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0 | when it comes to aerospace innovation winging it takes on a whole new meaning as several teams competing in this years invent for the planet discovered an intensive 48-hour design competition hosted by the college of engineering at texas a&m university invent for the planet 2019 brought together a global community of engineering students to propose solutions to real-world challenges faced by society and industry today through the use of microsoft teams student groups from 25 universities around the world were able to video chat with mentors moderators and other student teams to collaborate share information and help guide one another toward success |
1 | awarded first-place at texas a&m for their solution to minimize hail damage to delicate aircraft wing control surfaces operational delays costly repairs and accidents team hail no included mechanical engineering students mazen ali and bamidele fadayomi the teams dual air bag module design similar to an inflatable sleeve would be deployed over the leading and trailing edges of an aircrafts wings and connected with nylon cables to secure the straps in the sleeves with cam buckles by a team of three airline employees once the sleeves are in place it would be inflated by an air canister to help protect the wings from the storm as ali and fadayomi described having a background in mechanical engineering gave them an edge in the competition and helped to bolster their team along with giving them a unique perspective on how to optimize mechanisms and storage and consider the cost of various elements in the design their mechanical engineering experience also aided them in the creation of a 3d model of their proposed solution this model in turn allowed the team to see the plausibility scalability and practicality of their proposal along with being able to apply what they learned in their classes to a real-world challenge invent for the planet gave both students a chance to take a step beyond the classroom experience and develop new skills it opened my eyes to the importance of marketing your ideas and working together as a whole said fadayomi i had always thought that you just needed to be smart but its really important to be able to communicate your ideas and actually market them as well |
2 | i feel like invent for the planet has really shaped my mindset about how other disciplines think and how i should think not only as a mechanical engineer but as an entrepreneur ali said team hail no also included students umang kantesaria computer science and engineering; jacob azbell electrical engineering; jobin george mathew industrial engineering; and william smith manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology now with the event behind them the team is taking their design to new heights by working with airbus a european corporation and international pioneer in aerospace engineering to develop it further for production and industry use the team is also planning to attend the engineering project showcase this semester to display their product with other industry representatives the fact that a company is actually looking at our product and thinks its feasible and wants to take it a step further is a really huge accomplishment said ali it isnt just a project in a classroom this is a real product that has actually impressed someone who has been wanting to do this and thats a lot to accomplish in just those 48 hours |
3 | researchers at texas a&m university are uncovering new methods of working on the nanoscale which could ultimately lead to the development of more advanced electronics and environmentally friendly engineering practices lead researcher dr jonathan felts an assistant professor in the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering was recently selected for the national science foundation faculty early career development (career) award for his work an honor designed to allow promising junior faculty to pursue cutting-edge research while simultaneously advancing excellence in education the career award means the world to me felts said it will allow me to pursue cutting edge research in nano-electronic device fabrication at the intersection of a wide range of disciplines including: chemistry tribology optics surface science materials and manufacturing this five-year funding opportunity provides much appreciated resources as my research program continues to gain momentum i am honored to receive such a prestigious award felts and his team are conducting research that could open the doors to several significant technological improvements by adding more complex functionality at a physical level smaller than the current state-of-the-art |
4 | "i foresee our work providing insight into engineering surfaces with less friction and wear making optic and electronic devices with more sensitivity and efficiency than current technology " felts said efficiency in particular is a significant focus of the team's research as they seek to develop more reliable ways to engineer surfaces at the atomic level if successful felts said the research could hold the answers to challenges such as creating faster electronics that dissipate less heat engineering highly sensitive optical sensors with faster response times and mitigating friction and wear at moving interfaces additionally the research could also help provide answers on how to generate essential chemicals while limiting toxic waste and excess energy consumption through the development of new strategies for chemical synthesis using mechanical force as well as creating new molecules not possible by any other means among the team's main objectives in the research is to develop techniques to drive complex multiphysical processes on surfaces at the nanoscale with a primary goal of locally tuning the properties of surfaces to impart functionality such as drawing electrical circuits optics magnetic domains and hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity "from the standpoint of functionality if we can expand our ability to manipulate chemistry on the level of a handful of atoms we can dramatically expand the landscape of possible devices as well as the integration of those devices into other objects " felts said |
5 | felts said the research is a multidisciplinary endeavor drawing on the use of mechanical force chemical reactions atomic physics and more through the study and application of these methods the team has been able to discern fundamental properties that are helpful in developing the ability to better plan for and predict the behavior of the processes on multiple levels "developing techniques to create these functional surfaces involves quite complex physical processes " felts said "our work also uncovers fundamental insights into macroscale surface phenomena such as friction wear and thermal and mass transport" where felts research diverges from others conducting similar research is in its primary focus on understanding the fundamental physics behind the use of nanomanufacturing methods rather than demonstrating the concepts which through trial and error have been shown to work "unfortunately the lack of fundamental understanding limits the predictive power of the developed methods " felts said "we spend a lot of time investigating the fundamental physics behind the nanomanufacturing methods our hope is that the improvements in fundamental understanding will enable techniques and processes that would be otherwise difficult to stumble across phenomenologically" |
6 | dr john valasek professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university and director of the vehicle systems & control laboratory was an invited panelist on the topic of verification and validation in the age of autonomy at the 2019 american institute of aeronautics and astronautics (aiaa) science and technology (scitech) conference held san diego california in january panelists in the session discussed the verification and validation of autonomous systems and how they pose a challenge for regulators and others tasked with evaluating those systems as the second and third waves of autonomy become reality concerns arise as to the safety and reliability of new technologies that leverage these capabilities methods for verification and validation of software that enable autonomous systems must be developed to support new certification processes for safety critical systems ethical issues regarding machine decision making and the role of human-on-the-loop paradigms must be addressed for defense applications mission assurance will be a significant driving factor in certifying systems for deployment the discussion centered around how government authorities companies and the general public can be assured that new autonomous technologies are reliable the webinar can be heard here valaseks introductory presentation begins at 41:00 before the q&a with the audience begins |
7 | the principal investigators for the autonomous material discovery and manufacturing via artificial intelligence project include dr bukkapatnam dr ding dr karaman dr arróyave dr kumar dr jianhua huang and dr bani mallick (statistics) dr doug allaire (mechanical engineering) dr dimitris lagoudas (aerospace engineering) dr xiaoning qian (computer engineering) dr joseph ross (materials science and engineering) and dr ravi sen (mays business school) |
8 | the autonomous material discovery and manufacturing using artificial intelligence project funded by several sources including the national science foundation and the new texas a&m university x-grants program is helping researchers at texas a&m university forge a novel path to create materials that are yet to be discovered creating new materials involves conducting tedious experiments that take decades of work soon artificial intelligence (ai) may be used to find the exact materials needed for any situation resulting in less material waste and increased progress in developing future products the vast majority of which will use materials that are yet to be discovered the grant allocates $500 000 toward project planning for 18 months ending in december 2019 we greatly appreciate the universitys generosity and support said dr satish bukkapatnam principal investigator industrial and systems engineering professor and director of the texas a&m engineering experiment station's institute for manufacturing systems the x-grants are all about leveraging our collective strengths to address grand societal challenges bukkapatnam said texas a&m has thriving research areas in materials science artificial intelligence data science and manufacturing research thanks to investments in facilities and professors this project will bring all of these strengths together the bottleneck in 21st century inventing materials scientists and engineers design new materials particularly metals and alloys to enhance their performance for use in aerospace defense biomedical and other applications material discovery is the bottleneck to creating highly functional and 3d printed parts with an industry average for material discovery of 15 years in the last 20 years materials scientists have worked to accelerate the design of materials in 2011 the materials genome initiative proposed the synergistic use of data advanced computations and sophisticated experiments as a way of making this a reality as engineers search for a specific material to fit a project they consider many different properties including the distribution of the materials temperature strength and structural integrity my colleagues and i have been discussing this challenge for at least a year bukkapatnam said the x-grant provided the funding needed to solve this problem 3d printing represents a new frontier but it alone could not solve the problems of materials we knew there had to be a better way what material will you use to print what intelligence can we use to 3d print and choose materials we have to create new knowledge |
9 | the closed loop solution material discovery will transform from the work of human scientists to an autonomous experimental platform said dr yu ding industrial and systems engineering professor at texas a&m university and co-lead of the project tackling this enormous challenge requires three different kinds of expertise: materials science and engineering: the knowledge of how elements come together their properties the processing structure and property relationship advanced manufacturing: how the material can be processed and how to create different shapes from a material data science and ai: how to quickly assess the data and improve efficiently instead of through trial and error the smart hybrid platform will consist of a software brain that will run the experiments autonomously through simulated workflows using a form of machine learning that automatically predicts the next best step the computers hardware can then create the product assess it and repeat the process until an optimal match is found the brain will be able to test and assess dozens of options at once testing for pressure shaping temperature and more the platform will be materials agnostic meaning it will work for any material |
10 | experiments will be completely autonomous and able to use little to no input data creating a closed loop system a truly autonomous materials discovery platform will transform the way materials scientists think about the entire materials discovery cycle said dr raymundo arróyave materials science and engineering professor at texas a&m and co-lead of the project arróyave will provide computational domain expertise materials discovery is the future of this country said dr ibrahim karaman department head of materials science and engineering at texas a&m university and co-lead of the project karamans role is to help fabricate bulk new materials in a high throughput fashion the department of defense is invested in discovering developing and designing materials much faster karaman said the materials portion of the project will use instruments funded by the air force office of scientific research and texas a&ms research development funds models can be created and even models of models (metamodels) will be created but in the end physical testing must take place ding said he plans to use engineering data science to reduce a large amount of raw data points from dynamic imaging data to a handful of key process indicators the filtered data will then lead to better decision making the machine learning system will use both experimental data and prior knowledge to actively formulate the next experiment to meet the target specifications active learning will allow researchers to design the next experiment from which to learn said dr pr kumar electrical and computer engineering professor and a co-lead of the project it marks the beginning of a new era in learning for materials discovery in the end the discovery platform may give us even a better answer than we hoped for said bukkapatnam it may discover a material that even exceeds the expectations for the experiment |
11 | collaboration: the key to progress it is an interdisciplinary problem kumar said without a multidisciplinary initiative of this sort i would not normally have been involved in a research project with materials scientists researchers from diverse backgrounds are coming together and sitting at a table from a texas a&m point of view we have a fantastic team and were ready to try to create a breakthrough several professors have selected their graduate students or post-doctoral fellows they will have the opportunity and financial support to work on a project that could change the course of manufacturing as well as contribute to the field of machine learning |
12 | for thousands of years geothermal energy has been harnessed as a clean and sustainable source of power long ago indigenous people around the globe such as the maoris in new zealand cooked their food using water from natural hot springs later the romans engineered a way to use the earths heat to warm their buildings now with modern technology geothermal wells are drilled deep into the ground in order to tap into the heat radiating from the earths core and transform it into electricity however one remaining challenge associated with drilling geothermal wells is the presence of hard rocks such as granite that slow down the process and wear down drill bits in turn this causes drilling time and expenses to increase |
13 | to combat this a team of researchers from the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university is developing shockwave and plasma accelerated rock cracking (sparc) drilling technology by making the creation of wells more efficient accessible and cost effective their us department of energy funded project will help make geothermal energy a more viable alternative to fossil fuels dr david staack associate professor sallie and don davis 61 career development professor and college of engineering director of laboratory instruction is leading the sparc project his team includes dr dion antao assistant professor dr alan palazzolo james j cain professor i and dr bruce tai assistant professor |
14 | the drilling technology that we are working on has the potential to increase drilling rates (rate of penetration) and reduce the wear and tear of traditional drill bits this is achieved by locally prestressing or precracking the rock being drilled prior to the cutting action of the drill bit said antao as staack further explained the teams sparc technology will equip traditional drill bits with high voltage electrodes on the tip that emit a microscopic plasma discharge to shock the rock and crack it like a tiny explosion creating fractures and weakening the rock will allow the drill head affixed with conventional diamond cutters to have an easier time breaking through the material as palazzolo described along with setting the stage for further development of geothermal energy using electric plasma bursts to increase the rate of penetration will enable the drilling process to be streamlined and therefore be more cost competitive with nonrenewable resources |
15 | its very exciting to be able to apply my expertise in machining research to study rock drilling with a real-world application said tai this is truly a novel interdisciplinary idea that will be a game changer a game changer that us secretary of energy rick perry summed up in his related press release geothermal energy is a clean and efficient base-load energy resource making it an important part of our nations diverse energy portfolio said perry developing new efficient drilling technologies will reduce these costs and increase the availability of this domestic renewable energy resource |
16 | rita and mark puckett 73 have established an endowed scholarship for global studies funds will be used to provide scholarships to full-time undergraduate students participating in a global program experience in the college of engineering at texas a&m university the pucketts had this to say: we have been blessed to live and work in many countries around the world our experiences enriched our lives and our families lives and we want to help enable that among aggie engineering students we greatly appreciate what dean kathy banks is doing at texas a&m including her emphasis on the x-factor - high-impact experiences as an integral part of a students education it will be exciting to see their accomplishments and contributions to the world after graduating from texas a&m with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering mark began a 35-year at chevron retiring in 2008 he has served as a director of concho resources since 2009 he is a recipient of the outstanding alumni award and has served on the texas a&m university college of engineering advisory council since 2002 |
17 | the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering or would like more information on how you can give please contact jay roberts senior director of development |
18 | a prize will be named in memory of dr m sam mannan executive director of the mary kay o'connor process safety center (mkopsc) and pioneer in process safety at hazards 29 the institution of chemical engineers (icheme) premier process safety conference in association with the mkopsc as a tribute to mannans career icheme has renamed the poster prize the sam mannan poster prize which will be given for the first time at the annual conference this year throughout my career sam mannan has always been a great friend and supporter of our work at the icheme safety center said trish kerin director of the center he was passionate about teaching process safety to undergraduates and postgraduates so it is fitting for the hazards poster prize to be renamed in his honor for several years the icheme safety center has worked with the mkopsc to explore key challenges in process safety and share lessons learned through workshops events and publications in 2017 both organizations launched process safety for the 21st century a report which set out a roadmap for the future of process safety mannan spent 20 years at the mkopsc and developed it into a leading international process safety research and education center he also helped to establish undergraduate certificates and post-graduate qualifications in process safety in addition mannan was a fellow of the icheme regents professor tees eminent professor and holder of the t michael o'connor chair i in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m university sam mannan was a friend and colleague long before he joined texas a&m when he came to the university there was no safety center and in the intervening 20 years he was the major player in developing it into what it is today i am proud to have known and worked with him said dr james holste interim director of mkposc and professor emeritus of chemical engineering the conference will take place on may 22-24 in birmingham england and will feature more than 100 technical presentations from industry practitioners researchers and regulators sharing the good practice latest developments and lessons learned in process safety |
19 | dr ralph wurbs a senior professor in the zachry department of civil engineering at texas a&m university has been selected as the first american academy of water resources engineers (aawre) outstanding research and innovation award recipient founded in 2004 in affiliation with the american society of civil engineers (asce) aawre strives to advance the leadership and societal impact of water resources engineering through certification continuing education and ethical practice this new award introduced in 2018 recognizes significant contributions in advancing the field of water resources engineering through innovative research and development i am greatly honored to receive the inaugural aawre outstanding research and innovation award being recognized and supported by the distinguished water resources engineers participating in the aawre awards process makes this award especially meaningful to me said wurbs wurbs is a fellow and life member of asce an aawre founding diplomate (2004) and was awarded the distinction of aawre honorary diplomate in 2014 he was selected for the 2019 award for his research creation and continuous expansion of the water rights analysis package (wrap) modeling system and its implementation in the texas water availability modeling system his work has been sponsored by various organizations including the texas commission on environmental quality texas water development board texas water resources institute us army corps of engineers and agencies within the us department of the interior and us department of energy wrap an elaborate set of computer simulation tools analyzes and assesses capabilities of river and reservoir systems in meeting water supply hydroelectric power environmental flow flood control and reservoir storage needs since 1996 wurbs and his graduate students have been continually expanding wrap modeling and analysis capabilities in order to provide vital tools for the water resources management community of texas in doing so wrap has played a fundamental role in major legislatively mandated advances in water management and planning in the state over the past 15 years these include analytical support for administration of the water rights permit system statewide and regional planning integrating environmental flow standards in comprehensive water management and improved operational planning for drought management my research team has been privileged to work within a community of outstanding professionals employed by government agencies engineering firms and universities to improve water management in texas through advances in both modeling and analysis methods and institutional partnerships innovative expanded water resources planning allocation and management capabilities developed by the water resources engineering community in texas are relevant throughout the world said wurbs learn more about wurbs and his wrap project on his research website |
20 | mohammad taghi nikoukalam a doctoral student in the zachry department of civil engineering and his advisor dr petros sideris an assistant professor in the department |
21 | nikoukalam and sideris are designing a novel system of sustainable bridge columns with damage-resistant joints and replaceable energy dissipating links |
22 | the design could save lives through more earthquake-proof bridges in the united states a vast number of bridges several of which are located in regions of moderate and high seismicity have been classified as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete new bridges built using their design will be more damage resistant from the outset because of the polyurethane joints and will be easier to repair quickly and inexpensively after a natural disaster by replacing the external energy-dissipating links which would be the only components of the bridge to experience damage the design can also be constructed rapidly thanks to its segmented nature nikoukalam was originally drawn to the problem because he comes from a highly seismic region the search for a better bridge took me in a direction i never expected he said we realized we had to research new materials beyond concrete the industry standard and instead use polymers the pair partnered with basf a leading chemicals company to choose the new materials after testing the new materials and models they designed the overall system their new bridge system design has undergone intensive computer-simulated testing now they are working on physically validating their design at the center for infrastructure renewal (cir) starting with load testing then simulating an earthquake to study the effects on a model due to the major socioeconomic advantages the system offers it provides an attractive alternative to conventional systems for implementation both in new construction and as a replacement for the vast number of structurally deficient or functionally obsolete bridges throughout the country nikoukalam recently received the american society for civil engineers oh ammann research fellowship in structural engineering which is awarded to encourage the creation of new knowledge in structural design and construction after presenting his dissertation and graduating this summer he will enter the industry to lead safer bridge construction |
23 | leadership is an aggie core value and a common word found on resumes; however few true leaders get the recognition they deserve but this april environmental engineer bob pence 72 will be honored for his lifestyle of leadership that accompanied his others-focused attitude a former member of company b-2 pence feels that his leadership skills were kickstarted in the corps of cadets before being put to the test when he served three years in the army after his time in the army pence returned to aggieland to pursue a masters degree in civil engineering i had to go back to remember everything id been taught the first time around he says with two degrees in hand pence came to civil engineering firm freese and nichols as a design engineer and began working his way up to project manager operations manager and finally to ceo he jokes that these promotions were based on looks but quips no one will believe me in 2010 under pences leadership freese and nichols received the malcolm baldrige national quality award the first architectural/engineering firm to do so in the awards history the baldrige award recognizes corporations that not only are industry leaders but also are leaders in their home communities and contribute to the betterment of society in general not just their bottom line after his company received the baldrige award pence has helped others improve their focus anyone who came to us and asked for help or for advice on how to succeed we tried to help as best we could thats what leaders do for his continuing contributions pence who now is freese and nichols chairman of the board recently was selected to receive a leadership excellence award from the baldrige foundation an award given to industry leaders who are responsible for positive world change serving his community other engineering firms and the board of overseers of the baldrige foundation pence maintains his devotion to helping others and working hard every day i serve the community i live in and serve on the board of three other architecture and engineering firms pence says as a ceo he learned one factor that separates certain employees from others is good leadership skills i see a need for leadership training in the workplace thats something that i instituted at freese and nichols an intensive leadership training program he says pence recommends to young graduates that as engineers they must first prove their technical competence and then take every leadership opportunity offered to them and this includes taking the opportunity to follow before they lead another request pence makes of young aggie engineers is that they give back to their communities make your community better and be a working living part of it; engineers are essential to every community he says pence and his wife karen have three aggie daughters classes of ‘00 ‘03 and ‘08 and they all have aggie husbands none of the pences five grandchildren are old enough to attend texas a&m yet but pence says hes been working hard to convince them pence will receive the leadership excellence award on april 9 at a baldrige foundation luncheon during the 31st annual quest for excellence® conference in national harbor maryland the texas a&m college of engineering is proud of our former students like bob pence '72 who uphold aggie core values and are committed to training aggie engineers to be industry leaders if you know an aggie who is celebrating an accomplishment and would like them to be recognized by the college please send an email to the office of alumni relations |
24 | cristi and darrell petty 90 have established the petty family engineering scholarship to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing who are pursuing an undergraduate degree in electrical and computer engineering from texas a&m university darrell currently serves on the external advisory and development council for the electrical and computer engineering department he graduated from texas a&m in 1990 with his bachelors degree in electrical engineering he is the chief operating officer of sullexis a professional services firm that specializes in helping organizations create manage and enhance data to accelerate and improve decision making he also serves as an advisor for waterfield energy which provides software and related services to midstream upstream and transportation energy sectors |
25 | the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering or would like more information on how you can give please contact jeremy quast senior director of development |
26 | q: what is your role at nasaa: one of the most important things i do is to help provide health and medical technical authority what does that mean after the columbia accident there was an external independent board called the columbia accident investigation board the board zeroed in on our culture and the fact that program managers are pressured by budget and schedule the board recommended nasa establish technical authorities that are independent of the program to serve as a kind of oversight to make sure programs werent accepting too much risk in the face of those budget and schedule pressures the job with the technical authority means we provide technical authority on disciplines such as radiation microbiology medicine toxicology human factors exercise physiology and so on when the programs push back because they run out of mass or volume or time or money the technical authority balances the need to accomplish the mission with the need to prevent any accidents and then makes recommendations if the program doesnt agree it can escalate all the way to the administrator for a final decision another part of our responsibilities includes creating testing and upholding health medical and performance standards we start with a standard that becomes a requirement for programs to meet in some cases we have a lot of data to create a medical standard and others we do not for example we don't have a lot of microgravity experience with humans so we do the best we can with the budget we have to create the standards and medical policies that will be implemented across the agency |
27 | q: how has your position changed over timea: i started out doing physics and engineering when i first started i was a part of the space radiation analysis group and sat at the console in mission control for at least a dozen years we used a lot of transport codes we did everything related to radiation radiation is just one of several hazards in space we would watch the sun for solar particle events work on dosimetry for a complex space radiation field work with design engineers on shielding and would do analyses when we flew radioactive payloads to make sure they were far enough away from the crew and had appropriate shielding then i started moving into management which is a whole different aspect |
28 | q: what steps did you take to move into a leadership positiona: i had to actively go out and let upper management know i was interested in a leadership position and then had to go on interviews it felt different difficult and risky compared to what i was comfortable doing when i became a branch chief i had all kinds of disciplines under me that i really didn't know a lot about but i still had radiation so i had a piece of my comfort zone i look back at some of those forks in the road and those decisions and i'm so glad i took those risks |
29 | q: are you contributing to the mars colony missiona: about five years ago going to mars officially became one of our long-term goals everything we're doing is trying to help us learn and get to the point where humans are an interplanetary species the next mission we have planned is a miniature space station that will orbit the moon and possibly a moon habitat our missions are all about national will and budgets during the apollo moon landing nasa received about 45 percent of the federal budget and at that time nasas main mission was sending people to the moon today we get about 04 percent of the budget and we're doing mars rovers the hubble space telescope the james webb telescope and we're supporting commercial ventures such as spacex and boeing technologically speaking i think we can get there but it takes a long-term commitment |
30 | q: can you go into some of the radiation humans would encounter on the satellite the moon and marsa: space radiation has three sources it can come from the trapped radiation belts known as the van allen belts which has a proton belt and an outer electron belt the inner belt is mostly protons and these are trapped particles that just go back and forth between the poles the second source is from solar particle events which can be shielded if planned for but can pose problems without adequate shielding the third radiation source is known as galactic cosmic radiation which comes from outside our solar system this source consists of heavy ions and is very energetic as soon as you leave earths orbit you get away from the van allen belts and then you're just left with the occasional solar particle event which can be shielded galactic cosmic radiation is very difficult because it's high-energy protons and heavy ions the passive shielding you need to block that takes a lot of mass which is expensive to launch there are also secondary neutrons that we worry about when interacting with the vehicle and the people themselves if you're standing on the moon or mars you have planetary protection so you have some shielding from that it's a little more risky on the transit to the moon and mars mars does have a little bit of an atmosphere which would provide some shielding as well |
31 | q: if far in the future humans were on a deep space probe what kind of shielding would that requirea: we've talked about that a lot hypothetically of course we are doing a little bit of research on active shielding which means basically creating your own magnetic field to deflect or shield the particles most of what we use right now is passive high-density polyethylene or water bags or fuel or food just mass if we go beyond mars we will need to look at active shielding |
32 | q: how much radiation is safe for humansa: our goal is to protect the astronauts and the mission currently we allow 500 millisieverts for the blood forming organs per year (the millisievert is a measure of the absorption of radiation by the human body) we were granted that exception in order to carry out our mission but our career limits are age and sex based theyre related to a 3 percent excess risk of death from radiation exposure after doing more research the difference in radiation exposure risks between men and women is not as high as we originally thought |
33 | q: do you think that space travel is ethical given the dangers of radiationa: i do one of the first principles of bioethics is respect for autonomy which includes volunteerism and informed consent if someone took the three-year round trip to mars today given our current technology they would have around a 10 to 15 percent excess risk from dying from that radiation exposure now while obviously a 10 to 15 percent additional risk of dying from radiation exposure is higher than our 3 percent threshold it's also not an automatic death sentence another consideration is the advances in medicine that may occur in the next century such as the ability to cure different cancers in my personal opinion i would argue that many explorers throughout history had a much higher risk of death yet we look back and recognize their accomplishments and it's hard to imagine if we never took those risks and made those journeys astronauts by the way are usually willing to take more risks than nasa is ready to allow astronauts are outstanding people they're great leaders and great followers |
34 | q: what do you think the future of space travel will look like a: i believe access to low earth orbit will become a lot more common in the next 20 years we will keep pushing the envelope for making humans a multiplanetary species we have more countries and companies interested and developing space travel than ever before it's exciting were going to see more innovations that come from unexpected places |
35 | q: with nasa specifically what are you most excited fora: we have broad political and public support and a workforce that will take on and can accomplish anything i honestly think the future is wide open its whatever the public space experts and our elected officials agree should be our path right now we're headed down a path of having humans on mars i don't know what happens after mars but we have a long time to decide |
36 | q: what life advice do you havea: you get out of life what you put into it so take risks the director of human resources (hr) came to me one day and she asked if i would be her deputy director for a year in hr i'm an engineer and i don't know the first thing about human resources but i took it and i went with it for a year and it was fascinating they taught me a lot about diversity and inclusion and how to give honest feedback the right way as just some examples i learned many things i never would have learned otherwise again take risks find people you admire seek out mentoring opportunities listen more if you're an introvert work on speaking up and engaging more if you're an extrovert make sure you occasionally speak up less and listen to others not just listening but seeking out their opinions and thoughts great ideas can come from unexpected sources |
37 | ravi lad who graduated last year from texas a&m university with a petroleum engineering degree looks back on his time as a student he was a member of the first cohort of students in the zachry leadership program (zlp) and he sat down with us recently to talk about how the program continues to benefit him ravi now works for apache corporation in houston texas q: what made you want to join the zachry leadership program a: back when i was a sophomore engineering student at texas a&m having made it through the weed out of freshman year i was looking for opportunities to challenge myself and grow in ways that werent necessarily academic or related to my studies enter the zachry leadership program (zlp)! what made the program so appealing to me was that it offered an avenue to learn about the role of business within engineering and (especially) that it allowed me a chance to connect with people outside of my major over a two-and-a-half-year time frame |
38 | q: looking back what are some of the most important lessons you learned from the program a: one of the most important lessons i learned in the program was how to be self-aware and how to empathize with others as it was reflected in zlps structure it all begins with yourself to this day i still journal and use tools (like time audits) we discussed in the program to help me continue learning about myself such that i can figure out what my strengths and weaknesses are and adjust course appropriately beyond that is the importance of human connection having learned how to stay out of judgment and align with others has helped me form deeper relationships both professionally and socially q: what makes the zachry leadership program so impactful a: zlp is impactful because of the holistic nature of it zlp focuses not just on creating great engineers but rather on creating great people there are already plenty of engineering organizations that sharpen coding skills networking grace and academic proficiency there is no program other than zlp that asks you to briefly set those things aside in order to focus on the intrinsic qualities that make for a truly remarkable person q: can you talk about your career where do you work and what do you do a: i am a petroleum engineer for apache corporation based in houston currently im a member of their engineering development program in which ill have the opportunity to rotate through six six-month rotations (three years in total) during this time ill get some hands-on experience in each of the major sub-disciplines of petroleum engineering and get to work in at least two geographic locations in the company right out of school i completed my field rotation in elk city oklahoma where i got to see and interact with the upstream extraction of oil and gas first-hand im currently in my second rotation now at the apache houston office where i am getting a high-level overview of strategic planning in the corporate reserves group q: how has zlp helped you now that you have graduated and started your career a: what has helped me most in life following graduation has been zlps focus on soft skills im not talking about communication how to dress professionally etc these items while important focus more on developing a good career rather im talking about the skills learned in the program related to the themes of each semester – self-awareness empathy beauty/creativity vocation and service as an 18-year-old kid going into college and picking a major i had no clue what i was meant to do in life as a 22-year-old zlp graduate and working engineer im still a bit lost! but its always the core fundamentals of the program i come back to during my evenings that are helping me find my greater purpose in my career and in life i once thought journaling or spending lengthy amounts of time staring at art were silly now i dont leave the house without my journal and make every effort i can to go spend time in nature its a good thing to be successful on paper have a stable job and know your way around a conversation but its a great thing when youre able to wake up every morning excited to go to work because you know in your heart that this was your purpose im on my way there thanks to zlp learn more about the zachry leadership program |
39 | deborah and stuart anderson will be the first to tell you that they are not officially former students but they became aggies as fast as they could now as an acknowledgment of stuarts 30 years of service to texas a&m his wife deborah has established the dr stuart d and deborah f anderson endowed fellowship in civil engineering the endowment will be used to support graduate students pursuing a civil engineering degree with a focus on construction engineering and management even though we are not former students we are die-hard aggies deborah said we love the aggie community and feel strongly about the values that texas a&m stands for this contribution was a great way to honor stu for his long years of service to texas a&m and both of us felt it was important that we also continue to impact the lives of future graduate students in his field stu is no stranger to impacting others coming to the zachry department of civil engineering at texas a&m in 1989 with more than a decade in the design and construction industry he was looking to get into an academic setting to give back to others through his practical experience stu was able to leverage his time in industry in both classroom and research applications but the most valuable component to him was the service aspect of teaching and the impact it made on future students it was with this mindset he served as a professor of civil engineering in the department under the construction engineering and management discipline for 27 years he later served as an assistant vice chancellor for facilities planning and management for the texas a&m college of engineering for last three years of his career the position allowed stu to be instrumental in assisting with the zachry engineering education complex and the center for infrastructure renewal as the andersons look forward they are hopeful that the endowment will make a positive impact on future engineers in the same way stus teaching legacy has had on civil engineering graduate students texas a&m as a university has made such an impact on both of us that we want that impact to continue stu said the camaraderie and everything that a&m represents to us is how we feel about this university and we are very proud to be a part of the aggie family |
40 | han co-leads $15m darpa grant to create rapid ways to test dangerous bacteria bacteria are microscopic organisms that thrive in diverse environments they can live within soil in the ocean or other water environments and even inside the human body bacteria can be helpful like recycling nutrients in the environment or helping with our digestion but many other times they are harmful causing diseases like pneumonia and staph infections that are difficult to treat because of lack of proper therapeutics or resistance to some antibiotics the functions and properties of the vast number of bacteria in the environment are unknown to us the risk posed by these unknown bacteria is increasing as the global environment changes populations expand and tools for genetic engineering increase which puts the general population and especially members of the military in danger to combat this potential threat the defense advanced research projects agency (darpa) created the friend or foe program which tasks researchers to find new ways to detect these potential unknown bacterial pathogens both natural and human-introduced in the environment before people become ill |
41 | possible target environments are soil and water because they typically have millions of bacterial cells already in them and again no one can determine easily which ones are safe or not dr arum han and a texas a&m university-led research team received a grant from the darpa program totaling more than $15 million to develop a way to quickly detect and determine which bacterial pathogens are present in a soil or water sample han professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and co-principal investigator (pi) on the project is working with a team to create a microdevice to rapidly and efficiently characterize the harmfulness of bacteria in the environment they will do this by screening each microorganism in the sample one cell at a time but very rapidly to see if it has the properties of a pathogen since no one can screen millions of cells by hand the team is working on building a microfluidic device or microchip to do so automatically while han is developing 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 han and de figueiredo have been working together for the past several years on developing microfluidic devices that can measure a variety of different properties of microorganisms so this request from darpa was right up their alley according to han the problem with the current method is it takes too long to determine if bacteria are pathogenic or not because there are a variety of different mechanisms in which bacteria can harm a human and it can typically only detect pathogenic bacteria that are already known but not the unknowns it is their expectation that their new method will for the first time be able to detect unknown pathogens and also be much more time and cost-efficient we came up with a microchip that allows two things: one is to first grow the unculturable cells (cells that cant be grown using traditional means which occupies most microbes in the environment) as much as possible and second we are trying to measure whether a cell is pathogenic or not without any molecular analysis han said in other words you directly measure whether a toxin is produced by bacteria you directly measure whether bacteria under antibiotic treatment can survive you test whether bacteria go inside a host cell and still survive (when they normally should die) and so on you're measuring directly the property of these bacteria cells in five to 10 different criteria and then combining this information to quickly determine whether a particular bacterial cell has the potential to be pathogenic or not han is also collaborating with dr arul jayaraman the ray b nesbitt professor of chemical engineering on analyzing the metabolites produced by environmental microbial consortia to come up with strategies to improve the chance of culturing the so-called unculturable environmental microbes so that those unculturable environmental microbes can also be tested for their pathogenic potential han said the ultimate goal would be to have a chip that is compact small enough to bring into a field take an environmental sample and within a relatively short period of time determine whether there are pathogenic microbes in that sample this would work for natural and engineered pathogens a task that currently cant be done without the microchip there's no current technology that can measure so many different traits of a bacterium and do that for millions of bacterial cells han said we are the first ones trying to develop this new technology that will enable such analysis and detection this is not improving on something that exists but rather developing something that does not exist the hardest kind of discovery and development to help with different aspects of this project the team also includes investigators from the university of oklahoma university of california san francisco the university of virginia and the argonne national lab while its still in its early stages han believes the final product will not only benefit military personnel who are often deployed in a variety of domestic and foreign environments where their safety is a concern but will also benefit the general population against various existing and emerging infectious diseases such threats also include engineered pathogens that may be introduced by adverse entities if someone has engineered a strain it's not on our list of harmful substances because it's unknown han said the technology we are developing ultimately has the potential to provide an answer to an unknown microbe to determine whether they can cause harm to a human or not the full team includes han samuel de figueiredo provin jayaraman erin van schaik and jon mogford from texas a&m; adam abate from the university of california san francisco; rebecca wattam allan dickerman and andrew warren from the university of virginia; james davis from argonne national lab; and jizhong zhou from the university of oklahoma |
42 | the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university hosted a pitch up! competition giving undergraduate aerospace students the opportunity to showcase their technical work and receive feedback on their presentation skills based on the three minute thesis (3mt) competition pitch up! challenged the students to describe a technical project or research in which they were involved in three minutes the students presented their work to a panel of judges that included individuals with technical and nontechnical backgrounds sophomore brady allen won first place and $250 with his presentation on the thermodynamics of a pratt and whitney turbojet second place and the $150 prize went to senior jacob collins for his presentation on building a combustion ignition wind tunnel for hypersonic propulsion research junior kevin lieb took third place and $100 with a talk on acoustic analysis of a leading-edge slat cove filler freshmen collin invie and joseph heimerl were honorable mentions for their presentations on configurable origami antennae and model rocketry respectively |
43 | sherri and todd elder 84 have established the sherri and todd elder 84 scholarship to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university when it came time to choose a college to attend the answer was an easy one for todd elder i knew i wanted to be an engineer after going through the curriculum book i was drawn to industrial engineering because i liked the automation and manufacturing process he said the curriculum and prestige of the program drew me in and the description was the perfect match for what i wanted to do the couple has found a passion working with students in the west texas community specifically encouraging them to get involved in stem my wife has her phd in chemistry and i of course have a background in engineering todd said together we mentor intermittently counsel students and work with local associations to encourage students to get into construction engineering and chemistry when asked about establishing a scholarship in the department todd said he was encouraged by hunter slaton assistant director of development for the college of engineering to give at a larger level he expressed a true need for support in the department and we saw it as a perfect opportunity to leave a lasting impact on the department with the goal of helping students complete their degrees at texas a&m " he said |
44 | the department of industrial and systems engineering is celebrating its 80th anniversary in the coming years the department's goal for this celebration is to have 80 scholarships for the 80 years that the department has existed endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the department or would like more information on how you can give please contact hunter slaton assistant director of development |
45 | alicia 82 and jeff collins 80 have established the alicia 82 and jeff collins 80 scholarship to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from texas a&m university jeff graduated with a bachelors degree in civil engineering and currently serves on the board of directors and as the executive vice president of public infrastructure in houston at lja engineering inc alicia graduated with a bachelors degree in biomedical science and went on to work in medical research before later finding her true calling as a secondary science teacher after earning her masters in secondary education both alicia and jeff come from aggie families but it was the traditions and atmosphere of family and service that led both of them to attend texas a&m the aggie experience and valued education they received encouraged the collins to establish a scholarship to honor jeffs father tye collins 50 to provide scholarship opportunities to students from small rural areas |
46 | the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering or would like more information on how you can give please contact true brown director of development |
47 | melissa h 85 and joe c schneider 83 have established the melissa h 85 and joe c schneider 83 scholarship to be used to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from texas a&m university the schneiders long-time supporters of the university hope to decrease the financial burden associated with pursuing a quality education the professors staff and my peers greatly impacted my education and equipped me with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in a professional career schneider said melissa and i want to give students who are struggling for whatever reason a shot at receiving aid in addition to the top-tier education provided at texas a&m the schneiders believe the connections made while attending the university are just as valuable i have never been somewhere and my aggie ring not be recognized schneider said its proof of the brotherhood that is the aggie network and its truly something special joe graduated from texas a&m in 1984 with his bachelors degree in civil engineering and received his master of business administration from our lady of the lake in 1992 he is currently the vice president of hillwood properties in fort worth melissa graduated in 1985 with her bachelors degree in agricultural economics and in 1986 with her masters in agricultural economics and is the owner of select sales and hoola hoops (a retail store in keller) the schneiders have three children: cole who graduated from tarleton state university trevor 15 and zoe schneider 21 |
48 | the college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering or would like more information on how you can give please contact true brown director of development |
49 | dr shinjiro sueda assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university recently received the faculty early career development (career) award from the national science foundation (nsf) one of the most prestigious awards for up-and-coming researchers the award provides funding to support promising integrated research and education sueda will use the funds primarily for student support |
50 | q: what are you researchinga: i am researching new computational models for the biomechanical simulation of humans suitable for a wide range of applications including anatomy training/education computer animation virtual reality and medicine |
51 | q: when did you start studying this what sparked your interesta: i have been working on musculoskeletal simulation since my phd years i was fascinated by how humans move i was particularly interested in the complex interaction of muscles tendons and the skeleton during movement muscles and tendons form branches wrap around bones and other anatomical obstacles and apply forces to the skeleton in interesting ways making us capable of both intricate and forceful movements for example by delicately controlling our muscles we are able to change a babys diaper without hurting the baby using the same muscles we are also able to throw a ball half way across a field i find this range of functions truly amazing and i want to understand it better using new computer models |
52 | q: how do you integrate your teaching and research a: in my classes i cover many concepts related to my research such as motion capture forward/inverse kinematics various skinning methods and finite element modeling one of the most popular course modules is physically-based animation where we combine physics concepts and numerical techniques to model real-world phenomena virtually |
53 | q: how will this research impact the worlda: this research will lead to novel applications in many areas including: medicine for surgical training and stroke rehabilitation; ergonomics for better understanding of energy use; bio-paleontology for discovering the movement of extinct animals; robotics for bio-inspired tendon-driven actuators; and neuroscience for reverse engineering the brain by providing a computational testbed for understanding motor control beside these one obvious area of impact is computer graphics and virtual/augmented reality with recent advances computer-generated imagery of human characters often looks indistinguishable from photographs but when these characters start moving it becomes easy to tell that they are not real theres something uncanny about them the proposed research will help us generate digital characters that move more naturally by modeling the underlying muscles tendons and bones from first principles although the main focus is on humans the proposed research can also be applied to other animals including extinct animals or even imaginary characters |
54 | q: what is the expected outcome of the projecta: this research will build on existing musculoskeletal simulations in biomechanics and graphics in recent decades two contrasting methods for musculoskeletal simulation have been developed: line-based methods and volume-based methods unfortunately there is currently no way to get the best of both worlds because these methods are built on fundamentally different principles: line-based methods are built on rigid body dynamics whereas volume-based methods are built on continuum mechanics this project will bridge the gap between these two approaches for more information read his nsf abstract |
55 | seven student teams from around the world sat in anxious anticipation last wednesday afternoon as a group of judges determined their fate in the invent for the planet final competition in the end it was a team of six students from brazil who took home first place for their innovative idea that could benefit millions of people with a vision impairment |
56 | the sun never sets on innovation when we started invent for the planet last year we wanted to create an opportunity for students around the world to ignore borders and connect all in the name of innovation said rodney boehm director of the engineering entrepreneurship program this time around the competition doubled in size and it was amazing to see the collaboration and creativity that resulted boehm said he enjoyed watching all of the winning teams mingle and get to know each other in person friendships were formed and the students were inspired to continue collaborating with each other in the future |
57 | how the competition works invent for the planet hosted by the engineering entrepreneurship program at texas a&m university began in february with local competitions at 26 universities around the world more than 600 students participated in the 48-hour challenge to solve some of the worlds biggest problems first-place winners were selected at each university and those teams then entered the next round of judging to determine the top five teams those teams traveled to texas a&m for the final competition this past week they were as follows: team supersocial from swansea university in wales united kingdom; team haildom from aristotle university of thessaloniki in greece; team sips from james madison university in virginia; team tupa from universidade federal do rio de janeiro and centro federal de educação tecnológica celso suckow da fonseca in brazil; and team hail no from texas a&m all other first- second- and third-place teams were invited to compete in a peoples choice category held on tuesday two teams from arizona state university team why and team daaeh and one team from texas a&m team hydrowhirl competed in this category when the results were tallied there was a tie allowing team daaeh and team hydrowhirl to compete the following day during the final competition |
58 | first place: team tupa team tupa from brazil was inspired to design a solution that would benefit students at a school for the visually impaired across the street from their university in brazil there is a shortage of guide dogs and assistive technology for people who are blind they said when they entered this competition and saw a need statement about visual impairments they knew this was a challenge they wanted to tackle their design uses sensors inside a wand or hat which would send a vibrating sensation to the user when an obstacle is in the way they brought their working prototype to the competition and allowed people to try it out im so excited said giovanni seiji conzzolino enokibara a masters student in mechanical engineering it was so much work and we got so far its incredible to be here and to have won this competition the students said their families were watching the livestream of the final pitches and their phones started ringing as soon as they were announced the winners my mom just called me crying and said shes so proud said breno ferreira an electronic engineering student from brazil other members of the team were caio de lima barboza felipe macedo moura dos santos luã guedes costa and victor hugo benicio pint these students really embodied what this competition is all about said boehm they saw a need and they worked together to come up with a solution they have people in their home community who are excited to use the product and i think theyll be very successful if they move forward with their design |
59 | second place: team hydrowhirl the second-place team was team hydrowhirl from texas a&m they designed a water filtration and transportation system that could be used in developing countries where clean water is not available this is the greatest experience ive had at a&m said nick justice mechanical engineering student i recommend it to everyone i talk to |
60 | third place: supersocials third-place team was team supersocial from swansea university they designed an app to reduce loneliness by incentivizing face-to-face interaction between users offering discounts at participating businesses what drew me to this challenge was precisely because it was as much a social problem as an engineering problem said tofazzal rashid quite often as engineering students we are presented with problems simply as an engineering problem and asked to deliver a simple engineering solution however often times this isnt effective and isnt sustainable if you dont consider socioecological considerations in any solution its not sustainable because people wont use your device invent for the planet 2020 invent for the planet will be held again next year feb 14-16 2020 boehm is excited to see the competition continue to grow its amazing what can happen when you take away borders differences and language barriers and give young people around the world one common goal making a difference he said i cant wait to see what happens next year |
61 | mechanical engineering department namesake j mike walker and incoming texas a&m university system regent michael plank were recently honored with the outstanding alumni award by the college of engineering walker who died in december received the award posthumously his wife donna walker was present at the banquet in his place a class of 1966 graduate walker earned his bachelors degree and doctoral degree from texas a&m he went on to co-found dril-quip one of the worlds leading manufacturers of offshore drilling and production equipment when he retired in 2011 as chairman president and ceo the company had a market cap in excess of $4 billion and more than 2 200 employees worldwide walkers generous support of mechanical engineering at texas a&m was acknowledged in october 2018 when the department announced it would be renamed in his honor plank who graduated from the department in 1983 said he was honored by the recognition its so lovely to be recognized by the university and my peers plank said its a combination of a lot of years of hard work and effort its wonderful knowing that the efforts you put forth have come to fruition plank serves as chairman and ceo of the plank companies inc and three affiliated companies: national property holdings rail logix and speed shore corporation he is a member and past chairman of the young presidents organization and past president of the trench shoring & shielding association of america and the houston equipment distributors he has also served as a gubernatorial appointee to the texas higher education coordinating board and the governor's university research initiative board earlier this year texas governor greg abbott announced plank would be one of three incoming members to serve on the texas a&m university system board of regents he will be sworn in later this year |
62 | ten members of the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering were honored at the departments 2019 awards and recognition banquet the recipients included four staff members five faculty and one graduate student |
63 | in addition to the award recipients the department also celebrated the induction of two former students to its academy of distinguished graduates holly ridings 96 and jay still 84 were both in attendance to accept the honor ridings is the first woman to serve as chief flight director at nasa directing human spaceflight missions from the mission control center at johnson space center in houston and still serves as president ceo and chairman of the board at guidon energy |
64 | the awards and their recipients are as follows: james j cain 51 staff excellence award sandra havens program specialist ii adrienne krenek administrative associate iv j mike walker 66 staff excellence award nicole latham administrative coordinator i jennifer bloom academic advisor iii james j cain 51 graduate student teaching award namita anil kumar phd student j mike walker 66 faculty graduate teaching award dr jonathan felts assistant professor peggy l & charles brittan 65 outstanding undergraduate teaching award dr matt pharr assistant professor american society of mechanical engineers best teacher award heather lewis lecturer mechanical engineering industry advisory council faculty contributions award dr srikanth saripalli associate professor and gulf oil/thomas a dietz career development professor ii mechanical engineering industry advisory council faculty mentoring award dr m cynthia hipwell tees eminent professor & national academy of engineering member |
65 | tuberculosis is a highly contagious and deadly disease that has recently surpassed the human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) in number of worldwide deaths current methods of diagnosing and treating tuberculosis take time and are not always successful leading to wider proliferation of the disease researchers at texas a&m are working to create more efficient and effective diagnostic tools dr kristen maitland associate professor in the department of biomedical engineering is working with dr jeffrey cirillo director of the center for airborne pathogen research and tuberculosis imaging and professor in the department of microbial pathogenesis and immunology on the project funded by the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases and the national science foundation using optical imaging technology cirillo and his team developed a method of observing bacteria in a living animals lungs without harming them the scan lights up the bacteria in the lung through fluorescence-based technology when maitland joined the team she brought an innovation that would allow for an even more detailed result a micro-endoscope that could be inserted into the airway and detect smaller populations of bacteria in the lungs it is a much more sensitive approach maitland said using the micro-endoscope to light up the lungs from the inside has resulted in 100-1000 times improvement in the detection of pulmonary infection using this technology researchers can study airways in both animals and humans to detect and diagnosis tuberculosis much sooner than current methods which can lead to better treatments along with the probe maitland and her team have developed computer models of the lungs that enable them to test the fluorescence-based equipment on a variety of simulated species even young children they have also used 3d printing to develop a phantom tissue that looks like an airway to light and can be used to improve the effectiveness of the light-based probe |
66 | a conversation with dr lin shao an expert in nuclear energy and radiation materials science about the positives of nuclear energy shao is a professor of nuclear engineering at texas a&m university and the faculty undergraduate advisor |
67 | a: i started in particle physics but i wanted to have a greater impact on society i began to use accelerators to conduct radiation damage studies when i worked at los alamos national laboratory today i use accelerators to simulate neutron damage inside the reactor texas a&m university has the largest accelerator laboratory in the country we use it as a platform to benefit industry and national laboratories and to support innovative student research i always get excited to work with the students here when i mentor them i learn new things myself questions from students often open new insights i had never considered before |
68 | a: nuclear energy has many benefits the biggest one being it is a low-cost clean energy people may be surprised that a nuclear power plant is the lowest cost resource we have the main cost of a nuclear power plant isnt continued upkeep its the capital investment to construct a nuclear power plant the construction costs are high between $3 and $9 billion but the maintenance costs are very low at less than $10 per megawatt hour the maintenance costs for other energy sources can be close to $300 per megawatt hour a nuclear power plant will provide energy for 30 to 45 years based on current technology when you actually look at the data nuclear is clearly the best energy investment in the long term the second benefit is that its emissions free a nuclear power plant does not create carbon dioxide or pollution nuclear waste is very well regulated and because its contained does not affect the local environment coal on the other hand is known to have a negative impact on public health when you burn coal you release things like mercury metal particles nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide another benefit is the ability to build a nuclear power plant anywhere you have a water source such as a river lake or ocean therefore you can have a healthy distribution of nuclear plants across the world other forms of energy creation such as wind or solar have more limiting requirements wind and solar energy are dependent on locations solar energy cant be captured at night and wind energy fluctuates nuclear energy provides a near constant source of power the only time a nuclear power plant stops is when the nuclear fuel needs to be refueled |
69 | a: a carbon tax would apply to industry businesses that emit carbon dioxide pollution meaning a coal plant would have to pay an additional tax for contributing to climate change nuclear energy is emissions free so it would make the price for nuclear even more competitive than i stated earlier |
70 | a: i think it would be fantastic to have both nuclear energy is a form of clean energy because it is emissions free it does not add dangerous pollution to the atmosphere nuclear energy isnt renewable because uranium is a finite resource unlike sunlight or wind however we have a great deal of uranium spent fuel is recyclable in some countries and thorium could overtake uranium as a nuclear fuel source in the future thorium is an abundant resource on earth one problem with solar energy is the use of silicon-based substrates which contaminates the environment in their production and processing |
71 | a: a small modular reactor is not only small but also uses an advanced design the costs go down significantly with small modular reactors making it an attractive reactor for industry investors the reactor is extremely safe and can satisfy the needs for a small community for example a small modular reactor can support an island a town in alaska or water purification efforts in africa |
72 | a: my favorite reactor is the pebble bed reactor it has an impressive optimized system design when you focus on the small scale of refining engineering materials you can greatly impact reactor performance its fascinating advanced reactor design is also amazing because they physically cant melt down |
73 | a: yes i know a lot of people will hate my statement but as a nuclear physicist im not worried about nuclear storage in deep geological disposal areas at all even if they leach out in thousands of years they will not by their elemental composition be soluble in water |
74 | for senior clare lamers the texas a&m university experience has been all about taking steps in the right direction as a student ambassador for the department of electrical and computer engineering she has helped prospective students take their first steps toward higher education and has taken her own steps to improve her communication and leadership skills now as she prepares to step across the graduation stage and into her new position in product test validation for texas instruments she took a moment to look back at her academic journey when i first came to texas a&m as a freshman i really had no idea what i was doing i was always interested in radiology and biomedical imaging so i was originally considering going into nuclear engineering or radiological health said lamers but then i went to a presentation at my new student conference about electrical engineering and found out that they have all these different specializations including biomedical imaging and that was really attractive to me as an ambassador her relatable experience and love for texas a&m has helped lamers connect with prospective and current students alike whether she is presenting to a visiting family about the electrical and computer engineering department or aiding academic advisors to field questions during high traffic times throughout the semester lamers is happy to take the lead chat and help in any way that she can above all else lamers said that her favorite part of being an ambassador is talking to people with prior experience in speaking with high school and middle school students she works with various campus organizations on outreach to that age group and shares her experiences and stories about texas a&m in doing so she also takes the time to explain what electrical engineering is and what the department has to offer the invaluable communication and leadership skills that lamers honed as an ambassador have also bolstered her and helped her succeed in the undergraduate research scholars program where she took steps to shed light on potential blackout situations then had to present her research to an audience of technical and nontechnical judges working alongside fellow electrical engineering senior clay ozuna lamers investigated the potential utilization of electric vehicles (evs) as generators during blackouts to supply power to homes and businesses as well as help the power grid restart when a blackout happens and an entire power plant goes down generators undergo tremendous stress to reboot and reenergize all the components the longer a power plant is down the more difficult it is to revive it the more money utility companies lose and the more harmful it becomes for consumers it can be really dangerous for people to be without power if you have a critical customer who is on life support in their house and the power goes out thats a problem there are hospitals relying on power grids even something less life-threatening like a restaurant may have to throw all their food out so blackouts affect everyone said lamers as lamers explained while evs are currently designed to only draw power from a source finding a way to reverse that power flow would aid in cutting down the cost inconvenience and risk of blackouts while also fortifying the resiliency of the power grid additionally having another source of generation could help stabilize the grid and support it during the times of the year that electricity use is at its peak such as the middle of summer when air conditioners run around the clock this would diminish the need for utility companies to peak shave or schedule purposeful temporary power outages to lower the electricity load inflicted on the grid to lamers it was interesting to experience the differences between the undergraduate research scholars program and her senior capstone class namely having to learn to speak to a general audience and explain her research step-by-step rather than being able to work under the assumption that everyone present has a background in electrical engineering this shift in audience gave lamers a chance to practice the adaptability she learned over the course of her time in engineering she added that the challenging program work she encountered while at texas a&m has led to a degree that proves she knows how to learn a valuable skill for industry employers ive had to work very hard in electrical engineering said lamers coupled with my involvement with extracurricular organizations (that challenge) has really helped me grow as a person and as a leader and prepared me to continue learning and be able to adapt to new situations down the road |
75 | not all tumors are made alike a tumor may consist of different populations of cancer cells each having its own distinct genetic and metabolic profiles these differences create obstacles for effective cancer therapy because the drugs may suppress one group of cells but leave another intact a team of researchers from texas a&m university and the california institute of technology (caltech) are working together to develop a technique to help solve this problem dr jun zou professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and his phd student song xu worked with dr lihong v wang ben professor of medical engineering and electrical engineering and his students at caltech to develop a solution that would allow researchers to assess the level of difference in cancer cell metabolism inside a tumor their technique could facilitate the design of effective and personalized treatment strategies by providing useful information for predicting tumor growth invasion and drug resistance to assess the metabolic state of the cells the team looked at what fed them hemoglobin this natural oxygen carrier and supplier undergoes a significant color change when it adsorbs or desorbs oxygen this unique property makes hemoglobin an ideal biocompatible optical-absorption-based oxygen sensor the oxygen consumption rate (ocr) of a cell (the amount of oxygen consumed by a cell in a certain amount of time) is directly related to its metabolic state therefore measuring the ocrs of single cancer cells will provide a good picture of their metabolic profiles |
76 | the team then combined this process with photoacoustic microscopy an imaging technology where laser light produce ultrasonic vibrations in a sample researchers can use the vibrations to detect changes in optical absorption of cells blood vessels and tissues they were able to monitor tiny variations in oxygen saturation of hemoglobin from which the ocr of a single cell trapped and sealed inside an airtight microwell can be calculated they call this technique single-cell metabolic photoacoustic microscopy (scm-pam) combining with a unique microfabricated single-cell microwell array they developed scm-pam can be scaled up to measure a large population of single cells which would be needed for testing the variety of cell populations in a tumor with its unique capability for label-free high-throughput single-cell ocr measurement and the potential of providing multidimensional information about tumors we believe scm-pam will become a useful tool for both fundamental cancer research and clinical personalized cancer therapy zou said using their technique the team demonstrated in a recent paper published in nature biomedical engineering that their technology could review about 12 000 cells per hour 100 times higher than current techniques limited to about 120 cells per hour funding for the research was provided by the national science foundation and the national institutes of health |
77 | the department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university had its annual gala on april 12 at the brazos county expo center the event recognized the achievements of faculty staff and students over the past year many students were recognized for receiving scholarships at the national university and departmental levels and for their dedication to scholarship and service yesenia zavala undergraduate academic advisor iii received the outstanding staff award and will also receive the college of engineerings outstanding staff award this semester |
78 | faculty in the department were recognized for winning national awards receiving promotions and leading winning capstone project teams dr rodger koppa associate professor emeritus received an award for 45 years of service to texas a&m which was commemorated with a pin koppa worked for nasa before joining texas a&m and is a registered professional engineer certified human factors professional and certified psychologist each year an award is presented to outstanding industry partners for their support of the department this year the united parcel service received the partner of excellence award for their support of the capstone program |
79 | the distinguished former student award recipient was brent lyon the departmental advisory council president who has given 19 years of service to the department and university lyon has a bachelors and a masters degree from texas a&m in industrial engineering and currently works for lockheed martin the gala also served as a start to the 80th anniversary celebrations taking place in the coming years the department will turn 80 in 2020 this event celebrates the outstanding achievements of our students staff and faculty and we thank them for their continued service to the department the college of engineering and texas a&m said dr mark lawley head of the department the department is thrilled to have numerous dedicated faculty and talented students to celebrate on this occasion and we are excited to kick off our 80th anniversary celebration |
80 | dr xia ben hu assistant professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university has been selected as a recipient of the jp morgan artificial intelligence faculty research award through this recognition and grant hu will be investigating how to enhance the widespread understanding impact and credibility of machine learning in industry by creating a system to explain the reasoning behind the decision-making process of a machine a leader in finance and one of the worlds most prominent technology banks jp morgan aims to advance the practical applications of artificial intelligence (ai) by supporting the cutting-edge innovations and investigations of researchers around the globe utilizing algorithms and statistical models machine learning enables a computer to perform specific tasks without the need for much human interaction relying on pattern recognition and inference this subset of ai can offer critical assistance in real-world problems with applications ranging from helping doctors detect cancer to directing autonomous vehicles to analyzing finance while carefully programmed the lack of a human touch and transparency in ai systems often leads to skepticism and the questioning of ethics regarding machines and their conclusions the underlying question becomes why why did a machine make a specific diagnosis or predict that the stocks would rise why should the results be trusted although machine learning especially deep learning has achieved great success it is criticized for its black box property meaning that it is successful but people don't know why its successful and why it achieved such a good performance similarly when it fails people cannot understand why it fails and that makes it hard to improve said hu this missing interpretability or the extent to which a researcher is able to predict what is going to happen given a change in input or parameters severely limits the systems explainability or the extent to which the internal mechanics of a machine system can be explained in human terms both interpretability and explainability are critical in the advancement and acceptance of machine learning in real-world applications with the help of four of his phd students hu is working to improve the widespread understanding of ai by taking a deeper look at machine learning models algorithms and various data perspectives and developing a way to translate them for the masses in doing so his team aims to gain vital insight into the reasoning behind the machines decision-making process and conclusions in turn this could help solve the mystery as to why machines think as they do giving both researchers and professionals a better understanding of the inner workings of the machine-brain in applications such as anomaly detection and network analytics while stepping into the world of finance to enhance machine learning may sound out of place at first hu explained that the significance of this partnership is twofold first with all the rich data patterns found in financial systems it is imperative for industry experts to have a means to quickly and accurately detect things such as fraud or financial anomalies something that machine learning can easily provide however it is equally as important for them to understand why a transaction is labeled as fraudulent or what made the stock predictions change hus research will bridge the knowledge gap between ai engineers and finance industry experts leveling the field and allowing everyone to interpret and understand the reasoning behind the system second through the development of interpretable machine learning algorithms and systems with jp morgan hu and his team will be able to apply their research to real-world problems and observe the direct effects of it in addition to giving them a means to see their research in action and track the results for future improvements this implementation will also help users have a better and more secure financial experience i am excited and honored to receive this research award and be among so many distinguished faculty members from renown universities said hu we have been conducting this research for a few years and are so excited to have the opportunity to work with jp morgan to see how machine learning research could directly contribute to their financial systems |
81 | billy g walton 51 and ned e walton 63 have established the walton endowed scholarship fund to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from texas a&m university the scholarship is the result of the walton brothers desire to give back to the university and specifically the departments they graduated from civil and petroleum i have wonderful memories as a student professor extension professional and assistant dean of academic affairs and programs said ned walton i dont regret a moment of my time spent on texas a&ms campus ned completed his bachelors masters and doctoral degrees at texas a&m while simultaneously working at the texas a&m transportation institute i thoroughly enjoyed my civil engineering classes and worked hard to gain a quality education over the course of my time at texas a&m he said after graduation ned held several positions within the texas a&m college of engineering including assistant dean of academic affairs and programs he also served as a sponsor for the engineering council and worked on research that directly impacts the infrastructure of our nation today after stepping away from his role at the university ned opened walton & associates consulting engineers inc and continued teaching engineering courses through the engineering extension program he has since sold the company and officially retired in 2010 he spends his free time supporting his children and grandchildren in their endeavors |
82 | the texas a&m university college of engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the united states ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment endowments supporting the students in the college have an immeasurable impact on their education if you are interested in supporting the college of engineering or would like more information on how you can give please contact true brown director of development |
83 | nasa has selected two aerospace engineering graduate students as 2019 nasa space technology research fellows hunter johnston and carl leake are both doctoral students under the advisement of dr daniele mortari professor in the department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university being selected as a nasa space technology research fellow (nstrf) is a real mark of distinction the goal of the program is to sponsor graduate students who show significant potential to contribute to nasas goal of creating innovative new space technologies for our nations science exploration and economic future johnston submitted the proposal real-time optimal guidance via theory of connections with the next generation of space missions beyond earth orbit a new generation of algorithms must be developed to decrease the reliance on earth-based navigation techniques says johnston in fact the ability to execute orbital maneuvers rendezvous and landing procedures on board and in real time is of great importance for future missions the focus of my research is to apply a technique called the theory of connections (which has been applied to solve differential equations) in order to develop a solution for real-time optimal landing for leakes proposal improving the fidelity of general flexible multibody dynamic simulations his research will focus on improving the ability to simulate flexible multibody structures this simulation capability is a critical component in the design of a large variety of systems including extraterrestrial rotorcraft systems this fellowship will enable me to pursue full-time research that interests me and supports nasas mission says leake the nstrf award is worth a total of $80 000 for the initial year and may be renewed for up to three more years with satisfactory progress shown on the research in addition to their faculty advisor both students will be matched with a technically relevant and community-engaged nasa subject matter expert who will serve as the students research collaborator the research collaborator will serve as the conduit into the larger technical community corresponding to the students space technology research area |
84 | dr anthony guiseppi-elie has been appointed full affiliate member of the houston methodist research institute (hmri) recommended by the board of directors of the institute and appointed to the department of cardiovascular sciences guiseppi-elie assumed his appointment march 1 he was also appointed adjunct professor of biomedical engineering in the department of cardiovascular sciences within the houston methodist institute for academic medicine (iam) effective april 1 tony is a highly collaborative scientist/engineer who brings a wealth of experience in the design development and application of chemical and biological sensors to challenges in human health we welcome tonys participation with our department and within the hmri broadly said dr john p cooke chairman of cardiovascular science at hmri and the iam guiseppi-elie is associate dean of engineering medicine (enmed) at texas a&m university he is currently a tees research professor and professor in the department of biomedical engineering with a courtesy appointment in the department of electrical and computer engineering enmed is texas a&ms innovative engineering medicine school option at houston methodist hospital developed to educate a new kind of physician to create transformational technology for health care i am delighted to join my colleagues at hmri several with whom i have active collaborations said guiseppi-elie guiseppi-elie is world-renowned researcher whose interests are in engineered bioanalytical microsystems in the service of human health and medicine collaborations with houston methodist researchers include one with dr ennio tasciotti on the application of a dual-function 24-well electrical cell stimulation and recording system for the concomitant electrification of human inducible pluripotent stem cells to guide differentiation while monitoring and modeling cellular trans-membrane electrical impedance another is with dr philip horner on the development and application of electroconductive polymer interfaces for next-generation neurostimulation electrodes he also is working with cooke on the development and application of a biosensor-enabled dual-sensing microfluidic vasculature-on-a-chip system that measures nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species for studying the role of therapeutic agents on human inducible pluripotent stem cells derived endothelial cells from patients with hutchinson-gilford progeria syndrome guiseppi-elie has published more than 150 archival scientific papers 31 books or proceedings chapters holds eight us and foreign patents and has given over 200 invited lectures he is editor-in-chief of bioengineering associate editor of biomedical microdevices and a member of the editorial boards of the journal of bioactive and compatible polymers nanobiotechnology and applied biochemistry and biotechnology he has been a guest editor for the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) journal of biomedical and health informatics guiseppi-elie is a fulbright specialist award recipient in bioengineering at the university of tucumán in tucumán argentina and wrocław university of science and technology in poland and has been an ieee-engineering in medicine and biology society distinguished lecturer he is a fellow of the american institute of medical and biological engineering the royal society of chemistry and ieee a lifetime member of the american institute of chemical engineers and holds memberships in many other prominent organizations |
85 | for 48 hours college students from over 26 universities around the world joined texas a&m university virtually to tackle some of the most challenging issues facing the planet today the top five teams from the first round of invent for the planet have been selected by a team of external judges and will compete at texas a&m on april 23 and 24 |
86 | hail no a team from texas a&m aims to minimize hail damage to aircraft wings operational delays costly repairs and accidents the team's design is similar to an airbag that would be installed over the leading and trailing edge of the aircraft wings using nylon straps to reduce the risk of it blowing off in a storm team member jacob azbell shares his insight on the competition |
87 | hail no team members include umang kantesaria computer science and engineering; azbell electrical engineering; bamidele fadayomi mechanical engineering; jobin george mathew industrial engineering; mazen ali mechanical engineering; and william smith manufacturing mechanical engineering technology |
88 | q: what has been the most memorable experiencea: the most memorable experience was proving that a team of engineers that are still in school can apply their knowledge to create a product that is feasible and marketable in the real world q: did anything surprise you or come out of the experience that was unexpecteda: i was surprised at how many diverse talents and skills as well as personal insight is necessary to piece together a design and bring it to fruition q: why did you pick your need statementa: the need statement stood out to me as something unique that could be approached from any angle because no one had ever attempted to create a solution to protect aircraft wings from hail |
89 | after the competition the team will develop a design that encompasses every process involved in the use of the product from deploying the system to retrieving and storing it they will also calculate the cost of labor and parts involved to fully understand if it will function as expected and be as cost-efficient as calculated |
90 | the invent for the planet final competition is wednesday april 24th at 2 pm in the zach chevron rooms for more information view our website |
91 | nasas management and development of spacesuits audit in 2017 noted that nasa continues to manage an array of design and health risks associated with the current suit worn in space the extravehicular mobility unit (emu) a new intelligent hybrid smartsuit design proposed by dr ana diaz artiles from texas a&m university has the potential to solve some of these issues the smartsuit a spacesuit designed in mind for planetary exploration of the moon and mars incorporates soft robotics technology lending better mobility and dexterity to the astronauts and allowing them to better interact with their surroundings during extravehicular activities (eva) the technology was recently selected for a nasa innovative advanced concepts (niac) phase i grant the suit will incorporate a soft and stretchable self-healing skin located in the outer layer that not only protects the astronaut but also collects data through integrated transparent sensors embedded in the membrane these sensors are capable of visually displaying environmental and membrane structural information providing visual feedback to the wearer about the surroundings the current suits worn when working outside of the international space station (the emu) are highly-pressurized with no robotic assistance requiring astronauts to work against the suit and use their strength to move the spacesuit is like a big balloon when you try to bend your leg it has this tendency to come back to the natural position so youre fighting against the suit every time you try to make a move says diaz artiles adding that this can lead to astronaut fatigue as well as musculoskeletal injuries and discomfort the soft robotic technology proposed can increase human performance during eva improving mobility within the suit and allowing for a full range of movements the sensors embedded in the skin of the suit will allow for an enhanced interaction with the environment during eva permitting astronauts to actually feel rocks when exploring the mars surface another benefit to the soft robotic layer when extended over the entire body surface is the generation of a continuous mechanical counterpressure decompression sickness (dcs) is an important consideration during eva operations to prevent dcs during exposure to spacesuit pressures astronauts pre-breathe pure oxygen prior to depressurization to wash out nitrogen from body tissue the duration of this pre-breathing can be as long as four hours with some pressure being provided by the soft robotic layer the gas-generated pressure in the suit could be lowered which in turn could result in a significant reduction in pre-breathing times necessary dropping from four hours to as little as 90 minutes in addition the self-healing membrane of the smartsuit has the potential to protect an astronaut in the event of a puncture during an eva on mars surface increasing astronaut safety during traverses the stretchable optoelectronics embedded in the membrane will provide a means of monitoring spacesuit stress helping to determine where failure in the suit is most likely to occur and notifying the astronaut if the self-healing membrane is severely damaged in the 2019 round niac selected 12 projects for the phase i awards valued around $125 000 the phase i studies are exploratory nine-month projects that allow researchers to further develop their ideas if the concept is awarded phase ii the project will move forward with up to $500 000 more in funding for two years to advance the technology even further diaz artiles assistant professor in the department of aerospace engineering will lead the mission architecture work of this study including a comprehensive biomechanical and human performance analysis her co-investigator dr robert shepherd associate professor at cornell university will analyze material and mechanical metrics for manufacturing the smartsuit and will also perform preliminary experimental validation of its core concepts |
92 | q: why did you choose engineering at galveston a: i decided to attend texas a&m engineering at galveston because it was close to home a smaller campus and it would allow me to spend my first year in college building strong study habits q: what has been your most memorable experience in galveston a: the most memorable experience at texas a&m university at galveston was working on the engr 111 project we were tasked to build a rube goldberg machine throughout the semester with several other students that had never met before what made it memorable were the fun long nights we spent drafting the machine on autocad putting it together and testing it to make sure it worked properly for demonstration day q: did anything surprise you or come out of your experience at galveston that was unexpected a: i didn't expect to make so many great friends that i still keep in touch with to this day after transitioning to main campus i was surprised to learn that not only did i have a much more enjoyable experience in freshman engineering i also learned engineering skills like drafting by hand and calculating freak waves in matlab that i would have otherwise missed out on at main campus q: what do you want to do after you graduate a: pilot in the us air force q: is there anything else you'd like to share a: texas a&m university at galveston was a great freshman experience i would highly recommend to anyone i found i was more prepared transitioning to main campus academically and socially it allowed me to establish a strong foundation to continue thriving throughout college though the material was difficult the intimate classes made learning easy i would not be where i am today if i hadn't attended texas a&m university at galveston my freshman year |
93 | for 48 hours college students from over 26 universities around the world joined texas a&m university virtually to tackle some of the most challenging issues facing the planet today the top five teams from the first round of invent for the planet have been selected by a team of external judges and will compete at texas a&m on april 23 and 24 |
94 | tupa a team from universidade federal do rio de janeiro and centro federal de educação tecnológica celso suckow da fonseca designed a two-part sensor system that could assist people with visual impairments or blindness their design uses a low-profile hat with sensors and a vibrating mechanism along with a lightweight wand that the user would move while walking the wand would send a signal to the head sensors which would vibrate with increasing frequency when the user approaches an obstacle tupa team members include breno ferreira caio de lima felipe macedo moura dos santos giovanni seiji cozzolino enokibara luã guedes costa and victor hugo benicio |
95 | q: what has been the most memorable experiencea: creating a technology that impacts an entire social branch and will help many needy people was incredible but the most memorable experience was to see a smile on the professors faces after using our prototype - breno christianes ferreira q: did anything surprise you or come out of the experience that was unexpecteda: building something great presenting our project and receiving so much positive feedback in such a short time was certainly unexpected - breno christianes ferreira a: actually everything was a surprise because developing a product in 48 hours dealing with difficulties and moreover solving problems quickly and efficiently is something very rewarding especially when working with what you like - felipe macedo moura dos santos q: why did you pick your need statementa: i chose this need statement because i believe that one of the best ways to improve the quality of life is engineering technical knowledge is powerful it is capable of changing the lives of thousands of people for the better if applied correctly - felipe macedo moura dos santos |
96 | their next of plan of action is to research further decrease the sensor size and improve accuracy tupa will strive to learn more about business from experienced professionals develop a business plan pursue grants and patent their idea tupa will conduct tests to improve the capacity of what was developed and increasingly improve the prototype all with the objective of being a low-cost product that can be accessible to everyone |
97 | the invent for the planet final competition is wednesday april 24th at 2 pm in the zach chevron rooms for more information view our website |
98 | for 48 hours college students from over 26 universities around the world joined texas a&m university virtually to tackle some of the most challenging issues facing the planet today the top five teams from the first round of invent for the planet have been selected by a team of external judges and will compete at texas a&m on april 23 and 24 |
99 | supersocial a team from swansea university in wales created an app that promotes in-person social engagement and activities to prevent loneliness users can earn points by meeting new people creating and participating in events hanging out in communal areas or by participating in monthly scavenger hunts these points can later be redeemed for items at local businesses they will generate income through ads sponsored events and communal areas or through payment systems the supersocial team includes josephine leong mechanical engineering; tofazzal rashid civil engineering; sajal gurung medical engineering; and jekaterina macilevic chemical engineering |
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