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Fall 2017
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Inquiry Magazine Archive

  • Winter 2016

    Winter 2016: Energy Evolution

    From carbon dioxide conversion to landfill mining, researchers at UTA are seeking viable alternative energy options.

  • Spring 2016

    Spring 2016: Premium Blend

    Found in everything from space shuttles to dental fillings, composite materials have thoroughly infiltrated modern society. But their potential is still greatly untapped, offering researchers ample opportunity for discovery.

  • Fall 2015

    Fall 2015: Collision Course

    Within the particle showers created at the Large Hadron Collider, answers to some of the universe’s mysteries are waiting.

  • Spring 2015

    Spring 2015: Almost Human

    Model systems like pigeons can help illuminate our own evolutionary and genomic history.

  • Fall 2014

    Fall 2014: Small Wonder

    UT Arlington's tiny windmills are bringing renewable energy to a whole new scale.

  • Winter 2014

    Winter 2014: Overdue for an Overhaul

    The stability of our highways, pipelines, and even manholes is reaching a breaking point.

  • 2012

    2012: Mystery solved?

    Scientists believe they have discovered a subatomic particle that is crucial to understanding the universe.

  • 2011

    2011: Boosting brain power

    UT Arlington researchers unlock clues to the human body’s most mysterious and complex organ.

  • 2010

    2010: Powered by genetics

    UT Arlington researchers probe the hidden world of microbes in search of renewable energy sources.

  • 2009

    2009: Winning the battle against pain

    Wounded soldiers are benefiting from Robert Gatchel’s program that combines physical rehabilitation with treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

  • 2009

    2007: Sensing a solution

    Tiny sensors implanted in the body show promise in combating acid reflux disease, pain and other health problems.

  • 2006

    2006:Semiconductors: The next generation

    Nanotechnology researchers pursue hybrid silicon chips with life-saving potential.

  • 2005

    2005: Imaging is everything

    Biomedical engineers combat diseases with procedures that are painless to patients.

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Waterworld

Crowdsourcing Floods

New app employs user-submitted data to predict flash floods 

Crowdsourcing Floods

Crowdsourcing may soon save you from a flash flood.

D.J. Seo, professor of civil engineering, has launched a cellphone app that asks the public to file reports when they see flooding on the streets, in and around their homes, and in streams or creeks. Called iSeeFlood, it works with the regional Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) radar system that has given the public faster, more precise information about severe weather and flash flood conditions in recent years. UTA began hosting the first CASA unit in North Texas in 2012, stationed atop Carlisle Hall.

For the first phase of his research, Dr. Seo and his team are installing innovative wireless sensors in Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, Arlington, and Dallas to help improve high-resolution modeling of urban water systems. They plan to combine this data with the information sent by iSeeFlood users and the CASA radar system.

Want more?

Download the iSeeFlood app to contribute.

For Android
For iPhone

“This type of research in real-time sensing and prediction is particularly important because this region is growing fast,” Seo says. “Urbanization means we have changing land surface conditions, such as increasing impervious land cover, which change how rain may be running off and accumulating.”

Greg Waller, service coordination hydrologist for the National Weather Service’s West Gulf River Forecast Center, praises Seo’s research: “The data helps us calibrate our models, which leads to better forecasts and warnings.”

 

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