houck2040/tees huggingface dataset:
jan 21 2010 - dr alex sprintson assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university and a researcher in the tees electrical and computer engineering division has received the prestigious faculty early career development (career) award from the national science foundation (nsf) sprintson received his career award for his proposal "wireless network coding: analysis complexity and algorithms" sprintson who joined the department in 2006 received the bsc degree (summa cum laude) msc and phd degrees in electrical engineering from the technion-israel institute of technology from 2003 to 2005 he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the california institute of technology sprintsons research interests are in the broad area of communication networks with a focus on algorithmic and information-theoretic aspects of networking network coding and its applications in communication networks and quality of service (qos) routing honors include receiving the 2003 prof andrew viterbi post-doctoral fellowship the 2003 wolf award for his phd studies the 2002 miriam and aaron gutwirth fellowship for special excellence in graduate studies and numerous academic awards of excellence the nsf established the career program to support junior faculty within the context of their overall career development combining in a single program the support of research and education of the highest quality and in the broadest sense through this program the nsf emphasizes the importance on the early development of academic careers dedicated to stimulating the discovery process in which the excitement of research is enhanced by inspired teaching and enthusiastic learning
the tees texas center for applied technology (tcat) along with the city of san antonio the san antonio independent school district alamo colleges san antonio youth centers cps energy and the san antonio water system celebrated the grand opening of the mission verde center@cooper jan 25 the city will spend $1 million of its federal energy efficiency and conservation block grant toward energy improvements and retrofits at the center which will be designed and monitored by tcat the center is the first-of-its-kind education training and research center for renewable and energy-efficient technologies tcat is a center of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) its engineers and scientists apply research to develop and insert technology to provide practical solutions to critical state and national needs
feb 10 2010 - mariah hahn assistant professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering has been awarded a faculty early career development (career) award sponsored by the national science foundation (nsf) as a recipient of the prestigious award hahn will receive $400 000 throughout the next five years for her research which combines a novel class of gels based on collagen-mimetic proteins with gene silencing techniques to identify key environmental stimuli driving mesenchymal stem cell differentiation results from these studies have the potential to transform researchers ability to dictate cell behavior in organ regeneration applications hahn who completed her undergraduate career at the university of texas at austin conducted her phd at the massachusetts institute of technology with robert langer and post-doctoral studies at rice university under jennifer west as part of her research at texas a&m hahn focuses on understanding cell-cell and cell-material interactions at a more fundamental level to rationally guide tissue regeneration in her laboratory hahn uses cardiovascular and skeletal tissues as model systems for probing cell response to controlled external stimuli the career award was established to support junior faculty within the context of their overall career development combining in a single program the support of research and education of the highest quality and in the broadest sense through this program the nsf emphasizes the importance on the early development of academic careers dedicated to stimulating the discovery process in which the excitement of research is enhanced by inspired teaching and enthusiastic learning
feb 26 2010 - dr guofei gu a tees researcher and an assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university has received a 2010 national science foundation (nsf) career award for his research in computer and network security the nsf awards the prestigious career grants to outstanding junior faculty members to help them advance their research and teaching activities gus project "coordination- and correlation-based botnet defense" will continue through 2015 in recent years automated and massive internet-scale malware attacks have become the main concern for internet security in particular botnets have distinguished themselves from previous generations of malware as the primary platform for most internet attacks and illegal activities gu said a botnet is a network of compromised computers also called "bots " that are under the control of an attacker or "botmaster" with the magnitude and the potency of attacks afforded by the bots combined bandwidth and processing power (the number of compromised computers in a single botnet can run into the millions) botnets are now considered as the greatest single threat to internet security gus project aims to create a coordination- and correlation-based framework for botnet defense that improves on the detection prevention and attribution of botnets the proposed work will develop a new cooperative detection system that will efficiently detect and monitor botnets as well as develop new community-based collaborative prevention techniques in order to prevent malware from attaching itself to your computer gu said "i also plan to explore several new directions to provide an effective botmaster attribution solution in order to better identify system attackers for prosecution this research will not only significantly advance the field of malware defense by providing fundamentally new techniques but will also have a broad impact in providing new foundations for building a defense-in-depth security architecture the results from this research are likely to foster new research directions in several areas of computer and network security" gu received his phd from the georgia institute of technology in 2008 and joined the faculty at texas a&m shortly thereafter his teaching and research interests include network security system security and intrusion detection as well as malware detection analysis and defense the nsf established the career program to support junior faculty within the context of their overall career development combining in a single program the support of research and education of the highest quality in the broadest sense through this program the nsf emphasizes the importance of the early development of academic careers dedicated to simulating the discovery process in which the excitement of research is enhanced by inspired teaching and enthusiastic learning for more on the nsf and the career program visit http://wwwnsfgov
tees and texas a&m engineering are playing a role in a technological breakthrough that could clean up the contaminated water recovered from drilling natural gas wells in shale deposits through the process of "hydraulic fracturing" david burnett of texas a&ms global petroleum research institute - in partnership with the texas engineering extension service (teex) and carl vavra of the tees food protein r&d center separation sciences laboratory developed the membrane filtration technology - which has been licensed to a major oil field service company for commercialization burnett and his partners have developed a lab protocol and analytical methodology for technicians who will be field-testing and analyzing the "frac" water after it has been recaptured and processed to determine if it is clean enough to reuse or recycle a pilot class was recently conducted at teexs water and environmental training laboratory on the texas a&m riverside campus the natural gas resources in shale are ubiquitous and the oil and gas industry has learned how to tap into these burnett said "there is 10 times more gas in shale deposits but it takes a lot of wells and uses a lot of water each well can use a three-month supply of water for a city of 4 000 people a lot of the water comes back contaminated and the companies have to dispose of it water is at the center of the problem he added "we have to find a way to treat and re-use this water if the water is to be used for purposes other than reinjection into the oil or gas field then we need to purify the contaminated water and we need credible proof that the filtered water doesnt have environmental contaminants and meets the epa standard for fresh water" thats where teex comes in during a 32-hour customized intermediate water laboratory course recently teexs keith mcleroy and a cadre of other water experts trained 10 technicians in the analytical techniques needed to verify the purity of the water they got hands-on experience and demonstrations of various instrumentation said mcleroy associate training specialist with teexs infrastructure training & safety institute recycling and treating the frac water would not only eliminate the expense of hauling the wastewater away for disposal but it would reduce the total water consumption since the water could be reused again and again in the frac drilling process burnett said pilot studies have shown that proper pretreatment of water used to fracture new gas wells could save an average of $40 000 per well according to a report by the us department of energys office of fossil energy
march 21 2010 - dr raymundo arroyave researcher in the tees mechanical engineering division and an assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university has received the prestigious 2010 career award from the national science foundation the award will fund the project "ab initio calculations for design of high temperature materials" originally from mexico arroyave earned his b sc degree in mechanical and electrical engineering from the instituto tecnologico y de estudios superiores de monterrey after working at a steel making company for about a year arroyave joined the graduate program in materials science and engineering at mit where he focused on the development of efficient high-temperature ceramic/metal seals his doctoral dissertation was on the investigation of the physical chemistry of ceramic/metal interactions at high temperatures through experimental and computational approaches currently arroyaves main research thrust has been the development of self-consistent thermodynamic models for multicomponent multiphase systems using the calphad approach; alloy theoretical investigations of high-temperature materials and their defect structures; prediction of structural thermodynamic and kinetic properties of crystalline materials through ab initio calculations; development of thermodynamically consistent phase field models for the investigation of solid/liquid interactions
the texas a&m university system board of regents approved the establishment of the wind energy center during its meeting friday (march 26) the center which will be part of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) is being established with the vision to position texas a&m engineering and the state of texas as global authorities on all facets of wind energy including major advances in research technology development and technology demonstration and deployment along with innovative educational advances related to wind energy according to the energy report of 2008 by susan combs texas comptroller of public accounts wind energy is among the worlds fastest growing sources of energy wind energy is expected to be a key growth area particularly in texas the wind energy center will be established as one at least five planned energy-type specific research centers within the energy engineering institute which is also a center within tees the center will also examine economic and policy implications related to wind energy production particularly as it relates to the placement of wind turbines both on and off shore under the comprehensive energy umbrella of the energy engineering institute the wind energy center will align its wind energy research activities with the other research focus areas of the energy engineering institute to create robust and synergistic solutions to our nations long term energy needs
james a wall deputy director of the texas center for applied technology (tcat) and keith e biggers a researcher with tcat were members of the team that was awarded the 2010 science & technology impact award from the department of homeland security (dhs) the team from the national center for foreign animal and zoonotic disease defense (fazd) that consisted of wall and biggers along with john t hoffman and neville p clarke was honored for its online "information dashboard" that can improve the nations response to a major disease outbreak the system which is known as the bio-surveillance common operating picture or bcop was developed by the fazd center to enhance the work of the dhs national bio-surveillance integration center (nbic) fazd was honored for rapidly deploying the technology for dhs during the global h1n1 flu pandemic of 2009 fazd researchers built tested and launched the bcop in weeks rather than months as originally scheduled bcop enable dhs to track organize and share information about outbreaks of contagious disease from around the world on a daily basis this allows dhs to more rapidly prepare its response to outbreaks that may threaten the united states the bcop uses information dashboard technology to provide real-time access to multiple web sites live data feeds news feeds streaming video maps images key documents information banks and other information resources as needed to enhance surveillance response and training for biological crises such as contagious disease outbreaks planning is currently under way to increase access within nbic to 20 000 bcop users other government agencies and commercial customers have asked the fazd center about developing specific dashboards for their needs wall and hoffman who is a senior research fellow both at the dhs national center for food protection and defense (university of minnesota) and the fazd center were the principal investigators on the project biggers was an investigator on the project and clark is the former director of the fazd center about tcat the texas center for applied technology part of the texas engineering experiment station promotes economic growth and enhanced quality of life by implementing a spectrum of activities including basic and applied research development and prototyping and application to enable economic benefit and technology development throughout texas and the nation about fazd the fazd center is headquartered at texas a&m and is a dhs center of excellence representing seven major universities 10 minority serving institutions and five national laboratories
nine student teams from the space engineering institute (sei) presented their spring 2010 nasa projects the week of april 19 at nasa johnson space center five of the presenting sei teams - advanced antenna space based solar power integrated thermal management system smart materials for robotic space applications and urine pretreatment - were from texas a&m university students from these five teams and the other four teams from texas a&m-kingsville texas a&m-commerce and prairie view a&m carried out research related to various nasa mission needs the program included 20-minute presentations from each student team individual team meetings with the nasa sponsor and a tour of various laboratories at nasa jsc sei is established under the texas engineering experiment stations space engineering research center sei was established in 2002 to engage undergraduate students in interdisciplinary and multilevel team projects with mentors from nasa and industry to improve student retention in engineering and enhance their engineering skills to meet the needs of the us workforce since 2002 more than 75 percent of entering freshman who participate in sei have graduated with an engineering degree which is about 50 percent higher than the national retention average in addition more than 20 percent of sei students pursue advanced degrees
governor rick perry recognized the palacios high school power set (powerful opportunities for women eager and ready for science engineering and technology) program on thursday (may 13) and presented a grant of nearly $176 000 to support a similar program that will include both young men and women named power set wit or workforce in training the workforce development grants are given annually to organizations providing workforce training programs the wit program was developed as a result of the success of the original power set program that was created by the nuclear power institute (npi) at the texas engineering experiment station (tees) dr lee peddicord npi director noted that power set wit was expanded to include male as well as female students who are interested in pursuing careers related to science technology engineering and math (stem) but who seek two-year technical degrees or certificates "like the original power set wit programs will give students the exposure encouragement and knowledge to not only meet their goals and industrys needs but also give them confidence to consider further education " said peddicord "there is a growing need for people with these skills and qualifications and programs are now available at several community colleges in south texas including wharton county junior college brazosport college victoria college and texas state technical colleges" the power set program was initiated at palacios high school by the npi in conjunction with the south texas nuclear operating company additional power set groups including power set wit will be in place this fall in bay city louise sweeny and van vleck more than 100 young women have completed or are enrolled in power set programs among those attending the governors presentation were representatives from npi the south texas project county city and palacios school district administrators power set members and their parents power set mentors from stp and the student body of palacios high school joining governor perry on the palacios high school stage were peddicord matagorda county judge nate mcdonald; ed halpin president and ceo south texas nuclear operating company; dr betty mccrohan president of wharton county junior college; texas workforce commissioner andres alcantar; and texas education agency commissioner robert scott the current members of the phs power set program were also on the stage including elizabeth castandon a senior at phs who spoke on behalf of the group in his remarks governor perry noted that texas is on track to build new nuclear plants which makes this program even more important "the power set wit program will help keep texas nuclear industry moving forward " he said "and were not just investing in these students who have such high potential; were also investing in the future of our state and country"
the texas a&m university system and gamesa technology corp recently announced an agreement with the intention to install a new generation of wind turbine at west texas a&m university coordinated jointly by the energy engineering institute (eei) and the alternative energy institute of the a&m system eei is a center within the texas engineering experiment station (tees) with the signing a&m system and gamesa officials have initiated a long-term agreement in which the system through its multiple members eei alternative energy institute and the texas transportation institute will conduct ongoing research and testing for gamesas energy-related projects "providing the innovations necessary to secure an efficient high-volume energy supply for our future is one of the most critical tasks before the worlds researchers today " said dr theresa maldonado associate vice chancellor for research of the a&m system and director of eei "great strides are being made in renewable energy resources but the greatest challenge to their widespread use remains the limited capacity they currently generate the a&m system is uniquely configured through its long history in energy research and its specialized facilities to address challenges in the wind energy industry the energy engineering institute is positioned to coordinate these r&d activities"
may 28 2010 &mdash; dr james caverlee has received a 2010 defense advanced research projects agency young faculty award (darpa yfa) for his research on the social web and the technical challenges associated with realizing a new generation of applications suitable for monitoring analyzing and distilling information from massive-scale social systems caverlee is an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university and a researcher in the tees computer science and engineering division darpa presents the young faculty award to outstanding junior faculty whose research will enable revolutionary advances in the areas of the physical sciences engineering and mathematics the yfa program will fund caverlees research through 2012 "in the past few years the web has transformed into a fundamentally social platform for dynamic and ubiquitous real-time information" says caverlee "hundreds of millions of users are actively engaged with social systems placing huge demands on traditional approaches how do we make sense of this deluge of social information" caverlees work proposes that crowd-sourcing holds the key to effective dissemination of interesting and relevant real-time web information and that efficient use of this information requires personalized crowd discovery based on an automated approach to identifying crowds and their significant characteristics in real time "complementary to traditional web information applications that have focused on expensive off-line analysis of web data our research goal is to fill the need for a new class of real-time web applications that must consume and process massive amounts of web data on-the-fly to provide users with important and relevant real-time information" potential defense applications include the automatic discovery of actionable information based on open source data (via social web mining) identification and tracking of online "hotspots" as they arise in real-time (eg disasters terror attacks civil uprisings) and adversarial network analysis for detecting clusters of coordinating attackers among many other emerging social and mobile applications caverlee received his phd from the georgia institute of technology in 2007 and joined the faculty at texas a&m shortly thereafter his teaching and research interests include web-scale information management distributed data-intensive systems information retrieval databases and social computing
mark m ellison former associate vice chancellor for economic development for the texas a&m university system has been named director for corporate relations for the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the appointment effective june 1 was announced by kenneth r hall tees deputy director ellison will serve as the primary point of contact for industry members interested in developing collaborative projects with tees and work to develop new relationships "the engineering program of the texas a&m university system serves the public by educating our future engineering leaders conducting relevant research to address societal needs and enhancing life through key outreach initiatives " said dr ken hall tees deputy director "mark will be instrumental in developing a corporate relations program that provides a conduit for industry and the private sector to engage in with texas a&m engineering to form partnerships that more efficiently allow collaborative approaches toward solving the most-crucial problems facing society" ellison received his bachelor of science degree in agriculture from texas a&m university prior to serving as associate vice chancellor for economic development for the a&m system ellison served as director for the texas emerging technology fund ellison has also served as director of the office of employer initiatives for the texas workforce commission he has been a partner in a specialty investment banking firm in dallas and was assistant commissioner of marketing and agribusiness development for the texas department of agriculture ellison also has served as international trade specialist for us wheat associates in washington dc and casablanca morocco he is a member of the texas economic development council and the international economic development council about tees the texas engineering experiment station is a member of the texas a&m university system with a mission to identify and conduct research in areas critical to the states economic development and quality of life promote new technology and entrepreneurship leverage and network human physical and financial resources and enhance and strengthen education in texas
tiffiny britton has been named assistant vice chancellor for external affairs for the engineering program of the texas a&m university system in this position britton will handle external affairs for three agencies the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the texas engineering extension service (teex) and the texas transportation institute (tti) "this position is our key liaison to our state and federal policy makers responsible for framing our educational research and service initiatives and needs in context with the priorities of our legislative leaders " said dr g kemble bennett vice chancellor and dean of engineering "tiffiny brings a broad experience of having worked with these key constituents and will be a tremendous asset for maintaining our strong working relationships" britton has more than 15 years experience working in texas government she spent eight years in the capitol working in the house and senate for senator steve ogden serving as his chief of staff and director of the committee on infrastructure development and security she has managed and raised money for several state and federal campaigns during the 2005 legislative session she worked for a national public relations firms and developed advocacy and grassroots campaigns to promote the interests of the firms clients she spent the last four years representing a variety of organizations before the texas legislature and state agencies britton is a graduate of texas a&m university with a degree in speech communication and journalism
dr john poston professor of nuclear engineering and associate director of the nuclear power institute at the texas engineering experiment station will be in the white house rose garden on tuesday june 29 poston and his colleagues on the advisory board on radiation and worker health are among those invited to a reception hosted by president and mrs obama honoring individuals who assist the government through service on advisory boards and commissions poston was appointed to the board in 2006 by president george w bush he is the only texan on the 14-member board which advises the secretary of health and human services on the energy employees occupational illness compensation act (eeoic) the act was passed in 2000 and is implemented by the national institute of occupational safety and health (niosh) the eeoic law was passed to address the exposure of men and women engaged in building the nations nuclear defenses to radiation and other hazards unique to nuclear weapons and testing the compensation program is designed to provide for timely uniform and adequate compensation for employees or their survivors who have suffered from illnesses incurred while working for the department of energy or its contractors "the advisory board on radiation and worker health advises the secretary of hhs on which employees at nuclear facilities can be considered for compensation in the event of radiation exposure and also oversees all aspects of the compensation program " poston said "other members of the board include physicians academics labor representatives representatives of nuclear engineering and health physics as well as industrial hygienists and epidemiologists " he added poston has been at texas a&m since 1985 and previously served as head of the department of nuclear engineering
july 2 2010 - a team of researchers has been awarded a grant to to develop a sketch recognition software that enhances engineering learning by providing intelligent and immediate feedback dwight look college of engineering faculty members julie linsey and tracy hammond will work with erin mctigue assistant professor in the department of teaching learning and culture on the two-year $199 769 project the sketched-truss recognition tutoring system is software in which students can draw in a free-hand style mimicking natural drawing using the software students can draw their solutions for truss diagrams and receive immediate feedback and guidance mctigues role will be to translate the software into an educational application and assess the learning through qualitative and quantitative means
july 20 2010&mdash;the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university and the tees nuclear science center were awarded $737 136 in grants from the us department of energy (doe) the grants were part of approximately $182 million awarded to help educate the next generation of nuclear scientists and engineers and to strengthen nuclear research and education capabilities at us universities and colleges the department will receive $286 000 for "general scientific infrastructure" monies from the grant will be used to purchase new equipment to integrate with existing pieces to create a portable imaging suite consisting of a high-speed camera two thermal imagers (one for research one for classroom) and an ultrasonic imaging system the imaging suite will be available for use by the entire nuclear engineering department and will promote advances in curricular enhancements develop undergraduate research experiences increase faculty research capabilities and promote public outreach the funding given to the nuclear science center was part of the "major reactor upgrades" projects the $451 136 grant is earmarked for a cooling tower replacement new fire alarm system whole body exit monitor airborne material control and facility air monitoring system at the reactor the upgrade will provide necessary enhancements so the facility can continue its commitment to research safety and security through its nuclear energy university program (neup) the doe is providing $5 million in scholarships and fellowships to 117 us nuclear science and engineering students and nearly $132 million to 39 us universities and colleges to purchase new equipment or to upgrade their research reactors scholarship and fellowship recipients will be announced in august
aug 2 2010 &mdash; the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and the center for applied technology (tcat) a center within tees were part of an event held july 30 in laredo to announce the benefits of a groundbreaking water treatment project that will purify 50 000 gallons per day of brackish water for potable use in laredos water supply system texas governor rick perry also awarded $275 million from the texas emerging technology fund to terrabon inc for its innovative work in biofuel technology development laredos santa isabel water treatment plant will utilize terrabons adve technology developed in partnership with tees the adve process will remove impurities using advanced vapor compression evaporation to produce drinkable water for laredo further the project will demonstrate the commercial viability of the desalination technology that also reduces the capital and operating costs of water purification tees and tcat are the technology integrator and analyst for this project
aug 18 2010 &mdash; the energy systems laboratory will host its 7th annual clean air through energy efficiency (catee) conference aug 24-26 at the at&t conference center on the university of texas at austin campus in austin this policy conference brings together government leaders businesses researchers and policy makers with energy and environmental advocates to discuss current energy and emissions reductions issues in texas this year hud-dot-epas interagency partnership for sustainable communities will co-host the event and will have a major presence in several panel discussions session tracks will focus on regulatory matters sustainability institutional and commercial strategies and residential issues the conference will feature opening remarks from lee leffingwell mayor of austin; c donald babers regional administrator for the us department of housing and urban development; and chairman barry smitherman of the public utility commission through a series of interactive forums and presentations attendees will have the opportunity to exchange their ideas concerns and initiatives with fellow energy stakeholders representatives from epa texas state energy conservation office environmental defense fund texas transportation institute and texas commission on environmental quality are slated to anchor various sessions catee will be also be staged alongside the 17th symposium on improving building systems in hot and humid climates interested persons are encouraged to visit the event website at http://cateetamuedu where they can register more information on the at&t conference center can be found at http://wwwmeetattexascom
the energy systems laboratory at texas a&m university presented its annual clean air through energy efficiency (catee) conference awards tuesday (aug 24) at the at&t conference center in austin texas honorees were recognized in five different categories: outstanding government organization; outstanding non-profit organization; outstanding government official; outstanding commercial enterprise; and the gregg cooke award for excellence in environmental leadership each year the catee conference recognizes individuals organizations and companies that have demonstrated outstanding and/or unique contributions to clean air through energy efficiency and/or renewable energy actions or programs the gregg cooke award is given to an individual who has inspired others through creative and cooperative problem solving and brought both passion and reason to the pursuit of environmental protection the recipients were: outstanding government organization - dallas-fort worth international airport outstanding non-profit organization - texas business for clean air outstanding government official - senator kirk watson outstanding commercial enterprise - hilton hotels corporation gregg cooke award - james marston director of the energy program texas regional office of the environmental defense fund
sept 10 2010 its not often that freshmen at a major research institution find themselves in a class taught by the universitys president but that is just what is happening at texas a&m this fall for students participating in the first year seminar (fys) program such sessions apply seminar-style teaching to a learning community setting focused around a particular topic one class that texas a&m president r bowen loftin will be teaching is "simulation and gaming: transforming society" the class will be taught with dr james wall who is the director of the computing and information technology division of the texas center for applied technology (tcat) which is a center within the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the course will examine how gaming technology is transforming society with respect to decision-making activities for both military and civilian applications "im looking forward to getting to know the students in the first-year seminar in simulation and gaming that ill be teaching this semester with dr james wall " said loftin the seminars at texas a&m are taught by a variety of professors many of whom are among the universitys top faculty and have won awards for their teaching and research
john pappas has joined texas a&m engineering as the vestas director for the texas a&m wind energy center in his new role pappas will lead efforts to build a wind center of excellence and propel texas a&m engineering as a leader in offshore and onshore wind power technology the wind energy center will cultivate wind-related research within the texas a&m university system leveraging tamu capabilities in the energy sector to create a collaborative and crosscutting r&d organization pappas who also serves as the academic chair of the wind alliance technical committee began his role in august pappas holds a masters degree in electrical engineering from the university of texas at austin and is a registered professional engineer he previously was part of the executive management team of the center for electromechanics one of the largest research institutes at the university of texas pappas served as program manager and director of business development as well as a principal investigator on numerous projects attracting tens of millions of dollars in external funding his previous positions in private industry in the federal government and as a principal in a successful start-up company have led to a wide range of experiences including research and development organization management and business development pappas helped develop multi-gigawatt generators for electric accelerators novel high-power converter systems controls and measurement systems for high voltage power supplies and advanced manufacturing processes for the oil and specialty materials industries additionally he has served on national dod advisory panels served as a subject matter expert for the jason advisory panel chaired sessions at ieee conferences and taught seminars on electromagnetic launch technology and pulsed power he is a member of the american wind energy association and the ieee he is the author of 25 refereed papers in ieee and other publications about the wind energy center the mission of the wind energy center is to cultivate wind-related research within the texas a&m university system and to promote its unique capabilities across the wind energy spectrum from nanostructured materials for next-generation blades and civil infrastructure to turbomachinery power aeroelasticity studies cfd wind forecasting logistics testing and evaluation and other areas critical to the wind power industry the wind energy center was formally launched in march 2010 and is part of the energy engineering institute a center within the texas engineering experiment station (tees) about vestas vestas the worlds leading supplier of wind power solutions has delivered more than 40 000 wind turbines in 65 countries vestas north american headquarters is located in portland ore and its growing us operations include several manufacturing plants in colorado the directors position is named for vestas in recognition of the companys vital contribution to development of the texas a&m wind energy center and its support of wind technology r&d and professional development in texas and the us
nov 19 2010 - james a wall deputy director of the tees texas center for applied technology (tcat) has been appointed to a 26-member blue ribbon panel to conduct a security review of los angeles international airport (lax) and recommend improvements on nov 18 mayor antonio r villaraigosa announced the appointment of the panel after a top-to-bottom security review the panel will provide recommendations for staying on the cutting edge of best practices in airport security such as homeland security/counterterrorism law enforcement fire emergency management and the available resources for safety enhancements "this panel will have full authority to review and inspect all aspects of security at lax which is a top terrorist target in the nation " villaraigosa said "we have continually made improvements to security at lax but we must ensure our facility and protocols remain state of the art to prevent and disrupt potential threats" the panel includes high caliber professionals from diverse fields including homeland security law enforcement academia anti-terrorism technology and emergency management and it will be chaired by lourdes baird a retired federal judge n a unique partnership security experts from israels ben gurion airport will return for their third visit to lax to advise the panel in 2008 villaraigosa negotiated a first of its kind cooperative agreement with the israeli experts who conducted a study of laxs security measures and recommended areas of improvement the israelis will again review the airports security and meet with the panel and offer their insights on improving the public safety at the airport the panel is expected to convene meetings later this month and to provide a summary of its findings by spring 2011
dec 8 2010 dr jeff froyd the tees director of academic development will participate in an invitation-only meeting to help the presidents council of advisors on science and technology (pcast) jan 5 in the white house conference center in washington dc pcast will undertake a study that will make recommendations to president barack obama on how to enhance science technology engineering and mathematics (stem) education from a student¹s transition from high school through earning a technical community college or bachelor¹s degree to create a stem-capable workforce froyd is also the director of academic development in the office of the dean of faculties and associate provost at texas a&m university he previously served as project director for the foundation coalition an nsf engineering education coalition among six institutions that systematically renewed their undergraduate engineering curricula assessed their renewed curricula institutionalized many of their innovations and extensively shared their results with the engineering education community and specifically with a number of schools froyd has authored or co-authored more than 50 papers on curriculum innovation curriculum integration assessment of curricular innovations and the process of curricular change in addition he offered more than 30 workshops on curriculum development course design assessment and faculty development he has also served for seven years as an abet program evaluator in both electrical engineering and computer engineering pcast is an advisory group of the nations leading scientists and engineers appointed by president obama to augment the science and technology advice available to him from inside the white house and from cabinet departments and other federal agencies pcast is consulted about and often makes policy recommendations concerning the full range of policy issues in the domains of science technology and innovation
lifebot a company that provides exclusive patented emergency telemedicine and home telehealth personal survival life-support solutions recently announced that it has executed an option agreement to pursue world-wide exclusive licensing rights to dreams the $14 million advanced ems ambulance developed by the texas engineering experiment station (tees) ut health and the united states military the software hardware and telecommunications aspects of the dreams (disaster relief and emergency medical services) program are led by james a wall director of computing and information technology at the texas center for applied technology (tcat) and texas a&m researcher larry flournoy tcat is a center within tees the digital ems program has developed and deployed wireless video communications and combining avl/gps (automatic vehicle location/global positioning system) technology and advanced software to enable ambulances and helicopters to reach the victim sooner begin triage diagnosis and treatment on the scene it also coordinates helicopters and ambulances to minimize transport time to the nearest appropriate facility using continuous "live" communication with the facilities considered by many to be the most highly developed ambulance to hospital ems telemedicine communications system ever developed dreams is the first and only system to provide fully interactive simultaneous "live" transmissions of video and critical patient data
dec 14 2010 - the us environmental protection agency (epa) has recognized dallas area habitat for humanity (dahfh) and dallas sustainable skylines initiative (dssi) for building 40 energy-efficient homes the organizations found innovative ways to provide quality housing using standardized construction templates while working under a tight budget dssi paid for energy-efficient upgrades in the homes dssi partners texas a&m university the tees energy systems laboratory and texenergy solutions conducted a study to gauge energy savings and cost-effectiveness the efficiency upgrades would provide the results showed that the families will use 10-12 percent less energy for three bedroom homes and 21-22 percent less energy for two bedroom homes when compared to the standard building code in effect at time of construction the homes located in frazier courtyard in dallas are part of dssis affordable green homes initiative that began in 2008the homes were among the first habitat for humanity homes in the country built to leed silver standards the us green building councils certification for environmentally friendly projects dahfh dssi epa chase dallas dallas mayor tom leppert innercity community development corporation (icdc) and jcpenney unveiled the final five homes to the frazier community dec 11 in the fair park area of dallas the celebration "look whos home for the holidays" marked the culmination of the public and private sector joint venture for sustainable housing the dallas sustainable skylines initiative is a voluntary partnership between the city of dallas epa and the north central texas council of governments (nctcg) to promote sustainability and air quality improvements dallas area habitat for humanity transforms neighborhoods by engaging families and community partners in creating quality affordable housing dallas area habitat for humanitys vision is that all individuals and families live in thriving neighborhoods where hopes and dreams are realized for generations to come because poverty housing is socially politically and spiritually unacceptable for more information visit https://dallasareahabitatorg community sustainability is a partnership at the private and public level epa continues to encourage communities to take action to bring together diverse plans for a more sustainable community through programs such as sustainable skylines communities can reduce public exposure to pollutants and improve respiratory health to enhance their residents quality of life more about activities in epa region 6