houck2040/tees huggingface dataset:
dr mladen kezunovic eugene e webb and regents professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university was named a 2018 distinguished member of the international council on large electric systems (cigré) for his longstanding service to the organization the distinguished member award is bestowed upon those who have dedicated years of active participation in the work and development of the association kezunovic who is the director of the smart grid center and site director of power engineering research center pserc consortium was named a 2014 cigré fellow and a honorary member for his contributions to the organization in the fields of protection and automation of power systems and of distribution systems and dispersed generation as a member or a convener of several working groups other cigré recognitions include the atwood associate award in 2008 and cigré technical committee award for remarkable technical contribution to the study committee b5 protection and automation in 2012 he was also recently appointed by the us secretary of energy to serve on the department of energy electricity advisory committee his research expertise is in protective relaying automated power system disturbance analysis computational intelligence data analytics and smart grids he has contributed seminal work in the areas of automated fault analysis predictive outage management and life-cycle test approaches for synchrophasor system he has also served as a consultant to over 50 companies worldwide kezunovic has been a principal investigator on over 150 research and development projects published more than 550 papers and has given over 120 invited lectures short courses and seminars around the world kezunovic will be honored with this recognition during the cigré us national committee annual meeting and luncheon ceremony held aug 7 in portland oregon
the paper "comparing visual textual and multimodal features for detecting sign language in video sharing sites" by caio monteiro dr frank shipman and dr ricardo gutierrez-osuna from the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university won the best paper award at the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) international conference on multimedia information processing and retrieval locating videos containing sign language is a problem for members of the hearing impaired community to address this problem the authors have developed a method to detect sign-language content in videos using machine-learning techniques the approach consists of extracting features from the video itself (eg hand movements) and from metadata (eg title description) attached to videos on youtube and other video sharing sites the paper compares various approaches for extracting metadata information and combining it with visual features the results indicate that a modular approach that learns a separate classifier for each feature type and them combines the classifier outputs outperforms monolithic approaches that feed all feature types into a single classification function
what do art and engineering have in common more than you might think this past semester a group of engineering students at texas a&m university has been working closely with an artist from new york to help her design a new smoke painting tool rosemarie fiore isnt a traditional painter instead of using paint brushes and paint she uses fireworks and colorful smoke to create beautiful large-scale paintings last month about 100 people from the community witnessed fiore create a new piece destined for the zachry engineering education complex the team of students assisted during the performance bringing fiore new fireworks and helping her load them onto the tool they designed that tool bring your a frame was based off an earlier design fiore created but was modified to be more efficient
fiore said that art and engineering often work in tandem they rely on each other and can create great things when applied together she said i think engineering is at its best when it extends beyond the mechanical into creativity and design fiore began smoke painting several years ago after accidentally burning herself with fireworks on the 4th of july she instinctively dropped the fireworks and as it rolled across the pavement it left behind a beautiful mark since then fiore has focused almost solely on smoke painting the entire smoke painting process fascinates me but what intrigues me the most is the way smoke reacts to changes in the environment she said the weather temperature air pressure and inversion all affect how smoke behaves electrical engineering student michael bayern said it was very interesting to work on such a project it was a fun change to jump from an engineering project with known constraints and some sort of testing and data to this project which was more like an engineering art project he said it was much more creative and free form than other projects ive worked on
for sophomore manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology student mikaela casuga this project combined two of her passions art and engineering casuga was in the engineering innovation center when fiore first visited campus and a friend encouraged her to sign up for the team i love art and i enjoy drawing painting writing and singing she said for me hearing there would be an engineering project involving my passions i knew i had to join casuga said the experience taught her that she can combine both her passions and delve deeper into her own field of engineering applying metallics and nonmetallic materials in the construction of tools that can be applied by artists bring your a frame was an improved version of a tool fiore designed in 2016 made of aluminum and mounted on wheels a pole is used to maneuver the tool across paper fireworks are lit in unison and inserted into mounts each fuse is the same length causing the fireworks to go off at the same time creating pressure which pushes the pigmented smoke out of the holes on the bottom of the tool the students worked from my original design creating changes to improve my experience using the tool she said for example higher quality wheels were installed also the bottom pattern can be switched out and firework mounts were installed to allow for easy loading unlike tools fiore has made in the past bring your a frame was made of aluminum making it easier to clean and more durable fiore said she was very happy with the end result and plans to continue using the tool for future art works the piece fiore began last month is now back in new york where she will finalize it before it is displayed in the zachry engineering education complex permanently
the crisman institute for petroleum research a center within the texas a&m engineering experiment station is under new leadership dr jeff spath the new department head of the harold vance department of petroleum engineering at texas a&m university has taken on the role of director for the institute were committed to keeping the department at the forefront of petroleum engineering education and research and development said spath crisman is a valuable tool that improves both while increasing our industry relations industry-defined problems brought to the institute are used to generate specific research proposals developed by faculty graduate students conduct the research under industry mentoring and faculty supervision to provide answers for industry the resulting knowledge is implemented into new industry practices and into the department curriculum and classrooms the institute was initially established in 1984 by a private donor endowment from wayne and ruby crisman to further research efforts within the petroleum engineering department in 2004 dr stephen a holditch became the director and invigorated the program backed by endowed funding from schlumberger halliburton and chevron the institute was opened to other companies through membership in 2016 holditch came back from retirement to spearhead efforts for the institute to merge research endeavors with the berg-hughes center (bhc) for petroleum and sedimentary systems a part of the department of geology and geophysics within the college of geosciences at texas a&m by combining crisman and the bhc faculty and graduate students we have the integrated team we need for solving the complex problems associated with developing shale reservoirs said holditch at the time of the merger we need to improve the fundamental science in our geologic hydraulic fracturing and reservoir models so they can be used to both match the production history and predict the future production performance more accurately than we can now there is no shortage of problems to be solved by the institute particularly in shale reservoirs their challenging geology and production issues require a combination of petroleum engineering fundamentals innovative techniques and creative thinking something spath knows the institute can provide this industry-driven approach is vital in maintaining the departments relevance and provides the department opportunities to increase visibility and reputation through cooperative research said spath the institute also provides real current problems to the graduate students thereby strengthening their overall education as a final but very important advantage many of our graduates end up going to work with the sponsoring companies
after becoming captivated with the texas a&m university at galveston campus william mick prouse decided to pursue a degree in ocean engineering with a concentration in coastal studies prouse strives to raise the bar in both his academics and the field of ocean engineering i came to texas a&m galveston wishing to transfer to college station but involvement in student life and various organizations changed that i immediately felt at home prouse said the small campus and family atmosphere has definitely encouraged me to grow into my own prouse always knew he wanted to study engineering but it was not until he dove into oceanic topics that he found his passion i fell in love with the galveston campus and decided to give ocean engineering a shot prouse said after becoming involved in research i truly gained a passion for my studies prouse works under the guidance of katherine anarde a phd student at rice university and fellow collaborator in the coastal engineering laboratory research group the research group is spearheaded by dr jens figlus an assistant professor in the department of ocean engineering at texas a&m university prouses project addresses removing errors associated with digital elevations models (dem) in environments with dense vegetation shielding the substrate
the project came to fruition as a sub-study of my mentor katherine anardes thesis prouse said we have a symbiotic relationship where im granted the opportunity to research my personal interests under her guidance while also aiding her thesis dems created using unmanned aerial systems (uas) allow researchers to quickly and easily survey large plots of land and with consecutive dems researchers are able to track the morphological changes over a period of time researchers are still fine tuning their processes to maximize the accuracy of this uas dem data which allows them to rapidly map larger and more environmentally diverse ecosystems with smaller ranges of uncertainty in the data i initially began studying the subject of vegetation-induced dem inaccuracies the summer after my freshman year prouse said that summer katherine tasked me with learning how to operate a drone and create aerial survey maps dem measurement errors occur because photographic sensors lack the ability to see through the vegetation thus creating a false reading from the desired bare earth elevation the overarching goal of his work is to allow for the quick yet accurate mapping of topographic transects to study the impacts of storm events on our barrier islands barrier islands comprising of 85 percent of the united states coastline are the first line of defense against surge and wave attacks from extreme storm events by understanding the effects of storms on barrier islands and recording the hydrodynamics during these events we can offer unique engineering solutions to better guard against the effects of hurricanes with a minimal footprint on our national scenery i enjoy the problem-solving aspect of this project prouse remarked completing research goals reminds me of solving a puzzle and finishing is extremely rewarding when the work is successful prouse particularly enjoys studying structural design hydrodynamics and wave mechanics as they closely relate to his research and are highly challenging fields of study my dream job is to be a coastal engineering consultant specializing in flood prevention programs all over the world said prouse i would first like to continue my research and further my expertise as a graduate student prouse was recently inducted as an undergraduate research scholar and an aggies commit to excellence scholar additionally he has been named a fellow of the texas institute of oceanography and awarded a texas sea grant
dr manoranjan majji assistant professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university has been elevated to the grade of senior member by the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) ieee the worlds largest technical professional society is dedicated to advancing innovation and technological excellence for the benefit of humanity composed of engineers scientists and allied professionals ieee senior membership is an honor bestowed only to those who have made significant contributions to the profession majji joined the department in 2016 his research interests include structural systems computational vision and sensor systems astronautics and dynamical systems and aerospace robotics and autonomous systems
civil engineering sophomore nicholas rossi was recently named sergeant major in the fightin texas aggie band making him the highest ranking junior cadet in the band im able to be a second set of eyes and ears for the commander to help inform him about whats going on in the band rossi said its my job to take his mission and vision and own it – not just push it across the band without any reasoning behind it since joining the band his freshman year rossi has moved from drums to one of two of the bands cymbal players to one of three bass drum players he started playing drums in the sixth grade and continued playing in high school when two of his cousins joined the aggie band rossi came to campus to watch march-ins where he said he remembers thinking wow i want to be a part of that its something bigger than yourself and thats something ive really come to learn he said rossi said he did not know what a sergeant major was when he first joined the band but has learned more about the position and its role in behind the scenes operations to ensure the band is functioning properly
you dont want recognition for yourself rossi said just to have the thrill of waking up in the morning and saying ‘wow im in the fightin texas aggie band and i get to have a hand in it and be a part of taking care of everyone and making sure theyre where theyre supposed to be and doing what theyre supposed to be doing its very humbling rossi who is from sealy texas worried he would become homesick however becoming a part of the corps of cadets and training alongside other cadets quickly gave him a group of friends who have helped him grow over the years the corps the band and my upperclassmen have really helped me focus on developing my goals and what i want to get done he said theyve helped my work ethic grow and increase how effectively i can complete all of my tasks pursuing a degree in civil engineeringrossi said he chose civil engineering after months of research his freshman year he spoke with engineering upperclassmen professors and visited with student organizations to help him decide the best course of action for himself since joining civil engineering rossi said he has developed another set of friends outside of the corps its good because i can get a perspective of the corps from someone who is not within see how they view things and learn why they came to texas a&m rossi said rossi said he does not have a set career for after graduation but instead plans to go with whatever opportunities become available and doing his best to be as prepared as he can be i strongly believe in not trying to force things because from what ive seen with anything in life is that if you try to force it it will break and just wont work out the way that you want it to rossi said every day i find some way to improve myself and improve something around me as a sophomore rossi has taken his role as a model for freshman cadets seriously aiming to teach them the routine of being a cadet and leading by example he said he has learned that what people say can have a real impact on other people which has influenced where he puts his values whatever value you dedicate to your things whether its a goal or an object others will see that and emulate it he said
with a total pool of $380 000 $165 000 in cash and $215 000 in in-kind and investment prizes this is the largest prize pool yet for the texas a&m new ventures competition (tnvc) this years startups include companies from across a wide spectrum of fields including healthcare it/software digital health transportation and clean energy technology at the may 17 competition judges will narrow the field of 16 semi-finalists from across texas down to six finalists judges for the finals are dr ashok gowda founder and ceo of biotex; dave fox angel investor and founder of blue baker restaurants; pat matthews founder and general partner of active capital; william p ramey iii founding partner of ramey & schwaller llp; jessica traver 2017 tnvc winner and ceo of intuitap medical; and louis a raspino super-angel investor member of the goose society the finalist and elevator pitch cash prizes are as follows: finalists first place - $50 000; second - $35 000; third - $25 000; fourth - $15 000; fifth - $10 000; sixth - $5 000 elevator pitch: first - $5 000; second - $3 000; third - $2 000 special prize awardees will be chosen by their sponsor for which all 16 semi-finalists and two alternates are eligible the final judging round begins at 1 pm and is open to the public and the media the finals will take place in the all american club at kyle field
in the fall of 2015 two texas a&m university students worked alongside faculty and a local space commercialization company to develop equipment that would be used on the international space station (iss) for research by nasa over the course of four months department of engineering technology and industrial distribution students dakotah karrer and vincent rodriguez worked with faculty member dr joseph morgan and matt leonard president and ceo of texas space technology applications and research (t star) on a special tube-like experiment station known as strata-1
the integrated hardware and software system within strata-1 helps identify properties of regolith the material found on the surface of airless planetary bodies interacting with regolith becomes a challenge in a low-gravity environment as robotic and crewed missions visit small bodies such as asteroids it will be important to understand how to anchor to these surfaces in the spring of 2016 strata-1 was launched to study the evolution of asteroid regolith through long duration exposure of simulant materials to the microgravity environment on the international space station despite its short development and launch window the strata-1 experiment was a success the nasa scientists who originally conducted the experiment were granted funding for a new class 1e research facility named hermes which will reside on the iss for five-plus years to host monitor and control groups of up to four experiments when again contracted by nasa to develop hermes t star turned to a capstone team within the engineering technology and industrial distribution department to design and deliver the electronics package for the system the capstone team microgravity automated research systems (mars) consisting of five students from the electronic systems engineering technology (eset) program in the department have been working on the hermes facility electronic equipment over the past academic year
recently karrer and rodriguez (now engineers with texas instruments) came back to campus to meet with dr morgan leonard original strata-1 experiment scientists dr kristen john and lee graham and the mars capstone team to discuss the history and future of the project mars and t star are continuing the work of karrer and rodriguez via the hermes facility which will be capable of hosting up to four experiments at a time that can be changed out multiple times during the facilitys lifetime hermes is an experimental microgravity facility that enables science experiments microgravity exposure testing testing of engineering components concept trials and any payloads that fit within the hermes design and operations constraints it is open to any investigation that benefits from microgravity exposure said dr john principal investigator for hermes given the durability of hermes a multitude of experiments can be conducted over its five-year mission on the iss the four chambers inside the facility can be interchanged as needed giving nasa scientists the freedom and flexibility to conduct their research accordingly with minimum deployment costs and varying project timelines the facility includes lighting image recording capabilities and a robust electrical interface being developed by mars which will give scientists complete access to power computation and control mars is also developing software that will allow scientists to achieve desired lighting camera use and electrical components that are uplinked from the ground to hermes nasa has stated that possible experiments could include asteroid regolith investigations life cycle tests of engineering components and penetrometer and anchoring demonstrations any investigation that can benefit from exposure to microgravity can be incorporated into hermes as long as it meets the specified structural electrical and safety standards
at this years engineering project showcase mars received the first place award for all projects in the department and was presented the emerson award for their efforts the partnership between eset students t star and nasa continues to grow with exciting opportunities such as strata-1 and the hermes facility other projects being developed by the partnership include tsat and the dstr robot during the presentation of the strata-1 flight unit to department head dr reza langari leonard summed up the strata-1/hermes meeting by stating the innovation and rapid prototyping capabilities available within the departments product innovation cellar and mobile integrated solutions laboratory have allowed t star to successfully design and develop solutions for nasa scientists in a timely and cost-effective manner while engaging students in a real-world project
texas a&m university at qatar graduated its 900th engineer on may 10 in a ceremony attended by her excellency sheikha hind bint hamad al thani vice chairperson and ceo of qatar foundation more than 100 students walked across the stage of the qatar national convention centre during texas a&m at qatars annual commencement ceremony including 89 students who earned their bachelors degrees in chemical engineering electrical engineering mechanical engineering and petroleum engineering of those 49 degrees were awarded to qatari graduates in addition 14 graduate students earned their master of science and master of engineering degrees in chemical engineering
a senior design capstone team in the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university evaluated ibm watson for use as the brain-system in an on-campus autonomous paratransit shuttle this was the first time ibm partnered with a major university to explore the use of watsons services in alternative transportation mobility solutions undergraduate students alejandra hernandez and alejandro cuellar were given the task to analyze what ibm watson an advance artificial intelligence (ai) technology is capable of they researched the transportation needs of the mobility challenged students at texas a&m and how ibm watson could fulfill these needs as the interface between the transportation vehicle an autonomous shuttle and the mobility-challenged passenger imagine you broke your leg and you had to go from west campus to the engineering technologies building said hernandez our research studied the feasibility of having an on-demand driverless vehicle that could pick you up and you could have a conversation with as if it were a human dr tom ferris associate professor in the department was the teams faculty advisor i am very excited to see our students applying their industrial engineering knowledge to the research and design of new technologies such as this said ferris alejandra and alejandro especially made me proud in the way they conducted analyses of potential user groups a skill that we teach in our courses related to human-systems interaction to determine key human factors that should be considered in the development of this vehicle hernandez enjoyed working with ibm watson and through the partnership was reminded that technology and humankind are meant to work together we can choose to focus on the negative sides of it or we can focus on the beautiful and useful way to extend the human capabilities to those who are in need said hernandez cuellar enjoyed working with ibm watson because use of artificial intelligence software was something new and he believes there will be an increase in the use of it in the coming years i feel honored to have the opportunity to represent texas a&m in a project that positively impacts the lives of others said cuellar their paper on the topic was accepted for presentation at the transportation research boards 2018 annual meeting in washington dc in january the meeting focused on transportation modes with more than 5 000 presentations in nearly 800 sessions and workshops addressing topics of interest to policymakers administrators practitioners researchers and representatives of government industry and academic institutions bob brydia senior research scientist for the texas a&m transportation institute leads the campus transportation technology initiative which worked with ibm and the college of engineering to find ways to improve campus transportation
to help better predict the spread of mosquito-borne diseases two researchers from the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university have joined a grant project to develop better monitoring tools in coastal areas dr madhav erraguntla and dr mark lawley are part of the gulf coast vector-borne disease regional center of excellence at the the university of texas medical branch which was recently funded by an award from the centers for disease control and prevention to develop low-cost integrated wireless solutions for real-time monitoring of changing environmental conditions in areas where mosquitoes are known to breed and rest mosquitoes are known for carrying a variety of diseases including west nile virus and the zika virus [we are seeking to] better [understand] how localized environmental conditions affect the breeding and resting sites of mosquitoes; the effect of local environmental conditions on the growth and infectivity of mosquito erraguntla said eventually this work will facilitate disease modeling and management to create the models researchers will record fluctuations in temperature ranges on prototypes and then replicate them in the lab mosquitoes raised under various environmental conditions will be assessed for immune status and susceptibility to zika virus the data generated from these experiments will be used to develop an analytical model by developing real-time analytical models of the microclimate weather in shaded areas where mosquitoes spend time research can help provide predictive capabilities for the spread of mosquito-borne diseases in temperate climates modeling and predicting changes in the transmission dynamics and epidemiology of mosquito-borne viral diseases is challenging due to the complex influence of environmental factors on etiological agents and vectors erraguntla said current models fail to incorporate the daily fluctuations in diurnal temperatures which are occurring in the shaded microenvironments where container-breeding mosquitoes are found the research includes two industrial systems and engineering students josef zapletal and himanshu gupta for more information about texas a&m universitys efforts to battle viruses such as zika read this 2017 article
two students have recently received awards for their research and co-curricular activities scott wilson a former student in the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university received the graduate student award for excellence in research-masters and dr charles w peak a doctoral student in biomedical engineering received the buck weirus spirit award both from the association of former students (afs) both work in a laboratory in the department under assistant professor dr akhilesh garharwar
wilson graduated with a master of science in 2017 with a thesis title of designing advanced bioinks for 3d printing complex tissue structures each year the afs graduate student award for excellence in research-masters is given to researchers who are nominated by faculty advisors or departments an external panel of reviewers that includes faculty and administrators chooses the distinction of excellence winners the panel selects the recipients based on criteria including scholastic achievements publications academic awards and scholarships this award adds to the pride that i have in my individual academic work and research wilson said but more importantly it is a testament to the great team dynamic we have in the gaharwar lab i would not have been able to produce the level of research that i did without the encouragement and refinement given by my graduate student colleagues lauren cross cw peak jake carrow david chimene and advisor dr gaharwar the 2018 buck weirus spirit award honors up to 55 students each academic year and recognizes students with high involvement that create positive experiences that impact the texas a&m community
peak was the founder and inaugural president of the biomedical engineering graduate student association he worked diligently to enhance the program through service to the department enhanced professional development opportunities and improved recruiting this award is a validation of the formation of the biomedical engineering graduate student association peak said it shows that we as students can identify our own areas for improvement and that we can work collectively to better our program i am honored to have my work in establishing this organization recognized by receiving the buck weirus spirit award wilson and peak join several of gaharwars students who have received university level awards in the past for additional information visit the afs distinguished graduate student award website or the buck weirus spirit award website
concrete canoes bowling balls and frisbees while this mix of objects sounds odd these items are the namesakes of engineering competitions for civil engineering students who attended the american society of civil engineers (asce) 2018 asce texas-mexico student symposium held from april 11-14 the symposium hosted by the asce student chapter at texas a&m university invited students from 21 universities in both mexico and texas to participate in competitions professional networking opportunities and learning activities
the asce holds 19 student symposiums a year that act as qualifying rounds for the national concrete canoe and steel bridge competitions but an additional component of this years symposium was having speakers and professionals give presentations on engineering soft skills the theme for the conference was serve: engineers serving the public and included seminars on sustainability skills to support students in their transition as learners to professionals in industry james gayle the student chapters committee head for the symposium is proud to be able to further the reach and impact of the symposium by allowing schools to come together and learn now that weve transitioned this into more of a symposium it allows all these students from different places to get to network with professionals gayle said we also hosted a career center and brought ten companies to talk about potential internships and full – time jobs to more than 400 students students got to test their mettle in a steel bridge competition where students from each school are required to design fabricate and construct a steel bridge and test it under various loads each university also fielded a concrete canoe team who had their constructed canoes on display but were not able to race them on saturday due to inclement weather the chapter also hosted a student paper competition which allowed students to discuss and share research and a social event so the students could relax during the symposium
the symposium is a lot of fun but its also a lot of work for everyone involved gayle said the social and the fun competitions we hold like the concrete bowling and concrete frisbee stuff are the only times that everyone gets to relax the responsibility of hosting the symposium was decided two years ago when the members placed a bid to host the symposium and won while planning the event the current officers of the chapter knew they wanted it to be more than just a series of competitions which is something they felt they were able to achieve the student team that put this together worked really hard to make this an engaging and full event gayle said we wanted it to be something where people were able to compete but also have fun and learn and truly make it an event for the students
four students from the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university have been awarded the 2018-2019 vertical flight foundation (vff) scholarships from the american helicopter society (ahs) this is a merit-based scholarship given by the ahs to students who conduct cutting-edge research related to vertical flight david coleman who is a recipient in the doctoral degree category conducts foundational research to understand the flight dynamics of a novel hummingbird-inspired robot atanu halder also a recipient in the doctoral degree category focuses his research on developing an aeroelastic model-based design framework for cyclocopters bochan lee who won the scholarship in the masters degree category is working on the development of a novel control system for vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicles to autonomously land on small surface vessels james mcelreath the top candidate in the bachelors degree category conducts experiments to understand the three-dimensional unsteady aerodynamics on a cycloidal rotor blade the students work in the advanced vertical flight laboratory under the guidance of dr moble benedict assistant professor in aerospace engineering a total of 25 vff scholarships were awarded internationally this year and texas a&m is second in number of scholarships per university the scholarship winners will be honored at the 74th american helicopter society annual forum in may in phoenix arizona in addition to receiving their scholarships coleman halder and mcelreath will be presenting technical papers during the conference
dr andreas polycarpou head of the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university co-chaired a successful 2018 international mechanical engineering education leadership summit as part of the american society of mechanical engineers in march the summit held in in san diego california focused on the themes of safety and security in mechanical engineering specifically how they both apply to protection advances in technology–the internet smart cars smart cities–that have improved the lives of the average person must now ensure both safety and security as operating principles bringing in the age of the digital mechanical engineer a summary of the summits theme stated
dr nk anand the james m and ada sutton forsyth professor regents professor executive associate dean of engineering and associate director of the texas a&m engineering experiment station texas a&m university was a panelist for a discussion on various mechanical engineering partnerships ranging from government and industry to academia and nonprofits
dr arun srinivasa holdredge/paul professor in the department also attended the summit as a panelist on a safety and security of autonomous systems discussion that was moderated by polycarpou who is also the james j cain chair in mechanical engineering and the meinhard h kotzebue 14 professor srinivasas presentation was pedagogy technology/flipped and educating future mechanical engineers since 1989 the asme international mechanical engineering education leadership summit has brought together university industry and government leaders to discuss issues in engineering education and research and to sharing latest business management and curricular practices dr andreas polycarpou head of the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university co-chaired a successful 2018 international mechanical engineering education leadership summit as part of the american society of mechanical engineers in march dr nk anand was a panelist for a discussion on various mechanical engineering partnerships ranging from government and industry to academia and nonprofits dr arun srinivasa also attended the summit as a panelist on a safety and security of autonomous systems
dr zachary grasley presidential impact fellow director of the center for infrastructure renewal and professor in the zachry department of civil engineering at texas a&m has been named a fellow of the american ceramic society (acers) grasley will be honored during the acers honors and awards banquet at their 120th annual meeting on oct 15 2018 in columbus ohio grasley was selected based on his scholarly contributions and leadership impact on the materials engineering industry grasley has spent his career making research contributions to the integration of analytical computational and experimental techniques across several length scales to fundamentally advance civil infrastructure materials grasley has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles has given more than 30 invited or keynote seminars and has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on grants totaling over $62 million
texas a&m university students were recently recognized for their efforts to end hunger in texas as part of the hunger free project a texas a&m tier one-funded grant this intercollegiate effort facilitates meaningful sustainable interactions between texas a&m students and organizations representing core values of leadership and selfless service in the community
after working all semester tackling problems facing local food banks and pantries 20 teams presented their solutions at the inaugural community engagement impact summit on the texas a&m campus industrial distribution students worked closely with peers from many other disciplines who were part of a class offered by the department of sociology to help local food agencies in need evaluators included directors of non-profit agencies from the local bryan-college station area champions of engaged scholarship on the texas a&m campus central texas food bank representatives as well as specially invited guests they did exceptionally well said dr malini natarajarathinam an assistant professor in the department of engineering technology & industrial distribution (who spearheaded the initiative
all the feedback the presentation evaluators provided us about the student presentations was impressive the evaluators were clearly impressed with the students presentation skills and how they had structured their presentations to focus on solutions and impact evaluators were so impressed by the teams that deliberations took almost an hour and were unable to narrow down their top three choices instead a total of five teams were selected as winners central texas food bank a strategic partner in the hunger free project awarded nearly $20 000 to the teams so they could implement their proposed solutions the winners include: academic and community engagement award winner group 12 (caritas of waco agency mentor: buddy edwards) trevor bartz celine jacques emily kenny christine sanford community impact award winner ($10 000) group 16 (hutto community food pantry agency mentor: connie gooding) cody cooper patricia dossett mathew romanchuk rosario vega-tirado community impact award runner-up ($5 000) group 6 (helping hands ministry of belton agency mentor: tasha roberts) daniels mengual avero lauren powers shelby schlesselman carter shults community impact award runner-up ($3 500) group 20 (micah 6 agency mentor: barry smith) blake broussard mateo camacho ricardo duenez kyle gardner kelsie warren community impact award runner-up ($1 000) group 19 (covenant umc pantry agency mentor: dan schultz) allison reese peter muller lukas vogt patrick wylie this program gives our students the opportunity to work on a truly collaborative effort said department head dr reza langari they are learning skills and knowledge that they need to assume moral leadership and solve societal problems both locally and worldwide two other programs were recognized at the summit including the service-learning faculty fellows program as well as presentation of the 2018 margaret rudder community service awards this summit was a collaborative venture across the texas a&m campus community the department of student activities leadership and service center in the division of student affairs planned the event with assistance from the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution and the department of sociology public partnership and outreach in the office of the provost provided support for the luncheon
a research group in the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university led by dr shiren wang is working to find efficient solutions to reusing and repurposing wasted heat energy industrial processes consume fuel to implement the desired operations unfortunately more than half of the energy produced is lost through waste heat thermoelectric technologies recycle waste heat by using it to create electricity for example thermoelectric products can be integrated into cellphones for increasing battery life or vehicle engines for improving fuel efficiency (see figure 1)
thermoelectric products are made from special materials that absorb heat and create electricity these products often need to have complex geometries that fit in tightly constrained spaces which makes 3d printing the ideal manufacturing technique unfortunately printable materials that demonstrate flexibility and high thermoelectric performance are in short supply wangs research group has invented a new hybrid nanostructure that can serve as ink for scalable printing with good mechanical flexibility and outstanding thermoelectric properties the efficiency of recycling water heat is around 12 percent for a thermal gradient of 60 oc and 6 percent for a thermal gradient of 260 oc for example in an iphone x printing of wangs thermoelectric materials onto the battery could extend the battery lifetime 5-10 minutes if integrated within vehicle engines the fuel efficiency can be improved by 6 percent in freeway driving that means every gallon of fuel can run one-two more miles dr mark lawley head of the industrial and systems engineering department said wangs remarkable achievement is the culmination of years of difficult research his work has the potential to save our economy billions of dollars in energy consumption while reducing societys impact on the global environment lawley said congratulations to dr wang for this outstanding work wangs research has been selected for publication in the prestigious journal energy & environmental science of the royal society of chemistry energy & environmental science is an international journal that publishes important high-quality and agenda-setting research relating to energy conversion and storage alternative fuel technologies and environmental science with an impact factor of 295
james mcelreath an undergraduate student in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university was named the international runner-up of the american helicopter societys (ahs) prestigious 2018 robert l lichten award competition mcelreath works with assistant professor dr moble benedict in the advanced vertical flight laboratory and his project involves force and flowfield measurements to understand the 3d unsteady aerodynamics on a cycloidal rotor blade operating at ultralow reynolds numbers mcelreath won the award for his paper tip vortex measurements on a cycloidal rotor blade at ultralow reynolds numbers he will be honored at the annual grand awards banquet at the 74th ahs forum in phoenix ariz in may previously he was the first prize winner from the southwest region and at the international level he competed with six other regional winners including graduate students and employees from sikorsky and the army aviation directorate to win the second place the robert l lichten award was established in 1975 to honor the memory of robert l lichten an outstanding rotary-wing engineer and the societys 22nd president it recognizes new and innovative research in the area of vertical flight and encourages ahs members who have not previously presented to begin making public the results of their work through presentations at the local level each of the ahs regions around the world is eligible to select a regional winner from which an overall international winner and runner-up are selected
following a dream to build and install underwater habitats ron smith found the key to his dream in by earning a degree in ocean engineering from texas a&m university i told my mom that i wanted to be an oceanographer that knew how to build structures underwater said smith founder of deep down inc and advisory board member in the department of ocean engineering this was in 1975 when i was a junior in high school she presented texas a&ms ocean engineering program to me and i knew instantly this is what i wanted to do but i didnt want my parents to have to pay for my education when i had that covered from the naval academy
upon graduation smith began working as a drilling engineer trainee at odeco in new orleans he was one of the first to have the unlimited master modular offshore drilling units (modu) marine license so he managed the semi-submersible modus while there he learned from a mentor lee trahan that work success is based on 20 percent ability and 80 percent working well with others i worked seven or 14 days offshore and in my off-time i either worked in the office five days a week or went to training schools that a few of us in the same program set up smith said it was a self-training program i learned to balance my ocean engineering education with real field experience and found that spot right in the middle which shaped my career trahan was just one of many mentors smith learned from in his life that deeply influenced who he has become and what he is committed to in his work and personal life my dad was a retired marine corps major and highly-decorated f4u corsair fighter pilot smith said he was also my baseball coach scout master hunting and fishing teacher anything i wanted to do he was grown up doing everything with me and teaching me lessons without me knowing i was being taught when i got to high school and he asked about my day i told him what all we did not have he got himself on the school board and organized a bond election as he was a stock broker as a school board member smiths dad cleaned up the school and obtained all the chemistry physics athletic and art equipment students could possibly need he followed me every step of the way and made sure i had all the support i needed no matter what the topic smith said then smith went to texas a&m and met another key mentor