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Winter 2014
Archive

Inquiry Magazine Archive

  • 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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Safe/Sound

Threat Detection for the Real World

Center focuses on homeland security, bringing together researchers from across campus 

Dr. Wei Chen

Wei Chen

In the world of homeland security, the goal is simple: find and disable threats before they can do damage. And that’s just what UT Arlington’s new Security Advances Via Applied Nano-Technology (SAVANT) Center is designed to do.

The center, established earlier this year, will pull together faculty and student researchers from the Colleges of Science, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Business, and Education and Health Professions. The advances they’re proposing would put nanoparticles to work doing everything from detecting dirty bombs to preventing friendly-fire incidents to keeping food and water safe.

“Our center will go beyond standard detection techniques using newly advanced, science-based breakthroughs,” says physics Professor Wei Chen, who is serving as director. “We will be looking to identify threats in a variety of arenas, including transportation hubs and other public gathering places, public infrastructure networks, and the U.S. border.”

Organizers hope that the SAVANT Center will one day be recognized as a Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate Center of Excellence. Currently, the federal department has 12 such centers at universities nationwide; there, researchers work with industry and first-responders to develop new technologies to enhance homeland security.

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