Dr. Barry Lawrence

The NAW is a federation of more than 100 wholesale distribution associations and thousands of individual firms that collectively total more than 40,000 companies. The NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence aims to help merchant wholesaler-distributors remain the most effective and efficient channel in distribution.

The NAW Institute established the Fellows program in 1999 to acknowledge individuals who have made and will continue to make significant intellectual contributions to the field of wholesale distribution. During their terms, NAW Institute Fellows work with the NAW Institute to develop and bring new research studies to the wholesale distribution industry.

Lawrence is the lead author of the NAW Institute 2009 book Optimizing Distributor Profitability: Best Practices to a Stronger Bottom Line. He also represents Texas A&M in its partnership with the NAW Institute in the establishment of the Council for Research on Distributor Competitiveness (CRDC). The mission of the CRDC is to create competitive advantage for wholesaler-distributors through development of new industry research and educational programs and to deliver that research and knowledge to industry executives and their management teams.

CRDC is sponsoring the 2009 Sales and Marketing Optimization consortium. At the NAW Executive Summit, Jan. 26–28, 2010, in Washington, D.C., Lawrence will share the Best Practices that made the greatest positive contributions to the sales and marketing efforts of the wholesale distribution firms that participated in the consortium.

About NAW
Established by the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) in 1967, the NAW Institute has produced a distinguished body of work, consistent with its mission of sponsoring studies of strategic management issues affecting the wholesale distribution industry.

Contact: Ruth Stadius
Director of Communications
rstadius@naw.org
202.872.0885

Dr. Melissa A. Grunlan

Dr. Melissa A. Grunlan, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University, will give a talk Wednesday (Nov. 25) at 3:30 p.m. in Room 203 of the Zachry Engineering Center on campus.

Grunlan’s talk, “Inorganic‐Organic Hybrid Polymeric Biomaterials,” is part of the biomedical engineering department’s seminar series.

Abstract
Development of the next‐generation of medical devices and therapies hinges on new biomaterials with superior properties. The rationale design of polymeric biomaterials involves establishing predictive relationships between polymer structure, material properties and performance in a particular application. Our research focuses on designing inorganic silicon‐containing polymers and their combination with organic polymers to obtain inorganic‐organic “hybrid” biomaterials. These hybrid materials achieve distinct properties that can be readily tailored based on the requirements of the application.

Our research has identified several applications in which hybrid biomaterials can enhance performance: clot‐resistant coatings, membranes for biosensors, tissue engineering scaffolds, and shape memory polymers. For blood‐contacting devices, surface‐induced thrombosis necessitates anti‐coagulant or anti‐platelet therapies. To minimize blood protein adhesion — the first event in surface‐induced thrombosis — we have prepared coatings with enhanced surface molecular mobility and with amphiphilicity by introduction of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with flexible “siloxane tethers.” For implanted biosensors, biofouling of the membrane is considered to be a primary cause of failure. To extend biosensor lifetime, we have developed “self‐cleaning” thermoresponsive nanocomposite membranes comprised of polysiloxane nanoparticles embedded in a poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) matrix. Thermal modulation effectively removes adhered cells. In tissue engineering, a major hurdle to regenerating tissues that have the same properties (e.g. strength) of native tissues is the lack of understanding of how specific scaffold chemical and physical properties affect cell behavior and the regenerated tissue properties. To understand this, we have designed hydrogel scaffolds based on PEG and star‐polydimethylsiloxane (PDMSstar) with tunable chemical and physical properties including modulus, morphology, and hydration. Finally, shape memory polymers (SMPs) are of interest for a variety of interventional devices. We have prepared a new type of shape memory polymer comprised of polycaprolactone (PCL) and PDMS segments which give rise to unusually high deformability, rigidity, and shape memory properties that may be useful in these applications.

Submitted by Nicole Priolo, npriolo@bme.tamu.edu

Blade erosion in military helicopters continues to be an area of concern, particularly in severe environments of sand and rain. The current approach to assuring safe performance relies upon frequent inspection, repair and replacement of protection films without robust and reliable procedures. The consequence is high cost. New erosion-resistant coatings are being developed but there are no physics-based models available to guide their development.

A research program is under way at Texas A&M to systematically address the erosion problem. This program, now in its third year, is focused on polyurethane films that are mounted on the leading edge of blades to provide protection from erosion caused by sand particles.

Principle investigators for the program are TCAT’s Dr. John Ayala and Dr. Ramesh Talreja, Dr. Amine Benzerga, Dr. Zoubeida Ounaies and Dr. Tamas Kalmar-Nagy with Texas A&M’s aerospace engineering department.

For more information, contact Dr. John Ayala at john-ayala@tamu.edu or (210) 633-2427, x224.

TEES (Texas Engineering Experiment Station) is the engineering research agency of the State of Texas and a member of The Texas A&M University System.

Bienstock’s seminar, “Continuing Work on Power Grid Models,” is part of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering’s seminar series sponsored by Parsons Corp.

Abstract
We describe ongoing work on electrical power transmission systems. We focus on three problems:
(a) So-called security problems, or more properly termed, vulnerability assessment. Such problems concern the study of a power grid so as to determine if a realistic contingency may cause instabilities to arise, thereby potentially yielding an eventual ‘blackout’ situation.
(b) Study of nonlinear power flow systems. Power flows obey highly nonlinear laws; a direct study of such problems gives rise to extremely difficult systems of equations, and even worse optimization problems. For this reason researchers and practitioners alike routinely linearize the laws, thereby obtaining more tractable models but at the cost of significant inaccuracies. We describe ongoing work involving nonlinear, ‘lossless’ power flow systems.
(c) Adaptive control of grids during a cascade. Contrary to what might seem apparent, a blackout in a large-scale grid is not an instantaneous event, but rather it is the final development in a multihour cascade. During this process, and especially at the start, there is ample opportunity (and good-quality data) to compute an appropriate robust control that can be deployed during later stages of the cascade, in order to minimize the impact (size of the blackout) of the full cascade. Here we build on models developed by Dobson et al. In the talk we will outline our work, and results, in these areas. A paper is available and more will be forthcoming.

Biography
Professor Daniel Bienstock first joined Columbia University’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research in 1989. Professor Bienstock teaches courses on integer programming and optimization. Before joining Columbia University, Bienstock was involved in combinatorics and optimization research at Bellcore. He has also participated in collaborative research with Bell Laboratories (Lucent), AT&T Laboratories, Tellium and Lincoln Laboratory on various network design problems.

Bienstock’s teaching and research interests include combinatorial optimization and integer programming, parallel computing and applications to networking. Bienstock has published in journals such as Math Programming, SIAM and Math of OR.

Submitted by Katherine Edwards, kedwards@tamu.edu

Texas A&M's Brandon Pope and Panitan Kewcharoenwong join student leaders from the University of Massachusetts to represent their Summa Cum Laude chapters.

Texas A&M’s INFORMS student members once again stood out at the INFORMS Annual Meeting held in San Diego in October. Panitan (Ken) Kewcharoenwong, past president of the local student chapter and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, received the Judith Liebman Award for being a “guiding light” and performing outstanding service to his chapter.

Panitan Kewcharoenwong receives Liebman Award from John Fowler, INFORMS vice president for chapters.

The chapter as a whole was honored with the Summa Cum Laude Award, which is the highest distinction given to student chapters. Only one other chapter in the nation was granted the award this year.

Submitted by Katherine Edwards, kedwards@tamu.edu

Established by Dr. Steven Liu in 1989, the Real Time Distributed Systems Lab in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering focuses on developing and deploying an advanced computing framework that enables next-generation network defense and protection solutions, such as an early alert system for large-scale network threats.

“We conduct high-risk, high-return research at the Real Time Distributed Systems Lab that will result in greatly improved security for large-scale networks,” Liu said. “We considered several network appliance vendors and opted for the solution that provided one of the most appropriate and flexible computing and networking architectures for us to implement our advanced algorithms for enterprise network security management.”

Prior to deploying a Bivio Networks DPI-enabled platform, Liu and his team struggled with the limitations of their legacy system, which impeded the use of ever more sophisticated algorithms used to identify and track unknown and new patterns in network traffic. The Bivio platform allows the lab to overcome this impediment and provides an architecture with multidimensional networking and computational scaling capabilities to analyze extremely large amounts of diverse network traffic at line rates.

Bivio Networks is the leader in networking systems for deep packet inspection (DPI)-enabled applications and services essential for network security, visibility, control and monetization.

“Bivio Networks is pleased to partner with Texas A&M and the Real Time Distributed Systems Lab as its research team identifies innovative, holistic approaches to today’s most pressing challenges in systems design and modeling as well as bio-medical measurement and characterization,” said Dr. Elan Amir, president and CEO of Bivio Networks. “The selection of the Bivio 7500 demonstrates that our DPI-enabled networking platforms are well-suited to operate in the most demanding research environments.”

Contact:
Tim Waters
Bivio Networks
925/924-8640
twaters@bivio.net

Dr. Erchin Serpedin

The book focuses on synchronization of wireless sensor networks, which play a key role in a wide range of civilian and military applications. The book summarizes the most recent advances in the field of synchronization of wireless sensor networks with special emphasis on deriving efficient clock offset estimation schemes and performance benchmarks.

Serpedin joined the Texas A&M electrical and computer engineering department in 1999. He received his Diploma of Electrical Engineer from the Poly­technic Institute of Bucharest, his Specialization Degree in Transmis­sion and Processing of Information from L’Ecole Superieure d’Electricite (SU­PELEC) in Paris, his M.S. degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, ECE School in Atlanta, and his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

His research interests are in the ar­eas of signal processing for wireless communications, equalization/syn­chronization of communication channels, statistical signal process­ing, spectral analysis, and antenna array signal processing.

Honors include receiving the Best Paper award at The International Conference on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies: (CCCT ‘04) and a TEES Fac­ulty Fellow Award, as well as being award­ed the prestigious Faculty Early Ca­reer Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). He also is the as­sociate editor for several journals and has authored numerous jour­nals and other publications.

Written by Deana Totzke, deana@ece.tamu.edu

Enjeti, who is also associate dean at Texas A&M at Qatar, along with mechanical engineering professors Richard Griffin and Annie Ruimi, will collaborate with researchers from Texas A&M, Georgia Tech and the University of Houston for the development of the International Institute for Multifunctional Materials for Energy Conversion (IIMEC). The mission of the IIMEC is to create an active network of materials researchers between the U.S. and countries of the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean.

Using state-of-the-art laboratories, computational facilities and cyber infrastructure, the IIMEC will research multifunctional materials that exhibit strong coupling among different fields. The three overarching themes of the IIMEC are thermal/magnetic and mechanical coupling (smart materials and shape memory alloys); electrical and mechanical coupling (electroactive polymers, ceramics, hybrids); and optical/thermal and electrical coupling (photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, fuel cells).

Enjeti, who holds the TI Professorship in Engineering, joined the Texas A&M electrical engineering faculty in 1988. He is the lead developer of the Fuel Cell Power Systems Laboratory and Power Electronics and Power Quality Laboratory at Texas A&M, and does consulting work in the area of power electronics, power quality and clean power utility interface issues. Enjeti’s research focuses on power electronics and power quality; advancing switching power supply designs and solutions to complex power management issues in the context of analog mixed-signal applications; exploring alternative designs to meet the demands of high slew rate load currents at low output voltages; power conditioning systems for fuel cells, wind and solar energy systems; and design of high temperature power conversion systems with wide bandgap semiconductor devices.

Enjeti holds four United States patents, has licensed two new technologies in the industry, and has written six book chapters and more than 100 journal and conference papers. Enjeti was elected as an IEEE Fellow in 2000 and received a Ford Motor Co. Fellow award in 2001.

Enjeti also received a TEES (Texas Engineering Experiment Station) Select Young Fellow Award in 1992 for research contributions and a Texas A&M University Faculty Fellow Award in 2001. He received a university-level Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching from the Association of Former Students of Texas A&M University in 2004.

A registered professional engineer in Texas, Enjeti received his bachelor’s degree from Osmania University (India), his master’s from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Kanpur) and his doctorate from Concordia University (Canada), all in electrical engineering.

Written by Deana Totzke, deana@ece.tamu.edu

Frasier’s talk, “Magnetic Microsystems for Biological Separations,” is part of the university’s Nano/Micro Seminar Series sponsored by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Abstract
Over recent years, there has been a rapidly increasing interest in the development of microsystems for biological and biochemical analysis. Applications range from the general DNA and protein analysis to basic studies of cellular mechanisms such as neurodegeneration and tumor heterogeneity. The focus of this seminar will be on recent developments in microsystems technologies for cellular analyses from complex media. In particular, this presentation will include the development and demonstration of continuous flow microsystems for separation of biological materials based on magnetic forces generated on the micro and nano scale. Two force mechanisms, paramagnetic and diamagnetic forces, will be utilized as a means of collecting rare cells from complex samples such as blood and dissociated tissue. Additionally, multifunctional microsystems will be discussed that couple the magnetic separation systems with other integrated bioanalytical tools for downstream whole cell analysis. Applications of the technology range from conventional blood analysis such as blood cell counts, to the collection / identification of rare cells such as circulating tumor cells, to the quantification of cellular heterogeneity in tumor tissue.

Biography
A. Bruno Frazier received the B.S. and the M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Auburn University in 1986 and 1987, respectively. From 1987 to 1990, he worked for Intergraph Corp. as a custom circuit designer and advanced packaging engineer. From 1990 through graduation in December 1993, Frazier was in the Ph.D. program at the Georgia Institute of Technology with an emphasis in microelectronics and specifically in micromachining technologies. From March 1994 to July 1995, he worked as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan. From August 1995 to August 1999, he held a joint tenure-track faculty position as an assistant professor of bioengineering and electrical engineering at the University of Utah. From August 1999 to present, Frazier has been a faculty member in the School of Electrical
and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and is currently a professor and chairman of the ECE bioengineering technical interest group. His current research interests are the development of enabling microsystems for biomedical applications as well as the development of novel microfabrication methodologies. Many of the current research projects involve the development of microsystems for whole cell and molecular analysis from complex samples such as blood, tumor tissue and neuronal tissue. He has authored seven United States patents and more than 140 peer reviewed manuscripts.

Contact Dr. Arum Han, arum.han@ece.tamu.edu

Dr. Raffaella Righetti

Dr. Raffaella Righetti, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, and her student Biren Parmar received a second-place poster award at the National Meeting for Human Performance 2009 in Houston.

Participants at the meeting come from many different universities, including Texas A&M, Rice University, the University of Houston and University of Miami, and the top four posters are awarded each year.

Righetti’s team poster, “New Ultrasound Imaging Techniques To Visualize Bone Fractures,” detailed their study aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of using novel ultrasound techniques as alternative imaging modalities to standard X-ray imaging methods for bone imaging applications.

Righetti joined the electrical engineering department at Texas A&M in 2007 as an assistant professor. She received her Doctor of Engineering from the Universitá degli Studi di Firenze (Italy) and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Houston.

Righetti’s formal training is in ultrasound imaging with special emphasis in cancer imaging applications. She has published articles in leading journals in the area of ultrasound and elasticity imaging, and serves as a reviewer of several major journals in the field of biomedical imaging.

Written by Deana Totzke, deana@ece.tamu.edu