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since 2015 the data-enabled discovery and design of energy materials (d3em) training program at texas a&m university has been developing interdisciplinary leaders across the college of science and college of engineering d3em is led by dr raymundo arroyave presidential impact fellow and professor in the department of materials science and engineering one of the most rewarding aspects of the program is the fact that we have such a diverse group of students with all kinds of life experiences said arroyave funded by the national science foundation the program focuses on empowering graduate students with the skills needed to create and apply data-driven approaches to the development design and application of advanced materials and machine learning for energy-related technologies through both fellowship research and networking opportunities it bolsters the students of today as they work toward a more sustainable tomorrow levi mcclenny a doctoral candidate in the department of electrical and computer engineering who holds a d3em fellowship and was recently appointed student regent has utilized the program to gain insight as to what happens at the microstructure level in materials in doing so he is working under the mentorship of dr ulisses braga-neto associate professor in the electrical and computer engineering department to investigate how to develop and manufacture better materials designed to accomplish specific tasks for the future the d3em group has been using data to learn a substantial amount about materials compositions and processing methods and has derived methods that are currently being fielded by entities such as nasa to create materials with specific properties that are useful for very specific applications said mcclenny the d3em research is a test bed for proof of concept that we can learn real practical and pragmatic methods of utilizing materials data to our advantage in addition to creating he is also looking into how materials break down in a collaborative project between the d3em and the army research lab mcclenny is investigating how machine learning can be applied to the fracturing process of materials in order to predict when breakage or deterioration will occur in military vehicles and ultimately prevent it from happening in the first place for example a military aircraft is comprised of a myriad of components – each in different stages of wear and tear by building smart vehicles that can begin to detect their own deterioration pilots and engineers will be able to better determine the overall state of their vehicle which will help with maintenance and operational requirements through his experience with d3em mcclenny has been given the opportunity to pursue his research passions while also honing his professional and technical skills to be able to effectively communicate within collaborate and lead an interdisciplinary team now and into his future career better material implies better structures and probably cheaper to manufacture as well said mcclenny as we learn more about how to manufacture materials to the exact specifications we desire we can remove the design constraints that exist with some materials used in modern structures machines and medicine doing so would allow us to manufacture the exact material required for a task and can have significant implications in improving the designs of the future and optimizing the designs of the past levi is a perfect example of the students we aspire to train as he not only brings his expertise in computer science and machine learning into a materials science program but his military perspective brings a sense of purpose to some of the problems we study as part of the program said arroyave harnessing his diverse experiences and dedication to a better future mcclenny is now taking steps toward his new appointment as student regent needless to say i was ecstatic (to learn about the appointment) this is an opportunity i have had my eyes on for years and its incredibly exciting to see years of work pay off said mcclenny

on june 25 2019 dr sean mcdeavitt director of the nuclear engineering and science center hosted the first experimenters integration meeting at texas a&m university this meeting was attended by approximately 85 contributors from across five different department of energy (doe) laboratories 20 universities and seven industry partners the focus of the meeting was information sharing in order to build stronger collaborations across the suite of the versatile test reactor (vtr) experiment program for the last 23 years the us has not had a fast reactor-based neutron source such a neutron source is the cornerstone of the countrys ability to accelerate the development and testing of advanced materials and fuels by testing them in high fast-neutron fields with representative environments the reason this whole effort is important is because the reactor itself is intentionally traditional in design and is actually fairly simple however the experiments that are conducted in the reactor can be quite complex and can influence the design of the reactor and the reactor facility said john bumgardner resumption of transient testing director at the idaho national laboratory (inl) bumgardner went on to explain that while this reactor is a sodium fast reactor he can actually use it to do fuels testing qualification for many other reactor types this testing capability is essential for the us to modernize its nuclear energy infrastructure for developing transformational nuclear energy technologies a modern domestic test reactor capability is needed for the advanced reactor community in the us to achieve its goals regarding cost reduction long-lived structures and cladding materials and fuels that can withstand extreme environments i want people to understand how crucial this project really is to the advancement of nuclear in general said kevin weaver vtr experiment manager and technical lead at inl there are things that we will learn out of it that were not even thinking of right now weaver likened their research and various collaborations to the faith people place in nasa missions theres so much work and preparation that goes into it and there is no way to know what were going to get out of it but if you think forwardeven just a few years aheadthis work could drastically change the landscape thats a big deal this experimenters integration meeting aimed to provide an overall framework of the whole project to the people on the experiment team the meeting was also an opportunity to hear from research teams in order to understand what their progress has been and what their needs are in order to move forward

bridges make it possible to get to places faster and more conveniently but in the face of an earthquake these structures are subject to forces that can cause extensive damage dr petros sideris an assistant professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m university is leading a collaborative research effort funded by the national science foundation (nsf) to investigate the performance of hybrid sliding-rocking (hsr) columns which provide the same support as conventional bridge infrastructure columns but are more earthquake resistant conventional bridges are cast-in-place monolithic concrete elements that are strong but inflexible structural damage in conventional columns usually caused by a natural disaster result in cracking damage that would force a bridge to close until repairs are completed on the other hand bridges with hsr columns are able to withstand large earthquakes with minimal damage and require only minor repairs likely without bridge closures such infrastructure not only increases community quality of life but can also save thousands in taxpayer dollars there are multiple advantages to the public sideris said by preventing bridge damage we can maintain access to the affected areas immediately after the event for response teams to be easily deployed this accessibility will further help the affected communities to recover faster also by mitigating losses related to post-event bridge repairs and bridge closures more funds can be potentially directed to supporting the recovery of the affected communities

bridges with hsr columns are more resilient than traditional columns because they have more deformability meaning they can more easily alter their shape traditional columns are cast as one piece which means that as the earth shakes and bends these structures crack like a stick bent at both ends hsr columns are built as a series of individual concrete segments held together by steel cables that allow for controlled sliding and rocking this allows the columns to shift and rock without damage while post-tensioning strands ensure that at the end of an earthquake the columns are pushed back to their original position our research has shown that hybrid sliding-rocking columns can be very damage resistant sideris said in the future sideris plans to investigate other aspects of the new design such as how resistant hsr columns are to vehicular impact utilizing feedback from an expert panel of engineers from academia and industry the team is also investigating potential repair strategies for the hsr column design in comparison to strategies used for conventional bridge columns selecting the best repair strategy after an earthquake is no easy task because on the one hand it affects the direct repair costs and bridge downtime while on the other hand affects the future performance of the bridge in future earthquakes sideris said for a new design such as the hybrid sliding-rocking columns this can be even more challenging working on projects such as this that help people and help making their lives better during difficult times has always been meaningful and fulfilling for me sideris added this nsf-funded project includes collaborations with dr abbie b liel from the university of colorado at boulder a co-principal investigator on the project doctoral students mohammad salehi (texas a&m) and jakub valigura (university of colorado at boulder) several texas a&m undergraduate students and former texas a&m masters student hareesh goli

two faculty members from the texas a&m university college of engineering were among 54 academic inventors named to the spring 2019 class of senior members by the national academy of inventors (nai) the new senior members include dr robert balog and dr balakrishna haridas balog is an associate professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and haridas is a professor of practice in the department of biomedical engineering and executive director for technology commercialization and entrepreneurship for the texas a&m engineering experiment station nai senior members are active faculty scientists and administrators from nai member institutions with success in patents licensing and commercialization they have produced technologies that have brought or aspire to bring real impact on the welfare of society we congratulate our outstanding faculty dr robert balog and dr balakrishna haridas for their election as senior members of the nai both are researchers at the top of their fields and leaders in engineering innovation said dr m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of texas a&m engineering senior members also foster a spirit of innovation within their communities while educating and mentoring the next generation of inventors following a nomination for the nai senior member class individuals undergo a rigorous selection process by the nai senior member advisory committee comprised of elected nai members and other professionals considered pioneers in their respective field senior members are elected biannually and nominations are accepted on a rolling basis nominations are currently being accepted for the third senior member class on the nai website nai member institutions support some of the most elite innovators on the horizon with the nai senior member award distinction we are recognizing innovators that are rising stars in their fields said paul r sanberg nai president this new class is joining a prolific group of academic visionaries already defining tomorrow a full list of nai senior members is available on the nai website

many texans particularly the poor and elderly live in areas that are far from medical care telemonitoring the use of technology to monitor a patients health status remotely is an emerging medical practice intended to help these patients researchers from the department of industrial and systems engineering the department of health policy and management and the health care industry have collaborated on a report that reviews the importance of telemonitoring technology for the texas population the report reviewed the successful implementation of a semi-autonomous home health monitoring system that measures the blood pressure and/or blood glucose level of a patient and alerts medical staff when either hits a dangerous level if an alert occurs the staff would then contact the patient to determine if the situation reported by the system was accurate and if they need medical assistance this report is a beginning step to show how telemonitoring technologies can positively impact individuals especially those living in rural areas this system can help clinicians focus on the patients that need the most attention even if they are located remotely said dr hye-chung kum associate professor in the school of public health at texas a&m university health science center and principal investigator on the report cost-effective semi-automated telemonitoring systems have the potential to improve the health of the population through increased access to quality medical care while the report found that telemonitoring provided many benefits there are still some challenges to be worked out in the adoption of this technology we must address organizational cultural and societal barriers by involving a wide range of stakeholders in our research including the staff and medical assistants who receive organize and summarize the telemonitoring data in addition to physicians who review this data said dr farzan sasangohar assistant professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering and co-author of the report the way a clinicians office is set up can create a disconnect between the individuals receiving data and those making decisions based on the data this disconnect can block the effectiveness of the telemonitoring system and these challenges will be addressed in future research what we learned through this research will help us address the challenges that arose and improve the system for future research and implementation in clinics said dr mark lawley department head of industrial and systems engineering and co-author of the report by using the information we have gathered and continuing to improve our knowledge of the pain points in the system we will help bring telemonitoring technologies to those texans who need it most

the texas a&m university system board of regents on thursday authorized the construction of a $130 million combat development complex at the texas a&m systems rellis campus in bryan the complex will include a one-of-a-kind kilometer-long tunnel that will make texas a&m engineering the hypersonics research capital of the country said m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of engineering at the rellis campus gen john mike murray commanding general for the us army futures command said the army futures command would develop test and evaluate next-generation technologies from the private sector and universities around the country the texas a&m system will build a $50 million facility with laboratories accelerator space and offices for the army futures command on the rellis campus plus invest another $30 million in infrastructure improvements to support the new facility the texas legislature also appropriated $50 million to establish an innovative proving ground which the texas a&m engineering experiment station will implement as an outdoor testing area at rellis for designing analyzing and validating new technologies in challenging environments gov greg abbott lt gov dan patrick and speaker dennis bonnen championed the $50 million to be included in the state appropriations bill for the proving ground this innovative new complex strengthens texas partnership with the united states military and further establishes our state as a hub for emerging technology said gov abbott i am proud to have worked with the lieutenant governor the speaker and the legislature to secure funding to move this project forward the state of texas will continue to work with the texas a&m system and the army futures command to modernize our defense and keep our armed forces at the forefront of technological advancement the army futures command headquartered in austin is drawing on research from universities around the country and the private sector to modernize the us army but the new facility at rellis will be the central hub where the newest and most innovative ideas are tested and evaluated – often by soldiers from nearby fort hood or members of the texas a&m university corps of cadets the aim is to shorten the time it takes to get emerging technologies from the lab to the field and maximize technology capabilities through soldier feedback a team of army and texas a&m system researchers will quickly evaluate prototypes that can be tested by soldiers in a real-world environment using a vast array of sensors and instruments at rellis we are humbled and grateful to the people of texas texas elected leaders and the texas a&m university system for the opportunity to further develop our strategic partnership through the establishment of the combat development complex on the rellis campus said gen murray this effort will certainly prove vital as we work together to discover develop and test ideas and concepts that will help our soldiers and our future soldiers to protect americas tomorrows beginning today not only is the rellis campus close enough to the army futures command headquarters and fort hood for ideal oversight it is also near texas a&ms world-class college of engineering and texas a&m engineering extension services disaster city the worlds largest search and rescue training facility that can double as a training site for urban warfare although the combat development complex isnt expected to be completed until june 2021 banks said the hiring of additional engineers will begin immediately three years ago rellis didnt even exist in may 2016 chancellor john sharp announced the creation of rellis – named for texas a&ms core values of respect excellence leadership loyalty integrity and selfless service he began the building boom to redevelop the 2 000-acre property with an initial investment of $300 million today the campus is home to the texas a&m systems transportation and engineering agencies as well as an education complex served by blinn college and texas a&m system universities from around the state more growth is coming and more construction is planned including a state-of-the-art data center the arrival of the army futures command will bring the rellis campus full circle back to the locations june 6 1943 opening as the bryan army air field it also takes rellis to another level as companies interested in working with the army futures command are expected to locate on or near the campus we consider serving the military of our nation to be the highest of honors and responsibility said sharp also having the army futures command at rellis is a game changer for that campus and the brazos valley area; rellis was envisioned as a research dynamo and the armys arrival will speed that up

texas a&m university is part of the national alliance for water innovation (nawi) consortium which was recently awarded a five-year $100 million energy-water desalination hub by the us department of energy (doe) that will address water security issues in the united states led by does lawrence berkeley national laboratory nawi is a research consortium with more than 35 members including three national research laboratories 19 university partners and 10 founding industry partners the hub will focus on early-stage research and development for energy-efficient and cost-competitive desalination technologies dr shankar chellam from the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering is lead researcher for the texas a&m team which includes drs yossef elabd and jodie lutkenhaus from the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering; dr ying li from the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering; and dr karen wooley from the departments of chemistry chemical engineering and materials science and engineering this grant forces us to step out of our comfort zone working in individual labs i feel like i can actually do something to make a clear substantial difference in my lifetime at a large scale said chellam our efforts up until now have been roughly individual from one perspective the very fact that there are nearly 20 universities and scientists from national labs makes me believe that we will do something of clear value to not just the academic community but society at large chellam said the does goal is a four to five times energy reduction of desalination technologies they want us to not just come up with technological solutions but to come up with solutions for problems at a low energy consumption he said the nawi team will develop technologies that treat seawater brackish water and produced waters for use in municipal industrial agricultural utility oil and gas and other water supply needs these technology advancements will help domestic suppliers of water desalination systems to manufacture critical components and parts including the design and manufacture of small-modular and large-scale systems we also want to look at industrial needs said chellam i am doing what is called road mapping for the mining industry stakeholders come to the table saying these are our problems and we say ‘lets develop a pathway from problem to solution

the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) has been awarded $7 million in federal grant funding from the us department of transportation to study automated driving systems us secretary of transportation elaine l chao made the announcement last week of $60 million in federal grant funding to eight projects in seven states to test the safe integration of automated driving systems on us roadways tees researchers will develop and test automated driving systems for rural roads without high-definition maps and with no or low-quality road signs or markings the principal investigator for the project is dr alireza talebpour assistant professor in texas a&m universitys zachry department of civil and environmental engineering co-principal investigators are dr reza langari department head professor and holder of the jr thompson chair in the department of engineering technology and industrial distribution; dr dezhen song associate department head and professor and dr dilma da silva professor and holder of the ford motor company design professorship ii both from the department of computer science and engineering this award from the us department of transportation will help texas a&m advance its autonomous vehicle research by studying rural roadways said john sharp chancellor of the texas a&m university system most autonomous research so far has focused on cities but texas a&m wants to broaden the scope texas has plenty of rural roadways for testing which can help advance research in this area the department is awarding $60 million in grant funding to test the safe integration of automated vehicles into americas transportation system while ensuring that legitimate concerns about safety security and privacy are addressed said chao chao made the announcement at the federal highway administration research showcase an event promoting the importance of research and innovation in transportation the event featured exhibits and demonstrations of the ongoing research emerging technologies and capabilities of the turner-fairbank highway research center visit here for more information on the applications received

the texas a&m university system national laboratories office hosted nuclear security enterprise (nse) day on sept 9 the nse includes the national nuclear security administration (nnsa) and laboratories and other sites around the country managed by the nnsa that maintain the nations nuclear stockpile the nse is among the nations largest employers of students in stem fields brian m smith deputy associate administrator for management at the nnsa said in his keynote address that the nuclear enterprise would hire more than 8 000 new employees across the stem disciplines this year these opportunities will address some of the worlds most complex engineering and scientific issues involving the safety and security of the nuclear stockpile supporting the us navys nuclear propulsion fleet and responding to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the united states and abroad the workforce demographics are favorable for college students today smith added supervisors are often only a few years older than them so the common ground of shared experiences as well as the visual representation of the possibility for upward mobility is immeasurably valuable and unique"

more than 80 students from the college of engineering attended the annual recruiting event students from west texas a&m university prairie view a&m university and other a&m system universities attended the event as well nse day also featured graduate and undergraduate panel discussions designed to provide students with the opportunity to ask questions and learn about internships and jobs at national labs ryan vrecenar from sandia national laboratories explained that internships are key for recruitment at national labs and expanded on the freedom interns have to shape their own research projects ive worked with students who have done projects in areas such as software analysis software development and machine learning he said the ability to choose their own projects essentially means interns have a hand in molding the future career they want for themselves there are also opportunities to network and collaborate across labs which further opens up future career opportunities for students who arent sure if they have what it takes to pursue an internship or fellowship dustin leclair from the nnsa had a few words of advice show that you have an interest in your major beyond classes be a well-rounded person who can work with others and have an interest in technology good writing skills help as well since effective communication is important no one wants the conversation about a stray comma or grammar mistake to distract from an otherwise sound argument

at the nse day career fair hiring managers were available to collect resumes for open job postings internships and fellowships technical representatives from various companies and national labs spoke with students about employment opportunities and other benefits such as professional development and tuition reimbursement programs this industry is great about helping employees better themselves by supporting advanced degrees and certifications since all that effort is usually fed back into the job said jd mohundro from honeywell things like tuition reimbursement are usually based on a managers assessment of need but for engineering you often dont even need to make a business case since engineering is the business texas a&m is one of only a handful of prestigious universities selected to host an nse day event to engage stem students interested in a career with the nse this was texas a&ms second nse day

with a grant from the national science foundation texas a&m university will lead a multi-institution network to promote cyber expertise among research universities community colleges minority-serving institutions and other organizations in the southwestern united states the sweeter (southwest expertise in expanding training education and research) network will provide training and personnel to support and encourage collaboration across the invisible boundaries that often separate disciplines and institutions said dhruva chakravorty associate director for user services and research at texas a&m high performance research computing (hprc) units participating from texas a&m are the hprc texas a&m institute for data science (tamids) laboratory for molecular simulation in the college of science and texas a&m agrilife genomics and bioinformatics service nick duffield director of tamids will serve as sweeters educational coordinator dilma da silva professor in the department of computer science and engineering will join the projects evaluation team jian tao research scientist with hprc and the texas a&m engineering experiment station will serve as a senior investigator the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary research team is often limited by a researchers ability to draw together a cohort of collaborators with needed scientific expertise said chakravorty who will lead the new network sweeter will help to address that gap in our region vice president for research mark a barteau said here at texas a&m and across most of the global scientific community multidisciplinary research has evolved into the primary approach for conducting projects that take on great challenges and provide ground-breaking solutions we are proud to serve as the lead institution for this vital collaboration with our partners across the southwest sweeter will bring together partners from across texas new mexico and arizona the sweeter collaboration will leverage its partners expertise in computational sciences and large-scale computing to address long-standing bottlenecks that can constrain the sharing of resources across institutions the network also will increase accessibility in data science artificial intelligence cloud computing visualization cyber security and bioinformatics sweeter also includes west texas a&m university prairie view a&m university texas a&m university-san antonio university of texas at austin and its texas advanced computing center university of texas at san antonio university of arizona and new mexico state university also participating are industry affiliates google cloud platform and amazon web services as well as the non-governmental organizations lonestar education and research network (learn) and the national center for genome resources

in july of 2019 nuclear science technology and education for molten salt reactors (nustem) and safety assessment of molten salt fast reactor (samofar) led the molten salt reactor (msr) summer bootcamp on the campus of the delft university of technology in the netherlands this event brought together participants from universities across europe and north america to learn more about msrs through seminars hands-on activities a capstone assignment a poster session and a round table presentation both nustem and samofar are large-scale multi-institution research projects investigating msr technologies with an eye to training new experts in this important field dr jean ragusa professor of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university leads the nustem project which was funded by the department of energys nuclear energy university program as an integrated research program over three years nustem funds numerous faculty researchers and students from texas a&m the university of california-berkeley and the university of wisconsin-madison to contribute to the development of enabling technologies for molten salt reactor concepts and to educate young professionals in molten salt reactor technologies other texas a&m nuclear engineering researchers working on the nustem project include dr mark kimber dr cable kurwitz dr sean mcdeavitt dr luis ortega dr lin shao and dr pavel tsvetkov samofar is a consortium of 11 universities and research centers throughout europe funded by euratoms horizon 2020 program and tasked with proving the innovative safety concepts of the molten salt fast reactor by advanced experimental and numerical techniques delivering a breakthrough in nuclear safety and optimal waste management and creating a consortium of stakeholders to demonstrate the molten salt fast reactor beyond samofar the workshop consisted of a series of five modules representing five major components of msr research with faculty members actively working in each area presenting the modules the bootcamp consisted of a thematic mixture of research topics related to msrs said dr mauricio tano visiting assistant professor in the nuclear engineering department at texas a&m who participated in the event this included multiphysics thermal-hydraulics reactor control materials corrosion and the nuclear fuel cycle among others tano also found it very enriching to be presented with the practices and challenges of each of these fields in addition to these presentations each module also included a hands-on practical exercise intended to teach the students and researchers a new skill that they could bring into their research

the summer school broke the traditional lecturing model said texas a&m graduate student mohammed bani ahmad who works on the nustem project with kurwitz the workshop turned classes into interactive sessions where we solved problems and did calculations during class time this kept us students involved and interested the whole time overall it was an exceptional experience the participants also worked together in teams throughout the session on capstone assignments each team developed an msr research proposal in which they detailed the background to their research question the methods they would use to investigate the topic the impact of their proposed research the resources needed to pursue their intended topics along with potential timelines and milestones the challenges to the topic and how they would handle quality assurance during the lifetime of the project this exercise gave the participants valuable experience in writing a competitive proposal for research an award for best capstone submission went to the group of franziska schmidt (uc-berkeley) tano (texas a&m) and nicholas winner (uc-berkeley) for a project proposal titled in situ salt composition observation using optical techniques peter german of texas a&m won the award for best poster at the workshop through working together on the capstone teams presenting posters and talking about their research in round table discussions participants in the molten salt reactor summer bootcamp had the opportunity to share their work and network with other students and faculty in europe and north america working on msr research projects ramiro freile a texas a&m graduate student working on the nustem project with kimber said the connection with other students and professors who are working on the same project was extremely helpful it allowed me to discuss about future projects and possible collaborations with research centers and universities from all over the world

a study conducted by stanford university recently recognized dr jn reddy and dr alan needleman as the most highly cited researchers in the texas a&m university college of engineering reddy is ranked no 13 in all engineering fields and needleman is ranked 22 texas a&m and harvard are the only universities with two researchers ranked in the top 25 the study was published in plos and analyzed data collected during the period of 1996-2017 covering more than six million scientists in 22 major fields and 176 subfields reddy a university distinguished professor regents professor and the oscar s wyatt jr chair professor in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering is the author of 21 textbooks and nearly 700 journal papers and has been a leader in the applied mechanics field for more than 45 years he is widely known for his significant contributions to the field of applied mechanics through the authorship of widely used textbooks on the linear and nonlinear finite element analysis variational methods composite materials and structures and continuum mechanics and elasticity needleman a university distinguished professor tees eminent professor and professor in the department of materials science and engineering is a preeminent leader in the area of mathematical modeling of materials his contributions include the development of a ductile fracture computational methodology the development of cohesive surface methods for fracture analysis and creation of a framework that enables the use of discrete dislocation plasticity to solve general boundary value problems he is a member of the national academy of engineering and the american academy of arts and sciences

texas a&m university hosted the third workshop for the transatlantic partnership between the texas a&m engineering experiment station and arts et métiers institute of technology jointly referred to as the am2 partnership the workshop held oct 16-18 built on the two before it in hopes of presenting the vision for the am2 consortium on industry 40 which seeks to strengthen this partnership and advance technology surrounding artificial intelligence and data science for smart manufacturing in the future two years ago the president of france emmanuel macron launched a national strategy for artificial intelligence in context of the european union as it is key for the sovereignty of our nations and states said the honorable alexis andres consul general from the french consulate in houston however he continued in order to have a successful strategy you need to have adequate training progressive research and companies that excel in this area france cannot succeed in such a challenge alone

but ushering in progress to a global manufacturing industry has been challenging since companies do not share data with one another so collaborative solutions are rarely developed with any efficiency share your data and you will be stronger advised ivan iordanoff vice president of research and innovation at arts et métiers institute of technology of course data is high value so i understand the impulse to protect it iordanoff proposed a relaunch of the am2 innovation pillar to bring together industry giants as well as small-to-medium enterprises technological providers and startups we have 3 000 years of scientists and good knowledge of what we want to simulate he said now we need to determine how to collect data securely so that we can actually use our knowledge the french government has launched a plan called open data meant to make more data accessible by categorizing what kind of data it is based on whether it should be available to the wider public certain companies or no one at all for example all data relating to health of citizens should not be made available publicly said andres we need to be very clear on what can be used with artificial intelligence and development efforts the opportunity to discuss such topics is one of the many benefits of collaborating with so many professionals from academia and industry in attendance at this workshop since november 2017 we have been making significant progress toward forging a strong academia-industry partnership to address the emerging scientific technology and workforce development challenges for industry especially in the context of advanced materials and intelligent manufacturing said satish bukkapatnam professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m director of the tees institute for manufacturing systems and co-lead of the am2 initiative

the am2 partnership is of immense strategic benefit to both france and the us because it seeks to effect change to a global manufacturing industry through extensive research collaborations education programs and mutual faculty and student exchange initiatives that serve to elevate the am2 partnership as well over 100 aggies and gadzarts (students at arts et métiers) have participated in am2 global programs with aggies spending time in france and gadzarts in college station the arts et métiers and texas a&m partnership is a great example of how powerful the synergy of research and education can be remarked maria alves senior director of halliburton engineering global programs at texas a&m besides the great research collaboration solving problems that are relevant to the manufacturing industry around the world this partnership also allows our students to develop a global understanding of the engineering industry and the skills needed to lead in the global industry and society texas a&m is a tier-one research institution and among the top 10 engineering programs in the united states boasting over 35 faculty members with a focus on manufacturing and arts et métiers institute of technology is one of the most reputable engineering programs in france

at the annual america makes members meeting and exchange held last week rob gorham executive director of manufacturing initiatives in the office of business development at the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) and former america makes executive director was awarded the america makes distinguished collaborator award this award is their highest honor awarded to recipients for their contributions to the advancement of technology practices and innovation in the manufacturing industry i am humbled to receive the america makes distinguished collaborator award it symbolizes my drive and passion for using collaboration as a means to accelerate the broad adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies said gorham america makes as the first of 14 manufacturing usa institutes continues to demonstrate collaboration as a sustainable value proposition to the membership they serve and i am proud to be associated with such a great organization as part of the tees leadership team i am committed to bringing the same spirit of collaboration forward in doing our part to secure american manufacturing competitiveness through the missions of research commercialization and workforce development john wilczynski america makes executive director added during his tenure at america makes primarily as executive director rob worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to lay the strategic groundwork for the institutes continued success he strongly believes in and supports the mission of america makesa fact he continues to demonstrate in his current role at tees and our second america makes satellite center we congratulate rob for this well-deserved honor and his many contributions to america makes in march tees announced it was partnering with america makes to establish an america makes satellite center on the texas a&m university campus in college station the center will initially be located in texas a&ms emerging technologies building but will later be expanded to the texas a&m university system rellis campus

the mary kay oconnor process safety center (mkopsc) will host its 2019 international symposium in memory of dr sam mannan oct 22-24 the symposium will take place at the texas a&m hotel and conference center and registration is free for texas a&m students faculty and staff with a valid universal identification number the conference will be held on the main texas a&m university campus in college station texas and includes expert panels student poster presentations an exhibition of industry partners an early career forum industry tours awards ceremony a scavenger hunt and door prizes keynote speakers include jerry wascom vice president of operational excellencesafety health and environment at the exxon mobil corporation; dr elaine oran tees eminent professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m; and dr andrew hopkins emeritus professor for the college of arts and social science at australian national university this symposium serves as the crossroads for process safety where industry academia government agencies and other stakeholders come together to discuss critical issues of research in process safety more than 500 expert researchers and industry representatives from around the world will gather as a part of this two and a half-day symposium to share the latest information on important topics aimed at making the process industry safer the mkopsc was established in 1995 in memory of mary kay oconnor an operations superintendent killed in an explosion on oct 23 1989 at the phillips petroleum complex in pasadena texas in 1997 dr sam mannan because of his reputation as a world-renowned expert in process safety was appointed director of the center he served as director until his passing on sept 11 2018 this years symposium theme beyond regulatory compliance: making safety second nature is inspired by a quote from dr mannan that captures his approach to teaching and practicing process safety: safety should not be a priority; priorities change safety should be a core value a second nature the mkopsc mission is to promote safety as second nature in industry around the world with goals to prevent future incidents in addition the center develops safer processes equipment procedures and management strategies to minimize losses within the processing industry other functions of the center include serving all stakeholders providing a common forum and developing programs and activities that will forever change the paradigm of process safety

cybercrime continues to increase around the country and the state of texas has been hit particularly hard this year in august 22 cities across the state were hit in coordinated ransomware attacks when cities near college station were impacted local officials turned to the cybersecurity experts at the texas a&m university system who contributed their skill sets as a part of response efforts by the texas division of emergency management thats why texas comptroller glenn hegar stopped by texas a&m as part of his good for texas tour: cybersecurity edition the purpose of the tour is to highlight the impact of texas colleges and universities in the fight against cybercriminals according to a study released by office of the state comptroller of public accounts in 2017 texas ranked third among states in the number of cybercrime victims and second in the number of financial losses as a result as an emerging leader in cybersecurity education and research and workforce development texas a&m engineering continues to develop the tools needed to face global security challenges said hegar texas a&m university has steadily been building its reputation in cybersecurity research education and outreach over the past few years and is one of only a handful of colleges and universities in the nation designated as a center for academic excellence in all three national security agency focus areas: cyber operations cyber defense and research the texas a&m college of engineering is also educating the next generation of cyber warriors as part of its master of engineering in engineering degree with a specialization in cybersecurity the degree program gives graduates a unique skill set within the engineering workforce empowering them to anticipate identify assess and mitigate threats to cyber systems they can also receive an industry-recognized certification combined the degree and certification elevate students to highly qualified job candidatesas they pursue careers post-graduation the degrees and certifications conferred are regularly reported to the texas higher education coordinating board as metrics for its 60x30tx plan which has a goal of at least 60% of texans between the ages of 25-34 having a certificate or degree by 2030 graduates from any texas a&m academic or professional training program in cybersecurity are highly recruited with 90% of graduates accepting jobs upon graduation these students are very marketable after graduation due in part to the in-depth on-the-job training they receive as students the texas a&m college of engineerings research curriculum and workforce development programs are consistently recognized among the best in the nation in cybersecurity said dr m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of texas a&m engineering our reputation for excellence in this field will expand as we address the important national problems of cybersecurity in critical infrastructure and manufacturing cybersecurity experts across the texas a&m system are frequently also sought after by government officials and peer institutions for their expertise that expertise was lauded recently by fbi director christopher wray who praised texas a&m for their outreach efforts in this important field during a us senate committee on the judiciary hearing in july texas a&ms reputation is also attracting cybersecurity heavyweights like dr stephen cambone who joined the texas a&m system in 2017 as associate vice chancellor for cybersecurity initiatives and is also a professor of practice in the college of engineering cambone is the former us undersecretary of defense for intelligence and brings with him a wealth of global perspective in which knowledge or experience in the cybersecurity realm is pertinent for graduates to be best prepared for important jobs in either the public or private industry sector earlier this year the us department of energy announced awards of up to $28 million as support for research development and demonstration of next-generation tools and technologies that will improve the cybersecurity and resilience of the nations critical energy infrastructure including the electric grid as well as oil and natural gas infrastructure networks among the 11 teams to receive an award includes the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) led by dr kate davis from the department of electrical and computer engineering daviss team from tees will develop a next-generation secure energy management system that can detect malicious and abnormal events through a fusion of cyber and physical data and algorithms effective integrated analytics and visualization the texas a&m system is also home to two research centers devoted to cybersecurity: the texas a&m cybersecurity center and the tees center for nuclear security science and policy initiatives

during this visit comptroller hegar toured several assets and met with many subject matter experts from across the texas a&m system including texas a&ms west campus data center; the texas a&m system security operations center and the college of engineerings zachry engineering education complex additionally he spoke with current students who are employed at various cybersecurity-related offices and a group from the texas a&m corps of cadets cyber corps the texas a&m system has some of the countrys best cybersecurity experts right here in the brazos valley said chancellor john sharp and that expertise has been recognized by the state and federal governments comptroller hegar is working hard to make sure the citizens of texas are protected against cybercrimes and so are we together we can help root out these cybercrimes before they happen

texas a&m university system us army and army futures command (afc) officials and the bush family were on the rellis campus today for the official groundbreaking and naming of the new bush combat development complex (bcdc) named in honor of former president george hw bush we face a complex security environment one that requires we maintain our competitive edge today while simultaneously building tomorrows i am grateful for the commitment from the people of texas and especially the texas a&m university system to help the army ensure we never send our service members into a fair fight now and in the future said james mcpherson senior official performing the duties of the under secretary of the army neil bush son of the president and the late barbara bush was in attendance and spoke on behalf of the bush family about the name my father loved texas a&m university and this community he also loved his country and was both a proud veteran and commander in chief having a facility dedicated to providing this nations military men and women with the most technologically advanced equipment possible is a tremendous honor to my fathers memory and his service to this country said bush the $130 million bush combat development complex will allow the texas a&m system to provide an ecosystem to accelerate research and technology development to modernize the army this investment is comprised of $50 million from the texas legislature during the 2019 session for establishing an innovative proving ground at rellis and $80 million from the texas a&m system board of regents for constructing a research innovation center and affiliated infrastructure also at rellis when we first envisioned how we could use the rellis campus to support the army one name came to mind george herbert walker bush the 41st us president the bush combat development complex will provide a living laboratory unlike any other and will uphold the highest values of service to our nation said john sharp chancellor of the texas a&m system last week us senator john cornyn the afc and the texas a&m system announced a cooperative agreement that will provide up to $65 million over the next five years to the texas a&m system to support research into new technologies to help the afc advance national security the goal is to shorten the time it takes to get emerging technologies from the lab to the field and maximize technology capabilities through soldier feedback

a team of army and texas a&m system researchers will quickly evaluate prototypes that can be tested by soldiers in a real-world environment using a vast array of sensors and instruments at rellis achieving the goals of the agreement will result in more capable and survivable hypersonic flight systems and materials more lethal directed energy systems and more effective autonomous maneuvering vehicles texas continues to be at the epicenter of development in advanced technologies and the new bush combat development complex at texas a&m systems rellis campus is a perfect example to continue that momentum said state rep greg bonnen (r-league city) the technology which will be created and tested here will not only help advance our military but it will also keep our soldiers safer in the field the agreement between the texas a&m system and us army combat capabilities development command army research laboratory is the first step in a long-term partnership with the army futures command said sharp the combat development complex will bring together diverse partners from businesses - large and small - academia and most importantly our soldiers said gen john mike murray commanding general for the army futures command thats an important lesson weve learned here at army futures command: when we bring the team together we can innovate faster to develop game-changing solutions by testing emerging technology in an operationally relevant environment with soldiers providing feedback we can evaluate it early to ensure were getting exactly what our troops need in the field the bcdc will be a full complement of facilities equipment and instrumentation consisting of the innovation proving ground (ipg); research integration center (ric); ballistic aero-optics and materials (bam); and the technology innovation and modernization catalyst (timc) the ipg will provide a challenging outdoor test site for autonomous aerial ground and subterranean vehicles the technological systems involved are highly complex involving networks and sensors and innovative operating systems the ric will be a state-of-the-art innovation hub where researchers students industry government and the military can collaborate to create emerging technologies that will modernize the army the use of high-tech maker spaces will lead to product development that is tested and evaluated by soldiers allowing for continual and real-time design feedback the bam will be a one-of-a-kind facility in which hypersonics and directed energy research will be conducted bam will feature an above-ground tunnel that is 1 kilometer long and 2 meters in diameter with integrated sensors the bam will also have laboratories runways underground and open-air battlefields and a resilient network of sensors and systems for data collection analysis and storage in addition to bams use by the afc it will be available to other military branches and defense contractors the timc will support the management and transfer of intellectual property and technology to industry for commercial applications the facility will provide space for early stage technology ventures business services commercialization training and startup launch support services to inventors and innovators army futures command has tasked texas a&m system researchers to focus on several key areas specifically the research will address hypersonic and laser systems; materials for withstanding hypervelocity blasts; coordinated maneuvering of air and ground vehicles; and resilient computer networks for autonomous vehicles to share up-to-the-moment battlefield information the target date for completion of the bcdcs innovative proving ground and research innovation center is june 2021

conventional gas-processing techniques emit carbon dioxide (co2) and raise the carbon footprint but a novel process developed by researchers from the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) could help gas-producing countries process their wealth of natural gas without significantly contributing to co2 emissions developed in qatar a country with a wealth of natural gas resources and unfortunately the high carbon footprint that comes with it the cargen (carbon-generator) reactor technology was conceived and designed by dr nimir o elbashir and his research team at texas a&m universitys qatar campus in collaboration with dr mahmoud m el-halwagi and dr debalina sengupta from the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&ms main campus in college station texas this technology is believed to be the first of its kind that processes natural gas (methane) and captured co2 to produce both syngas a valuable precursor to numerous hydrocarbon feedstocks that drive qatars economy and high-quality solid carbon nanotubes (cnts) and unlike conventional processes all without releasing more co2 into the atmosphere elbashirs research focuses on converting natural gas into valuable hydrocarbon products including ultraclean fuels or useful chemicals in a process called gas-to-liquid conversion or gtl a major drawback of gtl processing is that it produces a lot of co2 which increases qatars carbon footprint and has led to the tiny country being named the worlds leading producer of co2 per capita under the umbrella of the tees gas and fuels research center (gfrc) headquartered at the qatar campus elbashir and researchers at both campuses have focused on how to reduce these co2 emissions elbashir directs the gfrc one of the largest tees research centers and a major initiative bringing together 32 multidisciplinary scientists and professors from texas a&ms campuses in texas and qatar all working in the same area but from different angles to speed up technology development in natural gas processing the cargen technology was developed to advance the dry reforming of natural gas which is especially attractive as it converts methane and co2 (both greenhouse gases) through a reactor to produce syngas a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen that is then processed to make liquid hydrocarbons and ultraclean fuels this process however requires a lot of heat to drive the chemical reactions this heat usually comes from burning fuels which emits even more co2 elbashirs team has designed the novel cargen reactor a second reactor added to the reforming process along with a catalyst to drive the chemical reactions to produce expensive carbon nanotubes and syngas from co2 and methane these high-quality carbon nanotubes can be used in several industries including steel and cement while the syngas can be turned into ultra-clean fuels and value-added products the process can be driven by either electric or solar power eliminating the need to burn fuel and thereby resulting in much lower co2 emissions than conventional technologies we are making co2 emissions into two products that are important to the economy in gas-processing countries such as the united states and qatar and will broaden the role of hydrocarbons in qatars manufacturing facilities elbashir said cnts are very expensive and extremely versatile and can be used to manufacture products such as computers and other high-quality materials and at the same time we are also producing syngas which can then be used to make the chemicals that the chemical processing industries rely on

phd student mohamed sufiyan challiwala who has been a significant contributor to the project said the cargen reactor is a result of a nearly $5 million exceptional proposal grant from the qatar national research funds national priorities research program challiwala started working on the project as a masters student in chemical engineering at texas a&m at qatar before pursuing his phd through the main campus and beginning his doctoral research in qatar cargen provides a new perspective on the implementation of natural gas reforming technology rather than considering carbon or ‘coke formation as a process challenge cargen treats it as an opportunity to convert at least 65 percent of co2 per pass with 50 percent lower energy requirements challiwala said most importantly it produces cnts and carbon fibers that are considered next-generation materials with tremendous applications because of its uniqueness this process is now patented with the support of qatar foundation dr hanif choudhury a research scientist in elbashirs research group said the cargen concept of cnt generation has been validated at the micro- milli- and gram scales with the quality of the carbon nanotubes controlled and preserved at every scale the next step is partnering with industry collaborators to scale up the technology even further this is a major achievement in the way people will look at co2 utilization in the future elbashir said its a homegrown technology developed in qatar based on the interest of qatar to utilize and sequester co2 and reduce the countrys carbon footprint but its applicable in any and all gas-processing countries we are producing material out of it not just liquid fuel that will be burned to produce something else or power a car for example which then puts co2 back into the atmosphere if we can scale up this technology it will be a turning point for everyone worried about co2

if youve ever used a smartphone or a fitness tracker youve likely been using a device thats a part of the internet of things a group of interconnected devices that communicate via remote servers but these central servers process huge amounts of data coming in from multiple devices that in turn cause processing delays diminishing user experience to boost data processing speeds dr zhangyang (atlas) wang assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering has been awarded two grants from the national science foundation (nsf) for developing highly efficient and energy-saving machine learning algorithms for use on local devices rather than on remote servers wed like to develop algorithms that make devices like your phone run faster have low memory use and be more energy efficient wang says so if you want to use your iphone to take a photo with a facial recognition software for example energy efficient algorithms like the ones we develop are what ensure your battery doesnt drain within five minutes wangs first project enabling intelligent cameras in internet-of-things via a holistic platform algorithm and hardware co-design was awarded by the nsf energy power control and networks program and is a collaboration with yingyan lin and richard baraniuk from rice university this project will improve machine learning algorithms for object recognition and other computer vision applications such as traffic monitoring and self-driving cars particularly wangs team will optimize a type of machine learning algorithm called deep neural networks to process images for the second project harmonizing predictive algorithms and mixed-signal/precision circuits via computation-data access exchange and adaptive dataflows wangs research team has been awarded a total of $138 million from the nsf real-time machine learning (rtml) program with collaborators lin and baraniuk from rice university boris murmann from stanford university and yiran chen from duke university wang aims to enhance machine learning programs by training these algorithms in real time for a particular task like object recognition this approach will make the algorithms progressively better at doing the task over time one of the many applications of his research is drone-based object detection systems that can learn new environments without human supervision if we think of monitoring wide terrains for rescue operations drones using our algorithms will be able to survey a large area more efficiently while continuously learning the layout of the new environment wang says when their algorithms are ready for public use wang and his collaborators plan to post them on openstax a nonprofit online education company created by baraniuk so as to lower the cost for people to access educational resources and encourage a global effort to address challenges in developing and improving software related to computer vision the nsf and defense advanced research projects agency (darpa) have teamed up to issue these grants through the rtml crosscutting program to explore high-performance energy-efficient hardware and machine learning architectures that can learn from a continuous stream of new data in real time the rtml program is a part of darpas electronics resurgence initiative a five-year $15 billion investment in the future of domestic us government and defense electronics systems out of over 100 submissions wangs team was one of only six selected for large grants further solidifying his groups leading role in the machine learning field

us senator john cornyn joined the us army futures command and the texas a&m university system to announce a cooperative agreement that will provide up to $65 million over five years to texas a&m supporting research into new technologies to help the army futures command modernize the nations fighting force our countrys military readiness depends on innovation and the army futures command is on the front line of that fight said sen cornyn this partnership with the texas a&m university system will ensure we have the best and the brightest working to address rapidly evolving threats and maintain our strategic advantage around the world the senator appeared at a press conference with gen john mike murray and chancellor john sharp after being briefed on the details of the agreement and plans for a $130 million combat development complex at the rellis campus in bryan and the armys plans for modernization this investment is comprised of $50 million from the texas legislature during 2019 session for establishing an innovative proving ground at rellis and $80 million from the texas a&m system board of regents for constructing a research innovation center also at rellis the agreement between the texas a&m system and the us army combat capabilities development command army research laboratory is the first step in a long-term partnership with the army futures command army futures command is excited to continue our collaboration with various partners in texas to successfully modernize our army the work conducted at the rellis campus in the coming years will directly impact our soldiers readiness equipment and capabilities said gen murray essential to that relationship is the creation of the combat development complex at rellis a 2 000-acre campus with already almost half-billion dollars in new construction and with more on the drawing boards the combat development complex will help develop prototypes for defense-related hypersonics and directed energy in a one-of-a-kind kilometer-long tunnel it will have laboratories runways underground and open-air battlefields and a resilient network of sensors and systems for data collection analysis and storage the texas a&m system is already contributing significantly to our nations defense with our duties helping manage the los alamos national laboratory said sharp we are proud that army futures command has chosen to work with us on their important mission through the cooperative agreement army futures command has tasked texas a&m system researchers to focus on several key areas specifically the research will address hypersonic and laser weaponry; materials for withstanding hypervelocity blasts; coordinated maneuvering of air and ground vehicles; and resilient computer networks for autonomous vehicles to share up-to-the-moment battlefield information hypersonic is speeds of mach 5 or faster the us military is making a major push to advance laser and hypersonic defense systems senator john cornyn a republican from texas is a member of the senate finance intelligence and judiciary committees

with the help of a grant from the nasa innovative advanced concepts program a texas a&m university-led research team will continue the development of a new type of propulsion system possibly enabling missions to the nearest stars in our lifetime since the launch of sputnik in 1957 space probes have explored our neighboring planets their moons and other minor bodies of the solar system the farthest spacecraft from earth voyager 1 has now left the influence of the sun and has entered interstellar space despite traveling at 38 600 miles per hour voyager would still take 74 000 years to reach the nearest star (other than our sun) proxima centauri the greatest obstacle to exploration beyond the outer planets and into interstellar space is traversing such distances in a reasonable time which requires tremendous speed even a 100-year mission to the rocky exoplanet proxima b entails traveling at 5% the speed of light these daunting requirements far exceed the current capabilities of chemical or plasma propulsion systems

through the nasa innovative advanced concepts (niac) phase ii grant the team led by dr chris limbach assistant professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m has proposed combining a laser beam and a neutral particle beam using them to push a spacecraft to nearly 10% the speed of light unlike either beam alone the researchers are tailoring the beam parameters to exploit the refraction of light and optical forces to eliminate the spreading or expansion of the beams which would otherwise decrease thrust and limit the maximum speed this process known as self-guiding enables the beams to continue pushing and accelerating the spacecraft over millions of kilometers in addition to limbach the team includes dr ken hara assistant professor at stanford university and dr alexandros gerakis assistant professor at texas a&mthe current investigation was preceded by a nine-month niac phase i study where the team looked at the physics and feasibility of this innovative concept and identified technology requirements they also developed high-fidelity modeling tools to simulate how light propagates through the particle beam and how the particles respond to the light field while traveling millions of kilometers through space for phase ii the team will spend two years further refining the propulsion concept by addressing unknown questions found in phase i including the interaction between the propulsion beams and the spacecraft this will include development of advanced numerical simulation tools and complementary laboratory experimentsexperiments will be conducted at the aerospace laboratory for lasers electromagnetics and optics (allemo) they intend to simulate the space environment using an ultra-high vacuum system to show they can produce a neutral particle beam with the properties required for self guiding the team will pass an atomic rubidium vapor through a convergent/divergent nozzle to produce a supersonic jet then a highly directional beam will be created by applying laser doppler cooling a technique that will bring the atom temperature to less than -459 f just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero this will allow the researchers to perform experiments on self guiding with lower power laser systems these experiments can be used to validate computational simulation tools and show the feasibility of the innovative propulsion technique at the end of phase ii the team wants to demonstrate progress toward future implementation of this propulsion technique including beam source development an improved understanding of the physics and the completion of modeling tools needed to design a full-scale system

the impede® embolization plug originally designed by researchers in the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university has won a 2019 r&d 100 award from r&d world magazine the device is owned by shape memory medical inc a california-based company co-founded by dr duncan maitland at texas a&m r&d 100 awards are high-profile acknowledgements of the potential or existing impact of a new product or service when maitland worked at lawrence livermore national laboratory (llnl) he said r&d 100 awards were one of the highest external recognitions that a team could receive for the impact of their research my first reaction is tied to this history and my joy for the team members from llnl for receiving this award my second reaction is that the team that has worked on this project from concept to commercial sales has been hundreds of people maitland said this has been a marathon effort by a lot of people i am also very happy for the people at llnl texas a&m university shape memory medical inc and other many other institutions that have made this happen i am fortunate to have worked with so many bright and dedicated people texas a&m contributors that are also acknowledged as part of the impede development team include dr fred clubb dr balakrishna haridas dr staci jessen and dr brandis keller clubb clinical professor of veterinary medicine at texas a&m and joint faculty member in the department of biomedical engineering works in the cvpath lab on campus to provide quality data to garner answers to medical device safety questions we are honored and proud to be a part of the impede development team at texas a&m and excited to see this device receive recognition clubb said the impede family of peripheral vascular embolization products all include shape memory polymer (smp) the devices are designed to provide doctors with a more effective and less risky method for treating aneurysms – blood-filled balloon-like bulges in the walls of a blood vessel that can rupture and cause vascular damage that is debilitating or even fatal the device quickly clots blood to block it from reaching aneurysms tumors or other issues smp is designed to transition between two shapes based on its environment it can be crimped for delivery through a catheter and it self-expands when exposed to blood and body temperature to date more than 250 patients have been successfully treated worldwide with impede and the team expects to have thousands treated in the next year or so looking to the future maitland said there are registered human studies to use impede to better treat patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms and pulmonary arteriovenous malformations and he hopes to expand its use even further going forward we are trying to develop materials and devices to apply this technology to improved treatment of cancer but peer-reviewed research funding is a slow and tricky process maitland said we are also working on prototypes of pediatric devices we will continue to submit grants and apply for funding awards will be presented at the r&d 100 awards banquet on dec 5 in san francisco california

solar energy is the cleanest and most abundant renewable energy source available and the us has some of the richest solar resources in the world to support the progression of solar power the us department of energy (doe) announced it would provide $128 million in funding to advance solar technologies through the office of energy efficiency and renewable energys solar energy technologies office the doe will fund innovative research projects that will lower solar electricity costs while working to boost solar manufacturing reduce red tape and make solar systems more resilient to cyberattacks among the 75 teams to receive an award is a team led by texas a&m engineering experiment station researchers

the team received $44 million for their project secure monitoring and control of solar pv systems through dynamic watermarking their goal is to develop and demonstrate a cyber-resilient operation for power distribution systems with massively photovoltaic (pv) generation such as rooftop solar panels it is led by dr le xie (lead pi) dr pr kumar and dr prasad enjeti from the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university partners include researchers from mit centerpoint energy argonne national laboratory (anl) and the illinois institute of technology (iit) with their project funding they will develop and demonstrate an active defense mechanism of the pv distribution system operation using a dynamic watermarking technique to monitor the cybersecurity the technique involves injecting a probe signal onto the grid to authenticate grid actions the approach will include real-time deployment of online computational algorithms in real-world critical locations the physical layer includes power transmission lines transformers solar generation units and power electronics devices the cyber layer includes communication control and sensing (meters) said xie these two layers tightly interact with each other hackers can compromise the pv distribution system by intruding into the cyber layer or manipulating the meter readings so we hope our pv distribution system can be immune to potential cyberattacks therefore cyber resilient xie said that by injecting a (small) private signal with certain signatures into the grid an indelible signature will be imprinted in the measurements from sensors and while hackers may compromise the grid by manipulating the sensors with such an indelible signature any cyberattacks on the sensors will be detected by checking the existence of the imprinted signature as any cyberattacks on the sensors will distort the signature using this idea tong huang bharadwaj satchidanandan kumar and xie designed a framework of securing automatic generation control (agc) which is a crucial frequency regulation scheme in bulk power systems the research funded by doe is built upon the preliminary success on agc a paper describing the preliminary success appears in ieee transactions on power systems by this technique we can determine if the grid is manipulated by hackers this is what we mean by authenticating grid actions xie said adding that they would need to develop an algorithm based on the watermarking method theory which they would then test on an existing system this would drive the innovation ecosystem of solar generation integration with a cost-effective yet powerful defense mechanism against sophisticated cyberattacks on the grid the comprehensive dynamic modeling of pv-dominant distribution systems would then be established we propose a defense framework against any cyberattacks on the telemetered measurements in the pv-dominated distribution system regardless of the attack model/objective he said this is valuable in terms of providing a general-purpose guarantee since the objectives of adversaries are unpredictable this team is uniquely composed and positioned to address the challenges in the future solar-rich distribution systems and advance the frontier of cyber-resilient situational awareness of deep pv-penetrated distribution systems xie said

the engineering genesis award for multidisciplinary research was presented to 23 texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) researchers and their teams during the tees advisory board meeting nov 15 the award which is presented to tees researchers who have secured significant research grants of $1 million or more were given to the following: pi: rodney bowersox aerospace engineering and director texas a&m national aerothermochemistry and hypersonics laboratory $12 million grant from the department of energy-office of naval research for turbulence transport in extreme non-equilibrium environments pi: ya wang mechanical engineering $1 million grant from the department of energy for sleepir-synchronized low-energy electronically-chopped passive infrared sensor for occupancy detection pi: dan hill petroleum engineering $1 million grant from marathon oil company for marathon oil unconventional fluid flow/enhanced oil recovery pi: vladislav yakovlev biomedical engineering $11 million grant from the department of health and human services-national institutes of health-national institute of general medical science for brillouin microscope for biomedical research pi: david staack mechanical engineering and director engineering laboratory instruction co-pis: dion antao alan palazzolo and li-jung tai mechanical engineering $11 million grant from the department of energy for targeted energy focusing to induce micro-cracking for reduced cutting energy and increased rate of penetration pi: zhangyang wang computer science and engineering co-pis: jack mortazavi computer science and engineering; and xiaoning qian electrical and computer engineering $12 million grant from the department of defense-air force research laboratory for context-aware biomarker discovery and health monitoring by adaptive integration of heterogeneous smartphone signals pi: roozbeh jafari biomedical engineering co-pi: jack mortazavi computer science and engineering $12 million grant from the department of health and human services-national institutes of health-national institute of biomedical imaging and bioengineering for a context-aware cuff-less wearable ambulatory blood pressure monitor using a bio-impedance sensor array pi: mary beth hueste civil and environmental engineering and associate department head for undergraduate programs co-pis: stefan hurlebaus and john mander civil and environmental engineering; anol mukhopadhyay texas a&m transportation institute $13 million grant from the texas department of transportation for utilization of uhpc bridge superstructures in texas pi: carl benner electrical and computer engineering co-pis: karthick muthu manivannan and jeffrey wischkaemper electrical and computer engineering $13 million grant from the southern california edison for wildfire risk reduction via distribution fault anticipation technology: demonstration and integration collaboration at california utilities pi: efstratios pistikopoulos chemical engineering and director texas a&m energy institute co-pi: mahmoud el-halwagi chemical engineering $14 million grant from the department of energy for smart manufacturing for chemical processing energy efficient operation of air separation unit pi: swaminathan gopalswamy mechanical engineering and co-director center for autonomous vehicles and sensor systems co-pi: srikanth saripalli mechanical engineering and co-director center for autonomous vehicles and sensor systems $15 million grant from the department of defense-army research laboratory for arches: autonomous resilient cognitive heterogenous swarms (off-road unmanned ground vehicle (ugv) mobility technology demonstrator platform (mtdp)) pi: katherine davis electrical and computer engineering co-pis: ana goulart engineering technology and industrial distribution; thomas overbye electrical and computer engineering and director smart grid center; daniel ragsdale computer science and engineering $2 million grant from the department of energy-washington for deep cyber-physical situational awareness for energy systems: a secure foundation for next-generation energy management pi: arum han electrical and computer engineering co-pi: arul jayaraman chemical engineering $23 million grant from the department of defense-advanced research projects agency for isentry: an integrated microfluidics-enabled system for phenotypic detection of biothreat agents pi: karen butler-purry electrical and computer engineering and associate provost for graduate and professional studies co-pis: stephanie burrs and irvin osborbe-lee prairie view a&m university; mahmoud khasawneh and john kilburn texas a&m international university; reuben may sociology; frank pezold texas a&m university-corpus christi; christine stanley education and human development; karan watson electrical and computer engineering and director institute for engineering education and innovation $4 million grant from the national science foundation for louis stokes stem pathways and research alliance: texas a&m system/louis stokes alliance for minority participation pi: yassin hassan nuclear engineering co-pi: sean mcdeavitt nuclear engineering and director nuclear science and science center $5 million grant from texas thorium llc for thorium research initiative pi: bahman yazdani associate director and research engineer energy systems laboratory (esl) co-pis: juan carlos baltazar associate director and manager esl; david claridge mechanical engineering and director esl; joseph martinez associate director and senior research engineer esl; ahmet ugursal and carols yagua assistant research engineer esl $28 million grant from the city of houston for interlocal agreement for project design construction and program implementation of state energy conservation office loan funded energy initiatives agile technology development pi: m katherine banks vice chancellor of engineering and national laboratories; dean of engineering texas a&m university; director tees co-pis: narasimha annapareddy associate agency director for strategic initiatives and centers college of engineering texas a&m and director advanced scientific computing center; brad brown military outreach and corps of cadets army futures command; nancy currie-gregg industrial and systems engineering; yossef elabd chemical engineering and associate dean for research; tim green civil and environmental engineering; cynthia hipwell mechanical engineering; john hurtado aerospace engineering deputy director and chief technology officer bush combat development complex; dimitris lagoudas aerospace engineering senior associate dean for research associate vice chancellor for engineering and deputy director tees; james wall director texas a&m center for applied technology $2 million grant from the department of defense-army research laboratory (arl) for arl: innovative ecosystem performance research pi: rodney bowersox aerospace engineering and director texas a&m national aerothermochemistry and hypersonics laboratory co-pis: helen reed aerospace engineering and director aggiesat lab satellite program and computational stability and transition lab; edward white aerospace engineering $2 million grant from the department of defense-army research laboratory for arl: hypersonic vehicles pi: richard miles aerospace engineering co-pi: christopher limbach aerospace engineering $19 million grant from the department of defense-army research laboratory for arl: laser diagnostics and lethality pi: thomas lacy mechanical engineering co-pis: waruna kulatilaka mechanical engineering; junuthula reddy aerospace engineering and mechanical engineering and director center of innovation in mechanics for design and manufacturing; justin wilkerson mechanical engineering $11 million grant from the department of defense-army research laboratory for arl: materials pi: swaminathan gopalswamy mechanical engineering and co-director center for autonomous vehicles and sensor systems co-pis: srikanth saripalli mechanical engineering and co-director center for autonomous vehicles and sensor systems; gholamreza langari aerospace engineering and engineering technology and industrial distribution; john valasek aerospace engineering and director vehicle systems and control laboratory and graduate studies program $23 million grant from the department of defense-army research laboratory for arl: air ground coordination pi: panganamala kumar electrical and computer engineering co-pi: srinivas shakkottai electrical and computer engineering $17 million grant from the department of defense-army research laboratory for arl: tactical networks

the mary kay oconnor process safety center (mkopsc) has appointed dr stewart behie to serve as interim director behie has over 40 years of technical experience in risk assessment and management process hazards analysis safety engineering and the process of safety culture maturation he has worked closely with the mkopsc as an industry consortium member and also on the industry steering committee and he has served on the risk communication subcommittee representing the occidental oil and gas corporation as well we are very pleased to have dr behie join us said dr james holste chemical engineering professor emeritus and former mkopsc interim director he is a well-known and respected practitioner and teacher of process safety his industry experience and process safety expertise will open new avenues and opportunities for the mkopsc to make safety second nature the mkopsc was established in 1995 in memory of mary kay oconnor an operations superintendent killed in an explosion on oct 23 1989 at the phillips petroleum complex in pasadena texas in 1997 dr sam mannan because of his reputation as a world-renowned expert in process safety was appointed director of the center and served until his passing on sept 11 2018 i look forward to my new leadership role within the mkopsc and to be able to continue the legacy of dr mannan a guru of process safety worldwide said behie learning to look through the eyes of risk is paramount to good process safety practices when working with operators or engineers i want them to see their roles and practices through a risk paradigm im excited to incorporate this vision in my work at the texas a&m engineering experiment station the mkopsc mission is to promote safety as second nature in industry around the world with goals to prevent future incidents in addition the center develops safer processes equipment procedures and management strategies to minimize losses within the processing industry other functions of the center include serving all stakeholders providing a common forum and developing programs and activities that will forever change the paradigm of process safety

artificial intelligence (ai) the branch of computer science that emphasizes the development of machines thinking and working like humans is becoming more and more popular it is used extensively in many businesses – medicine education law manufacturing – to name a few researchers at texas a&m university are working to bring ai to one of the largest industries in the world construction the construction industry is booming and is one of the largest global industries employing 7% of the worlds workforce and contributing more than $10 trillion annually to the world economy however it has the lowest productivity of any manufacturing industry due to labor-intensive jobs that have significant safety risks and rising costs of materials to help change this dr zachary grasley and his colleagues dr amir behzadan dr zj pei dr korok ray and dr nick duffield have received a planning grant from the national science foundation (nsf) to prepare for bringing ai to the construction industry grasley director of the center for infrastructure renewal (cir) and professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering at texas a&m said new ai technologies have the potential to address many of the major challenges the construction industry faces leading to a positive economic and social impact he feels ai is poised to revolutionize the construction industry similarly to how the assembly line revolutionized the automobile industry leading to significant cost reductions higher productivity and safer better-paying jobs theres a lot of opportunity there not only in terms of safety and in automating difficult tasks said grasley artificial intelligence can significantly help as we develop new materials and new methods of construction like 3d printing of structures for instance it opens the door to the optimization of both materials and structural design in a way that weve never done before the planning grants for engineering research centers competition is the first step to bringing ai to the construction industry the competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the nsf engineering research center (erc) program and is intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent center-scale engineering research grasleys $100 000 year-long planning grant will support the development of a research roadmap for implementing ai into the construction industry and the formation of a multi-institutional team working toward an erc ercs are one of the largest grants that the national science foundation gives out to support game-changing large-scale initiatives that transform society in some way shape or form said grasley the erc grants are so large in scope that in order to write a competitive proposal for them you really have to start well in advance building a team defining the theme road-mapping and identifying the right industrial and academic partners grasley said with the grant they will create a 10-member advisory board of experts in ai construction industry leaders and government representatives to identify and define their objectives they will also hold a symposium on ai in construction to develop the roadmap to achieve the erc vision and identify the academic partners finally they will have a writing workshop to produce an outline of the proposal with the grant and other advantages they currently have at texas a&m grasley feels they have a good chance of receiving the erc from the nsf the cir is a brand-new state-of-the-art center and because of the size of our engineering program the fact that we have the texas a&m transportation institute and such a large construction science department and civil engineering department we have the breadth of expertise particularly on the construction side that no place else has across the country grasley said we also have great connections to the construction industry and its part of the cir mission to develop technologies that will actually go out and be used and impact society through transforming the construction industry

shell has donated $6 million to the texas a&m engineering program the gift will be divided among the texas a&m engineering experiment stations mary kay oconnor process safety center the shell engineering foundations laboratory and the shell transport phenomena laboratory we are grateful for shells generosity and support of our engineering program at texas a&m said dr m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of texas a&m engineering shells investment in education is improving lives and empowering students to fulfill their dreams of becoming aggie engineers this was a great opportunity for shell to embed safety principles such as life-saving rules and process safety fundamentals into students minds shells deep value for people our environment and our energy future really align with texas a&ms college of engineering and the mary kay oconnor program my belief moving forward is that we will continue to partner to make our energy future better said lori fremin general manager for surface engineering at shell the college of engineering will allocate funding for undergraduate research opportunities graduate fellowships and future development of process safety programs the mary kay oconnor process safety center develops safer processes equipment procedures and management strategies to minimize losses within the processing industry researchers conduct studies pertaining to general issues of process safety as well as specific interests of the centers consortium members the rest of the gift will go to name two important student laboratories within the zachry engineering education complex: the engineering foundations laboratory and the transport phenomena laboratory the engineering foundations laboratory is the largest student-serving experiential lab in the college of engineering it is a 35 000-square-foot experiential learning environment where the fundamental concepts of physics and engineering are taught every engineering student takes two courses in the engineering foundations laboratory the transport phenomena laboratory is a 2 000-square-foot laboratory designed to support the teaching of mass transport thermal transport and thermal property measurement techniques across multiple disciplines in engineering shell is an international energy company with around 84 000 employees in more than 70 countries in the united states shell is a leading oil and natural gas producer a recognized pioneer in deep-water exploration and production technology for the gulf of mexico and one of americas leading manufacturers and marketers of natural gas petrochemicals and a range of oil products including fuels and lubricants for home transport and industrial use

whether the body of a commercial aircraft or the suspension beams of san franciscos golden gate bridge materials used for carrying heavy loads are engineered for strength and durability but under unrelenting physical stress structures that may appear damage-free can crack suddenly shrouding the reasons for their failure in mystery unlike pure metals it has long been known that load-bearing materials like steel brass and alloys of aluminum or magnesium have different mechanical properties in different directions now texas a&m university researchers have found that under extreme tension this asymmetry causes load-bearing materials to deteriorate internally and over time develop visible cracks when alloys get damaged its usually very destructive since their ability to handle any kind of stress is sharply reduced said dr amine benzerga professor in aerospace engineering and the director of the center for intelligent materials and structures at texas a&m our findings on the main mechanism driving failure might help make better decisions about the lifetime of alloys that are currently in use which in turn can save a hefty amount of dollars in repairs a description of their research appeared in the journal scientific reports material failure depends on a number of factors including the precise arrangement of the atoms and molecules that make it up consequently unlike a slab of glass that shatters upon breaking metals in particular alloys break counterintuitively that is when a piece of alloy is pulled apart cracks are not always at 90-degree angles to the direction of the pull

the prevalent view of the cause of this type of crack known technically as shear fracture has been porosity softening according to this theory damaging stress creates empty spaces or voids within the metal alloy resembling holes in cheese under constant tension these voids grow and join at which point cracks form and the metal fails however the mechanisms that cause the voids to grow have remained murky also benzerga and his colleagues noticed that most studies investigating the cause of shear fracture were based on experiments in which tension was applied to rectangular-shaped alloys this shape increases the chances of shear fracture substantially said benzerga giving the impression that porosity softening is the main underlying cause for failure precluding other potential causes for their experiments benzerga and his team instead turned to cylindrical-shaped alloys and investigated if the tendency for shear fracture changed with the new shape they found their specimens did not always break in shear fractures the fact that the shape of our specimens was influencing how often we saw shear fractures told us that something else is driving shear failure and that porosity softening was not the whole story said benzerga to examine the cause of shear fractures benzerga and his team built a more sophisticated simulation model that considered porosity softening and other potential causes including plastic anisotropy the property by which a pull or load on a material from one direction causes damage that is different from that in another their simulations predicted that plastic anisotropy and not porosity softening triggered and propelled shear fractures our simulations were telling us something very different from the accepted theory for the cause of shear fractures said benzerga when we completely turned off the porosity softening in our simulations and just kept the plastic anisotropy we still got shear fractures suggesting that plastic anisotropy drives shear failure the researchers speculate that plastic anisotropy causes internal damage to the material leading to voids as damage continues these voids become larger naturally then coalesce over time and cause failure benzerga noted that in the near future their findings could help design materials that can resist shear failures better there are several new load-bearing materials whose mechanical properties are not fully known he said our model now provides a framework to predict what will happen to these materials if heavy physical stress is applied to them other contributors to the research include nithin thomas and joshua s harrington from the texas a&m department of aerospace engineering this research was funded by the national science foundation and by the lawrence livermore national laboratory under master task agreements

imagine a tool that can discover problems on utility lines before outages before power failures spark deadly wildfires or before fears of wildfires prompt massive pre-emptive power outages such as those suffered recently by millions of californians well the tool exists it is available today and it works engineers at texas a&m university have developed the tool a one-of-a-kind diagnostic software called distribution fault anticipation (dfa) it is a software that interprets variations in electrical currents on utility circuits caused by deteriorating conditions or equipment it warns utility operators to respond to particular problems before they cause outages and possibly spark fires electric power companies have nothing else like it dfa has been tested successfully by more than a dozen utilities in texas and elsewhere over the past six yearsnow dfa is being tested by two of californias biggest utilities pacific gas & electric (pg&e) and southern california edison (sce) with encouragement from the california public utilities commission (cpuc) the cpuc administered a 2018 state law requiring utilities to submit wildfire mitigation plans texas a&m researchers also are preparing to test dfa at utilities in australia and new zealand dfa uses a sophisticated set of algorithms based on patterns discovered and refined through 15 years of research research that involved monitoring in-service distribution lines at more than a dozen electrical utilities the technology was developed by a texas a&m research team led by dr b don russell distinguished professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and carl l benner research professor in the department research support for dfa was provided by the electric power research institute the state of texas and various electric utilities russell and benner likened dfa to the computer-based diagnostic tools found in modern cars ones that warn when fluids are running dry or that an engine part is close to failure utility systems operate today like my 1950s chevy russell said they have some fuses and breakers and things but they really dont have anything diagnostic they dont have that computer under the hood telling them whats about to go wrong electrical power outages are commonly caused by falling trees tearing down lines or failures of devices such as clamps switches conductors and connectors the devices often deteriorate over weeks or months impacting electrical currents in small ways before an actual failure perhaps triggered by high winds dfa continuously monitors current sensors and applies its algorithms to detect and report abnormalities for investigation and repair until now utility companies have had little choice but to wait and react to failures electrical equipment is extremely durable and deterioration of devices is difficult or impossible to see that makes visual inspection and preventive maintenance only marginally helpful utilities have long recognized that something new is needed especially given the nations aging infrastructure dfa answers this need texas a&m engineers developed dfa to help utility companies improve reliability in general but they also saw its potential for preventing wildfires while russell and benner emphasize that dfa will not detect all utility failures they say it is the only diagnostic tool available to analyze in real time miles of working circuits and identify explicitly what is failing not only could the dfa technology prevent fires it could give utility companies a tool to reduce the number and size of pre-emptive power outages which now are based on dry conditions and weather forecasts power is being turned off with nothing known to be wrong with a given circuit russell said utilities need a crystal ball something telling them which circuit is going to start a fire tomorrow because it is already unhealthy we are kind of that crystal ball pacific gas & electric is now testing six dfa circuit monitoring devices; southern california edison is testing 60 dfa monitors both utilities are conducting the tests under two-year research contracts with texas a&m commercial installation for widespread use in california would cost far less than the billions of dollars in recent wildfire damage or the billions in spending being discussed for other types of preventive measures for example san francisco based pg&e the states largest utility would need several thousand devices to cover all 106 681 miles of distribution circuit lines a dfa device costs up to $15 000 pg&e filed for bankruptcy this past january citing potential liabilities of more than $30 billion stemming from wildfires it estimates it will need another $75 billion or more to comply with a judges maintenance plan widespread use of dfa could lower maintenance costs and prevent future tragedies dfa is a new tool allowing utilities to transform their operating procedures to find and fix problems before catastrophic failures " russell said utilities operators need real-time situational awareness of the health of their circuits…dfa does that this article originally appeared on the texas a&m university system's news site

leading a double life as both solids and liquids liquid crystals occupy center stage for creating smaller faster and more efficient technologies even at the level of single particles liquid crystals can bend light and react to external forces like electric fields or physical pushes and pulls and so a tiny quantity of liquid crystals is usually enough to achieve high performance in many applications ranging from monitor screens to solar panels but in order to fully tap into a liquid crystals wondrous properties its constituent particles must be systematically assembled in a new study texas a&m university researchers have discovered that applying a small difference in temperature to a watered-down mixture of a compound called zirconium phosphate initiates its liquid crystallization as zirconium phosphate particles move toward warmer temperatures they start aligning themselves with each other and eventually turn into pure liquid crystals the researchers said ours is the first proof-of-concept study to show that temperature gradient is an effective yet simple tool to assemble high-quality liquid crystals said dr zhengdong cheng professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering also our results indicate that we can move liquid crystals by just varying temperature a property that can potentially be used to transport liquid crystal particles from one place to another thus paving the way for applications beyond those that are commonly associated with liquid crystals today the researchers reported their findings in the october issue of the journal acs nano liquid crystals represent a state of matter that lie somewhere between solids and liquids like molecules in solids that form crystals those in liquid crystals are arranged in a semi-systematic fashion like cars in a partly-full parking lot but liquid crystals are also runny and can assume any shape like liquids furthermore in their liquid crystal avatar materials often show exotic properties for example they split up light beams or change their molecular alignments in response to electric fields but whether or not a material can assume a liquid crystal state depends on the overall shape of their constituent particles substances made up of spherical particles do not form liquid crystals on the other hand materials consisting of particles that are elongated like rods or flat like discs do form liquid crystals cheng and his team were particularly interested in zirconium phosphate because its disc-like particles have the ability to self-assemble into larger flat 2d structures in their liquid crystalline state

many particles found in nature like red blood cells nucleosomes and clay particles are disc shaped and under the right circumstances they can self-assemble into liquid crystals said cheng so we used zirconium phosphate as a proxy to investigate if there is a way to experimentally control the liquid crystallization of these particles zirconium phosphate has been shown to assemble into liquid crystals on its own if large enough quantities are added to water but the resulting liquid crystals often have defects and are unstable so cheng and his team came up with an alternative approach cheng had shown previously that applying a temperature difference could make spherical particles assemble into clumps of crystals using the same principle his team investigated if varying temperatures could be used to assemble zirconium phosphate into liquid crystals for their experiments the texas a&m team made a mixture of zirconium phosphate and water and filled it into thin two-inch-long tubes making sure that the quantity of zirconium phosphate was small enough to not trigger automatic liquid crystallization next they applied heat in such a way that the temperature difference between either ends of the tube was around 10 degrees within an hour cheng and his team found that the zirconium phosphate particles in the cooler end of the tube began to creep toward the warmer end triggering liquid crystallization from the tubes warmer end

just like water in a boiling pot circulates from the bottom where it is hot to the top of the container where its cold water in our tubes was also circulating from warmer to cooler temperatures said dali huang graduate student in the texas a&m college of engineering and a primary author of the study accordingly the zirconium phosphate particles also moved in the direction of the water flow and arranged themselves into liquid crystals the researchers speculated that the push from the flowing water helps zirconium phosphate particles to position themselves systematically until they form liquid crystals also they found that the liquid crystals created with temperature gradients were less defective than those formed by other methods cheng noted that their findings open new doors for use in a variety of contexts by virtue of their shape disc-shaped particles have a larger surface area compared to their volume said cheng if we think of the next generation of biomedical devices for example we can potentially take advantage of this geometry to load medicinal particles on their flat surfaces and then vary temperature to transport them to target a specific part of the body other contributors to the research include dr abhijeet shinde dali huang mariela saldivar hongfei xu dr minxiang zeng ugochukwu okeibunor dr ling wang carlos mejia sasha george and dr lecheng zhang from the texas a&m department of chemical engineering; and dr padetha tin from the nasa glenn research center ohio this work was supported by nasa

in the perennial clash between man and microbe ultraviolet light has emerged as one of mans powerful tools against many pathogens although ultraviolet light can wipe out several germs the exact mechanisms that orchestrate the radiations damaging action have long been elusive in the september issue of pnas texas a&m university researchers have reported that ultraviolet radiation creates holes in the microbes outer protective sheath by dislodging tryptophan a molecule that is an important component of the bacterias outer covering the researchers said that these holes provide gateways for ultraviolet radiation to go into the bacteria and disrupt its dna which then stops the microbes from replicating our study provides the science behind the germicidal action of ultraviolet light said dr peter rentzepis tees eminent professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and a member of the national academy of sciences wed like to use this knowledge to develop better ways to monitor bacteria inactivation in various settings including the food industry and health care ultraviolet light is a highly energetic beam of radiation that has been harnessed for a variety of applications ranging from food contamination prevention to infection control although ultraviolet radiation has been used for over five decades to kill bacteria the means by which it enters microorganisms and then accesses their genetic material has not been clear to reach the interior of the bacterium where the dna-containing nucleus is located ultraviolet radiation must pass through an outer layer surrounding the microbe called the cell membrane attached to this membrane are tryptophan molecules although tryptophan is popularly known for its sleep-promoting effects in humans in bacteria tryptophan anchors proteins made within the microbes onto the cell membrane consequently the bacterial outer covering is studded with tryptophan molecules

also unlike most other biological molecules tryptophan interacts with ultraviolet light when hit by ultraviolet light tryptophan molecules absorb the radiation and get energized and when they lose this absorbed energy they reemit a much weaker ultraviolet light dubbed fluorescent light rentzepis and his team investigated if these ultraviolet light-tryptophan interactions played a role in killing bacteria for their experiments the texas a&m team looked at the fluorescent light emitted by tryptophan molecules in escherichia coli and bacillus subtilis bacteria after shining a beam of ultraviolet radiation on them as expected they found that at the end of radiation which typically lasted several minutes the fluorescent light emitted by the tryptophan molecules was drastically reduced indicating that the radiation was killing the bacteria however to their surprise this decreased fluorescent light came after an initial increase immediately after the radiation was turned on the surge of the emitted ultraviolet light just after the radiation onset made us suspect that changes happening to tryptophan molecules before they are ultimately destroyed by ultraviolet light may be involved in how radiation gets into the bacteria said rentzepis past studies have shown that when hit by ultraviolet light protein molecules that are normally wound up in complicated shapes unfold and as a result expose tryptophan rentzepis research groups findings suggest that in bacteria ultraviolet light might unfold membrane proteins and detach tryptophan molecules which may then cause the initial increase in the emitted light signal with tryptophan plucked out of the cell membrane the space left behind forms gaping holes for the ultraviolet light to enter and damage dna he said while the general profile of emitted light is similar for different strains of bacteria rentzepis noted that there are subtle differences that are unique to each species and keeping track of these differences might help in identifying and cataloging different species of bacteria rentzepis and his team have also developed and patented the technology for a handheld device that can collect emitted light from bacteria during irradiation bacterial invasion can happen in different contexts from food processing centers to operation theaters he said but we now have both the science and technology to address these real-world problems since we have a grip on the biological basis behind ultraviolet-induced bacteria inactivation and an instrument that can within minutes and in situ determine how many bacteria are dead after radiation other contributors to the research include dr runze li and dinesh dhankhar anushka nagpal and arjun krishnamoorthi from the texas a&m department of department of electrical and computer engineering; dr maria king from texas a&m biological and agricultural engineering; dr jie chen from shanghai jiao tong universitys center for ultrafast science and technology and dr thomas c cesario from university of california at irvines school of medicine this work was supported in part by the welch foundation the air force office of scientific research and the texas a&m engineering experiment station funds

researchers at texas a&m university have recently developed a more comprehensive mathematical framework that can help engineers at petrochemical plants to not only reduce production costs and increase economic gain but also make these factories safer and more environmentally friendly the researchers said their new algorithm is a one-stop solution that can assist engineers in selecting the most optimal design for chemical processing units within their operating plants the novelty of our algorithm is that it provides a sophisticated decision-making tool that can be used by project engineers to decide between competing designs for their chemical processing units said dr prerna jain who worked in the mary kay oconnor process safety center as a graduate student at texas a&m and is currently an engineer at an oil and gas company our tool integrates data from potential equipment hazards economic data and more importantly complex man-machine interactions to generate a single numerical output this number then points to a design that maximizes profit while still lowering environmental and hazardous impacts an article on the research teams findings was published in october in acs sustainable chemistry and engineering before petroleum-based products are used for everyday purposes like heating homes or powering-up vehicles crude oil passes through a series of processing steps for refinement and packaging however each processing phase can be designed in a variety of ways using different technologies and a variable amount of manpower and so each design may differ vastly in terms of cost safety environmental impact and maintenance to select one design among many possible options engineers often resort to a numerical value called the return on investment this metric in its simplest version indicates the financial benefit or profit resulting from a certain initial monetary investment on a given design however engineers often use more extensive algorithms that include factors such as environmental impact and worker safety to compute return on investment values but jain noted that even these more complex algorithms have largely overlooked social factors such as how often operating procedure manuals at a chemical plant are updated or how frequently equipment maintenance is performed this human element is important to include while computing the return on investment she said because faulty man-equipment interactions often underlie chemical plant disasters like fires and explosions dr mahmoud el-halwagi professor and the bryan research and engineering chair in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m pointed out that social and safety factors are typically considered after major design decisions regarding the chemical plant have been made at this stage key design components are already finalized and it becomes rather difficult to make substantial design modifications he said to address these deficits jain and her team developed an even more elaborate mathematical framework that could be implemented when designing chemical processing units furthermore their algorithm now included man-machine interactions in the new algorithm they plugged in a quantity called resilience or the ability of a chemical plant to recover from a stressed state just as a rubber band can only be stretched to its elastic limit before it breaks chemical plants if used to their maximum capacity and without safety measures in place can degrade leading to catastrophes said jain by incorporating resilience into our algorithm we wanted to include the complex interactions between man and technology that can affect resilience and by extension the estimation of the return of investment once the algorithm was fully developed the researchers used it to compare different designs of gas compressor systems frequently used in chemical plants in particular they contrasted the value of the return on investment for a compression system existing in a chemical plant with five other hypothetical designs jain and her colleagues found that after taking social factors into account the most promising compressor system design was not the one that was already in the existing plant but the one that the researchers had created jain noted that their observations indicate the feasibility of using their algorithm to evaluate new process design ideas that exist in theory but havent been put to the test in an existing plant there is often a hesitation in the energy industry to invest in a new process design if it hasnt been evaluated yet said jain with our algorithm we now have the ability to brainstorm ideas for new process designs and test them virtually without really needing them to be physically set up and running moreover we can feed the algorithm with numbers corresponding to different social factors pertaining to chemical plants in the process we might stumble upon a new better design that is safer for workers and kinder to the environment other contributors to the research included kariana mareno-sader tenorio from the department of chemical engineering university of cartagena colombia; luis carlos ballestas from ecopetrol sa columbia; and dr m sam mannan from the chemical engineering department and executive director of the mary kay o'connor process safety center at texas a&m this work was supported by funds from the mary kay oconnor process safety center

researchers at texas a&m university have recently developed a more comprehensive mathematical framework that can help engineers at petrochemical plants to not only reduce production costs and increase economic gain but also make these factories safer and more environmentally friendly the researchers said their new algorithm is a one-stop solution that can assist engineers in selecting the most optimal design for chemical processing units within their operating plants the novelty of our algorithm is that it provides a sophisticated decision-making tool that can be used by project engineers to decide between competing designs for their chemical processing units said dr prerna jain who worked in the mary kay oconnor process safety center as a graduate student at texas a&m and is currently an engineer at an oil and gas company our tool integrates data from potential equipment hazards economic data and more importantly complex man-machine interactions to generate a single numerical output this number then points to a design that maximizes profit while still lowering environmental and hazardous impacts an article on the research teams findings was published in october in acs sustainable chemistry and engineering before petroleum-based products are used for everyday purposes like heating homes or powering-up vehicles crude oil passes through a series of processing steps for refinement and packaging however each processing phase can be designed in a variety of ways using different technologies and a variable amount of manpower and so each design may differ vastly in terms of cost safety environmental impact and maintenance to select one design among many possible options engineers often resort to a numerical value called the return on investment this metric in its simplest version indicates the financial benefit or profit resulting from a certain initial monetary investment on a given design however engineers often use more extensive algorithms that include factors such as environmental impact and worker safety to compute return on investment values but jain noted that even these more complex algorithms have largely overlooked social factors such as how often operating procedure manuals at a chemical plant are updated or how frequently equipment maintenance is performed this human element is important to include while computing the return on investment she said because faulty man-equipment interactions often underlie chemical plant disasters like fires and explosions dr mahmoud el-halwagi professor and the bryan research and engineering chair in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m pointed out that social and safety factors are typically considered after major design decisions regarding the chemical plant have been made at this stage key design components are already finalized and it becomes rather difficult to make substantial design modifications he said to address these deficits jain and her team developed an even more elaborate mathematical framework that could be implemented when designing chemical processing units furthermore their algorithm now included man-machine interactions in the new algorithm they plugged in a quantity called resilience or the ability of a chemical plant to recover from a stressed state just as a rubber band can only be stretched to its elastic limit before it breaks chemical plants if used to their maximum capacity and without safety measures in place can degrade leading to catastrophes said jain by incorporating resilience into our algorithm we wanted to include the complex interactions between man and technology that can affect resilience and by extension the estimation of the return of investment once the algorithm was fully developed the researchers used it to compare different designs of gas compressor systems frequently used in chemical plants in particular they contrasted the value of the return on investment for a compression system existing in a chemical plant with five other hypothetical designs

jain and her colleagues found that after taking social factors into account the most promising compressor system design was not the one that was already in the existing plant but the one that the researchers had created jain noted that their observations indicate the feasibility of using their algorithm to evaluate new process design ideas that exist in theory but havent been put to the test in an existing plant there is often a hesitation in the energy industry to invest in a new process design if it hasnt been evaluated yet said jain with our algorithm we now have the ability to brainstorm ideas for new process designs and test them virtually without really needing them to be physically set up and running moreover we can feed the algorithm with numbers corresponding to different social factors pertaining to chemical plants in the process we might stumble upon a new better design that is safer for workers and kinder to the environment other contributors to the research included kariana mareno-sader tenorio from the department of chemical engineering university of cartagena colombia; luis carlos ballestas from ecopetrol sa columbia; and dr m sam mannan from the chemical engineering department and executive director of the mary kay o'connor process safety center at texas a&m this work was supported by funds from the mary kay oconnor process safety center

before dr qingsheng wang became an associate professor of chemical engineering at the mary kay o'connor process safety center at texas a&m university he was a doctoral student working there wang answered a few questions about his journey from texas a&m and back and how this experience has shaped him into the researcher and mentor he is today q: can you tell us a little bit about what brought you to texas a&m university as a student a: dr f albert cotton brought me to texas a&m university it was 2005 and i had just completed my undergraduate and masters studies in chemistry from zhejiang university in china i wanted to pursue a phd and at that time dr cotton was a distinguished professor in the department of chemistry at texas a&m he was a very famous chemist with his name appearing in a few textbooks i really wanted to join his lab he was studying the chemistry behind metal-metal bonds an area of research i was interested in so i applied to the universitys graduate program in chemistry and i got in q: cotton was part of the chemistry department and you spent the majority of your graduate studies at texas a&m working as a researcher for the mary kay o'connor process safety center in the college of engineering how did you wind up there a: when i was in my second year of graduate school dr cotton passed away and so i was on the lookout for a new lab for my doctoral studies i did speak to many professors in that regard but the conversations i had with dr sam mannan really stood out he was the director of the mary kay o'connor process safety center which is a part of the department of chemical engineering i was fascinated by the kind of research they did at the center particularly on the reaction mechanisms that trigger chemical explosions i could apply a lot of my knowledge in quantum chemistry to study how volatile chemicals break down and eventually explode also i had the opportunity to work on projects that were industry-focused which made sense since most incidents of chemical explosions happen in industries q: are explosions common in chemical industries a: oh yes they happen pretty often and some of them are really big for example in 1947 there was an incident in texas city where ammonium nitrate which is a common fertilizer exploded because it accidentally caught on fire in 2013 in west texas the same chemical exploded and just last year the chemical safety board investigated a few incidents in fact the mary kay oconnor process safety center was established to educate engineers to identify and prevent potential fires and explosions before situations become irreversibly dangerous q: did you continue studying fires and explosions after graduate school a: yes i wanted to remain in academia and do more research on that topic oklahoma state university had an opening in the department of fire protection and safety engineering i applied interviewed and got an offer to join as an assistant professor almost immediately after in my lab i studied mostly fire safety and the combustion dynamics behind fires caused by burning different materials i was very fortunate that my training in chemistry and chemical engineering at texas a&m uniquely positioned me to study this topic q: in 2019 you returned to texas a&m after spending eight and a half years at oklahoma state university what made you come back a: my phd advisor dr mannan i was doing really well at oklahoma state; i was an endowed professor and was supervising several phd and masters students dr mannan called me one day and said that the mary kay o'connor process safety center was expanding and there were a few faculty positions that were available he said that the number of phd students at the center had increased a lot he wanted my help and i wanted to help but i also knew that coming back gave me the opportunity to give back to the institution i learned so much from it was win-win

q: what is it like being on the faculty at texas a&m a: my journey has come full circle unlike when i was a student i now see the organization from a different vantage point i hope to bring all my experience in leadership and research to manage the safety engineering academic program i also now collaborate with several senior professors from other departments to enhance my research q: what career advice do you give your students a: i encourage all my students to have an open mind about their career pursuits i chose to be in academia because i really enjoy teaching and research but the wonderful aspect about being at the mary kay o'connor process safety center is that you also get to work on industry-related projects so i highly recommend that my students do at least one internship in industry before they make up their minds about the direction of their careers but if they enjoy research more and want to stay in academia they have my full support as well

according to ancient lore genghis khan instructed his horsemen to wear silk vests underneath their armor to better protect themselves against an onslaught of arrows during battle since the time of khan body armor has significantly evolved silk has given way to ultra-hard materials that act like impenetrable walls against most ammunition however even this armor can fail particularly if it is hit by high-speed ammunition or other fast-moving objectsresearchers from texas a&m university the army research laboratory rutgers university and johns hopkins university have formulated a new recipe that can prevent weaknesses in modern-day armor by adding a tiny amount of the element silicon to boron carbide a material commonly used for making body armor they discovered that bullet-resistant gear could be made substantially more resilient to high-speed impactsfor the past 12 years researchers have been looking for ways to reduce the damage caused by the impact of high-speed bullets on armor made with boron carbide said dr kelvin xie assistant professor in the department of materials science and engineering our work finally addresses this unmet need and is a step forward in designing superior body armor that will safeguard against even more powerful firearms during combatthis study was published in the october issue of the journal science advancesboron carbide dubbed black diamond is a man-made material which ranks second below another synthetic material called cubic boron nitride for hardness unlike cubic boron nitride however boron carbide is easier to produce on a large scale also boron carbide is harder and lighter than other armor materials like silicon carbide making it an ideal choice for protective gear particularly ballistic vestsdespite boron carbides many desirable qualities its main shortfall is that it can damage very quickly upon high-velocity impactboron carbide is really good at stopping bullets traveling below 900 meters per second and so it can block bullets from most handguns quite effectively said xie but above this critical speed boron carbide suddenly loses its ballistic performance and is not as effective

scientists know high-speed jolts cause boron carbide to have phase transformations a phenomenon where a material changes its internal structure such that it is in two or more physical states like liquid and solid at the same time the bullets impact thus converts boron carbide from a crystalline state where atoms are systematically ordered to a glass-like state where atoms are haphazardly arranged this glass-like state weakens the materials integrity at the site of contact between the bullet and boron carbidewhen boron carbide undergoes phase transformation the glassy phase creates a highway for cracks to propagate said xie so any local damage caused by the impact of a bullet easily travels throughout the material and causes progressively more damageprevious work using computer simulations predicted that adding a small quantity of another element such as silicon had the potential to make boron carbide less brittle xie and his group investigated if adding a tiny quantity of silicon also reduced phase transformationto simulate the initial impact of a high-speed bullet the researchers made well-controlled dents on boron carbide samples with a diamond tip whose width is smaller than a human hair then under a high-powered electron microscope they looked at the microscopic damage that was formed from the blowsxie and his collaborators found that even with tiny quantities of silicon the extent of phase transformation went down by 30% noticeably reducing the damage from the indentationalthough silicon serves well to enhance boron carbides properties xie explained that more experiments need to be done to know if other elements like lithium and aluminum could also improve boron carbides performancein the near future xie predicts these stronger cousins of pure boron carbide will find other nonmilitary applications one such use is in nuclear shields he said using a touch of silicon in boron carbide changes the spacing between atoms and the empty spaces created might be good sites to absorb harmful radiation from nuclear reactorsjust as in cooking where a small sprinkle of spices can greatly boost flavor by using a small amount of silicon we can dramatically improve the properties of boron carbide and consequently find novel applications for these ultrahard materials xie said other contributors to the research include dr sisi xiang yvonne dieudonne dr george m pharr and digvijay yadav from the department of materials science and engineering at texas a&m; dr kevin j hemker and dr luoning ma from johns hopkins department of mechanical engineering; bruce yang dr chawon hwang and dr richard a haber from the rutgers university department of materials science and engineering; dr jing lu from nanomegas usa; and dr jerry c lasalvia from the us army research laboratorythis study was partly sponsored by the defense advanced research projects agency additional support was received from xies start-up grant from the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees)

dr xia "ben" hu assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering and a lynn ‘84 and bill crane 83 faculty fellow has recently been given a national science foundation (nsf) and amazon joint award under their fairness in artificial intelligence program with this research funding hu will now take deep dives into investigating the causes behind biases in machine learning algorithms and ways to remedy them algorithms based on machine learning have seamlessly permeated into our everyday lives particularly to help us with decision making for example many businesses use artificial intelligence-powered applications to give people employment-related suggestions or to provide product recommendations however overwhelming research now shows that these algorithms are inadvertently discriminatory the bias in machine learning algorithms is quite ubiquitous and people have begun to notice it said hu take for instance employment-oriented services that use machine learning to match users with job opportunities for reasons that are currently not completely known these algorithms recommend stem jobs only to male users this bias he said can hurt both employers who hope to hire the best candidate regardless of their gender and women seeking stem jobs moreover machine learning algorithms specifically those based on a specialized form of artificial intelligence called deep learning are often considered impenetrable black boxes making the task of fixing them extremely hard compounding the problem is that the bias could also be caused by a multitude of other factors including faulty data for training the machine learning algorithm hu noted that his upcoming research will for the first time detect understand and correct the unfairness in deep learning algorithms in a quantitative way he said that once the bias is addressed the newer deep learning algorithms will be more sensitive to features that are most relevant to the decision-making task if we again think of the deep learning algorithms in the context of employment-oriented services we want to develop better algorithms that are insensitive to features such as gender and race and more sensitive to the candidates past experiences or what their expertise is said hu our goal is to reduce the bias in deep learning algorithms so that they are much more valuable to both the user and the service provider the nsf-amazon joint award under their fairness in artificial intelligence program is a highly competitive grant funding just six to nine applicants each year funding size varies between $750 000 up to a maximum of $1 250 000 for periods of up to three years to receive the award grant applications must be interdisciplinary projects that include contributions from various fields including computer science statistics mathematics and information science hu shares the award with dr james caverlee from the department of computer science and engineering dr na zou from the department of industrial and systems engineering and dr chaitanya lakkimsetti from the department of sociology at texas a&m university

because of their unique ability to be pulled twisted and conform to 3d surfaces stretchable electronics have a variety of applications that include wearable health monitors cyber skin for robotic devices and flexible solar cells however even with these superpowers stretchable electronics can tear but not in ways that one would normally think in a recent paper published in pnas dr matt pharr assistant professor in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university has shown that a tiny rip in some stretchable materials spreads at right angles to the original tear quite unlike a tear on paper that deepens when pulled his findings on the mechanics of tears in elastic materials may help develop more tear-resistant materials in the future

pharr first suspected that stretchable materials have a unique tear pattern when he was playing with a soft elastic material called elastomers when he pulled on a crack in the material he noticed that the tear became bigger in the direction of the pull this observation led him to further investigate the sideways cracking of these materials more systematically in his laboratory he found that when elastomers are relaxed their structural properties are the same in all directions but when pulled these materials undergo microscopic structural changes that make them have different properties in different directions and so the tear does not get deeper; instead it changes direction and expands alongside the rest of the elastomer this is scientifically intriguing said pharr its not expected and seeing something that i dont expect always sparks curiosity

pharr aims to use his knowledge about the structural properties of elastomers to engineer new elastic materials that show sideways cracking by investigating how to reverse engineer microstructures that lead to sideways cracking researchers can harness the benefits associated with it and develop application methods for materials that do not normally exhibit such fractures this will ensure stretchable electronics are more tear resistance and have greater stretchability

by incorporating the architecture of city drainage systems and readings from flood gauges into a comprehensive statistical framework researchers at texas a&m university can now accurately predict the evolution of floods in extreme situations like hurricanes with their new approach the researchers said their algorithm could forecast the flow of flood water in almost real-time which can then lead to timelier emergency response and planning not knowing where flood water will flow next is particularly detrimental for first responders who need to gauge the level of flooding for their rescue operations said dr ali mostafavi assistant professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering our new algorithm considers the underground drainage channels to provide an accurate representation of how floods propagate this tool we think can vastly help disaster management because first responders will be able to see which way flood water will flow in real time a description of the researchers algorithm can be found in the december issue of the journal computer-aided civil and infrastructure engineering hurricanes are notorious for wreaking havoc on shorelines toppling trees tearing down power lines and above all causing severe floods conventionally scientists have used physics-based models to predict where water might collect overflow and cause flooding in essence these models capture how physical features of the earths surface and urban landscapes affect the flow of water over the ground while robust at predicting when and where floods will happen under most rainfall conditions mostafavi said these traditional models do not perform as well at predicting floods during incidents of torrential rainfall like hurricane harvey physics-based models offer one perspective on how floods can spread which is extremely useful but the picture they provide is somewhat incomplete he said we wanted to use existing data on how past floods have spread through the drainage channels to develop a model that would be able to predict within a certain level of preciseness how future floods will spread drainage channels are an elaborate network of intertwined channels that meet together at junctions called nodes thus flooding in one channel can directly or indirectly affect other channels and cause floods to spread much like a domino effect

to predict which way flood water will flow along drainage channels and cause an inundation mostafavi and his team developed a probability-based model that was fed as one of its inputs the water-level readings on flood gauges these readings were for different time points during two major flooding events in texas hurricane harvey in 2017 and houstons memorial day flood in 2015 once their algorithm was trained on water flow patterns through the drainage network for these heavy rainfall events the researchers tested if their model worked by checking if it could predict the flood patterns that had been observed during houstons tax day flood in 2016 they found that their model achieved an accuracy of 85% in predicting how the flood propagated through the citys drainage system during the tax day flood although the model was validated using a past flood event mostafavi said that the models success suggests that it will also be able to predict how new floods will propagate through the citys drainage networks this insight could help emergency responders take preemptive steps towards evacuations he said noting the caveats of their model mostafavi said that the performance of their algorithm could be compromised if the sensors on flood gauges fail however complementing the predictions coming from physics-based models with those from their teams new algorithm can once again restore the accuracy of flood prediction traditional models and our data-driven models can be used to complement each other to give a more precise picture of where flood water will go next said mostafavi hurricanes of the magnitude of harvey or katrina are generally considered a one-in-a-thousand-year event but they may not be as rare if we consider the changes in global weather patterns because of climate change but we now have more robust tools to weather the storm other contributors to the research include dr shangjia dong and dr hamed farahmand from the texas a&m zachry department of civil and environmental engineering this research is funded by national science foundations rapid project and crisp 20 type 2 project

texas a&m university-san antonio will advance cyber research through a newly established cyber engineering technology/cyber security research center with a $1 million grant from the texas a&m university system chancellors research initiative (cri) the center will be housed in the department of computing and cyber security within the college of business some of the major research areas to be investigated at the center include security and privacy in the internet of things and cloud computing secure vehicle-to-vehicle communications and cyber-physical systems the grant will also be used to enhance research collaborations with local and regional research institutions chancellor john sharp created the chancellors research initiative in 2013 for texas a&m university and prairie view a&m university to hire highly qualified professors who would impact the academic and research missions of those schools two years later he expanded it to the rest of the a&m system it is through research that the texas a&m system can tackle global problems said sharp i am proud that a&m-san antonio will be involved in the critical field of cybersecurity this grant takes a&m-san antonio to the next level of research said dr cynthia teniente-matson president of a&m-san antonio we anticipate the a&m university system will see a great return on its investment in cybersecurity here in san antonio as well as contribute to advancing research related to the advancing science of the effectiveness for the internet of things the grant will be shared with the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) which will receive about a third of the money the texas a&m system is dedicated to protecting against cyberattacks of government businesses and individuals said dr m katherine banks vice chancellor and dean of engineering and national laboratories and tees director tees and texas a&m have built strong academic and research programs in cybersecurity and this new grant will allow us to leverage our activities with those at a&m-san antonio for increased impact the cyber engineering technology/cyber security research center will develop foundational research infrastructure with cutting-edge technology and equipment to facilitate research in various areas and provide campus-wide infrastructure and resources for faculty and student research said dr akhtar lodgher chair of the department of computing and cyber security a portion of the grant will support existing degree programs at a&m-san antonio such as cyber engineering technology as well as future graduate programs dr smriti bhatt and dr loai tawalbeh under the supervision of dr lodgher submitted the winning proposal

mental health issues are becoming more prevalent on college campuses across the country and researchers at texas a&m university are working to develop evidence-based services that will help manage students mental health while mental health counseling is available on most college campuses the stigma around mental health care can keep students away from the help they needtools to help combat this stigma are readily seen on college campuses today – smart devices most college students have either a smartphone tablet or smartwatch these devices allow students constant access to one another and the world around them and can provide a reliable platform to deliver mental health servicesa team of researchers led by dr farzan sasangohar assistant professor in the department of industrial and systems engineering is developing a wearable continuous monitoring tool

the tool utilizes advanced machine learning and a wide range of sensors provided on commercial off-the-shelf smartwatches to detect signs and symptoms of high anxiety and direct the smartwatch wearer to resources the wearable device would be triggered by negative indicators such as anxiety patterns of heart rate and self-reports by the smartwatch wearer and would prompt the wearer to engage in therapeutic activities the pilot program is called mental health evaluation and lookout or mhelpresources available through mhelp include therapeutic activities like mobile self-assessments educational content and self-management tools such as biofeedback and mindfulness exercises these services are available through a mobile platform the monitoring tool will also integrate with in-person and virtual counseling sessions which will help mental health providers guide their patients treatment plans more effectivelythis pilot program hopes to bring mental health care to students as they experience anxiety or depression and provide on-demand or proactive access to virtual and in-person counseling by allowing students to manage their mental health through a wearable device the researchers feel that some of the stigma associated with mental health treatment can be overcome

mental health is affecting students academic success and their overall quality of life sasangohar said mental illness can also affect a students motivation concentration and social interactions which are all crucial factors for a student to be successful in college and lifethis program is the first of its kind and could be used as a model for integrating mobile-enabled technologies into mental health care in other communitiessasangohar will collaborate with student counseling services the office of the dean of faculties the division of student affairs as well as faculty in the bush school of government and public service college of education and human development school of public health and college of engineeringthis project is funded by the x-grants program at texas a&m through the office of the president funding will be used to implement the pilot program at texas a&m

dr jaime grunlan and his team are helping lead the effort to pursue safer more effective ways to protect flammable objects through the development of flame-retardant surface treatments grunlan the linda & ralph schmidt 68 professor in the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering is an international leader in the field of flame-retardant surface treatments and recently published a review in nature reviews materials describing the state of the art in this important field of research the team's goal alongside their peers is to produce surface treatments that serve to be more effective in their fire protection and less damaging to the environment "many current flame-retardant treatments are ineffective or not effective enough and contain toxic chemistries " grunlan said "we and others around the world are seeking to make flame-retardant treatments safer and much more effective at stopping fire" current research by grunlan's team aims specifically to protect telephone and transmission line poles to prevent forest fires treat textiles for military use and reduce the flammability of a variety of foams and fabrics used in vehicles including planes trains and cars while much progress has been made over the last decade there is still much work to be done "as flame-retardant regulations are changing around the world and new fire threats are constantly presenting themselves this review of flame-retardant surface treatments is especially timely " grunlan said through the use of these surface treatments researchers hope to make commonly used flammable materials including polyurethane foam and polyester fabric anti-flammable or self-extinguishing in some cases the treatments can even be used to reduce smoke production "the field of flame-retardant treatments is seeking to prevent loss of life and property damage by imparting self-extinguishing and anti-flammable behavior to various materials " grunlan said "plastics are inherently flammable and are often the cause of spreading fire more rapidly in buildings and transportation appropriate treatments make it much more difficult for materials to ignite and spread the fire" while surface treatments like those developed by grunlan's team have their benefits over the more commonly used method of mixing in the fire-retardant agent to the materials of interest there are drawbacks that researchers are seeking to address "durability of these treatments to washing and environmental damage is one key issue along with the need for more effective and environmentally friendly chemistries " grunlan said "my research group is working to address both of these challenges and we are at the forefront of the field in this regard" the nature reviews materials journal publishes reviews by invitation only and seeks out the leaders in a given topic nature reviews materials has quickly established itself as the second-highest impact factor journal in the world among any field of research

there is a layer that separates the sky and sea its tiny – only one millimeter at its thickest – and yet this sea-surface microlayer plays a major role in weather prediction and the relationship between the air and oceanwhile the sea-surface layer has been known about for decades the dynamics and greater implications of it are largely unknown in order to remedy this dr aarthi sekaran and dr noushin amini two research assistant professors in the department of ocean engineering at the texas a&m university at galveston campus are taking a deeper look into the flow instabilities of this microlayer their research will provide a better understanding of how changes in the sea-surface microlayer affect weather patterns such as wind speed and temperature variationthe science that is hidden in this microlayer is both fascinating and challenging since we see large variations of properties like temperature salinity and organic matter composition said sekaran essentially a lot happening over a small thickness which is an exciting fluid dynamical setupas the incidence of extreme weather conditions increases sekaran explained that it becomes more essential to understand the sea-surface microlayer which plays a pivotal role in predicting weather and climate changes the question then becomes how global conditions are affected by shifts found in the microlayermy research aims at using state-of-the-art computer simulations to unearth the role of flow instabilities coherent structure dynamics and other related processes on the development of the sea-surface microlayer said sekaran

while an undergraduate and graduate student at texas a&m university sekaran was introduced to hydrodynamic instabilities hydrodynamic instabilities – the study of fluids in motion and how their flow can be disrupted – look at how such instabilities can cause large-scale dynamic changes in systems (such as weather patterns) applying these concepts to ocean engineering early into her appointment in the department sekaran discovered that distinct flow patterns and instabilities could be simulated in the sea-surface microlayer opening a door for fundamental processes to be discoveredfocusing on the heat and mass transfer across the sea-surface microlayer sekaran and amini are looking to do just that: discover fundamental processes and understanding of the microlayer and how it impacts weather prediction and other systemsthe ocean engineering department is an exciting place to work in today sekaran said the experienced faculty is always willing to guide younger ones and we are all enthusiastic about the department growing in new directions ive also had the opportunity to work on some unique department initiatives such as the natural marine processes in engineering design program and am certain we will have an unparalleled group of aggie ocean engineers graduating soon

weve all shared the frustration software updates that are intended to make our applications run faster inadvertently end up doing just the opposite these bugs dubbed in the computer science field as performance regressions are time-consuming to fix since locating software errors normally requires substantial human intervention to overcome this obstacle researchers at texas a&m university in collaboration with computer scientists at intel labs have now developed a complete automated way of identifying the source of errors caused by software updates their algorithm based on a specialized form of machine learning called deep learning is not only turnkey but also quick finding performance bugs in a matter of a few hours instead of days updating software can sometimes turn on you when errors creep in and cause slowdowns this problem is even more exaggerated for companies that use large-scale software systems that are continuously evolving said dr abdullah muzahid assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering we have designed a convenient tool for diagnosing performance regressions that is compatible with a whole range of software and programming languages expanding its usefulness tremendously the researchers described their findings in the 32nd edition of advances in neural information processing systems from the proceedings of the neural information processing systems conference in december to pinpoint the source of errors within a software debuggers often check the status of performance counters within the central processing unit these counters are lines of code that monitor how the program is being executed on the computers hardware in the memory for example so when the software runs counters keep track of the number of times it accesses certain memory locations the time it stays there and when it exits among other things hence when the softwares behavior goes awry counters are again used for diagnostics performance counters give an idea of the execution health of the program said muzahid so if some program is not running as it is supposed to these counters will usually have the telltale sign of anomalous behavior however newer desktops and servers have hundreds of performance counters making it virtually impossible to keep track of all of their statuses manually and then look for aberrant patterns that are indicative of a performance error that is where muzahids machine learning comes in

by using deep learning the researchers were able to monitor data coming from a large number of the counters simultaneously by reducing the size of the data which is similar to compressing a high-resolution image to a fraction of its original size by changing its format in the lower dimensional data their algorithm could then look for patterns that deviate from normal when their algorithm was ready the researchers tested if it could find and diagnose a performance bug in a commercially available data management software used by companies to keep track of their numbers and figures first they trained their algorithm to recognize normal counter data by running an older glitch-free version of the data management software next they ran their algorithm on an updated version of the software with the performance regression they found that their algorithm located and diagnosed the bug within a few hours muzahid said this type of analysis could take a considerable amount of time if done manually in addition to diagnosing performance regressions in software muzahid noted that their deep learning algorithm has potential uses in other areas of research as well such as developing the technology needed for autonomous driving the basic idea is once again the same that is being able to detect an anomalous pattern said muzahid self-driving cars must be able to detect whether a car or a human is in front of it and then act accordingly so its again a form of anomaly detection and the good news is that is what our algorithm is already designed to do other contributors to the research include dr mejbah alam dr justin gottschlich dr nesime tatbul dr javier turek and dr timothy mattson from intel labs this research is partly funded by the national science foundation career grant and intel

baby diapers contact lenses and gelatin dessert while seemingly unrelated these items have one thing in common theyre made of highly absorbent substances called hydrogels that have versatile applications recently a type of biodegradable hydrogel dubbed microporous annealed particle (map) hydrogel has gained much attention for its potential to deliver stem cells for body tissue repair but it is currently unclear how these jelly-like materials affect the growth of their precious cellular cargo thereby limiting its use in regenerative medicine in a new study published in the november issue of acta biomaterialia researchers at texas a&m university have shown that map hydrogels programmed to biodegrade at an optimum pace create a fertile environment for bone stem cells to thrive and proliferate vigorously they found the space created by the withering of map hydrogels creates room for the stem cells to grow spread and form intricate cellular networks our research now shows that stem cells flourish on degrading map hydrogels; they also remodel their local environment to better suit their needs said dr daniel alge assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering these results have important implications for developing map hydrogel-based delivery systems particularly for regenerative medicine where we want to deliver cells that will replace damaged tissues with new and healthy ones map hydrogels are a newer breed of injectable hydrogels these soft materials are interconnected chains of extremely small beads made of polyethylene glycol a synthetic polymer although the microbeads cannot themselves cling to cells they can be engineered to present cell-binding proteins that can then attach to receptor molecules on the stem cells surface

once fastened onto the microbeads the stem cells use the space between the spheres to grow and transform into specialized cells like bone or skin cells and so when there is an injury map hydrogels can be used to deliver these new cells to help tissues regenerate however the health and behavior of stem cells within the map hydrogel environment has never been fully studied map hydrogels have superior mechanical and biocompatible properties so in principle they are a great platform to grow and maintain stem cells said alge but people in the field really dont have a good understanding of how stem cells behave in these materials to address this question the researchers studied the growth spread and function of bone stem cells in map hydrogels alge and his team used three samples of map hydrogels that differed only in the speed at which they degraded that is either slow fast or not at all first for the stem cells to attach onto the map hydrogels the researchers decorated the map hydrogels with a type of cell-binding protein they then tracked the stem cells as they grew using a high-resolution fluorescent microscope the researchers also repeated the same experiment using another cell-binding protein to investigate if cell-binding proteins also affected stem cell development within the hydrogels

to their surprise alges team found that for both types of cell-binding proteins the map hydrogels that degraded the fastest had the largest population of stem cells furthermore the cells were changing the shape of the map hydrogel as they spread and claimed more territory in the intact map hydrogel we could still see the spherical microbeads and the material was quite undamaged said alge by contrast the cells were making ridges and grooves in the degrading map hydrogels dynamically remodeling their environment the researchers also found that as the stem cells grew the quantity of bone proteins produced by the growing stem cells depended on which cell-binding protein was initially used in the map hydrogel alge noted that the insight gained through their study will greatly inform further research and development in map hydrogels for stem-cell therapies although map hydrogel degradability profoundly affects the growth of the stem cells we found that the interplay between the cell-binding proteins and the degradation is also important he said as we as a field make strides toward developing new map hydrogels for tissue engineering we must look at the effects of both degradability and cell-binding proteins to best utilize these materials for regenerative medicine other contributors to the research include dr shangjing xin from the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m and dr carl a gregory from the institute for regenerative medicine at the texas a&m health science center this research was supported by funds from the national institute of arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin diseases of the national institutes of health

reaching for something on the top shelf at the grocery store or brushing one's teeth before bed are tasks many people can do without much thought but performing these same tasks as an upper limb amputee using a prosthetic device can require a lot more mental effort machine learning algorithms and computational models can provide insight into the mental demand placed on individuals using prosthetics dr maryam zahabi and her team are using these models to improve the current interface in prosthetic devices by studying prosthetics that use an electromyography-based human-machine interface

electromyography (emg) is a technique that records the electrical activity in muscles this electrical activity generates signals that trigger the interface which translates them into a unique pattern of commands these commands allow users to move their prosthetic devices there are over 100 000 people with upper limb amputations in the united states zahabi said currently there is very little guidance on which features in emg-based human-machine interfaces are helpful in reducing the cognitive load of patients while performing different tasks testing different interface prototypes through virtual reality and driving simulations will allow researchers to provide guidance to engineers creating these interfaces this will lead to better prosthetics for amputees and other technological advances using emg-based assistive human-machine interfaces this research is a collaboration between texas a&m north carolina state university and the university of florida and is supported by the national science foundation

the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university installed a new driving simulator to use in research pertaining to driving autonomous vehicles and innovative research like zahabis it is a one-of-a-kind feature on campus that can be driven manually or autonomously with a 270-degree field of vision due to the many different types of research that might require a driving simulator interdisciplinary teamwork is almost inherent in any project that incorporates this technology

with a touch of inspiration from macgyver texas a&m university researchers have developed a way to make medical protective gear from readily available materials to construct desperately needed personal protection masks for medical personnel who have seen a depletion of resources as the number of covid-19 cases increases dr john criscione a texas a&m professor in the department of biomedical engineering and a johns hopkins-educated medical doctor said he and his colleagues are investigating a low-technology solution to a growing problem and have figured out a way to build medical masks with materials such as air-conditioning filters sheer curtains staples and stretchable cords if the gap between supply and demand continues to worsen and particularly our emergency medical colleagues are forced to use do-it-yourself masks we want them to have technical guidance as they make their choices of materials and construction criscione said we see this as our selfless service responsibility to the general public as aggies and we are here to help

the project began after emergency room physicians asked criscione to explore potential solutions in case masks became unavailable the prototype never was intended to join the supply chain of approved personal protective equipment or personal protective equipment criscione said rather the aggie masks should be reserved for worst-case scenarios where overwhelmed hospitals have no protective masks to use for life-saving procedures

criscione and his team will be quantitatively testing do-it-yourself masks in the coming days and will continue their efforts to create a mask that has features similar to the n95 respirator which is capable of filtering 95% of airborne particles including viruses (surgical masks cannot block as much) another group at texas a&ms college of engineering is working on options to produce similar personal protective masks using 3d printers

objects around us from everyday utensils to touch screens are made of a blend of ingredients that can include a variety of metals and nonmetals although these synthetic materials have been engineered for strength and durability with time they can gradually weaken and in extreme cases crack particularly if subjected to constant physical stress levi mcclenny a doctoral candidate in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university and a recipient of the data-enabled discovery and design of energy materials (d3em) fellowship is training artificial intelligence to accurately predict which man-made materials are more likely to develop cracks or break over time having an automated way to determine if and when materials will break is one of mcclennys doctoral goals when his computer algorithm is fully developed mcclenny's software will identify applications in designing more sophisticated smart vehicles these futuristic automobiles he says will be able to work out their overall states of deterioration in real-time by constantly monitoring the atomic structure and composition of their different vehicular components

mcclenny who incidentally is also a blackhawk pilot in the united states army reserves explained that his research has important uses within the military like all vehicles those used by the army such as tanks and planes are also composed of many parts each made up of a different mix of elements consequently different components are at different stages of deterioration a vehicle-installed software that can predict when breakages will occur can alert drivers or pilots to take preemptive steps to avoid future damage by gaining a deeper knowledge of which materials are more prone to breakage and why mcclenny hopes eventually to design new materials whose microscopic properties have been slightly tweaked to have desirable qualities like higher strength better electrical conductivity and superior flexibility

the texas a&m university systems george h w bush combat development complex (bcdc) under construction at the rellis campus is the result of a partnership with the army futures command the bcdc will bring together academic researchers the military and the private sector for collaboration demonstrations and high-tech testing of various national security initiatives

with the millions of bacteria that naturally exit in the environment and the many more that can be engineered for biological warfare the need to recognize whether a bacterium is potentially harmful is ever-increasing to rapidly identify different bacteria that exist in a given sample dr arum han professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university is developing a microfluidic device a type of microchip that can classify microorganisms as safe or unsafe within a span of minutes which could otherwise take days or even longer with current methods for this ambitious project han and his collaborators at the texas a&m college of medicine have received a $15 million defense advanced research projects agency grant to determine the virulence of bacteria hans device will screen the microbes for five-10 criteria that include toxin production skin penetrability and resistance to antibiotics furthermore his device is small and portable making it handy for on-site measurements of bacteria present in soil or water thinking ahead han is also partnering with dr arun jayaraman the ray b nesbitt professor of chemical engineering at texas a&m to find ways to grow bacteria in a laboratory particularly for those microbes that are novel or too few in number in a sample in this way information about these unfamiliar bacteria can be incorporated into the microfluidic technology so that the device can rapidly identify these bacterial strains if encountered again han notes that his tiny bacteria identification system will benefit both military personnel who often find themselves in unknown foreign environments and the general population who are exposed to a myriad of existing and emerging infectious diseases

while han develops the microchip dr james samuel (pi) and dr paul de figueiredo (co-pi) from the department of microbial pathogenesis and immunology in the texas a&m college of medicine will look at the microbial pathogens to determine what aspects of their harmfulness to humans or animals can be tested rapidly using about five to 10 different criteria

electrical power outages commonly are caused by falling trees that tear down lines or failures of devices such as clamps switches conductors and connectors the devices can deteriorate over weeks or months impacting electrical currents in small ways before actual failures perhaps triggered by adverse weather conditions like high winds utilities representatives have long recognized that something new is needed given the nations aging infrastructure distribution fault anticipation (dfa) a new technology developed at texas a&m university by a research team led by dr b don russell and dr carl benner answers this need dfa can help electric utilities keep the lights on and prevent horrific wildfires from spreading across the globe this one-of-a-kind hardware and software system can diagnose problems on utility lines before outages darken neighborhoods or power failures spark wildfires

utility systems today operate like my 1950s chevy russell said they have some fuses and breakers and things but they really dont have anything diagnostic they dont have that computer under the hood telling them whats about to go wrong dfa interprets variations in electrical currents on utility circuits caused by deteriorating equipment it continuously monitors currents and applies its algorithms to detect and report abnormalities for investigation and repair before they cause outages or fires electric power companies have nothing else like it not only does dfa improve reliability and help prevent fires it could potentially give california utilities a tool to limit preemptive power outages such as those endured by millions of californians last fall the utilities turned off the lights based only on dry conditions and weather forecasts utilities needed a crystal ball something telling them which circuit is going to start a fire tomorrow because it is already unhealthy said russell who has also testified before the us senate energy and natural resources committee to explain this technologys advantages dfa is that crystal ball

engineers at texas a&m developed dfa over 20 years of research and testing at more than a dozen utilities across the nation including texas utilities such as pedernales electric cooperative mid-south synergy and bluebonnet electric cooperative dfa is now being tested by two of californias biggest utilities pacific gas & electric and southern california edison where utilities have been linked to some of the most destructive wildfires ever texas a&m researchers also are working on tests with utilities in new zealand the united kingdom and australia

major hospitals in the houston area reached out to the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) and texas a&m university to determine if researchers and staff could use their rapid manufacturing expertise to assist with the shortage of medical devices and personal protective equipment (ppe) as the nation responds to the unprecedented emergency that is the covid-19 pandemic texas a&m engineering has 21 000 students but now that theyre not on campus weve converted some of our spaces like the susu and mark a fischer 72 engineering design center into manufacturing facilities said dr yossef elabd associate dean for research and chemical engineering professor elabd who is leading texas a&ms covid-19 rapid response team added we now have a system in place to produce face shields and diffusers for metered dose inhalers and were continually producing ppe every day and delivering to hospitals

as an america makes satellite center tees boasts one of the largest concentrations of core manufacturing subject matter experts in the country the knowledge base is multidisciplinary comprised of representatives from various colleges within texas a&m and the texas a&m university system we have advanced manufacturing and additive manufacturing capabilities to support us in our learning objectives and to help us in productivity and in reducing costs said rob gorham executive director of manufacturing initiatives at tees gorham elaborated that it is tees and texas a&ms unique approach placing service above self that sets them apart from their peers and enables them to rapidly deploy solutions across the state and nation in order to solve some of the worlds hardest problems

manufacturing anything requires diversity in approach gorham continued we have to focus not just on making a functional solution but a functional solution that works and is safe to use by the many people depending on our answers texas a&m as a tier one university has all of that in-house ordinarily a university campus where the tees headquarters is located would not be manufacturing medical devices and delivering them directly to hospitals but these unusual times have called for a new way of doing things internal staff and legal teams are executing agreements in a matter of hours or daysinstead of monthsin order to meet urgent demands from medical professionals this situation highlighted a lot of discussions that we probably were not having between physicians at hospitals and a lot of engineers at texas a&m said elabd once the nation overcomes covid-19 i look forward to new directions for research informed by our recently developed working relationship with texas hospitals

tees has partnered with america makes the national additive manufacturing innovation institute to establish an america makes satellite center on the campus of texas a&m in college station america makes is the countrys leading collaborative partner in additive manufacturing and 3d-printing technology research commercialization and education partnering with america makes positions tees to become a national leader in advanced manufacturing and also facilitates tees relationship with the department of defense department of energy and department of commerce three federal entities that are critical to aiding in the security of americas manufacturing ecosystem

the texas a&m new ventures competition (tnvc) is hosting its annual competition completely online this year to protect competitors judges and staff during the covid-19 pandemic sixteen semifinalists and eight alternates for the 2020 competition will compete may 14 for hundreds of thousands in startup funds during online rounds of pitch competitions and judging these are unprecedented times for the nation and its important for us to not only focus on the health and safety of our participants and judges but also to support the economic health of texas during this time said chris scotti entrepreneur-in-residence for the texas a&m engineering experiment station and chair of the competition these startups are not only providing the opportunity to support the local and state economies but their ideas have the potential to improve the health and well-being of our citizens and the environment it was important to us and to them to hold this years event since most of the pre-event judging takes place virtually anyway it was a logical progression to host all of it online scotti said aimed at promoting the commercialization of emerging technology to the marketplace tnvc recognizes engineering- and science-based technology companies with high-growth potential and provides seed funding to help them take their ideas to market this years competitors come from a wide spectrum of fields including health care it/software digital health transportation and clean energy technology these semifinalists have undergone a rigorous screening due diligence and a coaching process that identified them as top prospects from a pool of 87 applicants the awards will allow the deep technology startups that receive them to create economic impact and job growth see the complete list of semifinalists and alternates as well as their home cities at the tnvc website

the texas a&m engineering experiment station and the texas a&m university system along with a growing number of sponsors are working with the entrepreneurial ecosystem throughout the state to ensure todays innovative ideas become a reality through the texas a&m new ventures competition

as texas a&m engineering finds innovative ways to help the community deal with the covid-19 pandemic the team at the susu and mark a fischer '72 engineering design center (fedc) in the zachry engineering education complex is working around the clock to make those solutions a reality the fedcs skeleton crew of essential research members kicked off a project last week to provide baylor college of medicine in houston with 3 000 face shields to help protect its medical workers while they treat sick patients starting with a face shield design made publicly available by the georgia institute of technology the fedc team modified the design to work with the materials they had available the main challenge for completing the face shield designessentially a resizable headband with a curved plastic sheet covering the users full facewas in finding a way to use a thicker plastic than is typically utilized

dr david staack director of engineering laboratory instruction said due to supply shortages staff technicians had to find a way to make the design work with the materials they had on-handincluding supplies he had available in his research lab as well as those able to be sourced from the college of architecture typically during this time of year the design center would be operating at full capacity helping students complete their senior design projects with all classes going online in march due to covid-19 jim wilson general manager of the fedc said he and his team are glad to have found another way to be of service during these trying times we miss the students but what were doing right now we know is helping a lot of people wilson said the covid-19 projects are our top priority right now

the fedc team also includes technical laboratory coordinators adam farmer and todd williams as well as nathan panak cody ricther brey caraway richard mccalley iran ramirez and tobias gualandri you see all kinds of stuff online and on tv of people trying to help farmer said for us to be able to do something and know that what were doing is going to people who are doing more good than we are to help them is a happy feeling the fedc staffs collective effort to bring these impactful projects to fruition is part of a wider texas a&m community coming togetherfrom loading dock attendants to members of the legal teamto make sure these critical pieces of equipment make it to those in need

the susu and mark a fischer '72 engineering design center is an exclusive academic makerspace and design center that focuses on learning designing and building through partnerships with industry and non-profit sponsors the center is an environment where concepts become solutions to real-world problems and student teams come together to build new prototypes acquire new skills and develop new relationships it is supported with differential tuition funds and it is open to engineering undergraduate students

in light of the emergence and spread of covid-19 researchers across many disciplines are using their expertise to address these and future pandemics and texas a&m university urban resilience lab researchers are joining the global effortdr ali mostafavi assistant professor in the zachry department of civil and environmental engineering recently received a grant from the national science foundation (nsf) to better understand predict and effectively respond to the risk of infectious disease outbreaks in urban areasmy urban resilience lab has been investigating the robustness and resilience of urban systems in the face of different disruptions such as floods earthquakes and wildfires urban resilience to pandemics is a relatively under-studied dimension for us and other researchers in the field " mostafavi said "we are honored to receive this award from the nsf to advance the fundamental understanding and methods in this area in this project we will harness urban-scale big data and create novel artificial intelligence (ai) and data-driven network science models to help better monitor and predict hidden pandemic spread riskscovid-19 outbreaks have had dire societal and economic impacts across the globe and its spread has become a major societal threat in the united states the majority of epidemic spread models however do not adequately consider the tremendous uncertainty associated with human response behaviors (both populations and individual actors) and anxiety in urban system supply chains during an epidemic outbreakmostafavi and his team will analyze the data through spatial modeling network analysis and machine learning techniques to reveal hidden pandemic spread risks in urban areas the outcomes will suggest new ways for better prediction of pandemics and offer new insights on ways to conduct urban-scale surveillance of epidemic spread risks the findings will inform strategies and possible data-driven tools and methods to prevent help contain and mitigate the effects of future epidemics and pandemics

the urban resilience networks and informatics lab focuses on creating transformative solutions for addressing the grand challenges pertaining to the nexus of humans disasters and infrastructure systems our urban resilience lab at texas a&m is uniquely positioned to undertake this work in addition to our expertise in ai and complex urban networks we also have close collaboration with multiple local and state agencies and technology companies mostafavi said in the initial stage our goal is to disseminate data and findings to help agencies contain the pandemic and its impacts in the next stage we will make our computational data-centric models available as open-source tools to help predict and mitigate future epidemic outbreaks more proactively and effectively

the texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) edge program is known for providing professional education reflective of the ever-changing needs of the world and there has never been a more ever-changing time than now to meet the needs of those searching for professional education opportunities tees edge has several fully online options available we know there are some who are looking for professional education while working from home said dr cindy lawley assistant vice chancellor for academic and outreach programs we also anticipate that as organizations recover from the pandemics economic impact over the next several months their line items for business travel may also be impacted when taking any of our online offerings participants will get the same high-quality experience they have come to expect from texas a&m engineering while eliminating the costs associated with traveling some online offerings are independent and self-paced while others are instructor-led in real-time courses specifically for the pharmaceutical and nuclear industries are available now registration is also open for lean six sigma yellow belt short courses and collegiate test preparation more courses are currently under development for an online launch including cyber-leader security and cyber-leader network enterprise basics project controls and project management all fully online offerings are available on the tees edge website

texas a&m university through its unique engineering medicine (enmed) partnership with houston methodist hospital is stepping up to help the health care system keep up with the demand for medical supplies brought on by the increasing number of confirmed and suspected covid-19 cases a team led by dr michael r moreno has already delivered 200 3d-printed diffusers for metered dose inhalers (mdi) to the houston hospital and stands ready to produce more if needed one of the most powerful aspects of the project is that it came from direct communication with doctors who at the forefront of this crisis are identifying emerging unanticipated needs

the spacer or diffuser that we created will allow the doctors to use metered dose inhalers to treat diagnosed and suspected covid-19 patients who are not yet in need of ventilator therapy without using nebulizers that may aerosolize the virus moreno said and this is important because if this early stage intervention is effective then it is possible that these patients may recover before reaching that critical point where ventilator therapy is required inhalers are the preferred method of delivery for bronchodilator drugs with confirmed and potential covid-19 patients the inhaler devices require precise timing of inhalation for proper delivery to the lungs which is something moreno said even experienced users like himself can find challenging with the help of a diffuser patients are better able to get more of the medication into their lungs