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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

dr guofei gu professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university is the lead principal investigator of a research team that has received a $1 million grant from the national science foundation's (nsf) resilient and intelligent next-generation systems (rings) program to enhance the security of future wireless and mobile network systems the rings program seeks to ensure the security and resiliency of next-generation (nextg) wireless and mobile communication sensing computing and networking systems that will support essential services nextg systems are expected to connect billions of internet of things devices and users and provide personalized computational and storage resources for highly critical data in real time with little delay in order to host so many application services nextg will use edge computing which refers to computing services that are physically located near the user or source of the data instead of miles away at the core of a traditional cloud data system this way the corresponding device can provide quick responses for example future autonomous vehicles may require nextg to support application services to perform computations store and process critical data from their various sensors manage vehicle-to-vehicle communications and run their deep-learning algorithms to ensure that the billions of nextg-supported services remain scalable and reliable it will feature microservice architecture which is composed of a single application or service divided into smaller independent processes (microservices) that each has a specific purpose they are reusable and can be made quickly to meet demand in addition if a single microservice fails it will not cause the entire application or service to crash however existing microservice architecture is not typically developed and deployed with built-in security measures while basic security patches are available on demand to add after the fact they are not enough to support the large volumes of critical services that nextg hosts to address these issues the team has proposed to develop a new framework nextsec to transform the microservices into self-protecting entities that can do security enhancement protection on their own using the concept of security transformation in addition to security transformation nextsec also provides new primitives for supporting a software-defined way of enforcing user-to-edge-to-cloud security and offers efficient scalable verification of complex security properties across microservices nextsec is an ambitious attempt to build revolutionary capabilities for securing critical services in nextg as well as generic edge and cloud computing said gu this project will provide a solid foundation and collaborative community for future system and network security research the co-principal investigators on the project funded through the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) include associate professor dr jeff huang and assistant professor dr chia-che tsai from the computer science and engineering department and dr walter magnussen director of the texas a&m internet2 technology evaluation center for the rings program the nsf partners with the us department of defenses office of the under secretary of defense for research and engineering the national institute of standards and technology and several industry partners such as apple ericsson google ibm intel microsoft nokia qualcomm and vmware

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

weather information has been used in electric grid planning and operations since the 1880s however no one has yet introduced the idea of incorporating this information into the power flow or load flow of the grid which is a system used to determine how the power flows from the generators through the transmission system to the distribution system (which is then used by consumers) this project funded by the power systems engineering research center introduces the inclusion of historical weather data in the power flow which will provide more context for power engineers and grid operators to effectively manage the electric grid during these extreme weather events and a chance for more informed decisions the power flow is one of the most common tools used to study and design large-scale high-voltage electric grids and includes several algorithms models data and the associated human-machine interface used by power engineers in order to include weather information in a power flow model there is a need for adequate weather data and models of how the weather impacts the grid components as well as the ability to map the weather information to relevant electric grid components overbyes approach to including weather data in the power flow is demonstrated on several electric grids ranging in size from 7 000 to 82 000 buses or nodes that connect several lines and components using weather data over several different years his findings conclude that with little changes to existing models the weather can be easily incorporated into the power flow algorithms to provide vast benefits to the power industry and energy consumers it is widely recognized that weather impacts human activity and subsequent power usage and operations further wind and solar generation continue to grow currently providing more than 14% of the united states electric energy in turn increasing the grids dependence on these sources overbye has been pursuing research related to the power flow for over 40 years but his interest in the integration of weather information began as a result of winter storm uri in order to prevent situations like what was experienced during winter storm uri you have to get a good feel for how likely these weather events are and if you know how likely they are then you can take that into account in your planning said overbye

in a state as vast as texas temperatures can be extreme from the daunting heat of long summer days to record-breaking cold snaps the drastic fluctuation has the potential to adversely affect infrastructure it is a combination of materials and landscape said dr anand puppala interim director for the center for infrastructure renewal (cir) at the texas a&m engineering experiment station and professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university whether it is underground piping providing water and electricity or roadway surfaces for commuters the environment and changing weather patterns play a significant role in the resiliency of materials traditionally used for infrastructure research underway at the cir located at the texas a&m-rellis campus encompasses all aspects of infrastructure from concrete and asphalt to plastics and polymer additives with a targeted outcome of developing sustainable options an interdisciplinary network of experts collaborates to form new methodologies improve longevity and initiate comprehensive test cases learning how to design materials that can withstand a broad range of change expansion contraction of soil or extreme hot and cold temperatures helps shape our research said puppala access to laboratories with specific testing capabilities like corrosion controlled temperature pods and more allows us to scale up our testing and expedites our ability to respond to industry and government needs

geotechnical and unbound materials research in june 2022 residents of odessa a city in west texas experienced firsthand the detrimental impact of degrading infrastructure when a water main failed leaving 165 000 homes and businesses without potable water for more than 24 hours in addition to the material composition of the water lines themselves the expansion and contraction of the soil plays a role in how long underground utility lines can last

from the geotechnical perspective we are exploring how additives may stabilize different soil types and compositions to reduce the stress placed on the lines underground said puppala we simulate the real-life fluctuation of soil conditions to see if and how the additives reduce the effects of soil shifting in seasons of drought and flooding like underground utilities residential home foundations are susceptible to the adverse effects of soil compound expansion and contraction puppala leads an industry-university cooperative research centers (iucrc) program initiated by the national science foundation (nsf) in 1973 to strategically integrate industry academia and government partners his area of focus is on the use of polymeric composite products to strengthen geo and civil infrastructure foundations shift and are exposed to differing temperatures both above and below the grounds surface said puppala through nsf iucrc-sponsored research we are scaling up a thermo-block insulation application that helps reduce heat absorbed by structures to help prevent cracking and foundation maintenance needed or at the very least prolong the life of the slab before repairs are necessary advancements like these can bring relief to both new and existing infrastructure through implementation at the design phase or retrofitting as needed

manufacturing and materials research parallel to the impacts of geotechnical components identifying the resiliency of material types and their reaction to different elements found within the soil is important dr homero castaneda-lopez leads the national corrosion and materials reliability lab a cir facility that provides small- to full-scale testing for industry government and academic partners we help identify how different materials from metal piping and plastic casing to concrete and asphalt respond in corrosive and extreme environments said castaneda-lopez bringing together the data of geotechnical impacts and corrosion helps us see how materials and civil engineers can work in tandem to develop more resilient infrastructure materials

health monitoring of the infrastructure is an important aspect of quantifying and characterizing an assets reliability data from this proactive measure provides insight into the sustainability of current structures and directly influences the environmental impact of the degradation process this same interdisciplinary approach applies to testing concrete and asphalt for roadway surfaces and bridges research into the use of polymers is underway to see how different additives can preclude bleeding of asphalt pavements and provide pliability in concrete structures while maintaining their structural integrity ­during high temperatures a portion of a state highway in east texas began to ‘melt in june 2022 as a result of prolonged and extreme heat while this was actually the asphalt binder rising to the surface due to high temperatures it forced lane closures and delayed the traffic flow so crews could address the issue considering that the texas department of transportation has 80 444 centerline miles of highways and more than 35 000 bridges to maintain across the state with 540 million vehicle miles traveled annually there is a vested interest in reducing the need for maintenance through improved materials selection and engineering of materials combinations identifying materials that can withstand a volatile change in temperatures is a focus of the integrated network of researchers at the cir said dr zachary grasley department head and professor of the civil and environmental engineering department at texas a&m reducing the cost and carbon footprint of infrastructure materials also ties into the sustainability aspect of this infrastructure research dr petros sideris assistant professor in the civil and environmental engineering department is leading a us department of energy advanced research projects agency-energy study using hempcrete for residential and commercial construction designs hempcrete and other materials with a negative or low carbon footprint can lead to designs that combine sustainability and resilience for our structures and infrastructure said sideris this could provide a path to addressing the impacts of climate change on our infrastructure with an estimated cost of $259 trillion for current us infrastructure needs the cir provides a network of researchers and laboratories equipped to meet todays challenges by adapting for the needs of tomorrow

while advanced manufacturing provides increased access to product replication and the agility to pivot when the product needs to be changed the risk for counterfeit production rises secureamerica institute (sai) texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) researchers and their partners at new york university (nyu) are developing techniques that successfully embed markers into 3d-printed products so customers can verify that items received are not counterfeit this research is part of sais nationwide project call to empower a secure and resilient domestic manufacturing enterprise manufacturing-as-a-service (maas) connects designers manufacturers customers and consumers streamlining the process from design to delivery this widely accessible technology also creates added layers of vulnerability and opportunity for counterfeit product dissemination the risk of counterfeit products for items like automotive parts electronics safety equipment and medicine are of particular concern especially with increased maas technology use said dr ramesh karri professor co-founder and co-chair of the nyu center for cybersecurity and principal investigator for this project identifying techniques that reduce these risks will protect manufacturers customers and consumers as we ensure product needs are met safely the global market for advanced manufacturing is expected to grow from $195 billion in 2021 to $561 billion by 2026 indicating a greater need for built-in security measures for domestic manufacturing in addition physical supply chains are being supplanted by cyber-enabled smart manufacturing supply chains where digital objects are transmitted via shared cloud storage then transformed into physical objects at the place and time of need this project outlines how to enhance and test cybersecurity while assuring that it is considered and built into manufacturing systems the technique of embedding unique signatures within the 3d-printed product begins with design files and a trusted pool of registered manufacturers within the maas platform intrinsic signatures provide anti-counterfeit marks in the final product making it much more difficult for the part to be reverse engineered said dr satish bukkapatnam director of the tees institute for manufacturing systems and professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university customers can validate that their product was manufactured from an authentic design source by comparing the embedded signature from the maas platform to the scanned signature of the products received the manufacturing process itself plays an important role in implementing this technique said bukkapatnam how products are manufactured determines not only how and what type of signatures can be created or embedded but also how precisely those markers can be placed these manufacturing-related aspects have not been considered in many earlier studies within the maas platform each step leading to a product being manufactured is automated once a customer initiates a request the appropriate design files are chosen and then shared for production where both the designer and manufacturer are registered as authentic parties within that maas platform a key indicating the unique identifiers is then shared with the customer when production begins so the authenticity comparison can be completed at delivery to test the reliability and scalability of their project the research team completed a red-team-blue-team exercise where the red team represented bad actors and the blue team represented the network of defense within two datasets including 4 440 models and six different types of defects the blue team used statistical analysis and machine learning to successfully identify the faults introduced prior to printing we know the vulnerabilities within manufacturing cyberphysical systems and the feasible defense strategies we can deploy to protect the integrity of goods produced using smart manufacturing said dr nikhil gupta professor at nyu-tandon school of engineering now we have the framework and testbed to support manufacturers in stress-testing their legacy and emerging smart manufacturing standards components and systems for built-in security sai will be able to offer this red-team-blue-team testbed as a service for small- to medium-sized enterprises and us smart manufacturing partners at-large in addition to developing and testing the feasibility of embedded signatures the tees research team explored the use of explainable artificial intelligence- (xai) infused scanning to more efficiently detect internal markers using ultrasound imaging scanning was completed faster and with an accuracy rate of more than 80% detecting internal signatures remains an area of research focus as current methods are either too expensive too slow or not precise this xai-infused ultrasonic inspection technique is now in the process of being patented to help support this area of need for internal signature detection

texas a&m university and arizona state university (asu) are collaborating on a $48 million multidisciplinary project funded by the defense advanced research projects agencys (darpa) biological technology office to create artificial intelligence (ai) for detecting fatigued states using human breath the project aims to better understand sleep deprivation mental and physical fatigue in humans by measuring breath volatile organic compounds (voc) biomarkers and how they can affect performance especially in high-stakes environments understanding the breath vocs will enable researchers to create a set of ai algorithms to detect a persons fatigued state fatigue is an important topic for the us department of defense and many other sectors in our society yet it is very challenging to quantify fatigue i am pleased to see the darpas investment in our rigorous scientific approach and its trust in our world-class team said dr roozbeh jafari tim and amy leach professor in texas a&ms college of engineering and the projects principal investigator dr steven riechman associate professor of kinesiology in texas a&ms school of education and human development said the insights may lead to new opportunities for monitoring and predicting fatigue by using wearables to prevent catastrophic failures he also said there may be new ways to intervene against fatigue to improve resilience in challenging environments and circumstances comprehensively examining the change in breath vocs during the progression from rest to fatigue will provide valuable insights into the transitions in metabolic states riechman said according to the projects proposal these compounds have been used before to detect other health issues such as bowel inflammation and asthma they will be key resources of chemical information from all body systems the project will be phased from a highly controlled environment leading to less-controlled real-life settings texas a&m researchers will collect participants breath voc samples at different states of fatigue with machines that can detect vocs in the breath samples they will use wearable monitors and sensors to measure heart rate body temperature and other biometrics dr ranjana mehta associate professor in the wm michael barnes 64 department of industrial and systems engineering and director of texas a&ms neuroergonomics laboratory will lead the creation and execution of fatigue protocols with riechman by inducing fatigue in a highly controlled environment this project will not only enable us to develop breath and physiological biomarkers of fatigue in general and military populations but also expand our understanding of the interactions between fatigue due to a variety of sources mehta said dr arul jayaraman executive associate dean of the texas a&m college of engineering and chemical engineering professor and dr heather bean asu associate professor in the school of life science and the biodesign center for fundamental and applied microbiomics will measure vocs in the breath samples bean says the volume and combination of breath samples at different stages of fatigue protocols will help to advance the understanding of breath vocs beyond the ability to predict fatigue this study will generate more than 3 000 breath samples which is an order of magnitude larger than any breath voc study published to date said bean the team will use pattern recognition and statistical modeling to identify vocs that can detect and discriminate the types of fatigue studied during the course of the project said dr ivan ivanov clinical professor of physiology and pharmacology at the school of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences jafari will lead the project alongside co-investigators mehta jayaraman riechman bean and ivanov

the covid-19 pandemic exposed the inability of national supply chains to quickly shift production and reconfigure their logistics networks to meet customer demand surges during major disruptive events the desperate scramble for items such as ventilators face masks and even toilet paper wont soon be forgotten but the recent baby formula shortage points to a larger underlying problem with a supply chain model that prioritizes being efficient and cost-effective without accommodating the additional needs for resilience and robustness but what if it was possible to proactively plan and reactively respond and recover as quickly as possible following a supply chain disruption by further employing automation and robotics at key stages of the supply chain in response to recommendations outlined in the report of the defense critical supply chain task force the secureamerica institute (sai) and the advanced robotics for manufacturing (arm) institute are partnering with industry leaders like general electric (ge) to make targeted supply chain improvements the robotics and automation decision framework for agility and resilience (radar) which is funded by the us department of commerces national institute of standards and technology (nist) plans to demonstrate the power of strategically adopting robotic and automation solutions across the supply chain led by dr lefteris iakovou sais manufacturing supply chain director and the harvey hubbell professor of industrial distribution in the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution at texas a&m university radar will demonstrate two-way visibility into and across critical supply chains to determine where the most impactful suppliers vulnerabilities and interventions could exist following black swan disruptions like covid-19 since over 98% of suppliers in the us are small and medium-sized manufacturers (smms) according to the us census bureaus 2018 county business patterns survey establishing an understanding of what makes them more agile and cost-competitive is key to realizing the vision of this program the utilization of flexible and collaborative robotics technologies to automate factory operations in the radar program has the potential for significant return on investments across multiple product lines regardless of the size of the company said dr prabhakar pagilla professor in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering and associate dean for research in the texas a&m university college of engineering the radar program can uncover which characteristics and attributes companies should incorporate to increase their likelihood of successfully adopting robotics and automation in collaborative (human and robot) manufacturing environments an imperfect understanding of existing constraints incentives opportunities and risks that can impact supply chains currently prevents many smms from fully embracing their technical innovation capabilities and contributes to end-to-end supply chain resilience for instance during some of the darkest days of the covid-19 pandemic large automobile manufacturers were able to pivot their production lines to produce ventilators however many smms lack the scale know-how and support to fully explore their ability to be similarly agile radar aims to productize the agile operational models of larger organizations so smms are also able to pivot as needed during the covid-19 pandemic ge researchers developed a robust pandemic simulation of the supply chain volatility our industries experienced we think that simulation can be applied in the radar project to enable more intelligent production management for future pandemics said walter yund senior scientist in enterprise operations research at ge research by merging ge researchs pandemic simulation with existing hospital and covid-19 supply chain data this model could offer key insights for manufacturers to anticipate future demand and determine which elements of their supply chain are most at risk of a material shortage formalizing that decision-making process for smms also opens up more opportunities for cross-collaboration not just in times of crisis but for innovation overall sai successfully demonstrated this idea on a small scale for rapid product development with the covid-19 breathalyzer kiosk which connected several seemingly disparate organizations and people to create a unique new technology during a time of need radar also seeks to redesign supply chains critical to the security of the nation without reverting to pre-pandemic practices bolstered by a framework of dynamically resilient data-driven supply chain networks radar will support the quick detection of disruptive events efficient increasing of manufacturing capacity where needed and reduction of manufacturing capacity once recovery has been attained the defense industrial base looks holistically at the united states true manufacturing capabilities so improving the resilience and competitiveness of the domestic supply chain will have national security implications radar is on track to improve the resiliency flexibility and competitiveness of smms and is envisioned to enhance the resilience of the us manufacturing industrial base when the next supply chain disruption materializes this research is supported by a $5 million grant from nist the funding is provided by the american rescue act and is part of a larger $54 million initiative by nist to award high-impact projects for pandemic response research and development across eight manufacturing institutes in the manufacturing usa network

gas turbines are widely used for power generation and aircraft propulsion according to the laws of thermodynamics the higher the temperature of an engine the higher the efficiency because of these laws there is an emerging interest in increasing turbines operating temperature a team of researchers from the department of materials science and engineering at texas a&m university in conjunction with researchers from ames national laboratory have developed an artificial intelligence framework capable of predicting high entropy alloys (heas) that can withstand extremely high temperature oxidizing environments this method could significantly reduce the time and costs of finding alloys by decreasing the number of experimental analyses required this research was recently published in material horizons under prolonged high-temperature conditions turbine blades can result in catastrophic failure from melting or oxidizing unfortunately current turbine blade materials have already reached their operational limit engineering advancements such as coatings and cooling channels have delayed the need for changing the materials used for turbines however air travel is expected to double in volume over the next decade and gas turbines are becoming an increasingly dominant technology for power generation therefore turbines require higher efficiency to reduce fuel usage and limit carbon dioxide emissions gas turbines function by converting chemical energy into mechanical motion but are limited by their temperature threshold said dr raymundo arroyave professor in the department of materials science and engineering the next step of revolutionizing turbine technology is to change the material that is used to fabricate components such as the blades so that they can operate at higher temperatures without oxidizing catastrophically when looking at different types of alloys for turbines there is significant attention around heas heas are concentrated alloys that do not have a clear majority element a unique characteristic of heas is that these alloys become more stable at higher temperatures offering the potential for use in extreme environments despite their ability to withstand high temperatures heas are susceptible to rusting (oxidizing) heas can have many compositions exponentially expanding the types of oxides that can form finding a composition that could resist oxidation would require extensive experimentation at very high costs to circumvent the drawbacks and costs of hea discovery the researchers developed an artificial intelligence framework capable of predicting the oxidation behavior of heas this framework combining computational thermodynamics machine learning and quantum mechanics can quantitatively predict the oxidation of heas of arbitrary chemical compositions the time necessary to computationally screen the alloys is drastically reduced from years to mere minutes very fast and efficient screening in turn results in a reduced need for resource-intensive experimental trials when searching a large compositional space experimentalists would have to take hundreds of variations of a very complex material oxidize them and then characterize their performance which could take weeks months or even years said daniel sauceda a graduate student in the materials science and engineering department our research significantly shortened the process by creating a roadmap of the oxidation of heas showing researchers what you can expect from different compositions using the framework the researchers predicted the oxidation behavior of multiple alloy compositions they then sent the predictions to ames national laboratory's scientist gaoyuan ouyang and his team to test their findings and verify that the framework accurately demonstrates if an alloy would or would not resist oxidation the ability of the framework to accurately pinpoint detrimental phases will enable the design of improved oxidation-resistant materials said ames national laboratory scientist prashant singh who co-led the framework development the approach presented in this study is general and applicable to understanding oxidation behavior of heas as well as provide insights into oxidation and corrosion-resistant materials for other applications the tools developed in this study could potentially alter the process by which scientists discover materials for extreme environments by using artificial intelligence tools to rapidly siphon through astronomical numbers of alloys in a very short time this tool will help screen out alloys that will not work for our application needs while allowing us to spend more time and create a more detailed analysis of alloys that are worth investigating said arroyave while our predictions are not 100% accurate they still provide sufficient information to make informed decisions on what materials are worth investigating at a speed that would have been unthinkable before this framework was developed the heas found through this framework have potential applications such as gas turbines for propulsion and power generation heat exchangers and many others that require materials to withstand extreme operating conditions by enabling the discovery of materials capable of withstanding extreme environments this work directly contributes to the department of energys goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 said singh the joint work by texas a&m and ames national laboratory was supported by the ultrahigh temperature impervious materials advancing turbine efficiency program of the advanced research projects agency-energy the national science foundation and the us department of energy (basic energy science and fossil energy program) also supported this work

for years the nucleus within a cell was thought to be elastic like a rubber ball deforming and snapping back into shape as the cell navigated through pores and between fibers inside the human body researchers at texas a&m university and the university of florida have discovered that the nucleus is more complex than originally believed behaving more like a liquid drop than a rubber ball the discovery that the nucleus deforms like a liquid drop calls for a fresh look at how the nuclear shape becomes abnormal in diseases like cancer said dr tanmay lele unocal professor in the department of biomedical engineering lele a cancer prevention & research institute of texas (cprit) scholar is co-leading the team that uncovered the surprising mechanical behaviors of the nucleus their findings were published in advanced science in june 2022 the genetic material governing a cells function and behavior called the genome is safely stored in the nucleus nearly 150 years of looking through microscopes has taught pathologists and researchers that misshapen nuclei are warning signs of diseases like cancer cancer cells with such abnormal nuclei are able to migrate to other parts of the body in a process called cancer metastasis a spreading that can be lethal nuclear shape observations are used in cancer diagnosis even today but why nuclei become abnormal has remained unclear understanding how nuclei become misshapen may help uncover a way to aid cell nuclei in regaining their normal shapes leading to new approaches for treating cancer the findings from this study are critical to understanding how a protective layer surrounding the nucleus called the lamina helps preserve nuclear shape while cells crawl through the tortuous paths through pores and around tissue fibers

lele and his fellow researchers began their exploration of nuclear behaviors by placing fibroblasts the most common type of connective-tissue cells in animals into a miniature obstacle course of tiny flexible pillars 1/100th of the width of a human hair in order for the cells to crawl through this obstacle course their nuclei had to squeeze in between the pillars the researchers observed the movements with an advanced high-resolution microscope that could image the 3d shapes of the nuclei imaging revealed that the pillars created deep indentations into the nuclear surface yet the overall nuclear shape was preserved allowing the nucleus to successfully pass like a liquid drop and unlike a springy elastic rubber ball through the obstacles the research also revealed that a depletion of lamin a/c one of the normal protein components of lamina caused the nuclei to get entangled in the obstacles the discovery suggests that lamin a/c helps maintain the surface tension of the nuclear drop our work points to a fundamental mechanism by which the nucleus preserves its shape and protects its genome lele said our discovery also helps us better understand how misshapen nuclei arise in cancer and how to potentially make them normal again we are now studying the implications of the drop model for the abnormal nuclear shapes commonly observed in cancer the work is financially supported by a grant from the national cancer institutes physical sciences oncology network to lele along with additional support from the national science foundation to co-principal investigator dr richard b dickinson professor in the department of chemical engineering at the university of florida the research is also partially funded by a cprit established investigator award to lele facilitated through the texas a&m engineering experiment station aside from lele and dickinson principal investigators and researchers on this project include drs pushkar p lele cynthia a reinhart-king kyle j roux and nathan j sniadecki students include aditya katiyar (lead author on the paper) jian zhang jyot d antani yifan yu and kelsey l scott

flexible electronics have enabled the design of sensors actuators microfluidics and electronics on flexible conformal and/or stretchable sublayers for wearable implantable or ingestible applications however these devices have very different mechanical and biological properties when compared to human tissue and thus cannot be integrated with the human body a team of researchers at texas a&m university has developed a new class of biomaterial inks that mimic native characteristics of highly conductive human tissue much like skin which are essential for the ink to be used in 3d printing this biomaterial ink leverages a new class of 2d nanomaterials known as molybdenum disulfide (mos2) the thin-layered structure of mos2 contains defect centers to make it chemically active and combined with modified gelatin to obtain a flexible hydrogel comparable to the structure of jell-o the impact of this work is far-reaching in 3d printing said dr akhilesh gaharwar associate professor in the department of biomedical engineering and presidential impact fellow this newly designed hydrogel ink is highly biocompatible and electrically conductive paving the way for the next generation of wearable and implantable bioelectronics this study was recently published in acs nano

the ink has shear-thinning properties that decrease in viscosity as force increases so it is solid inside the tube but flows more like a liquid when squeezed similar to ketchup or toothpaste the team incorporated these electrically conductive nanomaterials within a modified gelatin to make a hydrogel ink with characteristics that are essential for designing ink conducive to 3d printing these 3d-printed devices are extremely elastomeric and can be compressed bent or twisted without breaking said kaivalya deo graduate student in the biomedical engineering department and lead author of the paper in addition these devices are electronically active enabling them to monitor dynamic human motion and paving the way for continuous motion monitoring in order to 3d print the ink researchers in the gaharwar laboratory designed a cost-effective open-source multi-head 3d bioprinter that is fully functional and customizable running on open-source tools and freeware this also allows any researcher to build 3d bioprinters tailored to fit their own research needs the electrically conductive 3d-printed hydrogel ink can create complex 3d circuits and is not limited to planar designs allowing researchers to make customizable bioelectronics tailored to patient-specific requirements in utilizing these 3d printers deo was able to print electrically active and stretchable electronic devices these devices demonstrate extraordinary strain-sensing capabilities and can be used for engineering customizable monitoring systems this also opens up new possibilities for designing stretchable sensors with integrated microelectronic components one of the potential applications of the new ink is in 3d printing electronic tattoos for patients with parkinsons disease researchers envision that this printed e-tattoo can monitor a patients movement including tremors this project is in collaboration with dr anthony guiseppi-elie vice president of academic affairs and workforce development at tri-county technical college in south carolina and dr limei tian assistant professor of biomedical engineering at texas a&m this study was funded by the national institute of biomedical imaging and bioengineering the national institute of neurological disorders and stroke and the texas a&m university presidents excellence fund a provisional patent on this technology has been filed in association with the texas a&m engineering experiment station

dr pushkar lele and a team of researchers from texas a&m university conducted a study to see how indole an organic compound and a significant component of the bacterial exometabolome impacts the energy levels and protein function in bacteria indole can promote antibiotic resistance so understanding the metabolites diverse effects on bacterial physiology is critical this study was recently published in pnas nexus microorganisms release metabolites substances capable of breaking down food chemicals or other products these metabolites as a collective make up what is referred to as the exometabolome indole is abundant in the exometabolome and is understood to have significant effects on the functions of bacteria however the mechanisms remain poorly understood in this work the researchers attempted to understand the fundamental principles of indoles action on escherichia coli (e coli) to do this rachit gupta a doctoral student in leles group led a set of experiments to probe the energy levels in bacterial cells in the presence of indole bacterial cells require energy to perform major functions such as cell division or motility which the abundance of indole can alter however measuring energy in single cells is difficult as bacteria are incredibly small we combined several different techniques such as fluorescent dyes that make a cell appear brighter or dimmer dependent on the magnitude of its electric potential which is a major source of its energy said lele associate professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering in particular we focused on cell motility and molecular motor activity which indirectly track the energy levels in this work the researchers attempted to understand the fundamental principles of how indole influences such a wide variety of applications from the function of the chemotaxis (movement due to a chemical response) to protein synthesis the teams single-motor measurements revealed that indole impacted energetics only at high concentrations by dissipating e colis electrochemical proton gradient gupta then performed computational simulations of protein interactions based on statistical mechanics models and compared predictions with experiments comparisons suggested that indole at low concentrations interferes with protein-protein interactions to increase the noise in enzymatic activity and alter function at low concentrations indole affects inter- and intra-protein interactions and at high concentrations it dissipates the membrane potential which potentially explains indoles wide-reaching effects on cell behavior said lele these studies could provide insights into how pathogens invade our bodies for example indole appears to have differential effects on pathogens and beneficial bacteria in the gut which might help pathogens subvert defenses posed by good bacteria in the stomach under certain conditions on the other hand indole appears to promote colonization by beneficial bacteria as per the groups earlier work much work remains to be done to delineate indoles precise effects on bacterial physiology bacteria that lack sufficient energy to perform key functions targeted by antibiotics often survive in those lethal conditions thus the dissipation of energy by indole could underlie the failure of antibiotic treatment in the presence of the metabolite as metabolite production is linked to dietary intake such discoveries could guide personalized treatments based on diet the next thing we want to do is to determine why indole acts differently on pathogens and beneficial bacteria because then we can develop predictive models of the vulnerabilities of bacterial communities in the host said lele besides understanding the role of energy disruptors in modulating the structure of nascent microbial communities will be helpful in engineering communities with desirable properties this study was funded by the national institute of general medical sciences

the american society of mechanical engineers (asme) honored dr yassin hassan with the 2022 fluids engineering award at the fluids engineering division summer meeting (fedsm) in toronto for his outstanding contributions to the engineering profession and the field of fluids engineering hassan is a university distinguished professor regents professor and lf peterson 36 chair ii professor in the department of nuclear engineering and the j mike walker ‘66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university he is also director of the center for advanced small modular and microreactors and a member of the national academy of engineering asme presented the award to hassan on aug 4 during the fedsms awards dinner at the intercontinental toronto centre in toronto canada he was also a plenary speaker for the meeting presenting high resolution experiments for modeling and simulation: from nuclear applications to covid-19 this award is a testament to dr hassans vital work in the field of fluids engineering said dr michael nastasi head of the nuclear engineering department we are proud the asme has chosen him for this distinguished recognition this is a well-deserved honor recognizing dr hassans valuable contributions to the fluids engineering field said dr guillermo aguilar head of the mechanical engineering department his work continues to make positive impacts within the engineering community the fluids engineering award was established by the fluids engineering division in 1968 and operated as a division award until 1978 when it was elevated to a society award it provides the recipient with $1 000 and a bronze medal hassan earned his bachelors degree from alexandria university in egypt in 1968 he earned his masters degree and doctoral degree in nuclear engineering from the university of illinois in 1975 and 1980 respectively his research is focused on computational and experimental thermal hydraulics reactor safety fluid mechanics two-phase flow turbulence and laser velocimetry and imaging techniques

dr siegfried hecker and dr farheen naqvi join the faculty in the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university effective aug16 where they will contribute their robust knowledge of and experience in nuclear security hecker will serve as a professor of practice and naqvi will serve as a research assistant professor both will work closely with the center for nuclear security science and policy initiatives (nsspi) at texas a&m as nsspi faculty fellows to advance the departments commitment to nuclear safety and nonproliferation hecker brings international nuclear security expertise hecker is an internationally recognized expert in plutonium science global threat reduction and nuclear security he joins the department after a tenure at stanford university where he served as a professor emeritus in the department of management science and engineering and a senior fellow emeritus at the freeman spogli institute for international studies (fsi) he previously served as the fifth director of los alamos national laboratory and co-director of the fsis center for international security and cooperation heckers current research interests include nuclear nonproliferation and arms control nuclear weapons policy nuclear security the safe and secure expansion of nuclear energy and plutonium science he will guest lecture in the department and other areas across campus such as the institute for science technology and public policy at the bush school of government and public service at texas a&m i will focus on the importance of the interplay of technology and policy on all things nuclear from nuclear energy to nuclear weapons hecker said i also plan to work with students and postdoctoral fellows on projects of nuclear technology and their implications for nuclear policy naqvi brings wealth of radiation detection and detector development naqvi joins the department after serving in the massachusetts institute of technologys department of nuclear science and engineering as a research scientist during her term she applied her knowledge of radiation measurement detector development and computational analysis to focus on building technologies to mitigate nuclear terrorism and weapons by mitigating the dangers of nuclear smuggling or nuclear weapons we are making an effort to make the world more secure naqvi said she will teach nuclear security policy courses in collaboration with dr sunil chirayath professor of nuclear engineering and nsspi director i am very interested in and looking forward to teaching nuclear policy courses naqvi said i am also excited to learn from some of the great faculty at this stage in my career with their combined experience naqvi and hecker bring expertise to support the college of engineerings mission to serve texas the nation and global communities by preparing graduates to meet the complex technical challenges of society my overriding career objective has been to make the world a safer and more peaceful place getting nuclear right is crucial to that objective hecker said

a research team led by dr nitesh saxena professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university received part of a $12 million grant from the national science foundations secure and trustworthy cyberspace program to investigate the robustness and security of election systems that read hand-marked paper ballots saxena is working on the project in conjunction with dr dan wallach professor in the departments of computer science and electrical and computer engineering at rice university and dr chengcui zhang professor in the department of computer science at the university of alabama at birmingham the texas a&m team received nearly $400 000 across the country nonpartisan election officials face a demand to produce the results of local and state elections quickly and accurately and sometimes accuracy can suffer because of this while modern machine-learning and deep-learning techniques have revolutionized how computers see the world even the most sophisticated systems used to scan and process hand-marked ballots primarily look at the average darkness across bubble targets on a sheet as a result traditional paper ballot scanners can miss partially filled-in marks or misclassify stray marks and scanner noise as filled-in bubbles depending on how theyre configured in addition existing systems are not inherently designed to identify potentially fraudulent voting cases where a single voter has filled out multiple ballots the proposed research aims to respond to these issues by building an artificial-intelligence system called bubble aid by training on data from millions of actual ballots the system will use modern computer vision and learning techniques to recognize hand-marked bubble targets more effectively than existing systems our research could lead to significant efficiency and improved security helping election officials focus their attention on the ambiguous ballots that require the most manual attention as opposed to the majority of ballots that were tabulated correctly said saxena we also anticipate that our work on hand-marked ballots could be applied to other hand-marked forms such as the ones used in standardized testing this research is funded through the texas a&m engineering experiment station a state agency that solves problems through applied research and development and collaboration with industry government and academic partners

as society adjusts to become information-focused conventional computing is approaching its fundamental limits the need for computing to become faster and more energy-efficient is exponentially increasing texas a&m university is set to lead its first department of energy (doe) funded energy frontier research center (efrc) the center will focus on reconfigurable electronic materials inspired by nonlinear neuron dynamics (remind) an initiative that strives to transform computing to behave more like a human brain for rapid and efficient processing dr r stanley williams professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering will serve as the director of the efrc and dr sarbajit banerjee professor in the department of materials science and engineering and the department of chemistry will serve as the associate director we are at a crossroads for the future of computing said banerjee self-driving cars networked grids and personalized medicine are on the rise all of which require massive amounts of energy a whole new approach that focuses on brain-like computing is essential to meet the needs of society modern computers excel at various essential functions like high-precision arithmetic and solving known equations however they perform poorly when it comes to natural human abilities such as real-time learning concept identification and decision making this ability to process information is possible because human brains have nerve cells (neurons) that continuously compare incoming stimuli with previously learned data neurons communicate with one another via electrical and chemical signals through connections called synapses that store memories although the individual biological steps are slow compared to those in transistors enormous numbers of them operate simultaneously to perform sophisticated computation with energy-efficient orders of magnitude superior to the most advanced electronic computers lets say we are looking at a picture of a dog said banerjee a human brain can almost immediately recognize the dog itself its type and relative age a computer will struggle with the basic recognition and may make a significant mistake while also using much more energy to do so the researchers involved with the remind initiative are discovering ways to emulate human neurons and synapses in electrical circuits by designing creating and assembling materials that exhibit tunable nonlinear responses to incoming electrical signals such as thresholding amplification integration and embedded memory in other words they are emulating the human brains processing system and attempting to assemble it into a highly efficient and capable computer our center seeks to uncover the foundational science of artificial neurons and synapses said williams we are looking forward to solving a generational challenge that will transform the future of computing if successful in implementing these techniques their findings could significantly reduce the amount of energy consumption used by computers helping combat the energy crisis we are focused on taking computers from calculating mathematical functions to learning and making decisions in uncertain and changing environments said banerjee were discovering the fundamental chemistries and materials for manufacturing the next generation of brain-like computing the doe recently announced the efrc awards to develop technologies that can transform energy production and reduce harmful emissions the research efforts will have 54 universities and 11 national labs in 34 states contributing the efrc is a collaboration among the college of engineering the department of chemistry the texas a&m engineering experiment station the national renewable energy laboratory lawrence berkeley national laboratory and sandia national laboratories in addition to banerjee and williams remind researchers include dr raymundo arroyave dr matt pharr dr xiaofeng qian and dr patrick shamberger from the materials science and engineering department dr perla balbuena from the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering and dr marcetta darensbourg and dr kim dunbar from the department of chemistry the team represents the breadth and depth of expertise needed to tackle this complex challenge spanning multiple disciplines

the national science foundation (nsf) announced the addition of five new nsf innovation corps (i-corps™) hubs that will scale the nsf-led national innovation network accelerating the translation of discoveries into new solutions that benefit society texas a&m university and the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) will help lead the expansion of this network as part of a new regional collaboration the southwest i-corps hub with a total award of $15 million for the next five years the regional alliance will work collaboratively among eight institutions to provide experiential entrepreneurial training to academic researchers in science and engineering i-corps hubs serve as the operational backbone of the national innovation network a network of universities nsf-funded researchers local and regional entrepreneurial communities and other federal agencies helping researchers translate fundamental research results to the marketplace and generate economic value this award will empower tees and the texas a&m university system as a whole to further establish a foundational program toward building an innovation ecosystem around key technology areas developed by our students researchers and faculty said dr john e hurtado interim dean and vice chancellor for engineering at texas a&m and principal investigator we are proud to implement the i-hub across the a&m system and look forward to playing a leading role in hub management as a founding partner texas a&m engineering and its partners across texas a&m bring significant experience in managing delivering and sustaining deep tech innovation programs efforts include assisting 47 teams in successful national i-corps grant proposal submissions and establishing more than 150 teams through nsf i-site leading to the creation of multiple startups that have raised significant outside capital to advance product development from the laboratory to market being part of the new southwest i-corps hub provides an opportunity to scale these efforts across the texas a&m system for the past 10 years the texas a&m team has successfully identified opportunities to effectively and efficiently commercialize innovative products services and systems at the university level said dr saurabh biswas associate professor of practice in the department of biomedical engineering executive director for commercialization and entrepreneurship at texas a&m lead partner faculty and co-pi with successful nsf i-corps and i-site creation and partnerships for innovation and convergence accelerators initiated we have demonstrated our commitment to engaging in technology transfer and building a deep tech innovation ecosystem as partners of this hub we are positioned to leverage expertise in support of new ventures seeking commercialization to support economic growth tees will manage the day-to-day operations of the texas a&m hub and recruiting and training of teams across the texas a&m system while working closely with fellow hub partners to identify and recruit business mentors to enable a deep bench of student and teaching teams within the southwest region of the us this innovation ecosystem will be implemented around key technology areas developed by students researchers and faculty within the first year at least 250 regional teams in the southwest region will be trained and a minimum of 30 teams will attend the national program the number of teams attending the national training is expected to increase annually as new partners from fellow institutions within the hub as well as the broader southwest region are added "i am delighted the i-corps hubs that we are awarding today will expand the footprint of the national innovation network harnessing the innovation potential that exists all across the country by establishing clear pathways for researchers to engage with nsfs lab-to-market platform " said erwin gianchandani nsf assistant director for technology innovation and partnerships "each regional i-corps hub provides training essential in entrepreneurship and customer discovery leading to new products startups and jobs in this way the i-corps program will open up new economic opportunities throughout the united states" in addition to hurtado and biswas the texas a&m team comprises dr astrid layton dr cynthia hipwell hub research lead and magdalini lagoudas from texas a&m engineering; blake petty from the mcferrin center for entrepreneurship at mays business school as hub lead instructor and dr sharmila pathikonda from the texas a&m system fellow institutions include the university of texas at austin (hub lead) louisiana state university new mexico state university oklahoma state university rice university the university of texas at el paso and the university of texas at san antonio

across engineering and scientific disciplines machine learning is the main method for analyzing and identifying patterns in big data and making informed decisions around that data recently a new area within artificial intelligence called scientific machine learning has emerged which introduces physics laws into machine learning models scientific machine learning combines the areas of artificial intelligence and scientific computation because scientific machine learning algorithms are informed and constrained by physics laws they do not rely only on data and can even make predictions where there is no data however there has been little work on probabilistic methods in scientific machine learning meaning that current algorithms cannot model uncertainty in the data or the physics to address this shortcoming dr ulisses braga-neto professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university was awarded a three-year national science foundation (nsf) grant titled a bayesian paradigm for physics-informed machine learning which is part of a joint international program between the national science foundation and the academy of finland braga-neto and his co-investigators dr ming zhong from the illinois institute of technology and a former postdoctoral researcher under braga-neto and dr simo särkkä from aalto university finland will develop a probabilistic framework for scientific machine learning and apply it to various engineering and scientific problems this project is also a collaboration with the texas a&m institute of data science (tamids) through the scientific machine learning lab (sciml lab) of which braga-neto serves as founding director the sciml lab was established in january 2021 with a grant from tamids to support and grow a community of researchers across texas a&m involved in the development and application of scientific machine learning methods the sciml lab served as the pilot lab for the tamids thematic lab program which supports research education and outreach in emerging areas of data science the results of this research will benefit ongoing collaborative projects in petroleum engineering aerospace engineering computational biology materials science and engineering nuclear engineering and astrophysics the research is funded through the texas a&m engineering experiment station a state agency that solves problems through applied research and development and collaboration with industry government and academic partners the funding is provided by nsf as part of an international collaboration with the academy of finland texas a&m research collaborators on this project include dr nick duffield from the department of electrical and computer engineering and tamids dr raymundo arroyave from the department of materials science and engineering; dr james cai from the texas a&m school of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences; dr eduardo gildin from the harold vance department of petroleum engineering; dr elaine oran from the department of aerospace engineering; dr jean ragusa from the department of nuclear engineering; and dr lifan wang from the department of physics and astronomy other collaborators include levi mcclenny from brown university and a former doctoral student under braga-neto; xia hu from rice university; david jeffery from the university of nevada; and alexei poludnenko from the university of connecticut

three high school students from around the state of texas spent this summer participating in a high-impact research experience at texas a&m university through the us army educational outreach program (aeop) high school apprenticeship program neha adusumilli sabrina hu and richa kalari had the opportunity to work in the nanobio systems laboratory which is directed by dr arum han texas instruments professorship ii in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m being able to meet and interact with many of the phd students around the lab opened up my mind to ideas and concepts that i didn't even think were possible adusumilli said kalari said that the most rewarding aspect of this summer program for her was being able to see her own ideas transformed into physical working devices with real-world applications

the aeop high school apprenticeship program connects high school students to a university or us army research laboratories and centers to spend the summer conducting cutting-edge research in state-of-the-art laboratory facilities as part of this authentic science and engineering research apprenticeship program high school students work one-on-one with a university researcher or us department of defense scientist mentor with this summer program i felt a stronger connection to my love for science adusumilli said i not only gained knowledge about microfluidics but also about the out-of-the-box thinking required for research this summer program inspired me to want to work in lab research in my future career being able to provide hands-on experiences is one of the best ways to get students excited about science and engineering han said these students are the future of our society advancing the forefront of technology it was also very exciting for me to see them experiencing the fascinating world of microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip without the support from the us army these activities would have not been possible and i deeply appreciate their support the aeop program is funded by a grant from the us army research office awarded through the texas a&m engineering experiment station a state agency that solves problems through applied research and development and collaboration with industry government and academic partners

texas a&m university researchers accomplished what was once considered impossible they created a device capable of squeezing the quantum fluctuations of light down to a directed path and used it to enhance contrast imaging this one-of-a-kind flashlight was built to increase the signal-to-noise ratio present in brillouin microscopy spectroscopic measurements that visually record the mechanical properties of structures inside living cells and tissues test results reveal the new source significantly increases image clarity and accuracy this is a new avenue in research said dr vladislav yakovlev university professor in the department of biomedical engineering in the college of engineering we are specially designing light in such a way that it can improve contrast its a new milestone in the capabilities of brillouin microscopy and imaging extensively used for bio systems said dr girish agarwal university distinguished professor in the department of biological and agricultural engineering in the college of agriculture and life sciences and it becomes part of an international effort to develop quantum sensors for diverse applications like brain imaging biomolecule structure mapping and exploring underground oil and water sources by devising supersensitive gravimeters a paper detailing the work was published in optica all instruments capable of capturing a picture or image also capture signal distortions or noise in the process the distortions can stem from too much or too little light and even brightness or color issues from the environment around the subject most noise is unnoticed until the image is enlarged enough for the naked eye to see the unwanted pixels clearly brillouin microscopy is the fundamental limit of reduced-scale measurement imaging currently possible the process aims lasers at solid objects and measures the waves or signals of vibration made by the moving atoms and structures within the visibly unmoving material noise produced at this scale can severely obscure the signals received creating muddied images that are hard to interpret currently all laser spectroscopy systems like brillouin microscopy suffer from the natural and technical signal distortions associated with laser light which is why newer light sources are needed six years ago yakovlev attempted to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in brillouin microscopy by using intense light sources unfortunately overexposure to light damaged the cells he was imaging yakovlev searched literature for answers and found a theory from the 1980s that postulated quantum light could solve the problem though it didnt mention how agarwal an expert in quantum physics came up with a possible way dr tian li then a postdoctoral researcher from the university of maryland was hired to create the first quantum light laboratory at texas a&m the laboratory space was provided by dr marlan scully director of the institute for quantum science and engineering the team faced two significant challenges: finding funding for such a wild idea and finding graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to help them ones who were willing to straddle the fields of biology and quantum physics after nearly two years of vigorous explorations the device grew into a tabletop-sized contraption of complex optical configurations and measuring instruments that allowed the researchers to adjust direct and efficiently manipulate and detect light during that time li gained a better understanding of biology and yakovlev and agarwal developed a mechanism to create the proper state and matter of light needed for noise reduction without damaging live cells

though the light-squeezing device can be adopted for other spectroscopic measurements like raman scattering yakovlev and agarwal are enhancing the capabilities of brillouin microscopy to identify the viscous or elastic materials in biological systems these systems control the physical properties of cells and cell structures and define everything from cell development to cancer progression seeing details clearly makes a huge difference in biomedical breakthroughs each time you get a new telescope or something like gravitational-wave astronomy you discover new things you can't possibly see without it said yakovlev the same thing works in biology before the invention of the microscope we didn't know that we consist of individual cells so far only the contrast of spectroscopy images has been improved but yakovlev and agarwal are already working on agarwals theory to enhance spatial resolution or the smallest details possible and if the task leads to creating another complex device that pushes the limits of current technology the researchers are ready and willing to make that happen i love those types of projects where people tell you something will never work and it works said yakovlev i love challenges the project was primarily supported by funding awarded to the texas a&m engineering experiment station from the air force office of scientific research with yakovlev agarwal and scully listed as principal investigators

though the light-squeezing device can be adopted for other spectroscopic measurements like raman scattering yakovlev and agarwal are enhancing the capabilities of brillouin microscopy to identify the viscous or elastic materials in biological systems these systems control the physical properties of cells and cell structures and define everything from cell development to cancer progression seeing details clearly makes a huge difference in biomedical breakthroughs each time you get a new telescope or something like gravitational-wave astronomy you discover new things you can't possibly see without it said yakovlev the same thing works in biology before the invention of the microscope we didn't know that we consist of individual cells so far only the contrast of spectroscopy images has been improved but yakovlev and agarwal are already working on agarwals theory to enhance spatial resolution or the smallest details possible and if the task leads to creating another complex device that pushes the limits of current technology the researchers are ready and willing to make that happen i love those types of projects where people tell you something will never work and it works said yakovlev i love challenges the project was primarily supported by funding awarded to the texas a&m engineering experiment station from the air force office of scientific research with yakovlev agarwal and scully listed as principal investigators

despite advances in medical knowledge and treatments chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease continue to affect certain people in the united states at higher-than-average levels in 2017 the national science foundation (nsf) funded an engineering research center (erc) to address this problem through technology development and outreach four universities partnered on the project and their successes in the last five years have led to a $175 million nsf renewal grant to continue the work the precise advanced technologies and health systems for underserved populations (paths-up) erc is a partnership between texas a&m university the university of california at los angeles rice university and florida international university all four schools work with underserved communities in rural and urban areas of their states with texas a&m as the lead university people hear underserved in the title and automatically think underrepresented said dr gerard coté professor in the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m and head of the paths-up erc a medically underserved person typically lacks good access to health care our underserved also happen to be underrepresented hispanic latinx and african american communities unequal health issue rates over 40% or two-fifths of the american population is obese which leads to heart disease and diabetes among other chronic ailments a close look shows underrepresented populations are at a disadvantage a black child is over 70% more likely to be obese than a white child in normal hispanic communities a childs risk falls to about 60% more than a white child coté said the heart disease and diabetes numbers in underserved and underrepresented communities are higher and usually compounded by low socioeconomic conditions engineering an increased health care reach one paths-up goal is to create innovative robust and affordable technologies engineered to be low-cost accurate and tough enough for use wherever people live for instance the erc is developing a rice-grain-sized device to be injected under the skin that tracks and records blood chemistry levels and changes over time the data is retrieved optically and noninvasively by a watch-like scanner and the injected device remains in place for future scans another device worn on the wrist will monitor pulse body activity and eventually blood pressure without using a cuff the technology will understand the context so a high heart rate during a low movement period would trigger an alert and accurately monitor people of all skin tones and weight ranges a third innovation involves paper embedded with nanoparticles 1 000 times smaller than a human hair that will when combined with a hand-held device analyze and detect specific biomarkers from a drop of blood the ambulance crew for a potential heart attack victim facing a 45-minute ride to the hospital can do an immediate blood test on the patient and do another one 30 minutes later during transport upon arrival the hospital will receive two points of data from the patients history with data points plural we can see trends coté said we can see if the biomarkers for a heart attack are going up or down the current standard of care is to do a blood test when the patient arrives doctors get results back from a lab 30 to 45 minutes later and only have one data point to start from faculty graduate students postdoctoral researchers and undergraduate students are all involved in creating and testing the devices doctors and other medical care providers along with over 20 large and small companies work with paths-up to help get the technology prototyped and taken to the point where the companies can do the final development and manufacturing making medical information part of the culture the second paths-up goal involves recruiting and educating the diverse precollege college and postcollege scientists and engineers needed for developing future technology and improving underserved community health the erc achieves this through communicating with and empowering community leaders students and teachers; health care providers; and university students and faculty communicating with underserved community participants allows paths-up to share medical information in an approachable way empowered teachers create actionable lesson plans on science technology engineering math and health these plans are shared with their students and other schools high school students and teachers interested in engineering and health care are recruited to be a part of the research teams in the four universities where they are mentored by doctoral students doing the research many of these doctoral students join cooperative education programs in the communities and learn more about the people they will care for in the future in turn the center learns whats needed to engineer successful devices from the community whether they speak english or spanish diabetic patients listening to doctors instructions on blood sugar levels might lose track of what to do paths-up engineers work with engineers and behavioral psychologists to develop apps that use visually clear-cut graphics like color-coded ranges and simple if-this-then-that guidelines people can understand future goals currently the universities can only develop technology to a certain point beyond that a company must take over and that transition can be a challenge coté said in the next five years he would like to explore ways to make that path easier by providing more fully developed and tested technologies coté also said that while many of the erc technologies would be useful for other diseases diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are running rampant across the world even in developing countries which calls for more community engagement and communication my biggest joy is working with people from so many different areas of expertise who bring different perspectives to the project coté said it makes rowing the boat in the same direction a challenge but it's also one of the greatest rewards the nsf grant will be administered through the texas a&m engineering experiment station a state agency that solves problems through applied research and development

dr emily pentzer associate professor in the department of materials science and engineering and the department of chemistry at texas a&m university is making 3d-printed polymers more environmentally friendly through a process that allows the polymers to naturally degrade over time pentzers research is a collaborative effort that includes researchers from the texas a&m college of engineering the texas a&m engineering experiment station the texas a&m department of chemistry and the university of kashmirthe research was published in the journal angewandte chemieour goal was to create sustainable degradable polymeric structures pentzer said we did this by leveraging the microstructures afforded by chemistry in conjunction with the macrostructures afforded by 3d printingmost commercial synthetic polymers consist of large molecules that do not break apart under normal conditions when left in the environment manufactured items such as foam cups or plastic containers break down into small pieces that are unseen by the naked eye but the long polymer molecules remain present foreverits not just the plastic bottle being kicked down the road pentzer said these materials break down into microplastics that stay in the environment we dont fully understand the impact of microplastics but theyve been shown to carry diseases heavy metals and fecal bacteriato make the degradable polymers pentzer collaborated with dr don darensbourg distinguished professor in the department of chemistry at texas a&m to use carbon dioxide and table salt to create the ink that was used in the 3d printing process after printing the structures are washed with water to dissolve the salt and solidify the structure while the outside of the structure continues to look smooth the process creates thousands of small pores which allow the chemical compounds to degrade at a quicker rateunder the right conditions the polymers weve created will actually degrade quickly pentzer said ideally theyll break apart into small molecules that are not toxic these smaller molecules wont be able to carry things like heavy metals or bacteriaas the research progresses pentzer hopes to use this process to create packaging materials so that things like boxes and tape can degrade quickly rather than sitting in a landfill for years she also sees a bright future for 3d-printed polymers in the biomedical fieldthese materials can be used for diverse biomedical applications pentzer said things like scaffolds for implants that will degrade over time so your body can heal but you wont have that piece of plastic in you foreverthrough her interdisciplinary research pentzer is seeking to solve a worldwide problem that could have implications on the environment human health biomedicine and almost every aspect of human existenceits kind of like marrying the science with the engineering pentzer said working together we can create synergy and achieve much morethis research was supported by grants from the texas a&m triads for transformation program the welch foundation and the national science foundation

an eight-person team from texas a&m university competed at the 2022 southeastern conference (sec) machining competition in knoxville tennessee the competition is sponsored by the department of defense and the industrial base analysis and sustainment (ibas) in conjunction with projectmfg through the secureamerica institute (sai) which is powered by the texas a&m engineering experiment station the competition allows university teams to display their machining abilities and problem-solving skills learn more about computer numerical control machining and promote state-of-the-art manufacturing education and training the aggie team included six undergraduates from the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution colton lee liam fortier alyssa bryd tobias gualandri david nemec and benjamin smith as well as two other engineering undergraduates nathan panak from the wm michael barnes 64 department of industrial and systems engineering and madeline sellards from the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering the aggies competed against other university teams made up of undergraduates and graduate students from auburn university mississippi state university and the university of tennessee

"for the 2022 competition the sec logo was split digitally into four quadrants and each team had to machine its section from an aluminum plate " fortier said "our objective was to manufacture the upper right quadrant of the sec logo""the event was both a collaborative effort and a competition between all the sec schools " lee said "the major components that judges looked at were speed dimensional accuracy smoothness and surface finish we practiced perfecting similar tasks on the equipment provided to us by sai and we went into the competition prepared and confident thanks to sai's support"headquartered at texas a&m-rellis sai is a private-public research collaboration converging industry government and academia to combine advancements in us manufacturing resilience its members provide world-class leadership through applied research scaled education and workforce deployment economic analysis and policy recommendations and market-driven technology transitionsai seeks to support and develop the united states manufacturing and defense industrial base from regional to national levels and strives to counter global marketplace supply chain disruptions maintain leadership in developing and deploying innovative manufacturing technologies and products and fully employ their people through comprehensive education and training in new and emerging advanced manufacturing technologies and processeson behalf of sai i congratulate the aggie group of students for an outstanding accomplishment said dr dean schneider acting director of sai we are proud to have been a part of their success and we wish the team all the best as it moves forward to the next competition"the aggies had a strong start but quickly realized their machining fixture had been improperly installed after fixing the issue they finished with the competitions best time of 74 minutes and 57 seconds " said dr darrell wallace the aggie team advisor and professor of practice in the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution "though the tennessee team's time was longer their careful use of fewer tools and their proficiency in achieving excellent surface finish gave them enough of an advantage to claim the inaugural title"

these events show the significance and excitement of modern manufacturing and allow professionals from industry and scholars from various universities to mentor and engage with their peers in similar programs the competition sparks new friendships and opportunities and introduces students to the career possibilities in manufacturing"one of the speakers who impacted me was adele ratcliff the director of the ibas " said byrd "during the competition ratcliff talked to sellards and me about how happy she was to see us competing in this space as women it made me feel like she saw herself in us women fostering the next generation of women in the industry and that inspired me""we do some incredible things as engineers however it can sometimes be challenging to connect with other engineers so to come together and do amazing things as a community is great " lee said "i am thankful for all the support from dr wallace and justin carter who helped with the logistics of our trip also i am grateful to dr tony schmitz from the university of tennessee knoxville the originator of this competition for helping make this event happen"the competition allowed us to bring people from the industry national research and academia together into one place and learn from each other said panak it was an awesome experience and the team is eager to go back next year and win it

texas a&m university and south texas college launched the texas a&m engineering academy at south texas college and will enroll the first cohort of students in fall 2023we continue to work with our outstanding community college partners across texas to offer students a unique path to earn an engineering degree said texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp now students in south texas have the opportunity to start their college career closer to home for the first couple of years while being part of one of the best engineering schools in the country in this innovative co-enrollment partnership qualified students will be admitted to the texas a&m college of engineering complete the first two years of math science and core curriculum coursework at south texas college and have the unique opportunity to enroll in engineering courses taught by texas a&m faculty on the south texas college campus after two years students transition to texas a&m to pursue one of 22 majors within the college of engineering and finish their engineering degreesim excited about the creation of our newest engineering academy and the opportunities it provides for students in south texas said dr john e hurtado interim vice chancellor and dean of engineering at texas a&m it is always important to offer students an affordable premier education we look forward to welcoming our first cohort to the aggie family this fallstudents will save an estimated $4 600 in tuition and fees each semester they are enrolled in an engineering academy before transitioning to texas a&m to complete their degree the program will accept applications for fall 2023 through june 15south texas college president dr ricardo j solis said this evolving partnership with texas a&m means greater opportunities for students in the rio grande valleywe have great talent in our region; talent that is being recognized state and nationwide solis said our job is to ensure that this talent is fostered and students are given opportunities to excel through partnerships like this one with texas a&m through this initiative qualified valley students accepted into this engineering academy will have the opportunity to gain guaranteed admission into one of the most competitive engineering colleges in the country were excited about this partnership and what it means for our students and our communities current texas a&m industrial and systems engineering student alan cortez a mcallen texas native sees the benefits that the engineering academy program will bring to the rio grande valleythe opportunity to stay home and complete my first two years at an engineering academy would have saved two years worth of rent and other tuition expenses while receiving the same quality education and staying connected with my family cortez said i am so excited for texas a&m and south texas colleges new engineering academy partnership to start and i am confident that many aspiring engineers in the valley will benefit from this opportunity to graduate from texas a&m with an engineering degree at a more affordable costby offering opportunities like the engineering academies texas a&m can better serve texans this innovative co-enrollment partnership was developed to address the states growing need for engineers in texas the projected need for engineers in the workforce is 51 000 by 2028 to meet this need universities and two-year colleges must work together to bridge the gap and attract and retain students who are interested in stem fields visit the engineering academy program for more information about how to apply and additional details

researchers at texas a&m university are working to develop an all-electric propulsion system for single-aisle 150-200 passenger commercial aircraft such as the boeing 737 that will significantly decrease the amount of greenhouse gas emissions affecting the environment through commercial air travel it is estimated that single-aisle aircraft are responsible for nearly half of aviation-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2017 domestic air travel consumed nearly 35 quadrillion british thermal units of jet fuel accounting for about 35% of primary energy consumption and about 26% of greenhouse gas emissions in the united states dr hamid toliyat raytheon professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering received funding to continue with phase two of the $5 million us department of energys advanced research projects agency-energy (arpa-e) aviation-class synergistically cooled electric-motors with integrated drives (ascend) project the program aims to address the greenhouse gas issue by creating innovative lightweight and ultra-efficient electric motors drives and associated thermal management systems (collectively referred to as the all-electric powertrain) by using carbon-neutral liquid fuels such as ethanol or green ammonia an all-electric propulsion system would have net-zero emissions and be much quieter for passengers and those in the vicinity of airports the goal with the completion of the second and final phase of the ascend program is a fully integrated all-electric powertrain system at a power density of 12 kilowatts per kilogram or greater with an efficiency of 93% or greater these targets are beyond the capability of current advanced technologies but toliyat and his team are working to push the boundaries to make this achievement possible

during phase one of the project the design and model were developed during phase two the development and implementation stages will begin during phase one we were able to show that the full power train is manufacturable by using cutting-edge technology including 3d printing and metal additive manufacturing said dorsa talebi a doctoral student working with toliyat the project is funded by arpa-e through the texas a&m engineering experiment station led by toliyat this project includes many collaborators across the college of engineering including nine faculty and their respective graduate and doctoral students from the department of electrical and computer engineering the department of aerospace engineering the department of materials science and engineering and the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering dr matthew gardner assistant professor at the university of texas at dallas and former doctoral student of toliyats is serving as co-principal investigator for this project texas a&m technology commercialization which is an office on campus connecting industry to the texas a&m university system is also involved with the project

an international team of researchers is applying artificial intelligence techniques to design energy-efficient district heat pump systems that better serve human needs and behaviors while reducing the carbon footprint of buildings the $15-million project is funded by the national science foundations (nsf) partnerships for international research and education (pire) program and led by dr zheng oneill of the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university the pire program funds only an estimated 10-15 projects nationwide at a time according to nsf the research is also supported by the texas a&m engineering experiment stations energy systems laboratory of which oneill is an associate director the project focuses on the technology of district heat pump systems which distribute energy to buildings through a system of heat pumps and insulated networked pipes since many people spend most of their time indoors oneill said researchers are implementing climate resilience planning as they address heating and cooling needs in a comfortable and sustainable way one of the most pressing and widely agreed-upon methods of decarbonizing heating and cooling systems is shifting to electric energy sources to replace higher-emission power sources like natural gas researchers are working to build human-interactive artificial intelligence tools to equip building managers and owners with the occupancy and behavior modeling information they need to make timely heating and cooling decisions faster and ideally to incentivize a broader adoption of building decarbonization techniques in an increasingly urbanized world there is a pressing need to address the critical challenges of climate change through the built environment because the building sector accounts for nearly 40% of the primary energy use in the us and associated greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions with about 50% of that energy dedicated to heating cooling ventilation and lighting oneill said carbon emissions reduction through building electrification and decarbonization will help human being fight again climate changes

in addition to using artificial intelligence techniques the project includes pilot sites in denmark sweden and the us the pilot sites were specifically designed through a community-informed approach to ensure resilience efficiency and socially justified operation collaborators on this project include dr jin wen at drexel university drs teresa wu and selcuk candan from arizona state university and dr christina rosan from temple university the international partner institutions include kth royal institute of technology and blekinge institute of technology in sweden and aalborg university in denmark this project will bring an interdisciplinary and international team of engineers data scientists economists social and behavioral scientists to reduce carbon footprint improve climate resilience and energy equity oneill said a climate change-driven and community-engaged approach will be used to guide the integration of research education outreach broadening participation and knowledge transfer which can be used in other applications the us-based researchers will work closely with their european counterparts from sweden and denmark where district heat pumps have been more widely adopted and implemented in comparison to the us to collaborate and facilitate an exchange of data in the hopes of promoting exploring and refining sustainable methodologies of using district heat pump systems to better decarbonize buildings in addition to the research the project will also provide opportunities to provide students with two cross-institutional education programs the summer international graduate bootcamp and exchange program and the smart built environment certification program and train a diverse and convergent workforce well-equipped to address the multifaceted global climate change challenges

corrosion is a significant issue causing safety issues for critical infrastructure including the oil and gas industry according to nace international the global economic cost of corrosion is estimated to be $25 trillion the devastating impact of corrosion not only affects the environment and economy but also significantly impacts the us military dr arum han from the department of electrical and computer engineering is leading a team of researchers from texas a&m university tufts university and the university of oklahoma on a project focused on combating microbiologically induced corrosion especially corrosion affecting the united states air force fuel tanks the project titled "microbes achieve resistance to microorganism-influenced rust (μarmor): an integrated platform for defeating corrosion " recently received an $1161 million grant from the department of defense's defense advanced research projects agency (darpa) corrosion has been a longstanding issue that many have tried to resolve through various mitigation and coating strategies yet it remains unsolved further mitigating microbiologically induced corrosion which is specifically caused by microorganisms in nature is no exception to this microorganisms exist everywhere in soil water air animals plants and even inside of the human body because of this ubiquitous nature along with the fact that so many different microbes exist in these environments microbiologically induced corrosion is exceptionally difficult to prevent the goal of the μarmor project is to reduce the negative effects of this type of corrosion by developing a new anti-corrosion coating material that is a biofilm composed of microorganisms by modifying the natural corrosion-associated microbial biofilms found in corrosion sites such as fuel tanks to be non-corrosive the living microbial coating will have the innate ability to survive in the natural environment while also maintaining resistance to invasion by corrosion-associated microorganisms in this strategy the developed corrosion-resistant biofilm will not be genetically modified but rather will be a modified biofilm composed of existing microorganisms from this environment making this strategy much more acceptable in broad ranges of applications during the first phase of this multidisciplinary project the research team will develop anti-corrosion technology during the second phase they will demonstrate that the technology works in a realistic environment a feat not easily accomplished with an opponent as transformative and adaptive as microorganisms

a combination of highly innovative technologies will enable this strategy to begin the researchers will conduct computational modeling of how the corrosion-causing biofilms as well as the developed corrosion-resistant biofilms will behave under a variety of different conditions in parallel a large number of microfluidic testbeds that will provide a realistic simulated environment while allowing the biofilm behaviors to be monitored with high accuracy over time will be developed and utilized to generate the necessary data for the computational models to be highly predictive "our microfluidic testbeds each of which will include an array of sensors that can monitor both corrosion and microbial behaviors can be utilized to conduct a large number of tests in a short period of time greatly accelerating the development of the anti-corrosion strategy " said han texas instruments professor the project is funded by darpa through the texas a&m engineering experiment station han has pioneered the area of high-throughput microfluidics for microbiology applications and will use his expertise to combat these corrosion issues along with a large team of collaborators contributing to different aspects of this technology development and demonstration dr arul jayaraman professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering and executive associate dean of the texas a&m college of engineering will lead efforts in studying microbial corrosion genomics and metabolomics dr paul de figueiredo professor at the texas a&m school of medicine will lead the efforts in bacteriology han jayaraman and de figueiredo have collaborated closely for many years and conceived this transformative idea together joining the team are dr xiaoning qian electrical and computer engineering professor who will lead efforts for the computational-scale modeling required for this project; dr jason gill associate professor from the texas a&m department of animal science and the center for phage technology (cpt); and dr mei liu program director of the cpt dr kyongbum lee professor of chemical and biological engineering and dean of engineering at tufts university and dr jizhong zhou director of the institute for environmental genomics at the university of oklahoma are also part of the team

college station - firefighters take them so do astronauts and construction workers its what draws gamblers to casinos people encounter risks every day and it doesnt matter whether theyre fighting fires or rolling the dice "risk" is the theme of a texas a&m program that has brought together texas schoolteachers and the fort worth museum of science and history to assemble a museum exhibit that will teach schoolchildren and museum visitors all about risk texas a&m environmental engineer robin autenrieth said the exhibit which is called "risk!" and opens in march in fort worth will explain to people what "risk" is and what risks can be found in peoples lives autenrieth and texas a&m agricultural engineer patti haan lead the a&m side of the project "one of the nice things about the display on risk is that it takes topics like statistics and probability and provides kids with real-life examples that touch them " she said "it gives them a context and makes 'risk real for them" the project is part of the information technology in science (its) - center for teaching and learning which is administered by the texas engineering experiment station and funded by the national science foundation its held several workshops over the summer in which schoolteachers worked with museum officials to decide exhibit topics and how to present the information in a way easily understood by a 7th-grade audience which is the average education level of people visiting museums autenrieth said the teachers had some great ideas because they are in the business of conveying information to people in that age group she said they came up with ideas that museum officials were able to take back and use the teachers also drafted lesson plans based on the exhibit these lesson plans can be used by other schoolteachers to reinforce what their students see while visiting the museum "bringing in the teachers to help design the displays expanded the impact of the display well beyond the doors of the museum which is what the museum was interested in accomplishing " autenrieth said "all of us were able to learn something new from the experience" charlie walter senior vice president of the fort worth museum of science and history said working with autenrieth and its provided the exhibit with some amazing glimpses into scientific risk assessment work being conducted by texas a&m in azerbaijan "this work will help us translate the exhibit experience into classrooms across the country as the exhibit tours " he said "teachers and parents will be able to visit the exhibit then take home additional resources or download them from our website that will extend the exhibit and provide for a deeper learning experience" the exhibit will not only be used in fort worth but will also travel to museums in boston; columbus ohio; los angeles; philadelphia penn; st paul minn; and portland ore nr 937 11/27/01

corpus christi texas - the traditional notion of college students sitting in a classroom taking notes and listening to a professor give a lecture is gradually going the way of slate tablets the south texas advanced technology education project (state) is changing the traditional notion of community college classes by developing web-based modules or portions of classes enabling students to master specific parts of courses without having to travel to campus instead these modules are designed to fit into students schedules "were trying to build our curriculum so students can access it on their time instead of ours " said dr lee sloan the projects principal investigator and dean of occupational education and technology at corpus christis del mar community college "our program is designed to develop web-based modules within process technology to train people to operate petrochemical facilities" this $15-million national science foundation (nsf) project which is administered by the texas engineering experiment station (tees) will take portions of a course in petroleum facility operation and adapt them for the web building in computer simulations so people can see what a petrochemical facility looks like even if they are hundreds of miles away from one in the past petrochemical companies trained their own technicians in-house but in the interest of saving time and money they are now asking colleges to offer this training sloan said researchers hope to meet this increasing nationwide need for petrochemical industry technicians by making it easier for people to receive training via the web the turnover among such technicians is expected to exceed 30 percent during the next 10 years the need is so great that other states are coming to texas because the state has already worked with industry to develop a curriculum to train technicians he said in addition to providing training over the web the project also follows the example used by other nsf advanced technological education (ate) programs by infusing material from core curriculum courses -- such as english math or science -- into process safety courses instead of attending classes dedicated exclusively to english or math for example students attend courses in process safety and study english or math as they encounter these areas in their process safety coursework these same concepts -- web-based technician training and content-driven coursework -- can be applied to other degree programs sloan said they can be applied across the spectrum to any technician training programs the state program also will help the petrochemical industry better reflect the changing population of south texas by providing training to previously underrepresented groups he said the south texas advanced technology education project is a partnership of five community colleges -- del mar victoria south texas coastal bend and texas state technical college -- as well as texas a&m university-corpus christi tees and 15 major industry partners 2/12/02 nr 972

college station -- dr dan coxs coastal engineering students at texas a&m university get more than theory from him --- they get sand between their toes and with the university about 100 miles from the coast - even further from beaches - that means a road trip but even that fits the course "a beach is like a highway " said cox an associate professor in texas a&ms department of civil engineering "beaches need regular maintenance steady repair so that people can keep using them" beach use is important in texas state beaches bring in more than $7 billion in annual tourism income but texas has one of the highest rates of beach erosion of any coastal state in the nation the core of coxs coastal engineering course is its design project in 2001 students teamed up to design a system of structures to slow sand loss - estimated at 4 feet per year -- for a beach in corpus christi texas students conduct field and wading surveys collect soil samples and work with the same real-time data and other professional tools as engineering firms hired to deal with erosion problems working out coastal problems is more than just the engineering cox said and thats why he likes to bring real-life elements into his mix of classroom lecture web technology and beach visits "students learn an awareness of the impact of solving engineering problems " cox said the students learn about state agencies that govern beaches how fisheries fit in the role of tourists the recreational sporting groups that have concerns and the part played by environmental groups texas a&m senior jacqueline gutierrez said engineers typically think just about physical problems yet faced with a real problem such as the corpus christi beach students learn they have to think about the community as well the fort worth resident said "this is just a more realistic approach to learning about coastal engineering " she said for aaron horine getting a first-hand look at the beach and meeting with coastal engineering firms convinced the alvin texas senior he was on the right career track "you get a real feel for what coastal engineering projects involve " horine said "the biggest surprise was all the politics and public relations involved in actually doing a project" coxs class spent two days in corpus christi researching the beach and meeting members of coastal engineering firms shiner moseley and associates inc and goldston engineering inc "i want students to come away with a real feel for how their engineering decisions can impact a beach and how many views they have to consider when making those decisions " cox said 02/13/02 nr 976

college station - san antonios brooks air force base pumps $480 million into the local economy each year - money that could be lost if not for a new project that may provide an alternative to permanently closing military bases by helping the us military cut the costs of operating its bases and find new ways to use existing infrastructure the partnership project between the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the city of san antonio and the us air force preserves a vital part of the san antonio economy and lures new businesses into the area as part of the brooks city-base project the air force will turn brooks air force base over to the city this summer the air force will still remain active at the site but the city of san antonio will take over responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the former military base "the city of san antonio will own the property and the air force will rent it back " said skip mills director of san antonio operations for tees texas center for applied technology (tcat) "the air force gets out of the day-to-day property management business so it can do what it does best - support the warfighter" tcat will assist in attracting new technology-based businesses aid in technology transfer and in developing research activities at the site tcat will also assist the city with program administration activities "with the air force staying here we can leverage their presence and bring in technology-based businesses " mills said "this is a great opportunity for the state and for tees" the project is receiving a lot of attention in the nations capital mills said the bush administration wants to pursue alternatives to closing military bases the model used for brooks city-base may provide legislators with a workable solution that can be used as other military bases around the country are decommissioned "im sure some form of what were doing here will be part of any package coming out of congress " he said "the brooks city-base concept brings unique opportunities for a city that is willing to work with a military base or facility to reduce costs by privatizing or putting municipal services to work"writer: 3/5/02 nr 983

college station - a soldier wounded in combat gets medical help from a doctor in a field hospital miles away a hiker severely injured from a 60 feet fall down a nearly vertical cliff in west texas gets treated by a doctor in lubbock these situations may seem unrealistic but they are possible as a result of dreams disaster relief and emergency medical services (dreams) uses computer and telecommunications technology and research in basic and clinical sciences to improve trauma victims survival particularly in isolated areas and combat zones beyond the physical reach of trauma specialists in well-equipped medical centers the dreams team will attend the american telemedicine association (ata) 7th annual meeting and exposition in los angeles june 2-5 there they will showcase their projects -- the deployable telemedicine system the digital ems ambulance the military hmmwv (high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle) and the physicians workstation -- to the healthcare industry the deployable telemedicine system ems ambulance and hmmwv all stream data into the physicians workstation at a hospital with the same goal to get medical attention to people in remote areas the primary difference is whether its stationary or not the ems ambulance and hmmwv are mobile platforms that move to trauma victims in isolated areas the deployable telemedicine system is a stationary system designed for use in remote rural areas where a hospital is far away "the primary rationale for these systems is to provide a means to offset the negative impact of time and distance when dealing with serious trauma occurring in rural areas where the appropriate level of medical care is not immediately available " said dr james wall co-principal investigator of dreams and director of computing and information technology at texas center for applied technology (tcat) "ata provides dreams researchers with an opportunity to demonstrate to the telemedicine community the level of maturity of the prototype systems being built " wall said "i must add that the maturity level is at a point that we are currently working out the specific details both technical and regulatory for our first fielding in liberty county texas later in the year" physicians and army medics will be attending the meeting to help the dreams team demonstrate their projects dreams is a consortium between the texas engineering experiment station the texas a&m university system and the university of texas health science center at houston for more information on dreams see http://wwwdreams-projectorg as the states engineering research agency and as a member of the texas a&m university system the texas engineering experiment station (tees) provides practical solutions to critical needs from its headquarters in college station and its 15 regional divisions tees identifies and studies areas critical to the states economic development and quality of life researches and promotes new technologies helps communities strengthen science and technology education investigates problems that affect health and the environment and fosters partnerships between academia and industry

college station -- an assistant professor in the ergonomics center of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) gordon vos studied pressures on the posterior while people sit in chairs vos 2001 doctoral analysis of buttock/thigh pressure and a dozen top ergonomic chairs also looked at the importance of armrests and posture "chair construction was the most significant factor in lowering peak pressure armrests and posture didnt make much difference when compared to the chair design " said vos who noted nearly 75 percent of all work in industrial countries is done while seated vos also found that men experience more pressure on their bottoms when sitting in chairs than females he added that while more research was needed to determine why he thought it was probably due to weight contoured chair pans with 3-d knitted fabric were found to be the best for reducing peak pressures on test subjects vos said he suspects the knitted fabric allows the seats foam padding to cushion better the contour likely distributes weight more evenly the research also found the memory foam chairs didnt perform any better than regular foam in chairs memory foam is a pressure and temperature sensitive material thats supposed to automatically adjust to a persons unique dimensions vos came up with the idea of doing research on sitting in chairs while working on his masters degree at texas a&m university he was writing a paper while seated in an old wooden school chair "i remember thinking this has got to be one of the most uncomfortable chairs ive ever sat in " vos said for his study he took 12 top office chairs 12 men and 12 women and set up nearly 300 different configurations with them vos also built a synthetic model to test on the chairs the contoured seat pan finding suggests more research is needed on the depth width and curve of seat pans vos said not surprisingly some of the most expensive chairs were found to be the best in reducing pressure in the end however the top-selling chair did not have the best performance meaning it likely sells because of aesthetic and advertising appeal rather than ergonomic design vos said vos added that other chair construction factors contribute to the overall ergonomic quality of a chair the ability for height and back adjustments are critical while armrests and backrests serve other ergonomic goals he noted noting that not everyone can afford a premier chair vos had some bottom-line advice for chair shoppers "the big three items in any chair are height adjustment lumbar support and adjustable back rest " vos said "plus find one that fits your size and look for a contoured seat if it has 3-d knitted fabric itll be advertised" the ergonomics center is funded in part by the national science foundation tees is the engineering research agency of texas and member of the texas a&m university system

college station - with the help of the center of community support the huntsville arts commission is turning a 19th century mansion into an arts center for the community to enjoy huntsville a town of 35 000 people is the home of texas hero sam houston once known as the athens of texas the town has long enjoyed a strong culture with much of the arts stimulus being provided within sam houston state university and augmented by a countywide array of folk artists the huntsville arts commission recently led an effort in their community to transform a 19th century mansion known as the wynne home into a community cultural arts center for the benefit of the residents of huntsville and visitors the texas engineering experiment stations (tees) center for community support (ccs) assisted the huntsville arts commission when they were seeking funds for renovation of the wynne home ccss erin logan and linda pease cultural service coordinator for the city of huntsville prepared a grant proposal for the powell foundation which resulted in a $30 000 grant to help fund the wynne home project huntsville has long been in need of an ongoing program that is focused on bringing families especially youth together for creative and enriching experiences pease said these positive experiences will be possible because of the new wynne home arts center through a broad offering of arts exhibitions arts classes and cultural events one of the primary programs within the center will be a year-round art museum and gallery the wynne home arts center will stimulate an active cultural life a significant factor in attracting new industry to a community she said cultural organizations and civic centers are important to the well-rounded community: this center will help to make huntsville more attractive to prospective residents the center for community support helps nonprofit and public organizations in texas with various aspects of grant proposal preparation writer/contact: erin logan center for community support (979) 458-3239 elogan@ppri-nwtamuedu http://ppritamuedu/ccs/homehtm 7/10/02 nr 1046

college station - in most classes a grade of c is just making it but to world-renowned computer scientist dr bjarne stroustrup and the rest of the computer science world it is the most widely used language supporting object-oriented programming stroustrup the designer and original implementer of c has accepted the college of engineering chair in computer science in the department of computer science at texas a&m university and will move his research to texas a&m using c as his tool stroustrup pioneered the use of object-oriented and generic programming techniques in application areas where efficiency is a premium stroustrups book the c programming language is the most widely read book of its kind and has been translated into 14 languages a later book the design and evolution of c broke new ground in the description of the way a programming language is shaped by ideas ideals problems and practical constraints "dr stroustrup will bring great visibility to the department of computer science and to a&m " said jennifer welch head of the computer science department "in addition to continuing his research in programming languages and tools and finding new collaborators here he is looking forward to teaching" stroustrup was named one of "the 20 most influential people in the computer industry in the last 20 years" by byte magazine in 1995 he also has been named an at&t bell laboratories fellow and an at&t fellow he received the 1993 association for computing machinery (acm) grace murray hopper award for his early work on c and is an acm fellow nr 1058 7/26/02

college station - a new technology developed by texas engineering experiment station (tees) researchers will open access to billions of barrels of oil and natural gas and may alleviate the possibility of future fuel shortages each year more than 15 trillion cubic feet of stranded natural gas is burned vented or re-injected into the ground because petroleum companies have no way of harvesting the remote gas and transporting it to market a project between tees a member of the texas a&m university system and synfuels international inc of dallas has developed into a new gas-to-liquid technology and fully functional pilot plant for converting natural gas into a clean-burning liquid fuel that can be easily transported by pipeline or tanker "one of the big problems in the oil and gas industry right now is that if you find oil you usually find gas associated with it " said dr kenneth hall the tees chemical engineer who has led the development of the new technology "in many regions there is no way to recover this natural gas because of the lack of safe transport or existing pipelines this new process will allow oil companies to utilize the natural gas from remote fields and convert it into transportable liquid" the liquids produced in the conversion can be used as a beneficial additive in refining operations or more simply refined into jet fuels naptha diesel or gasoline ben r weber jr president of synfuels international said the gas-to-liquid fuel pilot plant his company has built using the technology developed by tees researchers is more environmentally sound and less expensive to construct than existing plant designs because of its size and portability environmental regulations which prevent venting or flaring of the natural gas and associated toxins into the atmosphere pose challenging and expensive roadblocks to oil companies wanting to remove their oil from the ground oil producers must either re-inject the natural gas into the ground concurrently with the oil being produced (a costly and complex procedure) or abandon their reserves petroleum companies can construct the synfuels plants almost anywhere even on or near remote drilling sites as a result oil and natural gas can be drilled where it was previously impractical to produce "stranded natural gas reserves are stranded for a reason - a market for the natural gas does not exist or there is no infrastructure to get the gas to the market " weber said "our plant converts natural gas and gets it to market as a liquid which everyone can use in some capacity" hall who holds the jack e and frances brown chair in engineering at texas a&m university said the technology will enable us petroleum companies to access numerous domestic resources for fuels and petrochemicals rather than rely so heavily on foreign imports "basically it means that with this new technology fuel supplies will be utilized at their utmost capacity with much less wasted energy " hall said contacts: ben r weber jr president synfuels international inc (214) 855-8920 bweber@synfuelscom synfuels international inc - http://wwwsynfuelscom terry young executive director technology licensing office the texas a&m university system (979) 847-8682 t-young@tamuedu technology licensing office - http://tlotamuedu/ 8/6/02 nr 1069

college station - dr ls "skip" fletcher regents professor and holder of the thomas a dietz memorial professorship in mechanical engineering at texas a&m university will receive the 2002 american society of mechanical engineers (asme) medal the societys highest form of recognition fletcher is also director for aerospace at nasa ames research center in moffett field calif the medal is given annually for "eminently distinguished engineering achievement" fletcher the first texas a&m faculty member to win the award will receive his medal at the 2002 asme international mechanical engineering congress in new orleans in november fletcher came to texas a&m in 1980 and has held a variety of positions at the university including associate dean of the dwight look college of engineering and the halliburton professor of mechanical engineering from 1985-88 fletcher also was associate director of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the engineering research agency of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system for more than 10 years beginning in 1988 fletcher was the education coordinator in the tees offshore technology research center before coming to texas a&m fletcher was professor and chairman of the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the university of virginia and previously was professor of aerospace engineering and associate dean at rutgers university a registered professional engineer in arizona new jersey texas virginia england and australia fletcher has written more than 200 journal and conference papers and six books and holds five patents fletcher is a fellow of asme; the american institute of aeronautics and astronautics (aiaa); the accreditation board for engineering and technology; the american association for the advancement of science (aaas); the american astronautical society (aas); and the american society for engineering education (asee) he has been honored numerous times by asme asee and aiaa fletcher received a bachelors degree from texas a&m a masters degree from stanford university and a phd from arizona state university 8/23/02 nr 1081

college station - half a world away in the deserts of the united arab emirates the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and texas a&ms engineering program are providing leadership for the american university of sharjahs (aus) engineering programs the university was established in 1997 by the ruler of sharjah his highness sheikh dr sultan bin mohammed al qassimi who serves as the president of the aus board of directors the emirate of sharjah is located adjacent to dubai in the united arab emirates as part of a $36 million project tees provides the dean and associate dean for the universitys school of engineering the principal investigator of the project is tees scientist ls "skip" fletcher who has worked to establish the engineering program since 1997 - before the initial memorandum of agreement was signed the following year in july 2002 an expanded memorandum of agreement was signed between tees texas a&m university and the american university of sharjah which extends the association through august 2004 "were trying very hard to strengthen the reputation of the institution as being the premier institution of the gulf region and its becoming that " fletcher said "we want to be sure they get a comparable education to what we give in the united states the objective is really to establish this as a quality institution" both texas a&m university and the texas engineering experiment station are recognized in the united arab emirates for their outstanding programs and research in engineering fletcher said aus officials wanted to tap into this expertise in establishing their own engineering program "we have focused on quality and outstanding laboratory support " said fletcher who is the regents professor and thomas a dietz professor of mechanical engineering at texas a&m "we have the best labs in the region and thats because of the way we put it together over the next year i think well see additional strides in collaborating with industry" dr leland blank a texas a&m professor emeritus in industrial engineering and former assistant provost serves as dean of engineering at aus blank and his wife dr sallie sheppard professor emeritus of computer science and former associate provost for undergraduate programs at texas a&m moved to the united arab emirates last year sheppard is the aus associate vice chancellor for academic affairs where she has a leadership role in expanding academic operations more than 700 undergraduate students from more than 20 countries study civil chemical electrical computer and mechanical engineering under blanks guidance aus has initiated graduate programs in mechatronics engineering and engineering systems and management "significant industry and government outreach and research programs have been initiated " blank said "aus is following in the tees and tamu tradition of quality service to citizens" research programs are active in areas such as water and soil environments energy management building code development for earthquake-prone areas microwave detection of faults and materials systems design for middle east climates blank said he hopes to see more faculty and student exchange programs between texas a&ms engineering program and the american university of sharjah already he said several aus graduates are pursuing masters degrees at texas a&m also dr steven gyeszly tees research associate professor serves as the associate dean of engineering providing leadership in engineering curriculum development laboratory development and student services during the last academic year suzanne gyeszly texas a&m professor and director of the policy sciences and economics library at texas a&m worked in the aus library where she served as a consultant in collections development and planning for the new aus library to be constructed next year blank said aus is an example of how tees and texas a&m are providing leadership in the middle east to establishing quality institutions based on the american model of higher education "theres a strong american and aggie influence through tees and texas a&m - that is taking part in that area of the middle east and helping shape their educational institutions and research imperatives " he said contact: dr ls "skip" fletcher sfletcher@mengrtamuedu dr leland blank american university of sharjah lblank@ausacae american university of sharjah - http://wwwausacae nr 1085 9/13/02

college station - testing products in space for use on earth isnt a dream of future space travel it is a reality at the center for space power (csp) one of two nasa-supported space centers in the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the csp is one of only 15 centers nationwide that is funded by nasa to do research and provide a vehicle for companies to develop their commercial products in space among the projects currently being researched at the csp are ones on photovoltaic materials that convert sunlight into electrical power for spacecraft temperature controls for spacecraft and encapsulating drugs in space -- with the products being studied in order to try and re-create the results on earth for future use in space "the shuttles have historically carried experiments with them that were actually done while in orbit " said fred best director of the csp and associate professor in the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university "now the experiments are being created for the international space station and the shuttles will be mainly transporting them" a research experiment on heat pipes -- which passively move thermal energy from one location to the other -- previously flew on one of the shuttle missions products from this experiment have been sold to companies who now are using them on telecommunications satellites another space-related research project conducted in zero gravity is one in which gas is separated from liquid by the creation of a spinning vortex inside a stationary cylinder "the best example of needing to separate liquid from gas is simply human breath " best said "you have air and water together and they need to be separated for reprocessing" as a way to resolve this problem best created the vortex phase separator that will fly as part of an experiment on the space shuttle "the main advantage of this device is that there are no moving parts and therefore no maintenance is necessary which is very important on space vehicles " best said industry partners of the commercial space centers develop their product ideas in space to see what works then they study the findings of the research and work toward duplicating them on earth for future use in space best says that there are many non-traditional industry partners working on projects that will benefit from using the space station as a laboratory "we are at a point in space research that is comparable to when the railroad was just going across the country first connecting the east coast with the west coast " best said "there is no limit to where we can go from here" nr 1084 10/02/02

college station - engineers in the texas engineering experiment stations (tees) center for space power are using the final frontier - space - to fight the war against cancer researchers from the center for space power and the center for microencapsulation and drug delivery (cmdd) at texas a&m and nasa johnson space center are working with a microencapsulation electrostatic processing system (meps) in which tiny multilayer capsules resembling liquid-filled balloons are formed to deliver drugs directly to tumors for improved cancer treatments and other medical uses in todays (may 30) launch of nasas space shuttle sts-111 the scientists are sending a self-contained experiment to the international space station in the experiment fluids are loaded into a soft fluid container and then pumped into a reaction chamber where capsules will hopefully form a microscope focuses on the liquid-liquid interface where the capsules form so that the researchers can watch the formation to learn about the fluid dynamics of the process suitable multilayer microcapsules can only be made reliably in space where the lack of gravity allows the capsules to achieve useful size so the texas a&m researchers are working with nasa to study microcapsule formation in space in hopes of eventually making the capsules commercially on earth "the microgravity and vacuum in space make for perfect lab conditions that cant be replicated here on earth " said frank little assistant director of the center for space power a division of tees and part of a nasa program for the commercial development of space "there are some alloys that because of the different properties of the materials involved can only be made in space where those properties are not an issue its the same with microcapsules but if we have the knowledge of how microcapsules form in space we can eventually make them here" in treating tumors with conventional drugs doctors block the tumors blood supply which in turn causes the tumor to shrink and eventually go away - a process called embolization with chemotherapy a drug is injected into the tumor and followed with an embolizing foam stopping the blood flow so that the chemical stays in the tumor microcapsules accomplish this chemo-embolization process in one step the capsules just larger than blood cells block small capillaries choking off its blood supply so that the drugs diffuse through capillary walls and into the tumor killing the tumor because the treatment is targeted and because the capsules carry about 5 percent of the usual dose of the drug microcapsules avoid most of the unpleasant side effects usually associated with chemotherapy treatments microcapsules form at the interface of two fluids that dont mix together well such as oil and water the liquids slide past each other slowly causing a slight disruption in the fluids as they slide past each other the liquids form droplets composed of a mixture of the two liquids a thin polymer wall forms around the droplet which can be electrostatically coated to modify the capsule surface this is the second mep experiment to be flown in space the first mep experiment went up on sts-95 the headline-making flight with former astronaut and us senator john glenn last week the texas a&m university system board of regents approved the center for microencapsulation and drug delivery (cmdd) a collaborative effort between texas a&m university the texas a&m system health science center the texas agricultural experiment station and tees

college station- for one texas a&m university professor beach erosion is a line in the sand dr billy edge head of the dwight look college of engineering coastal and ocean engineering division of the department of civil engineering is assisting jefferson county as officials attempt to reopen an area of highway 87 the road has been closed for 13 years since tropical storm chantal and hurricane jerry hit the coast in 1989 leaving the road eroded and impassable because of the closure the residents currently have only one route out of the area jefferson county residents have said the highway needs to be repaired to increase safety mobility recreational access tourism and business in a texas engineering experiment station (tees) project edge is examining the effects of erosion along the 17-mile stretch of road northeast of highway 124 "if we can help identify the causes of the erosion and potential solutions it could help preserve the lifeline represented by the roadway " edge said edge and other scientists used a global positioning system (gps) to survey the ground from the coast to 550 yards offshore to create a three-dimensional survey of the land they used this information to predict erosion and the rise in water level from storm surges during hurricanes and other extreme weather events the researchers determined there is not enough sand on the beach to absorb wave energy and prevent erosion the sand shortage is the result of natural settling of the sediment manmade jetties that disrupt sand transport dams upriver that reduce the supply of sediment to the coast and construction that uses sand to elevate low-lying sites edge and other researchers recommend replacing lost sand along the beach though the method used will depend on cost and availability of replacement sand according to edge without a long-term solution the beach will continue receding into the marsh 400 meters every 100 years edge said he would like to study the area following a significant storm to gather more information the team working with edge included robert g dean from the university of florida; bill curtiss from the usace coastal & hydraulics laboratory in vicksburg miss; karyn erickson from applied technology and management; and gregory stone from louisiana state university nr 1082 9/3/02

college station -- a little fatty acid with your french fries how about some soap on your onion rings its not what people usually think about at the drive-through window but the vegetable oil used to cook some of our favorite foods doesnt start out that tasty unless purified vegetable oils contain fatty acids and other impurities that give them an "off" flavor and undesirable color to make the oil edible it is refined through a complex process requiring chemical treatment and expensive equipment the texas engineering experiment stations (tees) dr ernesto hernandez and steve rathbone have developed a new simplified method that improves the efficiency and the end product of vegetable oil refining in refining vegetable oils fatty acids are neutralized by adding a chemical that will bind them into a thick substance resembling soap or soapstock that can then be more easily removed current methods use sodium hydroxide and centrifuges - machines that can separate the components of a substance by spinning it at high speeds - to remove the soap but using centrifuges is expensive and less efficient the new process uses sodium silicate instead of sodium hydroxide as the binding agent sodium silicate also acts as an absorbent for the "soapstock " allowing it to be removed by filtration a much more efficient and less costly option to centrifugation "basically it simplifies the process by making it more efficient and by decreasing losses of oil " said hernandez head of the fats and oils research program at the tees food protein research and development center that adds up to savings in manufacturing and overhead while producing oil that is purer and of higher quality health benefits may also result from the use of sodium silicate because it is less harsh than sodium hydroxide which can damage the oil during processing hernandez is working on further refining the process and exploring additional uses originally developed for processing edible vegetable oils the innovation has been found to have applications for refining a variety of oils from soybean oil to petroleum products hernandez said the new filtration process can replace conventional centrifuge process for new companies "i see it as having excellent potential for new companies as a standard procedure " said hernandez the a&m system technology licensing office is currently seeking an industrial partner to facilitate commercial application of this innovation "we are very excited about the patent " said hernandez "a couple of companies have tried the process with good success i think any licensee would have excellent success" for more information: tees food protein research and development center -- http://wwwtamuedu/food-protein us patent 6 448 423 hernandez et al "refining of glyceride oils by treatment with silicate solutions and filtration " was issued to the texas a&m university system on sept 10 2002 by: amy brundeen technology licensing office 10/28/02 nr 1106

college station - research being done in texas a&m universitys petroleum engineering department is offering alternatives to the worlds oil and gas industry as it struggles to implement the kyoto agreement and reduce the release of greenhouse gases typically oil deposits are found associated with natural gas to produce the oil companies have to also handle the natural gas in many areas of the world - but not the united states the natural gas is burned off or simply released into the air the kyoto agreement would ban this practice "regulations are changing in response to the kyoto agreement and even countries that have not signed the agreement are trying to implement its recommendations " said dr stuart scott associate professor of petroleum engineering "practices such as flaring and venting of natural gas are starting to disappear" scott is working on ways to reduce emissions by moving the oil and natural gas mixture - or multiphase flow - from the well through pipelines to facilities where they can be separated refined and metered separating the oil and gas at an off-site facility instead of at the well is cheaper more environmentally friendly and allows companies to drill for oil in areas lacking easy access such as the sea floor of the gulf of mexico he said multiphase pumps provide the boost needed to send the oil and gas down the pipeline to waiting processing facilities - all without the need for storage tanks these facilities may be miles away from the well the pumps are expected to play a key role in subsea/deepwater development by increasing the amount of oil harvested "these pumps allow you to get the same sort of recoveries as onshore and still push the fluids 10 to 20 miles down the pipeline " scott said in the past five years more and more oil companies have installed multiphase pumps texas a&m is unique in that it is the only university in the nation to have two of the popular twin-screw multiphase pumps to use for research and for teaching students these pumps were donated by bornemann pumps inc and the flowserve corp abb has donated a variable frequency drive (vfd) that will be used to power and control all the multiphase pumps at texas a&ms riverside test facility "weve been building this facility as industry has moved out of the large-scale research and testing areas " scott said this equipment and the experience it provides to students are especially beneficial he said students have the opportunity to do projects using the same equipment used across the oil and gas industry "our students are doing more realistic experiments and their results are more meaningful to industry " he said "a lot of undergraduates are getting to work as roustabouts on this facility so theyre learning what it takes to put a whole project together" 12/11/02 nr 1119

college station - texas a&m university javelin thrower luke marrs sometimes pictures woolly mammoths before he lets fly "im a big believer in visualization " marrs said "i visualize everything why i throw the track surface guys im throwing against the sky so seeing myself throw is a big help" mental images are key to the complex sport that dates back to the 708 bc olympics now biomechanical expert jerry congleton of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) is using 21st century imaging technology to help athletes like marrs congleton director of the tees ergonomics center uses twin digital video cameras customized software and an onsite high-tech hooded viewing center to capture every nuance of marrs javelin throws the v1 digital coaching system is an integrated computer and video system originally designed to analyze golf swings said congleton co-director of the tees ergonomics center "being able to give them the visual feedback allows the coach and athlete to be on the same page about what to correct " congleton said the system has been used for archery shotput discus baseball soccer and football kickers and punters congleton and center personnel are modifying the system for use with other university sports including softball volleyball and basketball he is also a part-time coach with the texas a&m athletics departments strength and conditioning team "my goal is to eventually use the system in all 17 (university) sports " congleton said "the really great thing about the system is the athlete can have a record of when he is doing well and when he isnt and he can compare the two to see what he is doing differently " congleton said ergonomics center -- http://ergo-centertamuedu

dr jo howze professor of electrical engineering at texas a&m university has been named associate dean of engineering for the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m and assistant director of the texas engineering experiment station "dr howze has extensive leadership and administrative experience making him an ideal individual for this post " said dr g kemble bennett texas a&m vice chancellor and dean of engineering and tees director "i am excited about the enthusiasm and dedication he will bring to the position and for the important role he will play as we begin working towards our academic goal of enriching the educational experience of our students" howze came to texas a&m in 1972 as an assistant professor of electrical engineering he headed the department from 1986 to 1992 and has been coordinator for the departments graduate and undergraduate programs he is holder of a ford motor company professorship and leads the associated "design across the curriculum" initiative in the engineering program his research interests are in the areas of automatic controls and energy systems including dynamical systems modeling and engineering systems design and design methodologies applications include hybrid vehicles fuel cell energy systems power electronics semiconductor processing controls and automotive control systems howze is a member of the american society for engineering education the american society of mechanical engineers and sigma xi the national scientific research society and a senior member of the institute for electrical and electronics engineering he is currently program chairman for the international future energy challenge howze holds two bachelors degrees in mechanical engineering and a phd in electrical engineering all from rice university

college station -- texas a&m university has had a close and productive relationship with the us space program and nasa for more than 40 years and two experiments involving texas a&m were being conducted on the shuttle columbia in recent days one experiment involved weightlessness and near-zero gravity effects on blood vessels in laboratory rats the research that would have been collected was to have assisted in the development of treatments to improve the circulation problems astronauts endure during long-duration space flights that research was being led by michael delp and his wife judy the co-investigator in the college of education and human developments department of health and kinesiology the second experiment involved a navigation system involving location of stars to determine a space crafts attitude titled starnav i the project was headed by michael jacox deputy director of the commercial space center for engineering a division of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) nasa funding this year into various texas a&m research projects totals about $5 million other texas a&m and nasa connections: -- texas a&m was one of the first universities in the nation to earn the coveted "space grant" designation in 1989 the university of texas and the university of houston have similar designations -- all of the original nasa astronauts traveled to texas a&m in the early 1960s for computer training -- the teague research center was built with nasa funds in 1967 for engineering and space research -- the universitys low-speed wind tunnel now named after the late oran w nicks played an important role in testing space shuttle models nicks who had a 20-year career with nasa and played a key role in nasas involvement with texas a&m died in a 1998 glider accident -- gerald griffin a 1956 texas a&m graduate served as a nasa mission control director for many years and awakened space shuttle crews by playing the aggie war hymn over their radios -- numerous texas aggies have served as nasa flight directors and managers among them john curry (class of 87); bryan lunney (89); bryan austin (81); steve stich (87); john shannon (87); matt abbott (85); rich jackson (80); lee briscoe (68); and paul hill (84); dana weigel (93); cori kerr (90); steve walker (87); and sotirios liolios (94) -- aaron cohen professor emeritus of engineering served as johnson space center director from 1986-93 -- texas a&m is part of the 12-member national space biomedical research institute an agency funded by nasa to study health problems that could arise during and after space flight -- texas a&m is home to two space centers: the center for space power and the commercial space center for engineering both help to merge technology and science to develop new products -- texas a&m is also home to the new texas institute for intelligent bio-nano materials and structures for aerospace vehicles (tiims) a $15-million nasa center comprising six universities: texas a&m the university of houston rice prairie view a&m texas southern and the university of texas-arlington the institute focuses on developing the next generation of bio-nano materials and structures for aerospace vehicles -- much of the research associated with the lunar landing module during the apollo moon missions was conducted at texas a&m -- dick scobee commander of the challenger shuttle was a member of the texas a&m college of education development council from 1983 until his death in the challenger explosion in 1986 a college of education medallion was flown aboard the challenger mission 41-c from april 6-13 in 1984 upon his return to earth scobee presented the medallion and two shuttle patches to the college in october of 1986 the francis r "dick" scobee memorial scholarship was funded in his name to be awarded to students seeking certification as secondary math or physical science teachers or majoring in interdisciplinary studies with a math or science specialization scobees widow june scobee-rodgers was named one of 30 college of education notable graduates in 1999 and was the keynote speaker for the colleges 30th anniversary celebration that year keith randall 2/03/03 university relations 979-845-4644

college station - the texas a&m university system board of regents established a new institute thursday (march 26) to help boost the number of students pursuing careers in the space industry officials of the space engineering institute (sei) which will be part of the texas engineering experiment station hope to get students excited about working in space systems engineering by involving them directly in doing what individuals working in the field actually do the institute will give students on-the-job training in the design testing and construction of spacecraft systems dr david boyle who will head the institute said studies have shown the united states is falling behind in motivating its best and brightest students to enter engineering and related fields "we went to the moon because kids came out of high school wanting careers in science and engineering " he said "now 40 years later people are coming out of college and showing little interest in spacecraft engineering fields wed like to get the best and brightest students choosing to go into engineering and especially into space systems engineering" in texas the problem also extends to students from underrepresented groups as smaller proportions of them choose to study engineering for example boyle said texas has a huge pool of untapped talent in the hispanic community hispanics and others from underrepresented groups tend to not see themselves in an engineering field especially space systems engineering "if we could get the fraction of minority students going into space systems engineering up to the same level as that of non-minorities then wed be taking a huge step towards solving the national problem " he said starting their freshman year sei students will learn hands-on technician skills required by industry and government for fabricating space hardware as they become juniors and seniors and have taken more advanced engineering classes they will move into putting these analytical skills to work using the same spacecraft design computer codes as boeing and nasa sei students will be required to work 10 to 20 hours a week at the institute where they will be assigned to teams working on space hardware projects for nasa and the space industry "they become members of the team here " boyle said students will also take part in outreach activities designed to get more high school students interested in studying math and science sei is a collaboration between the texas engineering experiment station and texas a&m universitys dwight look college of engineering and is supported by nasa

piscataway nj -- the ieee has named mehrdad (mark) ehsani professor of electrical engineering at texas a&m university in college station as recipient of the 2003 ieee undergraduate teaching award sponsored by the ieee foundation the ieee undergraduate teaching award recognizes inspirational teaching of undergraduate students in the fields of interest of ieee this years award recognizes ehsani for his contributions to advanced curriculum development and his teaching of power electronics and drives and will be presented in october at the 2003 ieee industry applications society annual meeting in salt lake city utah ehsani established one of the countrys first motor drive and power electronics programs at texas a&m in the early 1980s creating his own teaching materials he built a program that has hosted roughly 1 200 undergraduates many of whom have successful careers in the field ehsani also has directed the texas applied power electronics center and currently directs the advanced vehicle systems research program a fellow of the ieee ehsani has served on many of its committees including chair of education for the ieee power electronics society his honors also include a halliburton professorship dresser industries professorship and ruth and william neely/dow chemical fellowship at texas a&m a registered professional engineer in texas ehsani earned his bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering from the university of texas at austin he earned his doctorate in electrical engineering from the university of wisconsin-madison the ieee (institute of electrical and electronics engineers) is the worlds largest technical professional society with more than 380 000 members in approximately 150 countries through its members the ieee is a leading authority on areas ranging from aerospace computers and telecommunications to biomedicine electric power and consumer electronics additional information is available at http://wwwieeeorg contact: mark ehsani 979-845-7582 ehsani@eetamuedu

college station - that pc sitting on the desk at home will one day improve access to health care and reduce doctors office visits by making an individuals medical history available 24 hours a day seven days a week say computer science researchers at texas a&m university their project in telemedicine - providing health care over distance through telecommunications technology - uses pcs to connect medical instruments image software portable ultrasound and other equipment into a streamlined medical information system steve liu associate professor of computer science at texas a&m said the goal is to make medical records available any time any place to health care workers and patients liu heads the computer science departments research group for real-time distributed systems such systems allow information to be shared among many computers at the same time for nearly instant answers "lets say youre injured away from home you could have a watch device with your medical information " liu said "an out-of-town doctor could hook up the watch face to a computer and access your medical data from your primary providers database so you could get proper timely treatment" although that scenario is years into the future liu and his research group are taking steps toward making it reality in a demonstration project with san antonios brooke army medical center administered through the texas engineering experiment station theyre developing software to analyze weakened blood vessels in the retina caused by diabetes damage may already exist before patients notice a change in vision examining the retina to find damage is labor-intensive and error-prone liu said "were aiming to improve the identification of problem areas " he said "the software can help pick out the danger signs and store them in a database for future reference the next time the patient has an appointment the doctor can take another look at the problem areas to see if theyve changed" liu said information from different patients also could be cross-referenced to help others "the difficulty now is that information is scattered in separate medical facilities " he said "its time-consuming when a doctor needs to ask for your records from someone else when we travel or relocate we can lose track of health data crucial to future care and in emergencies" under a streamlined system liu said information could be shared with other doctors to help more patients privacy and legal issues however would need to be worked out first "the challenge is to create an information network where patient records can be shared securely " he said ultimately having such a system will help patients take a bigger role in monitoring their health and reduce unnecessary doctor visits - something that will become more important as baby boomers age and health care costs continue to rise he said "its also something that can help people in rural areas here and in other countries " liu added "we have a chance to do things we know will enrich others lives using technology to help solve social problems its a rewarding experience"

college station - as the war continues in iraq helicopter and fighter pilots face dangers of experiencing disorientation during landings in areas prone to sandstorms dr charles lessard associate professor in the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university has studied pilots and the spatial disorientation they might experience operating in environments with poor visibility the air force defines spatial disorientation as an incorrect perception of ones position and motion relative to the earths surface in iraq where the terrain is mostly sand pilots are likely to experience a brownout a lack of distinct horizon due to blowing sand or dust when the sand blows across the terrain the illusion of the horizon is tilted and the pilot if not watching his instruments may react by lining his planes wings with the false horizon this can result in hard landings or a crash because the plane isnt flying level as it approaches the landing strip "helicopter pilots suffer most from brownouts because they fly at very low altitudes " lessard said in the landing phase helicopters cause sand to blow upward and in a circular pattern which not only obscures the ground but can lead to vection vection is the perception of moving (forward up-down or in rotation) when in fact the helicopter is hovering but not moving "most of us experience the illusion of vection when stopped at a light and the car beside us moves " lessard said "the peripheral vision causes us to perceive that it is our car that is moving so we step harder on the brake peddle" lessard studied experienced instructor fighter pilots and the various types of spatial disorientation they experienced during flight and in flight simulators pilots can overcome disorientation by relying on their cockpit instruments however in worst-case scenarios the reaction time may not allow enough time for the pilot to overcome the illusion

the technology licensing office of the texas a&m university system hosted "a celebration of innovation in the research valley" may 14 the celebration commemorated the 2000th invention disclosure filed by a&m system faculty and researchers the event celebrated the innovative spirit of a&m system researchers and showcased how technology transfer contributes to the economic development of the community chancellor howard d graves gave the keynote address for the celebration that honored ten inventors with "spirit of innovation" awards for their contributions to the a&m system and to society professor of electrical engineering mark ehsani and sebastien gay received a spirit of innovation award for the "2000th disclosure" their invention related to new design features for hybrid vehicles they developed at the texas engineering experiment station (tees) was the 2000th invention disclosure submitted to the technology licensing office by a&m system researchers since the formation of the tlo in 1992 dr mark t holtzapple professor of chemical engineering texas a&m university and researcher with tees received the spirit of innovation award for "ingenuity" dr holtzapple has submitted more than 80 invention disclosures many more than any other faculty member his disclosures have resulted in four license agreements with two start-up companies his inventions include biomass conversion processes and the starrotor engine dr leonard m pike professor of department of horticultural sciences at texas a&m university and director of the vegetable and fruit improvement center texas agricultural experiment station (taes) received the spirit of innovation award for "economic impact" the "texas 1015 onion " other onion varieties carrots (including the betasweet maroon carrot) and many other improved vegetable varieties have been licensed to growers and seed companies across the state and the world the improved varieties have resulted in economic impact of millions of dollars for the texas agricultural industry especially in the rio grande valley dr gyula vigh professor of chemistry texas a&m university received the spirit of innovation award for "corporate partnership" dr vigh showed licensee gradipore ltd an alternative way of doing isolectric focusing separations that would work for proteins and pharmaceutical chiral molecules gradipore has since endowed the gradipore chair in separation in which dr vigh currently sits joined the chemistry departments industry-university cooperative chemistry program (iuccp) and sponsored research in dr vighs laboratory dr stephen safe distinguished professor of veterinary physiology and pharmacology college of veterinary medicine texas a&m university and director for the center for environmental and genetic medicine at the institute of biosciences and technology at the texas a&m university system health science center received the spirit of innovation award for "research support" the results of safes research in antitumorigenic agents and endocrine therapy for breast cancer have been licensed to avax technologies his research has generated more than 7 million dollars of sponsored research since 1999 for the development of compounds for potential application in the treatment of cancer dr max d summers taes distinguished professor of entomology and associate vice president for research for texas a&m university received the spirit of innovation award for "global outreach and institutional reputation" for his development of the baculovirus expression vector system (bevs) bevs is the subject of more than 80 non-exclusive license agreements in 11 countries the platform technology for drug development is cited in more than 100 publications a year enhancing the institutional reputation of texas a&m university around the world dr roger bligh associate research engineer and manager of the roadside safety program at texas transportation institute (tti); dr carl eugene "gene" buth head of ttis safety and structural systems division; and dr hayes ross research engineer for the roadside safety program at texas transportation institute (tti) and professor emeritus of civil engineering received the spirit of innovation award for "public benefit" for their development of highway guardrail end treatments et-2000 and srt with more than 150 000 installations these devices have saved hundreds of lives and have reduced medical expenses by millions of dollars for those individuals who accidentally hit the end of guardrail on roadways the tlo which serves the entire a&m system seeks to commercialize innovations developed by a&m system faculty and researchers for public benefit and economic development

college station - texas a&m university electrical engineering professor b don russell has been elected vice president of the united states national committee of cigre an international organization of 80 countries dealing with large high-voltage electric power systems russell who holds the jw runyon jr professorship in engineering becomes the first person from texas a&m to serve in the organizations leadership cigre (conseil internationale des grandes reseaux electriques a haute tension) brings together thousands of researchers and industry technical leaders from almost every country in the world to promote research and technology in high-voltage electric power systems besides serving as vice president of the united states branch of the organization russell also will serve as chairman of the branchs technical committee in this role he will supervise the selection of the research and technical topics presented at the organizations biannual symposium in paris "its extremely important that engineers collaborate so that the best practices in electric power are shared by the international engineering and research community " he said "this organization is the foremost organization for international interaction in electric power systems it is a distinct honor to be asked to be an officer" cigre or the international council on large high voltage electric systems has been a major force in the improvement of electric power infrastructure in developing countries and has helped develop international standards and practices for the industry worldwide russell said russell is a member of the national academy of engineering and past president of the institute of electrical and electronics engineers power engineering society

college station - the reta and bill haynes 46 coastal engineering laboratory will be formally dedicated wednesday (june 4) in the texas a&m university research park the $538 million 25 000-square-foot facility brings both ocean and estuarine environments into a laboratory setting where educators and researchers can tackle the most challenging problems of near-shore and estuarine regions the laboratory is named for donors bill and reta haynes of marinwood calif he is a retired chairman of chevron and a member of the texas a&m class of 1946 other founding contributors are red and yvonne adams of morgan city la ray and dorothy galvin of houston the herman f heep and minnie bell heep texas a&m university foundation the national science foundation the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and the zachry foundation "this facility is a premier resource for solving challenges that affect our natural resources and certainly our state and national economy we thank these contributors for their support and for the future benefit that will result from research conducted here " said dr g kemble bennett vice chancellor and dean of engineering and tees director two major components of the laboratory are a shallow-water wave and current basin (120 feet long 75 feet wide 4 feet deep) and a tow/dredge tank (150 feet long 12 feet wide 10 feet deep) with a large sediment pit and current an observation well provides underwater viewing for both harold j (bill) haynes and his wife reta have a longstanding record of generous support for texas a&m university their previous gifts have included two presidents endowed scholarships and two faculty chairs in the college of geosciences born in fort worth haynes entered the us navy in 1944 a year later he married his hometown sweetheart who was a student at texas christian university after world war ii the couple moved to college station where he graduated with a degree in civil engineering haynes credits much of his success to his wife a great partner in life who has been a homemaker mother of their three daughters and grandmother of their six grandchildren haynes enjoyed a distinguished career in industry beginning as an engineer with standard oil company of california (now chevrontexaco corporation) and rising to become president then chairman of the board and chief executive officer of what is now the second largest oil company in the united states retiring from chevron in 1981 he served as a consultant to the executive management of the bechtel group of companies he is a former director of citicorp-citibank hewlett packard the boeing company the rand corporation weyerhaeuser paccar inc and the saudi arabian company (saudi aramco) in 1972 haynes was named a distinguished alumnus of texas a&m in 1978 he received the universitys first geosciences and earth resources medal for distinguished achievement in 2000 he was honored as a distinguished graduate of the department of civil engineering b a "red" adams is chairman of the board of oil and gas rental services which he co-founded in 1967 the company is a leading supplier for the rental of drilling equipment in the gulf of mexico for major oil companies and independent operators raymond e galvin texas a&m class of 1953 is a retired president of chevron usa production and a past member of the chevron board of directors a longtime supporter of texas a&m he is a co-chair of the engineering colleges fundraising effort in texas a&ms one spirit one vision campaign the herman f heep and minnie belle heep texas a&m university foundation was chartered in 1986 to provide financial support to texas a&m and its agriculture and engineering programs the national science foundation is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering reaching all 50 states through grants to nearly 2 000 universities and institutions the texas engineering experiment station (tees) is a partnership of communities industry and institutions that work together to solve problems and promote economic development across texas tees is the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system the zachry foundation is affiliated with the zachry group inc a collection of companies that started with the hb zachry company founded in 1924 by hb "pat" zachry texas a&m class of 1922 the zachry family has a long and distinguished record of support and service to the university

college station -- dr stuart scott associate professor of petroleum engineering at texas a&m university was awarded the asme international henry r worthington medal at the asme (the american society of mechanical engineers) petroleum division annual industry leadership luncheon earlier this month in houston the medal was given to scott for "eminent achievement in the evolving field of multiphase pumping including his contributions to education technology transfer and the development of the flagship usa research program on multiphase pumping" scotts research interests include multiphase production systems multiphase equipment well performance well completions and reservoir engineering he also oversees the multiphase field laboratory (riverside campus) the tommie e lohman fluid measurement laboratory the chevrontexaco drilling fluids laboratory and a production lab he holds a bachelors degree in petroleum engineering a masters in computer science and a doctorate in petroleum engineering - all from the university of tulsa

college station - the recent donation of equipment by moyno inc will give researchers at texas a&ms multiphase field lab new capabilities to perform studies in oil and gas production moyno which is part of robbins & myers inc has donated a mobile test rig and tri-phaze multiphase pump the mobile test rig consists of two metal buildings two pumps and a high-pressure separator the equipment is designed to be used for single-well applications which account for the majority of onshore texas production the test rig provides the unique capability of moving from the field laboratory to a texas producing well to determine the effectiveness of multiphase pumping the tri-phaze multiphase pump is a single-screw "progressing cavity pump" (pcp) and is used to reduce pressure at the wellhead thereby increasing production rates and improving recovery of oil multiphase pumps also minimize the environmental impact of a well site by reducing the amount of equipment needed to get the oil out of the ground recently multiphase pumps have been found to be effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating flaring or venting of gas at well sites "this donation by robbins & myers joins two other multiphase pumps already installed at this facility and gives a new direction for our student research " said dr stuart scott associate professor of petroleum engineering at texas a&m "it puts us one step closer to representing all multiphase pump technologies in one facility no other university in the country has this capability which is essential to doing in-depth modeling of oil and production systems he said "robbins & myers has been a sponsor of our annual multiphase pump user roundtable (mpur) since 2000 and this donation signals an important commitment toward for future collaboration and research " he said

college station - nanotechnology is making a transition from the laboratory to the classroom at texas a&m university this fall texas a&m is one of the first schools being funded for the nanotechnology undergraduate education project (nue) with a $100 000 grant from the national science foundation the grant is being administered by the texas engineering experiment station (tees) jeffrey froyd director of academic development and head of the foundation coalition at texas a&m said nanotechnology allows engineers to manipulate materials at a very small scale using nanotechnology engineers have been able to make windows that clean themselves and smart splints that can tell cells to heal broken bones the project involves incorporating nanotechnology and nanomanufacturing components into freshman and sophomore classes and giving students an idea of the potential growth of these areas in the future a module focusing on issues related to nanomanufacturing - the synthesis of nanostructures into macro-scale materials - will be integrated into a junior-level class an entirely new senior-level course with extensive lab components will be introduced in the following semester one benefit of teaching students about nanotechnology so early in their college careers is that it will make the students more prepared for future engineering trends in industry "we have learned from earlier technological developments that were delayed in undergraduate implementation that concepts like nanotechnology need to be introduced as soon as possible " froyd said "this ensures that graduates will leave prepared to grapple with issues they will face in the workforce" froyd said that the nanotechnology lessons will give students a new perspective on engineering as a whole "engineering is very creative but a lot of what students see in the first two years is very analytical and broken down " froyd said "the case study modules will help them see the larger impacts and get a clear picture of the creative side of engineering" froyd whose background is in electrical engineering will serve as the projects principal investigator co-principal investigators all at texas a&m are winfrid teizer assistant professor of physics; ibrahim karaman assistant professor of mechanical engineering; and terry creasy assistant professor of mechanical engineering "the team is interdisciplinary because the amount and breadth of information being discovered requires that innovations cross boundary lines " froyd said "you need people in all areas to cooperate and interdisciplinary teams allow that" other universities that the national science foundation funded to work on nue projects include columbia university pennsylvania state university and purdue university

college station -- marilyn martell has been named assistant vice chancellor for public affairs in the engineering program of the texas a&m university system and assistant director of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) as the assistant vice chancellor for public affairs martell will be responsible for strategic planning and coordination of communications and public affairs initiatives martell was previously director of public information for the texas engineering extension service (teex) where she was responsible for the dissemination of information to the public and news media and coordinated internal and external communications and public relations she also has been a columnist for the bryan-college station eagle for 10 years she was producer and host of "homefront news " where she developed produced reported and presented on-air a feature television news program that aired 22 times a day seven days a week on cnn headline news in the college station cable market martell has also served as the morning show host and public affairs manager for kagg/aggie 96 fm radio in bryan texas and as the news director of kwht-fm/ktix-am in pendleton oregon among martells numerous honors are two bronze telly awards in the non-broadcast film/video (cable television) category and the "top media award state of texas: news producer " from the central texas council of child protection boards for 1994-95 she has been named a leading lady of the brazos valley by the bryan broadcasting group and in 1997 twin city mission and phoebes home named her reporter of the year for domestic violence issues martell earned her bachelors degree in public relations from gonzaga university in 1990

a new imaging technology could one day provide a valuable alternative to mammography and even eventually replace it for diagnosis of breast cancer the technique called real-time scanning thermoacoustic tomography was developed in the laboratory of dr lihong wang researcher with the texas engineering experiment station although breast cancer remains a leading cause of cancer deaths among women the cure rate is greatly improved by early detection mammography has long been the best tool available for early detection but is mammography the most accurate way to detect tumors what if tumors could be detected sooner could more tumors be detected without ionizing radiation could unnecessary biopsies and lumpectomies be prevented by using better imaging technology wang professor of biomedical engineering and electrical engineering at texas a&m university is exploring the answers to these questions at his optical imaging laboratory the lab is developing non-ionizing radio-frequency imaging for the early detection of various cancers "the efficacy of mammography is not ideal sometimes you miss an early tumor and roughly three-quarters of needle biopsies are benign " said wang the danger of ionizing radiation from mammograms is a matter of relative risk says wang one in 2 000 patients per exam actually gets breast cancer from mammography "you dont want to be that 1 in 2 000 " said wang radio frequency imaging is potentially more sensitive and specific in cancer detection than other medical diagnostics such as mammography and magnetic resonance imaging (mri) both mri and mammography provide high-resolution imaging but they do not provide the high contrast needed to distinguish between cancerous and normal tissue wangs method uses radio frequency and ultrasound technology in combination as an imaging tool that has a much greater contrast than mammography it offers high resolution of objects as small as 05 millimeters and the increased contrast results in greater sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis-cancerous tumors can be detected and distinguished from benign the technique uses radio frequency to illuminate the tissue being imaged high-resolution ultrasound is then used to detect acoustic waves that radiate when the radio frequency is absorbed by the tissue cancerous breast tissue has been found to absorb two to five times more of the radio frequency waves than surrounding normal breast tissue the difference in absorption rates results in a high level of contrast in the resulting image the effect is attributed to bound water and sodium within malignant cells similarly dense tumors can be distinguished from fluid-filled cysts "i hope there will be enough radio-frequency contrast between normal tissue cancerous tumors and benign tumors that x-ray mammography would not be needed " explained wang and what about all those needle biopsies on benign tumors wang says that while the effectiveness of the technology will still have to be proven he has hopes that cancers will be able to be detected with high specificity without biopsies "it would be ideal if a needle biopsy wasnt needed " said wang wang has been working with md anderson cancer center to develop the technique wang is currently imaging mastectomy specimens supplied by md anderson as an intermediary step to clinical trials so far the tests are going very well wang expects to complete the tests on the mastectomy samples by the end of the summer at which point the researchers will be seeking grants to begin clinical studies at md anderson wang said his hope is to replace mammography but he doubts that will happen right away "doctors are comfortable with mammography " said wang "but if we prove that this technique is more effective they will accept it" wang also suggests that the diagnostic equipment could be bundled into a conventional ultrasound machine making it more practical for clinics and hospitals to buy this technology is protected under us patent no 6 567 688 issued may 20 2003 the a&m system technology licensing office is currently seeking one or more industrial partners to facilitate commercialization of the new method for more information about licensing this technology please contact page heller at p-heller@tamuedu or 979-847-8682 please reference tamus project #1504

college station - in light of yesterdays blackout in the northeastern united states and canada texas a&m universitys national expert on electric power systems said that the electric power infrastructure in the united states could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks due to the millions of miles of transmission lines and remote power facilities across the country "there is no reason to suspect that terrorism was involved instead of some equipment failure or natural occurrence " said dr b don russell regents professor in the department of electrical engineering at texas a&m "but our power infrastructure is very vulnerable we have millions of miles of transmission lines and remote power facilities that are impossible to fully protect and guard" russell who also holds the jw runyon jr professorship ii in engineering and is a member of the national academy of engineering suggested that instead of trying to protect power facilities officials should focus on being able to quickly restore power to areas affected by a major outage and its impossible to prevent every multi-state blackout from occurring particularly because many blackouts are caused by natural events such as storms or lightning "since the northeast blackout of 1965 our emphasis has been on limiting the scale of any blackout so that a disruption did not cascade and engage surrounding utility regions " russell said "obviously yesterdays disruption was far greater than anyone anticipated over 50 million people in many states were involved along with canada" russell said that it could be days or weeks before the exact cause of the outage is known once the cause has been determined any necessary immediate changes will be made but researchers will study this blackout for several years "the investigation will not only include the exact causes but also how to limit the scale of the disruption and how to prevent major cascading of the failure in future outages " russell said russell also warned that the united states electric utility infrastructure is aging and overstressed with too few power plants being built in the last few decades "we need major investment in the electric power system if it is to remain the best electric power system in the world "if any good can be found in this " russell said "it is probably in the wakeup call that we must take our electric power systems more seriously and make major investments in our power infrastructure to ensure that outages are infrequent and limited and that when a disruption occurs power can be returned as quickly as possible"

college station -- the engineering program of the texas a&m university system has named dr theresa a maldonado associate dean of the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m university and associate director of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) from 1981 to 1986 maldonado was a member of the technical staff at at&t bell laboratories working in fiber optic systems fiber components and cable design after completing her doctoral studies in 1990 she joined the university texas at arlington as an assistant professor in the department of electrical engineering in 1999-2001 she was a program director at the national science foundation where she managed engineering research centers and served on a number of nsf-wide committees including career and nanoscale science and engineering she returned to uta in 2001 as associate dean of engineering for research and graduate studies in july 2002 she was appointed associate vice president for research and became director of the uta institute for nanoscale science and engineering research and teaching maldonado was a 1991-96 nsf presidential young investigator and received the halliburton award for teaching excellence and the halliburton award for outstanding young faculty awards from the uta college of engineering in 1995 she was inducted into the inaugural council of outstanding young engineering alumni at georgia tech at nsf maldonado was recognized with the 2001 directors award for program management excellence and the directors award for collaborative integration for her services on the career coordinating committee and with a certificate of appreciation for distinguished service in the development of the nsf program advance a registered professional engineer in texas maldonado is a senior member of the institute of electrical and electronics engineers and a member of the optical society of america the international society for optical engineering eta kappa nu tau beta pi sigma xi and the society of hispanic professional engineers she holds bachelors masters and phd degrees in electrical engineering from the georgia institute of technology

college station -- dr david c hyland has been named associate vice chancellor for engineering for the texas a&m university system and associate dean of the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m university hyland will also be deputy director of the texas engineering experiment station holder of the royce e wisenbaker 39 chair in engineering and a professor in the department of aerospace engineering hyland came to texas a&m from the university of michigan where he had been a professor and chairman of the department of aerospace engineering since 1996 before that he worked for the technical staff of mits lincoln laboratory in 1983 hyland joined harris corp where he organized and led the structural control group in the government aerospace systems division in 1992 he was promoted to senior scientist and in 1994 joined the senior staff of the vice president of engineering of the aerospace systems division where he was a spokesman for control technology and led commercialization efforts involving controls actuator and adaptive neural control technologies hylands most recent research activities include the development of autonomous intelligent control systems for air vehicles; space-flight testing of neural-network technology for autonomous spacecraft control; and the study of opto-electronic and signal processing technologies for long baseline space-borne imaging interferometry for planetary astronomy hyland is a member of the american institute of aeronautics and astronautics and the institute of electrical and electronics engineers and has written more than 140 technical papers in the areas of spacecraft dynamics and control and mathematical control theory among his numerous honors are several honors from harris corp and the nasa honorary superior accomplishment award hyland holds bachelors masters and phd degrees in aeronautics and astronautics all from the massachusetts institute of technology

gerard cote a biomedical engineering professor in the dwight look college of engineering is looking for a replacement to the traditional finger-stick monitoring technique people with diabetes need to use every day diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin a hormone necessary to convert sugar the bodys basic fuel into energy sugar (glucose) builds up in the blood instead of going to the cells people with diabetes must check their blood sugar levels several times a day to help keep their diabetes under control most monitoring methods require a blood sample obtained by sticking a finger with a needle from an automatic device over the years scientists have been trying to find ways for people with diabetes to measure blood glucose without having to puncture the skin for a blood sample hundreds of research groups worldwide are racing to develop a noninvasive glucose sensor cote said cote is director of the department of biomedical engineerings optical bio-sensing laboratory where research focuses on developing optical diagnostics and sensors for medical applications using lasers fiberoptics and electronics he and his colleagues are investigating new noninvasive ways to test blood sugar levels one of the experimental systems cote is testing involves fluorescent polymer microbeads that could be implanted just under a patients skin glucose levels affect how much light the beads emit which could be measured with a wristwatch-like monitor the research is funded by grants from the state of texas advanced research program and the national science foundation and is administered through the texas engineering experiment station "obviously it isnt totally noninvasive since you need to implant the beads but once theyre in the monitoring process does not involve any daily punctures " cote said the idea got started at a meeting of spie-the international society for optical engineering where cote attended a talk by a physician who removes tattoos with lasers "he said boy wouldnt it be nice if we came up with a way to have a smart tattoo instead of just putting ink particles under the skin that started me thinking " cote said "i got together with michael pishko in the look colleges chemical engineering department we put our heads together and came up with this approach of polymer beads that are implanted just underneath the skin or in the skin layers the beads would glow or fluoresce differently as glucose concentrations changed" the american diabetes association estimates that 17 million people in the united states have diabetes but that one third are unaware they have the disease about 10 percent have type 1 diabetes in which the body fails to produce insulin and which is usually diagnosed in children and young adults an overwhelming 90 percent have type 2 diabetes which develops most often in middle-aged and older adults and results from insulin resistance combined with insulin deficiency pain-free glucose monitoring would make it easier for people with diabetes to check glucose levels throughout the day although pishko is now an associate professor of chemical engineering at penn state university cote continues to collaborate with him on the fluorescent glucose sensor project both researchers recently completed three years on the scientific review committee of the juvenile diabetes research foundation and were honored with the foundations mary ann kugel award for their service the committees members review proposals for diabetes research and advise the foundation on their merits many of the foundations members are parents of children with type 1 diabetes (previously known as juvenile diabetes) cote has heard many of their stories "theres nothing more frustrating to these parents than to see their child break out in a sweat and not know if its because the childs glucose level is too high or if the glucose level is too low one parent said its like his child is near a cliff and he doesnt know if shes walking toward the cliff or away from it" in cotes experimental process two molecular compounds - dextran a macromolecule composed of glucose subunits and concanavalin a (cona) a protein that recognizes sugar - are encapsulated in polyethylene glycol (peg) beads peg is a polymer commonly used for orthopedic implants because of its compatibility with human tissue dextran is tagged with one fluorescent dye color or fluorophore while cona is tagged with another the experimental microgel beads injected just under the skin are too big to enter cells - unlike tattooing in which cells absorb the pigment instead the beads remain in the spaces between the cells called the interstitial spaces fluid in those spaces contains water and glucose molecules small enough to pass through the peg and reach the fluorophore-tagged polymers cote said the level of glucose in interstitial fluid is related to the blood glucose level thats measured by the traditional needle-stick method the dextran molecules bind to the cona molecules together under light from a laser or light-emitting diode they emit a certain color under fluorescence however when glucose enters the picture it competes with dextran displacing the dextran molecules and binding to the cona the fluorescent color changes according to the amount of glucose present in preliminary studies the researchers injected the microbeads under a rats skin and found that the rat tolerated the implant the beads did fluoresce under the rats skin and indicated a change in glucose level "the reason were so optimistic about the fluorescent method is because of its specificity " cote said "we know that if we implant this its going to respond and the response is going to be to glucose with longer-lasting fluorophores the implants could stay under a persons skin for up to a year before having to be replaced "the technology to develop the smart tattoo is here " cote said "its a matter of doing the work and testing the principles" human testing could start within five years this invention is protected under us patent no 6 485 703 issued november 26 2002 the a&m system technology licensing office is currently seeking one or more industrial partners to facilitate commercialization of the procedure for more information about licensing this technology please contact page heller at p-heller@tamuedu or 979-847-8682 please reference tamus project #1240