houck2040/tees huggingface dataset:
twenty-three proposals were presented this year during the meeting held may 31 to june 2 at pebble creek country club and the turbo lab research facility in college station texas the goal of the proposals is to find answers to questions relating to performance and reliability of turbomachineryrotating equipment that extracts or adds energy to fluids jeff moore an institute engineer at the southwest research institute (swri) has been on both sides of the podium at trc he said presenting at trc when he was a student in the turbo lab is how he landed his first job out of school conducting trc research is a great opportunity for students because its like youre getting your foot in the door without having even knocked because the industry leaders are coming here to texas a&m to learn about your research moore said the trc annual meeting allows students to make a positive impression on representatives from member companies if you have someone from trc who is helping to pull your resume through the process youre going to be a lot more successful over the last decade moore said his group inside swri has hired at least seven aggies and most of them have come through the turbo lab aggies are an attractive hire moore said because of the education and experience they gain with the resources at the turbo lab obviously were a very much a hands-on organization in terms of the kind of work we do--design work research laboratory moore said so those are the exact skills that the students who come through the turbo lab are gaining doing highly theoretical work but also going out and getting their hands dirty doing experimental work validating the models and proving the technology specifically in the area of turbomachinery so we do work with design rotordynamics combustion fluid dynamics controls--all of those skillsets the students are gaining at the lab trc representatives will review proposal material through the end of the month and awards will be announced the first week of july work on selected projects will begin in september
when he began working on an algorithm-based monitoring system to help veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) dr farzan sasangohar didnt imagine hed wind up talking about the technology with the vice president of the united states sasangohar assistant professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university was just looking for ways to get his research to people who could benefit from it which led to a partnership with project hero a nonprofit organization that helps veterans and first responders affected by injury post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury to achieve rehabilitation recovery and resilience in their daily lives
their partnership called hero trak is a monitoring system that can help veterans with ptsd they debuted hero trak in april at the unitedhealthcare texas challenge and it is being tested again this week at the unitedhealthcare memorial challenge event which began in washington dc at the vice presidents residence sasangohar showed hero trak to vice president mike pence and his wife karen as well as veterans affairs secretary david j shulkin and dr poonam alaigh the acting undersecretary of health for the department of veterans affairs the vice president second lady and secretary shulkin interacted with the system and were enthusiastic about the potential for the technology to help veterans and expressed support to facilitate future research in this domain " sasangohar said
at the unitedhealthcare texas challenge last month more than 100 wounded veterans and supporters biked more than 500 miles from san antonio to waco to houston thirty-one of them were wearing monitoring devices and after the event the data from those devices were collected by sasangohar the feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive "the work done by texas a&m under the leadership of dr sasangohar has helped create a truly elegant and effective solution to the acute problem faced by our veterans and first responders of dealing with ptsd in their daily lives " said john wordin founder and president of project hero "our riders who have used the hero trak system see it as more than just an accurate and convenient way to track identify and deal with ptsd triggers -- which all of them do -- they also see it as an important step in the use of technology to address the needs of millions of patients like themselves for improved outcomes at lower costs which is the core mission of project hero" theres only so much you can do in the lab space sasangohar said at some point you have to take these devices out and do naturalistic studies this was an opportunity because we had a group of veterans and first responders with ptsd who are actually motivated to participate and theyre performing some sort of physical activity
currently interaction with patients suffering from ptsd is mostly limited to in-person sessions however sasangohars hope is that down the road technology will be able to identify ptsd issues the devices themselves are off-the-shelf motorola 360 smart watches but its in the analysis where sasangohars work takes place using advanced algorithms the technology identifies when someone might be having the arousal symptoms of ptsd the difficult part is deciphering symptoms of ptsd like an elevated heart rate from regular physical activity thats where the partnership with project hero is already showing tremendous value we have access to their biometric data to be able to validate our algorithms to see if they can pick up those activities sasangohar said and these are people that are motivated to help; we can ask them to self-report the ptsd triggers they experience they built the app so that it not only collected data but also worked as a self-reporting device for example the riders could tap the screen to indicate whether or not they were experiencing a ptsd trigger one goal of the research is to be able to intervene during a ptsd occurrence the wearer might be guided through some breathing exercises for example or if the system detects a ptsd episode is happening while the wearer is asleep the device could gently wake them up by vibrating the amount of ptsd triggers that happen during sleep is unbelievable sasangohar said the heart rate can rapidly increase and can stay there for 20 minutes so theyre having these long nightmares; we have objective data showing that and these are very intense nightmares if you wake up suddenly startled you can be in that zone for a few minutes where you dont fully know where you are what if we could intervene and gently wake someone up thats experiencing that sasangohar said he was also overwhelmed with the feedback he received from the participants they all came to me when i was collecting the data and it seems like they appreciate this technology he said they had so much positive feedback and offered to help more and participate in future interviews or studies some were very emotional saying thank you for helping us it was emotional seeing people pick up these devices and appreciate what were trying to do with this technology sasangohars research extends beyond ptsd applications currently his research group is testing smart monitoring and intervention applications in surgery nursing and other fields his research is in part funded by a seed grant from the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) he has received a texas a&m isite grant to participate in the summer 2017 texas a&m cohort funded by the national science foundation the program explores the potential commercial potential for his tool remote monitoring and intervention for ptsd patients his isite team includes industrial and systems engineering doctoral students kunal khanade and carolina rodriguez-paras photos courtesy of project hero
the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) smart grid center is part of a united states team that will use a $75 million department of energy (doe) grant to help advance indias power grid to ensure access to affordable and reliable energy indias ministry of science and technology will match the commitment of the doe along with other indian partners bringing the total project commitment to $30 million this highly collaborative international project will give tees researchers a chance to use their expertise to solve the grid problems in one of the largest power systems in the world said dr mladen kezunovic director of the smart grid center tees has unique strengths and capabilities in designing the grids of the future and this is an opportunity to show that this initiative supported by does office of electricity delivery and energy reliability builds on the departments commitment to fostering the reliable resilient and secure delivery of electricity needed for strong us national security economic growth and global leadership it also furthers the does collaboration with india under the us-india partnership to advance clean energy this new consortium demonstrates the us and indian commitments to ensuring access to affordable and reliable energy in both countries energy secretary rick perry said we know that continued grid innovation will promote economic growth and energy security in the united states and india to help pave the way to a more advanced distribution grid that will allow greater use of distributed energy resources such as microgrids and energy storage the new consortia will bring together experts from academia does national laboratories and industry together with their counterparts in india the center will conduct research and deploy new smart grid and energy storage technologies that will modernize the grids of both nations to make them smarter while increasing resilience and reliability doe officials said the us consortium is led by washington state university along with tees mit the university of hawaii idaho national laboratory the lawrence berkeley national laboratory snohomish county (wa) public utility district avista burns and mcdonnell etap operation technology alstom grid/ge grid solutions clean energy storage abb the philadelphia industrial development corporation and the national rural electric cooperative association the indian team led by the indian institute of technology (iit) kanpur includes partners from iit delhi iit madras iit roorkee iit bhubaneshwar and the energy and resources institute in new delhi
high-speed winds during a thunderstorm may cause trees around an electric grid to crash into the distribution system feeders causing an outage in that area currently most utility companies diminish such accidents by scheduling regular tree-trimming operations this effort is costly and is based on a rotational approach to different service areas which may take months and sometimes years before all trees are trimmed texas a&m university researchers have developed an intelligent model that can predict a potential vulnerability to utility assets and present a map of where and when a possible outage may occur the predictive feature allows the trees in the most critical areas with the highest risk to be trimmed first dr mladen kezunovic regents professor and holder of the eugene e webb professorship in the department of electrical and computer engineering along with graduate students tatjana dokic and po-chen chen have developed the framework for a model that can predict weather hazards vulnerability of electric grids and the economic impact of the potential damage
‘talk text crash drink drive go to jail ‘click it or ticket weve all heard these and many other campaigns from the texas department of transportation (txdot) encouraging texas drivers to be more careful on the roads to reduce accidents and save lives what isnt well known is that john a barton the associate vice chancellor for strategic initiatives for the texas a&m university system was a driving force behind these and many other roadway safety initiatives
in august the texas a&m engineering experiment stations nuclear security science and policy institute (nsspi) led a nuclear facilities experience (nfe) in japan for graduate students and staff from eight us universities and five national laboratories this event was coordinated with several institutions in japan including the hiroshima peace memorial museum the japan atomic energy agency the integrated support center for nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear security tokyo electric power company and japan nuclear fuel limited support for the nfe was provided by the next-generation safeguards initiative (ngsi) of the office of nonproliferation and arms control in the defense nuclear nonproliferation program office of the national nuclear security administration
the graduate students were selected based on their specializations in nuclear nonproliferation-related topic areas four students from texas a&m university were joined by graduate students from clemson university oregon state university virginia commonwealth university the university of georgia and uc berkeley six national laboratory employees were selected by ngsi sponsors and included early-career research staff members from the y-12 national security complex sandia national laboratories lawrence livermore national laboratory pacific northwest national laboratory and oak ridge national laboratory the group was accompanied by faculty members dr craig marianno deputy director of nsspi and an assistant professor in the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m and dr marek flaska from pennsylvania state university the nfe began in hiroshima where participants toured the hiroshima peace park and the peace memorial museum participants were also given a first-hand perspective on the dropping of the atomic bomb on hiroshima from survivor ms keiko ogura who gave an account of her experiences and observations of august 6 1945 the nfe then took participants to the tokyo institute of technology where they interacted with students and staff from nsspis peer institute the academy of global nuclear safety and security which is run by professor masaki saito marianno flaska and saito all gave presentations on the nuclear security and safeguards educational programs at their respective universities and two students presented their research to the group
for the remainder of the visit participants toured various institutions and facilities throughout japan such as the plutonium fuel development facility the tokai reprocessing center and the rokkasho reprocessing plant the group spoke with researchers technicians and managers with experience in nuclear material accountability and control and facility/process operations they were also able to view areas in facilities with active safeguards infrastructure in place through these interactions the students and professionals gained knowledge on safeguards practices and the interaction between operators and the international atomic energy agency (iaea) inspectors the participants were also given the opportunity to visit the fukushima daiichi nuclear power station site according to marianno "this was a unique experience and all the participants thought it was one of the highlights of the trip" at fukushima representatives from the tokyo electric power company briefed the group on the status of the cleanup efforts at the site and gave them an extensive tour of the protected area experiences like the nfe allow graduate students and early career professionals in nuclear safeguards and security to see first-hand how safeguards are implemented at various types of facilities and to network with their peers this is the second nfe conducted by nsspi this year the first being a visit to facilities in the uk in may and the third facilities tour led by nsspi to take place in japan
a texas a&m university system-led consortium of industry government partners and universities has been awarded a prestigious national science foundation (nsf) engineering research center (erc) on precise advanced technologies and health systems for underserved populations (paths-up) with the goal of addressing the grand challenge of overcoming the human and economic burden of diabetes and heart disease in underserved communities institutional partners in paths-up include florida international university rice university and the university of california at los angeles along with several companies and other federal agencies the erc is the most significant nsf research grant an institution can receive in engineering and is a tremendous endorsement of the quality research being conducted within the texas a&m systems engineering program said texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp this program is dedicated to helping underserved populations in rural and urban areas achieve greater access to health enhancing technologies and systems that aligns perfectly with our values as a land-grant institution
before hurricane harvey even made landfall texas a&m engineering has been helping texans to prepare respond and now rebuild here are just a few of the ways that texas a&m engineering students faculty and staff have sprung into action these stories and more from across the texas a&m university system are included in texas a&ms 100 stories (and counting) of selfless service dr sam mannan keeps the world informed on chemical safety mannan director of the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) mary k oconnor process safety center was interviewed by the associated press new york times washington post cnn nbc nightly news and more over the last week to keep the public informed about chemical safety specifically regarding the arkema plant in crosby texas dr robin autenrieth shares her knowledge of houstons water supply autenrieth head of the zachry department of civil engineering talked to the associated press and houston chronicle about why special attention should be paid during storms to drinking water dr robin murphy and roboticists without borders helped survey damage in fort bend county murphy raytheon professor in the department of computer science and engineering and 13 pilots flew 119 flights over eight days using unmanned aerial and marine vehicles to help the fort bend county office of emergency management to survey damage and get a better look at the scope of flooding john bartons expertise at txdot helps inform people before the storm barton said that hurricane rita in 2005 was a learning experience and that lessons learned from the evacuations of galveston and houston were helping inform decision makers about how and when to implement contraflow lanes and evacuations turbo lab aims to raise $250 000 hurricane harvey caused the tees turbomachinery laboratory to postpone the turbomachinery & pump symposia until december but new way air bearings a longtime symposia exhibitor had the idea to challenge all of the exhibitors to donate $500 for every 10-by-10 section of exhibit space
build sends a clinic to southeast texas build a student organization that includes students in the college of engineering took a clinic to rockport the organization builds mobile medical clinics and sends them all over the world to date build has sent 13 medical units to nine countries on four continents process engineering r&d center collects 10 pallets of pet food to send to houston dr mian n riaz director of the process engineering r&d center reached out to former attendees of their training courses for anyone interested in donating pet food to send to houston riaz said he received and is still receiving numerous responses from people willing to help out initially mars petcare has sent nine pallets of dog food and one pallet of cat food cody caldwell with crossroads moving and storage offered to deliver the pet food to houston thursday morning at a significantly reduced cost tees eastmark employees donate 16 boxes of undergarments and socks brian blake director of communications for texas a&m engineering coordinated a tees eastmark initiative to collect 16 boxes of donated undergarments and socks to deliver to houston
turbomachinery & pump symposia (tps) exhibitors across the globe are responding to needs in the tps host city in the wake of hurricane harvey the texas a&m engineering experiment stations turbomachinery laboratory host of tps has partnered with new way air bearings to launch #tpshelpshouston a fundraising campaign to provide relief to houston area residents affected by hurricane harvey donations will be processed by shelterbox usa a nonprofit that supplies aid to those displaced by disaster all funds raised through #tpshelpshouston will support emergency shelter efforts in houston and nearby regions the campaign was initiated by new way air bearings a longtime tps exhibitor after the turbo lab announced that tps would be rescheduled to dec 12-14 due to the impact of the hurricane the event would have been held sept 12-14 in the george r brown convention center where thousands of evacuees have sought shelter in the aftermath of the hurricane it breaks our hearts to see displaced houstonians in the same convention center where we would be exhibiting said drew devitt founder of new way air bearings we want to give back to the city that has supported us during tps for so many years especially in this time of dire need new way air bearings is challenging exhibitors to donate $500 for every 10-by-10-foot section of their exhibit space if each exhibitor rises to the challenge the campaign could raise upwards of a quarter million dollars i am thrilled that our exhibitors have been so quick to help said martha barton director of exhibitor services for tps its heartening to see their concern and willingness to give were excited to partner with each of them to offer our friends some relief in the midst of devastation #tpshelpshouston was launched tuesday sept 5 and will continue through tuesday dec 12 the results of the campaign will be announced wednesday dec 13 on the tps exhibit floor visit tpstamuedu/updates to donate funds will support shelterboxs hurricane harvey fund which provides emergency shelter for displaced individuals and families donors are asked to forward their donation confirmation email to bconrad@turbo-labtamuedu so they can be recognized on the tps website and social media channels donation amounts will not be publicized participating companies should include a high-resolution logo with the donation confirmation though #tpshelpshouston originated as a challenge for exhibitors anyone is invited to contribute
a group of mechanical engineering students from mexico recently got an inside look at what the turbomachinery laboratory at texas a&m university has to offer students from the universidad de guanajuato visited as a part of the mexico leadership exchange (mle) a program supported by the texas a&m university chapter of the american society of mechanical engineers (asme) universidad de guanajuato students visit texas a&m each fall semester and texas a&m students visit the guanajuato campus every spring this year marks the 20th-annual mle visit texas a&m turbo lab students and faculty lead the guanajuato students on a tour of the 37 000-square-foot turbo lab and its test cells while explaining the research they conduct and the equipment they use to produce results its always very good for us to showcase what we are developing at the laboratory said dr luis san andres a professor in the turbo lab its a great way to attract potential students who find what we do interesting in addition to their tour of the turbo lab and the texas a&m campus the visiting students spent a day in austin touring facilities like sand hill energy center i think its a great way to spark their ambitions mle president and texas a&m mechanical engineering student william barr said there might be something going on in mexico that i dont know about and when i find out whats going on there i might want to completely gear my studies or my efforts toward that we try to give them insight into new interests and vice versa harsimram singh texas a&m mechanical engineering student and co-chair of international relations for mle has a personal connection to the value of mle singh came to the us from india about a year ago and his experience is what encouraged him to join the exchange program i know the feeling of trying to get to know a place how people live their culture what goes on there he said its really important and its really helpful to create a better understanding between nations between people and between cultures
a loss of offsite power event at a nuclear power plant also called a loop event is considered a serious safety risk that could put many lives in danger after the 2012 incident at the fukushima-daiichi power plant in japan which involved an extended loss of offsite power in the wake of a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami the nuclear industry has worked to make power plants even safer and better able to withstand even the most severe accident scenarios involving catastrophic weather or seismological events nuclear facilities must also evaluate their ability to withstand another sort of threat a threat to the security of the facility in the event of an attack from an outside adversary through testing their response force updating their security technology and analyzing the weaknesses of their overall security system facilities come to determine whether or not they are able to guard against these sorts of attacks as well
now researchers at the texas a&m engineering experiment stations nuclear security science and policy institute (nsspi) are asking the question of how to combine these two separate forms of analysis-both safety and security-to get a more complicated picture of what would happen in the case of a combined safety-security threat does the security risk rise in the event of a catastrophic failure or loop event patrick oneal is a nsspi graduate student working on this problem with dr sunil chirayath director of nsspi and an associate professor in the nuclear engineering department at texas a&m university "currently when a facility carries out safety and security analyses they are independent of each other; however safety events make it easier for an adversary to accomplish some nefarious goal and a security event makes ensuring operational safety more difficult essentially this research demonstrates a novel more holistic approach to evaluating the overall vulnerabilities of a facility; an approach that no facility is using currently " oneal explains he conducted a probabilistic risk assessment for the safety system in question and then combined it with an evaluation of the plants physical protection system to find an overall plant vulnerability for different combined safety-security scenarios this type of work is necessary because safety and security are a topic of such importance for any nuclear facility yet the manner in which they are investigated creates situations where a facility might be left more vulnerable than it is aware according to oneal "a typical nuclear power plant has countless volumes detailing procedures to follow for any sort of safety event and security professionals have gone to painstaking ends to form detailed plans on how to protect the plant from an outside threat but very few facilities if any have security plans that are formed by safety events and vice versa" the analysis that oneal has done suggests that increased security during a safety-related event is warranted this realization could be a first step towards developing more informed and responsive safety and security procedures for nuclear facilities
dr mladen kezunovic regents professor and the eugene e webb professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university has been appointed to serve on the department of energys (doe) electricity advisory committee (eac) the electricity advisory committee is critically important to ensuring our nations energy infrastructure and delivery system is secure resilient and reliable said dr m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of engineering and director of the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) dr kezunovics expertise in the modernization and resiliency of the smart grid will be a strong contribution to this high-level group of energy experts kezunovic director of the tees smart grid center also currently serves as the site director of the power engineering research center a consortium of 40 industry and 13 university members as an eac advisory board committee member he will help the doe define a strategy on long-range planning and priorities for the nations electricity system he joins 23 other members including state government officials industry executives consumer advocates and environmentalists charged with providing advice on implementing the energy policy act of 2005 executing the energy independence and security act of 2007 and modernizing the nations electricity delivery infrastructure i am quite honored and privileged to serve on this committee as it will give me a chance to learn about the nations energy priorities and provide advice based on over 40 years of my experience in conducting focused research and consulting on innovative applications in the electricity grids aimed at more reliable grid operation kezunovic said kezunovics expertise is in protective relaying automated power system disturbance analysis computational intelligence and data analytics and smart grids before joining texas a&m in 1986 kezunovic worked for westinghouse electric corp and energoinvest in europe among his many honors kezunovic has been named an institute of electrical and electronic engineers (ieee) life fellow and a council on large electric systems (cigre) fellow and honorary member he has published more than 550 papers in journals and conference proceedings and was invited to give more than 120 lectures worldwide he is also listed as a distinguished speaker of the ieee power engineering society while at texas a&m he has been the principal investigator on more than 100 research projects and supervised more than 50 graduate students the eac was established in 2008 to enhance leadership in the electricity delivery modernization and provide senior-level counsel to the doe on ways in which the nation can meet the many challenges to moving forward including the deployment of smart grid technologies research and development of energy storage technologies renewable energy resource system integration and new transmission infrastructure
recently a group of 12 texas a&m university nuclear engineering graduate students from the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) nuclear security science and policy institute (nsspi) traveled to tennessee to participate in a short course in non-destructive assay (nda) techniques
the short course was offered at the oak ridge national laboratory (ornl) in their safeguards laboratory it consisted of lectures and hands-on experience with safeguards instrumentation and software providing the students with practical understanding of a number of nda techniques used for measurements and characterization of special nuclear material in international safeguards applications this experience is intended to supplement the material taught at texas a&m in the nuclear fuel cycle and material safeguards (nuen 651) and radiation detection and nuclear materials measurement (nuen 605) classes taken by all students pursuing a graduate degree with a specialization in nuclear nonproliferation while in oak ridge the group had the opportunity to tour various nuclear facilities at ornl including the high flux isotope reactor the radiochemistry hot cell labs the graphite reactor and the spallation neutron source as well as the nearby y-12 national security complex they also traveled to the university of tennessee in knoxville to meet with faculty and students in their nuclear nonproliferation education program the students were accompanied by dr sunil chirayath nsspi director and associate professor of nuclear engineering and dr craig marianno nsspi deputy director and assistant professor of nuclear engineering jessica white horton at ornl coordinated the training program which was sponsored by the us department of energys national nuclear security administration
the national science foundation (nsf) issued one of the first awards through its new improving undergraduate stem education: hispanic-serving institutions (hsi) program to the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) with the grant tees in partnership with seven institutions of higher learning will host consejos colectivos: improving stem success at hsisa regional conference for stakeholders in undergraduate hispanic stem educationat el centro college in dallas feb 27-28 this conference will identify challenges and opportunities for improving stem education at hsis specifically we will explore opportunities to improve stem education for latinx students to build capacity and increase latinx student participation in research and to create effective institutional change addressing barriers to latinx student success in stem said dr william kitch principal investigator for the grant and professor and chair of the david l hirschfeld department of engineering at angelo state university conversations at consejos colectivos: improving stem success at hsis will also help inform the nsfs new hsi program as it finds ways to bolster the quality of undergraduate stem education for over 100 years tees has served the citizens of texas through engineering and technology-oriented research and educational collaborations for the consejos colectivos conference tees is collaborating with seven educational institutions from across texas to discover solutions for big-picture concerns while opening doors to new opportunities said cindy lawley assistant agency director for workforce development at tees the conferences impact will extend well beyond the two-day event in dallas as those who attend urge their institutions to respond to the challenges identified we hope participants seek out new collaborations and work together to implement changes that will improve latinx stem student recruitment retention and advancement in the stem workforce pipeline registration for consejos colectivos: improving stem success at hsis is now open conference organizers are also accepting travel grant applications and poster presentation proposals conference organizers include tees and five tees regional division membersangelo state university del mar college texas a&m university-kingsville texas womans university and west texas a&m universityas well as texas tech university and el centro college this conference is supported by the national science foundation under grant no 1764268
the turbomachinery laboratory at texas a&m university hosted another record-breaking turbomachinery & pump symposia despite a three-month delay due to hurricane harvey the 46th turbomachinery and 33rd international pump users symposia (tps 2017) was originally scheduled for sept 12-14 with short courses on sept 11 due to the impact of hurricane harvey on houston and surrounding areas the turbo lab announced on aug 29 that the event would be rescheduled for dec 12-14 with short courses on dec 11 undeterred by the reschedule tps 2017 attracted 89 new companies to the george r brown convention center topping last years record by 10 companies in total the exhibition hosted 359 companies just one shy of last years record-setting 360 companies the exhibition spanned 216 000 gross square feet featuring full-size equipment and emerging technology and industry trends from leading turbomachinery pump and related organizations eighty-eight percent of the exhibit floor for tps 2018 is already reserved four-thousand-six-hundred-twenty unique delegates representing 46 countries visited the exhibition or attended technical sessions engineers and technicians from novice to experienced chose from a combination of 15 short courses 23 lectures 16 tutorials 23 discussion groups and 21 case studies the technical program is selected by the turbomachinery and pump advisory committees and led by experts in their disciplines topics included compressors steam and gas turbines expanders pumps and drivers and auxiliary equipment such as couplings bearings gearboxes dry gas seals and annular seals technical content from tps 2017 will be available june 2018 proceedings from previous symposia are free for download at turbolabtamuedu/proceedings we are grateful to all of our authors leaders delegates exhibitors and advisers who make tps a staple event for the industry said greg gammon director of operations for the turbo lab symposium office we saw great success despite needing to reschedule the event with just two weeks notice we know this would not have been possible without support from our industry partners as well as our houston vendors dr dara w childs retired dec 13 from his post as director of the turbo lab and chair of the tps advisory committees he was honored with a banquet dinner during the symposia the search for a turbo lab director is underway tps 2018 is set for sept 18-20 with short courses held in conjunction with the symposia on sept 17 to learn more about tps visit tpstamuedu to reserve exhibit space email martha@turbo-labtamuedu
a passenger airliner full of people lines up on the runway preparing for takeoff as the engines rev up the sound is a dull roar to the passengers inside the craft however this sound is an indication of a process that could impact the safety and reliability of the plane a system that researchers at texas a&m university are seeking to improve
dr luis san andrés mast-childs chair in the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m works on multiple projects in the turbomachinery laboratory his work in rotordynamics includes novel squeeze film dampers which help reduce vibrations within a jet engine creating more reliable equipment that is safer and more comfortable to the ears of passengers the long-term project has been funded by pratt & whitney engines since 2008 "you turn on an airplane engine and dont turn it off for three years; its not like your car which you turn on and off every day " san andrés said "you cant do that with aircraft because it takes a lot of warm up to come up to speed the moment you turn them off they cool off and parts contract and dont work as well" inside the jet engine there is a space smaller than a human hair between the frame of the engine and the turbines the space is filled with lubricant that prevents the equipment from wearing down during the warmup period the lubricated squeeze film dampers are vital to help decrease vibration from the rotating gas turbine engine that makes the overall plane safer by reducing wear on the airplane the goal of san andrés research is to reduce the time it takes to warm up the engine as well as to continue to increase the safety and efficiency of aircraft jet engines san andrés said the concept is similar to the fluids inside the human body between the knee bones for example there is a packet of synovial fluid that cushions impact "when you jump or run there is impact the fluid prevents the bones from hitting each other and wearing down these dampers only work under compression they cannot work under tension " san andrés said "inside the jet engine there is squeeze lubricant around the surface of the rotor that helps to keep it going and operating smoothly" since aircrafts carry little lubricant to reduce weight and volume squeeze film dampers during operation are prone to draw air in the film this dynamic process causes the oil and air to mix and the air bubbles reduce the damping ability san andrés students are testing dampers with controlled bubbly oil mixtures to quantify damper degradation in realistic testing conditions
along with the physical research san andrés lab has developed computational programs that are used by the industry today but whether its the physical research or computational research one of the goals of san andrés is to teach engineering staff and students the importance of predictive maintenance a common theme across his varied projects in the turbomachinery lab "in engineering the last thing that you want is to solve a problem you solve problems before they occur during the design stage " san andrés said "you have to figure out there will be a crazy professor whos going to test how to break it and it has to survive "the best engineers arent the ones who solve problems theyre the ones who anticipate the problems and needs in a product " san andrés said "the best engineers create a need and change the world" san andrés said his work falls in line with the mission statement of the turbomachinery lab which is to educate students perform research that is state-of-the-art as a tier one university should have and provide continuing education his work has a direct impact on industry as 95 percent of his projects are industry funded san andrés also works to promote engineering education giving students the skills necessary to survive in a modern fast-paced world his projects typically support a dozen graduate students and professional research staff each year
dr sam mannan executive director of the texas a&m engineering experiment stations (tees) mary kay oconnor process safety center and regents professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university has been appointed to serve on the department of energys (doe) hydrogen and fuel cell technical advisory committee (htac) "the hydrogen and fuel cell technical advisory committee is important to ensuring our nations advances in hydrogen and fuel cell commercialization policy regulations standardization financial climate and research and development " said dr m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of engineering and director of tees "dr mannans expertise in hazard assessment and risk analysis vulnerability assessment process safety management and risk management as related to hydrogen and fuel cell deployment will be a strong contribution to this high-level group of experts" as an htac advisory board member mannan a tees distinguished research professor will provide technical and programmatic advice to the doe on its hydrogen research development and demonstration efforts he joins 18 other members including representatives from industry academia professional societies government agencies financial organizations and environmental groups "it is a great honor to serve on such an important doe committee particularly at a time when our nation is faced with many choices and challenges in energy resources both in supply chain development and sustainability "said mannan mannans research interests include abnormal situation management aerosol research inherently safer design quantitative risk assessment reactive chemicals modeling of silane releases liquid-to-natural-gas safety and design and flammability research a professional engineer and certified safety professional mannan is a fellow of the american institute of chemical engineers fellow of the uk institution of chemical engineers and a member of the american society of safety engineers international institute of ammonia refrigeration and national fire protection association in addition to his many honors and achievements mannan was named the first holder of the ma naser chair at bangladesh university of engineering and technology and has served as a consultant to numerous entities in both the academic and private sectors including the columbia accident investigation board
industrial distribution students recently took a trip to austin to visit a food pantry and the central texas food bank in order to explore solutions to fight hunger in texas the students are part of the hunger free project an intercollegiate effort to facilitate meaningful sustainable interactions between texas a&m university students and organizations representing core values of leadership and selfless service in the community this initiative was spearheaded by dr malini natarajarathinam an assistant professor in the department of engineering technology & industrial distribution in fall 2016 "since i started this effort every person that i have solicited help from has gone above and beyond to propel this idea forward " says natarajarathinam "that just speaks volumes about our commitment as a society and institution to providing aggies with a meaningful learning experience grounded in selfless service it is very humbling to see the support from all possible avenues" last spring a learning community of approximately 120 undergraduate students in the disciplines of industrial distribution sociology and computer technology management worked together in multidisciplinary teams to boost the ability of texas food banks to better understand their clients and their needs reduce costs and enhance efficiency the project is currently in its second year with a new class of students ready to get to work in april the students will present their solutions at the inaugural community engagement & impact summit held at texas a&m attendees will include stakeholders in the leadership and service center as well as the hunger free project service-learning classes provide opportunities for students to learn through practice by making a difference in their communities student teams were each assigned to a texas food agency or pantry that has a pre-identified problem in areas including distributing supply chain management and other organizational issues in austin students also visited the food pantry micah 6 where they got to experience firsthand the problems that these groups faced a dialogue was formed and students were able to ask questions to pantry workers in order to spark ideas to find solutions after the pantry visit students traveled to the central texas food bank which was responsible for providing over 45 million meals to its community last year alone students went on in-depth tours of the facility and were able to meet with food bank employees afterward and engage in meaningful discussion the central texas food bank is a strategic partner in the project and will provide the winning teams at the community engagement & impact summit with a total of $15 000 to implement their proposed solutions
radiation detectors are deployed for many different uses in a variety of different field conditions and many of these detection systems are mobile the efficiency of radiation detection systems is known to decrease as the speed of the detection system increases understanding how these systems perform under increasing speeds and in changing environments will help improve the systems effectiveness and ultimately decrease the cost of performing a survey lt james falkner is a phd student working with dr craig marianno deputy director of the tees center for nuclear security science and policy initiatives (nsspi) and an assistant professor of nuclear engineering to analyze the performance of mobile radiation detection systems with respect to how fast the systems are moving falkners research is a combination of simulation and experimentation he used computer models to simulate simple detection systems and derive the underlying relationship between efficiency and speed he then conducted experiments to verify this relationship using real world data data was first gathered in a laboratory using a 2 x 2 inch sodium iodide detector attached to a robot traveling between 20-120 centimeters per second data was then gathered outdoors using a 2x4x16 inch sodium iodide detector attached to a vehicle traveling between 10-40 miles per hour finally he tested the relationship using aerial data provided by two partner groups gathered using large multi-detector systems traveling between 70-140 knots