houck2040/tees huggingface dataset:
dr jiang hu professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university is working to revitalize electronic design automation (eda) technology with machine-learning techniques to keep pace with the ever-growing chip design complexity eda is a category of software tools used to design electronic systems such as integrated circuits nowadays chip complexity is extremely high and is continuing to advance at a very fast rate current techniques used for eda are limited in that they don't offer the capability of knowledge reuse another limitation is that chip design has many complicated steps and conventional electronic design automation techniques are centered on point solutions that aim to address a single task at a time alternatively machine learning incorporates past designs and allows for updates and modifications based on those known experiences rather than starting from point-a each time much like the human brain machine learning can build upon experiences and integrate what is learned or gathered to make progress machine learning is quite different from the conventional techniques in the sense that the conventional techniques do everything from scratch while machine learning has the capability to extract knowledge from prior designs and reuse the knowledge which is much more efficient hu said hu is leading a collaborative team of four faculty members from two universities with individual expertise and experience that equips them to address the changing landscape and needs of eda technology this project which is funded by a $12 million national science foundation grant aims to customize existing machine-learning techniques for the most efficient use in chip designs to help design faster and more power-efficient chips with a quicker turnaround than is currently possible
collaborators include dr yiran chen professor from duke university michael quinn associate professor of practice and dr aakash tyagi professor of practice both from the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m chen is an expert in machine learning while quinn and tyagi have a collective five decades of industry experience in chip design and verification hu began studying the integration of machine learning into eda four years ago and was drawn to the field due to its impact across many disciplines and industries if you look at the progress of chip design technology and electronic design automation in the past several decades there have been mostly small steps you know but this is something big; it is fundamental hu said machine learning can cover the areas that conventional electronic design automation is simply not able to handle as part of this project hu and his team are also bringing in students including women and under-represented minorities with interdisciplinary skills to learn and gain valuable experience in this area of study
nuclear forensics involves the analysis of nuclear materials to determine their origin and history in support of investigations into nuclear security events dr sunil chirayath is conducting research to develop new methods for nuclear detection as a member of the consortium for monitoring technology and verification (mtv) led by the university of michigan
chirayath is an associate professor in the department of nuclear engineering director of the texas a&m center for nuclear security science and policy initiatives and the projects principal investigator at texas a&m he is focusing on nuclear forensics methodology development and testing and verification ­ including neutronics simulations radiochemical experimental efforts and nondestructive and destructive assay of irradiated uranium and plutonium samples
the nuclear forensics methodology development involves machine learning and maximum likelihood statistical techniques and will be able to provide demonstratable proof for us government agencies to identify the origins of plutonium produced in foreign nuclear fuel cycles if such material is subjected to experimental analysis the consortium is funded by a five-year $25-million award from the us department of energys national nuclear security administration with the focus on developing new methods to detect and deter nuclear proliferation activities and to educate the next generation of nuclear security professionals under the direction of dr sara pozzi of the university of michigan the consortium is composed of 14 universities and 13 national laboratories the overarching goal of the mtv is to significantly advance the national capability to detect and characterize foreign nuclear weapons development programs and detect activities not in compliance with current treaty obligations the mtv plans to meet this goal by conducting research focused on three technical thrust areas: fundamentals of nuclear particle physics; signals and source terms for nuclear nonproliferation; and nuclear explosion monitoring cross-cutting areas of mtv include modeling and simulation nuclear policy and education and outreach chirayaths research team mainly contributes to the mtv thrust area of signals and source terms for nuclear nonproliferation in addition to the cross-cutting areas of modeling and simulation and education and outreach the consortium project at texas a&m supports three nuclear engineering doctoral students and engages four nuclear engineering undergraduate students in research and collaborates with lawrence livermore national laboratory and sandia national laboratories in this research endeavor students are also offered internship opportunities to expand training and research activities at national laboratories through their close collaboration with the national laboratories the activities at texas a&m are supporting the us governments need to grow the nuclear forensics pipeline in the us through training job-ready experts in the field along with the university of michigan and texas a&m the consortium includes columbia university; the georgia institute of technology; the massachusetts institute of technology; penn state university; princeton university; the university of california berkeley; the university of florida; the university of hawaii; the university of new mexico; the university of tennessee knoxville; the university of wisconsin; and virginia polytechnic institute and state university
additive manufacturing is transforming the world with the creation of objects not possible before due to the rapidly changing 3d printing landscape new engineering standards for this technology must be envisioned dr darrell wallace chief technology officer for the secureamerica institute (sai) helped found american society of mechanical engineers (asme) standard y1446 which sets processes for the production of interchangeable parts through additive manufacturing this standard is a critical enabler for moving the adoption of additive manufacturing forward effectively in the industry said wallace who was elected to serve as vice-chair of asmes standards committee through my participation in establishing this standard the secureamerica institute and texas a&m played a leadership role in partnership with major players in the engineering space when household hardware like bolts washers and screws are assembled the final products will all differ slightly in dimensions and size due to variations in the manufacturing process they are roughly the same but not exactly the same engineers and manufacturers use a system called geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (gd&t) to communicate differences and ensure parts are interchangeable (designing components with tolerances so objects will fit together despite these variations) traditional gd&t standards describe the surface on the outside of each part and how these surfaces will fit together with additive manufacturing the creation of interchangeable parts has moved from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional plane and the design procedures are no longer uniform as part of an asme team wallace quickly realized shortcomings in traditional standards and their application to additive manufacturing he then started conversations to implement modern processes capable of evolving with this new technology we now have the ability to create parts from multiple materials wallace said its not just the dimensions on the outside of the part that matter but the dimensions of where two different materials meet where they touch and the shape of where they touch is important the old standards give us no control over this wallace said to think of this process like a graphic designer prepares an image for printing upon export the printer will read special marks and color values to ensure the image is printed correctly and spatially aligned with additive manufacturing instead of a printer transitioning from light to dark we now have printers transitioning between materials like brass to steel wallace said in between there will be another element controlling how quickly this transition occurs in order to verify and control these mechanisms we are actively creating new terminology that did not exist until now through wallaces involvement the secureamerica institute is currently the only academic institution represented on the committee there are very few experts on this topic in the country wallace said we have the opportunity to position sai as a considerable thought leader in this area and shape the future of the manufacturing industry
the secureamerica institute and its network of partners are committed to leveraging technology solutions to address nationally impactful challenges please contact dr darrell wallace at dwallace@tamuedu if youre interested in forming a strategic partnership or wish to work together to move manufacturing technology forward
extrusion-based 3d printing/bioprinting is a promising approach to generating patient-specific tissue-engineered grafts however a major challenge in extrusion-based 3d printing and bioprinting is that most currently used materials lack the versatility to be used in a wide range of applications new nanotechnology has been developed by a team of researchers from texas a&m university that leverages colloidal interactions of nanoparticles to print complex geometries that can mimic tissue and organ structure the team led by dr akhilesh gaharwar associate professor and presidential impact fellow in the department of biomedical engineering has introduced colloidal solutions of 2d nanosilicates as a platform technology to print complex structures 2d nanosilicates are disc-shaped inorganic nanoparticles 20 to 50 nanometers in diameter and 1 to 2 nanometers in thickness these nanosilicates form a house-of-cards structure above a certain concentration in water known as a colloidal solution these colloidal solutions have appealing properties when studying the deformation of a material such as increased viscosity and yield stress as well as shear thinning where viscosity reduces under strain and thixotropic behavior where a material deforms in response to applied forces the gaharwar laboratory leverages the rheological properties of these nanosilicates for extrusion-based 3d printing the results of the teams research were published in the journal bioprinting the research was supported by the national institute of biomedical imaging bioengineering of the national institutes of health and the president's excellence fund (x-grants and t3)
some major challenges in extrusion-based 3d printing are the inability to print tall and complex structures as soft materials flow under gravity and cannot form self-supporting structures to overcome these challenges researchers used colloidal nanosilicates and demonstrated them as a platform technology for bioprinting using three different approaches in the first approach satyam rajput a biomedical engineering graduate student in the gaharwar laboratory and the lead author of the paper designed a shear-thinning ink composed of nanosilicates and water-soluble polymers such as agarose alginate kappa-carrageenan gelatin gelatin methacryloyl polyethylene glycol and n-isopropyl acrylamide the printable ink formulation showed good shape fidelity in the second approach the team demonstrated the use of nanosilicates as a sacrificial ink an instrument designed to fail and be removed to design microfluidic devices for in vitro disease modeling these perfusable devices can be used for various applications to emulate and study vascular physiology and fluid mechanics disease models tissue organization and function therapeutic tissue engineering and 3d-cell culture models and screen drugs in the third approach the researchers utilized a colloidal nanosilicate gel as a support bath for 3d printing by nullifying the surface tension and gravitational forces a range of complex structures such as a bifurcated vessel femur meniscus dna double helix heart and trileaflet valve were printed inside the support bath the versatility of nanosilicates could be widely adopted in the fields of additive manufacturing tissue engineering drug delivery and medical devices gaharwar said other authors who contributed to this study are biomedical engineering graduate students kaivalya deo tanmay mathur giriraj lokhande and kanwar abhay singh; dr yuxiang sun associate professor in the department of nutrition; dr daniel alge associate professor in biomedical engineering; dr abhishek jain assistant professor in biomedical engineering; and dr tapasree roy sarkar assistant professor in the department of biology
according to the national spinal cord injury statistical center approximately 18 000 new spinal cord injuries occur each year in the united states spinal cord injuries often lead to serious constipation or incontinence which can lead to decreased quality of life and may even be life-threatening after a spinal cord injury 41% of patients rated bowel dysfunction as a severe life-limiting problem to address these challenges dr hangue park assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university is looking into the utilization of closed-loop electrical stimulation on the colon to promote the natural rhythm of the digestive system this would ultimately negate the adverse effects caused by spinal cord injury and promote functional recovery although the effect of electrical stimulation on promoting effective colon movement has been previously investigated no previous study has yet investigated the result of closed-loop electrical stimulation on promoting colon movement park said traditional open-loop electrical stimulation has been previously proven successful in triggering colonic peristalsis which is the natural constriction and relaxation of the muscles in the digestive tract however park is looking into closed-loop e-stim because of its unique offering to regulate stimulation closed-loop stimulation occurs at a strategic time that allows researchers to work with the colon at a specific time during the digestive process and is regulated whereas open-loop stimulation occurs at random times and is not regulated leading to inconsistent benefit closed-loop stimulation allows park and his team to work with the intrinsic movement of the colon and augment the naturally occurring processes just at a decreased rate due to the patients injury
to address these challenges dr hangue park assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university is looking into the utilization of closed-loop electrical stimulation on the colon to promote the natural rhythm of the digestive system this would ultimately negate the adverse effects caused by spinal cord injury and promote functional recovery although the effect of electrical stimulation on promoting effective colon movement has been previously investigated no previous study has yet investigated the result of closed-loop electrical stimulation on promoting colon movement park said traditional open-loop electrical stimulation has been previously proven successful in triggering colonic peristalsis which is the natural constriction and relaxation of the muscles in the digestive tract however park is looking into closed-loop e-stim because of its unique offering to regulate stimulation closed-loop stimulation occurs at a strategic time that allows researchers to work with the colon at a specific time during the digestive process and is regulated whereas open-loop stimulation occurs at random times and is not regulated leading to inconsistent benefit closed-loop stimulation allows park and his team to work with the intrinsic movement of the colon and augment the naturally occurring processes just at a decreased rate due to the patients injury
park and his team are still researching that strategic timing they are investigating when the colons sensory or motor signal is ready for augmented stimulation which can be a very complex answer as the colon is still a mystery to researchers in many ways
the motivation of this work is to offer spinal cord injury patients as well as their caregivers a higher quality of life park said park is a member of the texas a&m spinal cord initiative which fosters collaborative research to discover new treatments that promote recovery after spinal cord injury this work funded by the craig h neilsen foundation provides significant insight into the analysis of neural manipulation of the colon and improved quality of life for those affected by spinal cord injury it also shows great promise for largely impacting future research collaborators for this project include dr cedric geoffroy from the texas a&m college of medicine and dr byung-jun yoon from the texas a&m electrical and computer engineering department
dr xuejun zhu assistant professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university was awarded a welch foundation grant to help uncover and characterize enzymes involved in modifications that lead to pharmaceutical ineffectiveness in turn this could help medical professionals prescribe medications based on an individuals gut characteristics in the futurecertain bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract can decrease the effectiveness of pharmaceuticals potentially causing treatment delays and adverse impacts on individuals physical and mental health despite research that suggests bacterial enzymes are responsible for modifying the structures and properties of small-molecule pharmaceuticals these enzymes remain poorly understoodthere are many pharmaceuticals that are becoming increasingly ineffective said zhu they can even have side effects partly due to certain modifications of the pharmaceuticals by some gut bacteria the key player in these modifications are enzymes a kind of protein found in bacteria our goal is to determine which enzymes are involved in these changeshowever there are hundreds of enzymes making it difficult to decipher which enzymes are responsible for causing modifications to help determine these specific enzymes zhu and her team will expose substrate specificities the feature of an enzyme to select the kind of substrate to allow a chemical reactiononce they uncover which enzymes are responsible for modifying pharmaceuticals they will use the information to help predict the enzymes unique sequence fingerprints which determine the substrate specificity and will ease future enzyme discoverymoving forward this research could potentially change the way medicines are prescribed to enhance the effectiveness of medications based on the enzymes in an individuals gutfor example if we have a fecal sample we can sequence the dna or rna to see which enzymes could be abundant said zhu based on that information we will be able to determine whether an enzyme will degrade the medication or will likely be more effective this will hopefully help ensure that what is being prescribed is the most effective treatment for an individualthe welch foundation is one of the largest private funding resources for chemical research in texas the grant supports researchers within the state of texas who are making significant contributions to chemistry
a plan from texas a&m university researchers to 3d print new resilient buildings using hempcrete has the potential to lower the environmental impact of traditional construction methods and make housing more affordable and availablethe project will be funded by a $374 million grant from the us department of energy advanced research projects agency-energy (arpa-e) harnessing emissions into structures taking inputs from the atmosphere (hestia) programdr petros sideris assistant professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering will lead the project as principal investigator to develop residential and potential commercial construction designs his team consists of assistant professor dr maria koliou department head and professor dr zachary grasley and professor dr anand puppala from the department and associate professor dr manish dixit and professor dr wei yan from the texas a&m college of architecturehempcrete is made by mixing hemp powder fibers or shives with lime and water creating a lightweight green building material
"while production of conventional construction materials such as concrete requires large amounts of energy and releases large amounts of co2 (carbon dioxide) hempcrete is a net carbon-negative material which can provide major environmental benefits " sideris saidsustainability will be further promoted by designing hempcrete structures more resilient to natural hazards than commonly used lightweight wood frame construction"resilience to natural hazards is intertwined with environmental sustainability because building damage and subsequent repairs due to extreme events such as hurricanes result in major environmental impacts " sideris said
hempcrete has already been used globally in residential construction and prefabricated modular construction"hempcrete has excellent fire resistance and thermal insulating properties that can reduce heating and cooling energy demands " he said "it is water-resistant and offers good acoustic properties"as part of the project building designs will be printable and created to achieve structural and energy performance that will comply with modern design codes sideris said digital designs of printable hempcrete buildings will facilitate adoption by the construction industry "the advancements of this project will contribute to the us maintaining its worldwide leadership in advanced construction methods and infrastructure sustainability and resilient technologies " he saidthe funding is part of hestia which prioritizes overcoming barriers associated with carbon-storing buildings including scarce expensive and geographically limited building materials the hestia program aims to increase the total amount of carbon stored in buildings to create carbon sinks which absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than released during construction
a white mineral ring as tall as the statue of liberty creeps up the steep shoreline of lake mead a colorado river reservoir just east of las vegas on the nevada-arizona border it is the countrys largest reservoir and its draining rapidlywith much of the country experiencing above-normal temperatures below-average rainfall and a changing climate it is vital that water management decision-makers have accurate informationled by dr huilin gao associate professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university researchers created the global lake evaporation volume (glev) dataset it leverages modeling and remote sensing to provide the first long-term monthly time series for 142 million individual natural lakes and artificial reservoirs worldwidethe researchers published their findings in nature communicationsabout 87% of fresh surface water in liquid form is stored in natural and artificial lakes (ie reservoirs) while the evaporation volume from these global lakes is substantial little is known about its spatial distribution and its long-term trend from 1985 to 2018 researchers discovered that long-term average lake evaporation volume has increased at a rate of 312 cubic kilometers per year the trend attributions include an increased evaporation rate of 58% decreased lake ice coverage of 23% and increased lake surface area of 19%the results from the study underline the importance of using evaporation volume (rather than evaporation rate) as the primary index for assessing climatic impacts on lake systems we found that the long-term lake evaporation is 1500 plus or minus 150 cubic kilometers per year which is 154% larger than previous estimates said first author dr gang zhao a texas a&m former student who is now a postdoctoral fellow in the department of global ecology at the carnegie institute for science this suggests that lake evaporation plays a larger role in the hydrological cycle than previously thought
according to glev 6 715 reservoirs only account for 5% of the water storage capacity and 10% of the surface area of all lakes (both natural and artificial) however reservoirs contribute 16% to the evaporation volume this quantity of reservoir evaporative loss is equivalent to 20% of the global annual consumption of water use in the last 33 years evaporative water loss from reservoirs has been increasing at a rate of 54% per year outpacing the global trend of 21% for all lakes "with regard to evaporation loss this study will be an invaluable venue to serve water resources researchers and decision-makers " gao said "our findings have significant environmental societal and economic implications as the global evaporative loss will be accelerated and further exacerbated in the future under global warming "from a global perspective the total reservoir evaporation can be larger than the combined use of domestic and industrial water however even in the united states very few lakes/reservoirs have reliable evaporation data"
without accurately quantifying the magnitude and trend of volumetric evaporation loss individually for the millions of global lakes researchers say reliable water and energy resources projections can't be made this freely available dataset can benefit decision-makers and the wider science community"with results for individual water bodies glev can really help improve reservoir management decision-making all over the world especially under increasing drought events and population growth " gao said "this dataset helps the science community better understand the role that these water bodies play in earth systems from global weather forecasting flood and drought modeling to earth system modeling under climate change" for future work texas a&m researchers the desert research institute and the us bureau of reclamation recently started a nearly $1 million nasa applied science project that focuses on developing satellite-assisted operational daily reservoir evaporation monitoring and forecasts for the western united states the team will also expand an ongoing daily reservoir monitoring project for texas other contributors to this research are dr yao li a postdoctoral research associate in the civil and environmental engineering department at texas a&m and dr liming zhou a professor in the atmospheric and environmental sciences department at the state university of new york at albany this research is funded by nasa the department of energy and the national science foundation
texas a&m university is leading the second stage of a widely collaborative science mission to better understand elements of hypersonic flight bolt ii a suborbital sounding rocket was designed to provide information about boundary layer turbulence (bolt ii) during hypersonic flight the flight experiment managed by the air force research laboratory (afrl)/air force office of scientific research (afosr) launched on march 21 from the nasa wallops flight facility in virginia the successful 10-minute flight brings in new scientific data to further our understanding of drag and heating at hypersonic conditions dr rodney bowersox professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m served as the lead principal investigator (pi) for this effort drs helen reed and edward white professors in the aerospace engineering department were co-pis on the projects aerospace engineering graduate students heather kostak bryan morreale john wirth daniel mullen and eric swinny all played integral roles in the three phases of the experiment this project provided a great opportunity for the students and faculty to better understand the steps teaming and attention to detail required for a successful flight experiment said bowersox this team interacted on a weekly basis with the air force calspan-university of buffalo research center (cubrc) nasa and nasa sounding rocket operations contact the result was a successful hypersonic flight experiment and i am incredibly proud of the entire team
mapping out dynamics one of the most important questions that needed to be answered before launch day was will the rocket fly straight according to bryan morreale a doctoral student in the aerospace engineering department that's a harder question to answer than one might think especially because of the unique geometry of bolt ii "my main contribution was looking at the external aerodynamics of the whole flight system " said morreale "myself and another graduate student eric swinny generated aerodynamic databases to determine the flight performance of the rocket" morreale and swinny worked closely with experts from nasa wallops and the johns hopkins university applied physics laboratory (jhuapl) to determine the flight stability for bolt ii "one of the most important things about bolt ii is that it's an unclassified problem for the community to all work on together " said morreale "i came into this with limited knowledge but i left knowing unbelievable amounts more from having access to the nation's best and brightest engineers working on these problems" morreale was also a key player in helping to determine where to place the more than 400 sensors and instruments on the vehicle "we have the rocket and at the end of the rocket we have the bolt ii payload which has these swept leading edges " he said "the edges cause the air to rush in and create a very complicated flow pattern so what the instrument designers want is to get a rough idea of what the air will do at a specific moment in flight" to help them determine the best way to capture information during the flight he developed higher fidelity fluid dynamics simulations that could explain what the flow over the vehicle's surface would look like
laying the groundwork the placement of those 400-plus sensors was critical to the success of the flight mission to create a wealth of data from this experiment the vehicle had two different instrument layouts one side of the vehicle was designed to capture the natural breakdown to turbulence during flight the other side served as a trip side that captured data from forced transition and turbulence during hypersonic flight heather kostak 16 20 22 a former student from the aerospace engineering department was in charge of instrumenting the natural side which would be equipped with the majority of the sensors she looked at ground test data and simulations to inform the instrumentation layout "we first tested in the wind tunnels at texas a&m and on just a rough 3d-printed model we saw breakdown " said kostak "this breakdown informed us that we need to place instruments in that region to see what modal growth and instabilities are present" she also relied on the data from morreale's and mullens simulations for laminar and turbulent flow along with results from jhuapl and her knowledge from previously working on bolt after instrumenting the entire vehicle kostak and their team traveled to new york to test the full-scale vehicle at cubrc "we tested the entire flight vehicle with all of the instrumentation which has not been done before so that was a really unique opportunity to be a part of " said kostak because of their ability to replicate expected bolt ii flight conditions in cubrc's facilities researchers now have the opportunity to compare more precise data between the flight experiment and ground tests "that's the whole picture all together " said kostak "how did the flight data compare to our simulations and ground test work are we predicting what actually caused transition to turbulence on the flight vehicle that's what i'm curious about because that will impact the aerospace industry"
drumming up the data the successful launch of bolt ii brings in unprecedented data for the teams to begin processing and breaking down air force 1st lt john wirth a doctoral student in the aerospace engineering department is one of the first to look at this information "we have some excellent data and i'm really excited to see how it all lines up " said wirth "you have this complicated 3d geometry with a lot going on so step number one is just to look at the flight trajectory" wirth's role is to take the exponential amount of data from the flight test and reduce it to usable information he is working with partners at afrl nasa and cubrc to determine the angle of attack mach and altitude his role is to put the flight data through the 3d heat flux analysis he developed as part of his doctoral research "if we can validate our theories and actually understand what's happening with the physics then we can make better engineering decisions and enable the next generation of hypersonics " he said the data from bolt ii gives the hypersonics community real-world information that provides long-awaited answers and opens the door for new discoveries for wirth the opportunity to work directly with the flight experiment data alongside a collaborative team has been a uniquely rewarding experience "it feels good being a part of a nationwide team doing something that's important for our whole country " said wirth "that definitely gives you a lot of satisfaction at the end of the day" texas a&m is the first university to lead a flight test key collaborators on the science mission included cubrc nasa university of minnesota united states air force academy university of maryland university of arizona and jhuapl "it is amazing to watch the students rise to the occasion and take the lead on critical elements of the bolt ii flight experiment said sarah popkin who oversees the project as afosrs program officer for high-speed aerodynamics the computational fluid dynamic simulations sensor placement to chase the science and data post-processing have all proven to be so important to our success these students and this project are a prime example of how afosr contributes to workforce development capacity building and creating the next generation of scientists and engineers"
managed by the texas a&m engineering experiment station under the leadership of bowersox the university consortium for applied hypersonics is a five-year $20 million-per-year us department of defense initiative for modernizing hypersonic flight capabilities learn more about texas a&ms hypersonic research and events
as the manufacturing industry shifts toward smart technologies and automation the threat of bad actors compromising industrial capability rises secureamerica institute (sai) partners at the ohio state university are developing an external system to predict robotic untrustworthiness and identify behavior that may indicate a cyber intrusion as part of sais nationwide project call to empower a secure domestic manufacturing enterprise as emerging technology is embraced on a global scale robots are becoming more intertwined into our daily lives said dr ted allen associate professor of industrial and systems engineering and computer science engineering at ohio state its imperative we monitor artificial intelligence and have the ability to shut down these systems independently should they become compromised robots can fail in ways that arent readily apparent and detecting faults is integral to keep operations secure and efficient the ohio state team leveraged low-cost camera systems and human biofeedback to predict and validate if robots were behaving in a trustworthy manner we launched an artificially intelligent manufacturing lab in 2019 where we implemented sensors and cameras to monitor operations and gather data to see if robots were behaving correctly said vimal buck senior researcher at ohio states center for design and manufacturing excellence its important to look at the software and determine if these automated systems were performing normally or if their behavior was indicative of the system being compromised buck and his team sought to incorporate a human element into the project concurrent with digital assessments we analyzed human feedback to determine if its possible for human beings to detect these types of sophisticated intrusions he said is it possible to predict the failure of robots by analyzing biosignals of operators around the world this is one of the questions we are hoping to answer computer systems can appear inscrutable and evaluating how researchers interact with robots was very important to us buck continued understanding the human physiological aspects of losing trust with these systems is important for us to think about moving forward the research team also deployed tactics to investigate robotic cybersecurity boundaries using two types of threat testing: tabletop attacks and replay attacks during a replay attack hackers tap into the physical lines connecting a computer to a robot in order to monitor send or change data and information a tabletop attack is geared more toward assessing vulnerabilities without actually executing an attack on a system the main driver of this project is an awareness of what is happening in your factory allen said digitization has catalyzed the democratization of programming talent this will be incredibly important as more small-to-medium manufacturers and small businesses adopt smart manufacturing practices they will be able to bridge the digital divide and keep their operations safe and efficient
when pointed to the ground most laser guidance will form a straight line at a lower speed but this line can be distorted with hypersonic vehicles a university of central florida team was recently awarded $500 000 from the department of defense via the university consortium for applied hypersonics (ucah) to address disturbances that vehicles encounter in hypersonic conditions the project is led by dr subith vasu a professor at the university of central florida and an expert in spectroscopy and optical diagnostics the impact of this research will help quantify the deviation of laser guidance in hypersonic flight and assist with proper guidance and navigation for hypersonic vehicles learn more about this research on laser guidance and hypersonic flight
managed by the texas a&m engineering experiment station ucah is a five-year $20 million-per-year us department of defense initiative for modernizing hypersonic flight capabilities
dr chris combs an expert in high-speed aerodynamics is leading a team from the university of texas at san antonio researching hypersonic separation events using modeling and experimental measurements partnered with lockheed martin the research team was awarded $15 million in 2020 by the department of defense through the university consortium for applied hypersonics (ucah) which is administered by the texas a&m engineering experiment station this project is designed to study the separation of materials moving at hypersonic speeds a common challenge in hypersonic flight currently it is difficult to model these separations using computational models alone this research explores the common aerodynamic issue by using controlled hypersonic experiments and computational data to further examine stage separation booster drop-off and fairing separation the team will combine the experimental data and feed it into computations to improve models while insight from computations will guide targeted experiments learn more about this materials separation study
managed by the texas a&m engineering experiment station the university consortium for applied hypersonics (ucah) is a five-year $20 million-per-year us department of defense initiative for modernizing hypersonic flight capabilities
dr gabriel xu an expert in experimental plasma science in-space electric propulsion and rotating detonation engines is leading a the university of alabama in huntsville (uah) research team exploring a solid-fuel rotating detonation ramjet technology the study combines the two technologies of solid fuel ramjets and rotating detonation engines to provide high-efficiency air-breathing propulsion using high-density fuel uniting these two concepts can improve the range of supersonic and hypersonic aircraft and missile systems awarded in 2021 by the department of defense through the university consortium for applied hypersonics a texas a&m engineering experiment station administered consortium the $15 million three-year project is led by the uah team who is conducting the experimental portions of the project while the industry partner cfd research corporation is conducting the computational modeling portion learn more about solid-fuel technology for hypersonic flight
managed by the texas a&m engineering experiment station the university consortium for applied hypersonics is a five-year $20 million-per-year us department of defense initiative for modernizing hypersonic flight capabilities
dr tracy hammond professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university received the 2022 distinguished achievement award for teaching from texas a&m and the association of former students since 1995 the award has been presented to recognize faculty and staff achievements in research individual student relationships continuing education/extension graduate mentoring staff and administration and is one of the highest university honors hammond was one of five faculty members in the college of engineering to be honored this year i am incredibly honored to receive this award and am grateful for my exceptional students who have been active collaborators in creating an inclusive classroom " said hammond through her innovative work she has made significant contributions to improving engineering education at texas a&m her engineering education research has been implemented at high schools and universities including texas a&m georgia tech texas state university san jose state university and letourneau university hammond is an international leader in artificial intelligence data science activity recognition (focusing on eye body and sketch motions) machine learning haptics intelligent fabrics smartphone development and computer-human interaction research her publications on these subjects have been widely cited hammond also serves as director of the institute for engineering education and innovation and the sketch recognition lab at texas a&m
the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) and the university of texas at arlington (uta) have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a framework for increasing collaboration to expand the aerospace defense manufacturing community in texas uta holds the cooperative agreement for texas with the national institute of standards and technology manufacturing extension partnership (nist mep) which provides the funding for the texas manufacturing assistance center (tmac) the mep affiliate in texas tmac connects manufacturers with technology and operations opportunities and solutions needed to compete in the global marketplace tees powers a public-private research collaborative called the secure america institute (sai) this institute converges industry government and academia to integrate advancements in us manufacturing resilience particularly within the us defense industrial base working with our strategic partners at tmac will enhance the development of the aerospace defense manufacturing community through the application of advanced technology and workforce training said scott terry sai director of community and small business initiatives by infusing smart manufacturing tools and processes into the manufacturing industrial base we can solidify texas leadership role in the global manufacturing economy sai and tmac are both working to empower the texas manufacturing industrial base by introducing and implementing advanced manufacturing technologies and workforce training this will help improve overall throughput quality and delivery lead time for texas manufacturers which in turn improves their profitability and sustainability tmac will work with tees to become an integral partner in driving the development of advanced manufacturing technology and workforce training for the aerospace and defense industrial base across the state said rodney reddic tmac interim executive director the partnership with tees will allow tmac to reach additional manufacturers across the state through the many workshops and seminars sponsored jointly tmac will provide boots on the ground field staff support for the delivery of advanced manufacturing technology services cybersecurity services and workforce training through this agreement sai and tmac will promote and host events for advanced manufacturing technology and workforce training across the state of texas focused on the aerospace manufacturing community the agency will also partner with various entities including k-12 schools colleges universities and industry partners to drive the development of advanced manufacturing technology workforce training to help create the aerospace industrial base workforce of the future tees is an active member of manufacturing usa through key positions in america makes advanced robotics manufacturing biofabusa clean energy smart manufacturing innovation institute the national institute for innovation in manufacturing biopharmaceuticals and the rapid advancement in process intensification deployment institute
with the record-breaking heat and drought weather conditions texas is currently facing finding a solution to the growing need for reliable power from the electric grid is at an equally all-time high dr thomas overbye professor and odonnell foundation chair iii in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university and director of the texas a&m engineering experiment stations smart grid center is investigating a novel way that historical weather can play a crucial role in benefiting the grid today in particular he is researching the outlier weather conditions such as the extreme heat texas is currently experiencing or very low temperatures such as those experienced in february 2021 during winter storm uri according to the world meteorological organization the number of recorded disasters in north america central america and the caribbean has increased from a disaster occurring every 30 days on average in the 1970s to every seven days for the three decades between 1990 and 2019 while these extreme weather events used to be relatively infrequent their incidence is growing making it vital to include this historical data in the power flow to better safeguard the grid of tomorrow