineering and head of the harold vance department of petroleum engineering at texas a&m university as one of nine members of the technical advisory committee to the bureau of economic geology at the university of texas at austin the committee will oversee the spending of $447 million for the purchase and deployment of seismic equipment maintenance of this seismic network and modeling of reservoir behavior for systems of wells in the vicinity of faults in texas the committee will advise the bureau on the use of the funding in conjunction with the texnet seismic monitoring program and collaborative research relationships with other universities and education entities in texas including the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) the committee is also responsible for the preparation of a status report to the governor and legislature regarding possible induced seismicity in simple terms induced seismicity is man-made earthquakes said hill this is not about hydraulic fracturing per se where tiny seismic events occur routinely but cannot be felt on the surface instead this study will focus on whether or not water injection most commonly disposal water injection into deep aquifers potentially causes earthquakes that could be felt at the surface the bureau of economic geology established in 1909 is the oldest and second-largest organized research unit at the university of texas at austin and is part of the jackson school of geosciences it not only functions as the state geological survey of texas the bureau also conducts research regarding energy the environment and the economy the bureau often works with federal state and local agencies academic institutions industry nonprofit organizations and foundations to conduct high-quality research and disseminate the results to the scientific and engineering communities as well as the general public
from may 15-20 the texas a&m engineering experiment stations nuclear security science and policy institute (nsspi) led the 2016 nuclear facilities experience (nfe) in japan for graduate students from us universities and young professionals from us national laboratories the event was coordinated in conjunction with the integrated support center for nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear security (iscn) which is part of the japan atomic energy authority support for nsspis coordination of the nfe was granted by the next-generation safeguards initiative (ngsi) of the office of nonproliferation and arms control in the defense nuclear nonproliferation programs office of the national nuclear security administration participants of the 2016 japan nfe included students and staff from six universities and five national laboratories the nuclear engineering graduate students were selected based on their specialization in nuclear nonproliferation-related topic areas and included students from texas a&m university the university of tennessee at knoxville western michigan university the university of cincinnati the university of utah and pennsylvania state university the texas a&m students included two nsspi students and two students from the bush school of government and public service who had previously taken nsspi classes the ngsi sponsors selected the six national laboratory employees which included early-career research staff members from sandia national laboratories los alamos national laboratory lawrence livermore national laboratory pacific northwest national laboratory and argonne national laboratory nsspi research engineer claudio gariazzo and dr sunil chirayath director of nsspi and research assistant professor in texas a&ms department of nuclear engineering led the group on tours of facilities and historically significant sites throughout japan
the event kicked off with a series of visits to the historically significant hiroshima peace park and the peace memorial museum where hiroshima survivor ms keiko ogura gave her account of the events of august 6 1945 the students and staff members engaged with ms ogura by asking her numerous questions regarding her experience of that fateful day "we got to speak with a bomb survivor keiko and hear her account of what she experienced that day and also the stigmas she and other bomb survivors have had to cope with their entire lives as a result of surviving " texas a&m nuclear engineering student lainy cochran remarked "this was something i had never considered before" the visit to hiroshima offered participants a living testament to the importance and gravity of the nuclear nonproliferation challenge the world faces today ian schwerdt a graduate student from the university of utah said "visiting the hiroshima peace memorial definitely put my research efforts and career goals in context hiroshima provided the why behind our nuclear nonproliferation and safeguards efforts it was a humbling experience and demonstrated what can happen if the world community fails to utilize nuclear materials for peaceful purposes" for the duration of the week the nfe participants visited several advanced nuclear fuel facilities in japan including two reactor facilities one nuclear power plant two reprocessing facilities one mox fuel fabrication facility one uranium enrichment plant and two national research laboratories katrina koehler a los alamos national laboratory staff member who is also pursuing a phd in nuclear physics at western michigan university remarked that there "are few academic opportunities to fully understand the fuel cycle the nuclear facilities experience provided me with much of the background i was lacking" according to bush school student kerrie ford one of the main things that she took away from this experience was "how much care must be taken with security measures in each facility as well as how each facility prepares for iaea safeguards and inspections before entering each facility and between various facility checkpoints we passed through various security systems and badging processes once in the facilities one can see cameras and other security measures in place from a safeguards perspective many facilities had visible iaea cameras seals and equipment storage cabinets allowing us a greater glimpse into how the iaea interacts with these facilities"
participants were able to both see the safeguards measures in place first hand as well as discuss applied material control and accounting measures with actual practitioners and facility operators as well as staff members from the international atomic energy agency (iaea) and the japanese atomic energy agencys (jaea) integrated support center for nuclear security and nuclear nonproliferation (iscn) "this trip was an incredible opportunity to view the safeguards technologies weve learned about at nsspi in action on some of the most famous facilities in the world " said current bush school student and nsspi graduate steven horowitz "weve always talked about the reprocessing facilities in japan and how intensive the safeguards were on them so to talk to the japanese individuals directly responsible for this was an irreplaceable opportunity" beyond their purely educational value programs like the nfe also give students and young professionals entering the area of international safeguards and nuclear nonproliferation essential international travel experience and contact with peers in their same field ford echoed this when she stated "professionally the japan nfe trip was beneficial because we were traveling with a mix of students and national lab employees whom we were able to network with and ask questions to about their professional experiences" the nfe program directly supports the ngsi mission of training and retaining the next generation of safeguards professionals through unique experiences zoe gastelum is an early-career professional who works in the international safeguards & engagement group at sandia national laboratories "this opportunity came at a time when i was feeling like i had reached a plateau in my safeguards education " she reflected "though i continue to follow the latest research and news in this area and participate in professional organizations focused on international safeguards activities i had felt as if my understanding of safeguards had stagnated this was a fantastic learning experience for me and i felt as if my safeguards knowledge was both refreshed and greatly expanded"
texas a&m university and the texas a&m engineering experiment stations institute for engineering education and innovation (ieei) will lead the educational outreach component for the xxxii association of space explorers (ase) planetary congress to be held in houston texas in october 2019 the 2019 congress the largest international gathering of space explorers in the world will honor the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing during the weeklong event the ase planetary congress will engage local educators students and leaders in business science and research in critical discussion on issues of broad interest to the international space community government agencies around the world and the public the only professional association for astronauts and cosmonauts in the world ases event will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first manned landing on the moon as well as to help inspire the future of space exploration since its founding in 1985 the ase has held its planetary congress in the united states only three times texas a&m and tees will organize a statewide community day during the congress other participants include space center houston the lone star flight museum rice university and the university of houston ase members will make visits to schools universitiesincluding texas a&m university system member campusesand communities throughout texas to generate public awareness for the importance of human space flight and its past and future technological contributions to mankind including the development of computers health technologies; navigation communication agricultural environmental and weather satellites; new materials; solar energy; and much more k-12 and university students/teachers throughout the state will also be invited to participate in various congress activities as part of its ongoing stem education outreach we are thrilled to be part of such an important milestone event said dr bonnie j dunbar director of ieei and tees distinguished research professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m the planetary congress gives us a wonderful opportunity to reach out to students and the public and to share with them the science and engineering behind space exploration we hope to generate excitement and interest not only in space but also about all other stem related careers this prestigious global event gets underway this fall with a three-year stem education outreach initiative designed to engage local students and educators in discovering the challenges opportunities and benefits of space exploration leading up to the congress information will be available through ieei for more information on the ase and its planetary congress visit http://wwwspace-explorersorg/
with his experience working on structures in the past skelton said a common problem is the stove piping of ideas someone would design a structure and someone else would design the controls someone else the navigation systems and so on he believes that the future of space flight and the future of engineering itself is in finding fundamental new ways to integrate and combine the disciplines the potential to break down some of those walls is what drew skelton to texas a&m in the first place engineering has left us with a lot of component technologies without rules about how you put components together to make systems he said so you start at the interface of two disciplines like structure and control design or signal processing and structures you start at those interfaces and you find better ways to pose the problem if you want to integrate two disciplines you cant start at the state-of-the-art of either one you have to find more fundamental ways to pose the question its not just enough to talk to each other because we dont know what to say we dont have the analytical tools to integrate the disciplines i think the university that develops them will be the leader in the future of engineering skeltons team on the project includes tees institute of engineering education and innovation director and former astronaut dr bonnie dunbar; tees texas institute for advanced study (tias) professor dr david hyland; and department of aerospace engineering associate professor dr raktim bhattacharya hes also working with anthony longman a california-based architect who has proposed his own tensegrity structures to nasa and joel sercel ceo of ics associates to bring his proposal into reality skelton will have to scale several hurdles the technology doesnt yet exist for robots to create tensegrity structures which is something necessary since as he says we dont want astronauts out there with bolts and screwdrivers smart manufacturing and robotic technologies are as much a part of the research as the design of the structures themselves to start skelton said the group will focus on the design of the habitat itself and how it will grow in space he says the ability to expand the habitat is a key reason why his proposal is of interest to nasa despite the many challenges still to come skelton said working on something that could help send humans deeper into space than ever before is rewarding for me its satisfying that im working on the last space station at least in my lifetime it will be the last space station he said i designed control systems on americas first space station skylab so its a fun closure for me images provided by dr robert skelton
the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) global petroleum research institute (gpri) held its semiannual short course (water and wastewater short course: issues challenges solutions and new technologies) aug 9-10 at the richardson building on the texas a&m university campus the semiannual two-day course attracted representatives from various institutions and industries across the nation as well as texas a&m faculty and engineering students attendees took advantage of one-on-one learning and networking opportunities the focus of the two-day course was the application of treatment technologies for produced water and the use of new analytical technology to provide real-time data for operation and treatment optimization especially emphasized was the advance of rapid microbial testing due to the obsolete industry standard which can take up to a month for test results rapid biological testing can save oil and gas companies money by improving biocide and disinfectant practices and mitigating costly microbial issues (such as microbial induced corrosion and well souring) treatment related presentations included the application of membrane technology to waters for enhanced oil recovery (eor) (holly churman water standard) brine management and handling (dave stewart stewart environmental) bag and cartridge filtration (jason reed hatfield and company) stainless steel membranes (scott witwer graver technologies) and low cost brownfield water treatment and waste-to-value potential (justin love love energy advisors) the second day of the course included analytical demonstrations hach ofi testing equipment (ofite) blue i water technologies retgo labs mycometer luminultra and modern water demonstrated their analytical technologies for attendees with actual oil and gas produced water provided by gpri the short course offers a unique opportunity to interact one-on-one with the companies that provide water cleanup technologyand to actually see demonstrations it is also a good place to learn about the latest new filtration processes and analytical techniques being developed said david burnett director of the global petroleum research institute
when quality and free are combined you cant go wrong the turbomachinery laboratory extends an exclusive invitation to texas a&m university faculty and students to attend the annual turbomachinery & pump symposia (tps) the premiere event for turbomachinery pump and related industry professionals for free! tps 2016 will feature an international exhibition combined with a world-class technical program presented by engineers and selected by an advisory committee of industry experts the event will be held sept 13-15 at the george r brown convention center in houston texas with short courses offered on monday sept 12 in conjunction with the symposia symposia attendees may choose to engage in a combination of 19 short courses 17 lectures 24 tutorials 29 discussion groups and 24 case studies led by industry experts from around the world symposia registration is free to texas a&m faculty symposia and short courses are free to all full-time students at texas a&m based on availability students may request university-excused absences for attending tps and free transportation to and from houston is provided tps which began as a small conference hosted in the zachry engineering center in 1971 has exploded into a world-renowned event last year attracting more than 5 500 delegates and 350 exhibiting companies from 48 countries built on a history of success the annual tps promotes professional development technology transfer peer networking and information exchange among industry professionals the 2016 symposia exhibition will feature booths from 359 leading companies from the oil and gas petrochemical power pump and turbomachinery industries inside the exhibit hall companies will display full-sized equipment cutting-edge technology and emerging industry trends during a portion of the symposia the exhibit hall will be free to the public upon completion of a free-pass registration form free entry will be available tuesday 2:30 pm – 7 pm; wednesday 2:30 pm – 6:30 pm; and thursday 9:30 am – noon we are pleased to host another symposiathe meeting of choice for users and manufacturers of commercial turbomachinery said dr dara childs director of the tees turbo lab and leland t jordan chair of mechanical engineering at texas a&m this is where the best in the industry come to share their expertise the countless networking opportunities alone make tps worthwhile its an opportunity you cant afford to miss students and faculty can register for their free passes as well as free daily transportation at tpstamuedu/stufac registration remains open online and will be available on site for paid symposia attendees and free pass attendees for more information on tps 2016 including the full technical program event schedule exhibiting company list registration procedures and more please visit tpstamuedu
a multidisciplinary team of researchers at texas a&m university has been awarded an early concept grant for exploratory research from the national science foundation to study the viability of collecting infrastructure monitoring data by volunteer citizen scientists from the general public the principal investigator is texas a&m engineering experiment station researcher dr nasir gharaibeh an associate professor in the zachry department of civil engineering collaborators on the project include dr philip berke and dr shannon van zandt professors in the department of landscape architecture and urban planning in the college of architecture; dr jennifer horney an associate professor at the texas a&m school of public health; and dr michelle meyer an assistant professor of sociology at louisiana state university currently data regarding infrastructure at the neighborhood scale is limited compared to the data available on large-scale infrastructure to solve this the goal of the project is to develop capabilities for collecting infrastructure monitoring data at the neighborhood level by volunteer citizen-scientists the study will focus on two questions to achieve that goal first what factors influence reliability of citizen-generated data at the neighborhood level second can understanding those factors lead to developing protocols for producing high quality data im hopeful that this research will improve the safety and reliability of infrastructure systems in our communities gharaibeh said these systems are essential for peoples quality of life and for the resiliency of communities to future natural disasters and environmental hazards it is eye opening to work on multidisciplinary research that has both technical and social components and involves a truly multidisciplinary team this team is currently working on urban infrastructure and other related issues as part of texas a&ms resilience and climate change cooperative project (rcccp) the study will focus on stormwater infrastructure in neighborhoods in the houston metropolitan area this site was chosen because it contains vulnerable neighborhoods with a long history of flooding and environmental issues
the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) center for autonomous vehicles and sensor systems (canvass) texas a&m agrilife research and extension (agrilife) and the center for geospatial sciences applications and technology (geosat) at texas a&m university have joined together to work on a multidisciplinary project titled unmanned aerial systems (uas) remote sensing at the texas a&m farm the project led by dr john valasek professor in the department of aerospace engineering and director of canvass dr seth murray quantitative geneticist with agrilife research and dr michael bishop professor in geosciences and director of geosat uses uas intelligent systems and state-of-art sensors in precision agriculture research uas is the term used to encompass what are commonly referred to as uavs or drones precision agriculture is defined as the application of technology that seeks to understand a situation (site specific management) and assist in implementing decisions thus the value of precision agriculture is timely actionable information for better management decisions and improved efficiencies not more data the use of uas enables and enhances precision agriculture for continuously monitoring crops inventorying animal herds and managing irrigation
the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) smart grid center has received a new grant from the department of energy (doe) that will further the centers mission to strengthen and protect the nations power grid the grant is one of 12 given to projects across the united states as part of $34 million in federal funding through the does office of electricity delivery and energy reliabilitys cybersecurity of energy delivery systems (ceds) program the goal is to develop the next generation of cybersecurity solutions and enhance the reliability and resilience of the nations critical energy infrastructure the $44 million project is timing intrusion management ensuring resiliency (timer) and the research group led by smart grid center director dr mladen kezunovic will address vulnerability concerns in the synchrophasor systems of the electrical grid the synchrophasor systems are the new technology for power systems monitoring control and protection that has been recommended for installation after the major northeast blackout that occurred in the united states in 2003 this technology relies on the use of precise time synchronization of the sampling of power system waveforms and as such is vulnerable to any timing issues that may result from the system being compromised by attacks or design errors the timer project will focus on detection of deterioration of the quality of the timing precision requirements texas a&ms specific objective on the project is to develop timing intrusion modules (tims) to detect inaccurate timing signals from the global positioning system (gps) of satellites and whether or not those inaccuracies are being intentionally introduced into the system by detecting the timing intrusions the synchrophasor systems will be kept operationally robust which will contribute to the improved monitoring control and protection if such detection is not available the synchrophasor systems can experience erroneous control actions which in turn can lead to the damage or a major blackout in the power system securing the nations power supply is a critical component of modernizing the power grid said kezunovic part of the smart grid centers mission is to foster collaboration among researchers from different disciplines with this project we have brought together an outstanding team of experts in power systems computer science communication cybersecurity and synchrophasor applications to solve this problem kezunovic will serve as project director and principal investigator of the project the interdisciplinary team includes co-pis dr jyh-charn (steven) liu professor department of computer science and engineering and dr alex sprintson associate professor department of electrical and computer engineering texas a&m university; michael mylrea jeff dagle paul skare chris bonebrake and dr mark rice pacific northwest national laboratory-pnnl; dr milorad papic idaho power company-ipc; and dr manu parashar alstom/general electric grid solutions-alstom/ge grid solutions
dr luis san andrés mast-childs chair professor of mechanical engineering and the associate director of the texas a&m engineering experiment stations turbomachinery laboratory just completed a two-week trip to china where he visited various universities with research programs related to high-performance turbomachinery san andrés was the plenary speaker at rotdyn 2016 the 12th biannual national rotordynamics academic seminar held in the city of zhuzhou hunan province he also presented technical seminars at beijing university of chemical technology (buct) harbin institute of technology and hunan university practicing engineers from industries such as shenyang blowers work groups hunan sund industrial and technological co aviac and the chinese aerospace agency attended the lectures san andrés also toured the new facilities of hunan sund a top manufacturer of fluid film bearings located in xiantang as well as the crrc zhuzhou motor co plant that is engaged in manufacturing megawatt-scale electric motors for high-speed trains and generators used in wind turbines according to san andrés both are world-class industries dedicated to continuous innovation
while visiting these industries and universities san andrés also promoted the numerous continuing education activities the turbo lab hosts namely the 2016 turbomachinery & pump symposia (tps) to be held sept 12-15 in houston texas and the asia turbomachinery & pump symposium (atps) returning to singapore in march 2018 tps and atps are recognized by industry leaders as the premier venues for educating and training young practicing engineers in the fields of rotating machinery design construction operation and troubleshooting various chinese manufacturers are slated to have exhibits at tps 2016 and several chinese engineering faculty and students are expected to attend photo: attendees at rotdyn 2016 the 12th national rotordynamics academic seminar seated in the first row are the most noted rotordynamicists in china front row center: dr san andrés associate director of the turbomachinery laboratory
m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of engineering has appointed dr ignacio rodriguez-iturbe a texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) distinguished research professor the distinguished research professorship appointment was effective aug 1 rodriguez-iturbe is a distinguished university professor in the department of ocean engineering at texas a&m university he earned his master of science from the california institute of technology and his phd from colorado state university his research interests include: coastal ecosystems; hydrogeomorphology; ecohydrology; river basin functioning and organization; and stochastic modeling of natural phenomena
m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of engineering has appointed dr bjorn birgisson a texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) distinguished research professor the distinguished research professorship appointment was effective aug 15 birgisson is a professor in the zachry department of civil engineering at texas a&m university and is the director of the center for infrastructure renewal a shared facility of tees and the texas a&m transportation institute birgisson earned his master of science in civil engineering from cornell university and his phd in civil engineering (geomechanics) from the university of minnesota
dr zhijian (zj) pei has joined the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university and the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) as a professor and researcher pei brings years of experience from working in industry academia and government environments he earned his phd in mechanical engineering in 1995 from the university of illinois at urbana-champaign working under dr placid m ferreira prior to joining texas a&m pei was a professor in the department of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering at kansas state university and holder of the carl and mary ice industrial engineering professorship he also served as the program director of the manufacturing machines and equipment program at the national science foundation (nsf) from 2012 to 2016 pei holds three patents and has published more than 140 journal articles and 90 articles in peer-reviewed proceedings he has received the nsf directors award for excellence program director and nsf career award pei served as an associate editor for three journals and as an editorial board member for seven journals he also initiated and developed the career proposal writing workshop in 2004 and organized this workshop annually with more than 1 400 young faculty members from across the nation in attendance during his first year with texas a&m pei will be working as the assistant director for research partnerships in the national institute of standards and technology (nist)-hosted advanced manufacturing national program office
m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of engineering has appointed dr b don russell holder of a texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) distinguished research chair professorship the distinguished research chair appointment is effective sept 1 russell is a distinguished professor and regents professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university he is also the harry e bovay jr chair professor he received a bachelor of science and master of engineering both in electrical engineering and both from texas a&m he received his phd also in electrical engineering from the university of oklahoma russell has been a faculty member in electrical and computer engineering for 41 years he is a fellow of six technical societies and most recently was elected to the national academy of inventors he serves the university as chair of the executive committee of distinguished professors
long before she was preparing to defend her thesis on surface plasma nitriding of fuel cladding materials elizabeth castanon joined a new organization her senior year at palacios high school called powerful opportunities for women eager and ready for science engineering and technology (power set) the power set group came at a time when i really didnt know what i wanted to do castanon said i dont know where i would be without them showing us what engineering was all about power set was founded by the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) nuclear power institute and the south texas project electric generating station to encourage high school girls to pursue futures in stem related fields castanon credits the group which takes students on facility tours brings in guest speakers and shows opportunities available in stem fields with helping her find her focus as she neared the end of high school its definitely had an impact on getting girls interested in engineering she said after deciding she wanted to be an engineer she considered going to texas a&m university but received a scholarship from texas a&m university-kingsville there she received simultaneous dual bachelors degrees in mechanical engineering and physics before moving on to graduate studies in nuclear engineering at texas a&m where she received a fellowship to work in nuclear engineering associate professor dr lin shaos lab castanon had an interesting route to her fellowship work at a&m-kingsville she assisted physics professor dr wayne kinnison in piecing together a particle accelerator she said the accelerator hadnt been used in more than 30 years and they restored it to working order kinnison moved to texas a&m as a research scientist at npi and told shao about some of the work that castanon had done with him in kingsville as a result shao nominated her for the fellowship
shaos group studies materials as they relate to nuclear engineering and castanons thesis studies the effects of nitriding materials as opposed to plating or vapor deposition nitriding is just implanting nitrogen into the surface of whatever metal you have she said if that metal makes a nitride then you can form this compound that enhances a lot of the surface properties but since its only on the surface it doesnt change the core properties of the material and since it forms inside whatever material you have its near the surface but its inside so it probably wont just come off thats what were looking at inside the lab shes already accepted a position at the south texas project after graduation looking back castanon said that as hard as it is to believe shes mostly stuck to a 10-year plan she had coming out of high school i actually did have a 10-year plan to go to school get my masters and go work at stp she said thats what i said i was going to do at the beginning theres been times i thought about doing something else but thats the way its worked out when she told her parents that she had gotten a job at the nuclear plant she said they could not have been more excited my family was very supportive from the moment i said i wanted to be an engineer she said they were also very excited when i said i was going to work at the south texas project my dad said it was a dream come true castanon has 12 brothers and sisters and said that she hopes she is a good example for them but also for other students from her area she also takes particular pride in being from the palacios area her family lives inside a 10-mile radius of the south texas project nuclear facility and she said she gets to be an example of the positives of nuclear power and research still she does like to have a little fun when people ask her about it i always joke with people that i grew up near there and i dont have three arms or three eyes and its okay she laughed but most people i deal with are younger and have an open mind about nuclear power
the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) nuclear security science and policy institute (nsspi) hosted the first leg of the four-week-long nuclear security training series (nsts) at texas a&m university from july 2-10 twenty-seven students and six faculty members from seven universities in india and one brazilian university participated in the 2016 nsts which was sponsored by the us state departments partnership for nuclear security with logistics coordination by crdf global the nsts aims to further the study of nuclear security best practices at universities in india and brazil and to promote academic research in this field while at texas a&m the nsts participants attended lectures on nuclear security and nuclear security culture by nsspi professional staff members dr sunil chirayath dr craig marianno and mr claudio gariazzo and took part in various practical training exercises these included an in-class table-top exercise on nuclear security and insider threats a radiation detection exercise a radiation portal monitor exercise a lost source search exercise and an outdoor radiation source recovery exercise at the texas a&m engineering extension services disaster city facility the participants enjoyed the hands-on activities and tours which exposed them to a number of facilities across texas a&m
nsspi graduate students and recent graduates mr mohammed hawila dr evans kitcher dr manit shah and mr jeremy osborn also presented four thesis and dissertation topics to the group in order to demonstrate the breadth of research in nuclear security being done at texas a&m to complete their experience in texas the participants also took a tour of the nasa johnson space center in houston which was sponsored by texas a&m and attended the us independence day celebration at the george bush presidential library and museum at the end of their week at texas a&m the participants traveled to albuquerque accompanied by nsspi program assistant ms kerrie ford for the next part of the nsts at sandia national laboratories from there they traveled to oak ridge national laboratory with nsspi research engineer mr claudio gariazzo for the last formal part of the series the us tour culminated with the nsts group participating in the 57th annual meeting of the institute of nuclear materials management (inmm) in atlanta
sungtae shin a doctoral student in texas a&m universitys department of mechanical engineering has been researching myoelectric interfacing reading the electrical signals from muscles as part of a project designed to create exoskeletons for physical rehabilitation purposes in an important step toward that goal shin has successfully used a myoelectric controller worn like an armband to operate a robotic arm people have seen automatic prosthetics with basic static motion like hands closing or hands opening and thats a good first stage but thats not good enough for typical human activity shin said dr reza langari the head of the laboratory for control robotics and animation (lcra) which is developing the exoskeleton and head of the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution explained the overall goal for the project is for the system to be able to figure out what a person is trying to do and assist where needed you would be able to use the myoelectric signal to detect what the intended muscle activity is langari said even if the person cannot necessarily achieve that you still extract the information and assist the person in moving though the full implementation into a working exoskeleton is farther down the road langari believes that people will be able to see the potential for the technology in the early success shin has had even if the robot is not a true exoskeleton and it isnt attached to the persons arm it can still show that we are successful in interpreting the human motion intent and activating an electromechanical device to operate on that basis langari said
the center for robotic assisted search and rescue (crasar) a division of the texas a&m engineering experiment stations center for emergency informatics recently conducted a mass casualty exercise in coordination with the italian coast guard and interuniversity center of integrated systems for the marine environment (isme) in genoa italy the exercise explored the use of an emily lifeguard assistant unmanned surface vehicle a fotokite tethered unmanned aerial vehicle (uav) and lte cellular communications to prevent drowning of refugees trying to reach italy from africa emily robots were deployed to greece in january 2016 in response to the wave of migrations from turkey theyre currently being used by the hellenic coast guard and the hellenic red cross and have already been credited with saving more than 24 people according to crasar director dr robin murphy this exercise identified key differences between the turkey-to-greece migrations and the africa-to-italy migrations for example the scale of potential rescue events is much different in greece boats of 40-50 people usually ran into problems close to shore in italy the boats can have between 200 and 800 people and rescue operations are taking place much further out those differences affect the unmanned system design resulting in new research directions in autonomous navigation human-robot interaction with victims in the water and the use of uavs when you look at the situation in greece and then scale up to the situation in italy you can see the increased value of having uavs to help assess the situation murphy said we can better identify who needs immediate help from rescuers in the water and who can be helped by emily or perhaps even a basic floatation device the crasar team consisted of murphy graduate students grant wilde and jan dufek and undergraduate rebecca schofield from the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university everyone focuses on the robots but texas a&m researchers are leading the way on training our students to think across disciplines in order to consider how sensors wireless networks and visualization tools can be integrated into truly useful systems murphy said the exercise occurred over three days from sept 22-24 in genoa it was arranged by professor gianluca antonelli of the university of cassino and professor pino casalino through isme a consortium of seven italian universities in conjunction with the italian coast guard genova led by commander massimo kothmeir emily creator tony mulligan of hydronalix medical expert lynn marie kelly-mulligan and dr walt magnussen of the texas a&m internet2 technology evaluation center also participated with funding from the national science foundation rapid response research program crasar is accelerating research in robotics sensors and networks for search and rescue operations
texas a&m university system officials broke ground on the new 138 000 square-foot center for infrastructure renewal on the rellis campus sept 26 the building is the first on the new 2 000-acre campus the center for infrastructural renewal is a collaboration among the texas a&m engineering experiment station the texas a&m transportation institute and the private sector texas is at a critical juncture: an aging infrastructure system is costing billions of taxpayer dollars in construction projects using outdated technology said m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of texas a&m engineering this facility will bring together the best engineers to address these challenges in ways that are more efficient effective and economical roadways and bridges are aging at a faster rate than they can be repaired the us power grid is more than 130 years old and vulnerable to natural disasters and terror attacks there is also a concern regarding the integrity of the nations oil gas water and wastewater pipeline systems modernizing these infrastructures will require interdisciplinary research teams 21st century technologies and innovative solutions for the demands from a growing population
the center for infrastructure renewal will bring together the researchers agencies and industry collaborations necessary to greatly accelerate the steep change in new discoveries and innovation needed for texas and the nation said bjorn birgisson director of the center through these collaborations we will achieve more effective and cost-efficient infrastructure renewal solutions than are possible with todays technologies the research testing and training facility is expected to reduce the cost and extend the life of infrastructure with new better materials and construction methods future rellis campus research and testing will include robotics driverless and connected vehicles advanced manufacturing large-scale testing as well as smart power grids and water systems companies will be encouraged to build their own r&d and testing facilities alongside and in partnership with the a&m systems rellis also will offer workforce training professional certificates and associate degrees as well as four-year degrees from the a&m systems universities from around the state the first class of students is expected to begin fall 2018 we are creating an economic and education magnet that will offer the best of our state agencies and universities in one location said john sharp chancellor of the texas a&m system rellis is a new approach necessary to educate the next generation of texans and expand the state economy through research and innovation
the turbomachinery laboratory a center of the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) center and a member of the texas a&m university system had another record-breaking turbomachinery and pump symposia which was held sept 12-15 at the george r brown convention center in houston the turbo labs 44th turbomachinery and 32nd international pump users symposia (tps 2016) attracted 5 375 unique attendees representing 40 countries and a record-breaking 360 exhibiting companies topping last years number by 10 companies the exhibit hall which spanned 69 600 square feet featured full-sized equipment cutting-edge technology and emerging industry trends from leading turbomachinery pump and related companies the symposia were collocated with the roseland oil and gas houston oil & gas convention tps 2017 [office1] will be collocated with roseland oil and gas and insulation expo usa (iex) attendees participated in a number of continuing education sessions a cornerstone program of the event engineers from novice to experienced chose from a combination of 19 short courses 17 lectures 24 tutorials 29 discussion groups and 24 case studies selected by the turbomachinery and pump advisory committees and led by industry experts topics included compressors steam and gas turbines expanders pumps and drivers and auxiliary equipment such as couplings bearings gearboxes dry gas seals and annular seals tps is known as the meeting of choice for users and manufacturers of commercial turbomachinery said dr dara w childs director of the turbomachinery lab and leland t jordan chair of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university the quality exchange of technical knowledge among delegates at this years symposia has reinforced that reputation were pleased to host a staple event for the industry proceedings from previous symposia are free for download technical content from tps 2016 will be available march 2017 tps 2017 will be hosted at the george r brown convention center in houston sept sept 12-14 with short courses offered on sept 11 visit tpstamuedu or call 979-845-7417 for more information