April 18, 2013

Russell Part Of Expert Task Force Commissioned To Review Vulnerability Of Electrical Power System In The United States

Dr. B. Don Russell, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, was a member of an expert task force commissioned to review the vulnerability of the electrical power system in the United States.

The task force, which was formed in 2005, along with the National Research Council and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), recently released its report, “Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System.”

The report, which was presented to the Department of Homeland Security, stated that concern exists that an orchestrated terrorist plan could significantly disrupt the economy, safety and defense of the United States by attacking the electric grid.

“In a worst case scenario, it is not the power disruption alone, but coordinated attacks that hit the power system simultaneous to other large-scale attacks that are the concern because it hinders our ability to function and communicate,” Russell said. “If the power system is down at the same time as a coordinated attack, the magnitude of the problem is enormous.”

The committee was tasked with identifying any and all vulnerabilities and suggesting approaches that could be reasonably taken to mitigate the effects of a terrorist attack.

Russell is the past chair of the Electric Power and Energy Engineering section of the NAE and past president of the Power and Energy Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

He is an expert on monitoring and protection of electric power systems and is the recipient of the IEEE Halperin Award, the highest recognition for electric power engineering given by IEEE.  Dr. Russell holds the rank of Distinguished Professor and is Regents Professor of the Texas A&M University System.  He is director of the Power System Automation Laboratory and has been a member of the faculty of Texas A&M for 37 years.

Dr. Russell is internationally recognized for his development of automated techniques for detecting arcing faults and failures on electric power systems.  His recent work has emphasized predictive diagnostic tools for detecting failing power system equipment before catastrophic failure.  This will allow utilities to repair systems before an outage occurs.  His work is currently being extended to detect power system failures that cause wildfires, an area of great importance given the increasing drought conditions in the U.S.

For more on the report visit: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12050

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About 12 Impacts of the 12th Man: 12 Impacts of the 12th Man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of Texas A&M University students, faculty, staff and former students on their community, state, nation and world. To learn more about the series and see additional impacts, visit http://12thman.tamu.edu.

April 2, 2013

Harvesting Personal Power

Researching The Properties Of Piezoelectrics So That Electronic Devices Can Power Themselves

Imagine a self-powering cell phone that never needs to be charged because it converts sound waves produced by the user into the energy it needs to keep running.

It’s not as farfetched as it may seem thanks to the recent work of Tahir Cagin, a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Using materials known as piezoelectrics, Cagin, whose research focuses on nanotechnology, has made a significant discovery in the area of power harvesting, a field that aims to develop self-powered devices that do not require replaceable power supplies, such as batteries.

Specifically, Cagin and his partners from the University of Houston have found that a certain type of piezoelectric material can convert energy at a 100 percent increase when manufactured at a very small size — in this case, around 21 nanometers in thickness.

What’s more, when materials are constructed bigger or smaller than this specific size, they show a significant decrease in their energy-converting capacity, he says.

His findings, which were detailed in Physical Review B, the journal of the American Physical Society, could have potentially profound effects for low-powered electronic devices such as cell phones, laptops, personal communicators and a host of other computer-related devices, which everyone from the average consumer to law enforcement officers and even soldiers in the battlefield use.

Key to this technology, Cagin explains, are piezoelectrics. Derived from the Greek word “piezein,” which means “to press,” piezoelectrics are materials (usually crystals or ceramics) that generate voltage when a form of mechanical stress is applied. Conversely, their physical properties change when an electric field is applied.

Discovered by French scientists in the 1880s, piezoelectrics aren’t a new concept. They were first used in sonar devices during World War I. Today they can be found in microphones and quartz watches.
Cigarette lighters in automobiles also contain piezoelectrics. Pressing down the lighter button causes impact on a piezoelectric crystal, which in turn produces enough voltage to create a spark and ignite the gas.

On a grander scale, some nightclubs in Europe feature dance floors built with piezoelectrics that absorb and convert the energy from footsteps in order to help power lights in the club. And a Hong Kong gym is reportedly using the technology to convert energy from exercisers to help power its lights and music.

Although advances in those applications continue to progress, piezoelectric work at the nanoscale is a relatively new endeavor with different and complex aspects to consider, Cagin says.

For example, imagine going from working with a material the size and shape of a telephone pole to dealing with that same material the size of a hair, he says. When such a significant change in scale occurs, materials react differently. In this case, something the size of a hair is much more pliable and susceptible to change from its surrounding environment. These types of changes have to be taken into consideration when conducting research at this scale, he says.

“When materials are brought down to the nanoscale dimension, their properties for some performance characteristics dramatically change,” says Cagin, who is a past recipient of the prestigious Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology. “One such example is with piezoelectric materials. We have demonstrated that when you go to a particular length scale — between 20 and 23 nanometers — you actually improve the energy-harvesting capacity by 100 percent.

“We’re studying basic laws of nature such as physics and we’re trying to apply that in terms of developing better engineering materials, better performing engineering materials. We’re looking at chemical constitutions and physical compositions. And then we’re looking at how to manipulate these structures so that we can improve the performance of these materials.”

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About 12 Impacts of the 12th Man: 12 Impacts of the 12th Man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of Texas A&M University students, faculty, staff and former students on their community, state, nation and world. To learn more about the series and see additional impacts, visit http://12thman.tamu.edu.

Media contact: Ryan A. Garcia at (979) 847-5833

December 7, 2012

Texas A&M Helps “Engineer” The Educational Pipeline In Texas With Innovative Outreach Programs

Among the most effective ways for Texas A&M University to help build the educational pipeline in Texas is through outreach, which is especially critical in the high need STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math).

One proponent of the outreach and recruitment model is Joseph Morgan, professor of engineering technology and director of the Mobile Integrated Solutions Laboratory ESET (electronic systems engineering technology) program. Morgan noticed that over the last few years the number of undergraduate students in electrical and mechanical engineering and computer science was in decline.

“We all knew we had a national and state need for professionals who were proficient in the STEM fields and that we weren’t training enough of them,” says Morgan.

“We realized that it was imperative to do more outreach at the high school level,” Morgan adds.  “In this department, we wanted to engage students in the world of electronics and software development so they would be prepared to meet the complex technical challenges of society and ultimately make a real contribution to the state of Texas and beyond.”

Jay Porter, professor of engineering technology and program director for ESET, agrees. “All of us recognize that students need to see the value in being able to produce things, be innovative and build products in the United States – this is a national need that must be met.”

Four years ago, students in the electronic systems program (formerly known as electronics and telecommunications) came up with the phrase: “There is a crisis at Texas A&M and we’re it.” But as Morgan explains, “The phrase is ironic; because crisis was spelled ‘krisys,’ and referred to the code name for the overwhelmingly successful robotics workshop that was developed by the undergraduate students.”

In a Krisys Robotics Workshop, students are divided into teams of four (three high school students paired with a sophomore engineering student) and within a week, not only build and assemble a small three-wheeled “robot/vehicle” but then populate the control/ driver circuit board, install it on the mechanical robot and design the program that allows the vehicle to navigate and race on a circuitous path. As daunting as that sounds, the workshops not only inspire and motivate the student team members, but the racing competition that caps the experience brings out the competitive spirit of all participants.

“What’s really exciting about Krisys,” says Porter, “is that we discovered that when college sophomores are mentoring high school students, those high school students not only learn more, but also say to themselves: ‘Hey, in two or three years I can be YOU!’ And that epitomizes how we think outreach and recruiting should be done. The challenge, of course, is to reach these kids even earlier in the education pipeline — in grade school and middle school — so they take the right courses to prepare for a STEM major.”

Krisys Workshops have become a focal point for a variety of outstanding outreach programs across campus, including the College of Education and Human Development’s Youth Adventure Program; the Women Exploring Engineering Summer Camp; the E-12 Summer Camp program targeting twelve Texas high schools based on demographics, TEA performance ratings and other criteria; The Summer Transfer Engineering Workshops (STEW) aimed at community college students and others.

These programs have been responsible for helping the university attract more students to engineering, especially talented, high-performing minority and female students.

“In addition to providing real value to the outreach and recruiting efforts of the College of Engineering, the Krisys workshops have spawned innovation and entrepreneurship, which is really what the curriculum in electronic systems is built on,” says Porter.

“In our product innovation and development initiative, our students come together to design educational products for middle and high school students. Currently, they have sold Krisys kits to three high schools; our hope is that by making programs like these available to Texas school districts, we’ll be improving the number and quality of the students who enroll in the STEM fields at Texas A&M,” Porter states.

Based on the success of the Krisys robot workshops, the electronic systems program responded to two NASA solicitations that focused on outreach and recruiting.

The first proposal that was funded called for Morgan and Wei Zhan, associate professor in ESET and co-principal investigator, to develop and deliver a ten-week workshop to students in three different high schools.  The project is part of the NASA HUNCH (High Schools United with NASA for the Creation of Hardware) program.  Texas A&M teamed with the Project Management Institute (PMI) Clear Lake-Galveston chapter to develop the curriculum and then deliver it to the six HUNCH project teams at Conroe, Cy-Ranch, and Cy-Woods High Schools.

Matt Leonard, Texas A&M class of 1986 and a senior project manager with NASA has been a major catalyst for Texas A&M/NASA interactions. Leonard states, “Unless Texas A&M gets great students, the industry isn’t interested.  The joint project is one way to reach out to the top high school students and get them interested in Texas A&M and engineering.”

In the second NASA-funded project, a team of four undergraduates are working on their ESET Capstone Design project to design, develop, deliver, and document a new wireless-based power monitoring and control system to be used in the Deep Space Habitat (DSH) mockup at NASA-JSC. As part of their project, the team members are mentoring high school students in the understanding and use of PMI-recommended project management tools and processes.

When the high schools students see that ESET undergraduates are using the same tools and processes to plan, manage, and control their projects, they become highly motivated to emulate the college students.   Again, college students directly interfacing with high school students has been a key element of this unique and highly successful outreach project sponsored by the NASA HUNCH program.

As a result of the TAMU/PMI-CLG/NASA collaboration, these high school students will have an opportunity to sit for the Certified Associate Project Manager examination administered by PMI which is the first step in seeking professional certification.  Both NASA and PMI are looking for ways to replicate this overall outreach concept at other universities on a regional or national level.

In yet another opportunity for STEM outreach and recruiting, the ESET program learned that Clear Springs High School had been selected to develop a microgravity plant growth chamber that might eventually fly on the International Space Station.  The high school team, under the direction of Ms. Allison Westover, needed technical assistance in the areas of electronic hardware and embedded software design and development.

When Porter and Morgan learned of this need through Leonard, they decided this would be an excellent opportunity for the program to give back to the community while adding a new aspect to its recruiting of top-notch high school students.

Eight sophomore students in Morgan’s digital design course have volunteered to mentor Ms. Westover’s team and help them successfully field and test their system, designed to fly as part of  NanoRacks’ NanoLab program.

“We hope to continue and expand our STEM outreach efforts through the support and partnering of organizations like NASA and PMI,” says Porter.

“What better way to recruit new students to Texas A&M than to let them interact and learn from current undergraduate students?” asks Porter. “Whether it is robotic workshops, project management tools and processes, or designing space-worthy lab projects, we have definitely found an innovative way to help build the STEM pipeline and improved our outreach and recruiting efforts for the university, the Dwight Look College of Engineering and our own electronic systems program.”

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Media Contact: Lynn Paris, News & Information Services at (979) 845-6746 or  Joseph Morgan or Jay Porter

November 8, 2012

Texas A&M Profs United By Marriage And Passion For Certain SEC Rival

The split allegiance is obvious from their family photos, but if you ask Texas A&M University Professor of Industrial Distribution Malini Natarajarathinam whether their true loyalty lies with the Aggies or the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide, her response will be, “Roll Tide!”

Natarajarathinam and her husband, Sudarsan Rangan, a clinical assistant professor at Texas A&M’s Mays Business School, both earned graduate degrees from the University of Alabama and are looking to this weekend’s gridiron match with great anticipation. “We have a room in our house dedicated to Alabama football,” laughs Natarajarathinam. “My husband will be useless to me during the game; there’s no way he will do anything but watch that game.”

Both Natarajarathinam and Rangan were born in India, she in Tirumangalam and he in Chennai, and although they knew one another prior to attending Alabama, “The relationship got serious at Alabama,” she contends. “We were in the same department and had the same Ph.D. dissertation adviser.”

Natarajarathinam is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution, within the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M, and says she sees many similarities between the two universities. “Obviously both Texas A&M and the University of Alabama students are passionate about their football,” she notes. “And both schools are located in smaller, college towns. The people in both cities are very nice and friendly. But while Alabama has a few traditions, it’s nowhere near what A&M has.”

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering in India, Natarajarathinam came to the states in 2000 and first attended another SEC school, Auburn, where she earned a master’s in industrial engineering. The University of Alabama followed, where she earned two more master’s degrees, in management science and statistics, and a Ph.D. in operations management.

She says she was first inspired to pursue a degree in industrial engineering by her uncle who lived in the U.S. and worked in that field. “I looked at him as a solution provider and that interested me,” she recalls. “Plus, industrial engineering applies to so many different areas, from airlines to automobile production; I like that flexibility.”

In one of her academic areas of interest, supply chain management (SCM), Natarajarathinam has been afforded the opportunity to collaborate with some colleagues back at Alabama. In “Supply Chain Management Competency and Firm Financial Success,” published in the Journal of Business Logistics in 2011, she, along with Alexander Ellinger and Frank Adams of the University of Alabama, studied the relationship between a business’s financial success and its efficiency in SCM. “What we wanted to know was: is bigger always better?” she explains. “We looked at Fortune 500 companies to see if the most successful businesses were also the ones that had the most efficient operations.” The study found that SCM does play a major role in creating (or destroying) a company’s value by influencing revenue, operating costs and working capital.

Natarajarathinam again joined forces with Alabama colleagues for a study on how businesses can find a balance between inventory and transportation. Published this year in the International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, the study, “Near-optimal Heuristics and Managerial Insights for the Storage Constrained, Inbound Inventory Routing Problem” was conducted along with Jennifer Stacey and Charles Sox at Alabama. “When you are routing trucks to pick up products, such as in auto manufacturing, you have these large assembly plants that don’t want to carry more than a few hours of supply because they have limited storage space,” Natarajarathinam explains. “So they want to increase the number of times the trucks come. But if you do this too often, you run the risk of having transportation costs that are too high.” The study provides new analytical methods and managerial insights to help with such inventory routing problems.

Besides collaborating on their now eight-month old son, Vaishnav, Natarajarathinam and her husband also get to work together occasionally. Rangan is with the Department of Information and Operations Management at Mays. He earned both his master’s in operations management and his doctorate of philosophy in operations management at Alabama. “Both of our passions lie in undergraduate teaching,” says Natarajarathinam. “We worked together on a handbook on recruiting, and how companies can make themselves attractive to today’s students. This generation is very different – they don’t want to be micromanaged, they are very socially connected and they do things passionately. We asked, how can a company best appeal to the unique senses of this generation?”

Although they’re Alabama fans tried and true, Natarajarathinam says she and her husband both carry admiration for their Aggie students. “Their passion and respect for one another and for the university, and their respect for tradition, we both admire that,” she says, adding that she views all her students as her kids. “At the end of the day, whether it’s the students at Texas A&M or Alabama, they’re all my kids and I never give up on them.”

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Media Contact: Lesley Henton, News & Information Services, at (979) 845-5591

September 13, 2012

Engineering Project Aims To Remove Space Debris

Low Earth Orbit is overcluttered with rogue objects and collision shrapnel that are a constant threat to spacecraft.

Experts say that a traditional satellite mission to go capture each object is not efficient enough to make an appreciable difference due to the high cost of orbit transfers. Many alternate proposals are politically controversial, costly or dependent on further technological advances; therefore, they are not adequate solutions at present, and none have been proven feasible.

Dr. Daniele Mortari, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, and his Ph.D. student Jonathan Missel are developing a new and creative mission structure that reinvents the way the problem is approached.

Traditional missions plan to rendezvous with each object, capture them softly, and then transfer to the next object. In terms of fuel consumption, these maneuvers are hugely expensive. The proposed mission, “TAMU Sweeper,” and the novel satellite design, “Sling-Sat,” reclaim the fuel losses of a traditional mission by capturing and then ejecting each object through plastic collisions.

Welcoming collisions strongly reduce (or even eliminate) the need to burn fuel for rendezvous, and ejecting the debris mass keeps the craft light. In addition, the momentum exchanged in the capture and ejection of each object can be intelligently planned to act as a free impulses for the satellite to transfer to the next object, in place of fuel. The free impulses from capture and ejection are both considered in trajectory optimization to maximize their effectiveness.

The proposed satellite design, Sling-Sat, also exploits existing momentum to save fuel. Debris is captured at the ends of a spinning satellite. Adjustable arms control the angular rate to achieve a desired tangential ejection speed. Timing the release exacts the ejection angle. Through this process, debris can be redirected to burn up in the atmosphere or, by lowering the perigee; the consequent drag increase will then reduce the debris lifetime. Detailed design studies that aim to establish a feasible hardware realization will be conducted over the coming year.

See more about Sling-Sat in this YouTube video and watch a short interview done on KAGS-TV.

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Media contact: Jan McHarg, Communications Specialist, Aerospace Engineering, at (979) 845-7541