College of Engineering Headlines
Dean Agrawal Awarded International HonorJuly 1, 2008
Dr. C. Mauli Agrawal, Dean of the College of Engineering, was given the international honor of Fellow, Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE) from the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE). Comprising 20,000 members of biomaterials scientists worldwide, this union gathers groups dedicated to the advancement of biomaterials, surgical implants, prosthetics, artificial organs, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. The FBSE awards are announced only at the World Biomaterials Congress, which is held every four years. Dr. Agrawal was appointed at the Eighth World Congress recently held in Amsterdam. To view the complete program from the Eighth World Congress, please click here.
Manteufel Elected ASME FellowMay 21, 2008
Dr. Randy Manteufel has been elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), a distinction only 3% of ASME members have the privilege of sharing. Congratulations, Dr. Manteufel, on your fine accomplishment!
Drs. Zhang and Huang awarded 2007 IEEE Signal Processing Magazine Best Paper AwardApril 22, 2008
Electrical and Computer Engineering's professors Jianqiu (Michelle) Zhang and Yufei Huang won the IEEE Signal Processing Society the 2007 Signal Processing Magazine Best Paper Award. The award was presented in the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing on April 1, 2008.
Titled "Particle Filtering," the article surveys and explores different aspects of a new type of powerful nonlinear filter for tracking nonlinear and non-Gaussian dynamic systems. The article appeared in the September 2003 issue of IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.
IEEE Signal Processing Magazine is received by each of the sixteen thousand society members bimonthly. Signal Processing Magazine has been ranked consistently among the top journals with the highest citation impact. Each year, only one paper of exceptional merit and broad interest on a subject related to the Society's technical scope will be given the award.
IEEE Robotics Team Places 2nd in RegionalsApril 22, 2008
The UTSA IEEE Robotics Team traveled to Kansas City, Missouri to compete in the IEEE Region 5 competition where teams were charged with designing an autonomous robot capable of following lines, detecting weight and color, and placing bins of differing weights in different locations based on color.
After competing against some of the top engineering universities in the nation, such as The University of Texas at Austin, Air Force Academy, and the University of Missouri at Kansas City, through four rounds, UTSA IEEE became one of only two teams to finish the entire course correctly. The second place finish is one of the highest finishes in the history of UTSA's participation in the competition. IEEE Student Chapter Chair, John Collins and Robotics Chair, Philip So agree that, "the experience was amazing, and it was a great learning experience for everyone."
Congratulations to the 2008 IEEE Robotics team: Kevin Messenhimer, John Collins, Philip So, Jose Gamboa, Richard Mackie, Chris Brucks, Tyler Schmidt, and Daniel Seller.
Dr. Millwater Inducted Into Tau Beta PiApril 17, 2008
Mechanical Engineering's Dr. Harry Millwater will be inducted into Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society on April 18th, 2008. According to the Tau Beta Pi Association, "Dr. Millwater has been chosen for his experience and excellence in engineering and scholarly work." The engineering honor society is recognizing his "commitment to teaching and research" and "dedication to the students." Students under the tutelage of Dr. Millwater have and will continue to benefit from the opportunities afforded to them through his mentorship and research positions at the undergraduate and graduate levels. To learn more about Dr. Millwater, his accomplishments and the great work he's done for our college, be sure to download the latest edition of the of the COE's "Innovations" newsletter when it becomes available during the first week of May.
College of Engineering Goes Mobile February 16, 2008
New technology is changing the way society receives and distributes information. The medium of posted signs is fast becoming ignored and email messages are often times lost due to type-os or because the recipient mistakenly marks important messages as spam. Circulating important COE news to students is now as simple as receiving an SMS text message.
To increase the speed at which news travels to our students, the COE has made the movement to popular social networking and micro-blogging website twitter.com. Twitter allows users to post updates using their mobile phone, instant messenger client, or by logging into the twitter.com website. Other users can "follow" or subscribe to the sender. The updates are then sent to the followers' mobile phones as a text message, or they can view the live updates via RSS, instant messaging, email or another application. Live updates are also displayed on the sender's profile page. Twitter is completely free for both the sender and follower (standard text message rates apply. Contact your mobile phone carrier for information).
Visit our Twitter profile to see the latest important announcements. If you're still unsure as to what Twitter is exactly, click here.
COE Goes Mobile from College of Engineering UTSA on Vimeo.
UTSA Awarded Nearly $200,000 to Support Minority-Engineering Recruitment for Women January 14, 2008
(Source: San Antonio Business Journal) The Texas Workforce Commission is furnishing the University of Texas at San Antonio with a two-year, $194,413 grant to encourage more young people in the city to pursue careers in computer science and engineering.
UTSA is one of nine universities to share in the Texas Youth in Technology Strategic Workforce Development Initiative, announced Monday by Gov. Rick Perry.
The Texas Workforce Commission awarded nine grants totaling $2 million over the two-year period to support the governor's statewide industry cluster initiative.
"To increase Texas' global competitiveness, we must have an educated work force that is ready to meet the growing demand of the industries of the future dependent on science and engineering," Perry says. "Initiatives such as Texas Youth in in Technology help Texas graduate more students in these emerging fields, positioning Texas to compete nationally and internationally for jobs in the 21st Century."
UTSA will use its grant to recruit young minority women aged 17 to 19 to attend a summer engineering survival skills workshop and math preparation program for engineers. Selected freshmen participants also will receive a stipend to work in a research laboratory.
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Ranks in Top 20% of US Universities in Degrees Awarded January 14, 2008
The College of Engineering's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department has been recognized by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) as the 41st ranked school out of 211 in graduating class size. To see what other universities made the list or for information about ASEE, please visit their website www.asee.org
Dr. Philip Chen Elected to Vice President of Technical
Activities January 12, 2008
Dr. Philip Chen, Chair of the department of Electrical Engineering, has been elected to Vice President of Technical Activities in Systems Science and Engineering in IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC) Society. Dr. Chen has been active in many IEEE international conference services and publications as a Program Chair and Organizing Committee. He will be the General Chair of the 2009 IEEE SMC annual conference held in San Antonio. Dr. Chen has been a member of IEEE SMC Board of Governors, the Treasurer for IEEE SMC Society, and an elected IEEE Fellow for his technical contributions. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on SMC-C and IEEE Systems Journal. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu honor societies. Dr. Chen is the founding faculty advisor of IEEE Computer society student chapter and faculty advisor of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society at the University of Texas at San Antonio from 2004-2007.
Student Organizations: Submit Your COE T-Shirt Design
The College of Engineering is looking for a new design for its t-shirts and is asking for our student organizations to submit a design. The contest is open only to Engineering student organizations and the organization with the winning design will win $500. The winner will be determined via online voting that will take place on the COE homepage from Tuesday, February 12 at 8 a.m. through midnight Sunday, February 17. The winning design will be announced by Jeff Clarke during his presentation at Engineer's Week. The deadline for design submittal is Monday, February 11, 2008 at 5 p.m. to the Dean's Office (BSE 2.106).
COE Celebrates Engineer's Week with Career Expo
The UTSA College of Engineering will be celebrating National Engineer's Week (eWeek) with its first annual Engineering Career Expo. Employers and students will have the opportunity to network and gain further insight into each other's benefits and accomplishments. The Engineering Career Expo will take place on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 from 2-5 p.m. in the Biosciences and Engineering Building Atrium. Employers are invited to register through Career Services. For employer registration information, please contact Robin Waters.
A.T. Papagiannakis, Chair of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Publishes Book
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Chairman, Dr. A.T. Papagiannakis' book Pavement Design and Materials is now available online through wiley.com. Papagiannakis' new publication, co-authored by E.A. Masad of Texas A&M University, provides an in-depth view into the field of pavement engineering. "Pavement Design and Materials is a practical reference for both students and practicing engineers that explores all the aspects of pavement engineering, including materials, analysis, design, evaluation, and economic analysis."
Mechanical Engineering Professor Cory Hallam Featured in San Antonio Business Journal's "Top 40 Under 40"
The San Antonio Business Journal has named Dr. Cory Hallam one of the top 40 San Antonians under the age of 40. In addition to his role as an adjunct professor in the Mechanical Engineering department, Dr. Hallam is also the director of the Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (CITE), a joint initiative of the College of Engineering and the College of Business. View article.
College of Engineering Awarded $375K by NSF
The UTSA College of Engineering was awarded a $375,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to build and support new research laboratories in manufacturing engineering. Read more
UTSA Hosts Engineering, Science, Business Conference
The UTSA College of Engineering Autonomous Control Center (ACE) and Southwest Research Institute hosted UTSA's second annual Engineering, Science and Business Student Conference. Read more
Inaugural CITE New Technology Venture Start-up Competition Produces Champions
The Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship held their first New Technology Venture Start-up Competition last Friday, November 30th at the Downtown Campus. Teams consisted of senior engineering and business students who were charged with devising a novel invention and developing a business plan to get the product on the market. The inventions ranged from jamming equipment to knock out roadside bombs in Iraq, low-cost underground fluid detection equipment, underground mine detection equipment for finding survivors in mine collapses, alternative energy pumps, and infant monitoring equipment to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which took home first prize. The teams were competing for cash prizes and the opportunity to fund and start their own company in the UTSA Venture Lab. Guest judges of the competition included: Mr. David Spencer, President of Mandlebrot Ventures; Mr. Jim Poage, President of the SATAI network; Dr. Lynda de la Vina, Dean of the College of Business; Dr. C. Mauli Agrawal, Dean of the College of Engineering.For more information, please read the San Antonio Business Journal's coverage of the event and CITE’s website http://business.utsa.edu/entrepreneur/.
College of Engineering Receives Grant to Develop Bone Regeneration Technologies
A team of UTSA biomedical engineering researchers led by Drs. Joo Ong and C. Mauli Agrawal has been awarded a $2 million grant by the U.S. Army’s Medical Research and Materiel Command and the Institute for Surgical Research (ISR). This grant, the largest the UTSA College of Engineering has received to date, will support the development of a multifunctional implant to assist in the regeneration of bone in large defects caused by trauma. Soldiers wounded in combat and civilians alike will benefit from the advancements in bone regeneration technology developed as a result of the grant.
"We are delighted that the Army selected us from among dozens of labs from around the country who had applied to work on this effort,” says Agrawal, Dean of the College of Engineering. “This work is especially important because it will help our soldiers who sacrifice so much for us.” Geographically, UTSA is in an advanced strategic position surrounded by the South Texas Medical Center, several military bases and the world-renowned Brooke Army Medical Center. “UTSA and San Antonio have tremendous expertise in this area of research and I am confident that we will be successful,” adds Agrawal. Collaborators on this research will include the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, Southwest Research Institute, ISR and Carnegie Mellon University.
KENS-TV's Wendy Rigby reports on the College of Engineering's $2 million grant from the US Army in support of bone regeneration research for the war-injured. Click here to view the news clip.
Celebrating the Vision: New Engineering Building for the COE
Over 200 supporters of the College of Engineering attended the Engineering Building II dedication ceremony held in the Atrium of the Biotechnology, Sciences and Engineering Building on November 5th. The new EB-II, an $82 million, 150,000-square-foot building, is slated for completion in Summer 2009.
UTSA President Ricardo Romo also unveiled the University’s new strategic plan, Vision 2016 at the November 5th event. Vision 2016 lays the groundwork for UTSA to become a top-tier research university and increase in size. The College of Engineering is already doing its part; the College has doubled in size in the past seven years, and plans to double again by 2016.
Among the attendees of the event were State Senators Carlos Uresti, Leticia Van de Putte, and Jeff Wentworth; State Representatives Joaquin Castro, Frank Corte, Joe Farias, David Leibowitz, Trey Martinez-Fischer, Ruth Jones McClendon, Jose Menedez, Robert Puente, Joe Straus and Mike Villareal.
Second Annual Alumni Social
The second annual alumni social, hosted by Chris Schultz, ‘98 MS CE, was held in the Atrium of the BSE on Thursday, November 15th, 2007. The social afforded the alumni of the COE to visit with students and fellow alumni as well as take a virtual tour of the new Engineering Building II (EBII) slated to open in 2009. To view pictures from the event, click here.
AT&T Foundation Award COE $1.5 million Grant
The College of Engineering has received $1.5 million from the AT&T Foundation. The grant will help fund the new Interactive Technology Experience Center (iTEC). The purpose of the iTEC is to entice, introduce and prepare engineering students to the quickly evolving field of communications technology via the use of a Remote Tele-Robotics Lab (RTL) and a Telecommunication Simulation Lab (TSL).The iTEC hopes to attract kindergarten through high school students to the engineering field allowing the students the ability to participate in hands-on technological engineering activities. Students of the COE will also benefit from the hands-on experiences while performing research and gaining a greater knowledge of the telecommunications field.
David and Jennifer Spencer Donate $1 million to the COE
College of Engineering Advisory Council member and prominent San Antonian, David Spencer has along with his wife, Jennifer, donated $1 million to the COE to create a Distinguished Chair for the Dean of Engineering. The funds will be used exclusively to strengthen and advance the teaching, research and outreach programs of the College. This Dean’s Chair is the first of its kind at UTSA. “The College of Engineering at UTSA is the most profound investment we can make for our children,” says Spencer, “It produces high-wage graduates that are in demand.” David Spencer is the founder of venture capital firm Mandlebrot Ventures, Inc. and was chosen by Texas Governor Rick Perry to chair the state’s Emerging Technology Fund (ETF) committee. Just last year Spencer sold his company, OnBoard Software, and helped found the non-profit organization San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATAI).
UT San Antonio College of Engineering Adds Fifteen Faculty
The University of Texas at San Antonio's College of Engineering (COE) has welcomed the arrival of 14 new faculty members this fall, with one more on the way this spring. The growth of the COE has been exponential. Student enrollment is at an all-time high with a nearly 100% increase over the past seven years, and wide-spread recognition for the College's research achievements. This latest episode of growth will add to the depth of the COE's faculty, and will provide students with outstanding skills and knowledge. Additional information on the faculty will be available in this fall's edition of Innovations, the official newsletter of the COE.
CE Student Awarded Young Scientist Paper Award
Anna M. Doro-on, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been awarded with the prestigious Young Scientist Paper Award for her paper "Risk Assessment for Terrorism Based on Prospect Theory of Groundwater." Doro-on made several presentations of her outstanding paper at the recent 3rd International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology in Houston where the award was bestowed upon her. Dr. Shih provided Doro-on with guidance in the completion of her paper, and she is very grateful for his insight.
The International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology is sponsored by the American Academy of Sciences and was held this year in Houston, Texas from August 6-9.
COE Receives Its Largest Private Scholarship Donation to Date
Pape-Dawson Engineers Inc., the largest engineering firm in South Texas, has donated $100,000 to the College of Engineering for the creation of an endowed scholarship program for civil and environmental engineering students. Many of the students at UTSA College of Engineering are the first generation in their family to seek university degrees, and the addition of this endowed scholarship program ensures that many more people interested in studying engineering will have the opportunity to do so. For more information about this story, please click here. For more information about Pape-Dawson Engineers Inc., please visit www.pape-dawson.com.
New NSF-funded Undergraduate Research Program gets underway
The NSF funded Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) students for the study of Nonlinear Control and its Applications with Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) began on June 1 for this Summer 2007 semester at UTSA. The purpose of this NSF REU is to develop students’ interests in nonlinear control of UAVs and UGVs and to attract exceptional undergraduates, especially women, minorities and students with disabilities, to enroll in science and engineering programs. Research in such topics as trajectory planning, nonlinear control design, and localization for UAVs and UGVs is being conducted by nine undergraduate students. Furthermore, workshops in technical writing, academic publishing, graduate admissions, and team building are being hosted throughout the summer. The REU will conclude this summer with a symposium that presents the results of the undergraduates’ research. These students are from such institutions as Arcadia University in Pennsylvania, the University of Texas - Pan American in Edinburg, Saint Mary’s University, the University of the Incarnate Word, and UTSA. All nine undergraduate students were selected based on their individual academic and community accomplishments. This program is directed by Dr. Yufang Jin and assisted by Dr. Chunjiang Qian and Dr. Michael Frye. Dr. Jin will host this REU at UTSA again during the Summer 2008 and 2009 semesters.