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laredo texas -- high school students from laredos two engineering magnet schools are working with researchers in the texas engineering experiment station (tees) to provide electricity to colonias residents along the us-mexico border without electric power dean schneider an engineer with the tees texas center for applied technology in san antonio said that students in the united high school engineering and technology magnet school and the laredo isd magnet for engineering and technology applications will collaborate with tees and west texas a&m university (wtamu) engineers to build and install four wind turbines in the next two years -- one a year from each school the students will build the wind turbines from existing plans and install the first two demonstration turbines next spring in a colonia and on the cigarroa high school campus the students will also generate a set of instructions that will be translated into spanish to be understandable by typical colonia residents in the us-mexico border region schneider said the end-product of the collaboration is not the turbines themselves but rather the set of instructions the students generate on how to build and install the turbines "were showing the colonias residents that if these students can install these turbines then they can do it as well " schneider said david canales director of uniteds engineering magnet school and engineering principles instructor laura rodriguez said the two teams will focus on different aspects of the turbines: the united students will focus on the turbines motor generators for power while the cigarroa students will build the blades and the storage units for the turbines then the teams will switch roles for the final two turbines while also collecting data on the turbines energy production and performance "each of us gets to go through the entire process " rodriguez said canales said that during the year tees engineers and researchers from wtamus alternative energy institute will provide hands-on instruction and lectures on wind energy as well as engineering project management and execution "the lectures will tie into what were doing already -- science math engineering and even geography such as the places where its best to use wind as an energy source this project just fits in so well because its what weve been doing "and everyone gets to do it not just seniors or the very top kids this is very much project-based hands-on real-life learning" lisds engineering magnet school director gus perez said "that professional engineers working in the field are coming in to provide direct in-class instruction to the students sets apart our magnet programs from most other programs that might just have professionals coming in to do talks or presentations during career days the engineers lectures will cover topics ranging from forces magnetism batteries and electric machines to wind energy and blade theory" and said lisd engineering teacher amanda gonzalez "this will give the magnet students working on this project a real-world experience that most students at the university dont even get" schneider agreed "this is a hands-on in-your-face engineering project for these students " schneider said "were using this project to teach students and to give them an idea of what its really like to be an engineer because until you get out and start practicing engineering you dont really know what you can do and how much of a difference you can make" the project is part of a two-year $100 000 grant from the texas state energy conservation office other project partners include texas a&m universitys center for housing and urban development (chud) in the college of architecture and the webb county department of economic development which operates the county colonia community centers and self-help center tees is the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

college station texas -- a texas a&m university electrical engineer studying high-temperature superconductors will receive one of the first 21 research grants awarded by the air force research offices young investigator research program (yip) haiyan wang an assistant professor of the department of electrical and computer engineering will use her three-year grant -- part of a new $63 million program intended to encourage outstanding young science and engineering researchers to conduct basic research -- to study the new superconductors flat ribbons of metal coated with yttrium barium copper oxide the new conductors are expected to be able to carry three to five times as much current than conventional power cables and do it at higher temperatures than earlier versions the new superconductors are important to development of new air force energy weapons and the us navys electric warships and combat vehicles programs they also should make possible more-efficient and less-expensive power generators high-frequency source magnets transformers and electric motors wang joined the electrical and computer engineering department in january 2006 she is also a researcher in the electrical and computer engineering division of the texas engineering experiment station the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system before coming to texas a&m wang was on the staff of the los alamos national laboratory as a post-doctoral fellow and a permanent staff member she holds a bachelor of science degree from nanchang university (china) and a masters degree from the institute of metal research (china) she received the phd degree in materials science and engineering from north carolina state university

college station texas — a consortium of the texas a&m university system and the university of texas health science center at houston has placed one of its advanced technology ambulances with st joseph regional health center in bryan with funding from the us army disaster relief and emergency medical services (dreams™) has outfitted five ambulances with specially designed digital emergency medical services (digital ems) systems that enable emts to consult with emergency room physicians at participant hospitals dreams™-equipped emergency vehicles known as interact™ ambulances have been operated by liberty county ems since 2004 three ambulances are currently in operation in this east texas county with a fourth to be delivered in october two of these ambulances are owned by the consortium and two are owned by liberty county and outfitted with dreams™ technology "the interact™ ambulance represents a dramatic transformation of the treatment available in a traditional ambulance in which emts have a limited set of treatment options in an interact™ ambulance emts can be authorized to use more extensive treatment options administered under the watchful eye of the remote er physician " said one of the co-principal investigators for the digital ems part of dreams™ james a wall director of the computing and information technology division of the texas center for applied technology (tcat) in the texas engineering experiment station a member of the a&m system "additional procedures are made possible when dreams™ technology delivers high-quality video and real-time patient data to the remote er physician greatly enhancing the physicians situational awareness in the ambulance to support the medical decision-making process" the hardware and software used in these advanced systems has been developed by the dreams™ digital ems project team the ambulance hardware integrates specially developed communications and computer systems with commercial off-the-shelf medical and computer devices such as digital video cameras gps navigation systems ruggedized laptops signature pads bar-code scanners vital signs monitors 12-lead ekgs portable blood analyzers ultrasounds and more at the hospital a companion system including communications and computer devices allows the er physician to receive video audio real-time medical data and text from the ambulance and transmit audio text and video annotations to the ambulance "dreams™ digital ems was funded to support rural america where distance translates to time en route and time en route directly affects the golden hour that time period in which a medic or physician can significantly affect the medical outcomes of the patient " said the other co-principal investigator for digital ems larry d flournoy associate director of the academy for advanced telecommunications and learning technologies at texas a&m university the software for the digital ems systems presents a unified graphical user interface (gui) to the paramedic driver and er physician "through pursuing nondisclosure agreements with multiple companies we are able to integrate a wide variety of medical technologies behind a single dreamstm user interface offering medics and physicians an intuitive application without the need for third-party software " said tcats lead software engineer for digital ems christopher j kocmoud the dreams™ systems can streamline the pre-hospital stage of a patients treatment wall said for example emts in an interact™ ambulance may input the patients drivers license using the card reader to transfer the information to an electronic form that is transmitted to the hospital the emts can alert the hospital to the need for physician intervention with voice video text messaging or a special audible alarm on the dreams™ system at the hospital the er physician can remotely control the multiple video cameras in the ambulance to pan tilt or zoom to view the patients injuries with colored on-screen markers the physician can coach the emts through treatment that extends beyond normal ems protocols and all along the emts and physicians can monitor on-screen the patients vital signs and the ambulances location the two principal investigators for the dreams™ consortium bring together the expertise of both the a&m system and ut health science center at houston the a&m systems principal investigator is richard e ewing vice president for research at texas a&m "texas a&m is well-positioned to lead with the university of texas on this project " he said "we have the breadth and depth of research to accomplish and further this life-saving work for texans we are so pleased that st joseph is able to use the technology right in our hometown" the principal investigator for the ut health science center at houston is dr james h "red" duke jr professor of surgery and john b holmes professor of clinical sciences at the ut health science center at houston and director of trauma and emergency medical services at memorial hermann hospital duke is also the medical director of memorial hermann life flight a renowned medical evacuation helicopter service the consortium is now customizing its unique digital ems systems for use in life flight helicopters under its sister project texas training and technology for trauma and terrorism (t5) also funded by the us army

college station texas -- increased security in american ports and waterways is the goal of two engineering professors in texas a&m universitys department of industrial and systems engineering dr wilbert e wilhelm mike and sugar barnes professor and assistant professor dr yu ding have received a $331 111 grant from the national science foundation (nsf) for their project "strategic design and tactical operation of surveillance sensor systems for ports and waterway security" the researchers aim to design surveillance sensor systems to assure robust security in ports and waterways especially to deal with unauthorized smaller boats that can easily gain access to sensitive targets the researchers are using the houston ship channel as a trial case "many people do not realize how vulnerable our ports are to a variety of threats " wilhelm said "and how devastating an attack could be to a surrounding city -- for example as poisonous gas is released from a damaged storage container" in the first part of the project strategic design wilhelm is determining where to locate sensors to provide adequate surveillance types of sensors include television cameras; infrared cameras; radar; and sound motion or heat detectors and wilhelm said he is designing a heterogeneous sensor system so as not to rely on a single type of sensor "were looking at interdiction " wilhelm said "so we have to look at various types of threats for instance a large ship or tanker has certain characteristics such as traveling at a certain speed or maneuvering in certain ways each type of threat travels at a different speed" wilhelm said the researchers have to understand which points to observe in order to interdict these threats then the information is fed into a sensor location model to optimize the cost of buying installing and maintaining the sensors "the challenge is to develop algorithms to solve problems as large as what might be found in actual applications " wilhelm said the researchers also have to deal with uncertainty so that in case a sensor fails a threat can still be observed thats known as fault tolerance capability and is the tactical part of the project "fault tolerance analysis " ding said "is `what if there is a failure due to harsh environmental conditions or intentional tampering what kinds of redundancy are needed and at what cost level" ding said that with different sensors come different types of information and different uncertainties by integrating the information in an intelligent way a heterogeneous surveillance system could potentially be able to detect anomalies distinguishing between "normal" and abnormal operation and behavior of a ship in open water as well as in a ship channel or waterway "each type of ship has a set of unique characteristics " wilhelm said "in a ship channel the way a ship turns and maneuvers and how it has to slow down to turn are unique to each type of ship so if a ship starts to turn or speed up unexpectedly then maybe its been commandeered and is being piloted awkwardly and we need to detect that anomaly "additionally ships of certain sizes go to certain locations in a port or waterway so if we find a tanker upstream from where its supposed to be thats anomalous" "but " ding said "you also have to reduce the false-positive rate with too many false positives the sensor network becomes a nuisance rather than a safeguard so how can we keep the probability of a false positive in check" wilhelm and ding said that the mathematical models they are developing will give better understating of how a surveillance sensor network should work and allow better decision making by port and waterway security personnel "were using the houston ship channel as a trial case " wilhelm said "but our models are generic so they can apply to each and every us port and waterway" wilhelm and ding are also researchers in the industrial and systems engineering division of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the engineering research agency of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

college station texas -- texas a&m engineering and the us department of energys (doe) national nuclear security administration (nnsa) have successfully converted the universitys 1-megawatt triga research reactors fuel from highly enriched uranium (heu) to low-enriched uranium (leu) this is the first research reactor conversion in the united states since the creation of nnsas global threat reduction initiative (gtri) in may 2004 as a part of its nonproliferation mission nnsa converts research reactors in the united states and around the world from operating on heu to leu fuel the effort is part of the bush administrations efforts to minimize the use of highly enriched uranium in civilian applications around the world the reactor is part of the nuclear science center a research center jointly operated by the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) tees is the engineering research agency of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system texas a&m engineering and nnsa worked closely with the does office of nuclear energy and the nuclear regulatory commission (nrc) to complete this reactor conversion in less than 18 months us representative chet edwards and senior officials from nnsa does office of nuclear energy and the nrc joined texas a&m officials in college station today (oct 13) to commemorate the successful fuel conversion of the reactor "minimizing the use of highly enriched uranium for civilian purposes makes for good nonproliferation policy around the world " nnsa administrator linton brooks said "it is a priority for this administration as demonstrated through the conversion of our own reactors in the united states to replace heu -- a nuclear weapons-usable material -- with alternative more suitable and less dangerous material like low-enriched uranium" texas a&m university president robert m gates said "as one of the largest nuclear engineering programs in the nation we are preparing the next generation of nuclear professionals being the first research reactor to convert to low-enriched uranium through the nnsa initiative is an honor and rare opportunity for our university to experience this historic event in nuclear nonproliferation activity i am immensely proud of the hard work and dedication of texas a&m engineering and the nuclear science center staff for their outstanding conversion effort" edwards agreed "this innovative nuclear non-proliferation technology at texas a&m is vital to americas efforts across the world to reduce the threats posed by nuclear terrorism " edwards said "as an aggie i am proud to support texas a&ms national leadership role in nuclear terrorism prevention" the conversion of the texas a&m research reactor supports the 2005 north american security and prosperity partnership under which the united states mexico and canada agreed to complete the conversion of civilian heu reactors on the north american continent by 2011 provided such leu fuel is available specifically the united states will convert six university research reactors mexico will convert its one research reactor in mexico city and canada will convert three research reactors this reactor conversion also supports the 2005 bratislava joint statement on nuclear security cooperation issued by president george w bush and russian president vladimir putin under the statement the united states and russia agreed to work together to convert more than 30 us- and russian-supplied research reactors around the world from the use of heu to leu brian e thomas chief of the nrcs research and test reactors branch said "the texas a&m conversion was extremely successful primarily because of close collaboration between the doe nnsa the university and nrc staff the university responded promptly to the nrcs information needs throughout the review process lessons from this conversion will improve the process at other research reactors that switch to leu" texas a&m officials said prior to the conversion their reactor used heu fuel enriched to contain 70 percent uranium-235 (u-235) -- well below the level of enrichment needed for weapons-grade material which is 90 percent u-235 additionally in the four decades of intense use since the reactor first went into operation the fuel had depleted to about 60 percent of its original enrichment rendering the fuel further unusable for weapons nnsa will also complete the conversion of another research reactor at the university of florida this month the global threat reduction initiatives mission includes returning and securing nuclear fuel and converting research reactors around the world currently gtri is working to convert 59 more reactors around the world from heu to leu by 2014 established by congress in 2000 nnsa is a semi-autonomous agency within the us department of energy responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science nnsa maintains and enhances the safety security reliability and performance of the us nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear testing; works to reduce global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the us navy with safe and effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the united states and abroad visit http://wwwnnsadoegov for more information

san antonio -- texas engineering experiment station (tees) researchers in san antonio have received $1 million for helicopter rotor blade protection research dr john f ayala will direct the project "rotor blade protection against sand and water erosion " which aims to improve the protective coatings on rotor blades ayala directs the aerospace manufacturing and systems engineering division in teess texas center for applied technology (tcat) in san antonio and also chairs the academic center for aging aircraft (acaa) which focuses research on issues related to aging aircraft in the military under the guidance and direction of the joint council on aging aircraft composed of representatives of the us army us navy us air force the federal aviation administration and the defense logistics agency other principal investigators will be dr paul cizmas and dr john slattery both faculty in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university and researchers from the university of dayton research institute congress has funded the project for fiscal year 2007 because of the researchs importance to the us department of defense (dod) "the current war efforts in iraq and afghanistan are in sandy desert terrain " ayala said "the sand is eroding the paint of the main and tail rotor blades of the helicopters which has a big impact on the readiness of the helicopters a similar problem occurs when operating in humid marine environments or rain "we can extend the useful life of rotor blades by having coatings that are not easily eroded " ayala said congressman henry bonilla who was instrumental in securing funding for the research said "the united states has the most technologically advanced military in the world but maintaining this highly-specialized equipment is as vital as its development the tiniest particles of sand can cause tremendous damage over time to the aircraft rotor blades with our ongoing operations in the middle east now more than ever we need to focus on protecting our military aircraft in this harsh environment i am proud to be able to secure $1 million for this project to study the effects of water and sand erosion so that we might develop the necessary coating to prevent further damage" the rotor blade protection research began two years ago with an acaa project that resulted in a method that accelerated the testing and screening of coatings for helicopters rotor blade protection against sand coatings help protect rotor blades against premature aging due to environmental conditions and texas a&m aerospace engineering professors cizmas and slattery developed the first approach for evaluating relative sand-erosion resistance "the erosion of these protective coatings can have significant impact on helicopter readiness and evaluating these coatings will help the armed services " said dr g kemble bennett vice chancellor and dean of engineering "this is just one of the many ways tees and texas a&m engineering researchers are applying their knowledge to make a difference and we are grateful to congressman bonilla for his support" the coatings are eroded by sand water or both ayala said the texas a&m approach looks at all three types of erosion and also can be used to identify how coatings should be redesigned to improve adhesiveness and effectiveness of coatings the tees researchers will work with the university of dayton research institute (udri) an acaa partner institution which does sand erosion testing for the department of defense the university of dayton research institute with its us air force particle erosion test facility and rain erosion test facility can simulate these environments and evaluate the erosion effects on coated aircraft surfaces cizmas and slattery plan to extend the texas a&m approach for sand erosion to water erosion a testing program will include the influence of sand particle and water droplet size impact angle coating thickness adhesive type impact velocity and temperature the end result is to be able to qualify and certify various coatings that dod should procure or even invest in for rotor blades "we can help the dod pick the best coatings and also influence coating design " ayala said the texas engineering experiment station is the engineering research agency of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

college station texas — the institute of electrical and electronics engineers has honored an electrical engineering professor in texas a&m universitys dwight look college of engineering b don russell holder of the jw runyon jr 35 professorship in the department of electrical and computer engineering has been awarded the meritorious service award of the ieees power engineering society the award recognizes russells contributions to the pes and power engineering over the past 30 years russell has directed the texas engineering experiment stations power systems automation laboratory for more than 25 years he holds numerous patents for power system protection and control systems including an array of computer-controlled technology that automatically monitors the power system and notifies operators when system components are on the verge of failure the automated monitoring system is currently being tested on 11 electric power systems in the united states and canada russell has held virtually every position at every level of the pes said pes executive director bob dent russell was the first engineering educator in 25 years to serve as pes president and his 16-year tenure on the societys governing board is the longest anyone has served in this capacity he also has represented pes on the ieee governing board he is a member of the national academy of engineering and a fellow of the national society of professional engineers an expert in electric power system automation and control russell served on a blue-ribbon panel that investigated a widespread power outage in the western united states in 2002 and is a member of the national research council committee studying the vulnerability of the power system to terrorist attacks

college station texas - dr john m niedzwecki associate vice chancellor and executive associate dean for engineering has been appointed regents professor by the board of regents of the texas a&m university system niedzwecki is a professor in the zachry department of civil engineering and holder of the rp gregory 32 chair in civil engineering as well as associate director of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the engineering research agency of texas and a member of the a&m system he was among 14 professors and administrators with texas a&m and a&m system agencies who received the designation of regents professor or regents fellow for 2006-2007 during a nov 30 meeting of the a&m system board of regents niedzwecki joined texas a&m more than 27 years ago as an assistant professor was promoted through the academic ranks and eventually selected to lead the department as head of the department of civil engineering from 1998-2003 he was instrumental in leading the department to rank among the nations top 10 he directed development of a departmental strategic plan providing impetus to a successful fund-raising campaign reintroduction of a survey camp professional day for students naming of the department and numerous awards he has been heavily involved in developing new courses initiating major classroom renovations and furthering international education and research exchanges between texas a&m students and students abroad niedzwecki specializes in offshore civil engineering and was instrumental in securing the national science foundation (nsf) offshore technology research center (otrc) for tees and the a&m system he later led the centers transition to becoming fully funded by the energy industry he has published numerous journal articles and made more than 75 conference presentations niedzwecki is a registered professional engineer in texas and serves on the board of trustees of the southwest research institute he is a fellow of the american society of civil engineers and a member of numerous professional organizations including the american society of mechanical engineers serving as an associate editor of its journal of offshore mechanics and arctic engineering niedzwecki holds two bachelors degrees and a masters degree from boston university and earned his phd from the catholic university of america

college station texas — two faculty members in texas a&m universitys department of electrical and computer engineering as well as researchers in the texas engineering experiment station have been elected to the rank of fellow of the institute of electrical and electronic engineers (ieee) professor robert d nevels has been cited for "contributions to electromagnetic field theory for quantum mechanics " and associate professor zixiang xiong for "contributions to source and channel coding" with the addition of nevels and xiong 18 faculty members in the department of electrical and computer engineering have reached the rank of fellow this is considered a significant honor because the number of ieee members who may advance to fellow in one year is 010 percent of the total 320 000 membership the ieee directory describes the honor as "one of unusual professional distinction conferred only by the [ieee] board of directors upon a person of extraordinary qualifications and experience" to be considered candidates must have made an outstanding contribution to the electrical and electronics profession nevels began working in the department of electrical and computer engineering in 1978 during his tenure in the department he has established the electromagnetics and microwave laboratory and organized an undergraduate microwave course for which he wrote the lab manual and obtained equipment funding nevels was also the associate department head from 1998 to 2005 his other distinctions include the texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award; the ieee region 5 outstanding educator award for 1997; the clear lake council of technical societies technical educator of the year in 1996; the outstanding professor award from the ieee texas a&m student chapter in 1994 and 1998; and the amoco foundation award for distinguished teaching in 1995 nevels interest areas include mathematical and numerical techniques in electromagnetics electromagnetic scattering antennas and waveguidance he received his bachelors from the university of kentucky in 1969 his masters from the georgia institute of technology in 1974 and his phd from the university of mississippi in 1979 xiong began working in the department in 1999 after working at the university of hawaii as an assistant professor his research interests include image and video coding adaptive quantization and fast algorithms digital watermarking joint source channel coding internet video lossless medical image compression image recovery image rendering and color quantization xiongs other recent honors include being named a tees fellow and a tees select young faculty; and receiving the young investigator award from the office of naval research and the united states army research office and the career award from the national science foundation xiong received his bachelors at wuhan university in pr china his masters degrees at the university of kansas and the illinois institute of technology and his doctorate from the university of illinois at urbana-champaign in 1996

college station texas - most texans have little reason to think about earthquakes or seismic damage much in their everyday lives but for dr david rosowsky of texas a&m university extreme events like earthquakes hurricanes and the performance of structures under such conditions are more than just an interest — they are his passion rosowsky department head and ap and florence wiley chair professor in the zachry department of civil engineering at texas a&m and a researcher in the texas engineering experiment station is part of a team working on a four-year $124 million project funded by the national science foundation through the network for earthquake engineering simulation (nees) the project studies the performance of engineered wood structures subjected to seismic loading the projects first phase included a large-scale test conducted in the summer of 2006 at the university of buffalos structural engineering and earthquake simulation lab and was led by a team of faculty and students from colorado state university university of buffalo texas a&m cornell university and rensselaer polytechnic institute a two-story 1 800 square-foot fully furnished townhouse was built and placed inside the lab on two moveable piston-powered shake tables among the largest of their kind in the united states engineers and researchers jolted shook and rattled the house in a series of five mock earthquakes that grew in size and magnitude according to rosowsky wood is one of the most common construction materials for residential and other low-rise structures in the country this fact coupled with the growing interest in building taller wood frame structures in some of the most seismically active parts of the country produces a need to develop an engineering design philosophy for wood structures built in earthquake-prone regions to ensure life safety and minimize structural damage and costs to acceptable levels "we hope to use the data collected from this project to better understand how wood structures behave under earthquake loads " rosowsky said "if we can predict where the weaknesses lie within these structures we can take steps to strengthen those problem areas and build structures better able to withstand the damaging earthquake forces minimizing structural displacement and the resulting damage" the fourth shake test of the project rattled the townhouse with the force of a magnitude 64 earthquake much like the one that pummeled northridge calif in 1994 that disaster resulted in 60 deaths and is believed to be the costliest earthquake in us history with damages reaching $40 billion the test house was put to the ultimate trial with the fifth and final experiment on nov 14 when it was subjected to what is known as the maximum credible earthquake this earthquake is the strongest possible quake at a given area based on the local seismology and geology this final test of phase one resembled the infamous 1906 san francisco earthquake that produced tremors measuring from 77 to 83 on the richter scale and resulted in the loss of around 3 000 lives phase two takes the project across the globe to miki city japan there in early 2009 rosowsky and the team of researchers will test a six-story building on e-defense the worlds largest shake table "while wood structures are not as ubiquitous in japan as they are in the united states north american stick-frame style construction is gaining popularity and both american and canadian companies are moving to capitalize on great new opportunities " rosowsky said with japan located in a highly seismic region rosowsky believes that both the united states and japan have strong incentives to develop new engineered design procedures for wood frame structures subject to earthquake loading "these tests conducted in the united states and in japan are the largest shake- table tests of wood frame structures ever performed " rosowsky said "we can learn an enormous amount from this project and through the development of new design procedures have a significant impact on the safety and damage resistance of a very large class of buildings"

college station - dr yue kuo dow professor in texas a&m universitys artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering has received the electrochemical societys (ecs) 2007 electronics and photonics division award for his work with semiconductors the award - among the most prestigious in the field of electronics - acknowledges remarkable work in the field with up to $2 500 or membership in ecs for the lifetime of the recipient as the recipient of the 2007 electronics and photonics division award kuo is expected to deliver a lecture to the electronics and photonics division symposium of the 211th ecs meeting may 6-11 in chicago in addition to the 2007 electronics and photonics division award kuo has received various awards and distinctions such as fellow in ecs and ieee kuos interests include semiconductors and thin films governments and industries consult him about biochips dielectrics plasma processing thin-film transistors and very large scale integrated circuits after about two decades of research into semiconductors in ibms thomas j watson research center and silicon valley kuo joined the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering in 1998 he is also a professor of electrical engineering and materials science and engineering; and a researcher in the texas engineering experiment station kuo earned his bachelors from national taiwan university and his masters and doctorate from columbia university for more information about kuos research visit http://yuekuotamuedu

college station texas — the spur volunteer fire department (vfd) in dickens county has received a 2006 assistance-to-firefighters grant (afg) from the us department of homeland security the funded grant proposal was developed and submitted through a collaborative effort between spur vfd and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) center for community support this $114 157 federal grant will help purchase a 2007 ford f-750 wildland fire apparatus following the wildfires across north texas in recent years the need for this new fire unit for protecting human life livestock and property became critical the new fire apparatus will replace a 1968 surplus military truck the department obtained and modified almost 20 years ago for firefighting operations the afg program is a national grant competition where local fire and emergency service organizations apply to the federal government for assistance in purchasing vehicles equipment and training "these are highly competitive grants" said kash krinhop assistant director of the tees center for community support "almost 20 000 applications were submitted last year and only about 5 000 to 6 000 will be awarded in the country in recent years there have been many texas vfds benefiting greatly from the centers grant assistance the assistance we offer gives these departments a competitive edge in getting these grants which make a big difference in the publics safety across much of texas" in 2006 the tees center for community support worked with 14 texas vfds in developing grant proposals resulting in $540 000 to date for three fire apparatuses equipment protective gear and training since 2001 the center has worked with more than 100 vfds and emergency service organizations helping secure grants totaling more than $25 million for improvements in firefighter and public safety in texas the tees center for community support provides a broad range of information data and proposal writing services at no cost for texas community-based nonprofit organizations support is available to pursue competitive funding for programs designed to improve the quality of life for texans more than $32 million in federal and private grants have been garnered for texas nonprofit sector with the direct assistance of the center

college station texas - dr g kemble bennett vice chancellor and dean of engineering has appointed dr john w poston sr interim head of the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university the appointment is effective jan 17 dr william burchill who has headed the department since 2003 will retire jan 16 poston headed the dwight look college of engineerings department of nuclear engineering from 1988 to 1998 before coming to texas a&m in 1985 he was an associate professor at the georgia institute of technology he has also been a researcher for oak ridge national laboratory in oak ridge tenn and a physicist for babcock and wilcox co in lynchburg va an expert on internal and external radiation dosimetry poston and his colleagues at texas a&m developed the only abet-accredited program in radiological health engineering which combines the basics of engineering with nuclear engineering safety engineering and radiation protection he is also a researcher in the nuclear engineering division of the texas engineering experiment station the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system poston is a fellow of the american association for the advancement of science (aaas) the health physics society (hps) and the american nuclear society (ans) he is a member of the society of nuclear medicine (snm) the american society for engineering education (asee) and the international radiation protection association (irpa) poston is a past president of hps and received the societys founders award in 1994 for his exceptional service to the society and the nuclear engineering profession in 1996 asee honored poston with the glenn murphy award which is given annually to a distinguished educator in recognition of outstanding contributions to the nuclear engineering discipline through teaching he was inducted into the georgia institute of technologys academy of distinguished engineering alumni in 1995 in 2005 he was awarded the hps robley d evans commemorative medal in recognition of his long and distinguished career in 2005 poston was appointed by president george w bush to the advisory board on radiation and worker health poston holds a bachelors degree in mathematics from lynchburg college and masters and phd degrees in nuclear engineering from the georgia institute of technology

college station texas — more than 50 professionals from educational institutions governments and industries throughout the world have come to college station for a three-week seminar in nuclear technology the seminar seminar and training on scaling uncertainty and 3-d coupled code calculations in nuclear technology (3-d suncop) includes lessons in best-estimate methods nuclear reactors and simulations and uncertainty evaluations of the reactors dr w dan turner director of the texas engineering experiment stations energy systems laboratory and dr yassin a hassan associate head and professor in texas a&m universitys department of nuclear engineering welcomed the participants to 3-d suncop on monday jan 22 dr césar malavé assistant dean for recruitment and international programs in texas a&ms dwight look college of engineering presented an overview of the look college and its international recruitment program at a banquet thursday jan 25 the seminar will continue through friday feb 9 mostly in the plaza hotel and suites 3-d suncop is hosted by the department of nuclear engineering and energy systems laboratory and co-organized by the university of pisas department of mechanical nuclear and production engineering for more information about 3-d suncop visit the courses web site

college station — computer scientists from texas a&m university and the university of california berkeley have installed a robot in the cache river national wildlife refuge to help natural scientists from cornell universitys laboratory of ornithology and the arkansas game and fish commission find the rare ivory-billed woodpecker the computer scientists — dr dezhen song assistant professor in texas a&ms department of computer science and dr kenneth y goldberg professor in uc berkeleys departments of electrical engineering and computer sciences and industrial engineering and operations research — developed the robot automated collaborative observatory for natural environments (acone) to scan the skies near brinkley ark for birds "if the system can catch any kind of bird thats a success for us " song said "but if it catches an ivory-bill thats a bonus" with a grant from the national science foundation song and goldberg programmed acone to distinguish birds from other objects and only record the birds with its two digital cameras arecont visions av3100s "its a fast flying object " song said "and also the shape of the object — the shape of the bird — isnt regular its deformable and from the lighting conditions its very difficult to capture" the robot stores images of the birds it has recorded in the hard disks of its computer logic supply incs s-625f the computer as well as the cameras are housed in weatherproof cases "if you put a normal computer out there it wouldnt function very long because of the humidity and the rain " song said the hard disks are removed routinely from the computer by birdwatcher m david luneau associate professor in the university of arkansas at little rocks department of engineering technology luneau enlists fellow birdwatchers to scrutinize the images stored in the hard disks for a shot of the ivory-billed woodpecker in addition to luneau the arkansas electric cooperative corp arkansas game and fish commission audubon arkansas nature conservancy in arkansas us fish & wildlife service and woodruff electric cooperative corp have volunteered to help song and goldberg install maintain and power acone "you want to have these people help you " song said "otherwise you have a big problem" song and goldberg took interest in the search for the ivory-billed woodpecker after goldberg read an article about the search in the new york times goldberg contacted the co-leaders of the search from cornells laboratory of ornithology to volunteer systems he and song were developing through their project collaborative observatories for natural environments (cone) "cornells ornithology lab and arkansas game and fish are crucial members of this team " goldberg said "theyve been leading the search in cache river and have a deep understanding of the bird and this environment" scott henderson director of the arkansas game and fish commission said he looks forward to continued cooperation among groups studying the ivory-billed woodpecker "its exciting for this agency to be involved in cutting-edge technology as we continue to research and understand what can be done to improve the habitat for this bird " he said "were pleased to be working alongside our partners in this ambitious venture" cone purposes to help natural scientists observe animals — whether birds or mammals — in the animals habitats song and goldberg have developed robots to webcast images of animals from the animals habitats to natural scientists computers in addition to the cache river national wildlife refuge theyve installed one of their robots in the richardson bay audubon sanctuary in california song and goldberg have considered sites in alaska and rwanda to observe polar bears and gorillas respectively "our goal is to use the emerging capabilities of computers and networks to better understand the natural world " goldberg said "its very exciting to work with researchers in fields beyond engineering" the ivory-billed woodpecker seemed to have disappeared sometime in the 1930s or 1940s in 2004 it was reportedly spotted in the cache river national wildlife refuge

dallas — dr jeff s haberl associate director of the texas engineering experiment stations energy systems laboratory and a professor of architecture at texas a&m university has been elected a fellow of the american society of heating refrigerating and air-conditioning engineers (ashrae) throughout his career haberl has distinguished himself as an expert on building energy consumption he has developed numerous methods for determining energy consumption from basic building measurements and applied these in the texas loanstar program which gives low-cost loans to municipal and state facilities to install energy conservation measures haberl used his technologies in becoming a founding contributor to the international performance measurement and verification protocol the us environmental protection agency has taken an interest in his current work of creating emissions calculation methods to take energy efficiency and renewable energy savings and calculate emissions reductions fellow ashrae is a membership grade that recognizes distinction in the arts and sciences of heating ventilating air conditioning or refrigeration and is earned through achievement as a researcher designer educator or engineering executive approximately 500 of ashraes 55 000 members are fellows ashrae founded in 1894 is an international organization of 55 000 persons its sole objective is to advance through research standards writing publishing and continuing education the arts and sciences of heating ventilation air conditioning and refrigeration to serve the evolving needs of the public

lubbock texas — texas a&m engineerings dr g kemble bennett has been named a distinguished engineer by the college of engineering at texas tech university bennett who holds a doctorate in industrial engineering from texas tech will be one of four alumni honored by texas techs college of engineering during its 41st annual distinguished engineer awards ceremony march 30 in lubbock bennett is vice chancellor of engineering for the texas a&m university system director of the texas engineering experiment station dean of the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m university and a professor of industrial engineering at texas a&m in his position he leads one of the largest engineering education research and service programs in the nation overseeing more than 4 060 employees an operating budget of $282 million and more than $350 million in research expenditures bennett joined the texas a&m faculty in 1986 and prior to his current appointment served as professor and department head in industrial engineering; associate dean; associate vice chancellor; and director of the texas engineering extension service he has also held faculty positions at the virginia polytechnic institute and state university and the university of south florida as well as senior engineering positions at the martin co lockheed research laboratories and the honeywell aerospace corp he is the recipient of numerous awards and honors and has been recognized for his professional contributions by being elected a fellow of both the society of logistics engineers and the institute of industrial engineers he was awarded the eccles medal by the society of logistics engineers for his contributions to logistics engineering and has been recognized as a distinguished educator through the awarding of the albert g holzman award by the institute of industrial engineers in 2006 gov rick perry appointed bennett to a five-year term on the texas board of professional engineers which licenses engineers enforces the texas engineering practice act and regulates the practice of professional engineering in texas recipients of the texas tech university college of engineering distinguished engineer award are honored for making significant societal accomplishments and bringing credit to both texas tech and the engineering profession they were nominated and selected based on factors such as their integrity stature professional distinction areas of interest outside of engineering and ability to inspire others

college station texas — dr zoubeida ounaies assistant professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university has received the national science foundations faculty early career development award (career) for her research in smart polymer nanocomposites the career award will grant ounaies $400 000 through 2012 to advance her research and integrate new teaching policies as her work advances ounaies will further her research on electric field-responsive polymer nanocomposites by advancing the fundamental knowledge and technological impact of structural materials with multiple functionalities insights from this research are a step towards the development of "engineered materials" with specially designed properties she said through this research ounaies said she plans to enhance her contributions to the aerospace engineering department and the interdisciplinary program in materials science and engineering she is currently training students in interdisciplinary research on emerging materials and developing courses to enhance the existing materials curriculum in the aerospace engineering department ounaies said her work with nanocomposites leads to materials that have multiple functions for example she also studies the sensing capabilities of nanomaterials which will enhance the ability to detect cracks in the body of an aircraft before catastrophic failures occur her research is designed to reduce cost weight power consumption and design complexity while improving overall performance "smart structural nanocomposites will enable the development of future lightweight air and space vehicles that sense and adapt to flow and this will produce a more efficient flight " ounaies said ounaies joined the texas a&m aerospace engineering department in 2005 she is also a faculty in the materials science and engineering program and a researcher in the polymer technology center of the texas engineering experiment station she received her bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering and her phd in engineering science and mechanics all from the pennsylvania state university

college station texas - dr bryan rasmussen assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university has received a 2007 career award from the national science foundation (nsf) for his dynamics and control research the $400 000 grant will continue through 2012 rasmussens work focuses on developing robust model-based control techniques for nonlinear systems and applying these tools to a diverse set of energy-systems technologies his current focus is on heating ventilation and air-conditioning systems that use two-phase fluids to transfer energy rasmussen said that by effectively modeling the complex dynamics of these processes researchers can find better ways of controlling the systems for increased energy efficiency in his career-sponsored research rasmussen will develop control strategies and diagnostic algorithms for air-conditioning and refrigeration systems particularly those using carbon dioxide (co2) as a refrigerant co2 is at the forefront as a potential replacement for traditional refrigerants which have significantly higher global warming potential however the higher operating pressures of these systems require advanced control and diagnostic strategies to ensure safe efficient operation rasmussen said beyond developing advanced control strategies rasmussen is proposing to use transient data with the dynamic models to identify and diagnose faults before a system fails "we want to be able to detect the soft system faults that precede catastrophic system failure" rasmussen said rasmussens laboratory the thermo-fluids control laboratory focuses on using advanced control strategies to achieve higher energy efficiency reduced environmental impact and increased performance for conventional and alternative energy systems career award will go toward building an experimental transcritical vapor compression system using co2 which will complement the existing subcritical system currently in the lab he will also use his career award to emphasize undergraduate research by assessing the efficacy of current programs and coordinating a set of research experiences in his lab these students will then have the opportunity to apply their research results as interns with partnering companies "research shows that participation in undergraduate research leads to higher retention of students within engineering and increases the likelihood that students will attend graduate school " rasmussen said "and we want to encourage that" rasmussen joined the texas a&m engineering faculty in 2006 he earned a bachelors degree from utah state university and masters and phd degrees from the university of illinois at urbana-champaign all in mechanical engineering

college station texas — his name is kish laszlo kish and his invention could help 007 and other spies keep their communications secure and stealthy kish a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university and his collaborators will discuss their recent work in secure communication during a plenary talk at the fourth annual spie fluctuations and noise symposium may 20-24 in florence italy kish has proposed that a simple pair of resistors on the ends of a communications wire such as a phone or computer line could keep eavesdroppers from intercepting secret messages added electronic disturbances (called "noise") or the natural thermal noise produced by the resistors (called johnson noise) makes the scheme function keeping the message unconditionally secret provided the bandwidth of the noise is kept sufficiently narrow picture the line connecting two telephones or computers the sender and receiver at each end of the communication line each have two resistors of different resistance each randomly connects a resistor between their ends of the wire and ground and then the sender begins transmitting the message using the natural thermal noise produced by the resistors provides stealth making the communication difficult to discover and building this unconditionally secure internet-like network using this communicator is easy kish said while the line of communication is open both the sender and receiver monitor the electrical current and voltage fluctuations or johnson noise in the line while the sender and receiver use different resistances an eavesdropper cannot determine the actual location of the resistors without injecting current into the communication channel and measuring the voltage and current changes in different directions this added current gives the eavesdropper away and the transmission is ended before the spy can extract more than a single bit of information then the eavesdropped bit is discarded "the way the eavesdropper gets discovered is that both the sender and the receiver are continuously measuring the current and voltage and comparing the data " kish said "if the current and/or voltage values are different at the two sides at any moment that means that the eavesdropper has possibly broken the code of a single bit thus the communication has to be terminated immediately "the same current/voltage monitoring method provides a natural defense against the so-called man-in-the-middle-attack which is another unique property of this system because that type of attack hits other communication systems below the belt the kind of man-in-the-middle attack were talking about sets off the current/voltage alarm immediately even before the extraction of a single bit can be completed" kish calls this the kirchhoff-loop-johnson(-like)-noise (kljn) cipher which he and his collaborators — robert mingesz and zoltan gingl of the university of szeged (hungary) — have designed built and tested with the assistance of a texas a&m information technology task force grant the kljn device can now be installed as a computer card similar to ethernet network cards and has performed with 9998 percent fidelity up to a range of 2 000 kilometers (1 250 miles) through a model line this distance is about 12 times longer than the achieved range of direct quantum communication (160 km) kish said "though there have been several theoretical attempts to break into the kljn line " kish said "so far no proposed method has been able to challenge the total security of the idealized kljn system in the kljn device we developed and tested all measured security related parameters were superior to those of quantum communicators" kish said that the dogma so far has been that only quantum communication can be absolutely secure and according to some estimates about $1 billion is spent annually on quantum communication research but kish has shown that classical communication measuring voltage and current can be more secure if done that wisely and it can be done much more cheaply and more easily than quantum communication and the kljn communicator card is network ready "its security is superior to quantum communication even at its idealized conditions for several reasons " kish said "for example the eavesdropper has to break a few thousands of bits to get discovered in an idealized quantum communication in my idealized scheme the eavesdropper can extract only zero bit without getting discovered" kish directs the fluctuation and noise exploitation laboratory in the electrical and computer engineering department and is also a researcher in the electrical and computer engineering division of the texas engineering experiment station the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system tees administers kishs research

dr bjarne stroustrup professor and college of engineering endowed chair in computer science will preview his paper "evolving a language in and for the real world: c++ 1991-2006 " wednesday (may 23) this special seminar will be held at 3 pm in the frank j malina auditorium room 124 of the hr bright building on campus stroustrup is also a researcher in the computer science division of the texas engineering experiment station the engineering rresearch agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system his presentation outlines the history of the c++ programming language from the early days of its iso standardization (1991) through the 1998 iso standard to the later stages of the c++ox revision of that standard (2007) stroustrup said he is eager to have an audience that will ask tough questions during the q&a session following his talk he will present this lecture again at the association for computing machinery sigplan history of programming languages conference in june in san diego a draft of the paper may be found at http://wwwresearchattcom/~bs/hopl-almost-finalpdf stroustrup designed and implemented the c++ programming language and remains active in the iso c++ standards committee working on c++ox he wrote the c++ programming language and the design and evolution of c++ in 2004 he was elected member of the national academy of engineering more biographical information about stroustrup may be found at http://wwwresearchattcom/~bs/biohtml

dr laszlo kish a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university is featured in a front page article at new scientist tech for his work in secure communication kish is also a researcher in the electrical and computer engineering division of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the engineering research agency of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system the article "noise keeps spooks out of the loop " is about kishs novel method of encrypting messages he proposed that uses the natural thermal noise created by resistors kish proposed that a simple pair of resistors on the ends of a communications wire such as a phone or computer line could keep eavesdroppers from intercepting secret messages he created a cipher device which he first proposed in 2005 that exploits a property called thermal noise thermal noise is generated by the natural agitation of electrons within a conductor which happens regardless of any voltage passed through it but it does change depending on the conductors resistance kish said in the article that the thermal properties of a simple wire can be exploited to create a secure communications channel one that outperforms quantum cryptography keys read the article to learn more about kishs device

the texas a&m agriculture and engineering bioenergy alliance and chevron corporation have entered into a strategic research agreement to accelerate the production and conversion of crops for manufacturing ethanol and other biofuels from cellulose chevron technology ventures a division of chevron usa inc will support research initiatives over a four-year period through the texas a&m bioenergy alliance a formal partnership combining the collective strengths of the a&m systems two premier research agencies in agriculture and engineering - the texas agricultural experiment station (taes) and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the research initiatives will focus on several technology advancements to produce biofuels including but not limited to: identifying assessing cultivating and optimizing production of second-generation energy feedstocks for cellulose and bio-oils with a focus on non-food crops; characterizing and optimizing the design of dedicated bioenergy crops through advances in genomic sciences and plant breeding; developing integrated logistics systems associated with the harvest transport storage and conversion of bioenergy crops; and developing advanced biofuels processing technologies "the texas a&m bioenergy alliance has a broad holistic vision focused on developing practical near-term solutions to bioenergy related problems in addition to performing the necessary long-term fundamental research " said dr g kemble bennett vice chancellor and dean of texas a&m engineering "forming an alliance with chevron fits well with our research initiatives and allows us to leverage our strengths in biomass and biofuels to transfer new technologies from lab to the public providing real solutions that are economical sustainable and environmentally friendly" for instance texas a&m bioenergy alliance partners in agriculture have developed exceptional high-yield cellulosic energy crops that can produce significantly more biomass per acre than most alternatives "the development of biofuels from agricultural feedstocks requires a regional approach and research into many alternatives for the long-term energy needs of our country " said dr elsa murano vice chancellor and dean of texas a&m agriculture and life sciences "we have been able to capitalize on decades of existing research into sorghum sugarcane forage and oil-based cropping systems which should provide us with premier dedicated feedstocks for biofuels and renewable energy that are sustainable within existing agricultural production systems" cellulose is an energy-rich carbohydrate that is the main structural component of green plants found in the stems stalks and leaves one of the primary technical and scientific challenges of making biofuels from cellulose involves designing a low cost method for releasing sugar from cellulose that is bound in the plant cell wall for fermentation into ethanol or other biofuels in addition to the texas a&m agreement chevron¿s biofuels business unit has formed research arrangements with the georgia institute of technology the university of california davis and the colorado center for biorefining and biofuels which is a consortium of national renewable energy laboratory three major colorado universities and other private companies the a&m system is among the largest systems of higher education in the nation through a statewide network of nine universities seven state agencies which include texas a&m bioenergy alliance partners taes and tees and a comprehensive health science center the a&m system is uniquely configured to optimize the integrated development and design of cellulosic and oil-based feedstocks with emerging technologies and sustainable supplies of biomass to address biofuels and renewable energy the texas a&m bioenergy alliance is integrating and focusing its broad-based resources to become a world leader in bioenergy in the past two decades faculty and staff researchers have worked on multiple feedstocks biofuels and bioenergy projects the texas a&m bioenergy alliance is advancing this research toward demonstration projects and eventual commercialization while accelerating the next generation bioenergy

malcolm verdict associate director of the texas engineering experiment stations (tees) energy systems laboratory will address high-level government business and financial leaders at the asia clean energy forum in manila philippines june 26-28 his presentation "30 years of energy efficiency policy in the united states " will review energy policy at the federal and state levels and include an examination of which policies and financial incentives have worked best since the first oil embargo in 1973 verdict has more than 35 years in the commercial banking and energy efficiency arena and is widely recognized by the western governors association and others as an expert on these matters in the early `90s he helped establish the largest state-funded loan program at the time for financing energy efficiency improvements for state and local governments in texas with more than 350 people from 30 countries expected to attend the asia clean energy forum will provide an opportunity for business financial and government leaders to share information exchange best practices in clean energy financing and devise strategies to scale up clean energy investments energy demand is being fueled by unprecedented economic growth in the pacific and asian region with demand expected to double by 2030

(laredo) -- about 40 high school students from laredos two engineering magnet schools are working with researchers in the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and west texas a&m university (wtamu) to provide electricity to colonias residents along the us-mexico border who are currently without power dean schneider an engineer with the tees texas center for applied technology in san antonio said that students in the united high school engineering and technology magnet school and the laredo isd magnet for engineering and technology applications (cigarroa high school) are collaborating with tees and wtamu engineers to build and install four wind turbines in 2007 and 2008-one per year from each school two demonstration turbines built by students at each high school were installed may 26 one will power the electric marquee in front of cigarroa high school in south laredo and the other will provide lighting for part of the webb county self-help center where colonia residents can borrow tools the students built the wind turbines from existing plans and will generate a set of instructions that will be translated into spanish to be understandable by typical colonia residents in the us-mexico border region schneider said the end-product of the collaboration is not the turbines themselves but rather the set of instructions the students generate on how to build and install the turbines "the students did a great job " schneider said "i think they learned that while a project may seem easy conceptually details can be killers their minds were stretched in ways that they were not used to thinking and they got to see what it takes to put a working device together when dealing with costs scheduling and other factors that practicing engineers deal with all the time" david canales director of uniteds engineering magnet school and engineering principles instructor laura rodriguez said the two teams focused on different aspects of the turbines: the united students focused on the turbines alternators for power and the towers while the cigarroa students built the blades and the alternator housing and tail structures for the turbines the students who participate next year will switch roles for the final two turbines while also collecting data on the turbines energy production and performance "each of us gets to go through the entire process " rodriguez said canales said tees engineers and researchers from wtamus alternative energy institute are providing hands-on instruction and lectures on wind energy as well as engineering project management and execution "the lectures tie into what were doing already-science math engineering and even geography such as the places where its best to use wind as an energy source this project just fits in so well because its what weve been doing "and everyone gets to do it not just seniors or the very top kids this is very much project-based hands-on real-life learning" lisds engineering magnet school director gus perez said "that professional engineers working in the field are coming in to provide direct in-class instruction to the students sets apart our magnet programs from most other programs that might just have professionals coming in to do talks or presentations during career days the engineers lectures covered topics ranging from forces magnetism batteries and electric machines to wind energy and blade theory" in addition to face-to-face interactions the students participated in webcam-based program reviews while constructing the demonstration turbines they discussed issues that arose during construction and provided program briefings with tees engineers in san antonio and wtamu engineers in canyon lisd engineering teacher amanda gonzalez said "this gives the magnet students working on this project a real-world experience that most students at the university dont even get" schneider agreed adding that hes hopeful that at least some of the students will pursue careers in engineering in texas "the neat thing about this program is that it gives students a chance to interact with engineers and to see that engineering affects virtually every aspect of daily life " he said "the fact that were building wind turbines is not as important as the fact that theyre learning that engineering can be an exciting and rewarding profession" schneider said he got the idea for the project when he learned about a similar effort in mexico while attending a conference the project is part of a two-year $100 000 grant from the texas state energy conservation office other project partners include texas a&m universitys center for housing and urban development (chud) in the college of architecture and the webb county department of economic development which operates the county colonia community centers and self-help center

from the texas a&m university system college station texas — gov rick perry announced today that the texas a&m university system has received a $5 million grant from the states emerging technology fund for the texas a&m agriculture and engineering bioenergy alliance "the texas a&m system has a reputation for excellence in research we strive to maintain and improve upon that reputation by hiring outstanding faculty and providing them with the tools they need to rise to the top of their field " said michael d mckinney chancellor of the texas a&m system "this funding from our states leadership will be used for groundbreaking research to create alternative fuels to solve our worlds energy challenges" the texas a&m agriculture and engineering bioenergy alliance a partnership between the texas agricultural experiment station (taes) and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) will use its grant funds to hire new commercially focused faculty to accelerate the path to market for their innovative research on the next generation of biofuels "in order to meet our long-term energy needs the development of biofuels from agricultural feedstocks requires research into many alternatives by talented scientists working on texas-based issues " said dr elsa murano vice chancellor and dean of agriculture and life sciences for the a&m system "here at texas a&m and within the texas agricultural experiment station we are conducting significant research on several dedicated feedstocks for biofuels and renewable energy such as sorghum sugarcane forage and oil-based cropping systems that are sustainable within existing agricultural production systems "we are very appreciative of the governor for providing this funding through the emerging technology fund this grant will enable us to bring in additional world-class scientists who can help us significantly accelerate this research and development of biofuels we are going to do our part working with our partners in texas a&m engineering to move biofuels from the fields to our fuel tanks more quickly and efficiently which will provide tremendous benefit to the state of texas " she said in addition to the etf grant taes tees and texas a&m will provide funds to recruit and retain superior commercially focused faculty in key disciplines to join and enhance the bioenergy-bioproducts development team about the a&m system the a&m system is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation with a budget of $26 billion through a statewide network of nine universities seven state agencies and a comprehensive health science center the a&m system educates more than 103 000 students and makes more than 15 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year externally funded research brings in almost $620 million every year and helps drive the state¿s economy about the texas a&m agriculture and engineering bioenergy alliance the a&m system is uniquely configured to optimize the integrated development and design of cellulosic and oil-based feedstocks with emerging technologies and sustainable supplies of biomass to address biofuels and renewable energy over the past two decades faculty and staff researchers have worked on multiple feedstocks biofuels and bioenergy projects the texas a&m bioenergy alliance is advancing this research toward demonstration projects and eventual commercialization while accelerating the next generation bioenergy about the emerging technology fund the etf is a $200 million initiative created by the texas legislature in 2006 to help businesses get innovations to the marketplace recipients of etf funding are selected by a 17-member advisory committee of high-tech leaders entrepreneurs and research experts who review potential projects and recommend projects for funding to the governor lieutenant governor and speaker of the house

college station texas — dr raymond j juzaitis has been named head of the department of nuclear engineering and holder of the sallie and don davis 61 professorship in engineering at texas a&m university this will be effective on august 15 2007 he will also serve as director for the nuclear engineering division of the texas engineering experiment station as well as hold a joint appointment as a visiting professor in the bush school of government and public service juzaitis comes to texas a&m engineering from lawrence livermore national laboratory (llnl) where he has served as associate director for nonproliferation homeland and international security (nhi) since 2004 providing leadership for the largest and fastest growing nuclear engineering department in the nation requires an exceptionally talented individual and dr juzaitis is ideal to serve as the leader of our program said dr g kemble bennett vice chancellor and dean of engineering "dr juzaitis is a seasoned nuclear engineer whose significant contributions in nuclear weapons research will strengthen our nuclear engineering program particularly in the areas of nuclear nonproliferation and national security and defense he will be a tremendous resource for our faculty staff and students and we look forward to welcoming him to campus this fall" a nuclear and chemical engineer with extensive experience in weapons and computational physics juzaitis has 28 years of experience in the management and execution of national security research and development programs at the department of energy national laboratories his early focus in computational physics paved the way for a broad-based technical career that included nuclear weapons design development testing and evaluation prior to joining llnls nonproliferation program in 2004 juzaitis was at los alamos national laboratory first as a doctoral researcher then as a staff scientist in the weapons program and later holding various senior management positions most recently as associate director for weapons physics during his los alamos tenure he also held several senior advisory positions on assignment including senior technical advisor for the department of energy office of defense programs and special scientific advisor to the office of the assistant to the secretary of defense for atomic energy dr juzaitis is a member of the american nuclear society and sigma xi and has received several prestigious awards from the department of energy juzaitis holds a bachelors degree in chemical engineering from princeton university and masters and phd in nuclear engineering from the university of virginia

college station texas — dr jaime grunlan researcher in the polymer technology center of the texas engineering experiment station has received a 3m nontenured faculty grant for his nanomaterials research project "transparent electrically conductive nanocomposite thin films" the award given by 3m recognizes outstanding new faculty for the quality and pertinence of research and is intended to help young faculty achieve tenure remain in their teaching positions and conduct research the unrestricted award provides up to $15 000 a year and may be renewed until tenure is achieved up to a maximum of three years the funds may be used for any purpose in the performance of basic research earlier this year grunlan received a 2007 national science foundation (nsf) career award for his research into controlling the microstructure of high aspect ratio nanoparticles (eg carbon nanotubes) using stimuli-responsive polymers he has developed a way to control the behavior of nanoparticles which could lead to new classes of lightweight engineering composites for applications such as microwave antenna substrates; sensing and actuation transducers for biomedical applications; and highly conductive flexible microelectronic materials grunlan joined tees and the department of mechanical engineering in the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m university in 2004 he is an assistant professor on the mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering faculties his polymer nano composites lab is currently developing thick and thin film polymer nanocomposites for a variety of applications that include emi shielding gas permeation control and sensors grunlan received a bachelors degree from north dakota state university and a phd from the university of minnesota tees is the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

harlingen texas — the harlingen consolidated independent school district (hcisd) in cameron county has received a $299 786 improving literacy through school libraries program grant (2007) from the us department of education harlingen cisds grant project opportunities for all students to invest in success (oasis) was developed and submitted through a collaborative effort between harlingen cisd and the texas engineering experiment stations (tees) center for community support (ccs) this federal grant will provide funds for improving harlingen cisds library collections and media resources while addressing student reading and literacy challenges serving 18 000 students of which 89 percent are hispanic and 75 percent are economically disadvantaged much of this grant funding will go toward updating the three highest need elementary schools library materials grant funding will also support expanded library hours for increasing parent and community access to literature technology and trained professionals in an effort to promote growth in literacy and use of library resources these were very competitive national grants and will provide much needed literacy services to students and communities in the district ccss martha opersteny said "almost 70 percent of the school districts student body is at risk of not completing their high school education this grant will make a big difference because it provides a way for parents to participate in their childs education through their expanded library hours and services" in recent years there have been many texas schools and educational groups benefiting greatly from the centers grant development services the assistance ccs offers provides these organizations with a competitive edge in obtaining much needed grants which make a big difference in public education across much of texas since 2002 the tees center for community support has worked with 33 texas schools and educational nonprofits in developing grant proposals the result has been $115 million for improvements in public education in texas developed projects deal with issues such as teacher training vocational instruction special services for the blind minority outreach and literacy and math initiatives the tees center for community support provides a broad range of information data and proposal writing services at no cost for texas community-based nonprofit organizations support is available to pursue competitive funding for programs designed to improve the quality of life for texans in all approximately $34 million in federal and private grants have been garnered for texas nonprofit sector with the direct assistance of the center

college station texas — a one-day seminar aimed at anyone involved in the safety of petroleum refinery employees and the protection of us petroleum refineries will be held wednesday (aug 15) in houston the seminar will help those involved in process safety comply with a new osha petroleum refinery process safety management national emphasis program (nep) or the "refinery nep" the texas engineering experiment stations (tees) mary kay oconnor process safety center is co-sponsoring the seminar with the texas engineering extension services (teex) professional and regulatory training division this initiative is an attempt to respond to a recent series of disastrous fires and explosions in the refinery industry the seminar will be led by joe howicz an occupational safety and fire protection expert who previously developed the osha training materials for the new refinery nep and other safety experts the invited guest speaker is dean mcdaniel osha region vi administrator

college station texas - the board of regents of the texas a&m university system appointed dr lee peddicord director of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) at its july 27 meeting in college station as tees director peddicord will manage the 852-employee agency a partnership of institutions industries and communities working to strengthen engineering research and development across the state he also is leading the development and implementation of a new nuclear power institute he most recently served as vice chancellor for research and federal relations for the a&m system he formerly headed the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university where he is a longtime professor dr g kemble bennett will continue as vice chancellor and dean of engineering providing oversight of tees the texas transportation institute the texas engineering extension service and the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m

college station texas — mark s smock has been appointed chief financial officer and controller and assistant agency director for the texas engineering experiment station (tees) agency director dr kl peddicord has announced effective sept 1 smock will be responsible for oversight and coordination of the financial operations of tees mark¿s strong background brings a wealth of experience and expertise i am very much looking forward to working with him he will be an invaluable member of the leadership team in tees peddicord said smock comes to tees from the texas a&m research foundation where he began in 1999 as vice president and treasurer smock was interim chief executive officer and treasurer from july 2003 to december 2004 when he was named president and ceo and charged with overseeing the overall operation and management of the foundation he was previously a supervising assistant state auditor and then audit manager for the state auditor¿s office in austin and later deputy executive director for finance and administration for the texas commission on alcohol and drug abuse a certified public account in texas smock is a member of the american institute of certified public accountants and the texas society of public accountants he also sits on the board of directors of the brazos valley rehabilitation center and the texas institute for the advancement of chemical technology smock earned a bachelors degree in accounting from ferris state college in michigan and an mba from texas a&m university

college station texas - five clients of the energy systems laboratory including texas a&m university were presented with mega energy saver awards during a ceremony thursday afternoon at the george bush presidential library and museum complex the energy systems laboratory (esl) and texas engineering experiment station (tees) honored the clients who have together saved more than $300 million each client has saved more than $1 million in utility costs while working with esl in enhanced building operations continuous commissioning(r) and energy efficiency improvement programs the five honorees were: alamo community college district (san antonio); texas state energy conservation office (austin); texas health and human services commission (austin); us army medical command (ft sam houston); and texas a&m university texas a&m through its "campus-wide metering retrofits and continuous commissioning(r) program" has saved more than $50 million since 1996 with assistance from the esl engineers "we are pleased to have the opportunity to work on this program with texas a&m " said outgoing esl director dr w dan turner dr ray bowen president emeritus of texas a&m said "i have been told that in the last 10 years we have added 4 million square-feet of space on campus but our energy consumption has gone down" the texas state energy conservation office based in austin has experienced the greatest savings while working with esl through its "loanstar retrofit program" the company has provided loans that resulted in utility savings of more than $250 million turner who has been director of esl for the past 22 years was honored during the ceremony for the achievements of the center under his guidance turner is stepping down as director and will be replaced by dr david claridge also during the event dr lee peddicord newly appointed director of tees announced the establishment of a campus working group to investigate the building of a highly energy-efficient facility on the a&m campus the proposed super-high-efficient facility would use sustainable design features materials and renewable energy it would serve as a model for the texas a&m university system and the commercial building industry at-large it would be used as a showplace a living laboratory for advancing building research as well as future office space for the rapidly growing esl staff and engineers the building would also house a new energy efficient building technology application center if the esl is awarded a pending us department of energy grant esl began as a fan-testing laboratory in 1939 and since 1985 has focused on building energy-related research energy efficiency and emissions reduction estimates and has a total annual income for external research and testing exceeding $5 million esl is a division of tees which is a member of the texas a&m university system

college station texas - nuclear security experts at texas a&m university and the texas engineering experiment station have been awarded the first $15 million installment of an eventual total of $75 million in funding to develop new sensor systems to detect nuclear or radiological weapons before they can be smuggled into the united states the five-year national science foundation grant will allow a multidisciplinary team of nuclear electrical systems and chemical engineers mathematicians computer scientists and public policy experts at texas a&m to develop revolutionary new sensor technologies that will alert security forces to highly enriched uranium or plutonium hidden in seaborne or vehicle cargoes said dr william s charlton charlton an associate professor in texas a&ms department of nuclear engineering is the director of the nuclear security science and policy institute (nsspi) which is managing the research project "we are developing a new framework in which sensor technologies are developed as integrated systems combining sensor arrays and signal and information analysis we are investigating first what performance characteristics a detector must have to work most effectively for this unique problem " charlton said "then we will use the array of expertise on the project team to develop a detection system that will show order of magnitude improvement in detection capability" the most important tasks for the new detector system will be to detect very small amounts of radioactivity consistently and determine its location accurately - down to a single shipping container or vehicle charlton said as the engineers and scientists develop the technology for the sensor system policy experts at the institute for science technology and public policy in the george bush school of government and public service and at the department of political science in the college of liberal arts will build on the science and engineering models to develop policy options to enable security agencies to use the equipment most effectively on an international basis said dr david r boyle nsspi deputy director "the federal sponsors of this competition were concerned about the policy implications of this work and one of nsspis strengths is its ability to work at the interface of technology and policy " boyle said the funding of this project which involves a team effort by the national science foundation and federal homeland security authorities recognizes texas a&ms expertise in both nuclear and homeland security issues said dr g kemble bennett vice chancellor and dean of engineering "we have worked hard for several years to grow our expertise and capabilities in these areas and this project is proof that we are succeeding " bennett said bennett noted that us rep chet edwards whose district includes texas a&ms college station campus was instrumental in obtaining funding for establishing the nuclear security science and policy institute at texas a&m nsspi is a joint endeavor of texas a&m university and the texas engineering experiment station the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

college station texas — dr david claridge has been named director of the energy systems laboratory (esl) of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) claridge who is also the leland t jordan professor in the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university has been associate director of the esl since 1992 a texas a&m faculty member since 1986 his research interests are in building commissioning analysis techniques for building energy data and heat transfer in buildings with more than 300 publications in these areas before coming to tees and texas a&m claridge was an associate professor of civil environmental and architectural engineering at the university of colorado he also worked for the solar energy research institute in golden colo and for the us congressional office of technology assessment claridge is a registered professional engineer in texas and a fellow of the american society of mechanical engineers (asme) he is also a member of the american society of heating refrigerating and air conditioning engineers (ashrae) and the american solar energy society (ases) and a past chair of asmes solar energy division claridge was named a congressional science fellow of the american association for the advancement of science in 1976 a tees fellow in 1997 and 1998 a tees senior fellow in 1999 and received a faculty distinguished achievement in research award from the texas a&m university association of former students in 2003 he has received the distinguished service award and the ek campbell award of merit from ashrae for his outstanding service and achievement in teaching he has won the best paper award on conservation and solar buildings from the asme solar energy division three times claridge holds a bachelors degree in engineering physics from walla walla college and a masters degree and a phd in physics from stanford university since 1985 the tees energy systems laboratory has focused on building energy-related research energy efficiency and emissions reduction estimates and has a total annual income for external research and testing exceeding $5 million esl is a division of tees the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

dr kenneth r hall has been appointed associate director of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) by the board of regents of the texas a&m university system today (sept 28) at their meeting in college station hall is a professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university a regents professor and holder of the jack e and frances brown chair in engineering an internationally recognized expert in the area of thermodynamics hall has 224 refereed publications he also has received 12 patents in areas that include natural gas flow measurement and conversion of natural gas into liquid fuels and other chemicals as tees associate director hall will emphasize interdisciplinary research projects and oversee tees centers and institutes

college station texas energy conservation is a hot topic and texas a&m universitys department of mechanical engineering and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) are doing their part to educate students on how to successfully apply energy conservation techniques in real-world situations texas a&m is one of 26 universities in the united states to run an industrial assessment center (iac) which is a part of a nationally sponsored program by the us department of energy the iac which on average has about 15 aggie engineering students working for it each year provides no-cost studies of manufacturing plants within 150 miles of college station analyzing a plants energy waste and productivity issues students go into various businesses and conduct a one-day walkthrough analysis and then prepare a report for the company making specific recommendations to the plants concerning energy cost reduction waste cost reduction and productivity enhancing practices the plant can implement while plants benefit from the possible cost reductions students who do the analysis benefit from hands-on training and gain valuable industry experience industrial assessment centers give student workers conservation-based attitudes and skills said dr warren heffington an associate professor in mechanical engineering and founding director of the iac "when they graduate many go to work in conservation the iac is a fine teaming and leadership laboratory in an environment closer to the real world than many in academia our students for example work for wages not grades and their schedule is based on a government contract not directly on their semester beginning and end texas a&ms iac program has been in existence for 21 years and more than 200 engineers have passed through its doors making it one of the most successful of the 26 university-run programs some really strong texas aggie student engineers have worked for the center over the years heffington said "as the backbone of the center they naturally caused the texas a&m iac to show up well when it came time to compare us with others around the nation" as a result of the success of texas a&ms iac malcolm verdict who is an associate director of the tees energy systems laboratory (esl) was asked to testify before the house science subcommittee on energy and environment last month verdict testified on teess behalf about the valuable impact of the iac program the current limitations to the program and recommendations to build upon the success of the program to help meet the energy and environmental needs of industrial facilities and others during the 21st century this is a great program and it is at the heart and soul of what we do verdict said "it is unique in that students go into the field and do energy efficiency analysis i cant think of a better program to educate the next generation of energy efficiency experts" the texas a&m iac has conducted visits to most of the industries in bryan and college station but the majority of its work has been done in the houston area we are fortunate to be near the texas gulf coast whose industries use more energy than any corresponding area in the country heffington said "we have recommended conservation projects with savings totaling about $50 million per year and we have data showing that plants have realized about $25 million per year in cost savings"

college station texas - the bg hindes dredge/tow carriage the only one of its kind on a us university campus will be christened friday oct 12 at the reta and bill haynes 46 coastal engineering laboratory in the texas a&m university research park the barrett and margaret hindes foundation provided the lead gift to design and construct the laboratory dredging carriage faculty and students will use the carriage to study and recommend more efficient and environmentally friendly methods for maintaining the nations waterways other major donors are oilfield electric marine inc (oem) and digital automation and control systems inc (dacs) giw industries inc krohne ohmart/vega corp and dredging supply co inc donated the dredge pump magnetic flow meter nuclear density gauge and cutter respectively significant contributions were made by peter dejong of dacs primary design engineer; nick krippner oem electrical design; steve sonye dacs data acquisition and carriage control systems; and kevin williams krw technologies former oem president "research and commercial testing of different systems equipment and processes can now be investigated using the bg hindes carriage in a controlled laboratory environment to advance and improve dredging practices " said dr robert e randall director of the texas a&m center for dredging studies the 4-inch suction by 3-inch discharge dredge pump system dredge ladder and cradle facilitates modeling of hopper and cutter suction dredge in a water tank that is 150 feet long 12 feet wide and 10 feet deep an observation well permits viewing of dredging operations in the tanks 25- by 12- by 5-foot sediment pit an additional pumping system can provide water flow through the tank at 35 000 gallons per minute to simulate water currents the dredge carriage which can be controlled in the automatic or manual mode moves at speeds up to 4 knots (46 mph) to help measure hydrodynamic forces on coastal and offshore models sensors provide data via an acquisition system "the dredge carriage is being used currently to investigate methods to measure and minimize turbidity or suspended sediments in the water column " said dr billy l edge wh bauer professor of dredging and head of the coastal and ocean engineering division in the zachry department of civil engineering at texas a&m "it was recently used to assist the us navy in evaluating the effect of discharges on turbidity from vessels in shallow waters with low clearance " edge said the late barrett hindes a san francisco native graduated from massachusetts institute of technology in mechanical engineering in 1922 a respected dredging engineer and businessman hindes worked for the san francisco bridge co ultimately as president until the company was dissolved in 1956 hindes served as captain in the us navy "seabees" during world war ii and was charged with the responsibility for harbor clearing and development across the pacific since the time of his death in 1964 the foundation has been administered by hindes sons peter and scott hindes the haynes coastal engineering lab at the texas a&m research park will host an open house from 3:30-6 pm with the christening ceremony at 4 and demonstrations following the event is open to the public

kingsville texas - the texas engineering experiment station (tees) has collaborated with an environmental research center based in the frank h dotterweich college of engineering at texas a&m university-kingsville to garner the centers second five-year $5 million grant from the national science foundations centers of research excellence in science and technology (crest) program a&m-kingsvilles center for research excellence in science and technology-research on environmental sustainability of semi-arid coastal areas (crest-ressaca) was one of only two established crest programs in the nation to receive a $5 million renewal grant this year the other is based at the university of puerto rico rio piedras campus the a&m-kingsville center was founded when it received its first $5 million grant in 2002 tees the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system assisted in securing the grant which it now administers as the universitys collaborator on the crest-ressaca tees director dr k lee peddicord said "tees congratulates texas a&m university-kingsville and is pleased to work with the university to obtain this award this is just one example of how the agency supports engineering research across the state the crest renewal will provide greater opportunities in south texas for environmental engineering students to participate in nationally recognized research" the crest program helps minority-serving institutions enhance their research abilities the program addresses the significant under-representation of minorities in science technology engineering and mathematics a&m-kingsville is classified as a hispanic-serving institution which is defined as a college or university with hispanic enrollment of at least 25 percent; a&m-kingsvilles hispanic enrollment is more than 60 percent a&m-kingsvilles crest is the only one in the nation that focuses on environmental sustainability of semi-arid coastal areas its work is carried out by a group of a&m-kingsville faculty from the environmental engineering department other engineering departments and faculty from other disciplines such as physics and geosciences dr kuruvilla john associate dean of the college of engineering is the director of the center "i was very excited when we got the news " said john about receiving the second grant "in particular i was excited for the students the faculty and the staff that have been an integral part of crest-ressaca success the continued funding acknowledges that the nsf recognizes our success at meeting our development goals" the new grant furthers the centers efforts to be self-sustaining john added "we will build on the success weve had in the first five years to become a world-class entity that can sustain itself beyond the grant funding " said john "in the next five years we want crest-ressaca to be the first name people think of when it comes to research on environmental sustainability of semi-arid coastal areas" the grant funding will further the centers work in four major areas: increase the number of environmental engineering doctoral degrees to between 15 and 20: in its first five years crest-ressaca has provided support to graduates who have earned four phds 16 ms degrees and 24 undergraduate degrees currently the total number of students supported by crest-ressaca hispanic and non-hispanic equals 59 undergraduates 25 ms students and 12 phd students "we dont just want to mentor students " john said "we want them to graduate and be eminently employable and contributing to our society" also undergraduate research opportunities in crest-ressaca have generated a lot of interest among students in environmental engineering and the college of engineering is establishing a bs program in the field as well as a new ms degree in environmental management science both scheduled to be introduced in 2008 continue environmental research in the coastal bend and rio grande valley: crest-ressaca research funded by the grant includes assessing air quality in corpus christi and the coastal bend; increasing the effectiveness of texas largest reverse osmosis desalination plant located in brownsville; finding natural solutions to remove odorous gases from the emissions of wastewater plants in brownsville; supporting groundwater management districts by using established water resources models; and using compost products to enhance the nutrition and water-holding capabilities of soil in the lower rio grande valley working alongside faculty in these projects are undergraduate and graduate students earning both professional and scholastic experience in the lab and out in the field increase partnerships in the us and mexico to address environmental issues: partnerships planned for the next five years include sandia national laboratories who will work with crest-ressaca on water resource management and desalination research; the university of texas at brownsville whose faculty are involved in crest-ressaca undergraduate research efforts; and texas a&m international university in laredo where two environmental engineering researchers have established joint projects focusing on water contaminants in addition the center will continue educational and research partnerships south of the border the number of students from mexico pursuing master¿s or doctoral degrees at a&m-kingsville has nearly tripled since 2003 due in large part to collaborative efforts through crest-ressaca also some research work of the center - in groundwater management air emission control and production of fuel from algae and citrus waste - addresses environmental issues faced in mexico this research was shared with mexican scientists lawmakers and students at a crest-ressaca conference in november 2006 entitled "environmental sustainability: us-mexico issues " held in monterrey mexico the longest-running partnership crest-ressaca has is with the texas engineering experiment station this state agency part of the texas a&m university system has contributed to preparation of both nsf grant proposals and will stay with crest-ressaca as its fiscal agent for the centers development continue public education efforts for lawmakers educators and the public: crest-ressaca shares its work with others outside of the field of environmental engineering the centers annual conference brings lawmakers and the public together to hear center researchers discuss their projects and the implications of their findings the centers faculty work with a host of city and regional governments such as conducting air quality studies with the city of corpus christi and the texas commission on environmental quality and storm water management studies for the lower rio grande valley municipalities crest-ressaca research work and the faculty behind it will continue to be highly involved in two college of engineering summer programs maymester brings area community college students to the campus for two weeks each may where they receive hands-on research experience as guest members of science math and engineering research teams including those at crest-ressaca the research experience for teachers program enables crest-ressaca and other engineering faculty to share their research efforts with area middle and high school educators who then take that experience into their classrooms for their students

college station texas - texas a&m university and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) have been awarded almost $2 million to date from the national science foundation to increase retention rates among first-year engineering science and math majors the five-year science technology engineering and mathematics talent expansion program (step) aims to increase the number of graduates with science engineering and mathematics degrees by a minimum of 10 percent through an emphasis on retention of first-year students tees assisted the university in developing the grant proposal and will be the fiscal agent for this project tees is the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system the step program in the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m helps students understand what engineering is and whether they want to continue their engineering studies after their first year the program enables students to experience hands-on learning on the first day of class through new curricula in freshmen courses the college redesigned foundations of engineering i the freshman introductory course to the engineering profession to incorporate development of skills in teamwork problem solving and design through hands-on learning the college places freshmen in the course by their major and departments design the projects to complement student interests one class for example begins building bridges on the first day students use magnetic balls and joints to build the bridges the focus of the course however is to give students the skills necessary to complete the project mathematically and successfully build a strong reliable bridge on the first try by moving away from popsicle sticks and trial and error students get a glimpse into what being an engineer is really like step focuses on a three-pronged approach which encompasses the collaboration between engineering math and physics the step program enables collaboration by improving communication between the departments said dr arun srinivasa director of the texas a&m step program and an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering in the past teachers in each department would use different words for essentially the same thing and through our communication we have worked to standardize terms so that students can see the connection across their curriculum srinivasa said "its not three different classes its three aspects" the integrated program enables engineering students to gain an understanding of why different courses are essential to their growth as engineers students believed that freshman courses in physics and calculus were weed-out courses when in reality understanding of these subjects is an essential foundation for their education srinivasa said step has helped the college to increase retention of students through the first-year of study however many other changes have occurred to facilitate this increase including engineering living learning communities the regent scholars program changes in admissions policies increased help available for students demographics and the current job market — all of which influence student retention the main challenge we face with our program is the sheer numbers of students we are trying to reach srinivasa said "its easy to come up with a concept but implementing it across the board to so many students has been a challenge step focuses on this implementation to the large common group not to the exception we are trying to retain students in the program that in the past we would have lost

college station texas a team of researchers from the spacecraft technology center and the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university has received a competitive contract award from the air force research laboratorys space vehicles directorate at kirtland afb in new mexico to assess space-based sensors that contribute to space situational awareness the overall $289 million award includes a funded 18-month project with an option for an additional 18-month effort the stc part of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) advances spacecraft system technologies from basic research to practical application dr frederick best directs the center the stc team will evaluate the utility of using small space-based optical systems such as star trackers to increase a spacecrafts awareness of its surrounding space environment star trackers which use pictures of the star field to help determine the orientation of a spacecraft are a class of sensors being considered by the air force and other space agencies for dual-use the air force is looking for ways to augment its space surveillance sensor network by using existing spacecraft sensors or inexpensive new concepts in this supporting role this project follows a 2005 study performed by the stc team for the air force that evaluated the star tracker dual-use concept for feasibility and produced some preliminary software that could be used by these sensors the stc also received a subcontract from an industry partner in june 2007 to test this software with an existing star tracker camera the recently awarded air force contract will include an assessment of key sensor and orbital parameters that bound the problem testing of various sensors to determine a baseline and development of an optimized sensor concept that uses readily available sensor components hardware and software appropriate for this concept will be assembled and tested at the stc sensor test lab the outcome of the project will address performance questions the air force has about this dual-use sensor mission and make possible the opportunity to test this type of sensor on orbit the stc project will be led by charles (chip) hill stc associate director for systems integration who has a broad industry and government background in aerospace projects key contributions will be made by members of the stc staff including dr thomas talley and magdalini lagoudas key faculty participants from the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m are dr thomas pollock and dr daniele mortari as well as their graduate students stcs dr igor carron aerospace engineerings dr adonios karpetis and the college of architectures dr ergun akleman will pursue supporting research efforts the project will also include industry partners the stc/texas a&m team will be able to make a significant contribution in determining how spacecraft can be used more autonomously and efficiently leading to improved safety and security of us space systems

prairie view texas - prairie view a&m university has been awarded a $1 million three-year education research grant from the national science foundation (nsf) to identify and evaluate the factors that contribute to the success of academically gifted black students in science technology engineering and mathematics (stem) who are enrolled at historically black colleges and universities (hbcus) college of engineering faculty members from prairie view a&m university felecia mcinnis nave and sherri s frizell will partner with three faculty members in the college of education and human development at texas a&m university to conduct the study representing texas a&m university-college station in this effort will be: fred a bonner associate professor department of educational administration; mary v alfred associate professor department of educational administration; and chance w lewis associate professor department of teaching learning and culture the texas engineering experiment station (tees) assisted in developing the grant proposal and administers the grant tees is the engineering research agency of the state of texas and is a member of the texas a&m university system the title of the study is an empirical investigation of the success factors impacting african-american students in engineering and technology at historically black universities dr felecia m nave assistant professor in the department of chemical engineering will serve as the principal investigator and dr sherri s frizell assistant professor in the department of computer science will serve as the co- principal investigator according to frizell "this project has the potential to have a significant impact in strengthening the education and research pipeline of stem students at hbcus and other institutions prairie view a&m university is a noted leader in producing outstanding african-american engineers and scientists" the goal of this collaborative education research project is to identify factors through a mixed method approach that utilizes both qualitative and quantitative measures that most significantly contribute to the success of gifted black students in stem disciplines at hbcus this study will be implemented in an effort to better understand how to structure successful collegiate experiences to increase the quantity and quality of students who graduate with stem degrees more specifically this research endeavor will target students who have excelled in stem areas at hbcus few research studies have focused on minority under-representation and under-achievement in science and engineering to directly address the needs of high achieving minority students many of whom struggle as much as their peers who are not identified as high achievers researchers feel the impact of this study will be far-reaching and serve as a catalyst for changes in success rates among blacks in stem disciplines many programs in stem areas have sought viable solutions to the problems associated with student achievement gaps particularly among students of color a study of this nature will provide concrete empirical data to identify and support viable factors that lead to student achievement particularly for academically gifted black students programmatic initiatives policies and procedures can be developed and subsequently implemented using these factors as a framework researchers at pvamu and texas a&m university will further develop strategies in the areas of academic affairs and student affairs the research team seeks to find effective and cognitive variables which will be measured through six factors: curriculum teaching style learning style campus programming student-life and out-of-classroom engagements nave reports that "a major strength of this partnership is that it brings together the expertise of outstanding faculty who represent two dynamic colleges with a history of producing cutting edge research" "texas a&m university is a noted leader in research; thus it is important to connect to faculty members at the institution who can provide essential feedback and information for this project " continues nave as graduates of hbcus both nave and frizell possess first-hand knowledge and understanding of the hbcu culture and the critical role they play in assisting black students in reaching their academic and professional goals the first phase of the project will include studies at the ten four-year universities accredited by the accreditation board for engineering and technology including prairie view a&m once the initial study is complete phase two of the project will include a dissemination of a quantitative study at the remaining hbcus in the partnership with stem programs

college station texas - the texas engineering experiment station (tees) will share in $95 million that was secured by us representative chet edwards for defense projects at texas a&m under the final 2008 defense appropriations bill which was signed into law by president bush on nov 13 the funding will be used for five key defense research projects at the university "i am very pleased that the final defense bill includes my request for $95 million for five key defense research projects at texas a&m " said edwards a senior member of the house appropriations committee "these defense projects are part of a long-term plan to enhance and strengthen texas a&ms historic partnership with the department of defense these priority programs will strengthen our nations defense improve our homeland security and support jobs and economic growth in the brazos valley" dr g kemble bennett texas a&m vice chancellor and dean of engineering said "the single most-critical component needed to make significant and timely advances in defense-related technology is funding thanks to the tireless and faithful efforts of congressman edwards this funding will enable the best and brightest minds among texas a&m engineering to continue finding new solutions to defense-related challenges and ultimately better protect the citizens of texas and the nation" edwards secured $12 million to help texas a&m work with the air force to develop a sensor for spacecraft to detect objects in their surroundings that may threaten us intelligence operations "these space surveillance tools will protect american spacecraft and satellites as more and more countries gain access to space it is important for us to track objects that come close to our incredibly valuable spacecraft and their important missions " said edwards edwards secured $800 000 for texas a&m to work with the navy on the development of technology to use lasers to detect biochemical agents in the atmosphere over a battlefield or community "this important project will help protect installations like fort hood from attack our troops in combat against chemical and biological attacks and could be used to protect our cities and communities from terrorists using chemical and biological agents " said edwards "this is a revolutionary capability that would fill a critical unmet need that would help protect our troops in battle " said edwards edwards also secured $800 000 for research that will help protect and extend the life of rotor blades on military aircraft operating in deserts in iraq and afghanistan "the degrading of rotor blades in desert environments has been become a major problem for the department of defense and this project will help the military protect against sand and water erosion to keep more aircraft available for military operations " said edwards edwards is also working on important defense projects that partner texas a&m university and fort hood in killeen edwards helped add $3 million to continue a program he has supported for years between texas a&m and fort hood which has been recognized by the texas council on environmental quality for its positive environmental benefits "this project improves training grounds after they have been eroded and degraded from tank and training operations on base this is another example of a&m working with fort hood to help our troops train so that they can carry out their mission successfully when they reach the battlefield " said edwards dr elsa murano vice chancellor and dean of agriculture and life sciences texas a&m university system said "these funds will help fort hood maintain and repair training lands by using innovative control measures developed by texas a&m agriculture scientists i strongly support this cooperation and i appreciate the leadership of congressman edwards who has been instrumental in improving the landscape on fort hood to better support mechanized training" edwards added $1 million to allow a&m to help fort hood improve training by enhancing their digital command and control systems and simulation capability "this project which i have supported for a number of years has dramatically improved the effectiveness of our army tanks in combat " said edwards finally edwards also secured $27 million for a joint waco va-ft hood-texas a&m health research program that will examine the underlying causes of post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) edwards created the program with $3 million he secured in the 2006 defense healthcare bill "the waco va and ft hood are uniquely positioned to conduct world-class research with the department of defense and texas a&m to find improved treatments and cures for veterans suffering from mental illness and post traumatic stress disorder " said edwards "the close proximity of a military installation that has sent over 40 000 soldiers to iraq and a va hospital that is a nationally recognized center of excellence for veterans mental health care cannot be matched anywhere else in the country " said edwards chairman of the military construction and veterans affairs appropriations subcommittee dr nancy dickey president texas a&m health science center said "representative edwards continues to enhance the well-being of our soldiers and the effectiveness of our universities as demonstrated by the funding garnered for the post traumatic stress disorder project as a result of funding secured by mr edwards the medical profession will better understand the causes and treatments of ptsd and will develop mechanisms to assure access to effective diagnosis and treatment for our returning soldiers with ptsd as the mother of a veteran as a physician and as the president of a health sciences university i thank chet edwards for the work he continuously does to improve the lives of texans"

college station texas - if you take the time to sit down and speak with a student enrolled in foundations of engineering i the freshman introductory course to engineering you would get a very different picture of the engineering program at texas a&m university than five years ago this phenomenon is occurring in math science and engineering courses across the state through the partnership of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and four universities in the texas a&m university system changes are being made to increase enrollment and retention in these degree programs texas a&m university west texas a&m university texas a&m university-kingsville and texas a&m university-corpus christi all tees regional divisions have received science technology engineering and mathematics talent expansion program (step) grants from the national science foundation "tees assisted faculty and administrators at each of the four institutions to develop the proposals and grant concepts based on the needs of the individual campuses and their plans to increase enrollment in science engineering and mathematics particularly among students who are first generation or underrepresented in these majors " said dr k l peddicord director of tees currently there are seven step programs in texas and four are through the tees/a&m system partnership resulting in more than $45 million in federal funds brought into the a&m system texas a&ms step program aims to increase the number of college graduates with physics engineering and mathematics degrees a minimum of 10 percent by enabling students to experience hands-on learning on the first day of class through new curricula in freshmen courses dr arun srinivasa a principal investigator of the texas a&m step program said "the step program has been an excellent transformation for texas a&m in engineering we now have department heads and distinguished faculty teaching freshman courses its an exciting thing" west texas a&ms step program targets recruitment of students not enrolled in science engineering and mathematics degree programs the program includes a redesign of core mathematics and science courses and dissemination of career information in these courses "both actions should attract undecided and non-majors who are enrolled in these core courses " said dr pamela lockwood a principal investigator of the west texas a&m step program "[our program] also targets community college students with periodic visits to their campuses the office of admissions will host a `west texas a&m day at each of our two main feeder institutions -- south plains college and amarillo college -- this year" at texas a&m-kingsville emphasis is on recruiting hispanic students by encouraging their interest in chemistry physics engineering and mathematics bachelors degree programs the aim is to provide a trained workforce for the state the program also fosters efficient transfer for students from collaborating two-year institutions such as palo alto college south texas community college and del mar college and at texas a&m-corpus christi hispanics in the coastal bend region are encouraged to pursue degrees in science engineering technology and mathematics "our goals are to increase the retention and quality of science students by implementing researched-based best practices in teaching the establishment of a mentoring program and connecting mathematics science and english in a relevant and meaningful way " said dr jose giraldo the principal investigator of the program at a&m-corpus christi tees continues to work closely with all four institutions in summer 2007 tees brought all four participating institutions together in dallas the meeting provided an opportunity for the principal investigators and senior faculty to get to know each other to build a working relationship and to share information on the projects successes and failures "tees has been instrumental with enabling information flow between departments as to what is going on and what has been implemented elsewhere they have helped each project to know that they are not alone in their endeavors and that other programs have similar problems as well " srinivasa said not only has tees worked to encourage communication between the universities but also helped each university prepare its grant proposal for nsf "the tees strategic research development office was instrumental in the funding of this project " lockwood said "our college had an exceptional group of faculty members with some innovative ideas for retaining students but our faculty members teach 12 hours each semester and have limited experience in writing federal funding proposals "the tees grants office turned our ideas and data collection on our current majors and projections for the future into a competitive proposal" tees has continued to assist each university with administrative budgetary issues and personnel changes giraldo said "after the proposal was funded tees has continued to assist us with budget execution this has been a positive collaboration"

college station texas- the first friday lecture for december features "the strength and fracture of nanocomposites " presented by dr dan davis the lecture will be friday (dec 7) in room 110 of the koldus building lunch will be provided to registrants at 11:45 am and the lecture will begin at noon davis is director of operations of texas institute for intelligent bio-nano materials and structures for aerospace vehicles (tiims) and tees research professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university tiims is a collaboration of five texas universities conducting research in bio-nanomaterials fabrication characterization modeling and simulation for future nasa and aerospace systems tiims also has a focus on producing the next generation of aerospace engineers and scientists for nasa in its mission to return to the moon and beyond in addition to his research activities in nanomaterials characterization davis has the charge to promote the education thrust of tiims he has collaborated with a small minority owned business clarkson aerospace and the us air force laboratory to form the air force minority leaders program (mlp) this program is a congressional sponsored program that promotes materials and manufacturing and sensors research at over 20 universities including many historically black colleges and universities davis has held engineering faculty administrative and research positions at temple university the pennsylvania state university new jersey institute of technology and texas southern university his teaching interests are in engineering mechanics structures and materials courses davis primary research interest is on the macro-micro-mechanical behavior of materials under complex thermal-mechanical loads more recently his interest has focused on the mechanics of advanced nanocomposite multifunctional materials davis research interest in education focuses on integrating design and computer/internet-based technologies throughout the curriculum to improve learning and course delivery the first friday lecture series is a program of the african american professional organization held the first friday of the month and is sponsored by the division of research and graduate studies to register for the event click here contact anita dotson at 845-1812 or a-dotson@tamuedu for additional information to learn more about the african american professional organization visit their web site

college station texas - space engineering institute (sei) students from texas a&m university texas a&m-kingsville and texas a&m-commerce presented their fall 2007 projects nov 16 sei is a center of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) seis undergraduate research program funded by nasa focuses on student retention in engineering especially students from underrepresented groups (women and ethnic minorities) the program is in its fifth year with more than 50 engineering undergraduate students enrolled at the three different universities students join sei during their freshman year and are placed on interdisciplinary teams to work on applied research projects sponsored by nasa the texas a&m materials team worked with a bio-sensor technology developed by dr allison ficht and dr xiaofeng kang at the department of molecular and cellular medicine at texas a&m the team developed a design that will test multiple biosensors on a single zero-gravity flight to evaluate the technology for its use on space exploration the team submitted their proposal to nasa and hopes to be selected for flight testing in spring 2008 team mentors are ficht kang and graduate student erin bishop the team includes jahaziel chavira senior mechanical engineering; jennifer kirchner senior aerospace engineering; daniel grimes senior computer science; katy westhoff junior aerospace engineering; opeyemi ijagbemi junior ocean engineering; nikhil bhatnagar sophomore aerospace engineering; norma horn sophomore mechanical engineering; and brannon veal sophomore electrical engineering the texas a&m pretreatment team identified a non-toxic pretreatment alternative to enable water reclamation for long term space applications the team completed testing with minimum concentrations of acetic and glycolic acids and evaluated the use of pyruvic and citric acids as possible pretreatment candidates in addition they evaluated the use of a bioreactor to assess pretreatment chemical toxicity the team will present their findings at the earth and space conference of american society of civil engineering in march 2008 team mentors are dr karen pickering from nasa jsc and texas a&m graduate student julianna camacho the team includes sara guest senior chemical engineering; moriah thompson senior biomedical engineering; marco cienega jr junior mechanical engineering; julianne larson junior aerospace engineering; emily dossman freshman aerospace engineering; warnessa freeman freshman chemical engineering; natalie pilzner freshman aerospace engineering; and leann smith freshman biomedical engineering the texas a&m-kingsville mechanical battery team designed a safe efficient mechanical battery that stores energy in a mechanical form for use on the space station the team presented a mechanical battery design which includes a electromagnetic clutch braking system housing and mounting plates of the gear system composite strips and transformer/electrical configuration they completed modeling and testing the composite strips in both tension and torsion in addition they updated and optimized the gear design to accommodate tension elements the team led by dr larry peel and graduate student dustin grant includes javier lozano senior mechanical engineering; victor castillo senior mechanical engineering; hector hernandez senior electrical engineering; krystal gunter junior electrical engineering; and luis muratalla sophomore mechanical engineering the texas a&m-kingsville laundry in space team designed a process to wash disinfect and dry lightly soiled clothing in the micro-gravity environment of the international space station the team developed a design that uses a vacuum-based approach to remove soil and stains from laundry the design was tested improved with new materials to remove leakages and tested again results show a vacuum process alone is not sufficient to wash and dry clothing in the desirable amount of time the team researched alternative approaches to improve effectiveness of the process they will incorporate agitation and a multi-stage process to improve their design the team also led by peel and grant includes trey evans sophomore mechanical engineering; victoria bailey freshman mechanical engineering; michael gutierrez freshman mechanical engineering; and eli hatfield freshman electrical engineering the texas a&m tele-operation team is working to complete projects such as successfully tele-operating a texas a&m truck and developing a 3d environment at the space engineering institute the team was able to setup the cave hardware and landform software gps-reference models and wireless network connections this enabled them to send and receive data and to establish a connection with the gps and imu units of the texas a&m truck the team led by dr tamas kalmar-nagy and stephen glenn includes angelo bianchini senior mechanical engineering; amanda collins senior aerospace engineering; john quiñones senior chemical engineering; david roden senior computer science; david taylor senior aerospace engineering; ernest everett junior mechanical engineering; agustin maqui junior aerospace engineering; marcus payne junior aerospace engineering; christine tipton sophomore biomedical engineering; jason york sophomore aerospace engineering; and jc reeves freshman aerospace engineering the texas a&m robotics team designed and demonstrated the cooperative lifting and transportation of a construction object using two robots the team presented their modeling and simulation approach for robot kinematics the use of an overhead camera for inertial measurements odometry error investigation and mitigation kalman-filter simulations and simple path-planning algorithms the team participated in the texas space grant consortium design challenge nov 20 where they received first place in team dynamics second place in oral presentation third place in project model and runners-up in best technical paper the team led by dr johnny hurtado and graduate student lesley weitz includes jesse bowes senior computer science; kristen holmstrom senior aerospace engineering; dennis underwood senior aerospace engineering; matt wilson senior computer engineering; kelli boehringer junior aerospace engineering; amy bolon junior mechanical engineering; roy palacios junior electrical engineering; tyler thurston junior aerospace engineering; and albert soto freshman mechanical engineering a&m-commerce fluorescent microscopy using leds team designed and built a portable fluorescent microscope for counting bacteria the team submitted their presentation but was not able to attend due to class conflicts they developed a prototype automated the sample analysis and investigated the confirmation of the specificity of bacterial detection currently they are working towards testing the prototype in nasas microgravity environment the team led by dr frank miskevich includes jeremy harr tiffany selvidge sophie metafaria and dale moore for more information on the sei program contact director magda lagoudas at m-lagoudas@tamuedu

college station texas - dr c roland haden received the service award from the mary kay oconnor process safety center (mkopsc) a texas engineering experiment station (tees) center housed within the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university the award was established to honor and recognize individuals who have contributed to the success of the center and who have played a significant role in advancing the mission of the center haden is a former vice chancellor for engineering and former dean of the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m he also served as director of tees haden retired from texas a&m in 2002 but still holds the title of professor emeritus haden received his phd from the university of texas at austin in electrical engineering he has held teaching and administrative positions at the university of texas university of oklahoma louisiana state university and arizona state university haden was named fellow of the american society for engineering education (asee) and the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) he has received numerous awards including the prestigious donald e marlowe award from asee in 1998 in which he was honored as a role model in advancing engineering education and the engineering profession he was also awarded the lamme award in 2007 he has worked as a consultant to various firms and educational institutions and was appointed by the former gov george w bush in 1996 to be a member of the governors science and technology council he was also chair for the asee public policy committee he serves on the board of directors for inter-tel inc and crosstex energy mlp haden has authored more than 100 publications including four books he co-authored or edited

college station texas - dr w john lee professor and holder of the lf peterson endowed chair in the harold vance department of petroleum engineering received the designation of regents professor for 2006-2007 during a recent meeting of the texas a&m university system board of regents lee who holds a joint appointment with the texas engineering experiment station (tees) was one of five texas a&m professors who were named regents professors the board established the regents professor award program in 1996 to recognize employees who have made exemplary contributions to the university or agency and to the people of texas to date 106 faculty members have been named regents professors recipients received a $9 000 stipend a commemorative medallion and a certificate during a dinner thursday (dec 6) that was held in their honor lee came to texas a&m in 1977 and was the initial director of the petroleum engineering departments distance learning program he received the distinguished achievement in continuing education award in 2001 from the texas a&m association of former students and was recently appointed academic engineering fellow by the securities and exchange commissions division of corporation finance

a new statewide nuclear power institute headquartered at texas a&m university plans to make sure the growing texas nuclear power industry has the engineers and technicians it will need as it expands in the coming decades establishment of the institute a cooperative effort of texas a&ms dwight look college of engineering the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and other organizations around the state was approved thursday (dec 6) by the texas a&m university system board of regents during its meeting in college station in particular npi activities will support statewide recruiting efforts for nuclear power-related programs the partnership includes texas a&m university texas a&m university-kingsville texas a&m university-corpus christi and prairie view a&m university as well as several community colleges the texas state technical college the texas workforce commission civic leaders and high schools plans presented to the regents call for the nuclear power institute to manage a statewide effort to provide more than 2 000 engineers and technicians needed to staff and operate at least six new nuclear power plants in texas scheduled to go into operation over the next 10 years electric power experts say nuclear powered electric generating plants offer the best chance of meeting texas growing appetite for electric power expected to grow by at least 20 percent over the next decade nuclear plants can produce this needed electricity without contributing to the production of greenhouse gases "the texas a&m university system is uniquely configured with the ideal combination of education research and service agencies and universities to lead this effort " said dr g kemble bennett vice chancellor and dean of engineering "the institute will make a significant impact upon the workforce and economy of the state and nation" the staff needed to operate the additional reactors and generating plants will include technicians with two-year technical degrees nuclear engineers and engineers in other engineering specialties the npi will oversee expansion of curriculums in high schools junior colleges and four-year institutions to prepare graduates to enter nuclear power-related fields the institute also will develop recruiting programs aimed at attracting students into fields that would prepare them to enter the nuclear power industry "the texas engineering experiment station is the right organization to bring together academic education and training and the nuclear power industry " said k l peddicord a professor of nuclear engineering at texas a&m and director of tees the stp nuclear operating company luminant (formerly txu) and the exelon corp have announced plans to open six new nuclear power plants in texas over the next decade several more may follow "the next years will be an exciting time for nuclear power in texas " said peddicord "were glad to be part of it"

washington dc - citing the potential for acts of terrorism on any of the thousands of chemical processing plants throughout the country m sam mannan a texas a&m university chemical engineering professor and authority on process safety and risk management testified before a house subcommittee wednesday (dec 12) and urged congress to give the department of homeland security permanent and continuing authority to regulate chemical security in the united states mannans testimony came as part of a congressional hearing on the "chemical facility anti-terrorism act of 2008 " a proposed amendment to the homeland security act of 2002 that provides for the regulation of certain chemical facilities addressing members of the subcommittee mannan who also is director of texas a&ms mary kay oconnor process safety center said that while many us facilities have voluntarily begun implementing appropriate security measures he remains concerned that many have not yet adopted such measures because of that discrepancy a regulation that establishes a minimum and level playing field is critical he said "the fact is that chemical infrastructure and all components including the individual sites supply and delivery systems were never built with terrorism in mind " mannan explained "research must be conducted to determine how me might have designed and built the chemical plants and the infrastructure had we considered these threats" estimates by the department of homeland security suggest that nearly 7 000 facilities - about half of all us chemical plants - are considered to be at high risk of a terrorism attack or an accident furthermore reports from the environmental protection agency have identified 111 facilities throughout the country where a worst-case scenario could endanger more than one million people as vital as regulation of these facilities is mannan explained that effective regulation must be science-based and cautioned that the proposed act or any actions resulting from the act should not create unintended consequences which might increase the opportunities for attacks rather than mitigate them providing an example of such an instance mannan detailed a hypothetical substitution of hydrogen fluoride with sulfuric acid for refinery alkylation processes while sulfuric acid is less toxic than hydrogen fluoride the amount of sulfuric acid needed to do the same amount of processing is 25 times greater than hydrogen fluoride because of that a change to the less-toxic sulfuric acid would require large storage facilities and increased transportation - both of which could result in greater opportunities for terrorists as compared to a well-managed plant utilizing a smaller amount of hydrogen fluoride among mannans other conclusions is the particularly disturbing assertion that hazardous materials in transit throughout the united states represent a highly visible target with a far greater degree of vulnerability to an act of terrorism than stationary facilities whats more this specific category of hazardous materials mannan said is arguably the least prepared to deal with intentionally caused catastrophic scenarios mannan also emphasized the inclusion of water processing facilities in the act as "important and necessary" though not traditionally considered a chemical processing plant water processing facilities remain an attractive target to terrorists mannan noted "as the 9/11 events have shown terrorists are more likely to use easily available materials to strike at us " he said the subcommittee chaired by rep sheila jackson lee is part of the larger committee on homeland security that was created by the us house of representatives in 2002 in the aftermath of september 11 2001 to provide congressional oversight over the development of the department of homeland security a renowned expert in process safety and risk management operations mannan is a professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m and is director of the mary kay oconnor process safety center the center conducts programs and research activities that enhance safety in the chemical process industries

college station texas rayford g anthony professor of chemical engineering in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering and former head of the department from 1995-2002 has been accorded the rank of professor emeritus by the texas a&m university system board of regents anthony joined texas a&m in 1966 as an assistant professor of chemical engineering and ascended to the rank of associate professor in 1969 in 1974 he was named professor of chemical engineering and in 1994 he was appointed to the c d holland professorship currently anthony is a senior fellow at the texas engineering experiment station a position that he has held since 1984 with more than 100 presentations 130 publications and five patents to his credit anthony is the co-author of three textbooks with fundamentals of chemical reaction engineering in its second edition he also has received the universitys most prestigious award the faculty distinguished achievement award for research as well as most of the faculty teaching and research awards presented by the dwight look college of engineering anthony has extensive experience in developing catalysts and modeling catalytic reactors having worked on dehydrogenation of butenes to butadiene oxidation of isobutylene to methacrolein catalytic cracking of methanol to produce olefins hydrocracking of alkanes and long chain alcohols direct hydrogenation of coal to produce liquids gasification of biomass synthesis of methanol hydrogenation of co and co2 and mathematical modeling of multi-phase reactors

college station texas - in its efforts to share the best safety and security practices from western nuclear facilities with russian nuclear experts the department of energy (doe) regularly supports the foreign field experience (ffe) which involves nuclear engineering students from two russian universities-the moscow engineering physics institute (mephi) and the obninsk institute for nuclear power engineering (inpe) this year for the first time the ffe included american students last october five texas a&m university nuclear engineering students sponsored by the nuclear security science and policy institute (nsspi) at a&m met in switzerland with six russian students from inpe and mephi over a six-day period they toured some of the top nuclear facilities in the world funding from the does national nuclear security agency (nnsa) office of defense nuclear nonproliferation (na-20) supported all of the students "this was the first time american students were part of the ffe " said david sweeney one of the aggies who made the trip "it provided the additional goal of creating academic ties and professional ties for future nuclear scientists of both russia and the united states" while in switzerland the 11 students who were joined by one american professor and two russian professors toured the spiez laboratory the paul scherrer institute (psi) zwilag interim waste storage facility and the liebstadt boiling water reactor "all the facilities we toured gave us great behind-the-scenes access probably more than you might expect from an american facility " said sweeney "i have visited several national labs in the us and it would have been difficult for our group with the foreign nationals to do the types of things that we did in the united states" the spiez laboratory is the swiss center of expertise for nuclear biological and chemical (nbc) defense it supports both the swiss military as well as the civil defense mission for the country the lab deals with protecting switzerland against nbc weapons and with technical aspects of arms control and disarmament of nbc weapons the spiez lab has performed several international missions on behalf of the united nations including the remediation and disposal of chemical agents in albania the group saw the radiation detection laboratories including a mobile unit that can be deployed around the country in response to a radiological event the tour also included a visit to the chemical agents laboratory and a view of the site for a new bio-safety level-4 facility for biological agents psi consists of six facilities dealing with nuclear energy and safety research and it is the swiss equivalent of a us national laboratory while there the students toured several facilities including the proteus research reactor - a unique zero power reactor that can make measurements on irradiated commercial nuclear fuel - and the swiss light source (sls) which is one of the largest synchrotrons in the world they also toured psis hot cell facility that is used to work with radioactive materials in the main hot cell area was a series of six hot cells large sealed rooms with thick lead walls and robotic arms controlled from outside to work inside the hot cells other rooms used for less highly radioactive material had moveable lead walls so the rooms could be expanded the psi hot lab is the site of a broad range of advanced materials research in the nuclear area "the thing that really impressed me was the size and the weight of all these giant lead structures " sweeney said "they also had a mobile hot cell it was about the size of a bedroom and weighed several hundred tons i suppose it was mobile with the crane they had there" located beside psi is zwilag one of the few operating centralized long-term spent nuclear fuel storage facilities in the world "touring the zwilag facility was very interesting for a number of reasons " said sweeney "besides the technical aspects it shows how the swiss are actually ahead of the game by building and operating this centralized waste storage facility the swiss have provided a good model to build on for safe waste storage in the rest of world including the us" zwilag is co-owned by swiss utility companies and the government it was built to house all of the spent nuclear fuel generated in switzerland for 40-60 yrs after which the spent fuel may be recycled or held for further storage zwilag is also receiving borosilicate "logs" from reprocessed spent nuclear fuel from swiss commercial power reactors this gives zwilag great flexibility in managing irradiated fuel and reprocessed waste for the swiss nuclear industry the students also toured liebstadt a boiling water reactor and even ventured into the water-cooling tower that was 100 degrees fahrenheit with 100 percent humidity "we had a great tour there " sweeney said "we went into the cooling tower at about the 12 meter level which is actually not very high in the tower there was steam coming up everywhere some of us had ties on and our ties were blowing up over our shoulders of course we were also dripping with sweat when we left" while the majority of the trip was geared toward touring the facilities there was time built in for the students to soak in some of the local ambiance as well among the cultural experiences the students got to be a part of were a trip to the niesen a 7 000 foot high mountain that is known as the swiss pyramid a train ride along lake geneva and a visit to montreux city "switzerland was just a great place for us to visit in the context of a program such as the ffe not only is it one of the most beautiful places in the world but the swiss really relish the opportunity to welcome and accommodate internationals from such former rivals as the us and russia we were treated more than once to fantastic home-cooked meals on our tours" sweeney said "we saw a broad range of activities related to nuclear science and engineering it provided us an opportunity to build long lasting professional ties and see some of the most successful and advanced facilities in the world" for more information on nsspi visit http://nsspitamuedu/

college station texas - marine col rick sturckow commander of the sts-117 mission aboard the space shuttle atlantis in june 2007 visited the oran w nicks low speed wind tunnel team jan 31 to thank the team for supporting the repair design and validation for a torn thermal blanket on the space shuttle during his presentation sturckow showed actual footage and described the mission to the international space station he also presented jorge l martinez director of the wind tunnel with a framed miniature texas flag flown on board atlantis and autographed pictures of the crew on june 9 2007 a four-inch piece of thermal protection system blanket was found protruding out of the port orbital maneuvering system (oms) pod by the crew during routine inspection of the space shuttle with the help of the wind tunnel team nasa engineers conducted ground tests at texas a&m together they quickly developed a solution for repairing the torn blanket and ensuring the shuttle would survive reentry into earths atmosphere after the repair atlantis was allowed to return home but not before taking one last lap around the world to divert to edwards air force base for a successful landing "first thing we wanted to look at was your oms pod " sturckow said recalling his first moments after debarking the orbiter "there were a few stitches but it held great" the wind tunnel is a joint facility of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m the 10 foot-wide 7 foot-high tunnel test section is capable of producing wind velocities up to 290 feet per second at approximately atmospheric static pressure department head helen reed said sturckows presentation was particularly meaningful and memorable for the wind tunnel crew given that 50 years ago on the same date — jan 31 the united states successfully launched its first satellite explorer 1 into orbit

college station texas - with the help of a texas a&m university chemical engineering professor a dallas-based gas-to-liquids (gtl) energy firm has developed what it labels as the industrys first commercially viable process for converting natural gas into useable fuels the announcement came tuesday at a press conference held at the synfuels research and demonstration plant in bryan the result could mean millions of barrels of new petroleum products - all produced more efficiently and in an environmentally friendly method that helps reduce sources of global warming expanding on a process conceived by kenneth r hall a professor in the universitys artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering and the associate director of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) synfuels international inc has patented a method for refining natural gas that will enable the firm to take advantage of existing natural gas deposits prior to this technology those deposits have remained untapped for a number of reasons said ben r weber chairman and ceo of synfuels international quadrillions of cubic feet of natural gas exist globally but because of geographical barriers transportability undesirable product contents or non-existing entry points to commercial markets those deposits lay dormant in areas such as peruvian jungles or indonesian islands in addition world banks estimates another 53 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is wasted annually by either flaring or being vented said thomas r rolfe president of synfuels international "flaring" occurs when natural gas is inefficiently burned into the atmosphere during the refining process currently an amount equivalent to 25 percent of the united states annual gas consumption is lost in this manner he said halls process - the result of nearly 10 years of work - will address both of those issues not only will it enable synfuels to convert natural gas to a clean-burning pipeline or tanker-ready liquid it will do so in an efficient and environmentally friendly method which still renders the liquid product competitive with the crude oil market weber said the breakthrough process which was developed in cooperation with texas a&m and tees is the result weber said of "a marriage between texas a&m and entrepreneurship" and it all began when hall and his colleagues were attempting to develop a method for disposing of lube oil waste in an environmentally friendly manner when hall first proposed the idea of realistically converting existing natural gas into usable petroleum products weber said the concept sounded "almost too good to be true" however texas a&ms credentials in the area as well as the quality of its researchers were enough to convince weber the idea was achievable he said "during our research and experimentation " hall explained "we saw that it was possible to convert natural gas to acetylene which could then be converted to ethylene and the beauty of the formula for the conversion is that every step has been verified by outside experts as both scalable and possible on a commercial level" the synfuels process focuses on efficient high-temperature natural gas conversion into acetylene which is then converted into ethylene at moderate pressures and temperatures after the ethylene passes through a catalytic reactor it is converted into products such as gasoline and jet fuel synfuels representatives state the process yields a significantly higher amount of usable products than traditional industry standards utilizing halls process synfuels - in an agreement with aref energy holding - intends to develop the worlds first commercially viable gtl plant in kuwait the new facility once completed will have the capabilities to produce high-octane fuels which may be used to power any motorized vehicle including aircraft and automobiles with only the need to flare a small amount of gas to remove nitrogen from the process stream "this is undoubtedly the worlds first breakthrough for a gas-to-liquids refinery " rolfe said "by cultivating these untapped resources we will not only be able provide the world with a cleaner energy solution producing virtually no unwanted bi-products but we will also be able to stimulate local economies where we have identified these natural resources to be available it is truly a new day and we are thrilled to be leading the way "synfuels has the opportunity to build hundreds of plants to make it a cleaner world and to develop natural resources that could never be developed before a new era in gas-processing technology has been born" for more information contact kenneth hall at (979) 845-3357 or via e-mail: krhall@tamuedu

college station texas - dr david claridge has been named fellow of the american society of heating refrigerating and air-conditioning engineers (ashrae) at the societys 2008 winter meeting claridge is the director of the energy systems laboratory of the texas engineering experiment station and the leland jordan professor in the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university he is a registered professional engineer claridge has made valuable contributions to energy efficiency technology such as the validation of the variable-based degree-day method formulation of algorithms behind the four-parameter change-point linear regression and development of expert systems he developed the approach used in the texas loan star program which creates baseline models of building performance based on engineering principles using pre-retrofit energy data and regression techniques claridge also developed the inter-zone temperature profile estimation (itpe) method for calculating ground-coupled heat transfer itpe is the first analytical method capable of modeling all common building-to-ground configurations the method has been implemented in program code suitable for use in two major public domain building simulation programs while a simplified version is included in the ashrae handbook fundamentals the status of fellow ashrae is a membership grade that recognizes distinction in the arts and sciences of heating ventilating air conditioning or refrigeration and is earned through achievement as a researcher designer educator or engineering executive ashrae founded in 1894 is an international organization with over 50 000 members of which approximately 500 are given the title of fellow its objective is to advance the arts and sciences of heating ventilation air conditioning and refrigeration to serve the evolving needs of the public through research standards writing publishing and continuing education

space engineering institute (sei) students from the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m university participated in the 22nd annual career and education day at the george brown convention center in houston feb 9 the annual event sponsored by the houston hispanic forum is designed to educate students and their parents in career choices college preparation and financial aid opportunities students from grades 6 through 12 had the opportunity to meet with representatives from engineering education law finance management banking public relations and graphic design the members of sei including four graduate student mentors and director magda lagoudas organized four one-hour presentations based on their team projects the topics ranged from building a space habitat with robots to remote operation of vehicles in space in addition eight students from bryan high schools ninth-grade class joined the sei students on the trip these students are members of the sei outreach program which began in september 2007 during each session the students presented information on different engineering majors discussed technical sei projects and held a panel discussion students from the department of nuclear engineering and engineers from shell oil corp helped sei students answer questions from the audience the presentations concluded with the bryan high school students presenting their lego robot designs in addition to the four panel sessions the students represented the look college at an exhibition booth students handed out brochures demonstrated the 3-d glasses of the sei tele-operation project and presented animations from the robotics project through this forum more than 1 500 parents and students from the houston area learned about texas a&m engineering for more information on the tees space engineering institute please call (979) 845-8768 for more information about the hhf or career and education day please call (713) 522-8077 or visit houston hispanic forum

college station texas - dr yalchin efendiev associate professor in the department of mathematics at texas a&m university has been appointed interim director of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) institute for scientific computation efendiev came to texas a&m in 2001 shortly after receiving his doctorate from california institute of technology he is a member of the american mathematical society the society for industrial and applied mathematics (siam) and the society of petroleum engineers he has received several grants from the national science foundation the department of energy and industry he has numerous publications and serves on the editorial board of several journals including multiscale modeling and simulation: a siam interdisciplinary journal and numerical mathematics: theory methods and applications his research focuses on numerical analysis

college station texas - dr mark holtzapple professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university and researcher with the texas engineering experiment station (tees) has been awarded one of 21 grants from the us department of agriculture (usda) and the us department of energy (doe) for biomass research and development and demonstration projects holtzapple was awarded $600 000 to help build and operate a small demonstration plant of the mixalco process which converts biomass into alcohol fuels holtzapple will use the grant to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of anaerobically fermenting biomass to carboxylate salts and their conversion to ketones such as acetone "the demonstration plant will hold about 400 tons of biomass and will digest about five tons per day " holtzapple said "the biomass is digested using a mixed culture of microorganisms derived from marine environments" "the microorganisms produce carboxylate salts which can be chemically converted to a wide range of products including ketones alcohols and gasoline" the technology is licensed to terrabon a bryan company formed to explore options for converting biomass waste and energy crops into animal feeds liquid fuels and chemicals terrabon focuses its technology on conservation waste utilization energy savings and cleaner fuels and chemicals

laredo texas — texas a&m international university in cooperation with the texas engineering experiment stations (tees) energy systems laboratory (esl) celebrated receiving nearly $500 000 in federal funding for its "energy-efficient green campus research initiative" march 24 at an on-campus ceremony in laredo the tees-tamiu team received the funding thanks to congressman henry cuellar who represents the 28th congressional district in texas which includes laredo this initiative will provide tamiu the financial and technical resources necessary to undertake a long-term path to a more cost-effective environmentally friendly future for the campus and surrounding community the initiative will focus on three elements: solar renewable energy demonstration and research which will incorporate clean renewable solar energy in tamius new student success center; the sustainable green campus initiative which will implement a "green campus initiative" for the entire campus including greater energy and resource efficiency; and the energy-efficient campus initiative in which existing campus buildings will be recommissioned to reduce energy use by 10 percent malcolm verdict project manager with the energy systems laboratory said this initiative would enable tamiu to become the "first 100-percent green campus in texas leading the way for other campuses in the texas a&m university system as we educate our students to deal with challenges of climate change" "the world has a fixed amount of natural resources — some of which are already depleted " cuellar said "so as population growth greatly strains our finite resources there are fewer resources available if we intend to leave our children and grandchildren with the same standard of living we have enjoyed we must preserve the foundation of that standard of living "im happy to report that texas a&m international university is taking the first step in doing just that" the texas engineering experiment station is the engineering research agency of texas and a member of the a&m system

college station texas dr eric petersen has joined the faculty of the turbomachinery laboratory the turbomachinery laboratory is jointly operated by texas a&m university and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system petersen arrived in college station in january from the university of central florida presently he is an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m petersens research areas include the ignition and combustion of fuel blends at gas turbine engine pressures and temperatures; investigation of laminar flame speeds of fuel reacting flows; high-temperature chemical kinetics and spectroscopy; advanced additives for composite solid propellants; and nanoparticle additives for enhancing the performance of liquid and solid fuels to accommodate petersens research activities an expansion of the laboratory is underway scheduled to be complete in june the new addition will enable the research of gas dynamics and reacting flows in one of the countrys few shock tube testing facilities the new test area will allow measurements at real gas turbine conditions and the exploration of the reactivity behavior of fuel combinations at gas turbine engine pressures petersens inquests include expanding our abilities to study gaseous fuels and heterogeneous fuels both liquid and solid in the shock tube also flame speed experiments to provide better models for fuel flexibility performance stability and efficiency in addition the research will be used to further develop fundamental understanding of the underlying chemical and physical phenomena of interest to energy and propulsion systems additionally a rocket laboratory is being prepared within the turbomachinery lab where novel solid rocket propellants will be developed and evaluated for use in rocket motors and energetics the rocket lab will also provide diagnostic capabilities for conditions and situations relevant to practical applications

college station texas — dr eg "skip" ward associate director of the texas engineering experiment stations offshore technology research center has been honored by the minerals management service (mms) and the coasts oceans ports and rivers institute (copri) mms presented ward its corporate leadership award for "providing invaluable information to industry and the public on the post-2005 hurricane season developments; offering invaluable presentations for operators and regulators on the new interim metocean and design documents; and demonstrating outstanding commitment necessary to ensure the best and safest practices in the offshore oil and gas industry" copri an institute of the american society of civil engineers (asce) announced that wards 1978 paper "otc 3229 statistics of hurricane waves in the gulf of mexico" has been selected to receive the asce offshore technology conference hall of fame award: "the paper was in the vanguard of a new way to determine the likely future wave conditions by looking closely at the past namely hindcasting for the first time using state of the art methods a significant database of past hurricane wave statistics was developed from which the future return intervals could be inferred the hindcast concept has been used in many geographical areas and has proven to be an excellent way to inform of expected future conditions the information in this paper was contributory to various codes and standards" the copri award was initiated in 2005 to recognize those technical papers that provided the offshore technology industry with innovation vision direction and lasting impact on the design construction or installation of the offshore infrastructure ward joined otrc in 1998 as associate director since then he has worked to enhance and strengthen the centers relationship with the oil industry though expanding existing and introducing new technical thrusts; developing and promoting more applied research and application studies; and developing new roles for the center to serve the oil industry he has also had a lead role in planning coordinating and administrating the center¿s research program which has included up to 20 active projects in a variety of technical areas he previously spent 30 years with shell oil co beginning with shell development cos e&p research division in 1968 as a researcher from 1981 to 1985 he supervised the oceanographic engineering section and from 1985 to 1994 he managed the offshore engineering research department in 1994 ward became technology manager with shell offshore incs deepwater division where he was responsible for a group that designed deepwater structures and developed new structural concepts and components for deepwater production systems throughout his career ward has made significant technical contributions in the areas of oceanography ocean engineering and arctic engineering ward has been a member of american petroleum institute since 1976 and received the apis 30+ years of service recognition award in 2006 he also served on the marine board of the national academies from 1995-2004 he earned a bachelors degree from lamar university and masters and phd degrees from the university of houston all in mechanical engineering established in 1988 with funding from the nsf and industry the otrc was created to conduct basic engineering research and develop systems for the economical and reliable recovery of hydrocarbons and other energy sources at ocean depths of 3 000 feet or more the center is jointly operated by the texas a&m university the university of texas at austin and the texas engineering experiment station the engineering research agency of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

college station texas - more affordable gasoline prices could potentially be on the way now that construction has begun on a demonstration-scale facility that will further validate a texas a&m process that transforms biomass into liquid fuels by september the facility is expected to be operational in bryan texas it will test the "mixalco" technology developed by professor mark t holtzapple and research engineer cesar b granda both in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m "this demonstration plant is a major step towards relieving our nations dependence on expensive imported oil " holtzapple said the mixalco technology can commercially make cellulosic ethanol and renewable gasoline said a representative from terrabon llc the company that holds the license to the technology it accomplishes that by transforming biomass - trees grass manure sewage sludge garbage agricultural residues and non-food energy crops - into mixed alcohols that can be blended into gasoline using additional steps the alcohols can be converted into gasoline that is nearly identical to that which is derived from crude oil holtzapple explained for three years testing has been underway at a smaller pilot plant in college station the pilot plant can process up to 100 pounds per day of biomass feedstocks such as paper wastes and even chicken manure the tests holtzapple said have been so successful that the process is now ready to be validated at a larger scale and thats exactly what the new larger demonstration plant will do moving the entire process a step closer to commercial feasibility the demonstration plant will have a loading capacity of 400 tons of biomass which equates to a digestion rate of five tons per day stated a terrabon representative sorghum will be the primary feedstock utilized current plans call for the process to run in 80-day cycles "with construction of this facility we are one step closer to bringing cost effective renewable energy products to consumers " said gary w luce terrabon¿s chief executive officer "using municipal solid waste as a feedstock at a price of $10 per ton we believe this technology can produce fuel-grade ethanol for $100 per gallon and renewable gasoline for $165 per gallon for a facility processing around 300 tons per day of municipal solid waste" in the process which has been developed during the last 17 years by holtzapple and granda biomass feedstock is treated with lime and then fermented to form organic salts water is removed and the mixture is then heated to form ketones - which are commonly used solvents such as nail polish remover at an oil refinery hydrogen is added to the ketones to form mixed alcohols which are then combined with existing gasoline before being transported unlike ethanol which cannot be transported through pipelines because of its tendency to absorb water mixed alcohol can be transported via pipelines to gas stations throughout the country a key aspect of the mixalco process that differentiates it from more costly alternatives is its ability to rely on naturally occurring soil organisms to digest the biomass holtzapple said this means that the mixalco process doesnt require the often costly sterile environments needed by other methods that utilize genetically engineered organisms he explained in addition the alcohol-based fuels produced from the crops used by the mixalco process are more productive in terms of net energy per acre than the well-publicized method that involves utilizing corn to produce ethanol holtzapple said in lay terms this means less land is required to grow feedstocks per acre farmers can grow two to 10 times more energy crops than if they were growing corn he said whats more holtzapple says his process is environmentally friendly the combustion of biofuels doesnt contribute to global warming because no net carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere he explained any carbon dioxide that is released is recycled through photosynthesis unlike what occurs during combustion of fossil fuels and there is less potential to damage ground water because less waste is being stored in landfills in addition the energy crops that the process uses require less fertilizer pesticides and herbicides than do traditional crops such as corn holtzapple added terrabon llc was organized in 1995 to commercialize three technologies that share the same suite of patented intellectual property developed at texas a&m university terrabon plans to deliver this cutting-edge technology via licensing the three processes

college station texas - dr w john lee regents professor and holder of the lf peterson endowed chair in the harold vance department of petroleum engineering has been appointed to serve on the national research council committee on understanding the impact of selling the us helium reserve the committee operates under the direction of the board on physics and astronomy (bpa) and the national materials advisory board (nmab) of the national research councils (nrc) division on engineering and physical sciences the committee will assess the impact of selling the federal helium reserve as well as examine the availability and reliability of worldwide helium supply technical opportunities to increase the supply and the relationships among supply demand and market price additionally the committee will assess the current and projected helium marketplace; assess the role that organizational and financial factors play in meeting the goals of the federal helium program; and identify measure that would enable the program to respond more effectively to the dynamics of the helium industry lees term on the committee will end in june 2009 i am honored and excited to have this opportunity to serve again as a member of a national research council committee lee said "this committee will be studying an issue of great importance to a segment of the scientific and engineering community in the country and ultimately of importance to the public as a whole" lee who holds a joint appointment with the texas engineering experiment station (tees) came to texas a&m in 1977 and was the initial director of the petroleum engineering departments distance learning program in november of 2007 he was appointed academic engineering fellow by the securities and exchange commissions division of corporation finance where he works on various issues related to the disclosure of oil and gas reserves lees areas of specialization include oil and gas reserves estimation procedures and unconventional resources lee previously worked for exxon where he focused on integrated reservoir studies and headed exxons major fields study group he also worked with sa holditch & associates inc and retired in 1999 after serving as executive vice president he has been a member of the society of petroleum engineers for 46 years and has held numerous positions including membership on the board of directors lee holds bachelors masters and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from georgia tech

college station texas - two researchers two staff members and a member of the energy systems laboratory were honored by the texas engineering experiment station (tees) during the agencies spring meeting on may 13 dr james wall and dr kuruvilla john received the engineering a brighter future research award lana wilson and julie masser received the tees golden gear award and michael martine received the tees safety excellence award the engineering a brighter future award recognizes outstanding research contributions and accomplishments of tees unit and regional division researchers wall has served as the director of computing and information technology division of the texas center for applied technology (tcat) for more than 12 years during that time he has assembled and led teams of students researchers and faculty on a wide range of projects that have totaled more than $169 million in more than 120 contract awards while serving as the director wall has managed the dreams (disaster relief and emergency medical service) program and has been involved in the foreign animal and zoonotic disease center program john is the director of the center of research excellence in science and technology-research on environmental sustainability of semi-arid coast areas (crest-ressaca) among his research interests are air pollution impacts and control strategies urban and regional scale air quality monitoring of air quality and meteorology emissions inventory assessment and tropospheric ozone and photochemical oxidants the tees golden gear award recognizes and rewards the professional and support staff who are the gears strengthening the power of tees wilson who works at the institute for national security education and research was described by one of the nominators as "absolutely the best administrator i have seen bar none" she was also described as having an extremely rare combination of highly desirable traits including: excellent leadership skills being exceptionally people-oriented and considerate of others creatively resourceful 100 percent trustworthy and an absolute joy as a co-worker masser who works for tees strategic research development has helped tees secure millions of dollars in funding including $5 million for a national science foundation center and approximately $3 million from the department of homeland security one nominator said masser "has gone way beyond the call of duty to assist faculty and researchers in creating more competitive proposals for federal funding agencies" another says "this person is not only creative but unusually perceptive in discovering better ways to present and organize complex descriptive material and has competently taken on last minute requests from funding agencies with a positive can-do attitude" the tees safety excellence award recognizes employee efforts that support enhance and implement safety in the classroom laboratory and work environment in a means that goes beyond the requirements of their position or description martine who is a research technician at the energy systems laboratory is described as a great person who gets along well with others always has a smile on his face and exhibits the kind of work ethic and professionalism that one wishes were characteristics of all employees one nominator said of martine "when i think of safety i think of this person" martine has constantly strived to improve safety awareness within his office and to provide practical safety tips to all employees on a regular basis additionally he has hosted regular safety sessions on topics his office faces in the field in addition to honoring the award winners tees also recognized employees of the agencies for their years of service

college station texas - dr edgar sanchez-sinencio has received the technical achievement award from the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) circuits and systems society sanchez-sinencio the ti j kilby chair professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university received the award "for continuous outstanding technical contributions for nearly three and half decades to analog and mixed signal integrated circuits computer-aided circuit design neural network implementations continuous-time filters and rf transceivers emphasizing theoretical and practical aspects ranging from analog circuit fundamentals to applied areas such as built-in testing circuits and ultra wide band receivers and for sustained leadership efforts in developing a research group promoting circuits and systems through text books research publications and numerous cas society technical and bog committees/editorial/conference activities" sanchez-sinencios research interests are in the areas of continuous-time integrated circuits analog built-in testing low-voltage/low-power mixed signal circuits and rf communication circuits he leads the analog and mixed-signal group and is director of the analog and mixed-signal center in the texas engineering experiment station the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system sanchez-sinencio is a fellow of the ieee among his numerous awards are the 1997 ieee circuits and systems darlington award; the 1996 ieee circuits and systems outstanding young author award (with graduate student alex reyes); and the 1995 ieee circuits and systems guillemin-cauer award for his work on cellular networks in 1996 sanchez-sinencio received the texas senate proclamation no 373 for outstanding accomplishments in recognition of his research inaoe awarded him its first honorary doctorate in 1995 the purposes of the ieee cass are scientific literary and educational in character directed toward the advancement of the theory and practice of electrical electronics and allied branches of engineering or the related arts and science in order to increase the professional standing of the members and affiliates

washington dc - the aerospace vehicle systems institute (avsi) celebrated its 10th anniversary with a reception in washington dc june 18 in the rayburn house building which is located across the street from the capitol avsi which is a research center administered by the texas engineering experiment station (tees) is a cooperative organization uniting government industry and academia to research and develop - and ultimately improve - aircraft and aerospace vehicles we are delighted to be the organization that provides the framework for this institution said dr kl peddicord director of tees who was one of the speakers at the event among avsis current projects is its work on wireless sensor networks a project that aims to remove wires from airplanes by doing this planes would be lighter which would help reduce fuel consumption as well as reduce the costs associated with manufacturing new aircraft additionally there would be increased reliability of operational systems and the risk of wire corrosion loosening or shorting due to vibration would be eliminated thus making air travel safer we can all be proud of this cooperatives accomplishments said amir anissipour of the boeing company who is chairman of the avsi board of directors "avsi has been the ideal venue to address industry-wide issues and to favorably impact the development of future aerospace systems"

college station texas — alton d "ad" patton has been selected to a three-year term as an electric reliability council of texas (ercot) independent board member (unaffiliated with any market participants) he was selected unanimously by the boards nominating committee and approved in an email vote of ercots 220 corporate members patton is professor emeritus of electrical engineering at texas a&m university with 35 years experience as a faculty member including four years as head of the electrical engineering department he also is president of associated power analysts inc in college station an engineering consulting service providing electric power system analysis power system reliability and failure analysis i am very pleased to welcome dr patton to the board with all of his experience and industry respect he will certainly be an asset to our board ercot chairman mark armentrout said "ercot is fortunate to add him as a board member" patton was a former director and past board member of the texas engineering experiment stations center for space power honors include being named recipient of the 2000 institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) richard harold kaufmann award for outstanding achievement in the field of industrial systems engineering patton also is a life fellow of ieee was named a tees fellow in 1985 and is on the editorial advisory board for the international journal of electrical power & energy systems he has a bachelors degree from the university of texas at austin a masters from the university of pittsburgh and doctorate from texas a&m university all in electrical engineering patton fills the board position vacated by carolyn gallagher who completed her elected term in march ercot manages the flow of electric power to approximately 20 million customers in texas acting as the independent system operator (iso) for the region ercot schedules power on an electric grid containing 38 000 miles of transmission lines and 500 generating units ercot also manages financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers customer switching for 6 million texans in competitive choice areas ercot is a membership-based nonprofit corporation governed by a board of directors and subject to the oversight of the public utility commission of texas and the texas legislature

the sei materials team completed a successful payload flight aboard nasas dc-9 aircraft as part of the space agencys microgravity university the experiment based on work by dr xiaofeng kang and dr allison ficht in the department of molecular and cellular medicine at texas a&m university aimed to evaluate the effects of gravity on a bilayer membrane that is an integral component of a bio-sensor able to detect single molecule analytes the team submitted a proposal in fall 2007 for the experiment "analyte detection via protein nanopores in a microgravity environment " and was selected to pursue a flight experiment in fall 2007 the interdisciplinary student team worked with the texas a&m researchers to understand the fundamentals of the sensor and design the flight payload the team acquired industry donations from molecular devices and warner instruments worth $16 000 for all electronics hardware and software used in the flight payload during the spring semester the team completed the design and all documentation to meet nasa's safety requirements during flight week the team presented to nasa engineers their flight hardware for inspection and final safety review and underwent training in preparation for flight the flight testing took place june 12-13 with the payload experiencing four sets of eight zero-g parabolas during the flight the sei students were able to form a bilayer and collect data on the voltage across the bilayer during each parabola ficht and her research group are analyzing the data to evaluate the effects of gravity on the bio-sensor the sei team included the following students: seniors daniel grimes computer science; vanna keller ocean engineering; katy westhoff aerospace engineering; jahziel chaviera mechanical engineering; and jennifer kirchner aerospace engineering; juniors nikhil bhatnagar aerospace engineering; brannon veal electrical engineering; and christine tipton biomedical engineering erin bishop a graduate student in the department of aerospace engineering was the team¿s graduate mentor and the project manager the team would like to thank dr edmund buck at warner instruments for donating all the electronics hardware for this flight experiment (bc-535 bilayer amplifier digidata 1440a and warners blm starter kit) a donation worth approximately $15 000 they also would like to thank carvano inc for their donation of $1 000 to support flight expenses the space engineering institute is part of the texas engineering experiment station the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system for more information on the space engineering institute e-mail the director magda lagoudas at m-lagoudas@tamuedu for more information please visit the nasas microgravity program page

college station texas — for cadet nathan wagner this summer is no vacation wagner is a senior engineering management major at the united states military academy at west point ny he began his summer in korea shadowing a platoon leader and an apache helicopter unit before joining the texas center for applied technology (tcat) for a summer internship at tcat which is part of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) wagner is working with dr jim wall in the computing and information technology division and joe gonzalez at fort hood to model the deployment of improvised explosive devices or ieds a native of midlothian va wagner is researching how terrorists determine targets organize and resource construct transport emplace and select triggering mechanisms for various types of ieds the research wagner is doing will help tcat extend current army simulations that are used to train soldiers at fort hood and throughout the army this internship gives nathan a chance to see the other side — people interacting with the army wall said "it will expose him to the engineering process and we¿ve given him a task that he can truly put his thumbprint on" tees is the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

college station texas two teams selected as finalists from a year-long student competition have presented their reports at the environmentally friendly drilling (efd) program disappearing roads competition finals and awards events the teams selected from university engineering departments across the united states competed to create the best engineering design for a system of moving personnel and materials to and from oil or gas well drill sites with minimal or no impact on the environment a key objective of the project was to improve the environmental awareness of understanding of engineers and for environmental scientists to understand the technical challenges posed by access to well site areas the university finalists for the 2008 competition were from the university of wyoming and the harold vance department of petroleum engineering at texas a&m university the university of wyoming research team developed a layered mat roll-out road system and a modular frame design the concepts came from the need to minimize soil disruption and wildlife fragmentation in jonah field and pinedale anticline production area (papa) of the upper green river valley wyoming developed in cooperation with advisers from bureau of land management and major upstream gas production companies the submission provided testing procedures and engineering evaluations and contained detailed information used to develop the recommendations the texas a&m team presented the "skylift system" designed to transport equipment and materials to drill sites in environmentally protected areas with a focus on minimizing the environmental impact in order to accomplish the development of a field within a protected area the use of the skylift system similar to those adopted in mining operations (where they are often referred to as aerial tramways) was proposed this would be installed via helicopter or airship pairing the skylift system with pipelines to transport drilling and production fluids outside the area would significantly minimize the environmental impact especially when compared to using a traditional road and provide a solution to the low impact issue that spans over the entire field life ten to thirty years during the development phase a panel of judges representing efd sponsors chose the winning idea the first-place award winner the university of wyoming received a check for $20 000 while the texas a&m team was second and received a check for $10 000 judges for the event were representatives from the natural resources defense council the us department of energy netl the rio vista bluff ranch mcfaddin texas and the houston advanced research center (harc) halliburton energy services sponsored the competition and provided funding for the cash awards texas a&m and the global petroleum research institute (gpri) hosted the event sponsors of the gpri environmentally friendly drilling program the crisman institute and the research partnership to secure energy for america (rpsea) attended the event gpri is a petroleum exploration and production research cooperative between texas a&m and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

college station texas - cindy wall who spent the past 13 years working for the texas engineering extension service (teex) has been appointed executive director of the texas center for applied technology (tcat) i am very excited about the opportunity to build on the solid foundation that has been established in tcat over the past 15 years wall said "i look forward to the opportunity to provide leadership to such a talented and highly respected group" tcat is a division of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and its focus is on the use of applied technologies to help organizations solve problems both tees and teex are members of the texas a&m university system wall led the creation of teexs product development center (pdc) which was created in 2007 to bring technical expertise from emergency responders and other components of teex tees and the a&m system to private industry for product development she will continue to be heavily involved with the pdc and will work to find ways to leverage the mutual resources of teex and tees to bring new products into texas we are extremely pleased to have cindy join tees to lead the texas center for applied technology said dr kl peddicord director of tees "her vast experience will prove invaluable to the mission of both tees and tcat and her past experience with teex will strengthen the collaboration between these two agencies of the texas a&m engineering program" wall who holds a bachelor of science degree from texas a&m in industrial engineering joined teex in 1995 from 1995 to 2006 she worked in the technology and economic development division of teex as regional director of the texas manufacturing assistance center (1995-1999) business manager (1999-2002) program manager (2002-2006) and program director (2006) in 2006 she joined the urban search and rescue division of teex as an associate division director and last year was named to head the pdc prior to joining teex wall worked for kent moore cabinets westinghouse electric corporation and oi corporation for more information on tcat visit: http://tcattamuedu for more information on tees visit: http://teestamuedu for more information on teex visit: wwwteexcom

college station texas - the texas engineering experiment station (tees) has entered into a master research agreement with vestas wind systems a/s the worlds largest supplier of wind turbines the agreement is the latest step in expanding the tees program in wind energy research and development which will help propel texas toward energy independence today texas leads the nation in wind power accounting for 26 percent of the nations total installed wind capacity or the equivalent of the electricity needed to power more than one million texas homes this partnership with vestas wind systems is timely and truly exciting for our faculty and students said dr theresa a maldonado tees deputy director and associate dean for research in the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m university "we have the expertise and facilities to explore next generation materials large-blade design wind turbines civil infrastructure electrical systems and systems engineering for advanced on-shore and off-shore wind energy systems and with the rapid growth of the wind energy sector especially in texas this research is critical" as part of their strategy to maintain its market position as no 1 in modern energy vestas has chosen houston a global energy hub as the location for its new r&d center in the united states the houston center is intended to strengthen vestas existing r&d network which includes research centers in asia and europe a primary objective for all research initiatives in vestas is to increase turbine efficiency and lower the cost of energy the selection of houston as home of vestas north american r&d center resulted from a national competition in which 36 states applied for this center tees and the research valley partnership partnered as one of the applicants from texas representatives of the danish company visited texas a&m and tees in march as part of their final evaluations for site selection houston and austin were also finalists although houston was selected as the site for their center vestas chose the a&m systems engineering program as one of its major university partners because of its broad range of technical expertise its unique experimental facilities and its excellent students vestas also signed agreements with the university of texas and the university of houston with the multiyear master research agreement in place vestas and tees researchers will collaborate to develop advanced wind energy technologies the first round of projects is scheduled to begin in the fall about tees tees is the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system tees researchers conduct quality research and provide practical answers to critical state and national needs the agency partners with industry communities and academic institutions to solve problems to help improve the quality of life promote economic development and enhance the educational systems of texas tees also promote new technology education and investigate problems in health and the environment about vestas - no 1 in modern energy with a 23 percent global market share in 2007 vestas is the worlds leading supplier of modern energy solutions the company has installed more than 35 000 wind turbines in 63 countries including more than 9 400 wind turbines on american soil

college station texas - david redman has been appointed director of the aerospace vehicle systems institute (avsi) dr k lee peddicord director of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) announced recently avsi which is a research center administered by tees and a member of the texas a&m university system is a unique forum for researchers from industry government and academia to work cooperatively on technology issues impacting aerospace systems development we are excited to bring dave on board to lead avsi peddicord said "his extensive background in the field of aviation and aerospace will prove invaluable in continuing avsis mission of working to improve aircraft and aerospace vehicles the potential here is extraordinary" redman joins avsi after spending the last seven years working for smiths aerospace/ge aviation in grand rapids mich where he held several positions including directorate staff engineer of special projects and intellectual property development and acting engineering director/department manager additionally redman has worked for kysor medallion/borg warner in spring lake mich and was an adjunct professor of physics at idaho state university the complexity of aerospace systems is growing exponentially redman said "there are some problems facing aerospace companies that are beyond the capability of any one company to solve alone avsi is able to facilitate the type of cooperative research that will be required to address these problems and is well positioned to grow with the growing need" avsi which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with a celebration in washington dc is comprised of members who have the shared goal of solving problems faced by the aerospace industry while working to find cost-effective ways to build better airplanes among avsis current projects are the systems architecture virtual integration (savi) project a semiconductor reliability prediction project and a wireless sensor feasibility study the savi project is doing the groundwork to establish the feasibility of a new way of specifying and integrating increasingly complex aerospace systems this would reduce the cost and schedule of new airplane development while improving quality safety and performance the wireless sensors project aims to identify issues that would arise if traditional sensors were replaced by sensors that transmit data wirelessly removing wires from airplanes would reduce their weight which in turn could improve fuel economy furthermore wires present costly reliability and maintenance issues for all types of vehicles from bulldozers to aircraft a wireless aircraft could potentially be more economical to assemble and maintain members of avsi include: bae systems boeing the federal aviation administration ge aviation goodrich hamilton sundstrand honeywell lockheed martin nasa-jet propulsion laboratory rockwell collins and the us department of defense

turning everyday waste into gasoline may seem like a distant dream but thanks to researchers with the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and byogy renewables inc it could become a reality within two years dr kenneth hall associate director of tees and the jack e & frances brown chair and professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university and his colleagues mark t holtzapple a professor in chemical engineering and sergio a capareda a professor in biological and agricultural engineering have developed a process to make converting biomass to high-octane gasoline possible the advanced process is possibly the only integrated system that converts biomass directly to gasoline most other emerging processes convert the biomass into alcohol and then blend it with gasoline the system is relatively inexpensive and focuses on using biomass waste streams and non-food energy crops rather than food products such as corn additionally the cost of such a conversion would lie between $170 and $200 per gallon excluding all government subsidies and tax creditsthis cost range is dependent on the type and cost of feedstock as well as the size of the biorefinery this would provide some much-needed relief for consumers when it comes to fueling their vehicles whose current options are to pay more or drive less biomass includes garbage biosolids from wastewater treatment plants green waste such as lawn clippings food waste and any type of livestock manure additionally since it does not use crops such as corn it will not put a strain on food supplies the process could also utilize non-food/feed crops grown specifically for biomass energy "this technology is important because it addresses many issues - eliminating waste producing economical fuel quickly and being friendly to our environment " hall said "its a win-win for industry and consumers furthermore this technology is ready to be commercialized now and does not require any new scientific or technological breakthroughs to become a reality" through an agreement with the texas a&m university system byogy has licensed the process and hopes to have a plant using the technology up and running within 18 months to two years the intent is to have raw garbage going in one end of the plant and 95-octane gasoline coming out the other texas a&m universitys department of chemical engineering is world-renowned in the area of process design integration and optimization a team led by professor mahmoud el-halwagi a pioneer in the field of process integration has been assembled to conduct the initial process integration work to provide a detailed set of design and operating procedures that will lead to the most competitive biofuels production processes for this technology "our goal with this technology is to achieve as much as a 2 percent contribution to the nations gasoline demand by 2022 through the building of 200 more bio-refineries " said benjamin j brant president and chief technology officer of byogy "we firmly believe the tees technology combined with the byogy team offers this possibility" the focus at the initial plant would be on using urban waste which the plant would grind sort and then convert into gasoline the fuel produced by this process could immediately be used as a drop-in substitute to the current petroleum gasoline supplies with a seamless integration into the existing fuel distribution infrastructure nothing needs to be changed at retail gas stations pipelines regional fuel terminals or in any motor vehicle "our plan is to produce two-and-a-half billion gallons or more of carbon neutral renewable gasoline per year said daniel l rudnick chief executive officer of byogy "we are positioning ourselves not only to handle the opportunity biomass waste streams that are available today but also the sustainable biomass energy crops of the future this green substitute for conventional gasoline is the holy grail of all biofuels" about tees: tees is the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system tees researchers conduct quality research and provide practical answers to critical state and national needs the agency partners with industry communities and academic institutions to solve problems to help improve the quality of life promote economic development and enhance the educational systems of texas tees also promotes new technology education and investigates problems in health and the environment about byogy renewables inc: byogy is a new technology company that offers the next generation of high-octane liquid transportation fuels derived from renewable biomass waste streams and dedicated non-food energy crops it was founded by leading renewable energy entrepreneurs engineers scientists and industry pioneers from the private sector and academic world for more information contact dr kenneth hall 979-845-3357 krhall@tamuedu; benjamin j brant 303-670-0880 bbrant@byogycom; daniel rudnick 661-333-2662 drudnick@byogycom for more information on byogy visit http://wwwbyogycom

college station texas - dr kenneth r hall associate director of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and the jack e & frances brown chair and professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering has been awarded the 2007south texas section best fundamental paper award from the aiche hall co-authored the paper "improved equations for the standing-katz tables" with gustavo a iglesias-silva a visiting professor in the department of chemical engineering hall and iglesias-silva will be presented the award this fall during one of the aiche southwest texas section monthly meetings the article was published in the april 2007 edition of the journal hydrocarbon processing which provides information to technical and management personnel in petroleum refining gas processing petrochemical/chemical and engineer/constructor companies throughout the world aiche is the worlds leading organization for chemical engineering professionals with more than 40 000 members from 93 countries

dr g kemble bennett vice chancellor and dean of engineering recently announced administrative appointments for dr nk anand dr kenneth r hall and dr robin autenrieth within the dwight look college of engineering and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) anand has been appointed associate dean for research and associate agency director for tees autenrieth has been appointed associate dean for graduate programs and hall has been named associate dean of engineering and deputy director of tees the tees appointments are pending board of regents approval anand joined the faculty in 1985 in the department of mechanical engineering and was promoted to associate dean for graduate programs in 2007 and served as assistant dean for graduate programs since 2004 he has also served as associate department head for mechanical engineering and interim department head for the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering as associate dean for research and tees associate agency director anand will focus on faculty engagement for interdisciplinary research projects and the strategic development of research activities for the college of engineering hall joined the college of engineering in 1974 and has held many leadership positions within the program including associate vice chancellor and associate dean of engineering interim department head for both petroleum and chemical engineering and chemical engineering department head as associate dean for engineering and tees deputy director he will provide support for research intelligent properties and licensing to the college of engineering as well as responsibility for tees research centers and institutes autenrieth holds a joint appointment in the department of environmental and occupational health school of rural public health in the texas a&m university system health science center she has previously served as interim associate head for graduate studies and research for the civil engineering department as associate dean for graduate programs she will be responsible for the administration of the graduate functions of the college of engineering

dr sergiy butenko assistant professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university has been awarded a grant from the air force office of scientific research butenko who is also a researcher in the industrial and systems engineering division of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) received this grant for the winning research proposal he submitted as part of the air forces young investigator research program his proposal focuses on the concept of a cohesive subgroup that was first introduced in social network analysis it can also used in several other important application areas including wireless networks telecommunications and graph-based data mining one of the earliest models for the study of cohesive subgroups was the clique model butenko proposes new more practical models that relax various aspects of the ideal definition of a cohesive subgroup he will design algorithms for solving the resulting optimization problems and will use the developed techniques to analyze the structure of biological and social networks butenko came to texas a&m in 2003 he received his masters degree and phd from the university of florida he is a member of the american mathematical society the institute for operations research and the management sciences and the society for industrial and applied mathematics he is a member of the editorial board of four publications he has authored numerous publications and has contributed chapters to several books butenkos grant will be administered by tees the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

dr anastasia muliana assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university has been awarded a grant from the air force office of scientific research muliana who is also a researcher in the mechanical engineering division of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) received this grant for the winning research proposal that she submitted as part of the air forces young investigator research program her proposal for research was to develop a framework that integrates coupled thermal electrical and mechanical responses of the constituents of composites to the overall responses of smart composites with application to morphing structures she also plans to investigate long-term responses of these smart composites the proposed framework will enhance understanding of the multifunctional performance of smart structures under extreme environments and can support design optimization of intelligent aerospace vehicles which can significantly reduce development cost and time muliana came to texas a&m in 2004 she received her master¿s degree and phd from the georgia institute of technology she is a member of the american society of composites and the american society of mechanical engineers she has authored numerous publications and in 2005 received the career award from the national science foundation mulianas grant will be administered by tees the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

three professors from the dwight look college of engineering and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) recently were named regents professor for 2007-08 m sam mannan from the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering kr rajagopal from the department of mechanical engineering and jennifer l welch from the department of computer science and engineering were recognized by the texas a&m system board of regents mannan who is the holder of the t michael oconnor i chair as well as the director of the mary kay oconnor process safety center joined the texas a&m staff in 1997 as an associate professor of chemical engineering and has served as the director of the process safety center since that time other awards he has received include tees research fellow (2002) george armistead jr 23 fellow (2004-05) the distinguished achievement award for teaching (2003) and the quality recognition award from ppg industries inc rajagopal is the forsyth chair professor in mechanical engineering and has a joint appointment in the department of biomedical engineering he joined the engineering faculty in 1996 in 2003 he was named a university distinguished professor and in 2004 he was awarded the bush excellence award for faculty in international research he has published more than 290 papers in archival journals written three books edited three others and given more than 200 lectures and seminars at university and national labs welch holds the chevron professorship ii in computer science and is a professor in the departments parasol lab she joined the computer science faculty in 1992 as an assistant professor and served as interim department head in 2001-02 she received the charles w crawford service award in 2007 was named a tees fellow in 2003 and received the faculty distinguished achievement award in 2000 additionally she received the ieee education society hewlett-packard harriet b rigas award for outstanding women engineering educator in 2004 the board established the regents professor award program in 1996 to recognize employees who have made exemplary contributions to their university or agency and to the people of texas to date 105 faculty members have been named regents professors each recipient of the award receives a $9 000 stipend a commemorative medallion and a certificate

dr kenneth l peddicord director of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) was recently appointed to the texas low level radioactive waste disposal compact commission by gov rick perry the commission which was created pursuant to senate bill 1206 in the 73rd legislator will provide for the management and disposal of low level radioactive waste while maintaining the priority of health safety and welfare of citizens peddicord will serve on the commission through november 2014 the use of radioactive materials has a huge economic impact on our state and ranges from health care to energy production to research peddicord said safe and environmentally sound management of these materials is imperative i look forward to being part of the commission and carrying out this mission for texas" in addition to serving as director of tees peddicord is the senior associate dean for research and is a professor in the dwight look college of engineerings department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university he also serves as the director of the nuclear power institute (npi) which is headquartered at texas a&m npi is a statewide partnership of four-year universities two-year technical and community colleges the nuclear power industry state agencies and local organizations working together to respond to the challenge of providing a trained workforce to operate new reactors being planned for texas peddicord is also a consultant for pacific northwest national laboratories lawrence livermore national laboratory and los alamos national laboratory he is a member of the american nuclear society for engineering education american society of mechanical engineers and american society for engineering education peddicord received a bachelors degree from the university of notre dame and a masters and doctorate degree in nuclear engineering from the university of illinois perry also appointed michael ford of amarillo as chair of the board and john white of plano as the vice chair ford received a bachelors degree in health physics from texas a&ms department of nuclear engineering

the houston advanced research center (harc) and the harold vance department of petroleum engineering at texas a&m university announce the creation of a collaborative research program to promote advanced technology for low-impact oil and gas drilling the university/national laboratories alliance established as part of the environmentally friendly drilling (efd) program will fund and transfer critical new technologies that can accelerate development of domestic reserves in a safe and environmentally-friendly manner the research is aimed specifically at technologies that can be used in environmentally sensitive areas that are currently off limits to drilling and production in addition to harc and texas a&m founding members of the alliance include: - university of wyoming - university of colorado - utah state university - sam houston state university - university of arkansas - west virginia university - argonne national laboratory and - los alamos national laboratory according to rich haut manager of the alliance and senior research scientist at harc the goal is to fund the development of and share the latest research findings with leaders of energy academia environmental organizations and government "we will consider all aspects of energy resource recovery not only traditional oil and natural gas production methods but also unconventional production such as natural gas from shale or coal-bed methane " dr haut said "new technology and monitoring programs can show us how we can better manage precious natural resources while reducing our impact on the environment" haut encourages other national laboratories and universities to contact him about participation in the alliance david burnett efd project manager and director of technology at the global petroleum research institute (gpri) within texas a&m engineering said the new alliance is a great example of how federal funding of research and development can make important contributions to both energy security and environmental preservation the gpri is a center within the texas engineering experiment station (tees) burnett explained that efd represents new low-impact technologies that can reduce the footprint of drilling activities "for example we are currently examining the use of light-weight drilling rigs with reduced emission engine packages and efficient on-site waste management systems" created in 2005 efd is supported by the us department of energy national energy technology laboratory and the energy industry the growing efd partnership consists of universities national laboratories energy producers and service companies environmental organizations and government agencies created in 1982 harc is a not-for-profit organization based in the woodlands texas dedicated to improving human and ecosystem well-being through the application of sustainability science and principles of sustainable development

the aerospace vehicle systems institute (avsi) is expanding its presence in europe with the addition of airbus as a full member airbus is one of the worlds leading aircraft manufacturers the aerospace industry is inherently global in nature said david redman director of avsi "our us-based members are expanding their international operations while non-us companies are increasing their presence here the addition of airbus to the cooperative signals the intent of the current membership to bring a more diverse set of members to the table to solve issues common to all aerospace companies we fully expect to engage additional european aerospace companies regulatory agencies government agencies and universities to increase the value avsi delivers to its members avsi is a cooperative of aerospace companies the department of defense and federal aviation administration working together address issues that impact the aerospace community airbus approached avsi through its interest in our system architecture virtual integration or savi program redman said "savi is a multi-year multi-million dollar program that is developing the capability to virtually integrate systems before designs are committed to hardware as a means of managing the exponentially increasing complexity of modern aerospace systems airbus participation in savi has really enhanced the collaborative effort on the current proof-of-concept project we hope to see their participation grow in additional projects to enhance the benefit to all participants current membership in avsi includes: airbus; bae systems; boeing; the department of defense; federal aviation administration; general electric; goodrich aerospace; hamilton sundstrand; honeywell international; lockheed martin; nasa; and rockwell collins avis is a research center of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) which is a member of the texas a&m university system

james eggebrecht assistant research engineer and assistant director of the industrial assessment center for the texas engineering experiment station (tees) has been awarded a certificate of appreciation from the us department of energy (doe) for his participation in their save energy now program eggebrecht is certified and recognized by the doe as a "steam expert" as part of his work with the program eggebrecht performs energy assessments of manufacturing plants throughout the united states this is the second time he has been recognized for his work with the program save energy now is a national initiative of the does industrial technologies program (itp) whose mission is to drive a 25 percent reduction in industrial energy intensity in 10 years industries nationwide can apply to participate in these no-cost assessments experts such as eggebrecht perform assessments to help plants improve the performance of their steam systems as well as other industrial systems including process heating fan pump or compressed air systems during an assessment eggebrecht spends three days visiting a plant to perform an evaluation of their steam system and boilers and to train staff to utilize itp resources designed to reduce energy use while increasing profits training on three doe energy saving software programs is offered: steam system assessment tool a modeling program that allows plants to perform "what if " analysis; steam system scoping tool a benchmarking tool for comparing energy usage to peers and identifying shortfalls; and 3e plus an insulation and heat savings software started in 2006 save energy now energy assessments have helped us manufacturing facilities save an average of $2 million or 8 percent of their total energy costs

providing enough fresh water for residents is an issue for laredo texas a city of 200 000 on the texas-mexico border laredo is almost at the limit of water it can draw from the rio grande river and groundwater in the area is brackish or salty as a result the laredo city council has agreed to spend $16 million to build a pilot plant that will field test a new method of desalinating brackish water developed by a texas a&m university researcher and commercialized by terrabon llc "this is one step in securing and providing water in the future for not only laredo but the entire state with the development of this pilot project " said laredo city council member gene belmares the desalination plant which will produce 50 000 gallons of water a day will test water desalination technology developed by mark holtzapple a professor in texas a&ms artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering "we desalinate using vapor compression a method first employed on ships in world war ii " holtzapple said "we have updated this old approach using advanced technology such as high-capacity non-fouling heat exchanger and a low-cost high-efficiency starrotor compressor "in addition we operated at higher pressures than is traditionally employed compared to traditional technology these innovations lower both the capital cost and operating cost" the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and the center for applied technology (tcat) a center within tees will act as the technology integrator and analyst for the project additionally terrabon llc of houston an energy and water treatment technology company will design and construct the advanced vapor demonstration plant the american waters applied water management inc acting as a subcontractor for terrabon will operate and monitor the demonstration plant the project will demonstrate the commercial viability of advetm a new technology that could reduce the capital and operating costs of water purification and provide a low-cost solution to texas water problems advetm (advanced vapor-compression evaporation) uses low-cost high-efficiency starrotor compressors developed by holtzapples team and non-fouling heat exchangers to desalinate brackish and salty water at a cost that is significantly less expensive than desalination by reverse osmosis

dr g kemble bennett was named director of the texas engineering experiment station on march 26 by the texas a&m university system board of regents he was selected as sole finalist for the position at a telephonic board of regents meeting in february bennett who served as director of tees from 2002-2007 also is vice chancellor of engineering for the texas a&m system and dean of the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m university "in this transition i want to thank dr lee peddicord for his leadership at tees and i understand his interest in returning fulltime to his professional passion nuclear engineering " said dr michael d mckinney chancellor of the a&m system a professor in texas a&ms department of nuclear engineering peddicord continues to serve as director of the nuclear power institute a statewide partnership led by tees and headquartered at texas a&m "im also pleased to have dr bennett back as director of tees " said mckinney "kem has been a key player in establishing the texas a&m systems reputation for producing high-caliber engineers and engineering research and i know he will expand on that tradition as director" bennett joined the texas a&m engineering program in 1986 and has held several leadership positions including professor and head of the department of industrial engineering associate dean of research director and ceo of tees and director and ceo of the texas engineering extension service as vice chancellor bennett oversees coordination and collaboration among the engineering academic and research programs at universities throughout the texas a&m system and leads the research programs and extension services of three state agencies: tees teex and the texas transportation institute as dean of the dwight look college of engineering he heads one of the largest and highest-ranked engineering colleges in the nation "over the past several years we have significantly increased the number of engineering faculty and enhanced key strengths in research areas such as energy health care homeland security materials space and nanotechnology " said bennett "with the tremendous opportunities shaping up both at the state and federal level tees is poised to reach new levels of research excellence this is an exciting time to lead an outstanding organization with so much potential" bennett is the founding chairman of the national domestic preparedness consortium under the u s department of homeland security where he currently serves as executive director of one of their national training centers the national emergency response and rescue training center he is the founder of the state and national urban search & rescue team texas task force i and served as chairman of their advisory board for several years in 2007 he was appointed and named chair of the national advisory council for the federal emergency management agency created by the post-katrina act the council advises the administrator of fema on all aspects of preparedness and emergency management bennett is an elected fellow of both the society of logistics engineers and the institute of industrial engineers where he has been recognized for his professional and academic contributions through the awarding of the eccles medal and the albert g holzman award in july 2008 bennett was appointed by gov perry to chair the texas board of professional engineers bennett holds a bachelors degree from florida state university a masters degree from san jose state university and a phd in industrial engineering from texas tech university about the a&m system the a&m system is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation with a budget of $304 billion through a statewide network of nine universities seven state agencies and a comprehensive health science center the a&m system educates more than 109 000 students and makes more than 15 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year externally funded research brings in almost $676 million every year and helps drive the states economy

coleman texas - the central texas rural transit district (ctrtd) in coleman has received a $1 296 766 job access and reverse commute (jarc) program grant funded by the federal transit administration through the texas department of transportation (txdot) central texas rural transit districts jarc grant project was developed and submitted through a collaborative effort between ctrtd and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) center for community support this federal grant will provide funds to increase transit services designed to meet the employment needs of rural residents in brown callahan coleman comanche eastland nolan and stephens counties into the cities of abilene brownwood eastland and sweetwater jarc project transit services are planned to primarily center around job search workshops and trainings held at local workforce centers; and workshops and training held offsite but funded by the workforce solutions center of west central texas the plan also promises to extend service hours in order to enhance employment opportunities for rural residents in the city of brownwood rural texas residents are facing many barriers and challenges as they work to keep their family farm and ranch lands many are required to travel into metro areas to work and gain new skills to earn needed wages said martha opersteny of the center for community support "with the increasing cost of transportation this project will provide a helping hand" ms opersteny added while the primary service needs will be access to jobs education and training on a "space available" basis this service will be accessible to the general public it is anticipated that medical and shopping needs may also be fulfilled using this coordinator service jr salazar ctrtds general manager anticipates that over 2 000 clients will benefit from this project during the three year funding period the tees center for community support provides a broad range of information data and proposal writing services at no cost for texas community-based nonprofit organizations support is available to pursue competitive funding for programs designed to improve the quality of life for texans in all approximately $38 million in federal and private grants have been garnered for texas nonprofit sector with the direct assistance of the center

dr charles d johnson adjunct professor at texas a&m university at qatar was named a fellow by the doha international institute for family studies and development (diifsd) johnson is the director of the center for community support a center within the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and also serves as director of the public policy research institute at texas a&m university as part of qatar foundation for education science and community development the diifsd is among the premier international research centers examining the legal sociological and scientific basis of the family as the natural and fundamental group unit of society the title and award were conferred by he abdullah al-khalifa secretary general of the supreme council for family affairs and chairman of the diifsd board of governors secretary general al-khalifa said he was pleased to recognize dr johnsons scholarship and commitment to the traditional family "we look forward to a long and productive relationship with charles johnson and texas a&m at qatar " he al-khalifa said the appointment as doha fellow is the highest honor offered by the diifsd and carries a $25 000 annual stipend said dr hassan hammoud the institutes director of research hammoud also lauded johnsons work on the global family matters information system (famis) and the global state of the family index "working in close collaboration with the diifsd research group charles johnson has made a great contribution to global research on the family " hammoud said the center for community support (ccs) provides a broad range of no-cost grant-writing services for texas communities support is available to pursue funding for programs designed to improve the quality of life and promote safe and healthy lifestyles among the citizens of the state the public policy research institute (ppri) is a social policy research organization that has provided legislators and agency decision makers with scientific research and evaluative services for more than 20 years johnson has served on national review panels for us health and human services testified before the us congress served as an expert member on the us family preservation act planning committee and has presented his research at the united nations further johnson was a recent recipient of the esteemed career achievement bush excellence award for faculty in public service presented by president george hw bush and was texas a&m universitys inaugural regents professor the highest distinction conferred by the universitys board of regents dr mark weichold dean and ceo of texas a&m at qatar said he is pleased to have johnson among the universitys faculty in qatar and that he appreciated the comments offered by al-khalifa and hammoud "this is but one example of the strong working relationships between qatar foundation texas a&m at qatar and the nation as a whole " he said

nicole pottberg assistant director human resources with the texas engineering experiment station (tees) recently earned certification as a professional in human resources (phr) the certification awarded by the hr certification institute signifies that pottberg possesses the theoretical knowledge and practical experience in human resource management necessary to pass a rigorous examination demonstrating a mastery of the body of knowledge in the field certification as a human resource professional clearly demonstrates a commitment to personal excellence and to the human resource profession said mary power cae executive director of the hr certification institute to become certified an applicant must pass a comprehensive examination and demonstrate a strong background of professional human resource experience the hr certification institute is the credentialing body for human resource professionals and is affiliated with the society for human resource management (shrm) the worlds largest organization dedicated exclusively to the human resource profession the institutes purpose is to promote the establishment of professional standards and to recognize professionals who meet those standards

dr kenneth r hall associate dean of engineering and deputy director of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) was one of three individuals honored with an innovation award by the texas a&m university system on thursday (april 9) hall was presented the award during the 2009 patent and innovation awards hosted by the a&m systems office of technology commercialization (otc) at the annenberg presidential conference center in the george bush presidential library complex additionally eight individuals from the dwight look college of engineering and tees were recognized for being granted patent protection from the united states patent & trademark office in 2008 the innovation awards were presented to scientists and inventors whose research exemplifies the spirit of innovation within the a&m system hall is an inventor or co-inventor in 12 patents including four that supports the gas to liquids process that is licensed to synfuels inc his research interests include thermophysical fluid properties obstruction flowmeters and gas to liquid processing the otc describes hall as a strong and effective leader in working across the engineering departments and centers and with other system members to identify propose and support commercialization efforts as well as being an active researcher hall is a professor in the chemical engineering department where he holds the jack e and francis brown chair and he also served as the head of the department for four years the other two innovation awards went to the texas transportation institute roadside safety division inventors and darwin prockop of texas a&ms health science center those receiving patent awards include: mark holtzapple (chemical engineering); gary noyes (professor emeritus in mechanical engineering); edward dougherty (electrical and computer engineering); david claridge (director energy systems laboratory); william turner (past director energy systems laboratory); randall tucker (tees researcher and lecturer mechanical engineering); alan palazzolo (mechanical engineering); and john criscione (biomedical engineering)

a tees texas center for applied technology project in which laredo high school students helped to build and install wind turbines to provide power to border colonias has been a named finalist in the texas environmental excellence awards competition the project team led by dr dean schneider from san antonio will be recognized at the texas commission on environmental quality awards banquet may 13 in austin about 40 high school students from laredos two engineering magnet schools worked with schneider and researchers in the texas engineering experiment station (tees) and west texas a&m university (wtamu) to provide electricity to colonias residents along the us-mexico border who are currently without power schneider said that students in the united high school engineering and technology magnet school and the laredo isd magnet for engineering and technology applications (cigarroa high school) are collaborating with tees and wtamu engineers to build and install four wind turbines in 2007 and 2008-one per year from each school two demonstration turbines built by students at each high school were installed in may 2007 one powers the electric marquee in front of cigarroa high school in south laredo and the other provides lighting for part of the webb county self-help center where colonias residents can borrow tools the students built the wind turbines from existing plans and generated a set of instructions that will be translated into spanish to be understandable by colonias residents in the us-mexico border region

texas a&ms solar decathlon house is finding a new home the solar d was designed and built as texas a&m universitys entry in the 2007 solar decathlon competition sponsored by the department of energy as a collective effort of a group of dedicated students faculty staff and external partners after its journey from the college of architectures ranch at the riverside campus in college station to the washington dc mall competition site and its return to college station to be on display to the public at the bush librarys parking lot for almost one year the solar d began another journey on monday (april 20) to san antonio the college of architecture (carc) at texas a&m university which made the significant initial investment in the conception development and execution of the solar d is partnering with the texas engineering experiment station (tees) through its texas center for applied technology (tcat) to transfer this architectural and technological icon from its current location and state to a site in san antonio the ultimate goal is to transform the solar d into a texas a&m university system wide asset as a cornerstone and focal point for the development of collaborative interdisciplinary and cross-institutional research teaching/learning/training and engagement opportunities one initial opportunity that will benefit from this partnership is the official launch of the zero-impact self-sustaining (ziss) collaboratory which will initially bring together researchers from a wide range of disciplines within architecture engineering agriculture and life sciences and other units within texas a&m and the texas a&m system as needed in the development of solutions for sustainable built and natural environments commenting on this opportunity "skip" mills director of the san antonio operations of tcat/tees stated: "the city of san antonio is eagerly awaiting solar ds next life as a nexus for research and development as well as a learning center for sustainability it is being considered as a candidate for incorporation within mayor phil hardbergers new mission verde initiative - an economic approach to sustainability focused on energy" in addition dr jorge vanegas interim dean of the college of architecture stated "the emerging partnership between the college of architecture and tees combined with the solar d move offers an exciting and unparalleled opportunity to create an exemplar of integrated research teaching/learning/training and engagement scholarship in a domain of critical importance for the city of san antonio the state of texas our nation and the world: the sustainability of the built and natural environments we are very proud to be a partner in this initiative"

the oran w nicks low speed wind tunnel (own lswt) at texas a&m university will host the 45th international subsonic aerodynamic testing association (sata) conference beginning sunday and running through june 12 the own lswt is a part of the department of aerospace engineering and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the wind tunnel is located across from the general aviation terminal at easterwood airport engineers from asia europe south africa and north america will meet to exchange knowledge ideas and processes used for the operation and maintenance of low speed wind tunnels the conference will include presentations by the various representatives as well as tours of a&m laboratory and testing facilities sata started in 1965 and the own lswt is a charter member the own lswt which was built in the mid 1940s last hosted the conference in 1983 an upgrade on the tunnel was started in the late 1950s and it opened in its current state in 1960 the main parts of the wind tunnel have not changed but all the controls and data acquisition have been modernized to state-of-the-art technology the lswt is in the center of the new wind tunnel complex which supports research by faculty and students in aerospace low speed wind tunnels are used to test the aerodynamic characteristics of objects and were started mainly as a tool for airplane design they still fill this role but have expanded to test spacecraft missiles cars trucks motorcycles bicycles oil platforms buildings outdoor structures and even golf clubs and golf balls

texas a&m engineering and the college of architecture recently hosted five teachers from the bryan independent school district (bisd) to help them develop a curriculum for camp energy an enrichment program being offered by bisd for middle school students not attending summer school participants will apply science and math skills to learn about energy conservation through design contests and field trips to the nuclear science center energy systems laboratory (esl) college of architecture and a local biomass conversion plant esl an organizer of camp energy hopes the program will increase awareness about energy efficiency and sustainability and also the number of middle school students aspiring to get a four-year technical degree don gilman said gilman an assistant research engineer in esl conceptualized camp energy which will take place june 22-26 esl and the nuclear science center are part of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the engineering research agency for the state of texas and the texas a&m university system

while most teachers are enjoying their summers out of the classroom eight texas teachers are sharpening their skills this summer by working with texas a&m engineering faculty under the e3 program e3-enrichment experiences in engineering-is a summer research program organized by texas a&m engineering for high school math and science teachers and pre-service teachers as part of the national science foundations research experience for teachers program between june 8 and july 2 eight teachers will attend seminars go on field trips and participate in research under the guidance of faculty members from the dwight look college of engineering and researchers from the texas engineering experiment station (tees) through discussions the teachers will attempt to translate their research experiences into classroom lesson plans that include engineering applications "we encourage the teachers to develop engineering projects for their classes that are open-ended problem-solving scenarios these projects are great because they encourage the students to think for themselves " says dr cheryl page an assistant research scientist at tees who is helping organize e3 e3 is hosted by the dwight look college of engineering and tees and funded by the national science foundation

with dwindling coal and oil reserves and increased awareness about climate change zero-carbon energy sources-such as nuclear energy-are in the spotlight in fact as part of its nuclear energy university program the department of energy is funding texas a&m universitys dr jean ragusas research that will improve the working of nuclear reactors ragusa is an assistant professor in the nuclear engineering department and associate director of the institute for scientific computation a part of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) tees is the engineering research agency for the state of texas and is a member of the texas a&m university system for this project ragusa will be collaborating with dr pavel solin an associate professor of mathematics at the university of nevada reno ragusa and solin aim to provide engineers with significantly improved simulations of the various physical phenomena taking place in nuclear reactors they will use their $587 000 grant to develop new and highly sophisticated computational methods to predict the behavior of complex coupled processes occurring in nuclear reactors such as neutron flux thermal-hydraulics and structural mechanics current models consider or "solve" one physical process at a time for example these models that can tell you where neutrons are in a reactor how accurate this prediction is depends on how closely the model mimics the conditions in a reactor scientists know that a physical process is simultaneously influenced by different processes but since current models consider only one physical phenomenon at a time their predictions are not sufficiently accurate ragusa and solin will develop open-source software based on advanced numerical analysis to simultaneously solve multiple physical processes and provide accurate predictions of the reactions occurring in reactors their multiphysics simulations will rely on the high-level software platforms the two researchers have developed independently in the past ragusa and solins research could help improve the efficiency of existing nuclear reactors since this research will allow scientists to rely more on predictive simulations rather than expensive experimental mock-ups it will also help scientists design reactors at a lesser cost since experiments in nuclear science are expensive ragusa said "before you build a reactor it is important to verify how it will function and ensure that safety margins are respected; this can be done at a lower cost if computer models are more accurate predictive models are important because they can answer these questions using high-performance computing" ragusa and solin are working with other national laboratories including idaho national laboratory to develop their software popularizing this relatively new technique will help nuclear engineers solve problems faster and more accurately ragusa said

washington dc has decided to go green and at camp energy 36 middle-school students from the bryan independent school district (bisd) prepared for the challenge camp energy which was held between june 22 and 26 at davila middle school in bryan was organized by bisd and the energy systems laboratory (esl) a center within the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the children learned about energy transformation energy efficiency and alternative fuels through field trips to bryan texas utilitys dansby power plant texas a&m universitys college of architecture the tees spacecraft technology center the dwight look college of engineerings nuclear science center and the tees/mixalco pilot biomass conversion plant i enjoyed the field trips especially the one to the space center because i want to build spacecrafts when i grow up said 13-year-old hunter denton don gilman an assistant research engineer in esl who conceptualized the program said that the aim of the field trips was twofold: "besides exposing the children to energy concepts we wanted to increase their awareness about different high-level jobs involving science math and engineering" the children applied the different energy concepts they learned during the field trips in hands-on activities they constructed energy-efficient house models built miniature waterwheels and windmills conducted energy audits of household appliances and a school building and raced solar cars i think the students enjoyed the hands-on activities we did not give them too many rules just the basics the ideas and innovation are all their own said jessica mahaffey a biology teacher at bryan high school who says camp energy has benefitted her too by helping her become better informed about energy-efficient building materials camp energy activities were designed to mimic real-world situations for example to build energy-efficient houses the children were given budgets ranging from $105 000 to $115 000 they had to buy all building materials which were realistically priced using this budget i was worried when we spent $100 000 of our $115 000 to buy the cardboard box for the house said 11-year-old kristin oneill who along with team member denton built the house with the lowest internal temperature "but we still managed to stay within budget" houses built with both high and low budgets were comparable in terms of energy efficiency noted sally keller a sixth-grade science teacher at sam rayburn middle school "i think we managed to show the children that going green need not be expensive " keller said the camp organizers now face the challenge of translating the camp activities into classroom activities that are aligned with teks requirements the teachers have been working hard during the camp noting what works and what doesnt gilman said "the participants have also taken pre- and post-tests besides cost time and storage are concerns the only way to do these activities in classrooms effectively will be to virtualize them i keep seeing the muppet scientist in his lab but online using flash technology" camp energy sponsors included the brazos valley affordable housing co-op city of bryan-sustainability office bryan texas utilities and the brazos valley association of home builders tees is the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system camp energy is part of a larger plan to extend energy education in schools called "integrated school energy education and building improvement" or iseebi for more information visit http://iseebitamuedu

researchers from the texas center for applied technology (tcat) traveled to fort hood texas june 10 to deliver new developmental visualization software and provide hands-on training to users within operational test command (otc) the armys premiere operational testing agency the process-oriented data visualization (prodv) software application provides interactive visual analysis capabilities to both analysts and data collectors by combining data transformation processing and visualization capabilities within an easy-to-use visual programming environment this allows analysts to both detect the expected and discover the unexpected in extremely large and diverse collections of data effective visual analysis of this data is critical to the evaluation of the results of operational testing which is designed to ensure that critical requirements are met and performance limitations are well-understood on all equipment the army puts into the hands of its soldiers the software training provided students with hands-on experience creating custom interactive data visualizations and analyzing sample datasets and was attended by texas a&m university student intern kyle dudark a senior in the department of industrial and systems engineering representatives from otc who are responsible for the design and execution of test events and data collection said that this software will provide them with analytic capabilities needed for dealing with large datasets produced when complex systems are tested for function and interoperability otc test officers and data collectors will also assist in software testing for prodv during a verification and validation (v&v) event in october larkin ohern is the project manager a retired army officer and former texas a&m corps of cadets member oherns military knowledge combined with the tcat research personnels expertise produced a team that was able to design software specifically to meet the needs of otc derek overby who is currently a doctoral candidate in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m worked primarily with tcats blake stoker eric landrenau and abhishek bhor to design and implement the software under the guidance of dr jim wall director of tcats computing and information technology division and an associate research professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m tcat is currently in its third year of development of the prodv software framework and application under the university xxi congressional funding program in partnership with otc during a recent project review john diem the otc representative for the project said that "teaming with a&m over the last three years has been a model of how to do things right" the prodv software is currently being reviewed for an army certificate of networthiness which will allow the visualization software to be used on army computer systems this material is based upon work supported by the us army operational test command under contract no w900kk-08-c-0031 any opinions findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the us army operational test command tcat is part of the texas engineering experiment station (tees) the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

a total of 13 researchers in the texas engineering experiment station (tees) have received the prestigious faculty early career development (career) award from the national science foundation (nsf) the researchers are all from texas a&m university-kingsville and the dwight look college of engineering at texas a&m university the researchers are: • dr ulisses braga-neto tees electrical and computer engineering division and an assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m for his proposal "theory and application of small-sample error estimation in genomic signal processing" braga-netos research interests include genomic signal processing and statistical pattern recognition with applications in the study of cancer and infectious diseases he is particularly interested in the design and analysis of statistical methods of small-sample classification and error estimation for genomics and proteomics applications • dr zachary grasley tees civil engineering division and an assistant professor of materials engineering in the zachry department of civil engineering at texas a&m for a project that will focus on improving concrete materials grasleys research seeks to improve the understanding of the link between abstract nanoscale properties and macroscale material performance the research could ultimately transform the way concrete is designed resulting in safer more sustainable concrete infrastructure • dr greg huff tees electrical and computer engineering division and an assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m for his proposal "biologically inspired concepts for reconfigurable antennas and multifunctional smart skins" huffs research examines the circulatory system in our bodies and the color-changing/shape-shifting skin of the cuttlefish as motivation for a new landscape of biologically inspired concepts in reconfigurable antennas sensors and other wireless devices huffs research will enable new capabilities in these radio frequency (rf) and microwave devices - the frequencies at which cell phones wi-fi etc operate - by finding and exploiting unique parallels between nanoparticles microfluidics and other emerging technologies with the functions of blood cells veins and other biological systems • dr jaakko järvi tees computer science and engineering division and an assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m for research in methods for increasing software reusability the project aims to identify incidental structures formed by interactions between components comprising real-world software systems järvi will focus specifically on those incidental structures that arise in user interfaces (uis) and model them as explicit software artifacts the result is that large amounts of ad-hoc code can be replaced by reusable algorithms and other components järvis research will impact future large-scale software development and hopefully result in increased productivity and software that is more reliable efficient and predictable • dr arul jayaraman tees chemical engineering division and an assistant professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m for his research which focuses on soluble signal-mediated signaling between bacteria and human cells termed inter-kingdom (ik) signaling as the research paradigm for molecular systems biology his research has the potential to impact several areas: the molecular systems signaling framework to be developed in the project will lead to a fundamental understanding of signals receptors and recognition mechanisms this in turn will further the advancement of emerging areas such as synthetic biology in addition the research is expected to form the basis of novel molecular therapeutic strategies against e coli and other pathogens • dr tie liu tees electrical and computer engineering division and an assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m for his proposal "information theory and coding for wireless broadcast networks" lius research interests are in the field of information theory wireless communication and signal processing • dr tamás kalmár-nagy tees aerospace engineering division and an assistant professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m for work aimed at developing a novel theoretical and computational framework for studying interconnected systems with random time delays interconnected systems are common in chemical and nuclear plants cars and aircrafts making research about their stability and security important since interconnected systems communicate large amounts of dynamic data signal delays are common and to date can only be characterized statistically his research could impact a broad range of applications that use interconnected components including space exploration mobile sensor networks teleoperated surgical robots and integrated building systems • dr eun jung kim tees computer science and engineering division and an assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m for her research in high-performance computing kim seeks to develop a comprehensive design paradigm for exploring the on-chip interconnect design space especially focusing on how it interacts with the rest of the cmp architecture the research is already being integrated into education curriculum through existing and new graduate courses and in undergraduate research programs in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m • dr david ramirez a tees researcher and an environmental engineering assistant professor at texas a&m-kingsville for a project that examines tiny man-made particles called nanomaterials which are smaller in size than a human hair and may serve as the basis of a variety of new technology for consumers physicians scientists and others ramirez is studying what happens when these new original nanomaterials come in contact with air pollutants - specifically whether the nanomaterials change form and have negative impacts on human health safety and the environment • dr lin shao tees nuclear engineering division and an assistant professor in the department of nuclear engineering at texas a&m to explore the radiation response and stability of nanostructured materials these materials could be used in the next generation of high-temperature nuclear reactors his research has the potential to improve fundamental understanding of materials degradation issues and lead to cleaner safer and more efficient nuclear energy his research will also impact the application of a wide range of nanomaterials-based devices sensors and detectors used in extreme-radiation environments such as space • dr haiyan wang tees electrical and computer engineering division and an assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m for her proposal "novel ceramic nanocomposites with smart interface design" she plans to examine the nanoscale interfaces in multifunctional ceramic thin films her research interests lie in the area of functional oxide and nitride thin films for microelectronics optoelectronics high-temperature superconductors solid oxide fuel cells solar cells and advanced nuclear reactors her expertise is thin-film growth and characterizations • dr sy-bor wen tees mechanical engineering division and an assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m for his research in optically induced nanoscale heat transfer with an emphasis on nano-optical devices nano-optics is a new branch of optical engineering and has the potential to revolutionize the science and industry with its ability in lower power high speed and high spatial resolution detection fabrication and operation wen aims to better understand the particle and wave types energy transport during the operation of nano-optical devices which is crucial to the development of this new field • dr yifang zhu a tees researcher and an environmental engineering assistant professor at texas a&m-kingsville for her work in understanding vehicular emitted ultrafine particles (ufp) her research that focuses on transport and transformation of ufp from vehicle tailpipes to within the vehicle cabin ufp are a major component of vehicular emissions that have been linked to adverse respiratory and cardiovascular issues the nsf established the career program to support junior faculty within the context of their overall career development combining in a single program the support of research and education of the highest quality and in the broadest sense through this program the nsf emphasizes the importance on the early development of academic careers dedicated to stimulating the discovery process in which the excitement of research is enhanced by inspired teaching and enthusiastic learning visit http://wwwnsfgov for more information tees is the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

researchers from the energy systems laboratory (esl) at the texas engineering experiment station (tees) are helping austin go green they have developed a web-based tool called texas climate vision (tcv) to test the energy efficiency of new houses in austin builders can use this software to confirm the energy efficiency of house plans before construction begins in 2008 austin began implementing a new energy code which aims to improve the energy efficiency of new homes by 65 percent through energy-efficient roofing lighting heating ventilation and air conditioning all new houses built in austin must conform to this code energy-efficient buildings ease the strain on power plants thus curtailing harmful co2 nox and sox emissions — the main culprits behind global warming although the initial cost of building energy-efficient houses can be relatively high the energy saved by such homes translates into big savings on power bills for residents states such as california and florida which have strong building codes have already seen an upswing in energy savings its important for owners of new homes to understand that by paying now they can save a lot later said don gilman an assistant research engineer at esl using data from house plans tcv simulates a model of the proposed house the software then estimates the energy efficiency of the simulated house and calculates the reduction in harmful emissions based on energy savings after construction is complete certified third-party inspectors certify the homes construction as meeting or exceeding the energy code once a month austin energy the city-owned electricity supplier receives a report on all inspected homes and their energy savings the current software can simulate conventional houses not glass houses such as those commonly built overlooking lake travis it also does not calibrate for lifestyle differences gilman said "for example you might use energy-efficient water heaters but if youre going to take long hot showers your air conditioners will still have to remove the heat from the house thus costing you more" tcv is an offshoot of ic3 another energy-code compliance software developed by esl which is used across texas tcv was developed by tees esl in partnership with austin energy texas hero and the us department of energy tees is the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system

starting thursday (sept 10) short courses lectures tutorials and case studies can be submitted for the first middle east turbomachinery symposium (mets) the deadline for submissions is feb 1 2010 mets is being organized by the turbomachinery laboratory at texas a&m university along with the society of petroleum engineers and texas a&m university at qatar this symposium is closely modeled after the turbomachinery symposia that have been held in texas since 1971 through feature lectures tutorials case studies discussion groups short courses and exhibits mets will promote professional development technology transfer peer networking and information exchange among industry professionals mets will be held at the sheraton resort and convention hotel doha qatar between feb 13 and 16 2011 for more information visit middle east turbo or contact dr dara w childs director of the turbomachinery laboratory and chair of the mets technical advisory committee the turbomachinery laboratory conducts basic and applied research into important problems of reliability and performance of turbomachinery by drawing on world-renowned research expertise of texas a&ms dwight look college of engineering and the texas engineering experiment station (tees) tees is the engineering research agency of the state of texas and a member of the texas a&m university system