Texas A&M Engineering News

Texas A&M Engineering honors outstanding seniors

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:00:00 CST

The Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M University honored eight students with its Craig C. Brown Outstanding Senior Engineering Award during a banquet at Miramont Country Club in Bryan.

Seniors Chibueze Amanchukwu, Oscar Carrasco-Zevallos, Diganto Choudhury, Haley Helweg, Nate Mentzer, Ryan Rihani, Aaron Trask and Bryan Yaggi received the annual award due to their academic achievement, character and leadership abilities.

Chibueze Amanchukwu is a chemical engineering major from Richmond. Amanchukwu is strongly respected by professors and peers alike, and has been cited for exemplary professional ethics and high standards.

He participates in numerous campus organizations, has held leadership roles in the student AIChE chapter, including a key role in hosting the regional conference, and is currently the chapter’s president.

Amanchukwu has worked on campus at the Texas A&M Cyclotron Institute and the past two summers was employed by Marathon Petroleum Company where he was praised for sound judgment and critical thinking skills. He will graduate in May 2012.

Oscar Carrasco-Zevallos is a biomedical engineering major from Argyle. He discovered a passion for research during his sophomore year, which inspired him to find others of like mind and create CURE, the Council of Undergraduate Research in Engineering.

His professors praise his sterling moral character and exceptional scholarly drive, predicting that in graduate school and beyond he will be an ambassador for the caliber of Texas A&M’s students.

Carrasco-Zevallos has worked for two years in A&M’s lab for optical molecular imaging, won Best Thesis in the honors Undergraduate Research Fellows program and was among 25 undergraduates selected nationwide for a prestigious research program at Cal Berkeley. He will graduate in May 2012.

Choudhury is an electrical engineering major from Nigeria. Professors say he is conscientious, responsible and mature, always pursuing excellence. As part of the prestigious Academy of Future Leaders Class of 2011, he helped establish Rehab Nova International to create vocational homes for the disabled in Sudan.

He has also served as treasurer for Child Rights and You, helping raise funds for undernourished children in Asia. An Aggie Muster host and two-year participant in Big Event, he was selected for the Honors Research Fellow program and is the second author of a paper published by the IEEE Communications Society flagship conference.

This summer Choudhury worked for National instruments and he will graduate in May 2012.

Haley Helweg is an industrial and systems engineering major from Seguin. Her professors praise her for her character, integrity, professionalism and dedication to excellence in coursework.

Helweg holds the highest student position at the Texas A&M Rec Center where she is the evening and weekend facilities manager and is described as an exemplary leader who demonstrates outstanding skills in problem solving, communications, customer relations and crisis management.

She has contributed to a dozen campus organizations during her time on campus, including the Institute for Industrial Engineers and the Student Engineers’ Council, and as chairman of Rock the Ring, she organized a fundraiser to buy an Aggie ring for a selected applicant, and as a coordinator for Fast Track to Aggieland, she helped organize a weekend trip to A&M to mentor high school students. She will graduate in May 2012.

Nate Mentzer is a mechanical engineering major from The Woodlands. He has played on A&M’s Men’s Rugby Club for four years, and founded Challenger Rugby at A&M for children with disabilities.

Mentzer regularly participates in mission trips and leads Bible studies. He is active in the student chapters of ASME and the Society of Petroleum Engineers, and has completed four internships with Rudolph & Steen in California and with GE–Energy, Anadarko Petroleum and Chevron Mid-Continent, all in Texas.

He was praised for delivering on-time results with the quality and consistency of engineers already in the workforce and is described as a successful leader and excellent communicator whose quantity of achievements is surpassed only by the quality of his character. Mentzer will graduate in May 2012.

Ryan Rihani is a biomedical engineering major from Spring. He has been active in the Student Engineers’ Council, the American Medical Student Association, intramural sports, an animal fostering organization and RCIA at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in College Station.

Pursuing his goal of being a doctor, Rihani worked 15 months at Brazos Valley Urgent Care as a volunteer nurse and doctor’s shadow. Rihani participated in a History of Medicine Study Abroad and witnessed firsthand the impact of a doctor’s compassion and since his freshman year he has participated in the elite Michael E. DeBakey Institute Undergraduate Research Program at A&M.

Rihani is described as a star participant, serving as team leader, winning honors as top researcher and soon to be published as the second author of a paper in the American Journal of Physiology. He was asked to help run the institute’s summer research program and was praised by its founder as “the complete package” who made the program a “great success.” He will graduate in May 2012.

Aaron Trask is a chemical engineering major from Arlington and is described as a natural leader inside and outside the classroom. Trask served as Fish Camp co-chair and Tours and Traditions Executive for the MSC Hospitality Committee. He is praised for his integrity, excellent communication and commitment as a team player.

Trask has worked three years at the Aggieland Visitor Center, rising to student manager where his many duties included arrangements for visits by dignitaries. He has had two co-ops with ExxonMobil where he played a key role in commercializing a new product.

He is a two-year member of the Maroon Coats student ambassadors for the Texas A&M Foundation. Trask will graduate this December.

Bryan Yaggi is a mechanical engineering major from Arlington. He is a fourth-generation Aggie who was the outstanding scholastic freshman in the Corps of Cadets and served as Corps Scholastics Sergeant and Officer his junior and senior years, when the Corps posted its highest GPR in a decade under his leadership.

Yaggi has been on Muster Committee and served as Awareness Coordinator in charge of publicity. He has also participated in intramurals and played on the Corps’ basketball team. During the summer he has been a counselor at a Christian sports camp, took part in Engineering Study Abroad in Spain, and has held two internships—with Schrickel, Rollins and Associates and Halliburton Energy Services.

He is praised for character, integrity, intellect and work ethic. He will graduate this December.

Each of the seniors received an engraved medallion and a $5,000 educational grant. Their names appear on a plaque in the Zachry Engineering Center.

The Engineering Faculty Senior Award was renamed the Craig C. Brown Outstanding Senior Engineer Award in 1996 in recognition of Brown's endowment for the award. He received the award as a Class of 1975 civil engineering senior. Currently, Brown is chief operating officer, owner and president of Bray International Inc. as well as chairman and president of the Craig and Galen Brown Foundation.

Texas A&M researcher's robot featured during National Robotics Week at Smithsonian

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:00 CST

Survivor Buddy, a rescue robot that was invented by Texas A&M University computer science and engineering professor Dr. Robin R. Murphy and her colleagues at Stanford University, will be part of National Robotics Week at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Survivor Buddy, a pet project of computer science and engineering professor Dr. Robin R. Murphy, will be featured during National Robotics Week at the Smithsonian.

National Robotics Week, an initiative of the Congressional Robotics Caucus, aims to educate the public about how robotics technology impacts society, past, present and future.

The week will kick off Tuesday (April 5) with an event at the museum that will include a demonstration of Survivor Buddy. Texas A&M students Vasant Srinivasan and Aaron Rice will be at Tuesday's event, while Murphy, who is currently in Japan assisting with the Fukushima reactor robots, is scheduled to be interviewed during the event through the video capabilities of Survivor Buddy.

National Robotics Week will conclude on April 16, and Survivor Buddy will again be part of the demonstrations that will take place in the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation's Spark!Lab at the museum.

A&M students Jessica Gonzales and Zachary Henkel will be on hand on the 16th to take part in the demonstrations.

Survivor Buddy is a search-and-rescue robot designed to aid disaster victims and specializes in robot-human interaction. It also helps keep and injured or a trapped victim calm, and enables communication directly to the rescue team as well as to family and the Internet.

Hall to lead research, graduate studies at Texas A&M University at Qatar

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 CST

Dr. Kenneth R. Hall, professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering and deputy director of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), has accepted the positions of associate vice chancellor and associate director of TEES and associate dean for research and graduate studies at Texas A&M University at Qatar.

In these roles, he will report to the vice chancellor and dean of engineering and director of TEES in College Station, and the dean and chief executive officer of Texas A&M at Qatar, respectively. Hall assumes the post April 1, relocating to Doha, Qatar, where he will serve a four-year term.

Hall is an inventor or co-inventor in 12 patents including four that support the gas to liquids process that is licensed to Synfuels, Inc. His research includes Thermophysical Fluid Properties, Obstruction Flowmeters and Gas to Liquid Processing.

In addition to his administrative duties, Hall is an active researcher and a professor in the chemical engineering department where he holds the Jack E. and Frances Brown Chair. He also served as the head of the department for four years.

Anand to be inducted to Kansas State Hall of Fame

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:00:00 CST

Dr. N.K. Anand, executive associate dean of the Dwight Look College of Engineering and associate agency director for the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), will be inducted into the Kansas State University College of Engineering Hall of Fame April 30.

Anand, who is the James and Ada Forsyth Professor of Mechanical Engineering, joined the Texas A&M faculty in 1985. While in the mechanical engineering department he has held the position of associate dean for research (2008-2009), associate dean for graduate programs (2004-2007) and associate department head (2003-2006). Additionally, he served as interim head of the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering (2006-2007).

He has received several awards in recognition of his work as an educator, including the TEES Fellowship, Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, the Texas A&M University Association of Former Students Faculty Distinguished Achievement in Teaching Award and the Charles W. Crawford Service Award.

Anand's research interests include numerical heat transfer and fluid flow, numerical techniques, aerosols and condensation heat transfer. He has authored or co-authored more than 70 journal publications, and has supervised more than 30 funded research programs. Anand also currently chairs the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Committee on Computational Heat Transfer. He is currently on the editorial board of Numerical Heat Transfer and from 2003-2006 was an associate technical editor ofASME Journal of Heat Transfer.

He is a member of several professional organizations, including the Indian Society for Heat and Mass Transfer, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, a Fellow and member of the ASME, and an evaluator for the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET).

Anand received his bachelor's from Bangalore University (India), his master's from Kansas State University and his Ph.D. from Purdue University, all in mechanical engineering.

Murphy named one of the 2011 Most Influential Women in Technology by Fast Company

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 CST

Dr. Robin R. Murphy, Raytheon Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University and director of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR), was named one of the 2011 Most Influential Women in Technology by Fast Company.

CRASAR is a center within the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), which is a member of The Texas A&M University System.

Murphy was one of five women named in "The Brainiacs" category of the list. Other categories included "The Entrepreneurs," "The Gamers," "The Advocates," "The Media," and "The Executives." Fast Company began the list of Most Influential Women in Tech in 2009, and this year's list highlights 30 women in the six different categories.

Murphy joined the faculty at Texas A&M in 2008 and is best known for her work with search and rescue robots which have been used in the rubble of the World Trade Center following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 as well as in mud slides, caved-in-mines and collapsed buildings around the world.

She has been honored with the 2010 Motohiro Kiosoi Award from the International Rescue System Institute for her outstanding academic contributions in establishing a new research field in rescue engineering.

Additionally, in 2009 she was named an Alpha Geek by Wired magazine, and in 2008 she was awarded the Al Aube Outstanding Contributor award by the AUVSI Foundation, the first time the award has been given to an academic. She was also profiled in the June 14, 2004 issue of Time magazine as an innovator in artificial intelligence.

Murphy received a B.M.E. in mechanical engineering, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Georgia Tech, where she was a Rockwell International Doctoral Fellow. Her basic research focuses on artificial intelligence and human-robot interaction for unmanned systems. These efforts are/have been funded by DoE (RIM), DARPA, ONR, NASA, NSF and industry, and have led to more than 100 publications in the field including the textbook AI Robotics (MIT Press).

Fast Company is the world's leading progressive business media brand, with a unique editorial focus on innovation in technology, ethonomics (ethical economics), leadership and design.

Experts to discuss global challenges of energy security and sustainability

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:00:00 CST

Dr. Arun Majumdar, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E), and Dr. John Kessler, associate professor and chemical oceanographer at Texas A&M University, will be the keynote speakers at "Energy Forum 2011: Energy Security and Sustainability - Global Challenges."

The forum, which is being hosted by the Energy Engineering Institute (EEI), is slated for T uesday and Wednesday (Feb. 1-2) at the Hilton Hotel and Conference Center in College Station.

The two-day event will consist of expert panel discussions, keynote presentations, tours and exhibits. Additionally, participants will have opportunities to network with industry, government and other energy stakeholders, meet top energy engineering researchers and learn more about EEI and how to collaborate with the institute on addressing today's energy challenges.

An expert panel, "Energy Security and Sustainability: A Policy Perspective," will be moderated by Ross Ramsey, managing editor of The Texas Tribuneand editor of Texas Weekly. The panel will consist of The Honorable Barry Smitherman, chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas; The Honorable Dr. Bryan Shaw, chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality; and The Honorable Elizabeth Ames Jones, commissioner of the Railroad Commission of Texas.

Ray Rothrock (partner, Venrock), Janeen Judah (president, Chevron Environmental Management Company) and George Crabtree (senior scientist and distinguished fellow, Argonne National Laboratory) will lead expert panel discussions. Todd Onderdonk (senior energy advisor, ExxonMobil Corporation) will deliver a distinguished lecture.

For more information on the forum, or to register, visit http://energyengineering.org.

About EEI: EEI is part of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), which is a member of The Texas A&M University System. EEI was established to engage in basic, applied and applications research and technology development, demonstration and deployment across the entire spectrum of energy-specific resource domains that will be required to guarantee that our nation's energy future is secure.

About TEES - TEES is the engineering research agency of the State of Texas and a member of The Texas A&M University System. TEES researchers conduct quality research and provide practical answers to critical state and national needs. The agency partners with industry, communities and academic institutions to solve problems to help improve the quality of life, promote economic development and enhance the educational systems of Texas. TEES also promotes new technology education and investigates problems in health and the environment.

About the A&M System: The A&M System is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation, with a budget of $3.2 billion. Through a statewide network of 11 universities, seven state agencies and a comprehensive health science center, the A&M System educates nearly 115,000 students and makes more than 22 million.

Electrical and computer engineering student creates word-based game for iPhone

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:00 CST

A recently released iPhone and iPad application may seem like a challenging word game for most.

But to one undergraduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, it's the culmination of a dream.

Sophomore Kate Stuckman created Professor Wordington's Spellatorium, a word-based game that allows the user and an opponent to take turns adding letters to a word fragment. The point of the game is to not be the player who ends up spelling a word, or to be the first to point out that a word cannot be spelled from the growing letter cluster.

"I worked mainly on the game concept and the artificial intelligence that dictates the actions of the computer opponent," said Stuckman, who based the game on a word game she played with her father.

Stuckman created the game Professor Wordington's Spellatorium for the iPhone and iPad.

Stuckman, who is majoring in electrical engineering and minoring in computer science and mathematics, took three years of computer science in high school. She began working on the game independently during the summer of 2009 shortly after graduation from high school and presented her work to InMotion Software in 2010, who agreed to publish the game.

Stuckman then interned with InMotion Software during the summer of 2010 where she worked with the other programmers to explain how the game works and helped convert her game from Java to C++ and Objective C, as well as implement additional ideas and improvements to the artificial intelligence. During the fall she continued to give feedback to InMotion until the game was finished in December and was recently released to the public.

"It is really exciting to see that after all this work, we have finally reached a finished product that we are proud of," she said.