Texas A&M Engineering News

Kumar, Martell, Schneider receive Regents Awards for contributions to Texas A&M System

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

Three from Texas A&M Engineering were recognized for their outstanding contributions to The Texas A&M University System and their respective fields of expertise by the Board of Regents. Dr. P.R. Kumar was named a Regents Professor, and Marilyn Martell and Dr. Dean Schneider were recipients of the Regents Fellow Service Award.

Kumar is the College of Engineering Chair in Computer Engineering and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M. He has been awarded numerous academic titles and awards. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from ETH, Zurich, and has received the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIGMOBILE, the Infocom Achievement Award, the SIGMOBILE Test-of-Time Paper Award, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Field Award for Control Systems, the Donald P. Eckman Award of the American Automatic Control Council and the Fred W. Ellersick Prize of the IEEE Communications Society. Kumar is a member of the U.S. and Indian National Academies of Engineering and a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences. He also is an ACM Fellow and a Fellow of IEEE.

"Dr. Kumar is a true scholar, a leader in many research fields, a passionate teacher and mentor," said Dr. Miroslav Begovic, head of the electrical and computer engineering department, in his nomination letter. "He embodies academic excellence, with achievements that have an impact on Texas A&M University, the state of Texas, our nation and internationally."

Martell has served as the senior assistant vice chancellor for marketing and communications for Texas A&M Engineering more than 16 years. She is directly responsible for marketing, communications and public relations for the College of Engineering and TEES, as well as providing strategic brand development and guidance to maximize the strengths of the Texas A&M System Engineering Program. During her tenure, Martell has elevated and maximized the Texas A&M Engineering and Texas A&M System brands. Some of her greatest accomplishments include the crisis communications she led during the deployment of Texas Task Force 1 to the World Trade Center and coordinating the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition Design Weekend held at Texas A&M in 2016, which had such an impact on the community that Martell received the Hometown Hero Award from the Convention Sales Department at the Bryan/College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"Ms. Martell is a person of integrity who embraces our core values and encourages others to do the same," said Dr. Diane Hurtado, associate vice president for federal relations, in the nomination letter. "She has demonstrated a long history of professional service to the A&M System, which I have had the privilege of witnessing. As I chart her future trajectory based on her historical performance, I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that we can only expect extraordinary and spectacular things from her in the future."

Schneider is the co-director of the Gulf Coast Regional Manufacturing Center of the Texas A&M Energy Institute, and a Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Center Fellow. He is a retired U.S. Air Force research and development engineer with over 30 years of experience in technology program management and development. After joining TEES, Schneider helped provide organization and vision to TEES researchers in responding to federal manufacturing initiatives, leading to significant involvement in five national Manufacturing USA institutes, including regional leadership in three of them. He has received many awards during his career, including an Air Force Commendation Medal, an Air Force Logistic Command Outstanding Company Grade Military Engineer of the Year Award and numerous Air Force Meritorious Service Medals.

"Dr. Schneider is a model of servant leadership and consistently demonstrates his commitment to serving others," said Dr. Dimitris Lagoudas, TEES deputy director and associate vice chancellor for engineering research, in his nomination letter. "His sustained contributions to the mission of TEES makes him an exemplary asset to our agency providing extension in research to the citizens, both private and corporate, of the state of Texas."

The Board of Regents established the Regents Professor Awards program in 1996 and the Regents Fellow Service Awards program in 1998 to recognize employees who have made exemplary contributions to their university or agency and to the people of Texas.

The Regents Professor Award honors individuals at the rank of professor or equivalent whose distinguished performance in teaching, research and service have been exemplary. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the A&M System on faculty members.

The Regents Fellow Service Award honors and recognizes extension, research and service professionals within the agricultural and engineering agencies, health science center and veterinary medical diagnostic laboratory. These professionals must have demonstrated a significant commitment and contributions to their respective agency by providing exceptional leadership in educational or program delivery/scholarship, research or service that have resulted in significant impact and lasting benefits to the state of Texas and beyond.

"These professors and professionals make The Texas A&M University System extraordinary," said Board of Regents Chairman Charles Schwartz in a statement. "Because of them, the universities and agencies within The Texas A&M University System will continue to thrive."

Singh elected as National Academy of Engineering member

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) elected Dr. Chanan Singh, Regents Professor and Irma Runyon Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, honoring his contributions to the advancement of theory, practice and education in electric power system reliability.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.

“As an administrator and former department head, Dr. Singh has demonstrated great leadership in securing resources for major expansion of the faculty in our department,” Dr. Miroslav Begovic, department head and Carolyn S. & Tommie E. Lohman ‘59 Professor said yesterday. “I can hardly imagine a more deserving recipient of the high recognition that was bestowed upon him, the prestigious membership in the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.”

Singh is former department head and an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow, internationally recognized as an expert on the reliability and security of power systems. He joined the Texas A&M faculty in 1978.

Other honors Singh has received include the Merit Award by the Probabilistic Methods Applied to Power Systems (PMAPS) International Society, the IEEE Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award and the Texas A&M University Association of Former Students' University-level Distinguished Achievement Award for Research. He has previously held the J.W. Runyon, Jr. Professorship II, the Halliburton Professorship and the Dresser Professorship, and the University of Saskatchewan awarded him a D.Sc. in 1998 for his research contributions. In 2010, he was the inaugural recipient of the IEEE-PES Roy Billinton Power System Reliability Award.

Singh will be formally inducted during a ceremony at the NAE's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 30, 2018.

Beyond the classroom: Annual hackathon fosters creativity

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

In today’s world of interconnected devices and technology, “hackers” usually have a bad reputation for doing serious damage through their computers. However, students at Texas A&M University are proving that skills in hacking can be used for good, hosting a collaborative annual hackathon through the on-campus organization, TAMUhack.

The hackathon, a two-day event held Jan. 27-28, is a way for students and companies from around the nation to network in a central location, while also completing unique challenges aimed at solving real-world trials faced in the industry today.

The students had the opportunity to work with several companies, including American Airlines, who presented a challenge for the students to build something to enhance the customer experience or help airline employees. This was focused on the travel industry and was judged by its technical difficulty and problem addressed. The winning teams for this challenge won international and domestic flight tickets.

Students also worked with global professional services company Accenture, who presented a challenge for the students to find the best hack for secure data. This challenge focused on cybersecurity and was judged by its technical difficulty and the problem addressed.

Several other prizes were presented at the end of the hackathon, including best first-time hackers, best hardware hack, and first, second and third place overall.

The event, which had humble beginnings in 2014, now hosts hundreds of students and industry representatives annually. The hackathon is sponsored by several companies, including Google, Facebook and Capital One, in conjunction with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M. In addition to being a sponsor, several faculty members from the department were involved in the event.

Himank Yadav, TAMUhack director and computer science senior said, “I think the transition between college and industry is sort of steep for people who do not typically have a lot of industry experience. One of the goals is to help bridge that gap by encouraging students to build projects while still in school so that when you step outside, either for an internship or full time, you are on a more level plain.”

In addition to hosting the annual event, the TAMUhack leadership also plans other events to get students involved outside of the classroom.

Yadav believes that TAMUhack is more than just one event, however. At its core, TAMUhack is about building a community around people who love what they do.

Students work around the clock to design a more inclusive campus during the 2018 Diversity Hackathon

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

With only 24 hours on the clock, students came together to design and develop ideas to help make the Texas A&M University campus more inclusive.

The 2018 Diversity Hackathon brought students from many disciplines at Texas A&M to the Langford Architecture Center on Feb. 2-3, where they worked overnight to help turn spaces on campus into more welcoming environments for all people.

Cecilia Giusti, associate dean for outreach and diversity in the College of Architecture and head of the Diversity Council, launched the Diversity Hackathon four years ago. The inaugural hackathon featured a partnership with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the College of Engineering continues to play an important role in the event with a majority of the participants being engineering students.

“For 24 hours they talk about what it means to be diverse, what is an inclusive approach, and how to talk better about inclusion and diversity,” Giusti said. “[And] they actually create or produce something. Even if they don’t win anything, the whole exercise is fantastic—it’s magic.”

One team of general engineering freshmen worked to develop a tool to help the visually impaired better navigate campus. Team members prototyped a device that could slip onto the back of a pair of glasses and connect to a phone, which could then use the campus Wi-Fi to pinpoint the wearer’s location. The device would then communicate information through vibrations against the bone in the back of the ear.

“It would notify you of different obstacles around campus and different buildings or streets so that a person who was visually impaired would be aware of their surroundings and know which way to go without needing to look at a map,” said Jaxon Tucker.

There were six challenges teams could choose from provided by different programs across campus. The College of Engineering asked students to focus on the Zachry Engineering Education Complex and how to make it more accessible for students with hearing, visual or physical impairments.

“It’s going to be a world-class, state-of-the-art building, and I was hoping that students might come up with some concepts to ensure that all of our students are welcome and can participate at the same level,” said Debra Dandridge, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station and engineering accessibility coordinator.

To help with the creation process, students had access to several resources, including 3-D printers and other tools provided by the College of Architecture. One team took up the challenge to create an open space for communication by developing an interactive screen to help people share concerns and ideas in a more accessible way.

“We’re going to have an interface for people to share their ideas through texts,” said junior computer science engineering student Muin Momin. “We have a phone number set up and people can text complaints or something they like about the space that they’re in, and that will display as a word cloud on the screen so everyone can see what’s going on and the owners of that space can get ideas on how to improve it.”

Being a part of the hackathon may also help students after graduation. Dr. J. Michael Moore, an instructional assistant professor in the computer science and engineering department, said industry is showing more interest in accessibility and expects graduates to be prepared to create these universally designed, accessible products.

“This hackathon is a fantastic opportunity for our students in engineering to not only try and do inventive ideas in a short period of time but also to be creative and innovative, and be ready and thinking that way, before they go out in industry,” Moore said.

Petroleum engineering hosts annual student paper contest

Tue, 06 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

The Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering hosted its annual student paper contest this year at the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, Texas. The objective of the contest is to assist students in developing proficiency in presenting technical papers or research projects, both orally and visually, before a panel of experts.

Over 400 students ranging from juniors to doctoral level in petroleum engineering competed this year. The students gave 10 to 15 minute technical presentations throughout the day on Jan. 27 before judges from industry. The run-off competition on Feb. 3 brought the contest to completion by naming the top three winners in each of the four divisions—junior, senior, master’s and doctoral.

Junior winners (left to right in photo): Joshua Becan in first place, Magy Avedissian in second place and Megan Croy in third place.

Senior winners (left to right in photo): Miranda Jones in first place, Claire Fiorenzi in second place and Madison Jackson in third place.

Master’s winners (left to right in photo): Tian Liu in first place, Romain Lemoine in second place and Austin Lim in third place.

Doctoral winners (left to right in photo): Sheng Luo in first place, Rongqiang Chen in second place and Mehrdad Alfi in third place.

This time-honored event, over four decades old, has grown significantly in both the number of students participating, as well as industry support and sponsorship. Former students and personnel from companies that hire Aggie petroleum engineers volunteer their time and funding, saying they consider this contest to be one of the most important professional development opportunities the department provides its students.

First and second-place winners from the senior, master’s and doctoral divisions will advance to the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Gulf Coast North America Regional competition in Houston on March 31.

There are 14 regional student paper contests held globally and coordinated by SPE. At the contests, undergraduate, master’s and doctoral-level students compete against other students from their region for the opportunity to move on to the 2018 International Student Paper Contest, which is scheduled to take place during the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition this fall.

Texas A&M petroleum engineering students have an outstanding record of winning in both the regional and international contests. Since 1993, Texas A&M students have placed first at the regional contest 14 times in the undergraduate level, 14 times in the master’s level and 15 times in the doctoral level. Since 1999, Texas A&M students have placed first at the international contest three times in the undergraduate level, three times in the master’s level and three times in the doctoral level.

Research to improve efficiency in oil wells leads professor, student to best paper award

Tue, 06 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

Texas A&M University researchers are studying seal leaks in subsea and aging oil well production facilities with the potential to greatly increase the efficiency of multiple-phase pumping and compressors turbomachinery.

Dr. Luis San Andrés, Mast-Childs Chair Professor in the Turbomachinery Laboratory, along with graduate assistant researcher Xueliang Lu, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering, conducted a series of measurements on the leakage and dynamic forced performance of wet seals, such as pump liquid seals, mixed with increasing contents of gas. The test results show the gas, or liquid, content affects the system pumping efficiency and reliability, with a dramatic impact on efficiency recorded with only a few droplets of liquid. The experimental results validate mixture model predictions produced by San Andrés in the early 2010s.

By better understanding the role seals have in the machinery, researchers can help industry officials continue to enhance pumping efficiency, increase reliability by reducing vibrations and ensure availability for extended operation times. The researchers said an electric submersible pump (ESP) manufacturer gave them positive comments on their work, and said their data may help them design novel seal types toward improving the life of seals in their ESPs. The current design can only survive 350 hours of operation, about 1/100 of the desired reliability.

The team wrote a paper recording their results, which was recently recognized with the best paper award at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Turbo-Expo 2017, selected from 133 papers accepted in the Structure & Dynamics Division. Their paper’s title is “Leakage, Drag Power and Rotordynamic Force Coefficients of an Air in Oil (Wet) Annular Seal.”

The Turbomachinery Research Consortium (TRC) has sponsored the research for the past three years.

“TRC members, original equipment manufacturers and end users envision more and more applications of multiple phase pumps for the subsea oil and gas industry,” San Andrés and Lu said. “Wet seals must retain their leakage restriction ability without impairing the dynamic performance of the machinery.”

Follow up lectures are scheduled for presentation at the Asia Turbomachinery Symposium and the Turbomachinery Symposium later this year. More research developments will be published at the Gas Turbine Conference, with another journal paper already accepted.

“The research opens a door for the future research career of Lu as it verifies the likelihood of using air/gas injection to actively control leakage and force coefficient in pump seals and hydraulic turbomachinery in general,” San Andrés said.

Former students offer career-impacting advice at Boss Talk

Fri, 02 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

Some of the most difficult challenges facing professional engineers aren’t technical; they’re personal, according to Jay Graham ’92, CEO of WildHorse Resource Development Corporation. Graham, along with four other former students — all successful CEOs and presidents — spoke to a crowded Rudder auditorium audience about the importance of hard work and integrity.

Boss Talk, hosted by the Engineering Entrepreneurship Program, drew more than 1,000 students Thursday evening. Dr. Mark Weichold, associate dean of academic affairs for the Texas A&M University College of Engineering, moderated the event. Joining him on stage was Graham, Tammira Philippe ’95, president of Bridgeway Capital; Stephanie Murphy ’01, president of Alpha Space and executive chairman of the board for MEI Technologies; Kenn Hall ’90, president and CEO of Anadarko Industries; and Derek Southard ’94, vice president of CryoLife, Inc.

As questions poured in on Twitter, there were emerging themes and concerns, namely, “What more can I do to be prepared for a career outside of engineering courses?”

“We really enjoy bringing opportunities like Boss Talk to our engineering students,” said Rodney Boehm, director of the Engineering Entrepreneurship Program. “Creating interaction between former and current students inspires our students to accelerate their pathways to future successful careers,” he said.

As more questions came in about academic success and how that impacts ultimate success in the workplace, the bosses touched on similar advice each time. The experiences you gain outside of the classroom can ultimately shape your success in industry. Leadership, relationships and extracurricular experiences all enhance the education you get. There could be no success without a well-rounded experience.

Some of the advice extended into the first years of a career, emphasizing relationships and continued learning, particularly in the world of entrepreneurship.

“I came to Boss Talk because I wanted to learn from execs who were in industry,” said Asa Graham, a computer science major. “I looked them up beforehand and knew that they took some of the paths that I’m considering for myself: entrepreneurship and going to business graduate school.”

Asa Graham said his favorite piece of advice was to find someone who can serve as a mentor.

“Let them be a mentor and do everything you can to form a relationship with that person and gain as much knowledge as you can,” he said. “Being an entrepreneur, you need to have that experience on your side so you don’t make mistakes that lead to failure later on.”

Texas A&M Engineering unveils new mobile trailer to get students excited about STEM

Thu, 01 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

During the recent science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) 4 Innovation Conference, Spark!, Texas A&M Engineering's education outreach program, launched their new mobile trailer designed to help Texas children get excited about STEM fields.

Nearly 200 educators from across Texas attended the conference and had the opportunity to see the 24-foot trailer, in which students and teachers will be able to do anything from 3-D printing and welding, to learning about robotics and cybersecurity.

"We want to get students excited about engineering, and we have to start with young ones," said Shelly Tornquist, director of Spark! and PK-12 engineering education outreach. "We want them to know what a screwdriver is and how to solve problems by making things."

The STEM 4 Innovation Conference for K-12 Education is an interactive experiential event for K-12 STEM educators, administrators and counselors from across the state of Texas. The Texas A&M College of Engineering and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, in partnership with the College of Education and Human Development and the College of Science, hosts the conference, which provides workshops, tours, speakers and hands-on activities.

Real world data questions long held travel behavior theories

Thu, 01 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

Time is money and traffic earns nothing but road rage, lost productivity and an increased gas bill. Dr. Mark Burris, the Herbert D. Kelleher Professor at Texas A&M University, seeks to save travelers time, money and frustration with his travel behavior research.

The more accurately researchers can predict future travel, the better they can plan and build the necessary infrastructure quickly and affordably. In doing so, Burris and his team at Texas A&M strive to reduce travelers’ time and frustration in traffic while also saving tax dollars.

“My focus is to improve our understanding of how cost impacts someone’s travel,” said Burris. “How it impacts the route they take, the mode they use, the time of day they choose and more.”

Traditionally, much of this information was based on surveys completed by travelers about past trips and potential future travel. More recently, the technological advances that monitor new travel choices like “high occupancy toll lanes” and “managed lanes” provide real data that reveals more detailed information about travel behavior. This kind of information is very useful in understanding how travelers regard their travel times, and how much they would be willing to pay to reduce those travel times.

The Harris County Toll Road Authority, Texas Department of Transportation, and Houston TranStar supplied data from the Katy Freeway in Houston that Burris and his team used for this research. The Katy Freeway includes four managed lanes, two in each direction, in the middle of the freeway.

During most of the day, carpools and buses can use these lanes for free, while single occupant vehicles have to pay a toll. The toll varies based on the time of the day and the correlating traffic congestion peaks. This freeway is one of only a few worldwide that had the ability to identify travelers in both the managed lanes and the regular lanes. Note the data were anonymized so it was impossible to know who used the roadway, just that a specific vehicle had used the roadway.

When analyzing the data collected from the Katy Freeway, Burris and his team found surprising results. About 11 percent of travelers were paying to use the managed lanes at times when the regular freeway lanes were traveling at the same speed or faster than the managed lanes – a behavior that no models ever predicted. Also based on these data, little evidence was found supporting the notion that travelers would be willing to pay for more reliable travel times in the managed lanes.

Farinoush Sharifi, a master’s student in transportation engineering, is studying this anomaly in her master’s thesis.

“To make it clear, many people believe that paying a toll to use a lane will bring them shorter travel time,” said Sharifi. “However, by looking into the Katy Managed Lanes study we have found that there are times users pay to travel on the toll lane but go slower than the toll-free lanes.”

Sharifi and Burris are working to understand the reasons for these uneconomical travel decisions using pattern recognition methods. Burris also found that the vast majority (84 percent) of freeway travelers with transponders only used the regular lanes, a small percentage of people (3 percent) only used the managed lanes and 13 percent utilized both. Thus, most travelers are not choosing between these lanes every day (as models assume), but rather have chosen the lanes they will travel well in advance and do not alter that choice regardless of travel conditions.

After collecting and analyzing this data, Burris and his team have begun exploring travel behavior in new and innovative ways. Partnering with a psychologist and a behavioral economist, Burris is now working to find ways to model travel behavior decisions in laboratory studies.

“This real-world data has led to some very surprising findings that put my research at the forefront of this field,” said Burris. “This improves our understanding of how travelers’ value different travel options and should dramatically change how we model travel behavior. Combined, this allows transportation agencies to better predict and prepare for future travel demand.”

These advances in understanding traveler behavior come at the same time great advances in automobile technology are occurring. Automated and connected vehicles will also greatly impact travel behavior.

Burris has teamed up with Texas A&M Hagler Institute for Advanced Study fellow Dr. Kumares Sinha and doctoral student Arezoo Samimi to examine some of these potential impacts. They are developing a traffic simulation model of El Paso to determine the travel time and emissions impacts of having connected vehicles in the traffic stream. These vehicles will have information on travel times to their destination and can help the traveler choose the best route – or reroute when an incident occurs.

In theory, this should reduce travel times and emissions. However, if too many vehicles reroute at once it could have negative overall impacts on travel. Their research will examine these potential impacts and strategies that combine data from connected vehicles and travel behavior to maximize potential benefits of connected vehicles.

Texas A&M Engineering and Alamo Colleges District co-enrollment program to begin offering classes fall 2018

Thu, 01 Feb 2018 00:00:00 CST

Texas A&M University, Chevron and Alamo Colleges District will enroll the first cohort of students for the Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academy at Alamo Colleges District in fall 2018. This innovative co-enrollment partnership was developed to address the state’s growing need for engineers. Qualified students will be admitted to the Texas A&M College of Engineering, complete the first two years of coursework at an Alamo Colleges District college and finish their engineering degrees in College Station, Texas. The program will begin accepting student applications March 1.

The Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academy at Alamo Colleges District allows students to remain close to home for their first two years while pursuing one of 19 majors within the College of Engineering at Texas A&M. This program is generously supported by Chevron.

“We are pleased to offer students in the Alamo Colleges District a unique pathway toward a first-rate degree from an engineering college ranked among the top 10 in the world,” said Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp. “Our goal is to attract the very best students to Texas A&M Engineering, even if circumstances require them to stay close to home for the first two years of college. These students will be Aggies in San Antonio from day one.”

“We are always eager to offer our students new opportunities for continuing their education once they graduate from one of the colleges of the Alamo Colleges District,” said Alamo Colleges District Chancellor Dr. Bruce Leslie. “Our latest partnership with Texas A&M University and Chevron will offer our students a pathway to a bachelor’s degree in a field with excellent job growth and high salaries, benefiting not only the students, but the state’s economy as well,” he added.

In Texas, the projected need for engineers in the workforce is 53,000 by 2024. To meet this need, universities and two-year colleges will need to work together to bridge the gap and attract and retain students who are interested in STEM fields. Engineering students in the Engineering Academy program enroll in math, science and core curriculum courses through Alamo Colleges District and have the unique opportunity to enroll in Texas A&M engineering courses taught by Texas A&M faculty at Northeast Lakeview College, part of Alamo Colleges District.

“Northeast Lakeview College is proud to be home for this program,” said Dr. Veronica Garcia, Northeast Lakeview College president. “This new program will help address the need for more programming in high-demand STEM fields and provide an opportunity for more students, in San Antonio and surrounding areas, to pursue engineering coursework.”

Chevron has donated $5 million to support Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academies across the state at Austin Community College; Houston Community College, Spring Branch in Houston; Texas Southmost College in Brownsville; El Centro and Richland Colleges in Dallas; and Alamo Colleges District in San Antonio.

“Chevron is committed to increasing access to, and the quality of, education around the world. We are proud to partner with Texas A&M on this important initiative to help ensure an educated and skilled workforce,” said Shariq Yosufzai, Chevron vice president of ombuds, diversity and inclusion and university and association relations.

“Our longstanding relationship with Texas A&M, through support of the Engineering Academy initiative, will help provide opportunities in the field of engineering for many underrepresented and first-generation college students,” Yosufzai said. “Partnering with Texas A&M, a top source of engineering hires for Chevron, to help provide opportunities in the field of engineering will support our efforts to help build the diverse workforce of tomorrow that will be required to meet the energy needs of the future."

Texas A&M Engineering Vice Chancellor and Dean Dr. M. Katherine Banks said the academies have the potential to reach beyond the typical pathways for access to a top-ranked engineering program.

“The academies, through our partnership with Chevron and the two-year colleges, provide new pathways to a first-rate engineering education,” Banks said. “Through this co-enrollment program, students can live at home for the first two years of college without postponing their participation in an engineering program that is highly regarded by employers across the country.”

For more information about how to apply and other details, visit /academies or email engineeringacademies@tamu.edu.