May 2017

Kendal Ezell, a student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been selected to become an Astronaut Scholar by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF), as well as being honored as Outstanding Junior for the Texas A&M College of Engineering and the Phi Kappa Phi honor society.

In order to create 3-D models in the field of computer graphics, thin sheets of material are layered together to create a single object. Dr. Scott Schaefer, professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, is focused on peeling back those layers in order to create more realistic graphics than ever before.

A student group in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University created a device to thwart potential attackers as a project in their microcomputer systems course, taught by Dr. Jyh-Charn (Steve) Liu, professor in the department.

Dr. Yossef Elabd, professor, associate department head and director of the undergraduate program in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, recently delivered a webinar for the American Chemical Society (ACS). The webinar “The Power of Plastics: Polymerized Ionic Liquids and Nanostructured Polymers for Battery and Other Applications,” featured both Elabd and Dr. Thomas H Epps, III, the Thomas & Kipp Gutshall Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware.

Two students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University were among the 10th class of Maroon Coats recognized by the Texas A&M Foundation in April.

The pump jack on the corner of Spence and Ross streets is part of the hands-on educational experiences required of future petroleum engineers. It is also a visible symbol of academic need, the generosity of former students in industry, and the volunteer labor of petroleum engineering students.

A Texas A&M University undergraduate capstone design team named Enclave Electronics International recently presented their internet of things (IoT) lunar rover prototype to scientists at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Since he was a boy, Leroy S. “Skip” Fletcher ’58 remembers looking up to his father, Robert H. “Bob” Fletcher. A hardworking family man, Bob shared his passion for mechanical engineering with his son and thousands of Aggie students over the years.

Dr. Je-Chin Han, Distinguished Professor and holder of the Marcus C. Easterling Chair in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, was named recipient of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2016 Max Jakob Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to the science and art of heat and mass transfer.

Alice and Erle Nye '59 have a passion for supporting Texas A&M. Among their greatest contributions is the Alice and Erle Nye '59 Academic Center, part of the Bright Football Complex, where athletes study on a daily basis.

Engineers have made modern technology increasingly easier to operate for the common person. For Stephanie Wilcox, an undergraduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, knowing how to operate the technology was never enough. This passion for technology led Wilcox to pursue a degree in electrical and computer engineering.

Strap on a pair of virtual reality (VR) goggles and pilot a spaceship around an asteroid field or explore the terrain of Mars. Participants at South by Southwest (SXSW) were able to do just that through the SpaceCRAFT VR platform that is being developed by Dr. Greg Chamitoff, professor of practice in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, and his students under the advisement of NASA.

Texas A&M University researchers have developed an intelligent transportation system prototype designed to avoid collisions and prevent hacking of autonomous vehicles.

Sean Whitney, a May 2017 graduate in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named the 2017 Southwestern Region award winner from Sigma Gamma Tau (SGT), the national aerospace engineering honor society.

Benjamin Young, graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University was selected to receive a 2017 fellowship from the International Organization on Shape Memory and Superelastic Technology, an affiliate society of the American Society of Metals.

From walk-on college basketball player to influential mentor for students and faculty, Dr. Robert Randall has come full circle in his 42-year career in academia.

Dr. Le Xie, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been awarded the 2017 Outstanding Young Engineering Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power & Energy Society (PES) for his contribution to the power systems analytics research and leadership in big data.

Two professors from the Texas A&M College of Engineering at Texas A&M University were honored as “inspirational and transformational” mentors during the inaugural Center for Teaching Excellence Aggies Celebrate Teaching! – Recognizing Transformational Learning reception in May.

M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering and director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), recognized Faculty and Staff Award winners during the 2017 Faculty and Staff Awards banquet.

As demonstrated over the weekend with the global WannaCry "ransomware" cyberattack, which infected 300,000 machines in 150 countries, threats to cybersecurity have reached a crisis stage. The global cost of cybercrime continues to increase and is estimated to reach $6 trillion by 2021.

Dr. Yassin A. Hassan, department head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University and the Sallie & Don Davis '61 Professor in Nuclear Engineering, has been awarded the 2017 James N. Landis Medal by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in recognition of his outstanding contributions to nuclear reactor safety.

The Texas A&M College of Engineering at Texas A&M University honored Department of Mechanical Engineering former student Jimmy Williams with an Outstanding Alumni Award on April 20.

Reece Goldsberry, undergraduate research assistant in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, recently received the Best Undergraduate Poster Award from the National Association of Corrosion Engineers International (NACE).

Researchers with the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University have provided new insights into the workings of an advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor fuel assembly, having used a specialized test facility to measure hydraulic parameters and validate computational tools used in reactor design and testing.

The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University recognized current students, faculty, staff and alumni at the 2017 Spring Honors and Awards Banquet.

When she arrived on campus in 2012, Alyssa Michalke’s goals for her time at Texas A&M University were modest enough. One, she wanted a challenge. Two, she wanted to distinguish herself in some way from her more than 60,000 peers. How she went from a culture-shocked freshman in a lecture hall larger than her high school in tiny Schulenburg, Texas, to becoming the first woman to lead the Corps of Cadets and make the women’s basketball team depends on who you ask.

The inorganic compound hafnium dioxide commonly used in optical coatings has a tetragonal form with highly attractive properties for computer chips and other optical elements. However, because this form is stable only at temperatures above 3100 degrees Fahrenheit scientists have had to make do with its more limited monoclinic polymorph, until now. A team of researchers has found a way to achieve this highly sought tetragonal phase at 1100 degrees Fahrenheit — think much closer to room temperature and potential holy grail for the computing industry, along with countless other sectors and applications.

Researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University have discovered a class of two-dimensional (2D) materials to aid in further reducing the size and improving the performance of various devices.

Seven petroleum engineering students at Texas A&M University will claim more than just a bachelor’s degree when they walk across the stage in May. John Freeman, Brandon Gowisnock, Patrick Griffin, Jireh Groenow, Alden Mutchnik, Mary Claire Pollard and Michael Sliva have all earned a Petroleum Ventures Program (PVP) certificate. They are the first petroleum engineers to do so, and it is an impressive achievement.

Emre Arslan, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, was named the recipient of the Best Poster award at the 44th annual meeting of the Texas Genetics Society at the George Bush Library.

M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering at Texas A&M University, has appointed Dr. Mark Lawley head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. The appointment of Lawley, who has been serving as interim head of the department, is effective June 1.

Barton, senior vice president of business development at Wood Group’s offshore business unit, returned to campus in April to speak to students in the Department of Ocean Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Payman Dehghanian, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, was awarded the 2017 Montgomery Award at the Graduate and Professional Student Council Banquet in May.

Tao Zhao, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, was named recipient of the Best Student Paper Award at the 2017 International Symposium on Modeling and Optimization in Mobile, Ad Hoc and Wireless Networks (WiOpt).

Dr. Shankar Bhattacharyya, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, was named the recipient of the Kenneth L. Clinton Award for his contribution to the Brazil Study Abroad Program in electrical and computer engineering.

Dhananjay Khanna, a senior in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named chief justice of the Texas A&M Student Government Association (SGA) Judicial Court. Similar to the Supreme Court of the United States, the SGA is appointed one chief justice and eight associate justices.

Research led by Dr. Frank Shipman and Dr. Catherine Marshall in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University was highlighted on the May cover of Communications of the ACM, which is the flagship publication of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Dr. Abhishek Jain, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been awarded the Texas A&M University iSITE grant. The grant will enable Jain and his students to study the commercial potential of their proposed innovations in “organs-on-chip” technology.

Three engineering student teams took the top spots in the 2017 Raymond Ideas Challenge competition hosted by the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship at the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University.

Dr. Pilwon Hur, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has set out to help people with balance issues walk through life with ease. Using biomechanics and neuromechanics, Hur and his team in the Human Rehabilitation Group at Texas A&M are developing robotic prosthetics and therapy devices to restore balance to those who have lost it through injury, illness or age.

Two students in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University won awards at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Region IV Student Conference held April 28-30 at the University of Houston.

The Estimation, Decision and Planning Lab in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University won a 2017 TechConnect National Innovation Award for the newly developed technology “A Method for Highly Accurate Long-Term Localization and Navigation Using On-Board Sensors.”

Texas A&M University at Qatar graduated its largest class ever 4 May in a ceremony at the Qatar National Convention Centre.

For the 5th annual Engineering Project Showcase, the work of more than 1,000 students was represented on April 29 in the Hall of Champions at Texas A&M University’s Kyle Field.

Students and faculty in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University presented a preliminary risk assessment to Fatma Yimaz, supervisor for probabilistic risk assessment at the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company (STP). Their assessment determined the level of risk the plant could have during an onsite electrical power blackout following the loss of the plant switchyard from weather-related phenomenon, such as an intense hurricane.

Dr. Sonia J. Garcia, senior director for Access and Inclusion in Engineering Academic and Student Affairs (EASA) at Texas A&M University, has been recognized as the 2017 recipient of the Dr. Robert M. Gates Inspiration Award at the Regents’ Scholars Spring Banquet by the Scholarships & Financial Aid office.

Dr. Robin Murphy, Raytheon Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University and director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue, saw a need for a safer, more efficient way to use quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in indoor disaster environments. Her idea for a quadcopter tethered to a home-base robot was inspired by marsupials, who have external pouches to hold their young and keep them close.

Dr. Mathew Kuttolamadom, assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution (ETID) and in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been awarded a $360,000, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to create an interdisciplinary Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site in metrology and non­destructive inspection (NDI).