Cullen College of Engineering Magazine • Spring/Summer 2019
Cullen College stories
From Homeless to NASA, Mejean Cline Shares Her Journey UH Engineering is coming to katy grand opening - Fall 2019 www.egr.uh.edu/engineering-katy
University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 1 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 I www.egr.uh.edu
New Data UH Data Science Institute Receives Suggests $10 Million Boost from Hewlett Packard Nicotine While Enterprise Pregnant Alters pg. 14 Genes pg. 35
Up Close and Personal with NAE Faculty pg. 78
in every issue 4 > Engineering Snapshots 16 > lead news 114 > alumni news
#Cullen College Stories 8 > college News 78 > Faculty News 116 > support & giving
Celebrating the People of UH Engineering 14 > HOUSTON News 98 > student News 118 > culture & events pg. 52
123 > last word
Cullen College of Engineering Senior Writer/Editor Engineering Building 2 Academic Departments Parameters UHEngineering Rashda Khan 4722 Calhoun Road, Suite E311 Civil & Environmental Engineering Mechanical Engineering Elizabeth D. Rockwell Dean Parameters is published biannually by the Biomedical Engineering Houston, Texas 77204-4009 Chair: Roberto Ballarini Chair: Pradeep Sharma Joseph W. Tedesco University of Houston Cullen College of Photographer/Videographer Chair: Metin Akay @uhengineering Engineering, Office of Communications. Those wishing to reprint articles Web: www.cive.uh.edu Web: www.me.uh.edu Carlos Landa or photographs should contact the Web: www.bme.uh.edu uhengineering Associate Dean for Research & Facilities 713-743-4250 713-743-4500 director. Use the credit line: Reprinted 832-842-8813 Hanadi Rifai Associate Dean of Administration Contributing Writers & Editors with permission of the University of UHCullenCollege Roshawnda Anderson Electrical & Computer Engineering Associate Dean for Graduate Programs Jeannie Kever | John Lienhard Houston Cullen College of Engineering. Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Office of Advancement Chair: Badri Roysam University of Houston Cullen & Computing Facilities Executive Director of Communications Laurie Fickman | Audrey Grayson Clippings are appreciated. Chair: Mike Harold Mail: University of Houston College of Engineering Web: www.ece.uh.edu Suresh K. Khator Rachel Knudsen Sara Strong Web: www.chee.uh.edu Cullen College of Engineering The University of Houston is an 713-743-4300 713-743-4400 Engineering Building 2 Director of the Division of Undergraduate Marketing Manager Stock imagery provided by iStock and Freepik Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action 4722 Calhoun Road, Suite E421 Programs & Student Success institution. Minorities, women, Industrial Engineering Houston, Texas 77204-4007 Inez Hutchinson Contact us: Petroleum Engineering Fritz Claydon veterans and persons with disabilities Chair: Mohamed Soliman Chair: Gino Lim Web: advancement.egr.uh.edu Graphic Designers University of Houston are encouraged to apply. Web: www.ie.uh.edu Rachel Knudsen Cullen College of Engineering Web: www.petro.uh.edu 832-842-4848 713-743-4180 Kevin Kao Office of Communications
2 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 3 engineering snapshots
dean’s letter
If I asked you to describe the people of the Cullen College of Matthew Hogan was a child when he had to endure the pain of his Engineering, what would you say? Ask me that question, and my father’s illness and death. As an adult he dedicates his professional answer will go on a while. I will never be able to describe our cast of life to easing others’ suffering by combining engineering and characters in a few quick words. medicine. He is now a post-doctoral fellow, researching new ways the central nervous system can heal from stroke and injury. In this issue of Parameters, I invite you to get acquainted with some of our students and graduates who aim to change the world, or at Fascinating stories. least improve a corner of it. Each of us arrives at the Cullen College with a story already These individuals started life in various parts of this country and unfolding. After you read about others’ histories, take a moment around the globe. They grew up in distinct environments, faced to honor your own. uneven opportunities and came of age at different times and in different circumstances. Your particular background, life experiences and goals – whatever they may be – are now part of our mix; still driving your own Here is a glimpse: Ayoola John-Muyiwa (A.J.) has a promising job success while helping expand the ways your colleagues fit into the waiting in the oil and gas industry. He also keeps an eye focused global community. That’s valuable insight for someone who aims to beyond his own good fortune. Early years in Nigeria and later in change the world. Houston inspired him to address the disparity of wealth in the U.S., as well as developing countries’ need for basics, such as electricity Here at the Cullen College, we aim to change the world, too – one and water. unique engineer at a time.
Mejean Cline felt helpless when her life journey as a young adult Warm regards, diverged ever wider from her career goal. Battered by injury, debt, even homelessness, an engineering degree seemed far beyond her grasp. With some assistance and lots of determination, she powered through the obstacles. Cline not only earned her degree, but also landed her dream job. Joseph W. Tedesco, Ph.D., P.E. Elizabeth D. Rockwell Dean and Professor
4 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 Engineering snapshots
“Whenever I’m in traffic, I wish I had a flying car,” Professor Kaushik In the Media Spotlight Rajashekara said in the Nov. 30 episode of the “Seeking Delphi” podcast, hosted by futurist Mark Sackler.
Flying cars are not mere wishful thinking for Rajashekara. He Get acquainted with your financial aid counselor. That was believes technologies based on Yolanda Norman’s first tip when she sat down Aug. 10 with Fox automobile-aircraft hybrids will be a 26 Houston morning news anchor Melissa Wilson with advice definite possibility not too far in the on how to find help paying for college. future. However, he cautioned, the technology will be very expensive at first and used primarily by the military and medical “Your best friend when you are trying to find financial aid is industries for quick transportation. your financial aid counselor,” saidN orman, program manager at the UH Cullen College of Engineering Career Center. As soon Rajashekara – distinguished professor of electrical and computer as you are accepted into school, find out who your designated engineering at the Cullen College of Engineering, head of the counselor is and get acquainted by email. Cullen College power and energy systems program and director of the Power Electronics, Microgrids and Subsea Electrical Systems As you search for scholarships and grants, do not underestimate (PEMSES) laboratory – is a world-renowned authority and advocate local opportunities; they often draw less competition than for renewable energy and futuristic vehicles, in particular flying cars. national programs. “Make sure loans are your last option,” Norman stressed. Try for scholarships, grants and work-study His discussion, “Future of Driving Part 2, Flying Cars, with Kaushik options first and strive to minimize after-college debt. Rajashekara,” is podcast No. 27 in the “Seeking Delphi” series. What goes on inside the brain when an artist goes deep into the creative process?
UH Professor Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal introduced the topic as he opened the Art and the Brain forum Sept. 20. Experts Imagine a future where drone- from the United States and Mexico described their research delivered medications or medical during the one-day forum, part of the ongoing DASER series in testing kits appear at your Washington D.C. doorstep, just like packages ordered online. Gino Lim, What’s not to like about U.S.-produced In ongoing “brain on art” studies at UH, Contreras-Vidal and chairman of the Department of fuel that’s affordable, better for the his research team study brain waves of visual artists, chefs, Industrial Engineering at the Cullen environment and readily available? dancers, musicians, even video game players. The team hopes College of Engineering, envisions Producers of BYUradio’s "Top of understanding how artists’ brains work will someday reveal new drones used as two-way envoys between Mind With Julie Rose", a live daily ways neurological injuries can be healed. news talk and interview show, patients and healthcare providers to deliver medication, pick up urine or other samples and, perhaps, even provide basic diagnostics. liked the idea of a catalyst for Contreras-Vidal is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen The option could become especially helpful when access to patients natural gas vehicles so much they Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering, A team led by Wei-Chuan Shih, associate is challenging, such as on the scenes of accidents and natural featured Michael Harold, the M.D. as well as UH site director of The BRAIN (Building Reliable professor of electrical and computer engineering, disasters, as well as scheduled deliveries in rural areas where doctors Anderson Professor and chair of the Advancements in Neurotechnology) Center, a collaboration of uses a microscope platform in a smartphone and clinics are scarce. chemical and biomolecular engineering UH, Arizona State University and industry partners. (portable and easy to manage in the field) department at the University of Houston, on an episode. that combines nano-colorimetry with dark- During the Nov. 4-7 INFORMS annual meeting, Lim shared his Monthly DASER (D.C. Art Science Evening Rendezvous) field microscopy. So sensitive is the test, it can ideas on the organization’s monthly podcast series, “Resoundingly Harold, who is an expert in catalytic reaction engineering, is presentations in Washington D.C. are sponsored for the public detect lead in levels below the Environmental Human.” The podcast highlights how operational research and leading a team chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy for a by Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences and Protection Agency’s safety threshold. analytics can solve many complex problems in the world today. $2 million project to develop and optimize a lower-cost, more Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and efficient catalyst to eliminate unreacted methane. Technology. The November 2018 issue of CEP Magazine, published by the INFORMS, with more than 12,500 worldwide members, is the leading American Institute of Chemical Engineers, highlighted Shih and The show reaches a national audience of Brigham Young international association for professionals in operations research his new lead-detection technology in the article “Engineers Use University alumni and affiliates, as well as satellite radio and analytics. Smartphones to Detect Lead in Drinking Water.” subscribers looking for smart, informative and uplifting radio content. | View Cullen College videos online at youtube.com/UHCullenCollege
6 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 7 college news
UH Engineering Building Named for Durga D. and Sushila Agrawal Celebrating By Jeannie Kever the Mind: An engineering building at the University of Houston was renamed the Durga D. and Su- shila Agrawal Engineering Research Building in recognition of a gift that will provide ongo- ing support for faculty, students, research and building operations. BRAIN Meeting
The $51 million building, which opened in Showcases Advances in 2017, already had a floor named for the couple. Durga D. and Sushila Durga D. Agrawal (M.S. ’69, Ph.D. ’74), found- Agrawal with Suresh and Neurotechnologies er of Piping Technology & Products Inc., is a Renu Khator, UH President member of the UH System Board of Regents & Chancellor at the and a former member of the Texas Higher Ed- building's dedication event By Rashda Khan ucation Coordinating Board.
After arriving in Houston from India in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engi- The Building Reliable Advancements in Medtronic, the CORE Institute, Indus Instru- neering from the Delhi College of Engineering, This gift will boost our Neurotechnology (BRAIN) Center, an Indus- ments, 3Scan, GOGOA Mobility and Brain Agrawal earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in try-University Cooperative Research Center Products, as well as medical institutions such industrial engineering from the UH Cullen Col- capacity to conduct (IUCRC) dedicated to bringing new neuro- as the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, the Insti- lege of Engineering. research that directly technologies and treatments to market, held tute for Rehabilitation and Research Memori- its third annual industry advisory board meet- al Hermann Hospital, and the Houston Meth- “My message to the students is to always be impacts the quality of ing in December at the University of Houston odist Research Institute. optimistic; one can achieve any goal with hard Hilton hotel. To learn more about the work, persistence and determination,” Agraw- life across the greater The BRAIN’s Industry Advisory Board, co- al said. “As alumni, we must keep the torch of BRAIN Center, please visit The agenda was chock-full of future innova- chaired by Medtronic and Houston Method- knowledge, excellence and innovation grow- Houston area and tions, strategies and goals of the collaborative ist, have recently approved the Tecnologico de ing and glowing.” brain.egr.uh.edu beyond. enterprise. Monterrey – a top ranked private university in support of major University priorities. Mexico – as the first international BRAIN Cen- Joseph W. Tedesco, Elizabeth D. Rockwell - Dean Joseph w. tedesco The BRAIN Center, a collaboration among ter site. Dean of the Cullen College, said the gift’s im- Eloise Brice, vice president of University Ad- Arizona State University, the University of pact “will be nothing short of transformational.” vancement, said the Agrawals’ gift will benefit Houston and industry members, was officially The center’s eight research areas include big a number of key objectives. funded in 2017 with a $1.5 million grant from data, clinical trials, device development, de- “It will allow us to expand and enhance our lab- The Cullen College has more than 4,200 stu- the National Science Foundation. The mission vice interoperability, neural activity measure- oratory and classroom facilities, recruit some dents, including more than 1,150 graduate stu- “Recruiting the best and brightest students of The BRAIN Center – led by UH Professor ment, neuromodulation, neurorehabilitation of the world’s greatest engineering minds as dents, enrolled in 10 engineering disciplines, and faculty is a key goal for the University of Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal and Professor and assistive device and regulatory science. students and faculty members and develop as well as several interdisciplinary graduate Houston, and this generous gift will allow the Marco Santello of Arizona State – is to devel- Both invasive and noninvasive approaches new and innovative academic programs,” he programs. Cullen College of Engineering to make great op safe, effective and affordable personalized form part of BRAIN’s neurotechnology port- said. “This gift will boost our capacity to con- strides in that arena,” Brice said. “The ability to neurotechnologies. folio. duct research that directly impacts the quali- The gift contributes to the University’s $1 bil- improve our research and academic facilities ty of life across the greater Houston area and lion “Here, We Go” Campaign, the first major made possible by the Agrawals will ultimately Since its inception, the center has attracted beyond.” fundraising campaign in more than 25 years, in benefit the state of Texas and the nation.” 10 industry partners including the companies
8 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 9 college news
oratory houses the Universal Elements Tester, tionship. He has received a number of hon- the world’s only large-size equipment to test ors and awards, including the American wall and shell elements subjected to various Concrete Institute Arthur J. Boise Award, $1 Million Gift types of forces, notably earthquake action. ACI’s highest research award for concrete The behavior of these elements, predicted structures. He is an honorary member of from NOV from Hsu’s theory, can then be integrated by ACI and a distinguished member of the high-speed computer to predict the behavior American Society of Civil Engineers. Boosts UH Engineering Research of today’s infrastructure such as large build- ings, highways, bridges, offshore rigs, nuclear Eloise Brice, vice president for University The University of containment structures and others. Advancement, said the gift will make it possible for UH to offer important research Houston has been good The Universal Element Tester was designed opportunities to future graduate students. and built at the University’s South Park Annex “This laboratory, and the equipment that it to me, and I hope my in 1986. This equipment and lab space have will house, will allow the Cullen College to been modernized over the past 30 years with remain at the forefront of advances in civil gift is an incentive for more than $3 million in grants from the Na- and environmental engineering,” she said. tional Science Foundation and other public others like me to give and industry sources. Hsu said the gift is a way to express grat- back the favor, with itude for his time at UH. “I would say I’m Now 33 years later, after the directorship of Yi- a very lucky fellow,” he said. “I tell my thanks. Lung Mo, Moores Professor of civil engineer- colleagues I am always happy to come to ing at UH, and current director Mina Dawood, work. The University of Houston has been - thomas hsu associate professor of civil engineering, the good to me, and I hope my gift is an in- Structural Research Lab is ready for larger centive for others like me to give back the space, updated equipment and resources to favor, with thanks.” meet the growing and increasingly complex needs of a changing infrastructure that serves About the University of the society we live in. Houston By Jeannie Kever A $1 million gift from the Hsu family is intend- The University of Houston is a Carne- ed to pay it forward. The gift, eligible for a gie-designated Tier One public research A $1 million donation from National Oil- • Development of big data and analytics 75 percent match from the state’s Texas Re- university recognized with a Phi Beta Kap- well Varco (NOV) will fund construction of tools to predict lifespan, condition and search Incentive Program (TRIP), would fur- pa chapter for excellence in undergradu- a state-of-the-art facility in South Houston performance of critical drilling, produc- ther strengthen UH’s Tier One status. ate education. UH serves the globally com- where UH mechanical engineering Ph.D. tion and pumping components petitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by students will explore some of the biggest While Hsu’s lab was originally focused on providing world-class faculty, experiential issues in today’s energy industry. “NOV is very pleased to continue its part- structural engineering, the new space will be learning and strategic industry partner- nership with the University of Houston on designed to accommodate researchers and ships. Located in the nation's fourth-larg- “This generous gift will give graduate stu- advanced research,” said Clay Williams, graduate students in a wider range of civil est city and one of the most ethnically and dents at the Cullen College of Engineer- National Oilwell Varco Chairman and CEO. $1 Million Gift and environmental engineering disciplines. culturally diverse regions in the country, ing the opportunity to work side by side “The talented and creative minds we get Will Expand UH Structural Joseph Tedesco, dean of the Cullen College, UH is a federally designated Hispanic- and with NOV’s world-class engineers to find to work with at UH bring the most cut- said the gift will provide the college with Asian-American-Serving institution with solutions to real-world challenges,” said ting-edge thinking in academia to solve needed lab space and facilities to meet the enrollment of more than 46,000 students. Joseph W. Tedesco, Elizabeth D. Rockwell our customers’ challenges. Our partner- Engineering Labs needs of both faculty researchers and gradu- Dean of the Cullen College. “They will be ship accelerates technology solutions in ate students. About the “Here, We Go" working on issues that are critical to the our marketplace while also supporting the Campaign future of the industry, impacting both the education of the next generation of engi- By Jeannie Kever “Thomas Hsu has been part of the Cullen Col- safety and the efficiency of operations.” neers for our industry.” lege during four decades of transformative The “Here, We Go” Campaign is the Uni- When Thomas Hsu first stepped onto the tory, UH offered a most attractive incentive: change,” Tedesco said. “This gift to expand versity of Houston’s first major system- Research areas include: The donation is eligible for $750,000 in University of Houston campus in 1980, UH housing for a new research laboratory where the Thomas T.C. Hsu Structural Research Lab- wide fundraising campaign in more than matching funds from the Texas Research was an emerging research university in search he could design and build the innovative ex- oratory ensures his legacy of cutting-edge 25 years. Gifts made from 2012 to 2020 • Study of corrosion and erosion of CO2 in Incentive Program, created by the Texas of top research faculty members to advance perimental equipment that could do the re- scholarship, along with his support for gener- will contribute toward the university’s key subsea production applications Legislature to encourage the private sector the Cullen College of Engineering. To Hsu, search that would advance the science and ations of graduate students, will live on.” priorities, including scholarships, faculty to work with public universities. who was then chair of the Civil Engineering technology of structural engineering. support and strengthening the university’s • Improvement in lifespan predictions Department at the University of Miami, head- Hsu received his master’s and doctoral de- partnership with Houston. for equipment in the high-pressure and ing an adequate but dated structural labora- The Thomas T.C. Hsu Structural Research Lab- grees from Cornell University, where he and high-flow real world environments his family have a long, multigenerational rela-
10 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 11 college news UH Signs MoU with Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy bang By Rashda Khan The Cullen College sits in the top 10% for your of institutions for best value and most popular buck: engineering degrees among veterans, as well as the Dean Joseph Tedesco signs the MOU with the Indian Institute UH Cullen College Ranked Among of Petroleum and Energy The University of Houston recently signed a memorandum of understand- top 15% ing (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE), de- Top Engineering Schools for Veterans clared by the Indian Parliament as an “institution of national importance.” of colleges with the highest paid graduates. IIPE, which was initiated by the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural By Rashda Khan Gas, was established in 2016 in the state of Andhra Pradesh. At present, it Source: College Factual offers undergraduate degrees in petroleum and chemical engineering and The University of Houston Cullen College of from the 30th to 26th, out of 269 schools for Three UH Engineering Online Master’s is planning to offer various graduate program in energy-related fields. Engineering and several of its programs are veterans in the nation and 4th out of 18 ed- ranked among the “best of the best” institu- ucational institutions in Texas. The civil engi- Programs Ranked Among Top in Nation The aim of this MoU is to build scientific and technical knowledge through tions in the country for veterans to earn de- neering program rose from 39th to 31st, out of for Return on Investment joint research, as well as equip students at both institutions with skills and grees by College Factual in its 2019 Best for 207 schools in the nation. knowledge so they are able to compete in the dynamic energy industry. Vets rankings. According to the College Factual report, stu- By Rashda Khan The agreement was signed by V.S.R.K. Prasad, founding director of IIPE; Overall, the Cullen College sits in the top 10 dents who graduate from UH with degrees in Sudarsan Neogi, IIPE administrative liaison; Joseph W. Tedesco, Elizabeth percent of institutions for best value and most industrial engineering will make average an- Three online master’s programs in the University of Houston D. Rockwell Dean of the Cullen College of Engineering at UH; and Jaime popular engineering degrees among veter- nual early-career earnings of $64,314 and av- Cullen College of Engineering were recognized for providing Ortiz, UH vice provost for global strategies and studies. ans, as well as in the top 15 percent of colleges erage annual mid-career earnings of $77,778; high return on investment and best value in the 2019 Best On- with the highest paid graduates. alumni with civil engineering degrees will line Colleges rankings released by SR Education Group. At the signing, Prasad thanked his UH counterparts and urged them to have average early-career earnings of $56,839 nurture the young institute. “We wish that this institute should develop an Mechanical, chemical and electrical engi- and average mid-career earnings of $110,672; The recently released rankings put the online master of science international level of globalization of research within the energy industry neering at Cullen College ranked in the top those with mechanical engineering degrees degree in civil engineering at fifth; electrical engineering, 11th; such that any person with any energy problem should look towards this 10 percent of best value programs, with civil will have average early-career earnings of and mechanical engineering, 19th. institute,” he said. engineering in the top 15 percent. Mechanical $64,453 and average mid-career earnings of engineering program ranks in the top 5 per- $118,622; and graduates with electrical engi- SR Education Group, an education research publisher focused The agreement covers four key areas of possible collaboration, including cent of highest paid graduates, with civil engi- neering degrees will have average early-ca- on providing authoritative online resources for students, cre- faculty exchanges, student exchanges, joint research projects and joint ac- neering among the top 15 percent. reer earnings of $67,228 and average ated the Best Online Colleges list. The rankings are based on ademic events and activities, including short courses, seminars, workshops mid-career earnings of $104,707. two factors: salary potential and tuition rates. The SR Group and conferences. The two may also explore research and projects involving The mechanical engineering program jumped analyzed accredited online schools across the nation – taking distance and computer-based learning. from the previous year’s ranking of 27th to All the earnings shared are above the into account average mid-career salary data and annual tuition 15th, out of 272 schools for veteran friendli- national averages in their respective rates – to select the schools that offer the best value to their “We continue to build global alliances with academic and research partners ness. The electrical engineering program also fields. students. around the world,” said Tedesco. “IIPE is an excellent university and we’re showed significant improvement – moving very proud to have this opportunity to work together.”
12 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 13 houston news
UH Data Science Institute Receives
Mark your Calendar $10 Million for the Boost thc - 2019 from Hewlett Packard Enterprise Hurricane Conference Offers Texas and Gulf of By Jeannie Kever Updates on Mexico Hurricanes Hurricane and Major Disasters
The University of Houston announced a entific breakthroughs and industry-chang- The collaboration between HPE and UH Conference new collaboration with Hewlett Packard ing innovations hide in plain sight behind will go beyond funding, with HPE leaders Preparation Enterprise (HPE) in October, including a mountains of data. Data science is the serving as lecturers for UH classes and $10 million gift from HPE to the University. key to unlocking these breakthroughs and UH researchers helping to solve complex By Jeannie Kever The gift will benefit the University’s Data is critical as companies undergo digital problems for HPE customers. Students will Science Institute and include funding for transformation. work on research areas suggested by HPE, The Hurricanes, Major Disasters, Coastal Protection and Friday, August 2, 2019 (All day) a scholarship endowment, as well as both part of an effort to ensure students and Rapid Recovery in Texas and the Gulf Coast Region Confer- funding and equipment to enhance data HPE’s collaboration with the University is faculty are focused on real-world prob- ence brought emergency managers, public officials and in- University Hilton science research activities. part of a larger movement focused on ac- lems. dustry executives to the University of Houston Hilton hotel University of Houston celerating the development of Houston’s in August to discuss the latest in disaster preparations, loss “At HPE, we have a robust presence in innovation economy, led by organizations UH offers a number of certificate and de- mitigation and rapid recovery in the face of hurricanes and Houston, Texas 77204-3902 Houston and a long history of partnership like Houston Exponential. Gina Luna, chair gree programs in data analytics, statistics other storms. with the University of Houston. In fact, a of Houston Exponential, which is charged and related fields. Researchers from a vari- significant portion of our workforce here with accelerating development of the re- ety of disciplines use data science in work The conference is sponsored by the Texas Hurricane Center are alumni, so we are thrilled to have an gional digital tech ecosystem, said enhanc- ranging from health care diagnostics and for Innovative Technology, the UH Department of Civil and hurricane.egr.uh.edu opportunity to drive innovation in data ing Houston’s position as a leader in data imaging to improving the safety of offshore Environmental Engineering and Department of Industrial science and shape the future workforce in sciences is an important piece of that plan. drilling. Engineering. Cumaraswamy Vipulanandan (Vipu), pro- that area,” said Mark Potter, chief technol- fessor of civil and environmental engineering and director ogy officer at HPE and director of Hewlett “HPE’s commitment to this program at UH The UH Data Science Institute has been re- of the Texas Hurricane Center for Innovative Technology, Packard Labs. “We look forward to continu- is exciting for Houston,” she said. “As our named the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Data produces the annual conference to update emergency man- ing to expand the partnership over time core industries digitize, leveraging the pow- Science Institute (HPE DSI) in recognition of agers, suppliers, community members and the academic and tackling meaningful research that will er of data is critical to that transformation, the alliance. community with the latest practices and research. accelerate discoveries for the industry.” and collaborations between industry and academia are a key component. This part- Speakers included Charles Wemple, executive director of In today’s information age, the data being nership, along with many others, is essen- the Houston Galveston Area Council; David Casebeer, proj- created is only as valuable as the insights tial to accelerating our progress as a global ect manager at the Port of Houston; and Niel Golightly of that are gleaned from it. The secrets to sci- leader in this area.” the city of Houston’s recovery office.
14 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 15 lead news
ing. “We want to make sure that the nuclear processes, spanning applications from gaso- UH Engineer Part of waste is going to be stored for a sufficient line production to additives in laundry deter- Lean Electrolyte Yao, who is also a principal investigator with energy $800K DOE Study time and not have issues with the release of gent, among thousands of other commercial Design is a the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH, this material into the environment.” and consumer applications. and his team used the chloride-free electro- Targeting lyte to test organic quinone polymer cathodes Rimer is the principal investigator on a Rimer, an expert on crystallization, conducts with a magnesium metal anode, reporting Liang noted that until now the best cathode multi-agency research team studying the cor- groundbreaking research in this field.H is GAME CHANGER that they delivered up to 243 watt hours per for magnesium batteries has been a Chevrel SAFER STORAGE FOR rosion behavior of glass containers often used work has led to the development of drugs kilogram, with power measured at up to 3.4 phase molybdenum sulfide, developed al- for kidney stones (the first advance in kidney FOR MAGNESIUM kilowatts per kilogram. The battery remained most 20 years ago. It has neither the power stone therapy in 30 years) and malaria. His oil stable through 2,500 cycles. nor the energy storage capacity to compete NUCLEAR WASTE and gas industry-related projects target scal- with lithium batteries, he said. ing in pipes and increases in the efficiency of BATTERIES Scientists have spent decades searching for catalysts. a high-energy magnesium battery, hoping to But recent reports suggest organic cathode BY RASHDA KHAN BY JEANNIE KEVER take advantage of the natural qualities mag- materials can provide high storage capacity “At first glance, it looks as if I am embarking nesium has over lithium, the element used in at room temperature. “We were curious why,” About 20 percent of the electricity produced in on a completely new area of research. But on Researchers from the University of Houston standard lithium ion batteries. Magnesium is Liang said. the United States is generated at nuclear power a basic level we are asking the same types of and the Toyota Research Institute of America far more common and therefore less expen- plants, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulato- We want to make sure that the questions in all of our research: What are the have discovered a promising new version of sive, and it is not prone to breaches in its in- Dong said both organic polymer cathodes ry Commission (NRC). This means residents in nuclear waste is going to be stored fundamental driving forces of new zeolite for- high-energy magnesium batteries. Potential ternal structure – known as dendrites – that tested provided higher voltage than the one out of every five U.S. homes turn on their for a sufficient time and not have mation?” said Rimer. “If you understand the applications range from electric vehicles to can cause lithium batteries to explode and Chevrel phase cathode. lights, use refrigerators and make toast using mechanisms of crystal nucleation and growth, battery storage for renewable energy systems. catch fire. energy generated by nuclear power. issues with the release of this how to control these processes … then crystal- Yao said future research will focus on further material into the environment. lization becomes a broad platform that can be The battery, reported last December in Joule, But magnesium batteries won’t be commer- improving the specific capacity and voltage Nuclear materials and technology are import- applied over a wide range of different materi- cially competitive until they can store and for the batteries in order to compete against - jeffrey rimer is the first reported to operate with limited ant for other purposes, too, including radio- als and applications.” electrolytes while using an organic electrode, discharge large amounts of energy. Yao said lithium batteries. active isotopes for diagnosing and treating a change the researchers said allows it to previous cathode and electrolyte materials medical conditions, irradiation for making to store nuclear waste. Its goal is to find solu- have been a stumbling block. “Magnesium is much more abundant, and it The team store and discharge far more energy than ear- pest-resistant seed varieties, and radioactive tions to reduce or avoid the degeneration of lier magnesium batteries. They used a chlo- is safer,” he said. “People hope a magnesium isotopes for dating objects and identifying el- the containers. ride-free electrolyte, another change from the The cathode is the electrode from which the battery can solve the risks of lithium batter- Other members of the research team are ements in research. traditional electrolyte used by magnesium current flows in a battery, while the electro- ies.” James Neeway, Radha Motkuri and Jarrod The U.S. Department of Energy awarded batteries, which enabled the discovery. lytes are the medium through which the ionic While nuclear power generation emits rela- $800,000 to the project, titled “Formation Crum from the Pacific Northwest National charge flows between cathode and anode. Yao received the University of Houston Award Laboratory (PNNL) and Yanni Bourmpakis tively low amounts of air pollutants like car- of Zeolites Responsible for Waste Glass Rate Yan Yao, associate professor of electrical and for Excellence in Research and was named a from the University of Pittsburgh. bon dioxide it does produce nuclear waste, Acceleration: An Experimental and Compu- computer engineering at the UH Cullen Col- Other researchers on the project include first Highly Cited Researcher selected by Clarivate which can remain radioactive “for a few hours tational Study for Understanding Thermody- lege of Engineering, said the researchers were authors Hui Dong, a doctoral student at UH; Analytics based on “exceptional research per- The PNNL personnel are experts on storage or several months or even hundreds of thou- namic and Kinetic Processes.” able to confirm that chloride in the commonly Yanliang Leonard Liang, research assistant formance that rank in the top 1 percent by ci- and glass dissolution and will be handling sands of years,” according to the U.S. Environ- used electrolyte contributes to sluggish per- professor at UH; Oscar Tutusaus and Rana tations in Web of Science” in 2018. the assessment calculations, Rimer said. He mental Protection Agency. The basic components of the glass – silica and formance. “The problem we were trying to Mohtadi, with the Toyota Research Institute added that his Pittsburgh collaborator brings alumina – are also components of crystalline address is the impact of chloride,” he said. of North America; and UH doctoral students expertise in computations and will conduct With 99 nuclear reactors (two more under materials known as zeolites, which are pres- “It’s universally used.” Ye Zhang and Fang Hao. construction) operated by about 30 different ent initially in an amorphous state but then density-functional theory calculations on the power companies, America is the world’s eventually form zeolites. progression of the aluminosilicate dissolution largest producer of nuclear power. As of May and zeolite nucleation. 2018, there were 450 operating reactors in “During the process of glass dissolution 30 countries worldwide, according to NRC and recrystallization to zeolites, cavities are “This is a nicely formulated team in that each reports. opened within the amorphous glass that can partner is contributing something unique to 12 Magnesium is far more common and therefore potentially allow the radioactive material to the project, but at the same time there is a lot As such, the safe storage and disposal of the be released,” Rimer said. “This is detrimental of synergy between each of the three institu- less expensive, and it’s not prone to breaches radioactive waste is of paramount importance. to the overall goal of trying to keep nuclear tions and the roles of each participant in this waste contained.” project,” Rimer said. “I think the project will, in its internal structure – known as dendrites “Whenever we deal with nuclear energy, we as a result of our collaborative efforts, make significant headway to improve the efficiency Mg – that can cause lithium batteries to explode are always concerned about how we deal Exploring the role of zeolites properly with the waste that is generated,” of nuclear waste storage.” magnesium said Jeffrey Rimer, the Abraham E. Dukler Zeolites have been used for many years as ad- 24.305 Professor of chemical and biomolecular engi- sorbents and catalysts in a variety of chemical neering at the UH Cullen College of Engineer-
16 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 17 Lead news
World-renowned for their anti-icing ma- year research project to better understand Energy terials and research, UH engineer Hadi the nanoscale physics of gas hydrates. Ghasemi and his research group are ap- plying their expertise to a new subject – A better blockage solution gas hydrates. The current strategy in the petroleum in- “One of the important aspects of our re- dustry is to inject huge amounts of ethanol search that we’re working on as a group into pipelines at the first sign of hydrates is surface physics,” Ghasemi said. “We’re to dissolve the solids and prevent them trying to develop innovative and transfor- from forming again. But ethanol is pricey, mational surfaces to address problems in making this solution economically unfea- different industries.” This led his team to sible. consider issues facing offshore oil and gas production. Ghasemi’s group is aiming to come up with NATURAL GAS HYDRATES a cost-efficient solution. are ice-like crystalline solid Natural gas hydrates are ice-like crystal- structures that are formed when line solid structures that are formed when The research project has three main ob- water and gas come together at high pres- water and gas come together jectives: 1) developing new approaches to at high pressure and low sure and low temperature. Gas, most often accurately predict the growth rate of gas temperature. methane, is trapped inside these com- hydrates, 2) looking at the nanoscale phys- pounds making them highly flammable ics of the gas hydrates to pinpoint ways to and potentially hazardous. inhibit the growth of the hydrates, and 3) creating new surfaces that are hydrate-re- “When you have high pressure and low pellant to avoid any attachment. temperature in the underwater pipelines used in offshore petroleum extraction, it The group has already developed a method forms gas hydrates. They accumulate, and to predict the growth rate of the hydrates after a while they block the pipeline,” he and has used it in a few case studies. said. “Eventually, it may cause the pipeline to shut down or could cause it to blow up. “The fundamental knowledge that we’re It’s a big problem.” going to gain in this project is going to help us avoid any catastrophe in the off- In the 2010 Deepwater Horizon situation, shore pipelines and more importantly to gas hydrates were a major issue in the use hydrates as an efficient material to CLOGGING containment of the oil leak following the address global energy problems,” Ghasemi blowout of the Macondo well in the Gulf said. of Mexico. Natural gas hydrate reservoirs occur in the Despite their negative impact in oil and Arctic region, an area which happens to gas pipelines, gas hydrates are a poten- be of high interest to the National Science tial asset when present in large natural Foundation. PIPELINES gas deposits in arctic regions or in oceanic sediments along the continental margins, “There’s so much unexplored potential, so New Research Promises Safer, Ghasemi added. The global estimate of the much knowledge that exists there and we amount of energy (methane gas) in natu- don’t know anything about it,” Ghasemi IN THE 2010 DEEPWATER More EfficientO ffshore Oil ral gas hydrate deposits is approximately said. “There is great interest in acquiring twice that of all fossil fuel reserves avail- fundamental knowledge that we’re miss- HORIZON SITUATION, able worldwide. This makes gas hydrates ing from the Arctic region.” gas hydrates were a major issue Production attractive fuel sources. in the containment of the oil He is happy to contemplate the possibil- Ghasemi, Bill D. Cook Assistant Professor leak following the blowout of ity of a future research trip to the Arc- the Macondo well in the Gulf of of mechanical engineering at the UH Cul- tic. “There’s a lot of ice and gas hydrates By Rashda Khan Mexico. len College of Engineering, won a $110,000 there,” he said. grant from the American Chemical Soci- ety’s Petroleum Research Fund for a two-
18 Parameters Spring/summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 19 Lead news
Researchers Create Smartphone Environment BEYOND System That Tests for ARCHAEOLOGY
NCALM Pursues New Shih and his students last year published an open-source dataset in Biomedical Optics Ex- Technology, New press (a peer-reviewed journal published by The Optical Society) explaining how to con- Projects vert a smartphone equipped with the elasto- mer lens into a microscope capable of fluo- rescence microscopy. That paper has been the BY JEANNIE KEVER journal’s most frequently downloaded paper LiDAR gathers detailed information by shooting hundreds IN WATER since its publication. The National Center for Airborne Laser Map- of thousands of laser bursts per second at the ground then ping (NCALM) is best-known for its head- The latest application incorporates color anal- line-grabbing work in archaeology. Among transforms the data into intricate topographical maps. BY JEANNIE KEVER ysis to detect nanoscale lead particles. them are the 2016 discovery of previously un- known ruins of a complex Maya settlement The discovery of lead in the Flint, Mich., water ter to be below 15 parts per billion. Shih said Joining Shih as researchers on the project in the Guatemalan jungles, undocumented supply drew renewed attention to the health currently available consumer test kits aren’t were first author Hoang Nguyen, assistant settlements from an ancient civilization in then transforms the data into intricate The center also offers seed grants to fund risks posed by the metal. Now researchers at sensitive enough to accurately detect lead at professor, and Xiaonan Shan, assistant pro- Honduras uncovered in 2012, and detailed topographical maps. projects submitted by graduate students the University of Houston have created an that level. fessor, and Yulung Sung and Kelly O’Shaugh- mapping of more than a dozen other settle- from around the nation; 121 have been inexpensive system using a smartphone and nessy. All are with the UH Electrical and Com- ments in Mexico and Central America. More than 530 scientific papers have been funded in the past 15 years. Glennie said a lens made with an inkjet printer that can By using an inexpensive smartphone puter Engineering Department. published in peer-reviewed journals using the latest National Science Foundation detect lead in tap water at levels commonly equipped with an inkjet-printed lens and us- But center researchers also use another data gathered by NCALM. The papers have funding will allow NCALM to continue the accepted as dangerous. ing the dark-field imaging mode, researchers Building upon the smartphone microscope measure of success. been cited about 8,000 times, according to grants. were able to produce a system that was both platform to create a useful consumer product the Web of Science indexing service. The system builds upon previous develop- portable and easy to operate, as well as able was key, Shih said. “We wanted to be sure “The archaeology work is significant, and Center director Ramesh Shrestha, profes- ments – including an inexpensive elastomer to detect lead concentrations at 5 parts per we could do something that would be useful it gets a lot of attention,” said Craig Glen- Most of the data is made publicly available sor of civil and environmental engineer- lens capable of converting a basic smart- billion in tap water. The sensitivity reached from the standpoint of detecting lead at the nie, associate professor of civil and envi- through OpenTopography. Datasets involv- ing, said the center has three mandates: phone into a microscope – made by Wei-Ch- 1.37 parts per billion in deionized water. EPA standard,” he said. ronmental engineering at the University of ing California’s San Andreas and San Ja- provide high-quality research data to sci- uan Shih, associate professor of electrical & Houston, where NCALM is based, and prin- cinto faults have proved the most popular, entists, advance the technology for laser computer engineering, and members of his ciple investigator on a $3.26 million, five- downloaded almost 4,000 times. mapping and train graduate students to lab team. year operational grant from the National use the technologies. Master’s and Ph.D. Science Foundation. “But the center has Now 15 years old, NCALM has been based programs in geosensing systems engineer- The latest discovery, described in the journal produced important science from our work at UH since 2010 and is operated jointly ing and sciences were started in 2013 and By using an inexpensive Analytical Chemistry, combines nano-colorime- with earthquakes, landslides, wildfires and with the University of California at Berke- 2015, respectively. try with dark-field microscopy, integrated into smartphone equipped with other efforts to map terrain and how it ley. Researchers use laser mapping, satel- the smartphone microscope platform to de- evolves over time.” lite data analysis and other technologies NCALM also plays a key role in advancing an inkjet-printed lens and tect levels of lead below the safety threshold to produce high-quality scientific data in technology, he said, most recently through set by the Environmental Protection Agency. using the dark-field imaging Researchers mapped lava flow from Kilauea a variety of fields, including archaeology, work with the Army Corps of Engineers in Hawaii this summer, helping assess risk Homeland Security, environmental studies Cold Regions Research and Engineering mode, researchers were able “Smartphone nano-colorimetry is rapid, low- of earthquakes and landslides. Locally, they and natural disaster surveillance. Lab to develop a portable high-resolution cost and has the potential to enable individual to produce a system that have flown over Buffalo Bayou to help de- helicopter mounted LiDAR system. citizens to examine (lead) content in drinking lineate flood damage caused by Hurricane To date, NCALM has provided research- qual- was both portable and easy water on-demand in virtually any environ- Harvey. ity LiDAR data for 169 projects that repre- “Flying a helicopter that can be rented mental setting,” the researchers wrote. to operate, as well as able to sent: near the location is less expensive than Although the center uses several tech- using the airplane equipped with NCALM’s detect lead concentrations at Even small amounts of lead can cause serious niques, its best-known work involves LiDAR • 85 principal investigators at 61 universi- multi-wavelength LiDAR system,” Shrestha health problems, with young children espe- 5 parts per billion in tap water. technology. LiDAR gathers detailed infor- ties said. “That will allow researchers to collect cially vulnerable to neurological damage. EPA mation by shooting hundreds of thousands data for smaller and more remote projects standards require lead levels in drinking wa- of laser bursts per second at the ground • 24 U.S. states and eight foreign countries that previously weren’t cost-effective.”
20 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 21 Lead news
trate acts as a mild inhibitor of the crystals mechanisms of controlling their growth Fundamentals Cullen College but is incapable of significantly reducing and nucleation,” Rimer said. stone incidence rates among patients with Professors Earn $765K chronic disease. Welch Awards to Jeremy Palmer Remarkably, experiments on liquid water “Understanding the factors governing the performed slightly above this temperature Continue specific recognition and interactions be- Assistant Professor reveal that it continues to defy normal tween drug molecules and crystal surfac- Title: Metastable Liquid-Liquid Phase liquid behavior and expand upon cooling. es helps us design more effective crystal Transitions and Glass Polymorphism in Many other peculiar behaviors, such as its LIFE-ALTERING growth inhibitors,” Rimer said. “Our group Tetrahedral Fluids increased compressibility upon cooling, is working to develop new drugs that can Amount: $240,000 are also observed in water at low tempera- supplant citrate for calcium oxalate stone tures. RESEARCH disease.” Palmer earned his Welch Award to expand on his postdoctoral research on the phase Although water is the most studied sub- Rimer has filed a patent on the promis- behavior of liquid water at low tempera- stance in the world, the physical origin of BY RASHDA KHAN ing new drug for the treatment of kidney tures. its unusual behavior upon cooling contin- stones that serves as the basis for this next ues to elude scientists. And it is not the Three UH Cullen College chemical and bio- phase of research. He is collaborating with “We’re trying to fill a knowledge gap about only substance that behaves strangely. Ev- molecular engineering professors received a nephrologist at Litholink Corporation to the unusual behavior exhibited by some idence suggests that liquid forms of silicon funding from The Welch Foundation for We started a program with our first Welch Awards to perform human trials and a chemical en- liquids –tetrahedral liquids such as water, and possibly carbon exhibit similar trends. their contributions to basic chemical re- develop new understandings of crystal growth inhi- gineering professor at the University of silica and carbon – when they’re cooled search that benefits humankind. These Pittsburgh to perform computational sim- near or below their normal freezing point,” “These are some of the most ubiquitous three-year grants extend from 2018 to bition. The primary focus has been calcium oxalate in ulations of drug-crystal interactions. Palmer said. and important substances on earth,” Palm- 2021. kidney stones, which will be continued in this renewed er said. “They shape almost every aspect award with a new set of objectives that switch our Rimer intends to leverage Welch fund- Water’s density anomaly is one well-known of our natural world and life as we know it, Jeffrey Rimer earned a $330,000 award ing for future phases of his research. For example of this unusual behavior. As liq- and yet we still don’t understand why they to continue his search for more effective direction from growth to nucleation. example, he and his collaborators are re- uid water cools at ambient pressure, its behave the way that they do.” drugs to treat kidney stone disease. Jeremy cruiting other researchers to conduct an- density increases like most simple liquids. Palmer was awarded a $240,000 grant to - jeffrey rimer imal testing to determine drug efficacy in However, at 4 degrees Celsius, water does With Welch Foundation support, Palmer further expand his postdoctoral research vivo, for which he is looking to the Nation- something strange. It starts to expand and and his research team will use state-of- on unusual phase behaviors exhibited by the-art computer simulation techniques given more than $64.8 million to the Uni- ring biological growth inhibitors on kid- al Institutes of Health to fund. to become less dense as it cools. Although water molecules during supercooling. Ja- to study molecular models of these sub- versity of Houston. ney stones. The foundation renewed his liquid water normally freezes into ice at cinta Conrad won a $195,000 grant so she stances to better understand their odd be- award in 2015 to explore small, organic The award funds more than three full-time zero C, it can be stabilized in experiments can continue exploring the structure and haviors. Their investigation will focus on molecules as potential drugs to treat the graduate students to help conduct the re- to about 42 C below zero, at which point dynamics of attractive nanoparticle glasses. Jeffrey Rimer the physical origin and broader thermo- kidney disease. This year’s funding focus- search. freezing occurs too rapidly for measure- ments on liquid water to be performed. dynamic implications of the liquid-liquid The three awards add up to $765,000 in es on further developing a promising new Abraham E. Dukler Professor “Funding from the Welch Foundation has research funding. drug Rimer’s research team recently dis- Title: Physicochemical Factors Govern- covered: hydroxycitrate. allowed us to expand research efforts to ing Molecular Modification of Calcium other areas,” Rimer said. “New advances can only come from a Oxalate Crystallization better understanding of how the world “In the past 30 years there have been no Amount: $330,000 With the funding, he has broadened the works,” said Carin Marcy Barth, chair of advancements in therapies for kidney scope of his kidney stone work to include The Welch Foundation. “Our mission as a stone disease,” Rimer said. “We started a Occasional and chronic kidney stones – other types of stones that can occur – foundation is to support that critical basic program with our first Welch Awards to water does something strange – it starts to which are crystal aggregates made up of brushite and struvite – and to foster col- research. It has been so rewarding to work develop new understandings of crystal mostly calcium salts that form in the kid- laborations with medical and pharmacy expand and become less dense as it cools with UH faculty as well as scientists across growth inhibition. The primary focus has ney – affect approximately 10 percent of schools to explore fundamental aspects the state who are expanding knowledge at been calcium oxalate in kidney stones, the U.S. population. A recent study pub- of crystal growth, the design of new ther- the fundamental level. Ultimately, these which will be continued in this renewed lished in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings jour- apeutics and methods of translating this insights lead to solving real-world prob- award with a new set of objectives that nal suggests the number of patients suf- knowledge into practice. lems and improving lives.” switch our direction from growth to nucle- fering from painful kidney stones is on the ation.” rise. “The results of this project have implica- The Houston-based Welch Foundation is tions for improving human health, but our one of the largest private funding sources The current treatment for kidney stones is Rimer earned his first Welch grant in 2012 findings have also uncovered new funda- for chemistry research in America. Since an organic molecule called citrate, which to study mechanisms of naturally occur- mental insights about crystallization and its inception in 1954, the foundation has is an over-the-counter supplement. Ci-
22 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 23 lead news phase transition. fundamentals
“The insights gained from this research will address fundamental knowledge gaps that currently frustrate interpretation of the growing body of experimental work in this field, crystal nucleation and glass tran- sitions in tetrahedral liquids,” Palmer said.
Jacinta Conrad UH Professor Discovers Issue at the Root of Ernest J. and Barbara M. Henley Associate Professor SEVEN-YEAR WATER DISPUTE Title: Dynamics in Attractive Nanoparticle Supercooled Liquids and Glasses BY RASHDA KHAN Amount: $195,000
Conrad is using her Welch Award to ex- A scientific quest, started with genuine cu- Initially, the two teams started to work plore one of the most intriguing basic riosity and a passion for research, turned together to resolve the issue. But after a problems in physical chemistry: the nature into a Hatfield-McCoy style feud that last- year, no consensus had been reached and of the glass transition. ed seven years. the relationship had soured – each side We can watch every single colloid as it convinced its answer and methods were Glasses lack long-range order and look This legendary dispute and the man who correct. So started a scientific dispute con- structurally like liquids but behave me- transitions from a disordered liquid to an finally resolved it – Jeremy Palmer, assis- ducted mostly via journal publications and chanically like solids. In contrast, many ordered solid, such as crystal. But none of tant professor of chemical and biomolec- conference presentations. solids are ordered crystals, in which the ular engineering at the UH Cullen College the theories work for glasses. molecules or atoms are arranged in a regu- of Engineering – are featured in an article The stalemate continued lar lattice. Ordered crystals and disordered - jacinta conrad titled “The War Over Supercooled Water” glasses can be composed of the same mol- published in Physics Today. until Palmer, then ecules, but their structures and how they form are very different. Despite years of assistant professor at research, the reasons for these differences The beginning UH, dove deep into the are poorly understood among scientists. glasses.” scopic theories of the glass transition in a model for molecular liquids, confine su- Berkeley team’s computer Two teams of researchers – one at Princ- “While we have a basic understanding of Conrad hypothesizes that differences be- percooled liquids in 2-D and 3-D for test- eton University and the other at the Uni- code and discovered the crystal formation, we don’t understand tween the predictions of existing theories ing and generate ultrastable nanoparticle versity of California, Berkeley – worked to what drives the formation of glass,” Con- and the measurements on experimental glasses through slow sedimentation for error in their calculations. answer the same fundamental question: rad said. “There is not one unifying theory glasses are caused by attractive interac- additional testing. What happens when liquid water is cooled that explains the phenomenon.” tions between the colloids, which she and Palmer, who won a National Science Foun- far below its freezing point? her team will control in this study. “This ambitious research program will dation CAREER Award in 2018, said re- Conrad’s research group uses a novel col- open new avenues to develop fundamen- producibility is a key part of the research Water that’s free of dust and other impuri- loidal model system to study the structure In her model system, she can make the tal insight into the nature of the glass tran- process. He is creating a short course for ties on which ice crystals can form can be and dynamics of colloidal particles across particles attractive, or sticky, by adding sition,” she said. graduate and undergraduate researchers supercooled tens of degrees below 0 de- the phase transition from dense liquid to small polymers to her solutions. The poly- at the Cullen College focused on whether grees Celsius. But all water in liquid form, glass. Their objective is to test existing mers crowd the colloids, and this crowding Conrad hopes to establish the usefulness findings by one research group can be re- no matter how clean, crystallizes at about theories for the glass transition, which will pushes the colloids together to create an of her novel colloidal modeling system produced by another. -40 degrees Celsius in experiments. increase fundamental understanding and effective attraction. She plans to study the for testing existing theories and to study help engineers tailor mechanical proper- effects of these attractions in controlled the glass transition in thin films and small “It’s a huge issue,” Palmer said. “Eighty Both teams wanted to know what theoret- ties of glasses for practical applications. settings to better reconcile the gaps be- drops, which is relevant for applications in percent of the work out there is not repro- ical models predict water might look like tween theories and experiments. coatings and 3-D printing. ducible to the extent it should be.” “We can watch every single colloid as it at even colder conditions. Each came up Jeremy Palmer with a different answer. transitions from a disordered liquid to an Over the course of this three-year grant, “If it can’t be reproduced, it’s not science,” ordered solid, such as crystal,” Conrad Conrad’s research team will test micro- he said. said. “But none of the theories work for
24 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 25 Lead news
Surprisingly, very little is known about an em- Can Nanoparticles Be Health & medicine UNDERSTANDING bryo’s developing heart. Used to pothesis that the plant-based nanopar- searchers to test how the drugs affect the “Defining how these mechanical factors inte- ticles will be less toxic than many other microbiome at different dosages. grate with genetic pathways and heart func- forms of nanoparticle. They are designed CONGENITAL tion is critically important for understanding to dissolve in the simulated pig intestine. The goal is to determine if administering congenital heart defects and heart failure,” LOWER ANTIBIOTIC antibiotics in a different way will avoid the said Larin. Such information is required to de- The reactor mimics a pig’s lower intestine, widespread damage to the microbiome as- HEART DEFECTS velop new strategies for therapeutic interven- with a dialysis bag positioned to capture sociated with current practices. tions of heart defects. RESISTANCE? to Prevent Them nutrients as pig slurry is funneled through. Louie said the bag functions much like the “We’ll study how the microbial community While multiple studies suggest that cardiac gut, allowing water, sugars and other nu- is changing and what genes related to an- contraction, blood flow and stiffness each BY LAURIE FICKMAN BY JEANNIE KEVER trients to pass through. tibiotic resistance are emerging,” Rodrigues influence cardiovascular development of the said. heart, their individual roles remain unknown. To understand cardiovascular failures, the Antibiotic resistance is one of the world’s Antibiotics – both at regular dosages and The team’s project, defining the roles of cardi- leading cause of birth defect-related deaths most serious threats to public health, forc- the minute amounts in the nanoparticles – This work is supported by the USDA Nation- ac contraction and flow-induced shear stress in infants, UH professor of biomedical engi- ing the use of medications that are more will be added to the slurry, allowing the re- al Institute of Food and Agriculture. in regulating mechanical stiffness, is part of a neering Kirill Larin is teaming up with Baylor toxic, more expensive and not always ef- $3 million grant from the National Institutes While multiple studies College of Medicine professor of cellular and fective. There are several causes, including of Health. molecular physiology Irina Larina on a chick- suggest that cardiac over-prescription of antibiotics in both hu- en and egg hunt. mans and in livestock. It is well established that biomechanical stim- contraction, blood uli are important regulators of proper cardio- “When the heart develops, it becomes stiffer Two engineers with the University of Hous- vascular development. The research team will flow and stiffness as required for ability to contract and pump ton have embarked on a project to deter- get a bird’s eye view, watching the heart devel- blood,” said Larin. “So the question is: Does each influence mine whether the use of tiny amounts op in utero using optical coherence tomogra- it become stiff because it’s contracting, or is of antibiotics embedded in corn-based phy (OCT), a noninvasive high-resolution ret- cardiovascular it stiff to begin with because it is genetically nanoparticles could allow the use of low- ina imaging technology that uses light waves predefined?” er dosages and avoid wiping out the mi- to take cross-section pictures. Larin is one of development of the crobiome – the collection of both healthy the pioneers of using OCT to image portions heart, their individual and disease-causing bacteria found in the of the body without touching or making a cut. intestines – and the resulting genetic mu- He describes the method as “frontier technol- roles remain unknown. tations that lead to antibiotic resistance. ogy,” and is using it in his other work to assess if heart medicine is working and scar tissue is Debora Rodrigues, associate professor of in tHE healing immediately following a heart attack. civil and environmental engineering, and Stacey Louie, assistant professor of civil and UnitEd statEs Larin is developing the data processing meth- environmental engineering, have developed a ods and the imaging tools which will deliver reactor to simulate pig intestines in order to 3-D images and will be “super-fast to catch study how antibiotics react in the pig micro- the cardiac cycle and all the activity as the biome. heart forms,” he said. “Pigs have a lot of similarities to humans,” “One out of every 100 babies in the United The goal is to determine if said Rodrigues, principal investigator on States has a congenital heart defect leading a $437,535 grant from the USDA National administering antibiotics to death,” said Larin. “Understanding biome- Institute of Food and Agriculture. “We are chanical regulation of heart development is working with livestock, but ultimately it in a different way will 1 oUt oF 100 highly important for better management of could be helpful for humans.” babiEs HavE congenital heart defects.” avoid the widespread congEnital Collaborators Cristina Sabliov and Carlos The project fills a significant gap in the field damage to the Astete at Louisiana State University will HEart dEsEasE of early mammalian cardiac development and create corn-based nanoparticles loaded defines the role of cardiac forces in maintain- microbiome associated with antibiotics for the project. ing mechanical stiffness and cell differentia- with current practices. tion. Early data supports the researchers’ hy-
26 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 27 Lead news Health & medicine Researchers in Houston and elsewhere have Hermann, a nationally ranked rehabilitation shown that robotic systems controlled by the hospital, in a quest to design medical user’s own brain activity can help patients systems that can assist in recovery from ics, he said the researchers are focused on recovering from stroke and other disabling strokes and other injuries and illnesses. using it to help people recover from stroke. injuries. But the demonstrations have taken It will be tested in the clinic at TIRR before place in highly controlled settings, and none Other partners in the project are National being sent home with patients. of the systems have been approved for use Instruments Corp. and Harmonic Bionics, in clinics or patient’s homes. both based in Austin. The UH Office of “The research team of the physical medi- ‘SMART’ Intellectual Property Management will help cine and rehabilitation department is fortu- An engineer from the University of Houston with commercialization, and Jeff Feng, associate nate to be a part of this project, which will is leading a team of researchers, healthcare professor for the UH Gerald D. Hines College of make a difference and improve the quali- providers and industry to fast-track the Architecture and Design who has a background ty of life in stroke survivors,” said Dr. Ge- commercialization of a groundbreaking in the design of medical devices, will work rard Francisco, chairman and professor of robotic rehabilitation system. Backed by a with Contreras-Vidal on the headset design to physical medicine and rehabilitation with $750,000 grant from the National Science optimize usability and form factor. McGovern Medical School at the University Foundation’s Partnerships for Innovation of Texas Health Science Center at Houston ROBOTIC program (the NSF PFI program), the goal is and chief medical officer and director of the to build a system that can be approved by NeuroRecovery Research Center at TIRR the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Memorial Hermann. is sturdy, simple and inexpensive enough for stroke patients to use at home. Each year, thousands “Each year, thousands suffer a stroke which can leave them facing a long road of reha- “We want to break that wall between the suffer a stroke which can bilitation. By developing this device for use SYSTEM lab and home,” said Jose Luis Contreras- at home, it can be an added and convenient Vidal, professor of electrical and computer leave them facing a long component to their rehabilitation journey.” engineering at UH and co-director of the road of rehabilitation. By COULD OFFER Building Reliable Advances and Innovation Harmony Bionics will produce the robot- in Neurotechnology (BRAIN) Center, a NSF- developing this device ic device, while National Instruments will supported Industry/University Collaborative for use at home, it can be provide a compact, embedded hardware HOME-BASED Research Center based at UH and Arizona solution for the brain-computer interface State University. “We want to build a system an added and convenient system and provide technical assistance. REHABILITATION that can be used at home with FDA approval.” component to their “There is a growing need for accelerating The NSF PFI program allows academic rehabilitation journey. the transition to practice of the discoveries innovators to advance prior NSF-funded and innovations that start at universities,” BY JEANNIE KEVER research by further developing technologies said Igor Alvarado, business development that show promise for commercialization manager for academic research at National and societal impact. Such technology Instruments. “This project allows us to help development efforts benefit from industry- - jose luis contreras-vidal advance new at-home rehab technologies academic collaborations that are needed to for stroke patients by providing the data ac- accelerate the transition of technology from quisition and control platform to be used in the academic lab to the marketplace. prototyping, testing and deploying the new “It has to be very user friendly,” Contre- rehab device.” The rehabilitation systems work by capturing ras-Vidal said. The idea is that use of the de- electrical activity in the brain, which can be vice – it will be modeled on a simple rowing National Instruments also will oversee a translated into movement through the use of machine and at least initially will focus on national competition, which will release the algorithms that decode movement intent from the upper limbs – will promote plasticity in researchers’ datasets and encourage peo- patterned brain activity. Early versions of this the brain and the restoration of motor func- ple elsewhere to suggest improvements in brain-computer interface relied upon a skull tion. Contreras-Vidal said the same concept the decoding algorithms. cap embedded with the sensors, but Contreras- could apply to the lower limbs to restore a Vidal said any system intended for home use patient’s ability to walk. “That’s STEM outreach,” Contreras-Vidal will have to be far simpler for patients to use. said. “But it’s also citizen-science and ad- While the work also has applications for vir- vancing the state of the art.” He has worked for years with TIRR Memorial tual reality, gaming and consumer electron-
28 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 29 Lead news Health & medicine Establishing Immunotherapy for Pediatric Liver WOMEN AND Cancer BY LAURIE FICKMAN LUPUS As part of a $6 million effort to establish new therapies for high-risk pediatric liver - Tackling the cancer, Navin Varadarajan, associate pro- fessor of chemical and biomolecular engi- Debilitating neering at the Cullen College of Engineer- ing, will modify T cells to recognize and kill Connection glypican-3, a molecule found in liver cancer cells.
BY LAURIE FICKMAN Inherently that’s what the immune systems’ white T cells do – they fight invaders or in- fections. It is also what Varadarajan does. With two previous awards from the Cancer With a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, UH biomedical Prevention & Research Institute of Texas engineer Chandra Mohan will examine why more women than men get lupus. (CPRIT), Varadarajan is working to improve The hope is to get consistent effectiveness of T-cell immunotherapy. On this CPRIT multi-investigator research The chronic inflammatory disease system- Genetic studies have led to the identifica- hormones interface to cause autoimmuni- and durable patient responses in award, he joins Andras Heczey, a physician ic lupus erythematosus (known as SLE or tion of several genes involved with lupus, ty. A better understanding of the patho- researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, in lupus), is about nine times more common but how they operate is still unclear. One of genic mechanisms underlying the disease pediatric HCC by using the power of examining one of the most common forms in women than men, and a University of these genes is the Bank1. will also pave the way toward better ther- of liver cancer in adolescents, hepatocellu- immunotherapy. Houston researcher now has the money apeutics, he said. lar (HCC) carcinoma. HCC patient survival to find out why. The National Institutes “We will examine how the Bank1 impacts B-cell rate is under 30 percent. of Health has awarded Chandra Mohan, function and disease, in concert with female Mohan is one of the leading lupus re- Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Endowed sex hormones,” said Mohan. “A unique aspect searchers in the world. For more than - navin varadarajan No effective cure is available for most Professor of biomedical engineering, $2 of this grant is its focus on unraveling why fe- three decades he’s been exploring the dis- metastatic hepatocellular tumors. Current million dollars to examine the connection. males are more prone to lupus, by factoring in ease on different fronts. ceptors and then Varadarajan will get to treatment includes surgical resection or the contributions of culprit genes and estro- work. “The hope is to get consistent and dura- liver transplantation in combination with Mohan knows just where he’s taking the gens.” “There are three major areas we need ad- ble patient responses in pediatric HCC by dose-intensive chemotherapy regimens money – straight to the bank. Bank1, that vances in concerning lupus,” said Mohan. “We have a platform for documenting how using the power of immunotherapy,” said (associated with significant morbidity is, a critical gene in B-Lymphocytes, im- Merely having a target is a step forward. “We need a better understanding of the well T cells work and we will use it to deter- Varadarajan, who credits CPRIT with the in HCC) which may cause low blood-cell mune cells which make the antibodies that The complex autoimmune disease is diffi- disease, we need to know if we can diag- mine which T cell properties are essential in steps forward in immunotherapy. counts, hearing impairment, speech and cause lupus when they misguidedly attack cult to diagnose and treat because it is a nose and monitor the disease better using fighting the cancer cells,” said Varadarajan, cognitive delay, and long-term damage to the body’s own cells. multisystem disorder, typically impacting better biomarkers, and we need to know whose team built the microscopy-based “Texas taxpayers are amazing for funding the heart. “It is thus critical to develop new, skin, joints and kidneys. The disease is superior ways to treat the disease.” methods for monitoring cellular function. CPRIT. Much of this research would not effective and safer therapies,” said Varada- “Bank1 exists in men and women, but in characterized by high levels of anti-nucle- be possible without it,” said Varadarajan. rajan. women the consequences are more drastic ar autoantibodies and B-cell hyperactivity. On this grant Mohan is joined by Chin-Yo Once determined, certain functions can be CPRIT’s goal is to expedite innovation in because the Bank1 gene and female hor- Only one treatment for lupus has been ap- Lin of the UH Center for Nuclear Recep- added or subtracted through genetic edit- cancer research and product development, T cell-based immunotherapy has worked in mones work together on the same pathway proved in nearly 60 years. tors and Cell Signaling and biologist Anne ing to make the T cell the best cancer fight- and to enhance access to evidence-based other types of cancers, like leukemia and and make even higher levels of disease-caus- Satterthwaite of UT Southwestern Medical er possible. The modified cells will deliver prevention programs throughout the state lymphoma. The team at Baylor will isolate ing auto antibodies,” said Mohan. Mohan will examine the molecular mecha- Center in Dallas. targeted and tailored therapy in clinical of Texas. the T cells, modify them with synthetic re- nisms through which lupus genes and sex trials at Baylor.
30 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 31 Lead news
most urgent threats to the public’s health.” a common antibiotic, was 5 percent. Today A New Take on it is more than 50 percent. Health & medicine “People are dying, there’s no question FIGHTING MULTI- about that. And it’s because bacteria, time Combining antibiotics has emerged as a has been used to predict IBD, but it is sub- and again, have come up with ways to typical practice to treat infections caused optimal, according to Mohan, because its fight back against the antibiotics we are by virulent strains of bacteria resistant to a specificity and sensitivity are not perfect in DRUG RESISTANT throwing at them and survive,” said Col- single antibiotic. But quickly choosing the predicting the diseases. Until now, no one lege of Pharmacy professor Vincent Tam correct combination is tricky. For instance, looked for other stool proteins in a compre- who, along with Michael Nikolaou, pro- the antibiotic prescribed for a wound in- hensive fashion. BACTERIA fessor of chemical and biomolecular en- fection is not the same one prescribed for gineering, intends to even the score with strep throat or a myriad of other infec- By examining the levels of 1100 different bacteria by optimizing clinical use of anti- tions. BY LAURIE FICKMAN proteins in IBD stool samples supplied by biotic combinations to combat resistance. Kugathasan, Mohan and doctoral student “A robust method to guide rational selec- Two UH researchers have won a five-year, Sanam Soomro have narrowed down to 50 “In the war of people versus bacteria, bac- tion of effective antibiotic combinations $3.5 million grant from the National Insti- the number of proteins that are consistent- teria are winning,” said Tam. It’s not just is crucial to help prevent returning to the tute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to ly elevated in IBD stools. That means they because they reproduce every 20 minutes pre-antibiotic era of untreatable infec- develop technology that will quickly sug- have found new and simple ways to predict and outnumber all of us (estimates pro- tions,” said Tam. The team is working with gest the most promising combinations of who has IBD. pose 5 million trillion-trillion bacteria), an external company, BacterioScan, to de- antibiotics to kill certain resistant bacte- they also have become more sophisticated velop a rapid diagnostic device that will ria. According to the Centers for Disease It is significant because Mohan’s team stud- and resistant. Thirty years ago, the chanc- test bacterial responses to several drug Control, “Antibiotic resistance is one of the ies many bodily fluids from several autoim- es of bacteria being resistant to ampicillin, combinations. Clinicians will place bacte- mune diseases and this one seems to work ria samples in the device, a box, which will better than others. “This one is really good monitor bacterial growth in the presence because we see really high levels – and they of different antibiotics and will automati- are crystal clear compared to healthy con- cally process collected data to spit out pre- trol stools – so we know something is going dictions of the best combinations in short on there,” said Mohan. order. As an added bonus, better disease diag- “I don’t have the time and luxury to take nosis, monitoring and therapy in IBD can days, if not weeks, to figure this out when significantly improve the lives of patients. a patient is dying. The device we are devel- Diagnosing or monitoring the disease from oping will only take hours,” said Tam, who a stool test is easier, less invasive and less envisions these monitors in every hospital Stool Proteins to expensive than endoscopy or colonoscopy. lab. The box will deliver a raw signal, or string of numbers, that Nikolaou’s algo- For instance, a patient already diagnosed rithms will interpret to deliver a predicted PREDICT INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE with IBD might find out early if the disease ranking system of the best combinations. is flaring or the symptoms are merely tran- BY LAURIE FICKMAN sient, indicating a momentary disturbance. Initial testing will include bacteria P. aeru- The hope is that the biomarker will tell the ginosa, which cause pneumonia; A. bau- difference. If the disease is flaring up, the mannii, which cause urinary tract infec- University of Houston researcher Chandra both of which cause inflammation in the biomarker in the stool will increase, mean- tions and meningitis; and the superbug Mohan is set to make a breakthrough in digestive tract. Mohan is one of the world’s ing the patient can get treated quicker. Klebsiella pneumoniae, which can cause predicting and monitoring inflammatory leading experts in autoimmune disease, all three illnesses and others. They will test bowel disease (IBD). With $347,490 from particularly lupus. Mohan envisions a self-care or easy-care kit different structural classes of antibiotics to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of Ameri- one day where patients can immediately hit the bugs at different sites. ca, he and IBD expert Subra Kugathasan, a “With the right biomarkers, we could be in understand what is happening inside, much gastroenterologist at Emory University, are the position to predict the diseases even like the saliva test and home-test kit for lu- Since bacteria are different from person examining stool protein biomarkers that in- before a diagnosis is made using conven- pus his team is creating. to person, this approach is a personal- dicate the disease. tional approaches,” said Mohan, Hugh Roy ized solution to a problem that cannot be and Lillie Cranz Cullen Endowed Professor “If we have the right biomarkers, this has solved with a one-size-fits-all prescription. An autoimmune disease, IBD occurs when of biomedical engineering. the potential to be a major breakthrough,” the body’s immune system fights its intes- said Mohan. “It is tailor-made and customized to de- tinal cells. Two of the most common types It’s a long time coming. For two decades liver results for a specific bacterium for a are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, only one stool protein, fecal calprotectin, specific patient,” said Tam.
32 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 33 lead news
will lead to reward, but since it contributes health & medicine Watching an to those feelings of pleasure and reward, it also plays a part in addiction. cognitive and neurobehavioral deficits.
EMBRYO’S NEURAL “The impacted dopamine can result in ba- The Akay lab previously published work in- We will create this hybrid bies being born addicted to nicotine, but dicating that dopamine neurons in the VTA TUBE CLOSE microscope putting these once we understand which genes are al- are very likely involved in nicotine addiction. tered, which gene regulator networks are al- Their current work speaks to the very nature two powerful technologies tered and which gene pathways are altered, of health itself, exploring how the dopamine of nicotine-exposed offspring alters gene BY LAURIE FICKMAN together. OCT will image we can develop targeted medication that expression, a fundamental building block could eliminate addiction in the offspring,” the development of the of health. Many diseases are caused by a In those precious weeks before a woman said Metin Akay, John S. Dunn Endowed change in the DNA of a single gene. even realizes she’s pregnant, an embryo neural tube while at the Chair Professor of biomedical engineering will have already developed a neural tube, same time, Brillouin and department chair, heading the research Akay’s team includes Renee F. Keller, Tina a hollow structure made of cells that even- team. spectroscopy will probe its Kazemi, Andrei Dragomir and Yasemin M. tually become the brain and spinal cord. Akay, assistant professor of biomedical en- Now, with $3.2 million from the National mechanical properties. We Exposure to nicotine during pregnancy gineering. Institutes of Health, UH professor of bio- will be imaging and sensing through maternal smoking or nicotine re- medical engineering Kirill Larin will tackle placement therapy is associated with ad- the evolutionary anomaly of why the neu- at the same time. verse birth outcomes as well as several ral tube closes in most embryos but re- mains open in others, leading to birth de- fects such as spina bifida and anencephaly. New Data Suggests - kirill larin Neural Tube Defects (NTD) are the sec- NICOTINE WHILE ACTIVE DOPAMINE ond most common structural birth defect It allows us to see rewards and in humans, affecting upward of 500,000 Brillouin spectroscopy will probe its me- encourages action that will lead to pregnancies worldwide and approximately chanical properties. We will be imaging PREGNANT ALTERS reward, but since it contributes to 2,400 pregnancies each year in the United and sensing at the same time,” said Larin. those feelings of pleasure and reward, States. anencephaly it also plays a part in addiction. Finding out how mechanical properties con- GENES Together with Baylor College of Medicine pro- trolling neural tube closure in developing em- fessor Richard H. Finnell and Giuliano Scar- bryos can be manipulated to ensure proper celli, assistant professor of bioengineering at neural development is the first step to explor- BY LAURIE FICKMAN University of Maryland, Larin will create new ing treatment for the defect. technology combining Brillouin spectroscopy The Akay Lab biomedical research team at and optical coherence tomography (OCT) to “If we find out what causes the tube to the UH Cullen College of Engineering is re- deliver 3-D images of the mechanical factors close, what is exactly happening, we can porting in the journal Nature Scientific Re- at play when the neural tube closes and – in develop new drug treatments for at-risk ports that a possible cure for addiction may EXPOSURE so many cases – when it does not. embryos,” said Larin. be found by following the pathways of significantly altered dopamine neurons in Most commonly used to examine the retina, spina bifida The work fills a significant data gap in un- newborns who were chronically exposed TO NICOTINE high-resolution OCT is an imaging technolo- derstanding neural tube closure biome- to nicotine in utero. The findings of the al- gy that uses light waves to take cross-section chanics. tered neurons come from recordings of do- pictures. Brillouin spectroscopy is a light scat- pamine and non-dopamine neurons in the DURING tering technology that will sense the stiffness “It’s still one of the great mysteries of life, no brain’s addiction center, called the ventral of the tissue, which is critical to its success in one on earth knows how this happens. That tegmental area (VTA), following chronic closing. During malfunctions there are areas is really exciting to us,” said Larin, “because nicotine exposure during pregnancy. PREGNANCY of low stiffness, so it is not folding together we will be the ones to find out.” properly, Larin said. Active dopamine, known as the “feel are the second most common structural good” hormone, might seem a good thing birth defect in humans, affecting upward “We will create this hybrid microscope at first glance. It’s a neurotransmitter that of 500,000 pregnancies worldwide and carries information between neurons and putting these two powerful technologies approximately 2,400 pregnancies each together. OCT will image the development year in the United States. regulates emotional responses. It allows us of the neural tube while at the same time, to see rewards and encourages action that
34 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 35 lead news Innovation & entrepreneurship Haleh Ardebili, director since June 2018 of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, is bringing a spotlight to prom- New Investigator Award for 2014-2015, and summer program that allows undergrads ising technologies being developed in Cul- the Texas Center for Superconductivity at from around the country to work in her len College laboratories – especially those UH Award (2010-present). lab creating new, sustainable materials for discoveries with potential to benefit the manufacturing and energy. world. Ardebili is also devoted to teaching and supporting her students’ careers. She serves Last year she received the W.T. Kittinger Teach- Her first goal is to introduce entrepre- as director of the NSF-funded Research Ex- ing Excellence Award, the highest teaching neurship programs and cultivate a culture perience for Undergraduates, a 10-week honor awarded by the Cullen College. of innovation within the UH engineering community.
“Over the next few years, we will establish an engineering technology incubator at the College. Its purpose will be to support students and faculty as they generate intel- lectual property and form start-up compa- nies that can bring their innovations to the public,” said Ardebili, the Bill D. Cook asso- ciate professor of mechanical engineering.
Ardebili is familiar with the road an innova- tor travels to bring a complex product from the research laboratory to the consumer marketplace. With her research team, she developed a new kind of battery – flexible, stretchable and roughly the size of a busi- ness card – that is so promising it ranked among top-10 finalists in theNA SA iTech Ardebili’s batteries, for example, some day Cycle 3 competition. soon may show up in astronauts’ spacesuits, The NASA iTech program encourages in- as well as in earthbound things such as smart ventors at universities and small compa- nies to develop tools that not only address military uniforms and underwater vehicles. challenges NASA encounters deep in space but also solve problems here on earth. Ar- debili’s batteries, for example, may some day soon show up in astronauts’ space- suits, as well as in earthbound things such as smart military uniforms and underwater vehicles. She has two pending patents for her stretchable batteries, and her research HALEH ARDEBILI in energy storage has received funding Brings Lab-to-Marketplace Experience to Her Leadership of from the National Science Foundation, the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative Air Force Office of Scientific Research, U.S. Army NATICK, NASA and the Subsea Sys- tems Institute.
Ardebili’s research in flexible and stretch- able batteries earned her the National Sci- ence Foundation’s CAREER Award (2013- 2018), the Texas Space Grant Consortium’s
36 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 37 lead news
his research team include a new magnet- be revolutionary.” ic slippery surface (MAGSS), which can be materials applied to any surface – ceramic, poly- Once that’s achieved, the possibilities are mers or metals. While pursuing postdoc- endless. Ghasemi and his students are al- toral work at the Massachusetts Institute ready at work on their first paper about “Ice is a problem that will exist as long as of Technology, he is credited with creating this new project. He is also open to future we live on the earth. It’s not a problem a low-cost graphite “solar sponge” to con- entrepreneurial partnerships, and antici- that’ll disappear in a few years, so we need vert sunlight into steam for potable water. pates research findings paving the way for a solution,” Ghasemi said. “The end goal is improved design of technologies used in a to improve the quality of human life.” A new challenge variety of industries, from cryobiology and food engineering to energy infrastructure. Ghasemi, not one to rest on his laurels, is excited about his new NSF-funded chal- lenge.
“This project is basically pure science: to study the underlying principles of ice for- mation and ice adhesion,” he said. “The UH Engineering Professor Wins NSF Grant to most important aspect of this project is that we can get the nanoscale physics of ice formation, which has not been stud- ied before. In nanoscale, we can break the limits of ice formation that we already STUDY ICE FORMATION AND FIGHT ICING have and we can suppress ice formation up to temperatures around -40 degrees Fahrenheit. That means most of the time BY RASHDA KHAN you would avoid any ice formation on any surface.”
Ghasemi’s team is focusing on long-term When it comes to dangerous natural phe- he experienced power outages as well as A tradition of fighting ice durability in addition to anti-icing proper- nomenon, most people think of events like transportation and infrastructure issues. ties. The goal is introducing a new materi- hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. Ghasemi’s biologically-inspired anti-icing al paradigm offering extreme icephobicity. “It’s not only about the financial losses, material can withstand critically low tem- “Once we learn this new science, the next Hadi Ghasemi, Bill D. Cook Assistant Pro- but it also affects the quality of life for peratures. The new material – which is ap- step is figuring out how we incorporate fessor of mechanical engineering at the the people,” Ghasemi said. “I myself have plied to surfaces as a coating – was one of this new science in the new type of mate- University of Houston, thinks of ice. slipped on ice several times so I know that three winners of the NASA iTech competi- rial,” he said. icing is not a good thing.” tion in 2017. An average of 1,836 deaths and 136,309 There are currently no durable icephobic injuries per year were attributed to snowy Ghasemi channels his animosity for icing The anti-icing coating was inspired by the surfaces or coatings on the market, Ghase- conditions and icy roads between 2005 into motivation. “My field of study is sur- tiny North American Wood Frog, a creature mi said. The ones that do exist quickly lose and 2014 by the Federal Highway Admin- face physics, so I launched a program to that can freeze up to 65 percent of their to- anti-icing properties due to exposure to istration. Between 2008 and 2009, there study ice formation and find solutions.” tal body water without dying. NASA chose environmental conditions and must be re- were 19 ice-related road fatalities in Texas Ghasemi’s project from entries submitted applied frequently. but zero tornado-related fatalities. The National Science Foundation reward- by over 130 organizations across the U.S. ed Ghasemi’s focus with a $290,259 grant for its potential to broadly impact human By comparison, Ghasemi said his anti-ic- Air transportation is also impacted by icy for his project titled “Nano-Scale Physics life on earth and the future of space travel. ing coatings can last up to seven years af- conditions. From 1990 to 2000, 12 percent of Icephobicity and Path Toward Durable ter a single application. of all weather-related air disasters were Icephobic Surfaces.” (Icephobicity is a ma- Once Ghasemi had plenty proof of concept due to icing. As the Air Safety Foundation terial’s ability to repel ice or keep ice from Hadi Ghasemi's anti-icing for his novel material, he partnered with He hopes to have the new material devel- states: “Ice in flight is bad news.” forming on its surface.) The multi-disci- students in his Nano Therm lab to launch oped in about three to five years. “We’re coatings can last up to seven plinary project involves studies of thermo- the startup SurfEllent and begin marketing developing the science that will allow us “I know firsthand the amount of problems dynamics, heat transfer and mechanics. the product to consumers. to create a new class of materials with years after a single application. icing can cause,” said Ghasemi, who com- much better performance than what’s pleted his Ph.D. and post-doctoral work Other materials created by Ghasemi and available now in the marketplace. It will in Canada and Boston. During this time,
38 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 39 lead news outreach
UH Professor Seeks Broader Thanks to my PROMES experience I see students all the time, I hear 'WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY' their stories, but it was for Black Male Engineers
important to actually BY RASHDA KHAN conduct a research study Producing graduates with STEM – science, “I’m really interested in seeing an increase perience. But I’m interested in what happens technology, engineering and mathematics – in the number of underrepresented folks in to students of color once they’re in engineer- that rises above the capabilities continues to be a vital issue for STEM,” said Henderson, who was the only ing in different environments.” the future of the United States. Growth in African-American faculty in the chemical en- anecdotal. We need to engineering and other STEM occupations is gineering department at the University of Il- The project is focused on three research vastly outpacing the supply of skilled workers. linois at one point. “I don’t want to always be questions: analyze the data gathered the only one.” Meanwhile, African-Americans continue to be 1. What factors influenced Black males to pur- underrepresented in the STEM workforce and Henderson’s research focuses on engineering sue graduate degrees in engineering? and really understand the in academia. According to the “2017 Women, education and the participation of underrep- Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Sci- resented groups in the STEM fields. He is the 2. What assets and strengths are possessed problem. ence and Engineering” report by the National director of the Cullen College’s Program for by Black males who persist or plan to con- Science Foundation, white males constitute Mastery in Engineering Studies (PROMES), tinue in engineering beyond undergraduate about 49 percent of the workers in science which has received national recognition for studies? and engineering jobs, while African-Ameri- its efforts to increase student success and re- cans make up about 3 percent of that work- tention in STEM through mentoring, teaching, 3. What role does academic self-concept and force. research and other programs and initiatives. engineering identity play in the intent to - jerrod Henderson pursue advanced degrees among Black Just under 8 percent of science and engineer- “Thanks to my PROMES experience, I see stu- males? ing doctorates were earned by underrepre- dents all the time. I hear their stories. But it sented minorities in 2014. A paltry 2.5 percent was important to actually conduct a research Henderson hopes their research data will of engineering faculty nationwide are Afri- study that rises above the anecdotal,” Hen- help recruitment and retention efforts of ed- can-American males. derson said. “We need to analyze the data ucational institutions and help create real up- gathered and really understand the problem.” ward movement in getting underrepresented Jerrod Henderson, instructional assistant groups involved in STEM opportunities. “We’d professor at the UH Cullen College of Engi- The two researchers will be studying the ex- like to produce or disseminate best practices neering, has joined forces with Erik Hines, perience of African-American male students for engaging this sub-population of under- associate professor of counselor education at in the context of three different types of insti- represented people to think about graduate the University of Connecticut’s Neag School tutions: Prairie View A&M University, a histor- school,” he said. of Education, to work on a solution. They’re ically Black university; University of Connecti- both co-principal investigators of a new proj- cut, which is a primarily White institution; and In the last year of the grant, the researchers ect titled “Collaborative Research: Windows of UH, which is a Hispanic-serving institution. are planning to bring a conference centered Opportunity – Understanding Black Male En- on African-American males and higher educa- gineers in the Pursuit of Advanced Degrees,” “People throw that word around – diversity – tion in engineering to the University of Hous- which received nearly $400,000 in funding but there are places that are diverse but not ton campus. over three years from the NSF. inclusive,” Henderson said. “UH happens to be a diverse and inclusive place from my ex-
40 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 41 lead news outreach
#CullenCollegeStories
Julie Rogers (BSME '19) UH G.R.A.D.E. CAMP CELEBRATES Counselor, G.R.A.D.E. Camp, Summer 2018
“A couple of weeks ago, I met a six-year-old girl. I told her I was going to be an engineer and she told me ‘Oh, that’s not a woman’s job.’ I was shocked. I really hope the G.R.A.D.E. camp experience can help change that perception, and that [attendees] go home and tell their ARS friends about this engineering camp, then they help spread the word. I really hope the girls are 15 YE inspired and they realize this – engineering – is of Introducing Engineering for women.” To New Generations Of Girls
By Rashda Khan
Spending summer days engineering can be creative, empowering didn’t think it was something a lot of girls did,” said Julie Rogers, and fun. Imagine taking bits and pieces of circuitry, plastic and a recent graduate of the Cullen College's mechanical engineering metal to build robots, then programming your robots to navigate department. mazes. Or venturing out into the warm sunshine with friends to collect water from the UH campus pond and testing it for invisible “Going to G.R.A.D.E. Camp … meeting like-minded girls and seeing microbes. Or maybe creating Texas-shaped earrings using a 3-D all the counselors really inspired me,” she said. “I think it was part printer. of the reason I went into engineering. And it also helped that the camp was at the University of Houston, where I ended up going These are defining moments of doing, creating memories and to school.” building friendships. Women like Rogers who go from being G.R.A.D.E. campers to UH All of these activities and more are part of G.R.A.D.E. (Girls Reach- engineering students to G.R.A.D.E. Camp counselors are the raison ing and Demonstrating Excellence) Camp, offered by the UH Cul- d’être for G.R.A.D.E. Camp, according to Frank “Fritz” Claydon, len College of Engineering. The one-week camp, which is offered who has been directing the camp since its inception, along with twice in the summer, introduces girls ages 13-17 to the wonders of Stuart Long and John Glover – all electrical and computer engi- engineering. It starts them on a journey of recognizing their own neering professors at the Cullen College. potential and considering careers in science and technology. About 75 percent of the campers end up majoring in an engineer- “I attended camp in 2012, which feels like a long time ago. Back ing field, according to Claydon. then I thought engineering sounded kind of interesting, but I
42 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 43 lead news
In 2012 a report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Sci- outreach ence and Technology supported those findings. To maintain the Guadalupe “Lupita” Vil- #CullenCollegeStories nation’s standing in science and technology during the coming lanueva almost didn’t decade, the council predicted a need for approximately 1 million go into engineering. She more STEM professionals than the United States would produce at didn’t know what she wanted to do in college and was considering ma- rates existing when the report was written. joring in business because her mother had mentioned it. Fortunately she worked as a babysitter for a petroleum engineer who took the time to Although the UH Cullen College of Engineering was already ahead of have a conversation with Villanueva. the game with its G.R.A.D.E. Camps, UH established a centralized cen- ter in 2013 to support and expand those efforts. The UH STEM Cen- “She told me all about her work and experience, and how it gave her ter adopted G.R.A.D.E. and Step Forward Camps and launched new the opportunity to travel across the world,” Villanueva said. “That really outreach efforts including kindergarten through 12th-grade teacher caught my attention and interested me.” training; additional elementary, middle and high school student train- ing programs, fairs and camps; and supportive programs for current It turned out that Villanueva really liked petroleum engineering. “I university STEM students. had the opportunity to go for an externship with ConocoPhillips last year and we went out to a drilling rig. It was a pretty eye-open- D’Nari Mills ing experience for me,” she said. “I was able to see what I have G.R.A.D.E. Camp today been learning in my classes actually being applied in real life and 9th Grade, Cypress Woods High School see other people in the field and what they have accomplished in G.R.A.D.E. Camper, Summer 2018 In 2018, the camp celebrated 15 years of outreach to more than a thou- the industry.” sand campers. “I want to be a mechanical engineer when I grow up because I want to make new things, and have new ideas about how to help the community, how to help the environment and be successful.
There’s a need for camps like G.R.A.D.E. Camp because a lot of people think girls can’t be engineers. Engineering is not just a guy thing, it’s for girls too. Girls can learn to do it and have fun.” Natalie Cramer 8th Grade, St. Helen Catholic School, Pearland G.R.A.D.E. Camper, Summer 2018
“My favorite part of G.R.A.D.E. Camp has been “We have had campers become engineering students here who sources, and were able to expose people to all kinds of disciplines making a flowchart (putting together step-by-step have then gone on to industry and have actually come back for our in engineering.” instructions) for the Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich. industry luncheons,” Claydon said. “That’s pretty cool.” It was pretty funny because some of the instructions A pilot G.R.A.D.E. Camp launched approximately three years before weren’t very clear so the sandwiches ended up pretty Filling the gaps the start of Texas Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Ini- weird. One of the flowcharts never said to separate tiative (T-STEM) – a $71 million public-private partnership formed the two pieces of bread so the girl making the sandwiches had to go between the two slices of bread G.R.A.D.E. Camp at the Cullen College came about because of a in 2005 to increase the number of STEM students and profession- while they were still stacked up. need and an opportunity. als by redesigning Texas schools, improving teacher recruitment and training, and aligning long-term educational and economic I learned that you have to be very precise when you’re In 2001, deans of engineering across the state of Texas gathered development objectives. making a flow chart and you have to double check with leaders in the semiconductor industry and the Texas Legisla- your work to catch mistakes and missing steps.” ture to discuss the need to encourage more students to major in A 2007 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine electrical engineering. report found that “scientific and technical building blocks of our eco- nomic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are “We looked at that funding opportunity and thought, naturally, gathering strength.” The report, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” women were an untapped resource. That’s what spawned the recommended urgent comprehensive and coordinated federal effort idea,” Claydon said. “Later on we were able to get other funding to maintain the nation’s competitiveness. from the National Science Foundation, corporations and other
44 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 45 lead news
an instructional assistant professor of First UH PROMES Receives Year Experience at UH. outreach Villanueva never attended G.R.A.D.E. Camp as a camper but has served as a counselor #CullenCollegeStories The program was established at the Univer- may currently be in or are interested in a since 2015. INSPIRING sity of Houston in 1974 for the recruitment, future career in STEM,” said Lenore Pearl- retention and academic development of stein, owner and publisher of INSIGHT “It’s good to start at an early age and in- PROGRAMS IN STEM underrepresented minorities in the Cullen Into Diversity magazine. “We are proud to troduce girls to engineering because their College of Engineering. Today, PROMES honor these programs as role models to minds are really open to anything at that is open to all Cullen College students and other institutions of higher education and point, so it’s valuable to have camps like AWARD strives to provide a positive learning envi- beyond.” G.R.A.D.E. Camp,” she said. “I really enjoy ronment that supports the needs of under- being able to motivate these girls and inspire graduate students. PROMES was featured, along with 77 other them and show them what engineering is. It recipients, in the September 2018 issue of BY RASHDA KHAN isn’t just math, science and numbers. There’s “We want to honor the schools and orga- INSIGHT Into Diversity. a lot of things that you can do with engineer- nizations that have created programs that The Program for the Mastery in Engineer- ing, and there’s a lot of creativity involved.” inspire and encourage young people who Villanueva graduated in December 2018. ing Studies (PROMES) at the University of Houston received a 2018 Inspiring Pro- Despite progress being made, disparities con- grams Award in STEM from INSIGHT Into tinue. A white paper published by the Soci- Diversity magazine, the largest and oldest ety of Women Engineers in 2017 found that diversity and inclusion publication in high- women represent over 57 percent of college er education. graduates but only 22 percent of the engi- neers entering the workforce. Also, within the The award honors colleges and universities workforce, only 14 percent of engineers are that encourage and assist students from women and women leave the engineering underrepresented groups to enter the profession in greater numbers than men do. fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Award winners This need is not news for G.R.A.D.E. Camp were selected by the magazine based on counselors and directors. efforts to inspire and encourage a new generation of young people to consider “I recently met a 6-year-old girl and told her I careers in STEM through mentoring, teach- was going to be an engineer and she told me ing, research and successful programs and ‘oh, that’s not a woman’s job.’ I was shocked,” initiatives. Rogers shared. “I really hope the G.R.A.D.E. Camp experience can help change that per- “Without PROMES hundreds if not thou- ception, and that [attendees] go home and sands of Cullen College of Engineering tell their friends about this engineering graduates may not have earned their de- camp, then they help spread the word. I real- grees. As much as it’s about helping pre- ly hope the girls are inspired and they realize Guadalupe “Lupita” pare students academically, PROMES is this – engineering – is for women.” also a family and a community, connecting students to campus, the college, employers Claydon is glad UH and the Cullen College Villanueva and each other,” said Jerrod Henderson, di- created G.R.A.D.E. Camp. (BSPETE '18) rector of PROMES. “This work, being in the Counselor, G.R.A.D.E. Camp trenches with students, is tremendously “I believe that the girls-only aspect of the important and it’s great to be recognized camp is important. They can just focus on “I started as a mentor back in 2015. I really enjoy being able to motivate for what you love to do.” being them, being who they are and having these girls and inspire them and show them what engineering is. It isn’t fun in camp,” he said. “It’s their moment.” just math, science and numbers, there’s a lot of things that you can do with PROMES provides Cullen College students PROMES was featured, along engineering, and there’s a lot of creativity involved. with recruitment, academic advising, “G.R.A.D.E. Camp is the backbone of the I really like being able to show them how to do the robots and help them workshops, scholarships, and professional with 77 other recipients, in the type of outreach that we do and I really learn new skills. I hope to show them that, while it’s not going to be easy, and personal development opportunities. think the long-lasting nature of it has sent there is a way to do it and you can reach your dreams.” “It’s positioned to help students through September 2018 issue of INSIGHT a message: If you want to do outreach challenges and barriers and help them be- Into Diversity magazine. correctly look at how G.R.A.D.E. camp is come acclimated to the academic rigors of done,” Claydon said. engineering,” said Henderson, who is also
46 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 47 lead news technology Keeping our military up to date about hos- ber of applications, ranging from military tile regions is critical. But gathering fresh and law enforcement to environmental mon- To start with, they are experimenting with detail gets risky, especially along shore- itoring. different materials. Robertson creates bio- lines where underwater mines may lurk degradable plastics and other materials in and any place enemy forces may be eager “It’s kind of like ‘Mission Impossible,’ but her lab and will focus on determining the to grab our technology. slightly more discreet,” Becker said of the best material for the project, from the shell classic TV spy show with its audiotape to the electronic components. Engineers from the University of Houston player that famously destroyed itself in are addressing the challenges as part of a puff of smoke and flash of flame. “We “We will investigate various chemical strat- a $1 million project led by Craig Glennie, want them to quickly and quietly dissolve,” egies for creating polymers that can quick- UH associate professor of civil engineering Becker said. ly disappear under the right conditions,” and investigator with the National Center Robertson said. for Airborne Laser Mapping, or NCALM. Another concept involves developing a system to control a swarm of up to 1 mil- Becker, who works in swarm robotics and The work is part of a larger effort funded lion drones or other aerial reconnaissance artificial intelligence, will focus on how to by the Office ofN aval Research and led by vehicles in a way that appears to be unpre- deploy the sensors, as well as lead the re- Northeastern University. Megan Robert- dictable, thwarting an opponent’s ability to lated project involving drone swarms. son, UH associate professor of chemical track and target them. and biomolecular engineering, and Aaron Much current research is focused on drones Becker, UH assistant professor of electri- Early versions of the project will involve flying in formation, or schooling and flock- cal and computer engineering, are working the use of cameras, sonar and sensors to ing behavior. There are times when that with Glennie on the project. measure temperature and pressure, said makes sense, Becker said, but the predict- Glennie, whose work with NCALM involves ability can leave the drones vulnerable to One phase involves the design of self-guid- mapping with unmanned aerial vehicles attack. He is developing a way to make the ed “packages,” small containers made of a and using lasers for mapping through shal- flight paths appear random – and there- biodegradable material and filled with sen- low water. fore, less susceptible to attack – while still sors to map the coastline and sea bottom. achieving the flight goals. Glennie said the goals are for the devices “We’ll experiment to see what works to be about the size of a water bottle and best,” he said, noting that ultimately the “We will exploit the computational and to dissolve upon reaching shore. researchers want fully biodegradable ver- maneuverability resources of each drone sions of both the external support struc- to protect the swarm,” he said. The sensors ultimately could have a num- ture and the sensors.
Aaron Becker, Megan Robertson and Craig Glennie It’s kind of like ‘Mission Impossible,’ but slightly more discreet. MAPPING DANGEROUS TERRAIN - Aaron becker
BY JEANNIE KEVER
48 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 49 lead news
UH Cullen College of Engineering and cor- successfully, because it governs the ability technology Researchers Report responding author on the paper, said the of the semiconductor transistors to ampli- work could lead to important advances in fy the current. Advances In smart devices such as robotic skins, im- plantable bioelectronics and human-ma- Previous stretchable semiconductors have chine interfaces. been hampered by low carrier mobility, STRETCHABLE along with complex fabrication require- Yu previously reported a breakthrough in ments. For this work, the researchers dis- The article, titled “High efficiency flexible semiconductors with instilled mechanical covered that adding minute amounts of III/V photovoltaic solar cells based on RUBBERY stretchability, much like a rubber band, in metallic carbon nanotubes to the rubbery 2017. semiconductor of P3HT – polydimethyl- single crystal-like thin films directly grown SEMICONDUCTORS siloxane composite – leads to improved on metallic tapes,” is about the design and This work, he said, takes the concept fur- carrier mobility by providing what Yu de- development of highly-efficient, low-cost ther with improved carrier mobility and scribed as “a highway” to speed up the flexible solar cell devices that can adapt to BY JEANNIE KEVER integrated electronics. carrier transport across the semiconductor. different environments and uses. Researchers from the University of Hous- “We report fully rubbery integrated elec- In addition to Yu, the paper’s researchers ton have reported significant advances in tronics from a rubbery semiconductor include first authorK yoseung Sim, and stretchable electronics, moving the field with a high effective mobility … obtained co-authors Zhoulyu Rao, Anish Thukral closer to commercialization. by introducing metallic carbon nanotubes and Hyunseok Shim, all of UH, and Hae-Jin into a rubbery semiconductor with organ- Kim, a former postdoctoral researcher at In a paper published Friday, Feb. 1, in Sci- ic semiconductor nanofibrils percolated,” UH who is now with Gyeongsang National ence Advances, they outlined advances in the researchers wrote. “This enhancement University in Jinju, Korea. creating stretchable rubbery semiconduc- in carrier mobility is enabled by providing tors, including rubbery integrated elec- fast paths and, therefore, a shortened car- Future work, Yu said, will involve further tronics, logic circuits and arrayed sensory rier transport distance.” raising the carrier mobility and building terial to light – using high-quality solar Professor of mechanical engineering. skins fully based on rubber materials. more complex, hierarchy and high level cell materials on inexpensive metal tape Carrier mobility, or the speed at which integrated digital circuits to meet the re- UH Research through a continuous deposition process,” Pouladi designed, modeled and fabricated Cunjiang Yu, Bill D. Cook Assistant Pro- electrons can move through a material, quirements for integrated circuits, bio- said Jae-Hyun Ryou, associate professor the flexible thin-film GaAs solar cells based fessor of mechanical engineering at the is critical for an electronic device to work medical and other applications. Breakthrough of mechanical engineering. on a new single-crystal-like GaAs material grown on metal tapes by Rathi. Lands Journal Cover There has been much interest in developing thin-film solar cells because they are light- “We demonstrated that we can provide weight and flexible. Landing on the cover was high-efficiency, thin-film GaAs solar cells BY RASHDA KHAN the result of a breakthrough. on low-cost metal foils, bypassing con- ventional expensive and brittle wafer sub- The journal Progress in Photovoltaics: Re- “We demonstrated – for the first time – a strates while offering flexibility and scal- For this work, the researchers discovered that search and Applications featured an article working solar cell device based on our re- ability,” Pouladi said. “These flexible solar on the collaborative work of two UH Cul- search,” Ryou said. The new development cells can be curved and bent to fit select- adding minute amounts of metallic carbon len College of Engineering research groups provides a pathway toward inexpensive high ed placement area wherever electricity is nanotubes to the rubbery semiconductor of on its cover in January. performance gallium arsenide or GaAs thin- needed – from your rooftop to your back- P3HT – polydimethylsiloxane composite – film photovoltaics. pack in a remote area.” The article, titled “High efficiency flexible leads to improved carrier mobility by providing III/V photovoltaic solar cells based on sin- The project is funded by the U.S. Depart- Other contributing authors on the paper what Yu describes as “a highway” to speed up gle crystal-like thin films directly grown on ment of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, which are: Davendra Khatiwada, Mojtaba Asadi- metallic tapes,” is about the design and seeks to make solar energy and electricity rad, Seung Kyu Oh, Pavel Dutta, Yao Yao, the carrier transport across the semiconductor. development of highly-efficient, low-cost affordable for American consumers. Ying Gao, Sicong Sun, Yongkuan Li, Sha- flexible solar cell devices that can adapt to hab Shervin, Keon-Hwa Lee, Selvamanick- different environments and uses. The first authors on the paper are Sara Pou- am and Ryou. ladi, a materials science and engineering “The overarching goal of the research is to doctoral student working with Ryou; and Progress in Photovoltaics, published by Wiley, develop flexible and low-cost, yet high-ef- Monika Rathi, a research scientist working is a prestigious forum for reporting advances Cunjiang Yu ficiency photovoltaic device – something with the Selva Research Group led by Ven- in the rapidly developing field of photovolta- that generates electricity by exposing ma- kat Selvamanickam, M.D. Anderson Chair ic technology.
50 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 51 #Cullen College Stories Celebrating the People of UH Engineering
By Rashda Khan
Creative energy buzzes at the UH Cullen College of Engineering. This is a place where ambitious dreams blossom, nurtured by world-class researchers, dedicated faculty and staff, loyal alumni and bursting-with- potential students.
It’s a place that exists because of its people. Let us introduce you to some of the Cullen College-trained innovators whose creative vision is meeting the #CullenCollegeStories challenges of the world today and will help shape the future that is yet is to come.
52 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 53 #CullenCollegeStories At the age of 22, UH student Ayoola John-Muyiwa – popularly known as AJ – has an impressive collection of experiences and accomplishments.
John-Muyiwa graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in petro- leum engineering from the UH Cullen College of Engineering. He also earned a certificate in corporate entrepreneurship from the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center forE ntrepreneurship at UH and attended the Summer Venture in Management Program at Harvard Business School.
His resume is already full of great experiences, such as participat- ing in the BP STEP Leadership Development Track and interning as a Google Developer Scholar. He has also served as a production en- gineering intern at Exxon Mobil, an energy trading analytics intern and a structured products intern at BP and a drilling and production trainee at Shell among others.
Last year, John-Muyiwa and his partners soft-launched their busi- ness, a social enterprise, called “Blademy,” which seeks to provide an e-learning platform to help Black millennials “around the world to teach and learn anything.” Building Not surprisingly, he was a 2018 Forbes ‘Under 30 Scholar’ and attend- ed the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Boston as an honoree. The event brought together more than 7,000 young entrepreneurs, visionaries and social innovators for an immersive experience featuring more than 200 world-class speakers including investors, celebrities, mu- sicians, sports stars, cultural icons, as well as political and business leaders.
“The Forbes 30 Under 30 list has emerged as the way that the world discovers the next generation of entrepreneurs and game-changers,” Success stated Randall Lane, editor of Forbes magazine and creator of the Forbes ‘Under 30’ franchise in a news release. “This is the ultimate club: the Ayoola John-Muyiwa people that will reinvent every field on Life, Luck and over the next century." John-Muyiwa, with a smile that lights Accomplishments up his whole face, credits his accom- plishments to God, his mother’s sup- port and being “very, very lucky.”
54 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 55 I didn’t really have the best opportunities growing up and the opportunities I did have, I kind of figured things out by luck.
The road to UH
John-Muyiwa was born in Nigeria. He remembers walking miles to workshop facilitator and lead mentor. He is also involved in the Cul- fetch water and returning home with a pot balanced on his head. He len College’s Program for Mastery in Engineering Studies (PROMES), also recalls the fluctuating and fleeting nature of electricity in their which is dedicated to increasing engineering students’ success in home town. their studies, personal lives and careers.
“Whenever the lights would come on [the kids] would run out onto Reflecting on his early-life experiences and his years in Houston, led the street and celebrate, and then the lights would go out again,” he John-Muyiwa to choose petroleum engineering as a major. “I wanted said. “Honestly, back then I was happy. That was just the norm, what to work in energy so I could impact people’s lives and help my com- I knew.” munity,” he said. “Something as basic as having reliable power can influence quality of life and how much can be achieved in a day or Around the age of 13, John-Muyiwa moved to America with his moth- days, a lifetime.” er. He grew up in southwest Houston. “I didn’t really have the best opportunities growing up and the opportunities I did have, I kind of John-Muyiwa’s hard work and drive has led him to win numerous figured things out by luck,” he said. awards and scholarships during his academic career. He also has an active campus life and is involved with several clubs and organiza- He took the SAT without really understanding what the college en- tions (often serving in leadership roles), including the Nigerian Stu- trance exam was all about. Prior to that, his high school counselor had dent Association and the National Society of Black Engineers. advised him to apply to a two-year college. “UH has been really awesome for me, I definitely made the best de- Fortunately, he scored high enough to catch the interest of a number cision to come here,” he said. “I have learned so much here and it’s of colleges and ended up getting a full scholarship to UH. He partic- opened up doors to so many other opportunities.” ipated in the UH Scholar Enrichment Program, and later served as a
56 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 57 Building on experiences
John-Muyiwa acknowledged that his life could easily have had a very different trajectory and said he didn’t want others to miss out on success due to a lack of knowledge and resources.
“It’s really important for me to take the knowledge I have gained and curate knowledge from other people who have found success in different places and bring it all back to help younger people in my community,” he said.
Being an engineer, he looks at data, analyzes situations and likes to fix prob- lems. He shared some statistics from “The Road to Zero Wealth” report pub- I’m 22, if I lished by the Institute for Policy Studies and the non-profit Prosperity Now: “The African-American spending power in the U.S. is about $1.2 trillion annual- ly, the median wealth of the African-American family today is $11,000. By 2053 don’t take the median wealth of African-American families in this country is projected to be zero.” risks now John-Muyiwa understands finances and economics. In addition to academ- ic knowledge, he worked as a business development intern at Course Hero and as a securities analyst intern at the prestigious investment banking entity when am Goldman Sachs. “The wealth gap is actually widening. This is bad,” John-Muyiwa said. “For me I going to it’s really coming in and solving a social problem that exists and needs to be addressed.” take them? His goal is to one day earn a master’s in business administration from Harvard. He has already been offered numerous full-time positions with BP, ExxonMo- bil and Chevron.
But for right now, John-Muyiwa is busy building Blademy, with the goal of bridg- ing “the increasing wealth and economic opportunity gaps that exist between Black millennials and millennials belonging to other racial and ethnic groups.” He is putting all his skills – a unique blend of engineering, networking and busi- ness acumen – behind the effort. The official launch is scheduled for fall 2019.
The motto for Blademy is “Collectively we can learn anything.”
Earlier this year, Blademy was named an official partner of HBCU@SXSW – a program of the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals, which is the world’s largest technology conference and a venue to celebrate music and other arts – alongside companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Viacom, and BET.
HBCU@SXSW was established by Rodney Sampson, the founder of Opportu- nity Hub (OHUB). The program sponsors minority students from historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions and predomi- For More Information nantly White institutions to attend the conference, according to the program’s website. Each year, major corporations, tech companies, startups, and founda- You can get connected with Blademy and its team on tions sponsor HBCU@SXSW so the selected students can gain exposure, learn- ing opportunities and direct access to paid internships or permanent jobs in Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and on LinkedIn at the innovation economy. @LearnBlademy. You can also sign up for early access to the online platform at blademy.com Things are looking good and John-Muyiwa is hopeful. If Blademy takes off as he hopes, his life may change directions again. “I’m 22, if I don’t take risks now when am I going to take them?” he said, grinning.
58 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 59 #CullenCollegeStories Following Her Dream
From Homeless to NASA, Mejean Cline Shares Her Journey
If you have seen photographs or videos of astronauts working on laptops while floating more than 200 miles above the earth aboard the International Space Station, you have caught a glimpse of the work done by UH Cullen College of Engineering alumna Mejean Cline.
As a Linux developer and configuration management analyst for NASA contractor Leidos Inc., she is part of a team located at the Johnson Space Center that programs and supports all of the computer systems on the Space Station. At 37, Cline is working at her dream job.
“I was a kid who always loved everything about NASA. I loved technology, I loved space,” she said. “NASA’s vision is: ‘We reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind.’ I have always been fascinated with the unknown and eager to learn everything I could.”
Her long journey to success, paved with challenges and hardship, is nothing short of inspiring.
60 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 61 In the beginning
Originally from New Orleans, Cline graduated high school and joined the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office to help her family with finances. After moving to Houston in 2002, she worked at private security jobs. Through it all, she continued to hold onto her dream of working with computers, becoming an engineer and one day joining NASA. I just had a “Law enforcement was basically how I fed my family. It was always something I could do, but I knew I didn’t want to do it forever,” she moment where I said. “I loved programming and any kind of geeky stuff.” was like, ‘What are However, life took over and the dream to go to college and pursue her computer engineering degree kept getting postponed. Then she became a mother, giving birth to Elijah in 2004 and Naia in 2007. you waiting for?’
“I didn’t really decide I could do it in earnest until I was a mom,” Cline said. “I always thought I would go to college, but I didn’t feel the hurry until I had them. I just had a moment where I was like, ‘What are you waiting for?’”
First, she earned an associate degree in science from Houston Com- munity College. After that, she took a two-year break to raise her fam- Cline’s husband Ray Roberts told her to focus on school and grad- ily and work. Finally in 2012, she started her bachelor’s program in uating. While the family would have to budget and be careful with computer engineering at the Cullen College. money, it was feasible. Cline applied herself to her studies.
She also joined the Program for Mastery in Engineering Studies Eventually, her grades went up and she eased back into working part- (PROMES), a Cullen College program dedicated to increasing engi- time in the PROMES office.T wo of Cline’s PROMES mentors told her neering students’ success in their studies, personal lives and careers. about the William A. Brookshire Scholarship for students taking a full The PROMES staff told her about different scholarship opportunities, course load and working at least 20 hours a week. special tutorial sessions and more. Dr. William A. Brookshire, a UH chemical engineering alumnus, un- At one point Cline found herself overwhelmed by the daily juggle derstood the unique challenges faced by students who work to of raising two children, working full-time and going to school. Her pay for their educations. Raised without means himself, Brookshire grades started to suffer. worked full-time at a day job and attended night classes at UH to earn his bachelor’s degree in 1957. Life interrupted In 1967, he and business partner James Slaughter Sr. founded S&B En- Life threw a curve ball that October when Cline’s husband lost his words carefully measured because the experience is still difficult to gineers and Constructors Ltd. in Houston. Initially, the pair made up job. The family no longer could afford a car and had to rely on the bus share. “But the people who saw the accident said that I actually rolled the entire company. Now it employs more than 4,500 people around system to get around. Roberts found a new job, but life continued to up on her hood like in the movies. The impact knocked my glasses off, the world and serves clients in the refining, petrochemical and chem- be hard. my shoes went flying.” ical, midstream, infrastructure, power generation, pulp and paper in-
dustries. “I used to ride the bus two hours one-way just to get my kids to Eight hours later she regained consciousness at Ben Taub Hospital. school,” Cline recalled. “My husband worked [in west Houston] at that A very generous man and a dedicated Cullen College supporter, point. He would bring the kids home from school, then catch the bus Cline ended up missing two weeks of class because of her injuries, Brookshire funded scholarships to help ease the financial burdens of back and spend the night in his office so he could be at work on time and her husband left his job to take care of her. “I needed someone working students. He also donated $1 million to the Cullen College to the next day.” there to help me do everything,” she said. create the William A. Brookshire Teaching Excellence Award Endow- ment, whose annual distributed income honors Cullen College faculty Then more disaster struck. Two weeks into this new routine, Cline was During this difficult time, finances spiraled out of control. Cline used “who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to exemplifying the hit by a car. She had dropped the kids off at school and decided to her UH Meal Plan to feed her family. They couldn’t pay bills or rent. highest levels of teaching excellence inside the classroom.” grab a cup of coffee before heading to her own classes.A woman Electricity was cut off, and the family eventually had to move out of driving out of a parking lot did not see Cline in the crossing. the apartment they’d called home for eight years. Cline knew competition for the scholarships would be tough and wasn’t sure of her chances. But after much encouragement from her “I don’t remember much of the details. It felt like I was hit by a wall, “We hadn’t had electricity for a month by the time we moved into a mentors, she applied for and was awarded a Brookshire Scholarship then I just remember the ground coming up to my face,” she said, her homeless shelter,” she said. “We were fortunate enough to land in an for the fall 2014 semester.
62 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 63 It was time to go back to school, but I was afraid that we would be homeless again. I thought about quitting then. Maybe I was putting my own dreams ahead of my family’s needs, maybe I wasn’t the sort of person that did awesome things.
awesome place, the Salvation Army Family Residence.” time. “I told the scholarship coordinator that I was taking the rest of 2015 off to get my family situated, and then I would be back,” Cline Volunteers kept the young children busy with games, music and other said. activities. Before she knew it, it was 2016. “The kids remember that time very differently than I do because the [shelter staff and volunteers] kept them distracted,” Cline said. “I’m “It was time to go back to school, but I was afraid that we would be grateful for that.” homeless again,” Cline said. She began to doubt herself. “I thought about quitting then. Maybe I was putting my own dreams ahead of While still living at the shelter, Cline returned to her classes but con- my family’s needs, maybe I wasn’t the sort of person that did awe- tinued to struggle, often having to choose between paying for food some things.” and bus fare. Her grades suffered and she found herself on academic probation and in debt. She attended the spring 2016 Brookshire Luncheon for scholarship recipients to thank Brookshire in person for his support but also to let “I was overwhelmed and failing,” Cline said. She ended up with an him know that she intended to leave school. administrative withdrawal for the 2014 fall semester. Meeting Brookshire is a moment she will always remember. He lis- Then it was 2015, time to renew her scholarship. tened to her words. Then he looked her in the eyes and told Cline that he believed in her. A representative from the scholarship committee reached out to Cline and inquired about her situation. Moved by her story, the committee That steady gaze, that unwavering belief, is what convinced Cline to worked with her. Cline’s family was able to move out of the homeless return to school and pursue her dreams again. shelter into an apartment again. “I wouldn’t have come back if it wasn’t for Dr. Brookshire,” she said. She found a job with a private security company at about the same “There was nothing stopping me from then on.”
64 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 65 I wouldn’t have come back if it wasn’t for Dr. Brookshire. I want any mom considering There was nothing stopping going back to school to know that me from then on. she’s not alone. Being a mom, having kids, having a family, doesn’t make you any less. What’s next?
Cline’s undergraduate cap and gown are carefully put away in her closet.
“I’m pretty sure I will never use them again,” she said. “But I won’t ever get rid of them, either. They are in there for whenever I need something that makes me happy, a reminder of what is possible.”
Cline loves her job and hopes the “coolness” of working at NASA never wears off. “NASA is like nerd heaven,” she said. “I have an entire agency of people to geek out with. Being able to hang out with astronauts is pretty cool, too.”
There is a serious aspect to her work, too, and Cline’s UH education prepared her for it.
“I used to fret about the complicated processes they taught us in Reaching for the stars Circuits class, and how many points we could lose for the simplest of oversights. I remember being shocked when Dr. Yuhua Chen [associate professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering] said ‘If Cline drew inspiration and strength from her own mother’s story. your code is correct 95 percent of the time, you’re failing.’ In my mind 95 percent was an A,” Cline said with a laugh. “My mom was a supermom. She went to nursing school when I was a toddler and I remember sitting in class with her. We’d have coloring “But in the real world, that attention to detail and those high ex- books while she took notes in class,” Cline said. “She didn’t have all pectations are crucial to my work,” she said. “If I don’t make sure the struggles I did, but she put herself through nursing school, she did my product is 100 percent correct and guarantee it down to the it alone and she got through it.” minutest detail, at best my team will be disappointed. At worst, people could be hurt.” As a result, Cline brought her kids along with her when needed and the PROMES staff at UH supported her anyway they could. “My kids Cline is making the most of her present. “The only thing I’m work- grew up at UH,” she said tossing an affectionate grin at her now ing toward right now is being the very best at what I do,” she said. 14-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter. “They are Coog kids.” She shared some advice for other moms thinking of pursuing their dreams. She went on to graduate in summer 2018, with a job waiting for her at NASA. “I want any mom considering going back to school to know that she’s not alone, that there are moms who do this,” Cline said. “She Her only regret is Brookshire, who died in April 2017, wasn’t there can do this just as much as the kid who comes right out of high to see her achieve her dreams. Cline celebrated with her family, her school and gets a degree. Being a mom, having kids, having a fam- friends, co-workers, her PROMES family and the entire Cullen College ily, doesn’t make you any less. In a sense, it makes you even more Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. There were cheers, equipped.” squeals, tears, laughter and lots of hugs.
66 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 67 #CullenCollegeStories That incident inspired me to do my master’s As soon as someone has a stroke, there are a on control systems. Then I worked as a re- lot of procedures done on the patient to help searcher in South Korea where I was looking stabilize the situation and time is essential. In into robotic surgery and trying to develop the non-invasive approach, we can directly technology to assist with such surgeries. apply the stimulation with minimum assis- tance and start delivering the treatment. This During that time, I got interested in brain-ma- could be something that is deployed in an am- chine interface (BMI) and understanding its bulance by a paramedic. potential to help people with paralysis, ampu- tations and spinal cord injuries. I looked up Houston Methodist had already patented this AIMING all the researchers in the U.S. and in Europe idea before I joined them, my role was to ac- working in that field. Dr. Jose Luis “Pepe” Con- tually make this device, test it clinically and treras-Vidal was one of the most prominent show proof of its impact. Eventually, we want researchers doing extensive work in non-in- to get the new device approved by the Food vasive BMI projects using electroencepha- and Drug Administration (FDA) and bring it to HIGH: logram (EEG) readings of brain activity. I got the market. in touch with Pepe and, fortunately, he had a position for a Ph.D. candidate at that time. I started my job in April at The Feinstein Insti- tute for Medical Research, the research arm of Cullen College I worked for five years in Pepe’s lab at the Cul- Northwell Health, New York’s largest health- len College of Engineering while pursuing my care provider. In this position, I will continue Grads Share Stories of Passion, Ph.D. in electrical engineering. As part of my to work on brain-machine interfaces and neu- Nikunj Bhagat studies, I collaborated with physicians from romuscular stimulation, which was the focus Innovation & Success UT Health and TIRR Memorial Hermann and of my Ph.D., but on a much broader scale. (Ph.D. EE ’17) a professor at Rice University to evaluate the efficacy of the brain-machine interfaces for For instance, in my doctoral work I demon- Electrical engineer at Northwell rehabilitation of stroke survivors. strated that it is possible to autonomously Health, The Feinstein Institute for control the force generated during electrical Medical Research While at UH, I co-invented two neurotech- stimulation of a paralyzed hand. Now, I will Pursuing an engineering degree, either undergraduate or gradu- nologies (one patent has been granted and be working on expanding this technology to ate, is not for the faint of heart. It involves tough classes, hard work, the other is pending) focused on EEG-based control not only force but also position, which creativity, perseverance and discipline. BMI and neuromuscular stimulation. I also will allow patients with spinal cord injury and had the opportunity to demonstrate our BMI stroke to perform dexterous hand movements Yet year after year, the Cullen College of Engineering attracts stu- controlled exoskeleton technology to a live that weren't possible before. dents from all over the greater Houston metropolitan area, from all audience at the 2016 Congressional Robotics across the U.S. and from around the globe. Caucus held in Washington DC. I will also be working with a team of clinicians, engineers and scientists – in Feinstein’s Insti- They work with professors who are renowned in their fields and After graduating, I joined Houston Method- tute of Bioelectronic Medicine – to develop can take advantage of opportunities in Houston’s thriving medical, ist Research Institute in January 2018, where an implantable, bidirectional brain-machine energy, aerospace, data and manufacturing industries. They are in- My interest in medical I worked on a novel vagus nerve stimulator interface that will allow patients with tetraple- volved in cutting-edge research, gaining invaluable experience and designed to treat stroke patients. gia to control their hands using stimulation, as exploring the possibilities of entrepreneurship. devices started about 10 well as be able to feel the objects that they are Vagus nerve stimulation has been around trying to manipulate. Each year the Cullen College of Engineering faculty and staff watch years back for decades and helps in treating epilepsy, proudly as graduate after graduate walks across the commence- depression and, recent studies show, it could I feel a huge sense of pride and purpose, ment stage and into the real world, ready to impact the future. when I was an undergraduate engineering help with diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and working with my colleagues and other re- student at the University of Mumbai in India. other diseases. Traditionally, they make an in- searchers in the field, to push the frontiers Here we feature some of the many talented Cullen College grad- I was on my way home from college, when I cision in the patient’s neck and then implant of technology and develop solutions that will uates. Armed with the knowledge and experience they gained at saw a person who was missing all four of his electrodes around the nerve…that way you eventually benefit patients. At the end of the UH, they are making a difference on a daily basis. limbs. He was basically lying on the ground can directly stimulate the nerve. day, the knowledge that my work can have a and begging. meaningful impact on people’s lives is very We want to deliver this treatment using a new rewarding. I started wondering about how we could use type of stimulator that is effective, non-inva- technology to benefit people in such situa- sive and can be deployed rapidly to help with tions. stroke recovery.
68 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 69 initiatives. At Intel we are always working on with the end of the Cold War led me to Hous- how we can make the world more connected ton. I left active military service after Operation and smarter. Desert Storm and went to work in private in- dustry. In my current role, I am responsible for the My job is to product strategy and development of the During that time, I enrolled at UH to get my next generation of control systems for smart master’s degree in industrial engineering. I plant the seeds manufacturing. I get to learn something new had the opportunity to meet and work with every day. students and professors with interests and ex- of innovation periences much different than my own. The BIG question I am trying to answer is: now, so that the What does the education of the future look Most of the classes I attended were in the eve- like? At Intel, I am in the forefront of build- ning, with a mix of full-time and part-time stu- next generation ing the future our kids will inherit. How are dents working in industries other than mine. we preparing students for these new technol- I completed 30 hours in [industrial engineer- will make sure ogies or the notions that their jobs have not ing] and 12 hours in the business school. This, even been created yet? How do we empower and attending many interesting guest lectures, they flourish teachers, parents and communities to strive helped me broaden my horizons. in the middle of constant change? to their full I completed several courses in Human Fac- tors Engineering, which is really foundational potential. UH provided me an – you’re always interacting as part of a larger system. You need to understand your role, or opportunity to meet and Peter J. Rayna, P.E. the role of the operator, with respect to the (MSIE ’97) purpose of the system to be successful. I also work with students from completed Organizational Power, Politics and around the world, to Supervisory mechanical engineer Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Culture with Dr. Abigail Hubbard [UH Bau- er College of Business] which has helped me learn about their stories, Engineers (USACE) Fort Belvoir, Virginia through all these years. Eric Rodriguez the world, especially my hometown of Hous- passions, interests and Despite many years and positive experiences ton. From that day on, I knew I wanted to do in Houston – meeting my wife, passing the (BSEE ’06) something in technology. challenges. professional engineer exam and complet- ing my master’s degree at UH – I missed the Product manager for the Internet of In 1998, the Ecuadorian economy began to Our University also introduced me to my strong camaraderie and sense of mission of collapse. I had two more years before col- wife Lorena (’05) and several of our friends. the military. So I took the opportunity to move Things group at Intel lege so my family decided to move back to It allowed me to be an example for the next to the National Capital Region where I have Houston. generation, which included my brother Kevin Currently I am a supervisory mechanical en- personnel. I often joke with people that I do worked for the U.S. Department of Defense as (BSChE ’10). gineer with Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps everything from taking out the trash to brief- a civil servant for the last 20 years. That experience in Ecuador is what drives me of Engineers. I have been working in this job ing four-star generals, and literally everything today to ensure we continue to use technolo- Technology impacts everyone in some form since late February 2011. in between. Since I recently retired from uniformed service gy for good and help every kid, regardless of or fashion. Therefore, as a product manager and will become eligible for civil service retire- where they are from, to be part of the digital I need to understand how the complex piece This is a civilian job, not to be confused with My father was the town engineer where I grew ment in a little less than five years, a time of tran- 21st century. of technology we are creating will impact the my service in uniform. I retired this past sum- up (Enfield, Connecticut) so it was probably in- sition is coming for me. I expect to keep working At the age of 11, I moved with my family from lives of others. I will be forever grateful to UH mer as Colonel, Corps of Engineers, United evitable that I, too, would become an engineer. for probably 10 more years. I’m not quite sure Houston to Guayaquil, Ecuador. That was My curiosity about how technology works led for expanding my world view through the ex- States Army Reserve, having completed 30 He was a civil engineer, and he suggested that I yet what the next chapter looks like. a complete culture shock for me. It was the me to engineering. periences I had every day. years of combined active and reserve service. look into other engineering disciplines as well. first time I saw poverty right in front of me. I learned quickly about inequality and the im- The University of Houston Cullen College of What gets me excited is that I am learning In my civilian job I work as a program manag- The opportunity to attend West Point as an pact education can have in closing the pover- Engineering has a great program that brings about the future of work and how it will im- er, overseeing efforts to conduct emergency undergraduate – I got a bachelor’s degree in ty gap in developing countries. engineering and computer science together. pact students that are in school today. I am restoration of critical infrastructure if damaged mechanical engineering – was a significant The professors gave us plenty of opportunities learning about the disruptions of tomorrow unexpectedly. I also perform all necessary co- influence, in terms of both engineering and My life completely changed again when I was to test and build things, which is a key skill I and I want to help people get ahead of them. ordination for the program with other agen- public service. West Point was founded in 1802 in the seventh grade at El Colegio Javier in use today. My job is to plant the seeds of innovation cies within the National Capital Region. as the nation’s first engineering school, and ca- Ecuador. The school got its first computer lab now, so that the next generation will make dets are taught to pursue “a lifetime of service and we were the first students to take a class I have been working at Intel for eight years sure they flourish to their full potential. Managing this program is like running my to the nation.” in it. Within minutes I was able to go online now, in a variety of groups from control sys- own small business. The program is very small and read about what was going on around tems, operations and real estate to education in terms of both annual budget and assigned Significant reductions inU .S. military forces
70 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 71 lab at Methodist in the fall of 2015 where I be- Matthew Hogan gan my fellowship focusing on mechanisms (Ph.D. BME ’15) of neuroregeneration and how neural activity influences the ways neurons behave and re- Postdoctoral fellow at the Center cover after injury. for Neuro-regeneration Houston Life as a researcher is challenging and reward- Working in a Methodist Research Institute ing. It requires me to wear many hats and so I am always doing something different every position where I can day.
use my passion to In neuroregeneration, I can use principles of engineering, biology and science to seek new explore solutions to clinical opportunities. I have a ton of interest- ing projects, including using virtual reality to ease human suffering analyze 3-D medical and scientific data, build- ing new spinal stimulators and manipulating is a dream job. neural activity patterns with flashing lights. When I was 11, my I am excited to come into work every day to face a new problem and apply unique solu- father passed away tions. from lung cancer. My main focus now is on exploring how neu- ral activity patterns can affect the way nerves He was a mechanical engineer, and before behave after injury. Spinal cord injury is espe- he passed he instilled in me a love for math- cially problematic because nerves in the brain ematics and science. I’m a hands-on person and the spinal cord don’t typically regrow af- and practical minded. I love to build things, to ter an injury. We are leveraging next genera- tweak and repair. Engineering seemed like a tion tools to manipulate how specific nerves natural fit, but I didn’t want to build bridges work. or cell phones. We have already demonstrated that spinal Because I’ve seen first-hand how a disease stimulation can improve outcomes after in- can affect a family, I wanted to help people jury, but we don’t know exactly which nerves and ease their suffering. Biomedical engi- need to be stimulated and which patterns of neering seemed to be the best of both worlds. stimulation are most important. We are excit- While I was working on my Ph.D. at the Cullen ed to find the answers so that we can better College of Engineering, my research applied understand how to improve outcomes after tissue engineering to manipulate tissues and injury. materials designed to encourage the healing process. Working in a position where I can use my pas- sion to explore solutions to ease human suf- I took a ton of great classes and was exposed fering is a dream job. to all sorts of different, useful subjects. I stud- ied principles of drug delivery, electrophysiol- ogy, in silica modeling and more. My diverse background has helped me bring unique solutions to research questions. In science, a broad knowledge can bridge gaps between different fields of research. I am truly grateful for the knowledge and opportunities I discov- ered during my time at UH.
Now I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Hous- ton Methodist Research Institute working on methods to improve outcomes after central nervous system injuries, in particular spinal cord injuries and strokes. I joined the Horner
72 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 73 gineering department had a high national Association, Sigma Lambda Beta National Cynthia Oliver ranking, and I had the toughest advisor Fraternity, La Comunidad and Omicron Del- on campus who helped me excel in more ta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society, Coleman, P.E. ways than I thought possible. In 1971 when among others. This experience allowed me I graduated magna cum laude and started to hone my leadership skills, which proved (BSChE ’71) my career at ExxonMobil (then Humble handy when starting my first job out of col- Oil), I was prepared to be in a competitive lege. Retired ExxonMobil chemical work environment. Also, since I was one of engineer the first two women to receive a chemical My involvement in student organizations also engineering degree from UH, I was sur- enabled me to meet a lot of amazing individu- prised but prepared to be the first woman als and make lifelong friends. We organized a engineer in Exxon’s large East Texas Divi- lot of great events on campus and performed sion. community service that changed the lives of many people. After I retired from ExxonMobil, ending I am a first-generation a 33-year career in 2004, I wanted to in- Lorenzo Xavier I still remember leading a community event crease my volunteerism up a few notches one Thanksgiving season where we worked college graduate, and so I could give back in a major way. Cano with local grocery stores to donate over 100 turkeys to lower-income families living near I am proud to say it I am proud to be a Coog because there are (BSIE ’04) the UH community. This event changed my so many important parts of my life that are life and taught me the importance of helping because it reminds a result of UH. I am forever grateful for UH Operation Excellence Lead for others in need while at the same time show- being a university where I could achieve CareAllies, A subsidiary of Cigna ing gratitude for the positive things that I have me of the dream my more than I ever expected possible. in my life. parents had for me. My UH engineering degree changed the For the last 12 years I have been working pre- entire trajectory of my life from what it dominantly in process improvement, change I have to admit that I did not know what I would have been. It enabled me to realize management and project management roles My story started in the Cuney Homes, located wanted to major in when I started college. in the historic Third Ward. It’s the first devel- my parents’ dream for me. It enabled me leveraging Six Sigma and Lean Concepts at to help my younger sister, Patrice O. Yar- Dell, Bank of America and in my current role at opment opened by the Housing Authority in The Program for Mastery of Engineering Stud- bough (’80, Ph.D. ’85), pursue her dreams Cigna. I have a Black Belt in Six Sigma and am 1938. I lived [there] with my wonderful par- ies (PROMES) exposed me to the different at UH. It enabled my husband, Leonard J. a certified Project Management Professional. ents who did not have college degrees but types of engineering disciplines. Industrial Coleman (’70), and me to help our daugh- In 2010, I earned my MBA from The University were very determined to help me get mine. engineering is focused on making systems, ter, Kelly Coleman, M.D. (’98), pursue her of Texas at Austin. In 2014, I published a book products and processes more efficient by re- dreams at UH. It enabled me to be in a called “Resumes That Stand Out” and then They knew a college degree would enable me ducing waste, improving quality, increasing position to give back in a big way to help began presenting professional development to get a good job that would be so much bet- productivity and lowering costs. I have always others. workshops around the country. ter than the low-paying jobs they had. So they enjoyed solving puzzles and finding more encouraged me all through K-12 to study hard efficient ways to do things. So naturally, in- I am very passionate about supporting I encourage all students to get involved with and make good grades in school so I could get dustrial engineering was perfect for me, and women and minority engineering stu- some type of leadership role. In fact, my wife a scholarship for college. I am grateful for the resources I received at dents at UH. I remember how it would and I started an annual scholarship for UH the University of Houston’s Cullen College of have been so very helpful to connect with Cullen College industrial engineering students The turning point occurred during my junior Engineering that allowed me to come to this other women in engineering on my jour- who have not only succeeded academically, year in high school when my chemistry pro- realization. fessor chartered a Junior Engineering Techni- I am very passionate about supporting ney to graduation. but have also found time to serve in leader- ship roles. cal Society (JETS) chapter. That was the first The industrial engineering curriculum allowed women and minority engineering As a result, I have devoted much of my time I had heard of engineering. Even though me to take a lot of great classes that prepared time, talent and treasure to support UH, Education and service is important to me and I was told engineering was not for girls, I took me for my first job. These classes allowed me UH Engineering and the UH Alumni Asso- my family. I have volunteered for many years a huge leap of faith to pursue it when I got students at UH. I remember how it would to get exposure to everyday challenges that ciation. As a passionate Engineering Vol- with a nonprofit called Prospanica: The Associ- a [college] scholarship. In 1967, I enrolled at many companies face. More importantly, I unteer Leader, I will continue to support ation of Hispanic Professionals to raise schol- UH as a chemical engineering freshman. To have been so very helpful to connect learned how to come up with creative solu- the UH engineering students … by giving arships for students and organize professional my surprise, I was not only the only girl in my tions to overcome challenges and create value what I wished was available when I was a development workshops for those interest- class, but also the only Black student. for companies. with other women in engineering on my UH engineering student. ed in accomplishing their academic dreams and improving their careers. I was pleased to Both my studies and experiences at UH sig- As an engineering student, I was also involved journey to graduation. have won a $25,000 grant last year that has nificantly helped me with my career. The in many extracurricular activities and served allowed me to give out a greater number of Cullen College of Engineering’s chemical en- in many leadership roles while in college. The scholarships to students. organizations included The Hispanic Student
74 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 75 Jamila C. Johnson, I am the infrastructure policy manager for Hous- ton Public Works. I received this assignment in P.E., C.F.M. May 2018, after working as the city of Houston’s (MSCE ’00) floodplain manager for nine years. As floodplain manager, I was responsible for lead- I want to help shape a more Infrastructure policy ing one of the nation’s largest local floodplain manager Governmental Relations management programs. The Floodplain Man- agement Office is responsible for permitting and resilient future for Houston. Office Houston Public Works inspecting all construction activity in the city’s floodplain, maintaining records pertaining to the city’s floodplain, enforcing the city’s floodplain -or dinance, providing floodplain information to the citizens of Houston, developing applications for mitigation projects, assisting with flood disaster I am in the first generation of my family to be response and recovery activities and coordinating able to have my choice of colleges. Segregation with FEMA, Texas Water Development Board and and discrimination limited the college and career the Harris County Flood Control District. choices of my parents and grandparents. It is my understanding that UH did not admit its first Af- In my new role, I’m responsible for developing rican-American student until the 1960s. However, policies related to the city’s infrastructure, acting because of the achievements of the civil rights as a liaison between Houston Public Works and movement, my choices were unlimited. local, state and national agencies and govern- mental entities and participating on the city’s Originally from Detroit, Michigan, I grew up see- Harvey Recovery Leadership Team. I have to learn ing the struggles of that city and it made me want about all the areas of our operations so that I can a career focused on solving big city problems. help develop policy and communicate with the citizens, city leadership and other stakeholders. Detroit’s struggles, which continue today, are a result of the decline of the automotive industry Houston has been my home for over 20 years and the social problems that led to race riots and now and I want to help make it a better place for White flight to the surrounding suburbs. Declin- my fellow Houstonians to live and work in. For me ing population and tax base cripple the city’s this means fighting flooding by developing policy ability to maintain its infrastructure and further and enhancing regulations in ways that contin- deteriorate quality of life for those who remain. ue to make Houston a vibrant environment for Efforts at urban renewal and revitalization have development and redevelopment. This is more been largely unsuccessful there. important than ever after seeing the devastation that Hurricane Harvey and other recent storms I chose civil engineering because of its focus on have caused. people’s basic needs – like clean water, shelter and transportation. I wanted to use my prob- While my role covers all infrastructure policy, the lem-solving and planning skills to help people. big question for me continues to be how best to leverage all of the partnerships and tools available After undergraduate school, I chose to move to to the city to fight flooding. Houston to pursue my master’s in civil engineer- ing because I would have the opportunity to study I want to help shape a more resilient future for at UH. I was excited to do my graduate studies in Houston. such a diverse environment with so many innova- tive professors from all of over the world.
The Cullen College of Engineering civil master’s program was challenging, but it prepared me to continue to learn in the variety of roles that I have had in my career so far.
76 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 77 faculty
#CullenCollegeStories What is your philosophy on Cullen College Trailblazers life? Brighten the Future of Engineering: Set a Benton Baugh high (BSME ’76) Distinguished adjunct professor of goal and Up mechanical engineering try to NAE Election Year: 1999 achieve Election Citation: For implementation Close of concepts for subsea equipment used it. in offshore oil production.
What is your philosophy on life?
BB: At all times leave things better than when Personal you found them.
How did you get interested in engineering?
with NAE Faculty BB: When I was in the eighth grade I was going to be a school teacher, which was the noblest profession I had seen at that point. At that time my brother in college switched to engineering The highest professional distinction an engineer can achieve is obtaining membership and so I decided to become an engineer also. I in the elite group the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). The nonprofit orga- had zero career counseling, but it was the right nization, founded in 1964, brings together many of the world’s most accomplished answer. engineers. Engineering has provided a basis not only for suc- The NAE’s more than 2,000 renowned member professionals in industry, academia cess in doing technical design, but also establish- and government from the U.S. and around the globe, provide leadership, expertise and ing and owning a company and mentoring others. Dan Luss insight to the federal government on matters involving engineering and technology. Professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering What keeps you inspired about your work? The UH Cullen College of Engineering is home to 14 brilliant engineers who have earned their spot on the NAE membership roster with creativity and distinction. In BB: As an engineer I get to work on puzzles and NAE Election Year: 1984 this issue, we invite some of our NAE faculty members to share insights into how they problems no one knows the answers to and use think, dream and innovate. the knowledge to produce new products and Election Citation: For his scholarly insight into important industrial services. problems in chemical reactor engineering and for his ability to sup- port novel, inspired and useful solutions.
78 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 79 faculty
JL: A world constantly remade anew.
Who is your favorite scientist? And why?
JL: A triumvirate: Michael Faraday, a British I have chemist and physicist who contributed signifi- cantly to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry; John Tyndall, an Irish exper- enjoyed imental physicist who is noted for discoveries involving infrared radiation (his invention of the lightpipe led to the development of fiber taking the optics) and atmospheric science among oth- ers; and J. Willard Gibbs, an American math- ematical physicist who made important theo- “road less retical contributions to physics, chemistry and traveled,” mathematics. and it has Seek out your made “all the ignorance; it difference.” is your friend. John H. Lienhard Christine Ehlig-Economides What keeps you inspired about your work? M.D. Anderson professor of technology and Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished CE-E: It seems like nearly every day I encounter new insights. The culture, emeritus. Creator and host of the national These three scientists profoundly influenced university environment is great for this. A Ph.D. student begins radio program “The Engines of Our Ingenuity,” 19th century science and 20th century tech- University Chair and professor of petroleum to succeed when he or she starts to teach the professor. I will be nology. Each was informed by technology. engineering able to keep this up as long as I can find new ideas to explore. which shares stories of how culture is formed by Each exhibited profound human goodness. human creativity. Each is less celebrated than others who ac- complished much less. NAE Election Year: 2003 Who is your favorite engineer? And why? CE-E: This is a hard question because many well respected and Name one thing that people would be be surprised by the beauty all around me. Election Citation: For contributions to the testing of highly known people come to mind. But Dr. Tatiana Streltsova, a NAE Election Year: 2003 surprised to learn about you. wells and characterization of reservoirs, including the civil engineer and hydrologist, was my role model. I referenced How did you get interested in management, integration and visualization of data her work in my own first published articles. I met her about 20 Election Citation: For creating JL: Maybe the fact that I was deeply involved engineering? from multiple disciplines. years later, after she immigrated to the U.S. from Russia, and I awareness of engineering in in vocal music – lead roles in music theater knew her after she retired and took up her passion for art. She and opera, high level vocal ensembles, even the development of cultures JL: I suffered severe dyslexia as a kid, and had passed away recently. Streltsova, a child survivor of the Leningrad commercial recordings. and civilizations, and for to replace symbolic thinking with spatial visu- siege during World War II, overcame many barriers to reach her the development of basic alization. That led me into things like drafting What is your philosophy on life? achievements. If you could tell aspiring engineers and burnout theories in boiling and and mechanics. My visual sense suited me far scientists one thing, what would it be? better to geometry and calculus than it did to, Name one thing that people would be surprised to learn condensation. CE-E: Overall, I have enjoyed taking the “road less traveled,” and say, algebra. It practically funneled me into about you. JL: Seek out your ignorance; it is your friend. it has made “all the difference.” I celebrate diversity. Learning to mechanical engineering. communicate in unfamiliar technologies or surroundings is stim- Accomplishments and expertise are so yester- CE-E: I think the Big Bang theory [origin of the universe] is wrong. day. Knowledge flows into the curious person ulating. What keeps you inspired about your One day I may try to investigate and articulate compelling argu- What is your philosophy on life? in the room, to the one who constantly seeks work? ments as to why it is wrong. out his or her ignorance. JL: I must be constantly curious and ready to
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who became the leading expert on salt dome formations in America. He discovered Spin- dletop, the first oilfield found on the U.S. Gulf Coast, kicking off the Texas Oil Boom in 1901. The discovery not only transformed the econ- Kaushik omy of the area, but also revolutionized the global fuel usage. The Lucas Geyser blew oil Rajashekara over 150 feet in the air at a rate of 100,000 Distinguished professor of electrical barrels per day. and computer engineering Lucas returned to Beaumont, Texas, after a job in Mexico and was asked about the Spin- NAE Election Year: 2012 dletop’s rapid decline in production. “The cow was milked too hard,” he said, “and moreover she was not milked intelligently.” The concept Election Citation: For contributions of reservoir management started at that time. to electric power conversion systems in transportation. I have been following this philosophy during the last 40 years, and this was the subject of my recognition for the NAE (National Acade- my of Engineers).
What is your philosophy on life? If you could tell aspiring engineers and scientists one thing, what would it be? KR: Work smart, doing the maximum amount of work in minimum time and in the right way. GT: Develop a positive attitude and “can do” Ganesh Thakur 6. Collect as many facts as you can before approach. Be persistent, stay focused, use What keeps you interested in your Director of Energy Industry making a decision and realize you will make your time effectively, respect others and em- particular field? Partnerships at UH and some wrong decisions. brace diversity. KR: My field is directly relevant to many ap- distinguished professor of petroleum What keeps you inspired about your Our industry has seen many ups and downs plications, such as transportation, renewable engineering work? and it has affected all of us in some ways. But energy, power systems, industrial systems the outlook for the future of the oil and gas and more. It integrates the different areas of NAE Election Year: 2016 GT: When I was an undergraduate, oil prices industry is bright and healthy. I see a robust expertise into one single field. dropped and many people thought oil and gas oil and gas industry in the future. We should would run out in 30 to 40 years. They were focus on describing the value of our profes- Name one thing that people would be Election Citation: For leadership in wrong. Today we still have 40, 50 or more sion to the society, such as providing energy surprised to learn about you. the implementation of integrated years of oil and gas remaining, especially as for light, heating, air conditioning, driving, reservoir management techniques. we go from conventional oil and gas to un- running machines, airplanes, etc. It’s import- KR: I grew up in a small village with no elec- conventional. The sky is the limit, and we may ant to continue exploring, drilling, producing, tricity in the house. I lived there until finish- have a whole new era coming up. refining and transporting oil, gas and deriva- ing high school. tive products for a variety of usage. If we stop What is your philosophy on life? The oil and gas industry has been good to me these activities, the whole world will come to and led to a very rewarding career, not only in its knees. What we do is an integral part of our GT: financial terms, but also by providing exciting society, and today’s young engineers and sci- 1. Although difficult to implement, try to cre- work where you can use advanced technolo- entists are going to play an even more import- ate a reasonable work-life balance. gies, constantly learn new things and work all ant role than my generation played. over the world, meeting diverse people and 2. Make your work your passion and learn on making friends everywhere. I would encourage young professionals and every step. college students to continue to stay active, I also like helping others, especially in teach- take leadership roles and continue to develop 3. Never give up, do the very best you can. ing my students. themselves as this is a very important industry and it is going to be here for many more years. 4. Pay attention to your own drawbacks be- Who is your favorite engineer? And why? fore criticizing anyone else. GT: Anthony Lucas (1855–1921), an Austri- 5. Use encouragement to motivate others. an-born mechanical and mining engineer
82 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 83 faculty
“I obviously admired his intellect, and he was request and took a huge risk with his profes- the White House Award for President’s Higher Stuart Long always a gentleman … a really nice person who sional career, as the time and effort involved Education Community Service in 2013) and GK- Honored With would just sit and talk to some lowly grad stu- … would divert much of his attention from 12, a program bringing science and engineer- dent like me,” Long said. Once graduated and his technical research,” wrote Tedesco. “I am ing graduate students into area schools to fos- working as a professor, Long attended some of proud to say that his efforts have blossomed ter greater interest in science and engineering IEEE the same conferences as Tai. They continued into an extensive infrastructure of activities.” among economically disadvantaged students. talking, became tennis partners and eventually co-authored a chapter in the classic text “An- Long worked with Cullen College Professor Long’s efforts have garnered the University Distinguished tenna Engineering Handbook.” about $20 million in funding from a total of 89 grants, of which 21 were from the National Sci- In a coincidence, Tai and Long at different ence Foundation. Educator Award times had each been Ph.D. students of Pro- fessor Ronold W. P. King, a Harvard professor At the University of Houston, Long has won famous for his contributions to the theory and almost every faculty honor there is, including By Rashda Khan application of microwave antennas. (In 2001, the Esther Farfel Award in 2010 (the highest Professor King would become the first recipi- honor a UH faculty member can receive) and ent of the Chen-To Tai Award.) the Fluor Daniel Award (the top career award Stuart Long, Cullen College professor of elec- given by the College). Long also was the first trical and computer engineering and associ- For Long, winning this award was an homage Based on his recipient of the UH Career Teaching Excellence ate dean of undergraduate research and the to his academic family. “Anytime you get an Award. Honors College, received the 2018 Chen-To Tai mentoring at both the award like this, it’s really due to all the people Distinguished Educator Award on July 11 from who mentored you to this point,” he said. “I His research interests are in the broad area the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics undergraduate and have had some great mentors.” of applied electromagnetics and wireless Engineers) Antennas and Propagation Society graduate level, Stuart communications, and more specifically in mi- (AP-S). Long has been teaching and researching at UH crostrip and dielectric resonator antennas. since the 1970s and has spent years creating Long is without a The organization recognized Long for “his a thriving culture of undergraduate research, He became an IEEE Fellow in 1991, won the IEEE commitment to electromagnetics education mentorship and achievement. doubt most deserving Third Millennium Medal in 2000 and received through teaching, research and the devel- the organization’s Life Fellow status in 2010, a opment of programs to attract students into of the Chen-To Tai He oversaw the expansion of three mentoring designation given to those with “an extraordi- electromagnetics and engineering.” The award undergraduate research programs on campus nary record of accomplishments in any of the was created in 2000 to recognize outstanding Distinguished Educator — a full-time summer program (Summer Un- IEEE fields of interest.” He also received the career achievements by an educator in the dergraduate Research Fellowship, or SURF), Award. IEEE AP-S John Kraus Antenna Award in 2014 field of antennas and propagation. a part-time semester program (Provost’s Un- for creating the dielectric resonator antenna, dergraduate Research Scholarship, or PURS) an antenna that is completely composed of “Based on his mentoring at both the under- and the undergraduate senior honor thesis non-conducting materials and is exceedingly graduate and graduate level, [Long] is without program. Under Long’s leadership, the Office efficient at very high frequencies. a doubt most deserving of the Chen-To Tai Dis- of Undergraduate Research recently devel- tinguished Educator Award,” wrote Joseph W. oped the Houston Early Research Experience Long credits the diversity of his work – teach- Tedesco, Elizabeth D. Rockwell Dean of the (HERE), which is a two-week workshop de- ing, research, administration and more – for Cullen College of Engineering, in his recom- signed to familiarize rising sophomores and keeping him engaged and invested in his mendation letter. - Dean Joseph w. tedesco juniors with the fundamentals of conducting 44-year-career. Several of his students and ac- research. ademic hires have already retired, but it’s not Winning the Chen-To Tai award is a great hon- something that appeals to him. or to any educator in the field of applied elec- He has also done other outreach and helped tromagnetics, but it is personally meaningful develop faculty-led lectures, workshops and Fritz Claydon, also the director of the divi- “I keep doing it because I enjoy it,” he said. to Long and brings him full circle to his early panels on topics like finding a research posi- sion of undergraduate program and Student “As long as I’m in good health and having roots. tion, being a responsible researcher, pursuing Success, and others on these activities. Their fun, I plan on continuing. If I had [the op- graduate school and applying for scholarships. projects include G.R.A.D.E. Camp, an annual portunity] to do it over, I’d maybe do some As a doctoral student at Harvard, Long met engineering camp for girls in grades 8-12; ac- things slightly different … but I’d always end Professor Tai, a renowned scientist in electro- In 2002, Long was asked to help the Cullen ademic excellence workshops in more than a up being a professor. I think that’s the best magnetics and antenna theory. Tai, who was a College of Engineering provide opportunities dozen courses for students; summer research job you can have.” longtime professor at the University of Michi- for young women and other underrepresented opportunities for engineering undergraduates gan at Ann Arbor, at the time was on a teach- students to explore STEM careers. from across the country; research opportuni- ing sabbatical at Harvard. Stuart Long ties for K-12 teachers in engineering laborato- “He answered ‘yes’ without hesitation to the ries during the summer (which garnered them
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biobased thermoplastic elastomers Robertson Megan Robertson is developing not only come from a renewable Two UH Cullen College Engineers Honored for Work With resource, they potentially could also be recy- Among cled after their use.
However, developing new polymers is not an Sustainable easy task. Starting with a bioresource for poly- Most Cited Researchers mers often results in materials with very dif- ferent properties compared to the traditional Polymers materials. This presents many challenges for In The World adoption of these materials in applications. By Jeannie Kever By Sara Strong Robertson's group is investigating methods of overcoming such limitations for vegetable Two Cullen College of Engineering professors at the University of Megan Robertson, associate professor of oil-based elastomers. As one example, the biobased elastomers show lower strength Houston – Zhu Han, John and Rebecca Moores professor of electri- chemical and biomolecular engineering, was cal and computer engineering, with expertise in the field of computer honored in May with the 2018 Sparks-Thomas than traditional elastomers, so Robertson's Zhu Han group is developing methods to strength- science; and Yan Yao, associate professor of electrical and computer Award from the Rubber Division of the Amer- engineering and a principal investigator at the Texas Center for Su- ican Chemical Society. During the conference en these polymers. Thus, the biobased elastomers of the future may not only be perconductivity – are on a list of researchers whose work has been in Indianapolis, Robertson presented her lat- most often cited by colleagues in their respective fields. est findings in the field of sustainable elasto- Megan Robertson more earth-friendly than the current petro- mers to fellow polymer researchers. leum-based status quo, they might be stron- ger, too. For now, the enticing benefits are in Citations – the mechanism by which other researchers refer to pre- It is deeply gratifying to note that our the future while today's research is aimed at viously published papers in their own work – are a measure of the The Sparks-Thomas Award (sponsored by so are silicone devices used by surgeons in an impact of a researcher’s work. ExxonMobil) has been given since 1986 by operating room. exploring the potentials. That research is very professors are amongst the highest promising. the society's Rubber Division to an early ca- Han and Yao, as well as two other UH faculty, made the Clarivate cited worldwide, an accomplishment reer scientist, technologist or engineer for As beneficial as these polymers are, their tra- Analytics list of Highly Cited Researchers for 2018. The list identi- outstanding contributions in the field of ditional form presents some challenges. For More milestones fies scientists and social scientists from around the world who have that showcases the tremendous quality elastomers. It is named for the developers of one thing, their raw materials are byproducts demonstrated significant influence through publication of highly butyl rubber, William J. Sparks and Robert M. of petroleum refining, which means they Robertson had a busy year in 2017, with her cited papers during the last decade, defined as ranking in the top 1 of the UH research enterprise. Thomas. come from a nonrenewable resource that is calendar filled with major professional and percent by citations in a specific field and year. subject to the troublesome fluctuations of personal milestones. - amr elnashai, vice president of research and technology transfer Robertson's 2018 award honors her research supply and price on world oil markets. For an- A total of 22 categories of research are considered in the analysis. into identifying vegetable oil and fatty ac- other, they are not particularly earth-friendly She was honored at the 2017 American Chem- New this year is the cross-field category, which identifies research- id-based materials that could replace petro- in their creation or in their afterlife. ical Society's Young Investigator Symposium, ers who contribute papers in several fields. chemical products as the basic ingredients in hosted by the Polymeric Materials: Science the manufacturing of elastomers. Biorenewable elastomers and Engineering Division. For the symposium, The other two UH researchers recognized are: she was invited to join other young scientists Elastomers are the kind of polymers that can Robertson's research group is using vegetable in discussing their individual research find- • Olafs Daugulis, Robert A. Welch Chair of Chemistry, in the chem- greatly stretch and deform, then quickly re- oils and their fatty acids for the development ings. But that time, she accepted the honors istry category. vert to their original form. (Think tires and of new elastomers. These relatively abundant long distance and stayed in Houston to await rubber bands, for example.) The goal is to biosources have the potential to replace tra- the birth of her son just weeks later. • Zhifeng Ren, director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at develop new, superior materials that maintain ditional petrochemical sources for polymers. UH and professor of physics, in the category of physics. all the benefits of today's products while also “If elastomers could be made from biosources Additionally, the UH Undergraduate Research being kinder to the environment, as well as to instead of petroleum, there is the potential to Mentor Award in 2017 honored her talent “We are deliberate in nurturing and investing in research that im- uncover new, advantageous properties. greatly reduce their environmental footprint,” in guiding young scientists. “We work with pacts society and improves the quality of life,” said Amr Elnashai, she explained. many undergraduate investigators in our vice president of research and technology transfer at UH. “It is Traditional elastomers find diverse applica- group, and we are quite proud of their accom- therefore deeply gratifying to note that four of our professors are tions. They are the major components of rub- Robertson's research has emphasized a spe- plishments,” she said. amongst the highest cited worldwide, an accomplishment that ber tires, soft coatings, adhesives, even Silly cific type of elastomer called a thermoplastic showcases the tremendous quality of the UH research enterprise.” Putty. They are in the seals that secure the elastomer. Unlike traditional elastomers, ther- The pace has not slowed, as Robertson and International Space Station and the gaskets moplastic elastomers can be reshaped into her group continue to explore game-chang- The publisher noted that the list “recognizes world-class researchers that keep our home faucets from dripping. new forms at elevated temperatures, allow- ing science. selected for their exceptional research performance, demonstrated The waterproof sealants that plumbers put ing for their on-the-spot application as well by production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1 Yan Yao around pipe joints are made with elastomers; as re-purposing into new products. Thus, the percent by citations for field and year in Web of Science.”
86 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 87 faculty the Applied Research Hub at the Texas Center of the U.S. National Academy of Inventors as for Superconductivity at UH. well. Meet the New Fellows: Selvamanickam's groundbreaking research He has published 240 papers and holds over demonstrated a unique technology to fabri- 80 issued patents. He serves as an associate Two UH Engineers Named to IEEE Honor cate thin film high temperature superconduc- editor of IEEE Transactions of Applied Super- tor (HTS) wire over length scales of more than conductivity. a kilometer. Using this novel manufacturing By Rashda Khan process, his team completed the world's first “I would like to thank the support of my col- significant delivery of thin film HTS wire for leagues, collaborators, sponsors and the Uni- Two UH engineering professors were named 2019 Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Elec- the Department of Energy’s flagship program versity of Houston over 32 years for this ex- tronics Engineers (IEEE). The appointment is the Institute’s highest grade of membership and is of Albany Cable Project to power 25,000 hilarating experience in the field of applied reserved for those with “an outstanding record of accomplishments” in an IEEE field. No more households in Albany, New York. superconductivity,” Selvamanickam said. “I than one-tenth of 1 percent of IEEE’s voting members can be named fellows in a given year. am grateful especially to my peers who spent The wire is now used by more than 200 insti- their valuable time in preparing and support- IEEE is the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. tutions around the world for developing appli- ing my nomination and to the IEEE Council on Through its 400,000 plus members in 160 countries, the association is a leading authority on a cations in various fields, including wind gen- Applied Superconductivity and the entire IEEE wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to erators, energy storage, power transmission Institution for this honor.” biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. cables, magnetically levitated trains, medical imaging and defense. Jose Luis “Pepe” He also led a highly successful program funded Contreras-Vidal by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-En- ergy (ARPA-e) to achieve four-fold improve- Jose Luis “Pepe” Contreras-Vidal, Hugh Roy ment in in-field performance of superconduc- and Lillie Cranz Cullen distinguished profes- tor wires. Currently, Selvamanickam is leading sor of electrical and computer engineering a program funded by the Advanced Manufac- at the UH Cullen College of Engineering, has turing Office of the DOE to develop advanced been named a 2019 Fellow of the Institute manufacturing technologies for superconduc- of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). tor wires for next-generation electric machines. He is being recognized for his research con- Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal tributions involving brain-machine interfaces Selvamanickam's research at the University (BMI) and wearable exoskeletons. spans a wide range of advanced processing cortical potentials in the delta (0.1-4 Hz) band. Heal and Feel Again – that trains the next gen- techniques for high-performance materi- “The research for which I am being recog- His breakthrough research has enabled signif- eration of engineers. als for energy and electronics applications, nized could not have been accomplished icant advances in the design of noninvasive such as high-temperature superconducting without the work of many talented students, closed-loop real-time BMIs to robotic pros- He is very involved with the IEEE, serving as thin film wires, photovoltaics and flexible postdocs, university colleagues and clinical thetic limbs and powered exoskeletons for an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on electronics. partners from the Texas Medical Center, and people with spinal cord injury, stroke and limb Human Machine Systems. He is also a member the volunteers who have participated in our amputations. of the IEEE Systems Council AdCom, the Engi- “We are working to overcome the obstacles research,” Contreras-Vidal said. “I also appre- neering in Medicine and Biology (EMBS) Soci- to commercialization of high temperature su- ciate the financial support from federal agen- Contreras-Vidal’s research team is now de- ety, the Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC) perconductor wires through a number of proj- cies, foundations and industry that made the veloping neurotechnology designed to help Society, the Robotic and Automation Society Venkat Selvamanickam ects from nanoscale materials engineering to research possible.” young children with disabilities. (RAS) and IEEE Brain. large-scale manufacturing research,” he said. Contreras-Vidal is one of the world's lead- The team also continues to study brain-com- Contreras-Vidal earned an engineer’s degree Selvamanickam earned the Presidential Ear- ing researchers in the field of noninvasive puter interfaces in connection to the arts to in electronics and communication from the gree in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. Venkat Selvamanickam ly Career Achievement Award in 1996, the brain-machine interfaces. He has been fea- further understand creativity and innovation, Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico, in materials engineering from the UH Cullen highest honor the U.S. Government bestows tured in national and international media for as well as develop BMI-based innovations to a master’s degree in electrical engineering College of Engineering, is one of the world’s Venkat Selvamanickam, M.D. Anderson on outstanding scientists and engineers be- his thought-controlled robotic exoskeleton, improve education, artistic endeavors and art from the University of Colorado Boulder and leading experts on innovative manufacturing Chair professor of mechanical engineering at ginning their independent careers. He has which can help paralyzed patients regain their therapy. a Ph.D. in cognitive and neural systems from technologies related to superconductors. the University of Houston, was named a 2019 also received three R&D 100 awards, the Su- mobility. He also leads in the translation of Boston University. Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Elec- perconductor Industry's Person of the Year clinical BMI systems to patients with paralysis Contreras-Vidal is the director of the Building He is the co-founder and the former officer of tronics Engineers (IEEE) in recognition for 32 award, Wire and Cable Technology Interna- and limb amputation. Reliable Advancements in Neurotechnology SuperPower Inc., which produces supercon- years of research contributions in applied su- tional Award, and the IEEE Dr. James Wong (BRAIN) Center at UH and the principal inves- ducting electrical wire, and has continued his perconductivity, specifically the development Award for Continuing and Significant Contri- In 2010, Contreras-Vidal was the first to tigator for a NSF-funded Research Experienc- research since joining the UH faculty in 2008. and manufacturing of superconductor wires. butions to Applied Superconductivity Mate- demonstrate EEG-based neural decoding of es for Undergraduates (REU) program – titled He is also the director of the Advanced Man- rials Technology. Selvamanickam is a Fellow 3-D center-out hand movement kinematics Neurotechnologies to Help the Body Move, Selvamanickam, who earned a master’s de- ufacturing Institute at UH and the director of from the fluctuations in the amplitude of slow
88 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 89 faculty
for detecting changes in diabetic retinopa- thy. His methods have been applied to stem cell biology; gene expression in learning and memory; reproductive biology; transplant pathology; neuroprosthetic devices; cellular alterations due to alcohol and exercise; axonal transport in Huntington’s disease; pancreatic, Whenever I publish kidney and breast cancer histology; develop- mental immunology; angiogenesis; cervical cancer; retinal diseases; mitochondrial biolo- new findings or gy; toxicology assay automation; worm biol- ogy; cancer immunotherapy; and concussion. discoveries from my His current research focuses on two areas: lab, I feel very happy. drug discovery for concussions in collabora- tion with John Redell and Pramod Dash at UT Health and Dragan Maric at National Institute That’s the most of Neurological Disorders and Strokes, and Badri Roysam cell-based immunotherapy for cancer in col- rewarding aspect of laboration with Navin Varadarajan, associate Elected to AIMBE professor of chemical and biomolecular engi- my career. College of Fellows neering at the Cullen College. Roysam has published more than 130 papers - jiming bao in prestigious scientific journals, including By Rashda Khan Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Nature Methods, Nature Protocols, Cell, Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Immunology, “I’m honored by this recognition from my in Advanced Functional Materials about the abil- Bioinformatics, and IEEE Transactions. peers,” said Bao, referring to his election as an ity to control and pattern graphene orientation Badri Roysam, professor and department multi-dimensional signal processing, machine Jiming Bao important career milestone. “This makes me in all three dimensions using a rotating mag- Even with all his achievements for research, chairman of electrical and computer engi- learning, big-data bioinformatics, high-per- feel that I have made valuable contributions to netic field.T his finding opens up new possibili- Roysam said working with students is the Elected Fellow of neering at the UH Cullen College of Engineer- formance computing and biomedicine. the science of our community.” ties for broad device applications of graphene. ing, was recently elected to the American most rewarding aspect of his career. “They invariably surprise me with great new ideas,” Optical Society of Institute for Medical and Biological Engineer- Innovative breakthroughs in his work enabled Bao’s research focuses on new and novel mate- Bao earned both his bachelor’s and master’s he said. ing’s (AIMBE) College of Fellows. the first quantitative profiling of the neurovas- America rials, semiconductor nanowire optoelectronics, degrees in physics from the Zhejiang Universi- cular stem-cell niche; the first computational silicon photonics and metallic nanostructures ty in Hangzhou, China, and his Ph.D. in applied He earned his Ph.D. and master’s degree in Fellows are nominated each year by their stem-cell lineage reconstruction; and com- for plasmonics, solar water-splitting and fiber physics from the University of Michigan. He electrical engineering from Washington Uni- peers and represent the top 2 percent of the putational prediction of retinal stem-cell fate By Rashda Khan optic sensors. served as a postdoctoral fellow and a research versity, and earned a bachelor’s degree in medical and biological engineering commu- with greater than 98 percent accuracy. They associate on the research team of Federico electronics engineering from the Indian Insti- nity. also led to several discoveries, including un- Jiming Bao, associate professor of electrical He was part of a UH research team studying Capasso at Harvard University from 2003 to tute of Technology. covering a previously unknown hyperfused and computer engineering at the UH Cullen the nonlinear transmission of light through 2008. “This is a great honor,” he said. “It puts me mitochondrial state; identifying a signaling College of Engineering, was elected a Fellow an aqueous suspension of gold nanoparticles Roysam was inducted in March at the Ameri- in the company of brilliant minds, whom I mechanism driving stem-cell migration; of the Optical Society of America (OSA) for his when they noticed something unexpected: A In addition to receiving member benefits and can Institute for Medical and Biological Engi- hope to interact with and work together to pinpointing proteins underlying thymocyte “contributions to semiconductor and metallic pulse laser appeared to have forced the move- recognition of their Fellow status, OSA Fellow neering (AIMBE) annual meeting at the Na- inform the larger community about medical movements; quantifying immediate early nanostructures and their applications in nano- ment of a stream of liquid in a glass laboratory members may also apply for travel grants to tional Academy of Sciences. and biological engineering innovations and gene expression stimulated by cognitive stim- photonics and solar energy harvesting.” cuvette. This observation led to a new optoflu- visit and lecture in developing countries. advances.” uli; and distinguishing immune cell move- idics principle. AIMBE is a non-profit, honorific society of the ment behaviors that predict tumor killing ef- OSA members who have served with distinc- Founded in 1916, OSA is the leading profes- most accomplished individuals in the medical Renowned in the field of multi-dimensional ficacy. tion in the advancement of optics and photon- “Whenever I publish new findings or discov- sional organization for scientists, engineers, and biological engineering fields. Its mission image informatics, Roysam was awarded the ics can be proposed for election to the class of eries from my lab, I feel very happy,” Bao students and entrepreneurs in the science of is to advocate for biomedical engineering in- honor for his contributions to automated bi- Roysam has pioneered automatic 3-D map- Fellow. The number of Fellows is limited by the said. “That’s the most rewarding aspect of light. Its mission is to promote the generation, novation through public policy initiatives. ological image analysis algorithms that have ping of the complex arbors of neurons, glia society's bylaws to no more than 10 percent of my career.” application and archiving of knowledge in led to products and discoveries in cell biology, and microvascular networks of the brain, and the total membership. According to OSA, at optics and photonics and to disseminate this neuroscience and immunology. multi-cellular perivascular structures – espe- present only about 50 percent of the nominees In 2012, Bao won a National Science Founda- knowledge worldwide. cially stem-cell niches. He developed the first are elected each year. tion CAREER Award to study the optical proper- His research occurs at the confluence of method for curved retinal image registration ties of graphene. He recently published a paper
90 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 91 faculty
“I joined SPE while I was a Ph.D. student at she has no regrets. Christine Ehlig-Economides Awarded SPE’s Stanford and have been actively involved with SPE ever since,” Ehlig-Economides said. “The “Being a petroleum engineer has given me Honorary Membership recognition puts me in the opportunity to travel to all but one conti- Highest Honor the company of industry giants. Considering nent and to work with people from all over the how I started, this is amazing.” world,” she said. “Every day offers new con- By Rashda Khan cepts and challenges far beyond my imagina- Ehlig-Economides earned a bachelor’s de- tion as a young person.” Jeffrey Rimer Lars Grabow gree in math-science from Rice University and planned to be a math teacher. “I thought SPE also appreciates Ehlig-Economides' career I would marry and spend my life as a parent choice and involvement. and a teacher,” she said. “Instead, after getting I&EC Research Honors a Master of Arts in Teaching, I learned that “On behalf of the SPE Board of Directors, I math and science teachers had to coach male would like to take this opportunity to thank the UH Chemical Engineers as 2018 athletes, and that teaching opportunities were University of Houston for supporting the active There is very limited.” involvement of Christine in the Society of Pe- troleum Engineers. Member participation and Influential Researchers Then circumstances changed and a new op- leadership are important factors that enable no substitute for portunity appeared. In 1972 the federal civil SPE to achieve its mission of collection, dis- By Rashda Khan rights law, Title IX, banned institutions from semination, and exchange of technical infor- excluding individuals based on gender. Seeing mation,” said Darcy Spady, 2018 SPE president. an opening to enter into historically male-dom- Two Cullen College of Engineering facul- has received multiple teaching and research inated fields, Ehlig-Economides decided to give Ehlig-Economides received the award at the ty members joined 27 other scientists and excellence awards from UH. engineering a try. Her math and science back- SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibi- researchers from around the world on the ground made the decision easy. She earned a tion, Sept. 24-26 in Dallas. 2018 Class of Influential Researchers. The Lars Grabow, associate professor of chem- hard honor recognizing the quality and impact of ical and biomolecular engineering, is world master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. in petro- SPE is a not-for-profit professional association work by scientists with less than 10 years in renowned for computational research in leum engineering from Stanford University. whose 168,000 members in 144 countries their field, was announced Sept. 26 by edi- the field of catalysis and has won millions engage in development and production of en- tors and board members of the Industrial & of research dollars to find safer, cheaper and Prior to joining the Cullen College, Ehlig-Econ- ergy resources. SPE is a key resource for tech- Engineering Chemistry Research journal, pub- more effective catalysts for industrial pro- work omides taught at Texas A&M University for 10 nical knowledge for oil and gas professionals lished by the American Chemical Society. cesses and environmental applications. years and worked 20 years at Schlumberger. through its publications, events, training cours- and it is critical to be es and online resources. Jeffrey Rimer, the Abraham E. Dukler He serves as chair of the Catalysis and Reac- Ehlig-Economides is a co-author of “Petroleum Professor of chemical and biomolecular tion Engineering division of the American In- Production Systems,” a seminal textbook in the Ehlig-Economides offered some advice to Cul- engineering, is renowned for his ground- stitute of Chemical Engineers and vice-chair self-confident and field of petroleum engineering. len College students wishing to follow in her breaking research in the broad field of crys- of the Southwest Catalysis Society. He also footsteps. tallization. His work led to development of serves on the international advisory board resourceful. She was elected to the National Academy of drugs for malaria and kidney stones (the of the prestigious journal ChemCatChem. Engineers in 2003, and was a member of the “Consider higher education, beyond the bach- first advance in kidney stone therapy in National Academy of Science Committee on elor of science degree. I think this has impacted 30 years). His oil and gas-related projects Grabow’s work has earned him several hon- America’s Energy Future and the NRC Board on how people related to me professionally,” she target scaling in pipes and increasing the ors, including the NSF CAREER Award in efficiency of catalysts.H e is also princi- 2015, U.S. Department of Energy Early Ca- -Christine ehlig-economides Energy and Environmental Systems. She is one said. “That being said, too much education of 16 Quantum Reservoir Impact (QRI) Scholars tends to limit corporate management opportu- pal investigator on a Department of Ener- reer Award in 2014, and ICC Young Scientist and now is a member of the QRI Board. She is nities, and now there are women breaking the gy-funded study of corrosion behavior of Award in 2012, along with a UH Excellence also a member of the Research Partnership to glass ceiling without so much education. Many glass containers that store nuclear waste, in Research, Scholarship or Creative Activity Secure Energy for America. might prefer that.” with the goal of reducing or avoiding the Award in 2017. containers’ degeneration. The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in September bestowed its highest honor – the SPE/ AIME Honorary Membership – on Christine Ehlig-Economides, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Other accolades from SPE include the Antho- “Either way,” she added, “there is no substitute ny F. Lucas Gold Medal and the Distinguished for hard work and it is critical to be self-confi- Rimer won the 2018 Norman Hackerman Distinguished University Chair at the University of Houston and a member of the prestigious Na- Award in Chemical Research from the Welch tional Academy of Engineering. Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineer- dent and resourceful.” ing Faculty, as well as the Lester C. Uren, John Foundation, 2017 FRI/John G. Kunesh Award from the American Institute of Chemical En- Honorary Membership is limited to 0.1 percent of the Society’s total membership. The elite group Franklin Carll, Innovative Teaching, and Forma- tion Evaluation awards. gineers, 2016 Owens Corning Early Career comprises individuals who give outstanding service to SPE or demonstrate distinguished scientific Award, and National Science Foundation’s or engineering achievements in the fields within the technical scope of SPE. Reflecting on her career, Ehlig-Economides said CAREER Award in 2012. In addition, Rimer
92 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 93 faculty (npj) series and part of Nature Research, which ucts found in everyday life, but researchers is a flagship portfolio of journals, products and have yet to fully understand the process at an Deborah Rodrigues services, including Nature. Nature Research atomic level. Pradeep Sharma, M.D. Anderson Professor and chair of the me- Named Journal’s is part of Springer Nature, one of the world’s Pradeep Sharma chanical engineering department at the UH Cullen College of Engi- leading global research, educational and pro- Brankovic is director of the Electrochemical neering, will receive the 2019 James R. Rice Medal from the Society Associate Editor fessional publishers. Nanofabrication and Nanomaterials Synthe- Receives Prestigious of Engineering Science (SES). sis Group at the Cullen College. His research The editor-in-chief of npj Clean Water is Eric team focuses on better understanding of the The award recognizes mid-career researchers who are within 10 to M.V. Hoek, founder and chief executive officer physical and chemical processes that occur at 20 years of having earned their doctorate and have had a substan- of Water Planet Inc. and environmental engi- the electrochemical interface and their uses in tial impact on the field of engineering sciences. Sharma was award- neering professor at the University of Califor- producing materials and nanostructures with National Award ed the medal for his “creative contributions to understanding the nia, Los Angeles. novel functionality and applications. science underpinning flexoelectricity and its applications to engi- By Rashda Khan neered and biological systems.” “I have been watching the field grow in po- tential for a while on the academic research “This recognition by my peers is quite moving and I feel deeply hon- Stanko Brankovic side. Now it has to transition into application to ored and grateful,” Sharma said. “The award truly belongs to the make it big in the mainstream and I predict that amazing students, post-docs and collaborators I have worked with Serves as Editor of will happen within five years,” said Brankovic, over the years and is a tremendous morale boost for our group.” Special Issue who has been studying the phenomenon for By Rashda Khan over a decade. “The best is yet to come.” His research group at the Cullen College uses theoretical and com- putational methods to understand physical phenomena across mul- Debora Rodrigues, an associate professor in For the issue, Brankovic chose articles discuss- tiple disciplines – from materials science to biology. Recent research civil and environmental engineering at the UH ing fundamentals and potential applications of highlights include the designing of soft multifunctional materials, Cullen College of Engineering, recently became various deposition methods. elucidating why some animals can detect magnetic fields, time-scal- an associate editor of npj Clean Water, a new ing in atomistic simulations and assessing the mechanical behavior open-access online journal dedicated to pub- Coatings created by electrochemical deposi- of materials used for energy storage. lishing papers about cutting-edge research tion have many uses, from gold plating on jew- aimed at ensuring the clean water supplies elry to creating conductive pathways in circuit After earning his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University around the globe. It is published by Nature Re- boards or protective coating on the wings of of Maryland at College Park in 2000, Sharma worked as a research search. airplanes. Researchers are now studying the scientist for General Electric Corporate Research and Development. fundamental underpinnings of electrochem- He joined the department of mechanical engineering at the Cullen “We feel your expertise in environmental bio- ical deposition at the nanoscale to both im- College in 2004 as a tenure-track assistant professor. technology complements that of our existing prove and expand applications of the process. editors, and this is a vital discipline to have rep- By Rashda Khan In addition to several UH teaching and research awards, Sharma’s resented on our editorial team,” the invitation Brankovic predicts a massive-range of applica- past accolades include the 2015 Melville Medal from the American stated. Stanko Brankovic, professor of electric and tions – from photovoltaic uses to catalysts to Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a Fulbright Award in computer engineering and chemical and bio- microelectronics. 2013. Rodrigues has a master’s degree in environ- molecular engineering at the UH Cullen Col- mental microbiology from the University of lege of Engineering, served as a guest editor “These special editions allow us to gather ex- Sharma has some words of wisdom for Cullen College students. Sao Paulo, a doctorate in microbiology and for a special issue of The Electrochemical Society ceptional research and breakthroughs that molecular genetics from Michigan State Uni- Interface. have the potential to grow the field in a con- “We should never compromise on the quality of work. Consider- versity and a post-doctoral degree in chemical siderable way,” said Brankovic. “I hope it gives ations such as number of papers, impact factor, etc., should be sec- and environmental engineering from Yale Uni- Being invited to be guest editor is a great hon- ideas to practitioners and eventually they’ll ondary to the quality of research,” he said. “This is epitomized by versity. or, Brankovic said. “It’s basically a society of come up with their own ideas how this could Professor Jim Rice, in whose honor the medal is named.” your peers recognizing you as an expert and be applied.” For the past eight years, she has been teach- trusting you to lead this special issue,” he add- Sharma will receive the medal at the annual 2019 SES conference ing at the Cullen College and leading several ed. “It’s not a recognition just for me, but also Interface is the leading journal for those in the at Washington University in Saint Louis. The award comes with research projects focused on improving water for the University of Houston in a field that field of solid-state and electrochemical sci- $1,500 and a commemorative plaque. quality and sustainability. Her goal is to un- is quite important these days since batteries, ence and technology. Published quarterly, this derstand the aquatic system and its microbial and everything else, are based on electro- four-color magazine contains technical articles ecology, investigate the effects of nanomateri- chemistry.” about the latest developments in the field, and als on the environment and develop new ener- presents news and information about and for gy-efficient and affordable technologies to re- The special issue, titled “Electrodeposition for members of ECS. move harmful contaminants and keep aquatic the Future,” explored the topic of electrochem- systems safe. ical deposition, a process by which a metal film is deposited onto a conductive surface from a The journal is part of the Nature Partner Journal metal ion containing solution. Electrochemical deposition is used to manufacture many prod-
94 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 95 faculty
Paper Outlining Fuel from the Earthquake Engineering Research Cullen Institute, the highest honor given by the In- Cell Discovery Wins stitute in recognition of sustained leadership and contributions to earthquake engineering Colleges Mourns and earthquake risk mitigation.
AIChE Best He was also a two-time winner of the Nor- Andy Veletsos, man Medal, the highest award given by the Fundamental National Academy of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for papers published in its journals. Veletsos was Engineering Member also elected to honorary membership of ASCE Paper Award in 1998 and to the Academy of Medicine, Engi- and UH Professor neering and Science of Texas in 2004. By Rashda Khan By Rashda Khan Dr. Veletsos was a On the national level, he headed the group that formulated the Applied Technology The South Texas Section (STS) of the American role model to many Council’s first design provisions for soil struc- Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) chose ture and then incorporated those provisions a paper written by two UH Cullen College of Anestis “Andy” Veletsos, a National Acad- of his students emy of Engineering member and an interna- into the federal government’s National Earth- Engineering professors and their Ph.D. stu- and colleagues. quake Hazards Reduction Program. He was dents for its Best Fundamental Paper Award. tionally renowned educator, died on Oct. 25 Stanko Brankovic and Lars Grabow in Houston. He was a distinguished adjunct He inspired also involved with the U.S. Department of professor of civil and environmental engineer- Energy’s Tank Waste Remediation Systems The award was presented in October at the Committee, the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical monthly STS-AIChE meeting in Galveston. ing at the UH Cullen College of Engineering, many to continue gives rise to a new component of strain, which REER Awards, which partially funded this which he joined in 2010. He was also the Review Board for the Yucca Mountain Reposi- depends on the size of the Pt islands.” research. Additional funding came from the contributing to tory Project and with the Brookhaven National The paper, titled “Finite Size Effects in Sub- Brown & Root professor of civil engineering University of Houston GEAR Award, which of- emeritus at Rice University. He was 91. Laboratory for the Nuclear Regulatory Com- monolayer Catalysts Investigated by CO Brankovic and Yuan measured carbon monox- fers seed funding to young researchers look- the betterment mission. More recently, he was affiliated with Electrosorption on PtsML/Pd(100),” was pub- ide absorption in Pt monolayers on Palladium ing to get projects inside their laboratory off “Our faculty, staff and students are deeply sad- of structural ExxonMobil. lished in the Journal of The American Chemical (Pd) single-crystal surfaces. Grabow and his the ground. Society in 2017. It was based on research con- dened by this news,” said Joseph W. Tedesco, engineering. student Doan ran computer simulations to Elizabeth D. Rockwell Dean of the Cullen Col- Veletsos’ areas of expertise included structural ducted by Stanko Brankovic, professor of explain experimental data and identify struc- Yuan and Doan, who were both Ph.D. students and foundation dynamics, earthquake engi- electrical and computer engineering, and his lege. “We were blessed to have him share his tures that could obtain favorable catalytic at the time of research, have each graduated extensive knowledge and expertise with our - Abdeldjelil “DJ” Belarbi neering and the dynamics of offshore plat- student Quiyi Yuan, along with Lars Grabow, properties due to the finite size effect. Using from UH and are pursuing successful careers forms. His research helped expand the under- associate professor of chemical and biomolec- community. Our hearts go out to his family theoretical calculations to test their hypothe- as researchers in industry and national labs. and loved ones at this very difficult time.” standing of response behavior exhibited by ular engineering, and his student Hieu Doan. sis, Grabow and Doan confirmed that the fi- structures, foundations and foundation-struc- nite size effect is the origin of the observed Pt “AIChE is the largest chemical engineering Veletsos previously served as professor of civil and his contributions to the University’s edu- ture systems, leading to improved designs. The team’s project solved a fundamental re- catalyst monolayer activity. society in the world,” Grabow said. “It real- cation mission were remarkable,” said Belarbi, search question related to the catalysis that engineering at the University of Illinois at Ur- ly feels good that the society recognizes the bana-Champaign, where he also participated who as a UH Ph.D. student took a graduate He received his bachelor’s degree with high occurs in fuel cells. The best catalytic materi- “Stanko and I got together and we were able value of the fundamental contributions that course with Veletsos at Rice. They eventually honors from the Robert College in Istanbul, al for use in chemical fuel cells are based on in the Center for Advanced Study. He held to explain the breakdown of the prevailing we’re making.” visiting appointments at the University of Cal- became close friends and colleagues. “He will Turkey, and his master’s and Ph.D. degrees platinum (Pt), an expensive material. There theory for monolayer catalysts. The impact always remain in my heart and I will miss him from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham- has been a drive for the last 15 to 20 years to ifornia at Berkeley and at universities in Brazil of that finding is rather large,” said Grabow, This is a second award for the Doan and and India. so much.” paign. He was also awarded an honorary doc- reduce costs by minimizing the amount of adding that the information can help future Grabow team. They both coauthored a paper torate from the University of Patras in Greece. platinum used. development in catalyst monolayer synthesis. that won STS best fundamental paper award In his teaching, Veletsos emphasized the im- Veletsos’ leadership in engineering education, “That justifies why it was selected as the best in 2014. portance of mastering the fundamentals of a teaching and professional activities had a pro- His other honors include the Huber Research However, reducing platinum changes the fun- fundamental paper.” found influence on structural engineering, Be- Prize, the Newmark Medal, the Howard damental catalytic activity. subject and developing insight into the struc- AIChE has more than 60,000 members from tures involved. larbi added. Award, the Reese Research Prize, the Theo- Brankovic agreed and added more. “The best more than 110 countries. Through its varied dore von Karman Medal of ASCE, and the Dis- “The most Pt-efficient geometry is a single part of the paper, besides uncovering funda- programs, AIChE provides a focal point for His NAE membership stemmed from ad- tinguished Alumnus Award of the Civil Engi- layer of atoms, a monolayer, on the surface “Dr. Veletsos was a role model to many of his mental science, is the synergy between theo- information exchange regarding cutting-edge students and colleagues. He inspired many to vancements he made in structural dynamics neering Alumni Association of the University of a cheaper host material. But when the ry and experiment,” he said. “It is an example chemical engineering research in such areas and earthquake engineering, especially in- of Illinois. mismatch between the atom distances is too continue contributing to the betterment of of a fruitful scientific and collegial collabora- as nanotechnology, sustainability, hydrogen structural engineering,” said Abdeldjelil “DJ” elastic behavior and soil-structure interaction. large then you don’t form a perfectly flat con- tion between two groups at UH.” fuels, biological and environmental engineer- He was elected in 1979. tinuous monolayer of Pt atoms,” Grabow said. Belarbi, professor of civil and environmental ing, and chemical plant safety and security. engineering at the Cullen College. “Instead, the atoms form small islands with Both Brankovic and Grabow are winners of Veletsos won the George W. Housner Medal breaks in between. This change in geometry prestigious National Science Foundation CA- “He was a good friend to the UH community
96 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 97 students
the opportunity to work with Ardebili, who aged Puerto Rico destroying lives, oblit- They used tractography, a 3-D modeling is well-known for her research on creating erating homes, businesses and infra- technique in neuroscience, to develop al- flexible, stretchable and bendable batter- structure. Even after the winds and rain gorithms and more detailed visual repre- ies and electronics. stopped, the devastation continued. Peo- sentation of data collected from the brain. ple faced food and water shortages, lack “I’m very passionate about the environ- of medical resources, power outages and “The 3-D representation is a tool that’ll ment and I think the way I can most make financial issues.A n estimated 2,975 people help scientists and doctors get a clearer a difference is by getting into battery de- died as a result of the storm. understanding of the data,” she said. velopment because batteries are what’s holding us back,” White said. “If we can “But I think the greatest damage that was The mass destruction in Puerto Rico led to make batteries last longer and find better caused was psychological and emotion- canceled classes and extended semesters, ways to store energy for future use, then al,” said Echevarria, who considers herself which resulted in Echevarria taking some we can really get renewable energy on the one of the lucky ones. During Maria’s on- finals while working in Mayerich’s lab. map, have it be a viable option.” slaught she was with her family and, while water did get into their house, they all sur- Lasting impacts For Adriana Echevarria, an undergradu- vived the experience safe and sound. ate student majoring in mechanical engi- At the end of the 10 weeks at UH, Echevar- neering at the University of Puerto Rico, Echevarria traveled last summer for the ria, White and their cohorts participated in inspiration came from Hurricane Maria. first time out of Puerto Rico to participate the 2018 Research Experience for Under- in the Neurotechnologies to Help the Body grads Poster Session and presented their In September 2017, Hurricane Maria rav- Move, Heal and Feel Again group. research to students and faculty.
“For me, the brain is the most interesting “If I didn’t do this, I would be regretting part of the body, that’s where everything it so much because it was an amazing ex- happens,” she said. “Being here, learning perience,” Echevarria shared. She said the I like to think I’m new skills will help me understand what I experience helped her achieve her goals: Draws Undergrads From Across the Country can take back to Puerto Rico to help my to get hands-on research experience, gain representing Puerto Rico. university and my people.” a better understanding of bioengineering BY RASHDA KHAN That despite everything and develop herself as a student and pro- Starting out in a new lab means prepar- fessional. that happened, we’re still ing for the work. White spent most of the For 10 weeks last summer, undergraduate Jacinta C. Conrad, Frank M. Tiller Associate both in the program, each working under a here, we’re still willing to first week on background readings and lab “I like to think I’m representing Puerto students from across the U.S. became bona- Professor of chemical and biomolecular en- UH engineering professor and a graduate training. And it paid off. She soon found Rico,” Echevarria said. “That despite ev- fide engineering researchers, working along- gineering; Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, Hugh student mentor as they conduct their daily work, we’re still willing to herself working in Ardebili’s lab every day erything that happened, we’re still here, side some of Cullen College’s brightest minds Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Pro- research. and making progress. we’re still willing to work, we’re still willing to solve the world’s most pressing technical fessor of electrical and computer engineering; improve the lives of other to improve the lives of other people as en- challenges. and Stuart Long, professor of electrical and people as engineers “I just think it’s very cool that I was able gineers and professionals, as individuals.” computer engineering and associate dean of Inspired, motivated to take all these raw materials and put The National Science Foundation designated the Honors College and Undergraduate Re- undergraduates and professionals, as them together to make working batter- Contreras-Vidal, who also serves as direc- the University of Houston as a Research Expe- search – share a motivation for leading stu- ies. I didn’t think I was going to be able tor of the BRAIN (Building Reliable Ad- individuals. to do that so quickly,” White said. “Also, I rience for Undergraduates site and awarded dents into the future. The students chose to spend a good por- vancements in Neurotechnology) Center had awesome mentors and learned a lot – UH researchers $790,000 for three years to tion of their summer learning hard and at the University of Houston, said the pro- even more than I expected.” reach students early in their college careers. “Nationwide there is a critical objective to in- working in labs for a myriad of reasons. gram offers a unique opportunity for stu- crease the number of students pursuing ca- dents to witness firsthand how technology - adriana echevarria Her summer research experience at UH re- Out of hundreds, 26 students were chosen for reers in the STEM fields,” said Ardebili, adding Julia White, a materials engineering ju- impacts society and people. affirmed her love for problem-solving and the 2018 competitive research opportunity. that she believes the Research Experience will nior at Purdue University, wanted to spend research. They traveled from far-flung places, including inspire undergrads to visualize their own fu- the summer doing research and traveling. “At the end [of the experience], students the Midwest, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico, tures in science, technology, engineering and will not only know more about the field, “Research is a great way to problem-solve to participate in one of two groups: Materials mathematics jobs. “A huge benefit is that you’re getting paid but know how to communicate, how to in a way that can really make a difference for Sustainability in Energy and Manufactur- to learn and get good experience, and find information and, most importantly, in society and the world,” said White. She ing and Neurotechnologies to Help the Body “A large body of research shows we lose stu- you’re able to explore a new city,” said understand the role of an engineer in soci- hopes to earn a Ph.D. and do research in Move, Heal and Feel Again. dents at all stages in the pipeline,” said Con- White, a first-time visitor to Texas. “It’s a ety,” he said. industry or at a national lab in the future. rad. “Typically, students need role models and fantastic opportunity.” The UH engineering professors who lead the research experience early.” Echevarria spent this summer working program – Haleh Ardebili, Bill D. Cook Asso- She was excited to focus on sustainable with David Mayerich, assistant professor ciate Professor of mechanical engineering; Participating students are getting plenty of materials in her research and particularly of electrical and computer engineering.
98 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 99 students
Ali Rezaei Is First to Earn FLYING PETROLEUM ENGINEERING PH.D. HIGH:
BY RASHDA KHAN
Ali Rezaei has the honor of being the first well on our ranking.” graduate of the Cullen College of Engineer- ing’s doctoral program in petroleum engi- Rezaei is continuing with UH as a post- neering. He earned his Ph.D. this year by doctoral researcher with Birol Dindoruk, Cullen College Students Achieve Aerospace Dreams At completing his dissertation on fast multi- professor of petroleum engineering and a I’m honored to pole fully-coupled poroelastic solutions of member of the National Academy of Engi- hydraulic fracturing. neering (NAE). be the first one. AIAA Competition
“Rezaei is very dedicated to science and “Everybody in the petroleum industry is My Ph.D. was a his dissertation is definitely one of the best trying to expand on some aspect of work- BY RASHDA KHAN dissertations I have seen,” said Mohamed ing with unconventional reservoirs, such necessary step in Soliman, William C. Miller Chair of petro- as shale plays,” Rezaei said, adding that preparation for more leum engineering. “We’re proud to have unconventionals offer great potential in Soaring ambition led 15 Cullen Col- who led the propulsion and electronics about 7.5 pounds when empty. It can him as our first graduate.” terms of oil and gas extraction in the U.S. ambitious research. lege mechanical engineering seniors group on the project. “Living in Hous- carry 12 “passengers” (actually, boun- and are projected to reach unprecedented to band together on a Capstone proj- ton, we have many students interested cy rubber balls). The aircraft’s heaviest Launched in 2015 in response to the need levels of output over the next decade. ect that would be the crowning glory in aerospace.” weight configuration is 12.3 pounds. for qualified engineers across all sectors of of their undergraduate studies. Their the energy industry, the petroleum engi- The unique nature of these reservoirs re- goal was to not only design and build First the group chose a plane design It wasn’t always a smooth process for neering doctoral program now has 39 stu- quire complex extraction methods, and hy- - ALI REZAEI a working remote-controlled airplane and created 3-D models on the com- the students. They had trouble manu- dents. As a Carnegie-designated tier-one draulic fracturing is key to producing oil in for their class, but also to represent puter then built a prototype out of facturing the wings, with the first de- public research university, UH is perfectly such situations, he said. the University of Houston in the pres- lightweight foam. Then they built the sign fracturing because they were not situated to provide a rigorous curriculum tigious American Institute of Aeronau- actual remote-controlled airplane, a strong enough. and cutting-edge research experience for He will continue his research started said. “My Ph.D. was a necessary step in tics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) 2018 De- C126. It turned out to be 52 inches from its graduates, Soliman said. during his doctoral work to understand the preparation for more ambitious research.” sign Build Fly Competition. nose to rudder and had a wingspan of “Along with the stress of the compe- behavior and impact of hydraulic fractur- 60 inches. tition and submitting the design, pro- “We expect to graduate between nine and ing in unconventional reservoirs. And he is He earned his master’s in petroleum engi- “We were really interested in doing posal and everything else by the differ- 11 Ph.D. students during the 2018-2019 aca- proud of his new title. neering from Texas Tech University and his something related to aerospace and Made of balsa wood and heated plastic ent deadlines, we still had our classes demic year,” Soliman said. “The high qual- bachelor’s in petroleum engineering from building a plane,” said Lubna Samara, wrap, the red and black plane weighs and our presentation for Capstone and ity of Ph.D.s we’re producing should reflect “I’m honored to be the first one,” Rezaei Azad University in Iran.
100 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 101 students grades to worry about,” Samara said. ellite image on top of that to look at the The ground mission required teams to re- optical properties of the water and be able Nevertheless, the students stayed dedicat- move and replace two parts, such as a bat- to extend that using the satellite imagery,” ed and kept working on the project, often tery or a servos, chosen by a roll of dice. The Albright said. “In theory at least, we should staying up until 4 a.m. on Saturdays to get UH team completed it without any issues. Andrea Albright be able to develop algorithms to mea- things done. So they set themselves new goals – to com- sure bathymetry – the depths of water in plete all three missions of the competition Earns Prestigious oceans, seas and lakes – all over the world “As engineering students we’re always told with their plane and finish in the top 50. with very few in situ measurements.” you should be able to work in a team ef- fectively, and communication is super im- The first flight mission was to fly three The research project which will measure portant,” Samara said, adding that working laps around the 1,000-foot course with no GRAD STUDENT changes to coastlines, including erosion, on the project drove home the truth of the added weight. The second was to fly the build-up of land masses and water depth, message. same distance with the maximum number could potentially help predict flooding, of “passengers” – or balls – the plane was FELLOWSHIP sinking of land, vulnerability of coastal Along the way they garnered some sup- designed for. The third had a 10-minute communities and future development. porters from UH and broader community. limit to complete as many laps the team BY RASHDA KHAN wished with the passengers plus an added “Keep in mind most metropolitan cities are The knowledgeable staff of Randy’s Hob- 227-gram cargo on board. The three mission within 50 miles of a coast,” Albright said. bies, a Houston-area store specializing in scores were combined then divided by a Lubna Samara (on the right end) “We don’t have a lot of awareness about parts and equipment for model and re- rated aircraft cost, which was calculated by and four other Cullen College of how the earth functions, so we make our mote-controlled cars, boats, planes and multiplying a plane’s empty weight by its Engineering students represented decisions based off of what we think works trains, served as technical advisors for the wingspan. UH at the 2018 AIAA Design Build for us and end up paying a lot of money students and helped them do test flights. Fly competition. when our infrastructure crumbles or natu- The AIAA competition brought in 720 stu- ral disasters happen.” The students also presented their project dents in 77 teams from 16 countries, making “It’s something I’m going to remember for to the greater Houston chapters of the Ex- it the largest Design Build Fly competition the rest of my life,” she added. “But if you know approximately what the perimental Aircraft Association (EAA) and in the event’s 22-year history. Kansas greet- lay of the land is and what processes are received a $200 donation. ed them with wind and heavy rain, which Andrea Albright, a graduate student in the information,” she said. “I get to come underlying that, you should be able to pre- resulted in delays and a backed up queue. What’s next? the Cullen College of Engineering’s geo- up with the code to actually process the dict infrastructure wear and tear and ulti- Richard Bannerot, professor of mechani- sensing systems engineering and sciences data instead of relying on commercial soft- mately lead to better land use practices,” cal engineering at the Cullen College and “The first time we attempted the first mis- Samara, who chose to pursue mechanical program, won a 2018 National Defense Sci- ware packages designed by someone else. she added. the students’ Capstone advisor, was so im- sion, we failed because we had a hard land- engineering because of the broad range ence and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) I get to do something no one else has done pressed by the project and their hard work ing due to the wind,” Samara said. “We got of career options in the field, said the idea Fellowship. She is among 69 fellows cho- before.” The geosensing systems engineering and that he wrote the team a personal check for a second chance and we were able to pass that someone has to study aerospace en- sen from more than 3,600 applicants. sciences graduate program at the UH Cul- $1,000 to help them with the costs of the it.” gineering to get into the aerospace field is Albright will be using the Department of len College is the only program of its kind project and traveling to the AIAA compe- a misconception. Their remote-controlled The fellowship, which is the highest honor Defense fellowship for her studies and re- in the world. Administered through the Na- tition. The UH team passed the second mission, airplane project involved both mechanical awarded to graduate students by the De- search involving satellite data collected by tional Center for Airborne Laser Mapping but never got the chance to try the third engineering and electrical engineering as- partment of Defense, covers full tuition, two separate NASA satellites. (NCALM) at UH, the program trains the pects. At the AIAA competition one. research expenses and mandatory fees next generation of scientists in the rapidly for three years. The Fellows also receive “I really wanted to work with satellite data, changing field of geospatial engineering, “This is open to all engineering and stu- The students became the first UH team to “It was Sunday and they closed the queue a monthly stipend of $3,200 plus up to especially looking at satellite imagery,” Al- providing students with hands-on expe- at 5 p.m.,” Samara said. “It was 4:50 p.m. dents of all levels from freshmen to se- $1,200 annually for health insurance and bright said. “The idea that you could be re- rience using state-of-the-art sensors and be accepted into the AIAA Design/Build/Fly niors. It’s good to get them started early competition. The theme of this year’s com- and we were still in queue. We were really up to two trips per year for training and/or ally far away and still infer important infor- remote sensing technologies for a wide va- bummed out.” and get some experience in case they want conferences that support their educational mation – in this case, gather information riety of earth-science applications. petition was challenging students to design to turn it into a Capstone project,” she said. a dual-purpose regional and business air- initiatives. on near shore depths – is pretty amazing.” Still, the team achieved 44th place among “It does take time, commitment and hard Since 1989, NDSEG has awarded nearly craft. Samara and four other team members work.” drove the UH airplane to Wichita, Kansas, 91 teams, beating Rice University again. Albright’s Ph.D. work focuses on studying She is excited about the September launch 3,600 fellowships to U.S. citizens and na- to compete. geosensing systems for application to earth of NASA’s ICESat-2, a continuation of a pre- tionals who pursue a doctoral degree in “Reaching our goal – placing in the top half She hopes the next team will also aim high science, specializing in using LiDAR – the vious satellite mission called ICESat, which one of 15 supported disciplines at a U.S. – was rewarding. But before even reaching and compete in future AIAA Design Build leading technology of light detection and will measure the height of Earth’s ice-cov- institution. The NDSEG Fellowship is spon- The competition consisted of a written re- Fly competitions. port, one ground mission and three flight our goal, the fact that we were able to do ranging – to study morphology and wave ered region, as well as the height of other sored by the Air Force Office of Scientific this successfully with no prior experience … processes in the nearshore environment. features including trees, shrubs, lakes and Research, the Army Research Office, and missions. The group’s written report earned “There’s a lot of focus on the Formula-one it 19th place in the queue of 91 competing It was a success. It was beautiful,” Samara more. the Office of Naval Research under the Of- said. “Seeing it fly in the air and all the stu- race and car,” Samara said. “We want to “What’s really cool about LiDAR data is that fice of the Assistant Secretary of Defense teams, beating teams from Rice University bring AIAA into the spotlight.” and University of Texas at Austin. dents from around the world cheering us you can look at it from many different per- “We’re hoping to use the LiDAR satellite for Research and Engineering. on, it was amazing.” spectives. You can literally walk through to make depth profiles and then put a sat-
102 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 103 students
sive set of results in materials, manufactur- PRESSURE ing technologies, mechanical studies and devices to illustrate the associated novel aspects in soft and curvilinear electronics.
It introduced a new manufacturing approach, called Conformal Additive Stamp (CAS) print- ing, which utilizes a deformable balloon stamp to pick up and print components of interest in order to fabricate 3-D curvilinear electronics. Furthermore, he provided a de- TEMPERATURE tailed example of 3-D curvilinear electronics – a multifunctional smart contact lens – cre- The smart contact lens allows ated by utilizing CAS printing. continuous health monitoring including eye intraocular pressure, The smart contact lens allows continuous ocular surface temperature and tear health monitoring including eye intraocular glucose levels. pressure, ocular surface temperature and tear glucose levels. There were several de- and worked on dye sensitized solar cells. sign advantages from the innovation of the He published 19 papers based on research devices being based on solution processed completed prior to UH. Image courtesy of University of California, Lawrence indium zinc oxide as well, including multi- Berkeley National Laboratory. - Roy Kaltschmidt functionality, simple manufacturing, imper- Sim is continuing to work with Yu and his Kyoseung Sim ceptible wearing and robust interfacing. research team at UH to further develop Danny Guevara other objects around his home. “I was always ic arm for children. He has also served as a materials and manufacturing processes for curious about how things were produced and physics tutor with the Scholar Enrichment Honored With Last but not least, Sim’s thesis shared soft and curvilinear electronics that can be Interns at assembled,” he said. “This mentality allowed Program. high-performance rubbery or flexible elec- used for wearable, skin-mountable elec- me to look at objects and my environment in tronics based on an intrinsically stretchable tronics and even direct organ mountable a different perspective.” Guevara plans to earn a master’s degree BEST DISSERTATION semiconductor with enhanced carrier mo- electronics. BERKELEY with a concentration in biomechanics. bility. The rubbery electronics retain elec- He gained a better understanding of thermo- trical performance without significant loss “I really like doing research because it’s dynamics, hydraulic systems and heat trans- AWARD under mechanical stretching of 50 percent. amazing to me to keep trying to find new NATIONAL LABS fer applications while contributing to ongoing He recently had a paper on this topic ac- things and solve existing problems for ev- research at the laboratory during his intern- cepted for publication in the journal Science eryone,” Sim said. ship. BY RASHDA KHAN Advances. BY RASHDA KHAN He also offered some advice for Cullen Col- “This experience helped me further under- Kyoseung Sim, who finished his Ph.D. in “I would like to definitely thank my advisor, lege students still in the midst of their doc- Danny Guevara, a first-generation college stand what it is to be a mechanical engineer materials science and engineering last sum- Professor Cunjiang Yu, and our research toral studies. student, was selected for the prestigious Sci- in a professional setting,” he said. mer under the guidance of mechanical en- group members for great help during my ence Undergraduate Laboratory Internships gineering professor Cunjiang Yu, won the doctoral study,” Sim said. “And I would like “Most Ph.D. students feel that this way is (SULI) program. He spent the fall semester Guevara, who is interested in the dynamics of Cullen College of Engineering’s Best Disser- to thank my wife, Hanah Na, for her sacri- not easy – it’s tough and stressful. Some conducting research at the Lawrence Berke- human motion, works in the UH research lab tation Award for his doctoral dissertation, ti- fice and great support during it all.” people consider giving up. But my advice is ley National Laboratory in California. of Christopher J. Arellano, assistant profes- tled “Materials and Manufacture of Soft and just enjoy your research,” Sim said. “If they sor in the department of health and human Curvilinear Electronics.” Sim has published a dozen papers – as first can enjoy every small bit of research prog- “As a mechanical engineer intern, I conducted performance. There, he assists with research author on half of those – based on his Cul- ress and achievement, they can have fun field walks and reliability assessments of me- projects and helps build and design custom The award committee considered seven len College research. Three additional pa- in moving forward to the next step and the chanical equipment rooms, marking up pip- structures for future biomechanics experi- highly-competitive dissertations submitted pers are under review. next. Eventually, they will make huge prog- ing drawings to show actual field conditions, ments. from the Cullen College engineering de- ress and achieve significant results with and assisting engineering construction man- partments in summer and fall 2018. As the Originally from South Korea, Sim earned his great happiness.” agers to conduct mechanical related work He is a member of the Society of Hispanic overall winner, Sim was recognized at the master’s degree in physical chemistry and at the construction site,” said Guevara, who Professional Engineers (SHPE) and the Amer- Cullen College’s commencement on Dec. worked on organic electronics at Konkuk The Cullen College’s Best Dissertation Award is pursuing a bachelor’s in mechanical engi- ican Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). 13 at NRG Arena. The award comes with University. He was a post-graduate re- is given twice a year for students who suc- neering at the Cullen College of Engineering. He credits both organizations for giving him $1,000 and a plaque. searcher in the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute cessfully defend their dissertation. opportunities to grow, from attending lead- of Science and Technology for three years Guevara’s academic journey stems from a ership conferences to using 3-D software to Sim’s dissertation included a comprehen- childhood propensity to disassemble toys and help design, construct and test a prosthet-
104 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 105 students
Joshua Frenchwood, an electrical engi- He is actively involved in the UH student neering junior at the UH Cullen College chapter of the National Society of Black of Engineering, won a Student Leadership Engineers (NSBE). As the Career Fair As- Award from the Career Communications sistant Chair, he helped organize the 2017 Group Inc. and the Black Engineer of the UH Engineering Career Fair, which includ- Year Awards (BEYA) Conference. ed more than 100 participating compa- nies. He will be recognized at the Student Lead- ership Awards Dinner at the 2019 BEYA Frenchwood, who maintains a 3.6 GPA, STEM Conference in Washington, D.C. in has earned a number of scholarships. He February. was the only freshman among 20 high performing students to earn the very “I chose to study electrical engineering selective National Action Council for Mi- because I am very interested in how elec- norities in Engineering (NACME) schol- tricity and software is used to make new arship and was recently named the UH technology,” Frenchwood said. He is cur- NACME Scholar Ambassador. In his new rently exploring different ways of using role, Frenchwood will plan events for lo- software to help small business owners. cal NACME Scholars and serve as a liaison between UH and NACME national head- “The only way a small business can com- quarters. pete in today’s market is with software,” HOUSTON, TEXAS RICE UNIVERSITY HOUSTON, TEXAS BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS he said, citing software products like Face- He also received a Shell Incentive Fund (Rice University) book, Instagram, Amazon, Shopify and Scholarship and was recruited by Exxon Ayoola “AJ” John-Muyiwa, a petroleum Chemical and biomolecular engineering others. “I am very interested in using my Mobil for their Future Leaders Academy. Kyoseung Sim, a postdoctoral researcher engineering senior, was named a 2018 Ph.D. student Ali Slim presented a poster coding skills to provide more services and working on soft functional electronic hu- Forbes ‘Under 30 Scholar’ and attended at the Society of Rheology annual meet- products to the business owners that need In addition to all this, Frenchwood has man machine interfacing (HMI) devices, the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Boston as ing. He won first place out of 133 entries in it the most.” also gained work experience through in- won the Best Poster Award at the 2018 a honoree. the student poster competition. ternships. In 2018, he participated in an “Materials Today: The Future of Materials Giving back is important to Frenchwood. Exxon Mobil Field Electrical Engineering Science in the Next Two Decades” confer- The summit brought together more than His poster addressed the topic of nano- He has worked for more than two years as Internship and – in 2017 – served as a re- ence. He was a doctoral candidate in ma- 7,000 young entrepreneurs, visionaries composite transport in complex polymer a program assistant for the St. Elmo Brady search intern in an electroscience lab at terials science and engineering at the time and social innovators for an immersive ex- media, a project undertaken in collabo- STEM Academy, an innovative after school Ohio State University. of the competition. perience featuring more than 200 world- ration with Professor Ramanan Krishna- CULLEN COLLEGE program at the University of Houston class speakers including investors, celebri- moorti (ChBE) and a former graduate stu- Charter School designed to engage under- Frenchwood’s goal is to one day own or Sim’s poster showcased his multi-func- ties, musicians, sports stars, cultural icons, dent Ryan Poling-Skutvik (PhD 2017). represented minority boys – fourth and work for a company that uses technology tional, ultra-thin, mechanically impercep- as well as political and business leaders. JUNIOR WINS fifth grade students – in STEM activities, to impact the world in positive ways. “I tible and stretchable electronics devices education and issues. In his role there, know I can use the skills I’m learning at UH based on solutions processed indium zinc STUDENT Frenchwood has designed and facilitated to contribute back to society,” he said. oxide. experiments, led classroom management LEADERSHIP AWARD and provided mentorship. SPOKANE, WASHINGTON DARMSTADT, GERMANY For The 2019 BEYA
HOUSTON, TEXAS Mohammad Sarraf Joshaghani, who is Ujwal Patil, a doctoral student in the De- STEM Conference pursuing a Ph.D. in computational me- partment of Chemical and Biomolecular Amareswararao Kavuri, a biomedical en- The only way a small business can compete chanics, won a SIAM Student Travel Award Engineering, was a finalist in the biosep- gineering doctoral student, won an award in today’s market is with software. I am very from the Society for Industrial and Applied arations research section of Merck’s 2018 BY RASHDA KHAN “ for his oral presentation and the affiliated interested in using my coding skills to Mathematics (SIAM) to attend the 2019 Life Science Awards. Patil presented his paper was selected as the best paper in SIAM Conference on Computational Sci- paper, titled “Real-time monitoring of provide more services and products the “Image Perception, Observer Perfor- ence and Engineering. antibody in column breakthrough” to an to the business owners that need it mance and Technology Assessment” sub audience of Merck scientists at the com- conference within the 2018 SPIE Medical the most. SIAM, incorporated in 1952, is an interna- pany’s global headquarters in Germany in Imaging Conference in Houston. The pa- tional nonprofit with more than 14,000 October 2018. per was titled “Interaction of anatomic and members. - joshua frenchwood quantum noise in digital breast tomosyn- Patil was one of 12 finalists selected from ” thesis (DBT).” around the world. 106 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 107 students
2018-2019 #CullenCollegeStories Cullen College Outstanding Senior Dwight Theriot
Graduation Year: 2018 Major: Mechanical Engineering GPA: 3.84
Dwight Theriot, a decorated U.S. Army vet- outside of a classroom,” Theriot said. “The eran, discovered his passion for engineer- entire process, from setting the equipment ing by accident while serving as an intelli- up to troubleshooting, got me interested gence and security officer in Iraq in 2009. in radio and satellite communications. This project sparked my imagination and started His unit needed a classified communica- me on the path to becoming a mechanical tion system involving a communications engineer.” satellite receiver and network automation, but couldn’t afford to buy a new one.A fter He peppered the engineer with questions checking around the Army supply chain, about his professional background and took they found one that hadn’t been used for online courses to learn more about engi- a while. It came with no guarantees that it neering and communications technology. worked. But it was free. This exposure deepened Theriot’s commit- ment to pursue an engineering career after Theriot and his unit picked up the equip- his military obligations ended. ment and got to work. After installing its many different pieces, they plugged it in “I told myself at that time, if I was fortunate and flipped the switch – only to have the enough to get into an engineering program power blow. that I would give my studies everything I Army Veteran Makes had so I could someday work at NASA,” he “We needed this system up and running said. quickly, and it was expensive equipment,” Theriot said. “We could send it for repairs His next posting was at Fort Sam Houston and wait several months for it to be sent in San Antonio as the executive officer of back to us. Or we could just pry it open and the Warrior Transition Battalion. Theri- try to fix it.” ot was responsible for the health, welfare Out-Of- and morale of 200 wounded soldiers tran- His team opted for the latter option and sitioning from the battlefield to everyday discovered the main power capacitors had life. In this role, he managed a staff of 60, exploded. The replacement parts were rela- identified gaps of healthcare coverage and tively inexpensive, so they decided to work served as liaison between the hospital, the with the guidance of a contractor who hap- Veteran’s Administration and non-profit or- This-World pened to be an engineer. ganizations. Fixing the communications system turned Then he was deployed again, this time to out to be a great learning experience. Afghanistan. He spent his free time ex- perimenting with microcontrollers and re- Dream Come True “I didn’t know anything about all this. It searching engineering programs. During was the first time I had ever cracked open this time, he also became fascinated with a piece of electronic equipment to try and space. Days in Afghanistan were rough and fix it, the first time I’d soldered anything dusty, but nights were clear and had very
108 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 109 students
little light pollution. They presented an as- said to myself, ‘With my experience and ture class to NASA employees and was se- tain conditions and you have to be able to At the end of his internship, Theriot was of- tounding view of the stars. my resume, I could go out and get a very lected as one of two (out of 50 candidates) troubleshoot if things go wrong.” fered full-time employment and ended up good-paying job today and I don’t have to Outstanding Co-ops for the term. choosing to be a NASA flight controller.T he “You see tons and tons of stars on clear go through any of this.’” That summer, he worked at NASA’s Neutral position involves being an expert on EVA in nights,” Theriot said. “I found myself look- In spring 2017, Theriot worked with the Ex- Buoyancy Laboratory, where astronauts space and teaching astronauts to do space- ing up a lot.” But his wife Simone knew how much the travehicular Activity (EVA) Operations and train for space missions. There he designed walks and maintenance activities outside dream mattered to him, and she didn’t let became certified to teach two astronaut and implemented the software and sensors the Space Station. He cultivated a new hobby: spotting the In- him give up. training classes. He participated in mission needed to integrate new equipment for the ternational Space Station as it flew over Ba- simulations as an astronaut performing an training facility. He graduated December 2018 and started gram Airfield, where he was stationed. He Instead, he checked out other UH programs EVA (doing a task outside the Space Sta- the job in 2019. took more online courses, and he researched and then applied to the Department of tion) and as a flight controller who talked His last rotation – in summer 2018 – was and contacted engineering schools. Physics. Once he’d established a good aca- the astronauts through the EVA steps. A lot spent working in the Design and Analysis “I get to be part of the same group of people demic record, Theriot transferred to the me- of engineering know-how is needed for the Branch where he designed and executed a that taught Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin “I started getting more and more fascinat- chanical engineering program. I started getting position. thermal vacuum experiment to evaluate in- how to walk on the moon. Only a handful of ed with outer space and thinking about our frared heating solutions for Chamber A, one people have ever done this job in history,” place in the universe,” Theriot said. “Ulti- “I wanted to pursue a mechanical engineer- more and more “It has a lot to do with understanding the of the largest thermal vacuum chambers in Theriot said. “I could be teaching the next mately I realized I have to go back to school ing degree because of how versatile it is and nature of things and figuring out the opti- the world. He also designed and built a ther- astronaut to land on the moon how to do for engineering. I did well for myself in the how many things fall under the roof of me- fascinated with mal working conditions for an activity or mal fluid loop test stand for emerging heat the moon walk.” military, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do chanical,” he said. event,” he said. “You have to understand rejection technologies for the Space Station. forever.” outer space and how equipment might behave under cer- While a student at UH, Theriot pursued his By the time he left Afghanistan and the mil- space interests by seeking out opportuni- thinking about itary, Theriot had seen two wars and been ties offered in Houston, often called Space awarded a Bronze Star in recognition of his City for being home to the world-renowned our place in efforts over the course of his deployment, NASA Johnson Space Center. three Army Commendation medals and three Army Achievement medals. He volunteered with The Mission Continues, the universe, NASA on Campus, Pi Tau Sigma (Mechanical ultimately I Following a new path Engineering Honor Society), SystemsGo! Rocketry (a high school program) and FIRST Robotics Competition. realized I have to I get to be part of the same Theriot, who had previously earned a bach- go back to school elor’s degree at the United States Military He also participated in the NASA Pathways group of people that taught Academy at West Point focused on Russian Intern program (formerly known as the Co- Neil Armstrong and Buzz and Computer Science, would have to earn Op program) between 2016 and 2018. NASA for engineering. another bachelor’s degree to pursue engi- Pathways allows participants to gain valu- Aldrin how to walk on the neering. able experience by alternating semesters I did well for between school and work at NASA in engi- moon. Only a handful of He returned to Texas ready to begin school neering, science or business. myself in the with the help of the GI Bill and the Hazel- people have ever done this wood Act, a Texas benefit that provides “First they put you where they need you and military, but it qualified veterans, spouses and dependent then you have a choice as to which part of job in history, I could be children up to 150 hours of tuition exemp- NASA you want to experience … basically, wasn’t what I teaching the next astronaut tion. you rotate through different groups,” Ther- iot said. wanted to do to land on the moon how He applied to the Cullen College of Engi- neering program and got denied. In spring 2016, he worked with the Ad- to do the moon walk. vanced Thermal Development Group where forever. “I was like, okay I should just go get a job,” he helped design a liquid nitrogen-cooled Theriot said. “Honestly, there were more thermal vacuum chamber, enabling the than a handful of times – this was one, and group to economically test new technolo- then there were other times I was stressed gies in space-like conditions. He also taught out about exams or homework – where I an introductory Russian language and cul-
110 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 111 students
#CullenCollegeStories 2018-2019 Cullen College Outstanding Junior Laura Malcotti-Sanchez
Graduation Year: 2020 Major: Mechanical Engineering GPA: 3.976
“My parents are my biggest examples for nev- gineers course. er giving up,” she said. The family left Venezu- ela in 2005, after a volatile period of political “My favorite part of being a TA is answering turmoil that left her father unemployed. “I questions and giving students tips and hints saw how my parents just kept working hard that took me hours to figure out when I was and looking for the best in all situations. They in their shoes,” she said. “It’s gratifying to see inspire me.” students overcome their challenges and be- come better thinkers.” As a high school student, Malcotti-Sanchez earned a Gold Award from the Girl Scouts of “Even though engineering is difficult at times, America in 2016 for her project addressing I always try to show my students that it is fun needs at the Casa Juan Diego Immigrant Shel- and, most importantly, worth it,” she added. ter. She worked with more than 20 volunteers I saw how my to renovate four residents’ rooms and paint a Malcotti-Sanchez’s exposure to teaching in- children’s mural. She also coordinated three spired her to join the Society of Women Engi- workshops that taught volunteers how to sew neers (SWE) Pros Mentorship program, where parents just kept curtains, handle repairs and paint. she mentored a foreign exchange graduate student. She now serves as a mentor for SWE working hard That same year, she won a Tier One Scholar- and the American Society of Mechanical Engi- ship to the University of Houston. She chose neers, working with three underclassmen on and looking for mechanical engineering because it combined resumes and applying for internships. her love of physics, calculus and troubleshoot- the best in all ing. “I love mechanical engineering and I can’t In addition, she has bolstered her academic see myself doing anything else,” she said. learning with real-world experience in engi- situations. They neering. In 2018, Malcotti-Sanchez served as Parents’ She shares her love of engineering by seek- a mechanical engineering intern at Hewlett inspire me. ing out opportunities to mentor other stu- Packard Enterprise. There, she won second dents. The summer after her freshman year, place in the Best in Class Contest for present- Meanwhile, she’s landed a research position Malcotti-Sanchez served as a counselor at ing project findings involving evaluation of with Haleh Ardebili, Bill D. Cook associate G.R.A.D.E. (Girls Reaching and Demonstrat- thermal potting materials to a panel of Hew- professor of mechanical engineering, who is Immigration ing Excellence) Camp, a one-week program lett Packard employees. The same project well-known for her research on creating flex- at Cullen College that introduces girls ages earned her the People’s Choice Award during ible, stretchable and bendable batteries and 13-17 to the wonders of engineering, science the Intern Fair. electronics. and technology. This summer she’ll explore the oil and gas Story “I’m still exploring what I really want to do,” The following fall semester, she worked as industry as a drilling and completions engi- Malcotti-Sanchez said. “I want to see if I like an undergraduate teaching assistant for the neering intern for BHP Billiton. She is looking research so it will help me determine whether Introduction to Engineering course and the forward to conducting well design and con- I want to go pursue a Ph.D. or go into indus- Inspires Daughter to Excel following semester she became an Honors struction. try.” teaching assistant for the Computing for En-
112 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 113 Alumni
He aims to continue building the depart- Germany. UH Alumnus ment through collaborative efforts, re- UH Alumna’s Paper Appointed sponding to the needs of the healthcare Istinye University, founded in 2015, brings sector, building a healthcare-focused cur- together three different hospital brands — Lands in riculum and continuing to hire exceptional Liv Hospital, Medical Park and VM Medi- CHAIR OF faculty from around the world. cal Park. It is part of the largest healthcare group in Turkey with over 30 hospitals PRESTIGIOUS PNAS Keles earned his doctorate in biomedical located in 17 Turkish cities. Istinye engi- ENGINEERING engineering from the UH Cullen College in neering focuses on research and teaching JOURNAL 2015, focusing on multi-modality imaging, related to robotics, biomedical imaging, DEPARTMENT OF clinical applications for neuroscience and control systems and cyber-physical sys- BY RASHDA KHAN nano/microscale technologies for global tems. Ilknur Telkes healthcare. TURKISH UNIVERSITY “Hasan is our first BME graduate to hold a Ilknur Telkes, who earned a Ph.D. in bio- medical engineering from the Universi- “The biggest advantage offered by the Cul- faculty position and become the chair of patterns in the territories of the subtha- development of sensing and stimulation ty of Houston last year and was a 2017 len College is it really cares about hands- a major department,” said Metin Akay, lamic nucleus of the brain that are specific strategies targeting the sub-territories of North American Neuromodulation Society BY RASHDA KHAN on experience and the engineering faculty founding chair of the biomedical engi- to these motor subtypes. This information the subthalamic nucleus for the personal- (NANS) Junior Scientist Award winner, had is very responsive. They encouraged me to neering department and the John S. Dunn helped the team understand how the brains ization of deep-brain stimulation (DBS),” he an article published in the prestigious Pro- Cullen College of Engineering alumnus use my knowledge to develop engineer- Professor of biomedical engineering at of patients suffering fromP arkinson’s dis- added. “This could make the DBS therapy ceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Hasan Onur Keles (BME 2015) was re- ing tools to meet market needs and de- the UH Cullen College offering congratula- ease worked. for patients more efficient.” cently appointed chair of the electrical mands,” Keles said. “In addition, I learned tions. “We’re very proud of him.” (PNAS) journal. and electronic engineering department how to collaborate with researchers from “Our results indicate that the spatiospec- Other contributing authors on the pa- The article, titled “Local field potentials of at Istinye University in Istanbul. He also different fields — including medical doc- Keles credited the experience as a UH bio- tral dynamics of the brain can be used as per are: Ashwin Viswanathan and Joohi subthalamic nucleus contain electrophys- serves as an assistant professor in the de- tors at the nearby Texas Medical Center — medical engineering student for his career an objective method to distinguish these Jimenez-Shahed, both with BCM; Aviva iological footprints of motor subtypes of partment. during my Ph.D.” in academia. “The guidance and encour- two motor subtypes of Parkinson’s disease. Abosch from the University of Colorado Parkinson's disease,” reports the location agement during my Ph.D. was invaluable. To our best knowledge this is the first time School of Medicine; Musa Ozturk, a UH inside the brain that correlates with two “My department was established not just Afterwards, he did two years of post-doc- I’m always proud of being a UH BME grad- such a link has been reported,” said Ince, biomedical engineering Ph.D. student; Ak- major Parkinson’s disease types – one form out of a need to educate and train the next toral training at the Massachusetts Gener- uate!” who was Telkes’ advisor at UH and a corre- shay Gupta with the University of Minne- is characterized by tremors, while instable generation of engineers for Turkey, but al Hospital through the Harvard Medical sponding author on the PNAS paper. sota Medical School; and Joseph Jankovic posture and difficulty walking characterize also a commitment to create a first-class School. Keles added he hopes to collaborate with with BCM. the other. institution of education and research in the Cullen College in his new role. “These observations might lead to the engineering in the world,” Keles said. “We Keles has published and contributed to The research project was the result of a col- Parkinson’s is a complex progressive neu- believe that the collaborative efforts be- more than 30 scientific journals and con- “My department will be happy to provide laboration with UH as the lead institution, rodegenerative disorder with a broad range tween engineers and medical doctors will ference papers. In addition, he serves as opportunities for UH Engineering faculty Baylor College of Medicine, the University of symptoms. The new findings could lead promote biomedical research and industry a visiting researcher at the Dankook Uni- and students,” he said. Parkinson’s is a of Minnesota and the University of Colora- to improved patient-specific therapy. to grow in Istanbul and Turkey.” versity in South Korea, Xi’an Jiatong Uni- complex progressive do. versity in China and Lubeck University in While a doctorate student at the UH Cullen neurodegenerative Telkes is now pursuing postdoctoral work College of Engineering, Telkes spent a lot disorder with a broad in the department of neuroscience and ex- of her research time in the operating room perimental therapeutics at Albany Med, the at Baylor College of Medicine working with range of symptoms. academic health science center in north- clinicians – Ashwin Viswanathan from BCM eastern New York. Her current research Istinye engineering Neurosurgery and Joohi Jimenez-Shahed interests include intraoperative and post- from BCM Neurology – to pinpoint areas in lead to improved focuses on research operative investigation of spinal cord stim- the brains of patients suffering from Parkin- ulation in chronic pain as well as deep brain and teaching related son’s disease using a novel intraoperative stimulation in Parkinson’s disease and Es- neural data acquisition and signal process- sential tremor. to robotics, biomedical ing system developed by Nuri Ince, assis- tant professor of biomedical engineering at imaging, control systems Established in 1914, PNAS is one of the UH. and cyber-physical world's most-cited and comprehensive multidisciplinary scientific journals. Pub- Local field potential recordings collected systems. lishing more than 3,200 research papers during deep brain stimulation surgery (us- annually, the journal's content spans the ing multiple microelectrodes) helped the biological, physical, and social sciences and research team capture oscillatory neural is global in scope.
114 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 115 support & Giving
Support & Giving Spotlight: THANK YOU CHEVRON!
UH Petroleum Engineering Department Receives Specialty Equipment Donation
By Rashda Khan
Scientific research takes time and involves a lot of specialized equipment that come with hefty price tags. Konstantinos Kostarelos, an associate professor of petroleum engineer- ing at the UH Cullen College of Engineering UH Engineering hosts Fourth known for innovative research in the oil and gas field, can attest to this fact. particular, in petroleum engineering, which is Annual Girls Engineering the near and dear to our heart.” Future Day: A STEM Event,” A recent gift from Chevron ETC to Kostarelos’ research lab, which is dedicated to subsur- As a corporation we’re Winslow added that a strong relationship with sponsored by Chevron face research including enhanced oil recovery always looking for the University is important because of the stu- (EOR), made a huge difference to him.T he dents and the future promise they hold. donation of fluid accumulators, high pressure opportunities to help By inez hutchinson “We need to hire the best and the brightest. pumps and more will aid the professor’s re- the local University... in search – related to EOR for conventional and If we can do something to help train them – On Saturday, March 30, the hallways and classrooms in the unconventional oil reservoirs – and help teach particular, in petroleum through gifts of equipment and tools, offering UH Cullen College of Engineering buzzed with excitement students for years to come. EOR methods are internships – so that when they come out of as a thousand Houston-area girls attended the fourth annu- needed to recover residual oil from an oil res- engineering, which is near college they are realistically able to function al “Girls Engineering the Future Day: A STEM Event,” spon- ervoir that has been producing oil for some and dear to our heart . quickly within our organization that is a ben- sored by Chevron. time and the remaining oil cannot be extract- efit to everyone,” he said. “They can hit the ed by other means. - Greg Winslow ground running and the projects get done The event introduces girls in grades four through eight to quicker.” Laboratory R&D Manager, Chevron the wide world of STEM and engineering activities orga- “Since many of these pieces of equipment nized by faculty and student organizations from UH Engi- need to be rated for high pressure and high The donation also holds personal significance neering. temperature in order to simulate reservoir for Winslow, who earned a bachelor’s degree conditions, they can be rather expensive due in chemistry in 1980 and a master’s degree in Girls played with prosthetic hands, built electrical circuits to the special material used in manufacturing Chevron, who helped identify equipment the biochemistry in 1983 from UH. with students from the UH Institute of Electrical and Elec- them,” Kostarelos said. Looking around at the company was no longer using and arranged tronics Engineers (IEEE) and made paper airplanes/launch many boxes of equipment, he said “purchas- for it to be donated to UH. “We appreciate everything that the local Uni- rockets with American Institute of Aeronautics and Astro- ing these items outright would have required versity is doing,” he said. “Also being an alum- nautics (AIAA). substantial funding. As a result, this donation “As a corporation we’re always looking for op- nus, it has great meaning to me to be able to is greatly appreciated.” portunities to help the local University, espe- come back and help, give back to the Univer- Chevron volunteers also provided an interactive activity sta- cially in the areas of science and technology,” sity and to help these programs grow.” tion called the “STEM Zone” aimed at sparking interest in The donation was made after Kostarelos dis- said Greg Winslow, unit manager of Chevron’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics. cussed his needs with several employees of Rock and Fluids Characterization Unit. “In
116 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 117 culture & events Lienhard’s lens
By john lienhard
I offer two pictures: One is Howard Hughes’ famed Spruce Goose –until I spoke long ago at a cold-war think-tank in central Siberia. My hosts Birch forests lie across Russia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden - across the strength and grace that has long captivated Nordic peoples around our recently, the largest airplane ever built. The other is a small stand of birch walked me through a mile of trees to get to their laboratories. (They north-eastern United States and up through Canada. They surrounded entire globe. trees in Iceland. What could they possibly have in common? The answer made sure that I was as lost as Hansel in the woods.) But they told me me when I grew up in Minnesota. Native Americans used their bark is wood. Few people realize that the Spruce Goose is not made of spruce with some gravity, as we walked, that those trees – white with black to make wigwams, canoes, and every kind of decorative item. The sap at all. It's made of birch. streaks – were beryoska, or silver birch. makes birch syrup.
Birch has had a remarkable hold on the psyche of northern people The Russians drink birch juice. They make it into wine or beer. They once Birch is a hard wood, good for furniture and plywood. But it warps if it Left: Howard Hughes’ H-4 Hercules, better known as the Spruce Goose. It now around the world. It is the Celtic symbol of rebirth and purification. It’s used birch bark to make writing paper, shoes – even casts for broken isn’t well-cured. Hughes' Spruce Goose was made from a special ply- resides in the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon. one of the sacred trees of Norway and Sweden. It supplied Nordic set- bones. Their word for birch is kin to their word for taking care of. The wood - layers of birch veneer. Hughes put teams of women to work tlers of Greenland and Iceland with lumber and fuel. It’s the only tree na- Birch tree was a gift from God. They even have a famous national dance ironing the veneer to stabilize it before it was made into plywood. Right: A small stand of surviving birch trees in southern Iceland tive to Iceland. Settlers used it so heavily that they almost exterminated group, The Birch Ensemble. It performs eerie gliding dances in honor of it. Iceland is trying to regrow its last stands of birch (like the one in the birch trees. Gaze up at that great gun-metal gray airplane, and it's hard to connect View more photos at photo.) But a huge portion of its trees are now other imported species. it with birch trees. But it really is a true cousin of the Indian canoe. It enginespics.smugmug.com has the same strength and buoyancy. It manifests the same wedding of
118 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 119 Culture & events
2019 women in engineering spring event The Cullen College played host to the fourth Women in Engineering spring event on March 21. The free event was funded by alumna Cynthia Oliver Cole- man, P.E. (BSChE ’71). The event took place at the UH Hilton and included female engineering students, faculty and alumnae. Attendees were induct- ed into the Women in Red Movement, which will serve as a registry of female students and alumnae to serve as mentors for one another. The Cynthia Oliver Coleman Rising Star Award was presented to Audrey Wang.
120 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering 121 last word
Engines of Our Ingenuity - Episode No. 2409
Today, we struggle to remember what we once knew. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the Cullen College Hosts people whose ingenuity created them.
Annual Golf Tournament Albert North Whitehead, writing of the need to free ourselves from the past, once said, "A The 30th annual Cullen College of Engineering Golf science that hesitates to forget its founders is lost". Well, we do face the twin dangers of re- Tournament teed off at the BlackHorse Golf Club inventing wheels and using the same old wheels over and over. And the Internet raises new on Monday, April 22nd in Cypress, Texas. questions about reinventing old wheels.
This year’s tournament attracted golfers from Long ago, when we graduate students had to find our own thesis topics, one wag suggested across the Houston region, including alumni, that we just go back to 19th-century issues of the journal, Verein Deutscher Ingeneiur. We could donors, current faculty and students, industry rep- rewrite their fine articles inE nglish and no one would be the wiser. Long before we had an resentatives and other friends of the college. Internet, it was clear that the sands of time constantly closed over other people's work.
And our joke turned sour in the years that followed. Since then, we've all seen more and more older work replicated -- not by plagiarism, but by ignorance of the past. The cost of that goes beyond people being cheated out of credit -- though many are. The greater cost is the waste of time spent replicating the work of others.
So how has the Internet affected all this?A lready, in a 1994 episode of this program, we men- tioned how our computers were taking us precisely to the information we sought -- without digressions. We wondered what we were losing without the context of digressions.
Now James Evans at the University of Chicago analyzes paper citations, statistically. He does indeed find them straying far less from the subject at hand and penetrating less into the past. Evans sighs and says that the value of print library research is its relatively clumsy indexing. By forcing greater digressions upon us, it has the unintended result of integrating knowledge.
Of course there's more to it. The Internet can lead us on its own digressions. They may be briefer, but they're equally useful if we have the wits to heed them. And the Internet is now making many older sources more, not less, accessible -- if we know how to find them. But other red flags arise.
One study raises Whitehead's warning when it shows older scholars citing older sources. Is the past, at some point, no longer a fading heritage, but merely a comfortable old shoe?
So the effects of our new means for accessing history remain unclear.W e seem to agree on only one point: The Internet is now where we first turn for information. Most of us go to paper libraries only when the Internet runs out.
That's why I get so many e-mails asking where to learn more about a topic when I've already John Lienhard posted my print sources on the web. Like me, my listeners want answers on their screens -- right now. To learn more about events at the Cullen College, The Engines of Our Ingenuity is a But at some point, we still need to haul our bodies off to read printed information. How nationally recognized radio program visit www.egr.uh.edu/events or follow us on social media! authored and voiced by John Lienhard, clumsy it seems to turn pages, skim-reading to find what we need to know, blundering up professor emeritus of mechanical UHEngineering @uhengineering University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering side alleys. Yet I never cease to wonder at the new and fresh ideas that are exposed just at the engineering and history at the point that I feel lost in that sea of paper. University of Houston and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. View more photos online at I'm John Lienhard at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive The program first aired in 1988, and since then more than 2,800 episodes www.flickr.com/photos/cullencollege/albums minds work. have been broadcast. For more information about the program, visit www.uh.edu/engines.
122 Parameters Spring/Summer 2019 UH Cullen College of Engineering Office of Communications Engineering Building 2 4722 Calhoun Road, Suite E311 Houston, Texas 77204-4009
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