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College of Engineering Highlights |
Fall 2009
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The College began its 50th Anniversary celebrations on September 2nd with a Welcome Bash cookout for new and returning students and a ribbon-cutting ceremony formally opening the expanded Engineering Lab Building. This event featured presentations by Dean of Engineering Dr. Bill Carroll, state representatives and University officials, followed by tours of the new facilities enabled by the addition of a third floor and extensive renovations to existing lab space. Several alumni from the College’s first graduating class of bachelor’s degree recipients attended the event.
That afternoon, world-famous inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen gave a lecture to
students, the first presentation in the 50th Anniversary Speaker Series. During the College’s
year-long celebration, each department will host a recognized expert or experts in areas
related to the department’s field of study. Activities, faculty, students and alumni in the
department will also be featured on the College’s web home page.
In October, the Bioengineering Department hosted a lecture by Dr. Xingde Li of Johns
Hopkins University, speaking on “Emerging Endomicroscopy and Nano-biophonics
Techniques Toward Noninvasive Visualization of Pathology in situ.”
In November, the Computer Science & Engineering Department hosted a lecture by Dr.
Chris Greer of the White House Office of Science and Technology, speaking on
“Engineering and Science in Five Dimensions.”
In December, the Materials Science & Engineering Department hosted lectures by Dr. Peter
Searson of Johns Hopkins and Dr. James Morris of the University of California at Berkeley.
Dr. Searson spoke on “The Dynamics of Cell Detachment” and Dr. Morris spoke on “The
Limits of Mechanical Strength.” Their presentations were supplemented by lectures by
faculty at local research centers, including Electrical Engineering’s Dr. Robert Magnusson,
Dr. Paul Dechow of the Baylor College of Dentistry, Dr. Jinming Gao of UT Southwestern,
Dr. Nandika D’Souza of the University of North Texas, Dr. Jerry Coffer of Texas Christian
University and Dr. Bruce Gnade of UT Dallas.
- Associate Dean for Research Dr. Richard Billo announced that the College had secured a one-year, $550,000 contract from DARPA to conduct research on a proposed production method to create jet fuel from lignite coal. The College will be working with researchers at West Virginia University on the project.
- Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Assistant Professor Yaling Liu became the seventh College of Engineering faculty member to receive a National Science Foundation CAREER award. He received the award based on his proposed project to develop a method for predicting the efficacy of drug-carrying nanoparticles to a targeted area in a vascular environment. The award provides him with $404,000 over five years to conduct his research.
- The Computer Science & Engineering Department received a $522,624 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to participate in the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Program. GAANN aims to boost the number of doctoral degrees awarded to U.S. citizens/residents in engineering and science.
- Civil Engineering Dr. Shih-Ho “Simon” Chao is using a $599,500 grant from the National Science Foundation to provide architects and engineers with new data that will allow them to incorporate popular truss designs in buildings in earthquake-prone regions. He is leading a team comprised of faculty at UT Arlington and Valparaiso University.
- Civil Engineering Dr. Sahadat Hossain secured a two-year, $671,395 grant from the Texas Department of Transportation to investigate the stability of slopes along highways and levees along the Trinity River in the Dallas and Fort Worth area. The researchers will investigate slope failure mechanisms and recommend methods to repair and prevent slope failures.
- The Computer Science & Engineering’s Human Centered Computing Laboratory received a three-year, $774,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop of a suite of visualization software forming a “command-center” that monitors, through various types of sensors, human behavior at home in a non-invasive and privacy-preserving way.
- Materials Science & Engineering Dr. Seong Jin Koh received a $319,581 National Science Foundation grant to develop tiny sensors that can detect the smallest DNA molecules of harmful biological species. The system could be used to detect biological warfare agents and mutations of cancer-causing genes that would signal the early stages of various types of cancer.
- Electrical Engineering Dr. Meng Tao was awarded a $120,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy in an effort to boost the power output of solar cells through the use of zinc oxide as a topical treatment.
- Three retired College of Engineering faculty members were honored with the title of professor emeritus during a ceremony conducted October 10 by UT Arlington President James Spaniolo. The three were MAE’s Dr. John Mills and EE’s Drs. Raymond Shoults and Vasant Prabhu.
- Three new faculty members began teaching in the fall semester:
- Dr. Hyeok Choi joined the Civil Engineering Department as an assistant professor. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati, where his major concentration was environmental nanotechnologies for water and wastewater treatment.
- Dr. Fuqiang Liu joined the Materials Science & Engineering Department as an assistant professor. He received his Ph.D. in 2006 from Pennsylvania State University, and then became a senior research scientist at the United Technologies Research Center. Dr. Liu has more than 10 years of experience in fuel cells and energy-related technologies.
- Dr. Nathaniel Nystrom joined the Computer Science &Engineering Department as an assistant professor. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2007, with an emphasis in programming languages.
- Electrical Engineering Professor Frank L. Lewis, the Moncrief-O’Donnell Endowed Chair at ARRI, was awarded the Honeywell International Medal by the United Kingdom’s Institute of Measurement and Control. The medal recognized Dr. Lewis’ considerable contribution over the years to control and systems engineering in diverse contexts.
- The Computer Science & Engineering Department’s Center for Research in Wireless Mobility and Networking (CReWMaN) received a check for $25,000 and uMobility software valued at $30,000 from Varaha Systems to explore new areas of wireless voice and data communications. The company pledged an additional $50,000 to support the research center.
- Civil Engineering Assistant Professor Mohammad Najafi, director of the Center for Underground Infrastructure Research and Education (CUIRE), was the conference co-chair and technical committee co-chair of the first International Conference of Pipelines and Trenchless Technology, held in Shanghai, October 19-21. The conference was a joint production by CUIRE, the Pipeline Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the China Society for Trenchless Technology and the China-U.S. Joint Center for Trenchless Research & Development.
- Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Kent L Lawrence chaired a session and presented two papers on finite element methods research at the Twelfth International Conference on Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering Computing, held in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, September 1-4.
- Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Frank Lu delivered a keynote address titled “Prospects for Detonation Propulsion” at the 9th International Symposium on the Aerothermodynamics of Internal Flows, held in Gyeongju, Korea, in mid-September. This is his third invited address to the group; he also made presentations in 2000 (Tokyo) and 2004 (Beijing).
- Electrical Engineering Professor K. R. Rao presented an invited keynote address at the 9th IEEE International Conference on Telecommunications in Modern Satellite, Cable and Broadcasting Services, October 7 at the University of Niš, Serbia.
- Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Dereje Agonafer presented seven papers, co-organized a workshop and panel, and served on a panel at the ASME International Congress and Exposition, October 13-19, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
- A paper by Electrical Engineering Assistant Professor Samir Iqbal, Biology Assistant Professor Shawn Christopher, Electrical Engineering master’s student Mohammud Noor and Bioengineering master’s student Swati Goyal was featured on the cover of the August 17 issue of Applied Physics Letters, a publication of the American Institute of Physics. The paper described their work on the electrical detection of single-base DNA mutation using functionalized nanoparticles.
- A paper written by Bioengineering Drs. Young-Tae Kim and Digant Dave, master’s student Kailash Karthikeyan and doctoral student Sajal Chirvi was featured on the cover of the September 7 issue of Lab on a Chip, a publication of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The paper described their innovative method to study the injury and subsequent regeneration of nerve cell axons.
- A paper written by Materials Science & Engineering Dr. Yaowu Hao and doctoral student Chienwen Huang was published in the November 4 issue of the journal Nanotechnology, and a micrograph by Mr. Huang was used on the issue’s cover. On December 8, the publishers notified Dr. Hao that the paper – “The Fabrication of Short Metallic Nanotubes by Templated Electrodeposition” - had been downloaded more than 250 times, landing it in the top 10% of all articles in the several journals published by the company. The paper described a simplified process to use any electroplatable material to form nanoscale tubular structures.
- A paper written by Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Dr. Yaling Liu and Electrical Engineering Dr. Samir Iqbal was featured on the cover of the November 30 issue of the journal Applied Physics Letters. The paper described their method for understanding the interactions between translocating DNA and chemically-modified nanopores surfaces.
- Four visiting scholars participated in Electrical Engineering Professor K. R. Rao’s Multimedia Processing Lab this semester: Drs. Dongil Han, Donyen Kim and Choong Ho Lee, all from South Korea; and Mr. Cui Bin, a doctoral candidate from China.
- Aerospace engineering senior Andrew White won the Spirit of Apollo Scholarship sponsored by the AIAA-Houston Section. White was noted for his good academic record and his interest in contributing to the aerospace industry.
- Electrical Engineering Professor J.-C. Chiao presented several six-hour talks during a whirlwind tour of Taiwanese universities hosted by the Taiwan National Science and Technology Program for System-on-Chip (NSoC). On October 20, spoke at the National Chiao-Tung University in Hsin-Chu City and later had dinner with university president Dr. Chung-Yu (Peter) Wu. The following day, he visited several departments in National Chiao-Tung University and the NSoC faculty. On October 22, he spoke at the National Chung-Hsing University in Taichung City and on October 23 at the National Cheng-Kung University in Tainan City. On October 26, he gave a seminar talk at National Taiwan University in Taipei in the College of Electrical Engineering hosted by Graduate Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics. In all four places, Dr. Chiao also recruited students by distributing brochures of graduate and undergraduate programs and answering questions about UT Arlington engineering programs.
- The Fort Worth Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) announced the creation of an endowment fund to provide scholarships for civil engineering students. The Fort Worth Branch has committed to raise $25,000 over the next five years, an amount that will be matched by the University through its Maverick Match program, bringing the total value of the endowment to $50,000.
- Effective November 1, the College of Engineering’s Engineering Counseling and Advising Center officially became the Engineering Student Services Center to better reflect the activities conducted there. The staff coordinates a host of activities, including student recruiting, co-op and internship opportunities, engineering distance education and the Engineering Freshman Interest Group program. It is also a central point for information on scholarships.
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