COLLEGE STATION, Texas, July 8, 2008 – When Jennifer Carvajal, a graduate student in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, isn’t figuring out how to push around molecules, she’s leading the push for expanding chemical engineering education for undergraduates.

Specifically, Carvajal, whose area of study is molecular modeling and simulation, is working to ensure chemical engineering undergraduates are exposed to the relatively new and dynamic field of molecular modeling. It’s a field she believes stands to make an impact in a number of areas and one that needs to be incorporated into undergraduate curriculum.

Carvajal made her case recently at the 2008 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference & Exposition in Pittsburgh where she presented a paper titled “A Web-based Resource for Teaching Molecular Modeling and Simulation Methods in Chemical Engineering.”

The ASEE conference, which is dedicated to all disciplines of engineering and technology education, provided a three-day forum for more than 3,500 leaders in the field – including professors, deans, instructors and students – to present their research and interact with colleagues and industry counterparts.

Carvajal’s paper was part of a larger session at the conference that focused on integrating new courses and methods into the chemical engineering classroom. She was joined in the presentation by three members of the Texas A&M’s chemical engineering department: Professor Tahir Cagin, Senior Lecturer and Assistant Head for Upper Division Programs Lale Yurttas and Curriculum Renewal Specialist Larissa Pchenitchnaia.

The idea, Carvajal said, is to incorporate molecular modeling and simulation into chemical engineering curriculum at the undergraduate level. Molecular modeling refers to the methods and techniques employed in modeling or mimicking the behavior of molecules.

The techniques are used in the fields of computational chemistry, computational biology and materials science for studying molecular systems ranging from small chemical systems to large biological molecules and material assemblies.

With the potential to impact such vital and rapidly advancing areas as nanotechnology and biomedical science, molecular modeling should be a significant aspect of the chemical engineering undergraduate experience, Carvajal said.

Currently, that’s not the case, Carvajal explained – and not only at Texas A&M. At the majority of colleges and universities throughout the nation, molecular modeling is a subject generally reserved for graduate students, likely due to its highly technical nature. But Carvajal believes that undergraduates have something to offer and should be exposed to this burgeoning and dynamic field of study in hopes of attracting them to advanced studies in the discipline.

As part of her presentation, Carvajal advocated the use of Interlinked Curriculum Components (ICCs), which form the basis of the National Science Foundation’s Curriculum Renewal Project, being undertaken at Texas A&M. ICCs are Web-based resources that aid in teaching certain concepts. Some ICCs focus on specific application areas or skills while others focus on common concepts that span courses and application areas.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, May 28, 2008 – Srinivas Pullela, a graduate student working with Assistant Professor Zhengdong Cheng in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been invited to discuss his research at the 2008 SoftMatt symposium at North Carolina State University.

Pullela, whose abstract was selected by a committee of five judges for oral presentation at the symposium, will be one of only five graduate students presenting research June 19 at the national conference. For his selection, he will receive a monetary prize from the symposium organizers.

At the symposium, Pullela will speak about “Nonlinear Chemical Dynamics of the Intelligent Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Colloids.

“Srinivas is a student with drive and ambition,” Cheng said. “This invitation recognizes the novelty and competitiveness of his research.”

This is the second distinction in as many months for Pullela, who this past April was one of two graduate students in the chemical engineering department to receive an “Outstanding Accomplishments in Interdisciplinary Research” award. That honor was bestowed upon Pullela for his significant academic and practical contributions in more than one field of study and came during Texas A&M’s 11th Annual Student Research Week.

SoftMatt 2008, which is organized in conjunction with the 82nd American Chemical Society Colloid & Surface Science Symposium, offers graduate and undergraduate students involved in soft material research at universities a forum in which to share their results and meet their peers.

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas, May 9, 2008 – Four graduating seniors from the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University have been recognized as distinguished members of their Spring 2008 graduating class.

At a reception honoring the department’s spring graduates, Christopher Ciesielski, a senior from Allen, Texas, and James Kress, a senior from Willis, Texas, each were named recipients of the department’s “Outstanding Graduating Senior Spring 2008 Award.”

In addition, Laura Barrera, a senior from Brownsville, Texas received the “Chemical Engineering Excellence Spring 2008 Senior Award.” And Joseph Zerr, a senior from D’Hanis, Texas, received the “2008 Senior Award” from the RHO Chapter of Omega Chi Epsilon, the national honor society for chemical engineering. Earlier this semester, Zerr received the prestigious Thomas S. Gathright Scholar Academic Excellence Award.

Addressing the students and their families in attendance, Assistant Professor and Associate Head for Undergraduate Programs Victor Ugaz recounted his journey from graduate to academician, reminding the graduates to embrace the many twists and turns they encounter as they enter a new period in their lives.

“Be open for changes and on the lookout for new opportunities along the way,” Ugaz said. “You have the skills and the talent to solve the bigger problems out there, so take time to think about the bigger things.”

As part of the event, winners of the department’s Spring 2008 Plant Design Competition, held last week, received their prizes. The competition, which was part of a senior-level course aimed at preparing students for the types of assignments they’re likely to see in a professional environment, tasked student groups with designing a fully functional refinery water process plant. In recognition of their achievements, each of the top three teams received honorariums from the Fluor Corporation, the competition’s sponsor for this semester.

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas, May 9, 2008 – Three groups of students from Texas A&M University’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering have been recognized by the Fluor Corporation for their designs of a refinery water process plant.

Kristen Atherton, Milton Chaves, Derek Moser and Justin Phillips are members of the team awarded first place by Fluor for its original design of a hypothetical but potentially fully functional water process plant that operates per Flour’s specifications.

Deborah Bell, Laura Barrera, Francisco Bolado and Sarah Owen were awarded second place, and the team composed of Temilola Awosipe, Wesley Carter, Carolyn Pearce and Bryan Wagner received third-place honors.

Each of the winning teams received a monetary prize from Fluor, this semester’s sponsor of the plant design competition, and the first-place team also was recognized with a plaque commemorating its achievement.

The students’ designs are the results of an intense senior-level capstone chemical engineering course taught by John Baldwin, senior lecturer and head for lower division programs in the department.

The competition, said Baldwin, requires students to conceptualize the comprehensive organization of a process plant. It’s a task, he said, that his soon-to-be graduates are almost certain to encounter in some form as they enter their professional careers.

This semester, students were tasked with developing the optimum design for an oil refinery in Mexico looking to process its water streams to meet ocean disposal standards and/or drinking water standards, Baldwin explained. Students designs had to achieve maximum profit while maintaining a competitive price for the client, he said.

In addition, the students were required to operate under certain limitations. Each student team was told that its company was a small start-up without adequate funds to self-finance and therefore needed to attract a venture capitalist. Because of that important caveat, all designs were to utilize proven purification and separation processes that had been successfully employed in at least two similar commercial applications.

Employing a global workforce of more than 46,000 people, Fluor is one of the world’s largest, publicly owned engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services companies. A FORTUNE 500 company that is ranked first in FORTUNE magazine’s “Engineering, Construction” category of America’s largest corporations, Fluor maintains a network of offices in more than 25 countries across six continents.

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas, May 1, 2008 – Joseph Zerr, a senior chemical engineering major in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named a recipient of the 2008 Thomas S. Gathright Scholar Academic Excellence Award.

The award, presented by The Association of Former Students in conjunction with Texas A&M’s Student Government Association, individually recognizes sophomores, juniors and seniors with the highest grade-point ratio within their respective academic colleges. To qualify for this award, a senior must have at least 95 credit hours at Texas A&M.

Zerr’s 4.0 grade point average was tops among all seniors in the Dwight Look College of Engineering.

“As a professor, I am always excited to see a student pursue academic excellence, but it is even more important to pursue extraordinary goals; Joseph does both,” said Assistant Professor Carl Laird, who instructed Zerr during his senior year. “He is an exceptional student with a humble attitude and a pleasure to teach.”

Zerr, who is from D’Hanis, Texas, credits his academic success to “a lot of hard work” and an ability to prioritize. Appropriately, Zerr revealed that he was studying for a quiz when he received the phone call notifying him of his award.

Upon graduating, Zerr said he intends to enroll in medical school, stating he believes his chemical engineering education will provide a foundation for his continued success in that field.

Established in 1973 and presented annually, the award is named in honor of the first president of the then “A&M College of Texas,” Thomas S. Gathright.

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas, April 14, 2008 – Four graduate students in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&MUniversity were recently honored for their research during the university’s 11th Annual Student Research Week.

Jennifer A. Carvajal, Pussana Hirunsit, Eid M. Al-Mutairi and Srinivas Pullela all received recognition during the week-long event in which students from throughout Texas A&M detailed their research through posters and oral presentations.

Carvajal, a graduate student in Professor Tahir Cagin’s lab, and Pullela, a graduate student working under Assistant Professor Zhengdong Cheng, both participated in oral presentations and received “Outstanding Accomplishments in Interdisciplinary Research” awards for their work in the area of materials science. The designation recognizes research with outcomes that make significant academic or practical contributions in more than one field of study.

Eid M. Al-Mutairi, a graduate student who is working with Professor Mahmoud M. El-Halwagi, was the recipient of an “Environmental Health and Safety Recognition Award” for his work in industrial engineering. Al-Mutairi’s award recognizes research efforts that contribute to and/or value the role and importance of safety at Texas A&M. In addition, Al-Mutairi also received the top score in his respective research session and was designated session winner. His research presentation received second place in his taxonomy grouping.

Pussana Hirunsit, a graduate student working under Professor Perla Balbuena, placed third in the poster competition portion of Student Research Week for her work in the field of nanoscience. Posters were required to thoroughly detail all aspects of a student’s research, and students were required to be present their work to judges during an hour-long session. Hirunsit was also designated session winner for her respective research session.

One of the largest university-wide, student-led research week programs in the nation, Texas A&M’s Student Research Week aims to highlight the excellence and broad range of student research taking place. Student Research Week programs are planned and funded primarily by the Texas A&M Graduate Student Council, and its awards are sponsored by university departments.

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas, April 2, 2008 – Abdullah Bin Mahfouz, a graduate student in Texas A&M University’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, has been selected as a King Abdullah Scholar by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.

The King Abdullah Scholar Award is conferred upon outstanding doctoral students to support their continued research efforts. It includes annual funding of up to $50,000 for tuition, living stipend and educational expenses and up to $10,000 to be used for the continuation of research activities for up to four years. Upon completion of their doctoral degrees, KAUST may offer King Abdullah Scholars research and post-doctoral opportunities on the KAUST campus.

Bin Mahfouz, who is from Saudi Arabia, is conducting research at Texas A&M in the area of process integration with special emphasis on optimizing industrial cooling systems using seawater. He is pursuing his Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Mahmoud El-Halwagi.

“Abdullah has developed a novel approach to the design of seawater cooling systems and performing energy integration while optimizing biocide usage and discharge,” El-Halwagi said. “This is state-of-the-art process integrations research, which involves innovative optimization formulations that reconcile the economic, energy and environmental objectives of the system.”

Recipients of the scholarship award, said a KAUST representative, represent a new age of visionary researchers that will have a major impact on the future of science, engineering and IT and will be a driving force for global innovation.

As a King Abdullah scholar, Bin Mahfouz will serve as an ambassador at global research and technical conferences and workshops. In addition, he will be invited to participate in joint research projects on the KAUST campus and to take an active role mentoring KAUST Discovery Scholarship recipients at joint enrichment workshops focused on leadership and academic excellence.

Bin Mahfouz will travel to Washington, D.C. April 5 for a recognition ceremony during which he will meet with KAUST officials and present his research to fellow King Abdullah Scholars and the KAUST management team.

KAUST is as an international, graduate-level research university dedicated to inspiring a new age of scientific achievement that will benefit the region and the world. It is the realization of a decades-long vision of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas, March 21, 2008 - Aggie ingenuity was on display this month at the 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Regional Student Conference, where two student teams from Texas A&M University received recognition for their designs of a chemical-powered vehicle.

Participating in the conference’s annual “Chem-E-Car” competition, one Aggie team received top honors in the poster portion of the event, and another team placed second. That same team also placed second in the car performance portion of the competition.

The first-place poster competition team was composed of students Carla Beutlich, Patrick Breckon, Mark Deimund, Iana Iacob, Felipe Rendon and Sahiba Singh. As part of their entry, they were required to describe the chemical process that powered their vehicle. That process was based on generating the necessary voltage and current by using solar panels to enhance the reaction found in glowsticks that results in their chemiluminescence.

“It drew interest because it was a different approach to the project,” said Victor Ugaz, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering. Ugaz serves as an adviser to the students participating in the competition.

The second-place poster and performance team consisted of team members Daniel Arnold, Michael Landoll, Derek Nelson, Stephen Pope and Neil Rodrigues. In the performance portion, students were required to submit a small team-designed vehicle that utilized a chemical reaction to travel a designated distance and stop, all while carrying a specified cargo. Teams were informed of the specific distance and payload shortly before the start of the competition, forcing them to make the correct calculations and adjustments only moments before the event began.

Rodrigues, a junior chemical engineering major from Goa, India, estimated he and his team spent the better part of a month designing their entry. Their vehicle, he explained, utilized a pressure vessel concept in which a chemical reaction produces gas that builds pressure in a tank. That pressure serves to turn the motor, powering the vehicle.

His team’s second-place finish in the performance portion of the event guaranteed it the right to advance to this fall’s national competition, held at the 2008 AIChE Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

“I enjoy it; it gives me a chance to apply principles from class in a creative way,” said Rodrigues, who has participated in the competition multiple times. “It definitely challenges you, creatively.

“The team component helps lead you in the right direction when you start competing in this event, and then it carries forward. Now, as a junior, I am helping lead the less experienced members on our team.”

Last year, Lale Yurttas, senior lecturer, and Ugaz established a one-hour course in the department to formalize the work of the student participants. Prior to that, preparation for the competition was entirely extracurricular and undertaken as part of the university’s AIChE student chapter. Now Yurttas and Ugaz oversee the course and serve as advisers to the student teams. The course aims to introduce students to all phases of engineering design early in their academic careers and is open to all students, freshmen to seniors.  Students use project management tools, learn issues of safety, reliability and environment, and recognize the importance of working in teams.

“For the past two years, the Chem-E-Car competitions have given students a sense of excitement and accomplishment, a feeling shared by both Dr. Ugaz and myself,” Yurttas said.

Ugaz agreed, underscoring the quality of the students’ work.

“Even knowing the quality of our students, it’s still surprising to see these teams develop such original ideas and then apply the skills they’re learning in class to a complex project like this,” Ugaz said.

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Feb. 21, 2008 - Community service can be hard to throw into the mix in between studying hard and making the grades.

However, a new program in the Dwight Look College of Engineering, “Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS),” provides Aggie engineering students with a chance to reach out to the community while still getting credit for class.

The Texas A&M course is ENGR 289/489 (depending on a student’s classification) and all engineering students are eligible. Students in the course will apply their engineering knowledge to two community service projects, Habitat for Humanity and Texas A&M University Recycling.

Spring 2008 is the first semester for the course at Texas A&M, though the first EPICS program in the nation started at Purdue University in 1995. Now, EPICS is at 15 universities with more than 1,000 participants.

The course itself focuses on interdisciplinary teams that will work together to conceptualize ideas to help Habitat for Humanity and Texas A&M Recycling. Students will also write reports and give presentations of their progress.Still, the course is designed with a “go out and explore” mentality to allow the students to be creative and have open minds, said course instructors Dr. Lale Yurttas of the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering and Dr. Andy Banerjee of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

Yurttas and Banerjee are guiding students through the course to demonstrate how learning in the classroom can be used to help solve real-world problems.

“EPICS can expose the community to engineering and what engineers are capable of doing,” Banerjee said.

The class is divided into two groups, one for each of the two service projects. Texas A&M graduate student and teaching assistant Grant Brammer oversees the student end of the class.

Yurrtas oversees the Habitat for Humanity projects in which students will aid in the design of Habitat for Humanity houses. From an engineer’s perspective, the students will look at how to make a house affordable and “green.” The students will investigate ways to make an environmentally sound and cost-efficient home that takes into account water use and waste as well as energy consumption. The student engineers will also help design water and energy systems.

Banerjee is heading the recycling, with the mission of “Aggies for a clean tomorrow.” Every week, Texas A&M recycles more than 15 tons of paper and cardboard, but even more is sent to landfills. In the class, students will look into how to help solve this discrepancy. The students will try to find a way to use their engineering knowledge to increase the amount recycled and attempt to improve the efficiency of the process and the project as a whole.

With the start of the spring semester, the EPICS teams are already well on their way to aid the community with their expertise and knowledge of engineering. Habitat for Humanity and the Texas A&M Recycling program will receive help from the new EPICS program, and the students say they are eager to help.

“It’s really cool to be a part of something that will actually have an impact on the university,” Brammer said.

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Story by Lauren E. Kern

Contact: Lale Yurttas at (979) 847-9316 or via email: yurttas@chemail.tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Feb. 19, 2008 - Prospective students interested in pursuing a chemical engineering education at Texas A&M University recently had the opportunity to learn all about the discipline and its far-reaching impact thanks to a university-wide event in which the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering opened its doors to high school and transfer students.

The event, known as “Aggieland Saturday,” is a campus-wide open house that attracts thousands of prospective students each year. Sponsored by the Office of Admissions and Records, Aggieland Saturday is aimed at informing these students and their families about the opportunities available at Texas A&M.

Those students specifically interested in chemical engineering received an up-close-and-personal look at the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering from several faculty members and undergraduates of the department.

Working together to showcase the department, the group performed a wide range of host activities, ranging from staffing an information table to conducting hourly tours of the department, its laboratories and the Jack E. Brown Building.

In addition, assistant professors James Silas and Victor Ugaz were on hand to deliver presentations designed to introduce students to the chemical engineering profession.

While on campus, students also had the opportunity to participate in several other tours and learn about admissions, financial aid, student services, student organizations and student traditions.

The chemical engineering event was organized by senior lecturers James Baldwin and Lale Yurttas. Baldwin is the department’s head for lower division programs, and Yurttas is assistant head for upper division programs.

Several officers from Texas A&M’s student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers assisted in the event, including undergraduates Simon Abramov, Daniel Arnold, Jennifer Christensen, Chris Ciesielski, Patrick Drew, Jason Galvan, Iana Iacob, Paul Koch, Neil Rodrigues and Pete Tijerina.

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