houck2040/tees huggingface dataset:
on june 25 2019 dr sean mcdeavitt director of the nuclear engineering and science center hosted the first experimenters integration meeting at texas a&m university this meeting was attended by approximately 85 contributors from across five different department of energy (doe) laboratories 20 universities and seven industry partners the focus of the meeting was information sharing in order to build stronger collaborations across the suite of the versatile test reactor (vtr) experiment program for the last 23 years the us has not had a fast reactor-based neutron source such a neutron source is the cornerstone of the countrys ability to accelerate the development and testing of advanced materials and fuels by testing them in high fast-neutron fields with representative environments the reason this whole effort is important is because the reactor itself is intentionally traditional in design and is actually fairly simple however the experiments that are conducted in the reactor can be quite complex and can influence the design of the reactor and the reactor facility said john bumgardner resumption of transient testing director at the idaho national laboratory (inl) bumgardner went on to explain that while this reactor is a sodium fast reactor he can actually use it to do fuels testing qualification for many other reactor types this testing capability is essential for the us to modernize its nuclear energy infrastructure for developing transformational nuclear energy technologies a modern domestic test reactor capability is needed for the advanced reactor community in the us to achieve its goals regarding cost reduction long-lived structures and cladding materials and fuels that can withstand extreme environments i want people to understand how crucial this project really is to the advancement of nuclear in general said kevin weaver vtr experiment manager and technical lead at inl there are things that we will learn out of it that were not even thinking of right now weaver likened their research and various collaborations to the faith people place in nasa missions theres so much work and preparation that goes into it and there is no way to know what were going to get out of it but if you think forwardeven just a few years aheadthis work could drastically change the landscape thats a big deal this experimenters integration meeting aimed to provide an overall framework of the whole project to the people on the experiment team the meeting was also an opportunity to hear from research teams in order to understand what their progress has been and what their needs are in order to move forward
bridges make it possible to get to places faster and more conveniently but in the face of an earthquake these structures are subject to forces that can cause extensive damage dr petros sideris an assistant professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university is leading a collaborative research effort funded by the national science foundation (nsf) to investigate the performance of hybrid sliding-rocking (hsr) columns which provide the same support as conventional bridge infrastructure columns but are more earthquake resistant conventional bridges are cast-in-place monolithic concrete elements that are strong but inflexible structural damage in conventional columns usually caused by a natural disaster result in cracking damage that would force a bridge to close until repairs are completed on the other hand bridges with hsr columns are able to withstand large earthquakes with minimal damage and require only minor repairs likely without bridge closures such infrastructure not only increases community quality of life but can also save thousands in taxpayer dollars there are multiple advantages to the public sideris said by preventing bridge damage we can maintain access to the affected areas immediately after the event for response teams to be easily deployed this accessibility will further help the affected communities to recover faster also by mitigating losses related to post-event bridge repairs and bridge closures more funds can be potentially directed to supporting the recovery of the affected communities
bridges with hsr columns are more resilient than traditional columns because they have more deformability meaning they can more easily alter their shape traditional columns are cast as one piece which means that as the earth shakes and bends these structures crack like a stick bent at both ends hsr columns are built as a series of individual concrete segments held together by steel cables that allow for controlled sliding and rocking this allows the columns to shift and rock without damage while post-tensioning strands ensure that at the end of an earthquake the columns are pushed back to their original position our research has shown that hybrid sliding-rocking columns can be very damage resistant sideris said in the future sideris plans to investigate other aspects of the new design such as how resistant hsr columns are to vehicular impact utilizing feedback from an expert panel of engineers from academia and industry the team is also investigating potential repair strategies for the hsr column design in comparison to strategies used for conventional bridge columns selecting the best repair strategy after an earthquake is no easy task because on the one hand it affects the direct repair costs and bridge downtime while on the other hand affects the future performance of the bridge in future earthquakes sideris said for a new design such as the hybrid sliding-rocking columns this can be even more challenging working on projects such as this that help people and help making their lives better during difficult times has always been meaningful and fulfilling for me sideris added this nsf-funded project includes collaborations with dr abbie b liel from the university of colorado at boulder a co-principal investigator on the project doctoral students mohammad salehi (texas a&m) and jakub valigura (university of colorado at boulder) several texas a&m undergraduate students and former texas a&m masters student hareesh goli
two faculty members from the texas a&m university college of engineering were among 54 academic inventors named to the spring 2019 class of senior members by the national academy of inventors (nai) the new senior members include dr robert balog and dr balakrishna haridas balog is an associate professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and haridas is a professor of practice in the department of biomedical engineering and executive director for technology commercialization and entrepreneurship for the texas a&m engineering experiment station nai senior members are active faculty scientists and administrators from nai member institutions with success in patents licensing and commercialization they have produced technologies that have brought or aspire to bring real impact on the welfare of society we congratulate our outstanding faculty dr robert balog and dr balakrishna haridas for their election as senior members of the nai both are researchers at the top of their fields and leaders in engineering innovation said dr m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of texas a&m engineering senior members also foster a spirit of innovation within their communities while educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors following a nomination for the nai senior member class individuals undergo a rigorous selection process by the nai senior member advisory committee comprised of elected nai members and other professionals considered pioneers in their respective field senior members are elected biannually and nominations are accepted on a rolling basis nominations are currently being accepted for the third senior member class on the nai website nai member institutions support some of the most elite innovators on the horizon with the nai senior member award distinction we are recognizing innovators that are rising stars in their fields said paul r sanberg nai president this new class is joining a prolific group of academic visionaries already defining tomorrow a full list of nai senior members is available on the nai website
many texans particularly the poor and elderly live in areas that are far from medical care telemonitoring the use of technology to monitor a patients health status remotely is an emerging medical practice intended to help these patients researchers from the department of industrial and systems engineering the department of health policy and management and the health care industry have collaborated on a report that reviews the importance of telemonitoring technology for the texas population the report reviewed the successful implementation of a semi-autonomous home health monitoring system that measures the blood pressure and/or blood glucose level of a patient and alerts medical staff when either hits a dangerous level if an alert occurs the staff would then contact the patient to determine if the situation reported by the system was accurate and if they need medical assistance this report is a beginning step to show how telemonitoring technologies can positively impact individuals especially those living in rural areas this system can help clinicians focus on the patients that need the most attention even if they are located remotely said dr hye-chung kum associate professor in the school of public health at texas a&m university health science center and principal investigator on the report cost-effective semi-automated telemonitoring systems have the potential to improve the health of the population through increased access to quality medical care while the report found that telemonitoring provided many benefits there are still some challenges to be worked out in the adoption of this technology we must address organizational cultural and societal barriers by involving a wide range of stakeholders in our research including the staff and medical assistants who receive organize and summarize the telemonitoring data in addition to physicians who review this data said dr farzan sasangohar assistant professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering and co-author of the report the way a clinicians office is set up can create a disconnect between the individuals receiving data and those making decisions based on the data this disconnect can block the effectiveness of the telemonitoring system and these challenges will be addressed in future research what we learned through this research will help us address the challenges that arose and improve the system for future research and implementation in clinics said dr mark lawley department head of industrial and systems engineering and co-author of the report by using the information we have gathered and continuing to improve our knowledge of the pain points in the system we will help bring telemonitoring technologies to those texans who need it most
texas a&m university is part of the national alliance for water innovation (nawi) consortium which was recently awarded a five-year $100 million energy-water desalination hub by the us department of energy (doe) that will address water security issues in the united states led by does lawrence berkeley national laboratory nawi is a research consortium with more than 35 members including three national research laboratories 19 university partners and 10 founding industry partners the hub will focus on early-stage research and development for energy-efficient and cost-competitive desalination technologies dr shankar chellam from the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering is lead researcher for the texas a&m team which includes drs yossef elabd and jodie lutkenhaus from the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering; dr ying li from the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering; and dr karen wooley from the departments of chemistry chemical engineering and materials science and engineering this grant forces us to step out of our comfort zone working in individual labs i feel like i can actually do something to make a clear substantial difference in my lifetime at a large scale said chellam our efforts up until now have been roughly individual from one perspective the very fact that there are nearly 20 universities and scientists from national labs makes me believe that we will do something of clear value to not just the academic community but society at large chellam said the does goal is a four to five times energy reduction of desalination technologies they want us to not just come up with technological solutions but to come up with solutions for problems at a low energy consumption he said the nawi team will develop technologies that treat seawater brackish water and produced waters for use in municipal industrial agricultural utility oil and gas and other water supply needs these technology advancements will help domestic suppliers of water desalination systems to manufacture critical components and parts including the design and manufacture of small-modular and large-scale systems we also want to look at industrial needs said chellam i am doing what is called road mapping for the mining industry stakeholders come to the table saying these are our problems and we say ‘lets develop a pathway from problem to solution
the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) has been awarded $7 million in federal grant funding from the us department of transportation to study automated driving systems us secretary of transportation elaine l chao made the announcement last week of $60 million in federal grant funding to eight projects in seven states to test the safe integration of automated driving systems on us roadways tees researchers will develop and test automated driving systems for rural roads without high-definition maps and with no or low-quality road signs or markings the principal investigator for the project is dr alireza talebpour assistant professor in texas a&m universitys zachry department of civil and environmental engineering co-principal investigators are dr reza langari department head professor and holder of the jr thompson chair in the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution; dr dezhen song associate department head and professor and dr dilma da silva professor and holder of the ford motor company design professorship ii both from the department of computer science and engineering this award from the us department of transportation will help texas a&m advance its autonomous vehicle research by studying rural roadways said john sharp chancellor of the texas a&m university system most autonomous research so far has focused on cities but texas a&m wants to broaden the scope texas has plenty of rural roadways for testing which can help advance research in this area the department is awarding $60 million in grant funding to test the safe integration of automated vehicles into americas transportation system while ensuring that legitimate concerns about safety security and privacy are addressed said chao chao made the announcement at the federal highway administration research showcase an event promoting the importance of research and innovation in transportation the event featured exhibits and demonstrations of the ongoing research emerging technologies and capabilities of the turner-fairbank highway research center visit here for more information on the applications received
the texas a&m university system national laboratories office hosted nuclear security enterprise (nse) day on sept 9 the nse includes the national nuclear security administration (nnsa) and laboratories and other sites around the country managed by the nnsa that maintain the nations nuclear stockpile the nse is among the nations largest employers of students in stem fields brian m smith deputy associate administrator for management at the nnsa said in his keynote address that the nuclear enterprise would hire more than 8 000 new employees across the stem disciplines this year these opportunities will address some of the worlds most complex engineering and scientific issues involving the safety and security of the nuclear stockpile supporting the us navys nuclear propulsion fleet and responding to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the united states and abroad the workforce demographics are favorable for college students today smith added supervisors are often only a few years older than them so the common ground of shared experiences as well as the visual representation of the possibility for upward mobility is immeasurably valuable and unique"
more than 80 students from the college of engineering attended the annual recruiting event students from west texas a&m university prairie view a&m university and other a&m system universities attended the event as well nse day also featured graduate and undergraduate panel discussions designed to provide students with the opportunity to ask questions and learn about internships and jobs at national labs ryan vrecenar from sandia national laboratories explained that internships are key for recruitment at national labs and expanded on the freedom interns have to shape their own research projects ive worked with students who have done projects in areas such as software analysis software development and machine learning he said the ability to choose their own projects essentially means interns have a hand in molding the future career they want for themselves there are also opportunities to network and collaborate across labs which further opens up future career opportunities for students who arent sure if they have what it takes to pursue an internship or fellowship dustin leclair from the nnsa had a few words of advice show that you have an interest in your major beyond classes be a well-rounded person who can work with others and have an interest in technology good writing skills help as well since effective communication is important no one wants the conversation about a stray comma or grammar mistake to distract from an otherwise sound argument
at the nse day career fair hiring managers were available to collect resumes for open job postings internships and fellowships technical representatives from various companies and national labs spoke with students about employment opportunities and other benefits such as professional development and tuition reimbursement programs this industry is great about helping employees better themselves by supporting advanced degrees and certifications since all that effort is usually fed back into the job said jd mohundro from honeywell things like tuition reimbursement are usually based on a managers assessment of need but for engineering you often dont even need to make a business case since engineering is the business texas a&m is one of only a handful of prestigious universities selected to host an nse day event to engage stem students interested in a career with the nse this was texas a&ms second nse day
with a grant from the national science foundation texas a&m university will lead a multi-institution network to promote cyber expertise among research universities community colleges minority-serving institutions and other organizations in the southwestern united states the sweeter (southwest expertise in expanding training education and research) network will provide training and personnel to support and encourage collaboration across the invisible boundaries that often separate disciplines and institutions said dhruva chakravorty associate director for user services and research at texas a&m high performance research computing (hprc) units participating from texas a&m are the hprc texas a&m institute for data science (tamids) laboratory for molecular simulation in the college of science and texas a&m agrilife genomics and bioinformatics service nick duffield director of tamids will serve as sweeters educational coordinator dilma da silva professor in the department of computer science and engineering will join the projects evaluation team jian tao research scientist with hprc and the texas a&m engineering experiment station will serve as a senior investigator the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary research team is often limited by a researchers ability to draw together a cohort of collaborators with needed scientific expertise said chakravorty who will lead the new network sweeter will help to address that gap in our region vice president for research mark a barteau said here at texas a&m and across most of the global scientific community multidisciplinary research has evolved into the primary approach for conducting projects that take on great challenges and provide ground-breaking solutions we are proud to serve as the lead institution for this vital collaboration with our partners across the southwest sweeter will bring together partners from across texas new mexico and arizona the sweeter collaboration will leverage its partners expertise in computational sciences and large-scale computing to address long-standing bottlenecks that can constrain the sharing of resources across institutions the network also will increase accessibility in data science artificial intelligence cloud computing visualization cyber security and bioinformatics sweeter also includes west texas a&m university prairie view a&m university texas a&m university-san antonio university of texas at austin and its texas advanced computing center university of texas at san antonio university of arizona and new mexico state university also participating are industry affiliates google cloud platform and amazon web services as well as the non-governmental organizations lonestar education and research network (learn) and the national center for genome resources
in july of 2019 nuclear science technology and education for molten salt reactors (nustem) and safety assessment of molten salt fast reactor (samofar) led the molten salt reactor (msr) summer bootcamp on the campus of the delft university of technology in the netherlands this event brought together participants from universities across europe and north america to learn more about msrs through seminars hands-on activities a capstone assignment a poster session and a round table presentation both nustem and samofar are large-scale multi-institution research projects investigating msr technologies with an eye to training new experts in this important field dr jean ragusa professor of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university leads the nustem project which was funded by the department of energys nuclear energy university program as an integrated research program over three years nustem funds numerous faculty researchers and students from texas a&m the university of california-berkeley and the university of wisconsin-madison to contribute to the development of enabling technologies for molten salt reactor concepts and to educate young professionals in molten salt reactor technologies other texas a&m nuclear engineering researchers working on the nustem project include dr mark kimber dr cable kurwitz dr sean mcdeavitt dr luis ortega dr lin shao and dr pavel tsvetkov samofar is a consortium of 11 universities and research centers throughout europe funded by euratoms horizon 2020 program and tasked with proving the innovative safety concepts of the molten salt fast reactor by advanced experimental and numerical techniques delivering a breakthrough in nuclear safety and optimal waste management and creating a consortium of stakeholders to demonstrate the molten salt fast reactor beyond samofar the workshop consisted of a series of five modules representing five major components of msr research with faculty members actively working in each area presenting the modules the bootcamp consisted of a thematic mixture of research topics related to msrs said dr mauricio tano visiting assistant professor in the nuclear engineering department at texas a&m who participated in the event this included multiphysics thermal-hydraulics reactor control materials corrosion and the nuclear fuel cycle among others tano also found it very enriching to be presented with the practices and challenges of each of these fields in addition to these presentations each module also included a hands-on practical exercise intended to teach the students and researchers a new skill that they could bring into their research
the summer school broke the traditional lecturing model said texas a&m graduate student mohammed bani ahmad who works on the nustem project with kurwitz the workshop turned classes into interactive sessions where we solved problems and did calculations during class time this kept us students involved and interested the whole time overall it was an exceptional experience the participants also worked together in teams throughout the session on capstone assignments each team developed an msr research proposal in which they detailed the background to their research question the methods they would use to investigate the topic the impact of their proposed research the resources needed to pursue their intended topics along with potential timelines and milestones the challenges to the topic and how they would handle quality assurance during the lifetime of the project this exercise gave the participants valuable experience in writing a competitive proposal for research an award for best capstone submission went to the group of franziska schmidt (uc-berkeley) tano (texas a&m) and nicholas winner (uc-berkeley) for a project proposal titled in situ salt composition observation using optical techniques peter german of texas a&m won the award for best poster at the workshop through working together on the capstone teams presenting posters and talking about their research in round table discussions participants in the molten salt reactor summer bootcamp had the opportunity to share their work and network with other students and faculty in europe and north america working on msr research projects ramiro freile a texas a&m graduate student working on the nustem project with kimber said the connection with other students and professors who are working on the same project was extremely helpful it allowed me to discuss about future projects and possible collaborations with research centers and universities from all over the world
a study conducted by stanford university recently recognized dr jn reddy and dr alan needleman as the most highly cited researchers in the texas a&m university college of engineering reddy is ranked no 13 in all engineering fields and needleman is ranked 22 texas a&m and harvard are the only universities with two researchers ranked in the top 25 the study was published in plos and analyzed data collected during the period of 1996-2017 covering more than six million scientists in 22 major fields and 176 subfields reddy a university distinguished professor regents professor and the oscar s wyatt jr chair professor in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering is the author of 21 textbooks and nearly 700 journal papers and has been a leader in the applied mechanics field for more than 45 years he is widely known for his significant contributions to the field of applied mechanics through the authorship of widely used textbooks on the linear and nonlinear finite element analysis variational methods composite materials and structures and continuum mechanics and elasticity needleman a university distinguished professor tees eminent professor and professor in the department of materials science and engineering is a preeminent leader in the area of mathematical modeling of materials his contributions include the development of a ductile fracture computational methodology the development of cohesive surface methods for fracture analysis and creation of a framework that enables the use of discrete dislocation plasticity to solve general boundary value problems he is a member of the national academy of engineering and the american academy of arts and sciences
texas a&m university hosted the third workshop for the transatlantic partnership between the texas a&m engineering experiment station and arts et métiers institute of technology jointly referred to as the am2 partnership the workshop held oct 16-18 built on the two before it in hopes of presenting the vision for the am2 consortium on industry 40 which seeks to strengthen this partnership and advance technology surrounding artificial intelligence and data science for smart manufacturing in the future two years ago the president of france emmanuel macron launched a national strategy for artificial intelligence in context of the european union as it is key for the sovereignty of our nations and states said the honorable alexis andres consul general from the french consulate in houston however he continued in order to have a successful strategy you need to have adequate training progressive research and companies that excel in this area france cannot succeed in such a challenge alone
but ushering in progress to a global manufacturing industry has been challenging since companies do not share data with one another so collaborative solutions are rarely developed with any efficiency share your data and you will be stronger advised ivan iordanoff vice president of research and innovation at arts et métiers institute of technology of course data is high value so i understand the impulse to protect it iordanoff proposed a relaunch of the am2 innovation pillar to bring together industry giants as well as small-to-medium enterprises technological providers and startups we have 3 000 years of scientists and good knowledge of what we want to simulate he said now we need to determine how to collect data securely so that we can actually use our knowledge the french government has launched a plan called open data meant to make more data accessible by categorizing what kind of data it is based on whether it should be available to the wider public certain companies or no one at all for example all data relating to health of citizens should not be made available publicly said andres we need to be very clear on what can be used with artificial intelligence and development efforts the opportunity to discuss such topics is one of the many benefits of collaborating with so many professionals from academia and industry in attendance at this workshop since november 2017 we have been making significant progress toward forging a strong academia-industry partnership to address the emerging scientific technology and workforce development challenges for industry especially in the context of advanced materials and intelligent manufacturing said satish bukkapatnam professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m director of the tees institute for manufacturing systems and co-lead of the am2 initiative
the am2 partnership is of immense strategic benefit to both france and the us because it seeks to effect change to a global manufacturing industry through extensive research collaborations education programs and mutual faculty and student exchange initiatives that serve to elevate the am2 partnership as well over 100 aggies and gadzarts (students at arts et métiers) have participated in am2 global programs with aggies spending time in france and gadzarts in college station the arts et métiers and texas a&m partnership is a great example of how powerful the synergy of research and education can be remarked maria alves senior director of halliburton engineering global programs at texas a&m besides the great research collaboration solving problems that are relevant to the manufacturing industry around the world this partnership also allows our students to develop a global understanding of the engineering industry and the skills needed to lead in the global industry and society texas a&m is a tier-one research institution and among the top 10 engineering programs in the united states boasting over 35 faculty members with a focus on manufacturing and arts et métiers institute of technology is one of the most reputable engineering programs in france
at the annual america makes members meeting and exchange held last week rob gorham executive director of manufacturing initiatives in the office of business development at the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) and former america makes executive director was awarded the america makes distinguished collaborator award this award is their highest honor awarded to recipients for their contributions to the advancement of technology practices and innovation in the manufacturing industry i am humbled to receive the america makes distinguished collaborator award it symbolizes my drive and passion for using collaboration as a means to accelerate the broad adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies said gorham america makes as the first of 14 manufacturing usa institutes continues to demonstrate collaboration as a sustainable value proposition to the membership they serve and i am proud to be associated with such a great organization as part of the tees leadership team i am committed to bringing the same spirit of collaboration forward in doing our part to secure american manufacturing competitiveness through the missions of research commercialization and workforce development john wilczynski america makes executive director added during his tenure at america makes primarily as executive director rob worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to lay the strategic groundwork for the institutes continued success he strongly believes in and supports the mission of america makesa fact he continues to demonstrate in his current role at tees and our second america makes satellite center we congratulate rob for this well-deserved honor and his many contributions to america makes in march tees announced it was partnering with america makes to establish an america makes satellite center on the texas a&m university campus in college station the center will initially be located in texas a&ms emerging technologies building but will later be expanded to the texas a&m university system rellis campus
the mary kay oconnor process safety center (mkopsc) will host its 2019 international symposium in memory of dr sam mannan oct 22-24 the symposium will take place at the texas a&m hotel and conference center and registration is free for texas a&m students faculty and staff with a valid universal identification number the conference will be held on the main texas a&m university campus in college station texas and includes expert panels student poster presentations an exhibition of industry partners an early career forum industry tours awards ceremony a scavenger hunt and door prizes keynote speakers include jerry wascom vice president of operational excellencesafety health and environment at the exxon mobil corporation; dr elaine oran tees eminent professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m; and dr andrew hopkins emeritus professor for the college of arts and social science at australian national university this symposium serves as the crossroads for process safety where industry academia government agencies and other stakeholders come together to discuss critical issues of research in process safety more than 500 expert researchers and industry representatives from around the world will gather as a part of this two and a half-day symposium to share the latest information on important topics aimed at making the process industry safer the mkopsc was established in 1995 in memory of mary kay oconnor an operations superintendent killed in an explosion on oct 23 1989 at the phillips petroleum complex in pasadena texas in 1997 dr sam mannan because of his reputation as a world-renowned expert in process safety was appointed director of the center he served as director until his passing on sept 11 2018 this years symposium theme beyond regulatory compliance: making safety second nature is inspired by a quote from dr mannan that captures his approach to teaching and practicing process safety: safety should not be a priority; priorities change safety should be a core value a second nature the mkopsc mission is to promote safety as second nature in industry around the world with goals to prevent future incidents in addition the center develops safer processes equipment procedures and management strategies to minimize losses within the processing industry other functions of the center include serving all stakeholders providing a common forum and developing programs and activities that will forever change the paradigm of process safety
during this visit comptroller hegar toured several assets and met with many subject matter experts from across the texas a&m system including texas a&ms west campus data center; the texas a&m system security operations center and the college of engineerings zachry engineering education complex additionally he spoke with current students who are employed at various cybersecurity-related offices and a group from the texas a&m corps of cadets cyber corps the texas a&m system has some of the countrys best cybersecurity experts right here in the brazos valley said chancellor john sharp and that expertise has been recognized by the state and federal governments comptroller hegar is working hard to make sure the citizens of texas are protected against cybercrimes and so are we together we can help root out these cybercrimes before they happen
texas a&m university system us army and army futures command (afc) officials and the bush family were on the rellis campus today for the official groundbreaking and naming of the new bush combat development complex (bcdc) named in honor of former president george hw bush we face a complex security environment one that requires we maintain our competitive edge today while simultaneously building tomorrows i am grateful for the commitment from the people of texas and especially the texas a&m university system to help the army ensure we never send our service members into a fair fight now and in the future said james mcpherson senior official performing the duties of the under secretary of the army neil bush son of the president and the late barbara bush was in attendance and spoke on behalf of the bush family about the name my father loved texas a&m university and this community he also loved his country and was both a proud veteran and commander in chief having a facility dedicated to providing this nations military men and women with the most technologically advanced equipment possible is a tremendous honor to my fathers memory and his service to this country said bush the $130 million bush combat development complex will allow the texas a&m system to provide an ecosystem to accelerate research and technology development to modernize the army this investment is comprised of $50 million from the texas legislature during the 2019 session for establishing an innovative proving ground at rellis and $80 million from the texas a&m system board of regents for constructing a research innovation center and affiliated infrastructure also at rellis when we first envisioned how we could use the rellis campus to support the army one name came to mind george herbert walker bush the 41st us president the bush combat development complex will provide a living laboratory unlike any other and will uphold the highest values of service to our nation said john sharp chancellor of the texas a&m system last week us senator john cornyn the afc and the texas a&m system announced a cooperative agreement that will provide up to $65 million over the next five years to the texas a&m system to support research into new technologies to help the afc advance national security the goal is to shorten the time it takes to get emerging technologies from the lab to the field and maximize technology capabilities through soldier feedback
phd student mohamed sufiyan challiwala who has been a significant contributor to the project said the cargen reactor is a result of a nearly $5 million exceptional proposal grant from the qatar national research funds national priorities research program challiwala started working on the project as a masters student in chemical engineering at texas a&m at qatar before pursuing his phd through the main campus and beginning his doctoral research in qatar cargen provides a new perspective on the implementation of natural gas reforming technology rather than considering carbon or ‘coke formation as a process challenge cargen treats it as an opportunity to convert at least 65 percent of co2 per pass with 50 percent lower energy requirements challiwala said most importantly it produces cnts and carbon fibers that are considered next-generation materials with tremendous applications because of its uniqueness this process is now patented with the support of qatar foundation dr hanif choudhury a research scientist in elbashirs research group said the cargen concept of cnt generation has been validated at the micro- milli- and gram scales with the quality of the carbon nanotubes controlled and preserved at every scale the next step is partnering with industry collaborators to scale up the technology even further this is a major achievement in the way people will look at co2 utilization in the future elbashir said its a homegrown technology developed in qatar based on the interest of qatar to utilize and sequester co2 and reduce the countrys carbon footprint but its applicable in any and all gas-processing countries we are producing material out of it not just liquid fuel that will be burned to produce something else or power a car for example which then puts co2 back into the atmosphere if we can scale up this technology it will be a turning point for everyone worried about co2
us senator john cornyn joined the us army futures command and the texas a&m university system to announce a cooperative agreement that will provide up to $65 million over five years to texas a&m supporting research into new technologies to help the army futures command modernize the nations fighting force our countrys military readiness depends on innovation and the army futures command is on the front line of that fight said sen cornyn this partnership with the texas a&m university system will ensure we have the best and the brightest working to address rapidly evolving threats and maintain our strategic advantage around the world the senator appeared at a press conference with gen john mike murray and chancellor john sharp after being briefed on the details of the agreement and plans for a $130 million combat development complex at the rellis campus in bryan and the armys plans for modernization this investment is comprised of $50 million from the texas legislature during 2019 session for establishing an innovative proving ground at rellis and $80 million from the texas a&m system board of regents for constructing a research innovation center also at rellis the agreement between the texas a&m system and the us army combat capabilities development command army research laboratory is the first step in a long-term partnership with the army futures command army futures command is excited to continue our collaboration with various partners in texas to successfully modernize our army the work conducted at the rellis campus in the coming years will directly impact our soldiers readiness equipment and capabilities said gen murray essential to that relationship is the creation of the combat development complex at rellis a 2 000-acre campus with already almost half-billion dollars in new construction and with more on the drawing boards the combat development complex will help develop prototypes for defense-related hypersonics and directed energy in a one-of-a-kind kilometer-long tunnel it will have laboratories runways underground and open-air battlefields and a resilient network of sensors and systems for data collection analysis and storage the texas a&m system is already contributing significantly to our nations defense with our duties helping manage the los alamos national laboratory said sharp we are proud that army futures command has chosen to work with us on their important mission through the cooperative agreement army futures command has tasked texas a&m system researchers to focus on several key areas specifically the research will address hypersonic and laser weaponry; materials for withstanding hypervelocity blasts; coordinated maneuvering of air and ground vehicles; and resilient computer networks for autonomous vehicles to share up-to-the-moment battlefield information hypersonic is speeds of mach 5 or faster the us military is making a major push to advance laser and hypersonic defense systems senator john cornyn a republican from texas is a member of the senate finance intelligence and judiciary committees
with the help of a grant from the nasa innovative advanced concepts program a texas a&m university-led research team will continue the development of a new type of propulsion system possibly enabling missions to the nearest stars in our lifetime since the launch of sputnik in 1957 space probes have explored our neighboring planets their moons and other minor bodies of the solar system the farthest spacecraft from earth voyager 1 has now left the influence of the sun and has entered interstellar space despite traveling at 38 600 miles per hour voyager would still take 74 000 years to reach the nearest star (other than our sun) proxima centauri the greatest obstacle to exploration beyond the outer planets and into interstellar space is traversing such distances in a reasonable time which requires tremendous speed even a 100-year mission to the rocky exoplanet proxima b entails traveling at 5% the speed of light these daunting requirements far exceed the current capabilities of chemical or plasma propulsion systems
through the nasa innovative advanced concepts (niac) phase ii grant the team led by dr chris limbach assistant professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m has proposed combining a laser beam and a neutral particle beam using them to push a spacecraft to nearly 10% the speed of light unlike either beam alone the researchers are tailoring the beam parameters to exploit the refraction of light and optical forces to eliminate the spreading or expansion of the beams which would otherwise decrease thrust and limit the maximum speed this process known as self-guiding enables the beams to continue pushing and accelerating the spacecraft over millions of kilometers in addition to limbach the team includes dr ken hara assistant professor at stanford university and dr alexandros gerakis assistant professor at texas a&mthe current investigation was preceded by a nine-month niac phase i study where the team looked at the physics and feasibility of this innovative concept and identified technology requirements they also developed high-fidelity modeling tools to simulate how light propagates through the particle beam and how the particles respond to the light field while traveling millions of kilometers through space for phase ii the team will spend two years further refining the propulsion concept by addressing unknown questions found in phase i including the interaction between the propulsion beams and the spacecraft this will include development of advanced numerical simulation tools and complementary laboratory experimentsexperiments will be conducted at the aerospace laboratory for lasers electromagnetics and optics (allemo) they intend to simulate the space environment using an ultra-high vacuum system to show they can produce a neutral particle beam with the properties required for self guiding the team will pass an atomic rubidium vapor through a convergent/divergent nozzle to produce a supersonic jet then a highly directional beam will be created by applying laser doppler cooling a technique that will bring the atom temperature to less than -459 f just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero this will allow the researchers to perform experiments on self guiding with lower power laser systems these experiments can be used to validate computational simulation tools and show the feasibility of the innovative propulsion technique at the end of phase ii the team wants to demonstrate progress toward future implementation of this propulsion technique including beam source development an improved understanding of the physics and the completion of modeling tools needed to design a full-scale system