News

Engineering EcoCAR Team Receives Automobile for Eco-friendly Transformation

The Texas Tech EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge team received the vehicle that they will transform into a next-generation eco-friendly car last week. The vehicle was donated by General Motors. The students intend to prove that they are the next generation of automotive engineers who will design and build the environmentally-friendly automobiles of the future.

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Engineering Student Honored by Tau Beta Pi

Senior civil and environmental engineering major, Samantha van der Drift, was honored as a Tau Beta Pi laureate on Oct. 17 at the society's national convention. One of four laureates selected for 2009, van der Drift received the award for her diverse achievements in tennis, her work as an athlete mentor to school children and an elementary school reading program. The laureates were honored with other 2009 national award winners at the 104th annual convention in East Brunswick, N.J.

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ConocoPhillips SPIRIT Scholars Announced

Texas Tech University has announced the ConocoPhillips SPIRIT Scholars of 2009-2010.

Of the 20 spirit scholars at Texas Tech, 13 students represent the Whitacre College of Engineering, one student is from the College of Arts and Sciences, and the other six represent the Rawls College of Business. Six of these students are enrolled in the Honors College.

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Senior Petroleum Class Takes to the Road

Senior petroleum engineering students in PETR 4405 recently traveled to Hy-bon in Odessa for a hands-on learning experience and time of lab instruction. During the course of the fall semester, the students will also visit Sivalls in Odessa, as well as a gas plant in Lovington, NM.

Faculty Recognitions

Faculty Awards

Dr. Mukaddes Darwish, associate professor of engineering technology, has been selected for Mortar Board and Omicron Delta Kappa's annual Faculty Recognition Award. Nominations for the award are made by students. Darwish will be recognized on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009 at halftime during the Texas Tech vs. Kansas football game.

Dr. Tim Dallas, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, was recently named one of the "top 40" nominees for this year's "20 Under 40" leadership event, sponsored by the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance. The event, which is coordinated by Young Professionals of Greater Lubbock, is in its third year, and is meant to bring recognition to people who exemplify leadership in their careers while active participating in the community.

Grants and Contracts

09-17-2009 - 10-19-2009

Civil and Environmental Engineering

• Dr. William D. Lawson was awarded $1,743 by the Texas Department of Transportation. The title of the proposal was "Ethics for Transportation Professionals IHEEP Presentation."
• Dr. Hongchao Liu was awarded $21,174 by the City of Lubbock, Texas. The title of the proposal was "Operation of City of Lubbock's Traffic Management Center."
• Dr. Clifford B. Fedler was awarded $10,000 by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The title of the proposal was "Wichita Falls Monitoring (FY10)."

Computer Science

• Dr. Joseph Urban was awarded $232,999 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."

Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Transportation

• Dr. Moon Won was awarded $10,000 by the Texas Department of Transportation. The title of the proposal was "5-5444-01: Pilot Implementation of Pavement Repair Guidelines for Longitudinal Cracks and Joints."
• Dr. Theodore Cleveland was awarded $120,000 by the Texas Department of Transportation. The title of the proposal was "6549-Hydraulic Performance of Staggered Barrel Culverts for Stream Crossings."
• Dr. Moon Won was awarded $24,963 by the Texas Department of Transportation. The title of the proposal was "Interagency Cooperative Agreement with Houston TxDOT District."

Electrical and Computer Engineering

• Dr. Donald Lie was awarded $30,000 by the Industrial Technology Research Institute. The title of the proposal was "Highly-efficient and Linear Wideband Polar Transmitter with Integrated Power Amplifiers for WiMAX-like Wireless Applications."
• Dr. Hamed Sari-Sarraf was awarded $42,000 by DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The title of the proposal was "Large-scale Geospatial Image Indexing and Retrieval."
• Drs. Sunanda Mitra and Brian S. Nutter were awarded $63,000 by the National Library of Medicine. The title of the proposal was "Web Browser Viewing and Annotation of High-resolution Medical Images and HPV Linear Array Image Signal Extraction."

Mechanical Engineering

• Dr. Michelle L. Pantoya was awarded $25,000 by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. The title of the proposal was "Energetic Material Combustion (Corey Farley)."
• Dr. Michelle L. Pantoya was awarded $39,894 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "Graduate Research Supplement: Melt-Dispersion Mechanism for Energetic Reactions of Aluminum Nanoparticles."

Nano Tech Center

• Drs. Jordan M. Berg, Ayrton Bernussi, Zhaoyang Fan, Mark W. Holtz, and Sergey A. Nikishin were awarded $646,520 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "MRI: Acquisition of a Molecular Beam Epitaxy System for Nano-Engineered AlGaInN Optoelectronic Devices: Research, Training, and Education."

Publications

Dr. Shameem Siddiqui, assistant professor of petroleum engineering, has published a paper entitled "Use of X-Ray CT to Measure Pore-Volume Compressibility of Shaybah Carbonates" in Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering - Formation Evaluation, the journal of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Student Accomplishments

Chee Yu, an undergraduate student in electrical and computer engineering, was selected as one of the scholars in the Texas Tech Center for Undergraduate Research Program. Yu will conduct his research under the supervision of Dr. Sari-Sarraf, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Dr. Hequet, associate professor of plant and soil sciences.

Alumni

Joseph C. Martz, of Los Alamos National Laboratory, named inaugural Perry Fellow at Stanford

Joseph C. Martz, a nuclear materials scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has been named the inaugural William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at Stanford University. Martz graduated from Texas Tech in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering. He was named a Texas Tech Distinguished Engineer in 2002 and is an emeritus member of the Dean's Council.

The new Perry Fellowship honors an early or mid-career researcher from the United States or abroad with a record of "outstanding work in natural science, engineering or mathematics...who is dedicated to solving international security problems." Martz, 44, will spend a year at Stanford conducting research on how the United States might be able to reduce the size of its nuclear arsenal by configuring the nation's weapons stockpile more securely and strategically.

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Civil Engineering Alums Elected as Officers in the American Society of Civil Engineers

Two Texas Tech civil engineering alums have been elected to leadership positions within the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Dr. Kancheepuram N. Gunalan, P.E. has been elected as the director of Region 8. Gunalan is a vice president with Parsons Brinkerhoff. He will represent members from Sections and Branches in Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Gunalan graduated from Texas Tech in 1986 with a Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering.

Walter T. "Terry" Winn, Jr., P.E. has been elected as a governor of Region 6 and will represent members from Sections and Branches in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. He is the founder of Winn Professional Engineers and Constructors, LLC. Winn graduated from Texas Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1973.

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