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News

Mechanical Engineering Alumnus Wins Fulbright Award

Sean Hannon A Whitacre College of Engineering alumnus was awarded a Fulbright Student Grant from the U.S. Student Fulbright program to further satellite communications technology.

Sean Hannon, a mechanical engineering graduate from Midland, will venture to Germany for one academic year. He will study aerospace engineering at the Technische Universität München (TUM), focusing on a project titled, “Computerized Model of a Telepresence Enabling Satellite Communication System.”

Hannon said the Fulbright Student Grant will enable him to work on a space technology project in collaboration with the German Space Agency.

Dr. Tanja Karp, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, guided Hannon through the rigorous application process. Karp has served as a member of the Student Fulbright Scholarship Committee at Texas Tech for more than five years.

Karp said although the program is very competitive, the best applicants each year are successful in securing the fellowship to spend a year abroad in the country and university of their choice.

Hannon will leave for Germany in late August and begin the program in September.

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Faculty Recognitions

Morse Wins ASCE Region 6 Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award

Audra Morse Dr. Audra Morse, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been named the recipient of the 2010 ASCE Region 6 Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award. She was nominated by Texas Tech ASCE student officers through a supplement to the 2009 annual report of activities. Morse also won the ASCE Region 6 Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award in 2007.

Grants and Contracts

04-19-2010 - 05-12-2010

Chemical Engineering

  • Dr. Ronald Hedden was awarded $190,003 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "Hairpin Rubber Elasticity: Molecular Basis for Cold Drawing in Smectic Elastomers."
  • Dr. Brandon L. Weeks was awarded $11,000 by the Midwest Research Institute. The title of the proposal was "Hands on Explosives Training."

Computer Science

  • Dr. Joseph Urban was awarded $27,000 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "Collaborative Research: II: From Middle School to Industry: Vertical Integration to Inspire Interest in Computational Thinking."
  • Drs. Eonsuk Shin, Joseph Urban, and Susan D. Urban were awarded $356,583 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "REU Site: Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Software Engineering and Service Composition." Joseph Urban is the PI.

Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Transportation

  • Dr. Moon Won was awarded $7,000 by the Texas Department of Transportation. The title of the proposal was "Interagency Cooperative Agreement with Houston TxDOT District."

Center for Pulsed Power and Power Electronics

  • Dr. John W. Walter was awarded $40,000 by BMDC/Applied Physical Electronics, LLC. The title of the proposal was "APELC Vircator STTR."
  • Drs. James C. Dickens, Magne Kristiansen, and Andreas A. Neuber were awarded $2,870,120 by the US Army Space & Missile Defense Command. The title of the proposal was "Compact Pulsed Power for Defense Applications."

Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Dr. Aranya Chakrabortty was awarded $99,383 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "A Measurement-based Framework for Dynamic Equivalencing of Large-scale Power Systems Using Synchrophasors."
  • Drs. Hongxing Jiang and Jingyu Lin were awarded $159,524 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "ARRA-Bridging the Miscibility Gap in InGaN Alloys."
  • Dr. Ranadip Pal was awarded $14,140 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "Career: Robustness in Genetic Regulatory Network Modeling and Control."
  • Drs. Hongxing Jiang and Jingyu Lin were awarded $86,125 by the U.S. Army Research Office. The title of the proposal was "High Al-Content AlGaN Alloys for Deep UV Laser Applications."

Industrial Engineering

  • Drs. Jennifer Farris, Timothy I. Matis, and Patrick E. Patterson were awarded $102,764 by B&W Pantex, LLC. The title of the proposal was "CELDi: Assessing and Improving the Safety Culture at the Pantex Plant." Farris is the PI.
  • Dr. Shiren Wang was awarded $6,000 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "REU Supplement: CAREER: Exploring Novel Organic Thermoelectric Composites with Hierarchical Architecture and High Figure of Merit."

Mechanical Engineering

  • Dr. Stephen Ekwaro-Osire was awarded $450 by the Texas Space Grant Consortium. The title of the proposal was "Exercise Device for the Crew Exploration Vehicle."
  • Dr. Zhaoming He was awarded $180,137 by the National Institutes of Health. The title of the proposal was "Mitral Valve Coaptation Plate for Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation."

Student Accomplishments

Texas Tech Team Wins Sandia MEMS Competition

Texas Tech competed at the MEMS University Alliance Design Competition at Sandia National Laboratories and won the novel design category for 2010. The MEMS University Alliance Design Competition offers participating universities the opportunity to take part in an exciting program geared around MEMS design, fabrication and testing.

The novel design category emphasizes concepts for use in Sandia’s SUMMiT V process, while the other category will emphasize unique structure design and its use as an educational tool for MEMS or science education. University participants had the opportunity to receive fabricated devices of their selected design. Texas Tech won the "Characterization, Reliability and Nano-Scale Phenomena" category in 2009, the characterization category in 2006, and the novel design category in 2005.


ASCE Student Places Second in Student Paper Competition

Brice Campbell, a civil and environmental engineering major, placed second in the Student Paper Contest at the ASCE Texas-Mexico Student Conference in Austin on April 11-13. His paper and presentation were titled "Environmental Ethics."

Alumni

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Inducts Academy Members

Jon R. Mayes Dr. Jon R. Mayes is the CEO and principal investigator of Applied Physical Electronics, L.C. (APELC), and has obtained more than $12 million in research and development for more than 16 SBIR Phase 1 and 6 Phase II efforts. He has also obtained more than $7 million in commercialization funding to move APELC’s technology toward Department of Defense use. Mayes has more than 17 years of Pulsed Power experience in the design of ultra-high speed hv-pulsed power systems. His company has 22 employees and approximately $1 million in annual sales.

Richard M. Ness Richard M. Ness is president of Ness Engineering, Inc., a corporation that provides services in state-of-the-art power modulator technology. For the last five years, he has worked to develop critical technologies for water-cooled thermal management of 6 kHz magnetic switch assemblies for Cymer, Inc. Before that time, he developed an extreme ultraviolet light source that included a high voltage power supply for next-generation lithography systems. He also pioneered the development of a master oscillator power amplifier for high-power industrial lasers.

Michael Parten Dr. Micheal Parten was a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas Tech from 1974 to 2008. He pioneered the design laboratory course sequence and also established the Advanced Vehicle Laboratory with mechanical engineering professor Dr. Tim Maxwell.


Allen Howard Allen Howard graduated from Texas Tech with an electrical engineering degree in 1978. He is now the president and CEO of NuTech Energy Alliance, Ltd., a provider of advanced petrophysical, geological and engineering solutions to oil and gas companies worldwide. NuTech has used its proprietary software and modeling processes to evaluate more than 30,000 wells for more than 450 oil and gas companies worldwide. Allen Howard is a 2010 recipient of the Distinguished Engineer Award.

Events of Interest

May 20 Dean Candidate Presentation - Dr. Elizabeth Dickey
"Towards National Prominence in Engineering Research and Education"
Livermore Center Room 101 - 1 p.m.
May 21 Jack Maddox Chair Candidate Presentation - Dr. Elizabeth Dickey
"Point Defect Equilibria and Segregation in Functional Oxides"
Livermore Center Room 101 - 10 a.m.
May 27 TSPE Scholarship Golf Tournament
Rawls Golf Course
July 19 - 30 The ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp
at Texas Tech University

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Nov 20, 2014Apr 30, 2020