UTA In The News — Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Fair housing
A UTA fair housing assessment showed economic and racial segregation across Dallas, The Dallas Morning News and D Magazine reported. Myriam Igoufe, who recently earned her doctorate from UTA, and Stephen Mattingly, a UTA civil engineering professor, performed the assessment for the city of Dallas and 20-plus other cities and housing authorities. “Dallas is marked by a very stark geography of inequity,” Igoufe said. “We have also documented systemic barriers to opportunities.” Mattingly said if the study had gone back earlier than 1990, he believes data would have shown these areas of inequity for a long time.
Election analysis
Allan Saxe, UTA political science associate professor, believes the Democrats probably will take control of the U.S. House, causing even more gridlock in Congress, WBAP 820 AM reported. Saxe also said the Texas gubernatorial election could help U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s race against U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke because Gov. Abbott is such a strong candidate. Saxe also talked about the Tuesday election with KLIF 570 AM and Houston's KTRH 740 AM.
Record voter turnout
Tom Marshall, UTA political science professor, said a great deal of effort and money has gone into voter registration in this election and that is one reason for a record voter turnout on KDFW Fox 4. Marshall also touched on a number of other election races, issues and topics.
Endowed chair
Bob Woods, the longtime UTA mechanical engineering professor and Formula SAE adviser, is the first recipient of an endowed chair established in his honor in 2017 through a gift from Paul E. Andrews Jr., an entrepreneur and businessman, Bioengineer.org and Targeted News Service reported.
UAV uses
Water & Wastes Digest published an article about the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in managing and evaluating infrastructure. The article, originally published in Roads & Bridges, was authored by Anand Puppala, UTA Distinguished Teaching Professor of civil engineering, and Surya Congress, a graduate research assistant.
Paint your Ride
UTA students kicked off Homecoming Week on Monday at a “Paint Your Ride” spirit event where their cars were decorated with cheers such as “Honk for Homecoming,” Go UTA!” and “Maverick Pride” Arlington-Tx.gov reported.
Top 40 Under 40
Muhammad Farooq Wahab, a UTA research engineering scientist, was named to the Analytical Chemists 2018 Top 40 Under 40 Power List of young analytical scientists, published by the prestigious British magazine The Analytical Scientist in its October 2018 edition, Targeted News Service reported.
Architecture ranked
The UTA architecture program ranked No. 16 among architecture schools with 70 to 99 graduates most hired by firms in the last five years, Targeted News Service reported about a list that DesignIntelligence published.
Recycled road
A UTA civil engineering professor said future highways might be made of a recycled plastic slurry, SentinelSource.com of Keene, N.H., reported. Sahadat Hossain, the civil engineering professor and the director of UTA's Solid Waste Institute for Sustainability, has projects using recycled plastic to shore up failing highway slopes and highway walls. The original story ran in The Washington Post.
Alumna appointed
Debbie Messemer was appointed to Carbon’s board of directors, the Odessa American, Business Wire, KAVU ABC 25 in Victoria, Texas, and many other websites reported. Messemer earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting from UTA. Carbon is a hardware, software and molecular science company.
Startup Lounge hosts events
UTA’s Startup Lounge will host two events during the city of Fort Worth’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, Nov. 8-16, the Fort Worth Business Press and fortworthtexas.gov reported. There will be a Startup-Con for entrepreneurs from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13, at UTA’s Startup Lounge, 505 W. Nedderman Drive. The second event will be an intense look at EpICMavs, a weekly entrepreneurship workshop series, at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, at the lounge.
New technologies
Oklahoma oil and gas regulators have ordered an indefinite shutdown of a disposal well after a 3.3 magnitude earthquake hit in the adjacent state, KTVT CBS 11 reported. The article said UTA professors and students are researching new technologies aimed at making the use of water during fracking procedures more eco-friendly.
Scholarships offered
Ten U.S. and Canadian scholarships for doctoral dissertation held jointly with a Greece research center are being offered in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, mechanical learning, big data and bioinformatics, the Interconnection Office of the Democritus University of Thrace reported. UTA’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering is one of the participants.
College Night
UTA is one of the colleges and universities that will be represented at Victoria College’s College Night Nov. 13, the Victoria Advocate reported.
Alumna joins lab
Heather Reynolds, a nonprofit leader with extensive expertise in poverty alleviation, will join the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities at the University of Notre Dame as its inaugural managing director in January, BuildingIndiana.com reported. Reynolds holds a UTA master’s degree in social work.
New airport director
Joseph Medici has been named director of airport services for the city of Temple, the Temple Daily Telegram and centexproud.com reported. Medici earned his bachelor’s degree in communication from UTA.