At the 2017 Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Annual Research Conference, researchers joined to create 18 multi-institution collaborations and pitched them to a panel of judges at the end of the conference. TEES awarded $20,000 for the first place collaboration and provided $2,500 in seed funding to each of the additional 17 collaborations.
$20,000 Award
CHIME: Continuous Health Intervention and Monitoring for the Elderly
Principal investigator: Justin Foreman, Prairie View A&M University
Team members: Farzan Sasangohar, Texas A&M University and Austin Riddle, TEES Texas Center for Applied Technology
Continuous Health Intervention and Monitoring for the Elderly (CHIME) provides real-time health care sensor feedback for single patient health and provides a picture of overall health for patients in elderly communities. With CHIME, these communities will better mitigate disease propagation, degeneration and mortality in their residents.
$2,500 Awards
Big Data Analytics for Cloud Computing Security
Principal investigator: Sarhan Musa, Prairie View A&M University
Team members: Keith Biggers, TEES Texas Center for Applied Technology; Siew Koay, Prairie View A&M University; Lin Li, Prairie View A&M University; Na Li, Prairie View A&M University and Akinwale Oteniya, Prairie View University
This project will use big data analytics to solve cloud computing security for service providers, businesses and government.
Brain Injury from Trauma Monitoring and Analysis Program (BITMAP)
Principal investigator: Seungchan Kim, Prairie View A&M University
Team members: Jianping Hua, Texas A&M University; Christopher Kocmoud, Texas A&M University and Carolyn Skurla, Baylor University
This is a longitudinal study of traumatic brain injury in football players to detect, transmit and analyze spatial and temporal data of impacts to the head.
The team will collect various sensor data and combine it with molecular profiling data such as exosome transcriptomic profiles from urine samples, cognitive data, fMRI, and gait analysis to identify molecular markers to predict traumatic brain damage. The team also will look into collegiate football programs for collaboration as well as other head injury-prone activities such as sport biking and motorcycles.
CHP for Distributed Generation
Principal investigator: Dervis Emre Demirocak, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Team member: Huseyin Bostanci, University of North Texas
This project will enable on‐site, highly efficient and resilient/distributed power generation, heating and cooling.
Embedded RFID Sensing in the Human Body
Principal investigator: Billy Gray, Tarleton State University
Team members: Terry Creasy, Texas A&M University and Daren Davis, Tarleton State University
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a wireless technology where an electronic device harvests energy from transmitted radio waves. The belief is that energy can be harvested from the radio waves to drive an electronic strain gage for short periods of time.
Absorbable materials are materials that can be absorbed in the human body and passed as waste. The use of absorbable materials to replace the metal hardware used to hold broken bones together while complex fractures heal has been around for several decades. The premise is that as time passes and the bones heal, the absorbable materials will be absorbed into the body leaving only the mended bone.
One of the problems with this type of fracture is that unless the fracture is X‐rayed, it cannot easily be determined if the break is healing properly. By enabling the absorbable hardware with an RFID enabled strain sensor, it may be possible to measure the transfer of the load from the hardware to the healed bone without the need to expose the body to unnecessary X‐rays. It also could allow earlier detection of fractures that are not healing properly since they would not transfer the load correctly.
FEW Technology Development and Outreach
Principal investigator: Lucy Mar Camacho, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Team member: Ben Jang, Texas A&M University-Commerce
Focusing on the Food-Water-Energy (FEW) nexus, team members were set to conduct research to help augment water for food production, water for energy production, and energy for water and food production.
The interdisciplinary team would combine science, engineering and modeling tools to identify, develop, and implement technologies for the FEW nexus. Inter-institutional capabilities such as an outreach mechanism to disseminate knowledge about the FEW nexus will be used.
Farm-to-Fork
Principal investigator: Eleftherios Iakovou, Texas A&M University and Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
Team members: Yanling Chang, Texas A&M University; Amir Gharehgozli, Texas A&M University-Galveston and Matthew Keblis, Texas A&M University
This project develops an analytical framework for transporting food from a farm‐to‐fork leveraging sharing economy and new disruptive innovative logistics technologies and practices (Uber‐type initiatives, drones, etc.) to improve responsiveness and operation efficiency in last mile delivery. This project aligns with current national initiatives within TEES around security for food supply chains.
Fire Busters
Principal investigator: Burchan Aydin, Texas A&M University-Commerce
Team members: Mohan Kekar, Prairie View A&M University; Michael Starek, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi; Jian Tao, Texas A&M High Performance Research Computing, TEES; and the City of Commerce Firefighting Department
The project’s primary motivation is to decrease fatality rates of firefighters and fire victims. The secondary motivation is to decrease the economic loss from building fires.
Interconnected technologies, known collectively as cyberphysical systems, can be harnessed to greatly improve fire-protection and firefighting capabilities. Team members will build a firefighting unmanned aerial vehicle that can actively shoot fire extinguishing balls through windows with an embedded data processing unit to enable self-guidance. Augmented reality and various sensors will be used.
Multi Agent Precision Agriculture Monitoring (MAPAM)
Principal investigator: Jinha Jung, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Team members: Suxia Cui, Prairie View A&M University; Dilma DaSilva, Texas A&M University; Jonda Halcomb, Del Mar College; and Scott King, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
This project will focus on developing a multi-agent (unmanned aerial system and unmanned ground system) precision agriculture monitoring system that can early detect specific problems such as diseases and water/nutrient deficiency so that growers can take appropriate actions to attack sources of the issues.
Nanocomposite Films for Recyclable Food Packaging
Principal investigator: H.J. Su, Texas A&M University
Team members: Paul Biney, Prairie View A&M University; Sheena Reeves, Prairie View A&M University; Nabila Shamin, Prairie View A&M University and Jianren Zhou, Prairie View A&M University
This project will introduce well-dispersed nanoplatelets into polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to improve the oxygen barrier. This would allow PET, which is recyclable, to replace the non-recyclable films (EVOH and Saran) currently for food packaging in which oxygen incursion must be controlled. Models for nanoplatelets in films suggest 10-100x improvement is possible if the nanoplatelets are well dispersed and are aligned parallel to the film axis.
Offshore Wind Energy
Principal investigator: Doeun Choe, Prairie View A&M University
Team members: Neal Byron, West Texas A&M University; Ziaul Huque, Prairie View A&M University; M. H. Kim, Texas A&M University and Selahattin (Sel) Ozcelik, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
The project will increase the feasibility of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT) by improving the related technologies and reliabilities of the costly option of current FOWT.
Developing areas for the project include:
- Wind blades optimization and validation,
- FOWT design, FOWT control,
- FOWT health monitoring,
- FOWT structural safety,
- Reliability and weight reduction,
- Life-cycle risk analysis and cost reduction.
Personalized Culturally Appropriate Nutrition Education Apps in Clinical Settings
Principal investigator: Andrea McDonald, Prairie View A&M University
Team members: Olivia Johnson, Prairie View A&M University; Christopher Kocmoud, Texas A&M University; King-Ip (David) Lin, Baylor University and Shannon Ydoyaga, Del Mar College
The project goal is to develop personalized, culturally appropriate nutrition education apps for maternal mothers to combat childhood obesity.
Protecting Cyber-Physical Systems in Water Networks
Principal investigator: Shumon Alam, Prairie View A&M University
Team members: Paul A. Potier, Prairie View A&M University and Rudoli H. Rosen, Texas A&M University-San Antonio
Industrial control systems (ICS) are vital for various industries such as the electric, water, oil and natural gas, chemical, manufacturing, postal service, air traffic and many U.S. critical infrastructures.
ICS systems generally include supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), distributed control system (DCS) and programmable logic controller (PLC).
The world is now connecting everything to the internet, and that is where the cyber threat in ICS could jeopardize industrial operations, safety and stability. This project will look into the water network system where ICS/SCADA are used for water management/distribution and analyze the risk of cyber threats for its cyber‐physical system and find possible solutions in terms of network intrusion detection and prevention systems.
Real-Time Extreme Event Multi-Platform Sensing for Flood Management in River Systems and Roads
Principal investigator: Emmanuel Nzewi, Prairie View A&M University
Team members: Ali Fares, Prairie View A&M University; Yonggao Yang, Prairie View A&M University; and Hua Zhang, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
This project uses multi-platform technologies, data analysis, real-time visualization and mapping. It uses these in the modeling of river systems and urban watersheds to develop technologies and systems to minimize the impact of extreme rainfall events.
It will also develop and implement technologies for minimizing the disruption due to extreme events, loss of property and lives. The proposed integrated system will also seek to maximize the resiliency of reservoir and roadway systems in urban watersheds under climate change/variation scenarios.
Renewable Energy for DeSal
Principal investigator: Bill Worek, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Team members: Matthew Alexander, Texas A&M University-Kingsville; Nael Barakat, Texas A&M University-Kingsville; Lucy Camacho, Texas A&M University-Kingsville; Ashkan Haghshenas, Texas A&M International; Ben Jang, Texas A&M University-Commerce; Andrea Kishne, TEES Smart Grid Center; Raghava Kommalapati, Prairie View A&M University; Jeff Sammons, Texas A&M Energy Institute and Safwat Shakin, Prairie View A&M University
The scope of this project is the investigation, development, integration and management of intelligent, sensitive, secure and sustainable energy/water systems. The project proposes a holistic and system‐level design/development of methodology for new integrated systems or an integration methodology for existing systems that optimize complex energy/water systems.
Robotic Exoskeleton for Upper Extremity Rehabilitation for Stroke Patients
Principal investigator: Yueqing Li, Lamar University
Team members: Donald Peterson, Texas A&M University and Neil Petroff, Tarleton State University
The project will develop an advanced upper extremity rehabilitation robotics exoskeleton for stroke patients. The system will be controlled by EEG, EMG, and/or muscle and can provide an adaptive rehabilitation strategy.
Scale-Up of Stem Cells for Workforce Training
Principal investigator: Susan Woodard, National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing (NCTM), Texas A&M University and Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
Team members: Felipe Nicolau, NCTM and Carole Twichell, Collin College, Plano
Stem cell‐based therapies are being developed to treat many different conditions. Stem cells present a challenge from a regulatory standpoint where the cell is the product.
A number of different assays are required to establish the efficacy and safety of stem cell products. For the use of stem cells to become mainstream, there needs to be a trained workforce who knows how to grow, expand and assess the quality of the various biotherapeutics derived from stem cells.
The overarching goal of this project is to develop training curricula geared toward the technicians and scientists that will be needed to support this manufacturing sector. Having workers trained in stem cell handling and quality control testing will help make the U.S. and Texas competitive in this emerging industry.
Training for Underserved Cyber Professionals
Principal investigator: David Abarca, Del Mar College
Team members: Kiran Bellam, Prairie View A&M University; Emmanuel Okereke, Prairie View A&M University; Dan Ragsdale, Texas A&M Cybersecurity Center and Lucas Tyler, Hanover Research
This project will create industry-focused continuing education opportunities to improve analysis, response and remediation for cybersecurity professional by addressing ongoing and emerging threats using low- and no-cost capabilities.
