January 2017

M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering, has appointed Dr. Xingyong Song the Corrie and Jim Furber ’64 Faculty Fellow in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution. The endowed faculty fellowship was effective Jan. 1.

Monitoring and controlling technical systems through the internet could be the next phase of space exploration and the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University is a leader in developing a system to suit NASA’s needs.

When you think of art, mathematical algorithms may not be the first thing that comes to mind. Dr. Tim Davis set out to show the world that mathematics can, in fact, be beautiful. He is merging the two disciplines by crafting algorithms that convert songs into something you can actually see.

Jonathan Bower, P.E., M.ASCE, is a 2017 New Faces of Civil Engineering - Professional honoree and a project engineer at L.A. Fuess Partners, INC. He graduated from the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University with his bachelor's in 2010 and his master's in 2012.

Nearly a year to the day after hosting the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition on the Texas A&M University campus, students from the TAMU Aerospace Hyperloop team joined nearly 30 other teams in Southern California for the next phase in the ongoing quest to develop a functional hyperloop design.

Drs. Scott Socolofsky, Lufthansa Kanta and Stefan Hurlebaus of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, have been awarded 2016-17 College of Engineering Faculty Awards.

Dr. Bruce Wang recently won two grants as a principal investigator through the federal University Transportation Center program funded by the federal Department of Transportation as mandated in the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act 2015.

M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering, has appointed Dr. Michael Johnson the Charlotte and Walter Buchanan Faculty Fellow in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution. The endowed faculty fellowship was effective Jan. 1.

Within the last 100 years, a shift in the United States economy has occurred. Previously, the workforce was comprised of predominantly farmers. Today, less than 3 percent of the workforce is in the agricultural sector. To accommodate this shift, manufacturing productivity must increase.

Four faculty members from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University have been named recipients of the 2016-17 College of Engineering Faculty Awards.

Overcoming poverty, adversity and obstacles in life, Israel Escamilla Jr., a graduate of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University, earned a place in the 2017 Twelve Under Twelve Young Alumni Spotlight sponsored by The Association of Former Students.

Students in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University embarked upon an adventure to Egypt during the winter break as part of the college of engineering’s study abroad program.

Dr. Daniel Alge's research has been featured on the cover of the ACS journal Biomacromolecules. Alge and colleagues were recognized for their research paper describing an innovative method for synthesizing protein-functionalized hydrogel microparticles with tunable bioactive properties. 

Sirajum Munira and AKM Abir were selected as finalists in the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 2017 Transportation Analytics Contest

Dr. Darren Hartl and his student research team from his Multifunctional Materials and Aerospace Structures Optimization (M2AESTRO) Lab, helped organize and run the AIAA Foundation’s Generation STEM event in Grapevine, Texas.

Dr. Chao Ma, assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University, is thinking small to make a big impact in the field of laser manufacturing.

The Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University will host its annual Student Paper Contest on Saturday (Jan. 28) in the Richardson Building.

The Cybersecurity of Critical Infrastructure Summit had a successful inaugural event last week on the Texas A&M University campus. The summit brought together experts from government, private industry and academia to debate and share ideas about protecting the United States from growing cybersecurity threats around the world.

Dr. Alexei Poludnenko has received the American Physical Society's (APS) 2016 François Frenkiel Award. The APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) presents this award to young investigators in recognition of significant contributions to fluid mechanics that have also been published during the previous year in either Physical Review Fluids or Physics of Fluids.

A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) has partnered with higher education institutions from across the southern United States to form the Transportation Consortium of South-Central States (Tran- SET), a research consortium funded by the Department of Transportation (DOT).

Dr. Sonia Garcia recently presented two posters at the World Engineering Education Forum and Global Engineering Deans Council 2016 in South Korea.

One thing we can all agree on is social media has drastically altered the way we interact with each other and the world around us. This societal shift has brought to light the need for awareness of the risks that surround it. As quickly as the landscape of social interaction changes, new threats emerge.

Texas A&M University graduate and astronaut Michael E. Fossum has been appointed as the new vice president and chief operating officer of Texas A&M University at Galveston. Fossum’s appointment is effective March 1.

Dr. Patrick Shamberger has been selected to receive the New Materials Educator Award from the materials division of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE).

Bharadwaj Satchidanadnan won the best student paper award in the 9th International Conference on Communication Systems and Networks (COMSNETS 2017) in Bangalore, India.

The Texas A&M University College of Engineering will lead a new South Central Regional Robotics Innovation Collaborative, part of the Advanced Robotics Manufacturing (ARM) Innovation Hub announced Friday (Jan. 13) by the Department of Defense.

Recent advancements in automotive, aerospace and power generation industries have inspired materials scientists to engineer innovative materials. Ceramic metal composites are an example of a new and improved class of materials that can enhance transportation and energy conversion technologies.

Dr. Sean McDeavitt and Dr. Ryan McClarren have been named as recipients of the 2016-17 College of Engineering Faculty Awards.

Dr. Marcelo Sanchez and his team of researchers are paving the way for new engineering applications that will shape the future of energy production and storage.

Each year, the Texas A&M University Veteran Resource & Support Center polls graduating student veterans for the one faculty or staff member who helped them the most during their time on campus. In December, three members from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering were recognized.

Dr. Lewis Ntaimo and former Ph.D. student Tanisha Cotton were awarded second place in the Institution for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Minority Issues Forum (MIF) inaugural paper competition.

Dr. Xiong Zhang, a former student of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, was recently awarded the International Award for Innovation in Unsaturated Soil Mechanics at the Third European Conference on Unsaturated Soils.

Seniors in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University enroll in the Capstone Senior Design course to apply their education to real-world problems currently facing businesses. The students gain valuable experiences while sponsor companies benefit from the faculty’s research and expertise.

Dr. Lewis Ntaimo, former Ph.D. student Julian Gallego-Arrubla and Curt Stripling of the Texas A&M Forest Service, were awarded this year’s INFORMS Section on Energy, Natural Resources and the Environment (ENRE) best paper publication.

During the 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) conference in San Francisco, the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University hosted a reception to honor the life and legacy of Professor Christodoulos A. Floudas.

Dr. Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez has been elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

The Texas A&M Energy Institute will be leading the modeling and simulation efforts of the Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) Manufacturing Institute of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Dr. Robert Skelton has been selected to receive the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Mechanics and Control of Flight Award for 2017.

Dr. Alan Waltar has collaborated with Dr. Donald Todd and Dr. Pavel Tsvetkov to revise Waltar’s 1981 book, Fast Spectrum Reactors. The original book, co-authored by Dr. Albert Reynolds, has served as a major reference book for fast reactors systems worldwide.

Four Texas A&M University engineering students have been named University Innovation Fellows (UIF) by Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) at Stanford University, a program to empower students to help their peers gain an entrepreneurial mindset and creative confidence.

Texas A&M University will host the 2017 Quantitative Bioimaging (QBI) conference Jan. 5–7 on its campus in College Station, Texas.