UTA ENGINEER
VOLUME VII / 2018
Medical
Maintenance
UTA researchers are applying
insights from engineering
to improve medical training,
increase patient safety, and
ensure quality of care for all.
The newly opened
Science & Engineering
C ON T E N T S
Innovation & Research
building on the UTA
campus creates a Volume VII / 2018
collaborative space
where researchers
from the colleges of
engineering, science,
and nursing and
health innovation can
push the boundaries
of knowledge.
12
UTA civil
engineering
professors were
there before and after
Hurricane Harvey to
help cities weather the
storm—and prepare
for the next one.
DE PA R T M E N T S
02 Dispatch Engineering
03 Lab Notes Health Care
16
04 Faculty Researchers from
06 Research the Department
of Industrial,
08 Classroom Manufacturing, and
20 Beyond the Lab Systems Engineering
22 Class Notes are helping make
health care safer and
24 Re-Engineered 10 In Depth more efficient.
ii THE UNI V ERSIT Y OF TE X A S AT A RLINGTON COVER ILLUSTRATION BY ROY SCOTT/SCIENCE SOURCE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING 1
DISPATcH
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
dean
LAB
NOTES
Peter E. Crouch
s e n i o r a s s o c i at e d e a n
f o r a c a d e m i c a f fa i r s
Lynn Peterson
Encouraging a s s o c i at e d e a n f o r
g r a d u at e a f fa i r s
Erick Jones
Innovation a s s o c i at e d e a n f o r r e s e a r c h
Anand Puppala
C
a s s i s ta n t d e a n f o r
reativity and innovation are prized s t u d e n t a f fa i r s
J. Carter Tiernan
concepts in the field of engineering.
senior direc tor
Many of our students—and indeed, o f c o m m u n i c at i o n s
and marketing
many of you—are engineers because they Jeremy Agor
have a natural curiosity and desire to find direc tor of
New
solutions to problems, make life easier, or marketing services Endowed
just experiment and analyze the results.
Tracey Faulkinbury Chair
Through a gift from
As a College of Engineering, an integral DIVISION OF INSTITUTIONAL local couple Mike
part of our mission is to help our students ADVANCEMENT and Sunny Dolabi,
UTA has established
vice president the Mike and Sunny
learn how to be innovators and encourage Deborah (Dee) J. Robinson Dolabi Endowed
their creativity. Many of our faculty, stu- editorial direc tor Chair to promote
research, innovation,
dents, and alumni are entrepreneurs, and we Jessica Bridges
and the development
are putting in place mechanisms to encour- designer of best practices in
Brody Price the areas of business
age more to make that leap. logistics, supply
contributor chain management,
The College hosted its inaugural Innovation Day in April. More than 160 Herb Booth systems engineer- UTA's Formula
ing, and operations SAE team
graduate and undergraduate students presented over 90 projects throughout raced its 1998
management. The
the day, including 42 Research Experience for Undergraduates projects fund- endowed chair will competition car at
be used to recruit a an international
ed by the College, 15 senior design projects, and dozens by graduate students. renowned professor event in England.
I also had the pleasure of attending several departments’ senior design who will strengthen
UTA Engineer is published
T
Reproduction in whole or part “As local business
without written permission owners, we are
quality of our students and the education they receive at UTA. is prohibited. The comments always looking for wenty years after winning its first inter- they split with two wins apiece. Despite its age, the
From a University standpoint, the new Science & Engineering Innovation and opinions expressed in this ways to enhance our
magazine do not necessarily business operations, national championship, UTA’s Formu- car also registered several head-turning runs on the
& Research building is bringing with it opportunities for faculty pursuing represent those of The Univer- and UTA’s contin- la SAE team returned to the site of the track, and alumnus driver Ken Hassler won the Most
sity of Texas at Arlington or the ued excellence in
interdisciplinary research in the health care field, including several from en- staff of UTA Engineer. Copyright victory, England. The milestone, which Entertaining Driver award. The 2018 car finished
both business and
gineering, to collaborate in making advancements in the fight against cancer, 2018, The University of Texas at fell in July, coincided eighth of 100 teams.
“The organizers were
engineering makes
Arlington. UTA does not dis- it an ideal place to with the 20th anniversary of the Being invited back to drive the
heart disease, and other public health issues. criminate on the basis of race,
stunned that we had
combine fields that Formula Student United Kingdom 1998 car was an experience of a
color, national origin, religion, will have a far-reach-
In this issue of UTA Engineer, you’ll read about innovations by faculty in age, gender, sexual orientation, competition. lifetime, Hassler says. “The ’98
the original car. We
ing impact,” says Mike
the Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Department, as well disabilities, genetic information, Dolabi, who studied The event’s previous 20 win- car is very special because it’s
and/or veteran status in the edu-
gave them a taste of
electrical engineering ners were invited to the anniver- one of the first where we were
as how faculty from the Civil Engineering Department took leadership roles cational programs or activities at UTA and is now the
it operates. For more info, visit sary celebration at Silverstone starting to master handling and
what the technology
in helping communities plan for and respond to Hurricane Harvey. Our inno- president and owner
uta.edu/eos. For info regarding of National Autobody Circuit racetrack. UTA brought it had a unique 4-cylinder engine
vative spirit exemplifies outside-the-box thinking! Title IX, visit uta.edu/titleix.
was like back then.”
Parts Warehouse. the 1998 competition car, three package that could hit 19,000
College of Engineering “We are confident this
UTA Box 19019 chair-holder will not members from that team, and rpm. Unlike the European teams,
Arlington, TX 76019 only change the way the 2018 car and team for several days of racing and we actually keep our cars every year and drive them.
we do business, but
Peter E. Crouch 817-272-3682 memories. The organizers were stunned that we had the original
will also revolution-
agor@uta.edu ize how we look at The 1998 car participated in four drag races car. We gave them a taste of what the technology was
DE A N, C OL L E G E OF E N GI N E E R I N G uta.edu/engineering industry.” against last year’s winner, Cardiff University, which like back then.”
H
master’s degrees from Oklahoma
State University.
anli liu, an expert in brain imaging and professor in the Bio-
Higher-Speed Internet
conditions that could then be duce the time of on-site training
treated with gene therapy.” or retraining of workers, as well
as prevent workplace accidents.
A
“iWork will produce personal-
ized, low-cost vocational training n article published by electrical engineering Professor
Preparing
solutions that have huge econom-
Michael Vasilyev in Nature Communications detailed an exper-
ic and societal impacts,” Make-
a Beating
and construct a his master’s degree, are assisting cognitive skills, including at- non-destructive methods and will
4D beating heart. on the project. tention and task awareness; the determine the true load capac-
12
the heart. “Making safer structures makes
NUMBER WISE
He is using a two-year, transportation safer and benefits
$154,000 Institutional Research
Grant from the American Heart
U.S. patents the community,” Dr. Yazdani
says. “If a bridge suffers a cat-
Association to develop a new mi-
croscope that can capture 3D mo-
issued to College astrophic failure, there’s a huge
cost in terms of social, financial,
tion, then add time to construct
a 4D beating heart using optical
faculty in 2017 and time losses, so anything we
can do to make it easier to inspect
imaging techniques with fluores- bridges and quickly address is-
cent nanoparticles in a zebrafish. sues beforehand is important.”
Designed to
neering. This passion recently UTA.
was rewarded when she was NUMBER WISE “I feel like UTA has prepared
S
universal design, or designing for the quality of their work. It was
a wide range of bodies and abili- also gratifying to see the excite-
enior Justin Hawthorne isn’t your average engineering student. ties,” says Sarah Rose, director of ment with which they present-
He is a motivational speaker, runs a clothing drive in Dallas called the disability studies minor. ed their research to guests and
Computer science and engi- judges. The support of our many
Clothing the Homeless, and spent last year in a professional neering Professor Ishfaq Ahmad sponsors—both financially and
internship with the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing, and Engineering is principal investigator on the in their presence at the event—
grant. was very much appreciated. I
Services teams at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida—all while pursuing hope that these interactions will
dual majors in mechanical and aerospace engineering. “I contributed to further strengthen our ties to
industry in the future.”
several projects at Disney World, including installing domestic water lines
Student’s
Judges rated the posters and
so cast members could easily access drinking water,” Hawthorne says. “I projects throughout the day and
was hired in part because of my experience using SolidWorks and Auto- Commitment chose winners in each category,
plus L3/Link Innovation Awards
CAD, which I learned in MAE 1351. I made the most of this opportunity, and Rewarded for one undergraduate and one
graduate project. The awards for
I can’t thank Carole Coleman in the College’s Internship and Co-Op Office Ever since she was a preteen in the inaugural Dean’s Freshman
enough for helping me realize this dream.” middle school, Maria Frias knew Challenge were also presented.
Making
Health Care
Smarter
R
adio frequency iden-
tification (RFID) was
Smart Scarf
originally conceived
RFID sensors in a
for use in supply chain
scarf or hat allow
management to allow doctors to monitor
companies to inventory warehouses Embedded EEGs unobtrusively
more efficiently. But the technolo- Microchip and determine
Patients could be if women’s post-
gy has subsequently proven useful
responsible for Smart Sheet
in hundreds of applications. Now, partum sleep
their own health Hospital bedsheets
patterns are harmful.
UTA’s RAID (RFID and AutoID) Lab are embedded with
records by using RFID
is applying it to health care. technology to scan a RFID sensors to
Erick Jones, RAID Lab director, microchip embedded ensure that they are
associate dean in the College of in their body. clean and to monitor
how often nurses
Engineering, and a professor in the
turn the patient.
Industrial, Manufacturing, and Sys-
tems Engineering Department, has
explored using the technology to
prevent surgeons from accidentally
leaving medical sponges and med-
ical devices inside patients, to track
patient movement and medication
usage, and to perform brain scans
unobtrusively. He is also investigat-
ing how to use electrical impulses Detection &
from RFID sensors to stimulate Tracking of
tissue growth. Patients
RFID is often preferable to build- RFID chips could be
ing unique, traditional sensors for embedded into a
each product because economies patient’s clothing or
a hospital wristband
of scale make it difficult to broadly
to track movement
implement the latter without cost
in a room, such Smart Surgical
becoming an issue. In contrast, Smart Pill as falling out of Glove & Smart
RFID allows engineers to get their Pills are equipped bed or walking to Sponge
products to the market and helping with RFID technology the bathroom. An RFID sensor in
patients faster. to track whether the sponge is easily
and when patients detected by RFID
“We have created a wide range
are taking their sensors in the glove,
of products with health care ap-
medications. making it simple to
plications,” Dr. Jones says. “This
locate and remove
technology is a good fit for use in the sponge without
health care because it can be incor- unnecessarily
porated into items that will be used moving organs.
inside the body or to ensure higher
standards of patient care.”
O
began developing a radar-based flood
warning system for the university and
n August 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made Houston’s Texas Medical Center. In
landfall on the Texas coast. The Category 4 the decade since, he has expanded and
refined his system, in part by collecting
storm swirled above South Texas, moving data on Brays Bayou during the state’s
previous worst flooding events.
inland and dropping more than 4 feet of rain. When As Hurricane Harvey approached
Houston, officials from Rice and Texas
the skies finally cleared and the water receded, the Medical Center called on Fang and his
region was left with $125 billion in damage and a radar to provide inundation updates for
Brays Bayou, the Rice campus, and Texas
long recovery. Medical Center based on the estimat-
e r
Engineering Innovation & Research
e
building this fall, The University of
a
Texas at Arlington is embarking on a new era in
n C
health science research. Faculty from the College
i
of Engineering are helping lead the way.
g
In addition to making headline-grabbing
h
breakthroughs in cancer, brain trauma, and car-
n t
dio-pulmonary disease, College of Engineering
E eal
researchers are looking at the health care indus-
try itself, analyzing the delivery of care, moni-
toring of patients, and training of professionals
to increase quality and efficiency of treatment for
everyone.
ity,
H
ial, al
str eq
u Training Medical Students
indu ve th ers. Department of Industrial, Manufacturing, and
om ro id
ht s fr o imp p rov Systems Engineering (IMSE) Chair Paul Com-
ig t d
ing nts an
ponation and Associate Professor Susan Ferreira
g ins e r have worked with UT Southwestern (UTSW)
yin ine tie
appl s eng or pa Medical Center since 2015 to present a patient
rs are stem care f safety and quality improvement “boot camp” for
information
improvements to health care delivery, including In recent years, the National Science Foun- the average behavior of to readmission rates, where patients
patient safety and cost,” he continues. “It also dation and National Institutes of Health have such a complex system might have reoccurrences of the
allows students to better understand the health
care system and see firsthand how the concepts
increasingly focused on personalized medicine.
Kan believes that if researchers have data on pa-
from the behaviors of in-
dividuals at a micro-lev-
from the data issues they had surgery for in the first
place. Additionally, it could poten-
they are recommending fit into it.” tients over an extended period, they can develop el,” Zhou explains. “The for disease tially be used on a doctor’s social
Dr. Ferreira has worked with UTSW on stan- a baseline for what is normal for each patient, information we collect is network: He or she might practice
dardizing a health care procedure across mul- allowing them to quickly detect anomalies and very rich and enables us diagnosis?” at multiple hospitals, and the nature
tiple departments. Her team was responsible provide personalized therapies. to create a high-fidelity of the affiliation and the resources
for creating educator curriculum and training “There are many challenges related to IoT- representation of the underlying system in reality. available could affect his or her performance.
modules for students in UTSW’s new simulation based cardiac care and I focus on addressing We will be able to design computer experiments Although Zhou is focusing on cardiac surgeons,
center, which provides state-of-the-art devices the challenge of big data analytics,” he says. to simulate how the disease is introduced and her research could also be generalized to emer-
medical students can practice on before seeing “Longterm monitoring of a single patient gener- propagated, and then use the model to detect, gency room trauma surgeons or military doctors
live patients. ates large amounts of data, and IoT aims to con- monitor, and report incidences of influenza.” in war zones who deal with catastrophic inju-
“We helped the team put together a standard- nect tens of thousands of people. The question Zhou is also working with colleagues in UTA’s ries on a regular basis and might be negatively
ized process and training curriculum. This is is how can we efficiently and effectively extract College of Business to use data analytics to deter- affected. ₪
Recognized for
it easier to continuously monitor
aging individuals’ health regard-
Get Involved
Achievement less of which system they use. He in Alumni
Chapters
will then improve the design of
James Narey (’00 B.S., Electri- adaptive interventions for elderly
cal Engineering; ’10 M.B.A.) was people and their caregivers. Alumni involvement is crucial
honored with the Professional “When I was a student work- to the College of Engineering for
Technical Achievement award at ing until the wee hours of the industry relationships, mentor-
the Hispanic Engineer National morning in my research lab, the ing, networking, and many other
Achievement Awards Conference GTA office, or the computer lab, I reasons.
Alumna Monica in October 2017. The award rec- never imagined that I might win
Hew studied The Fort Worth alumni chapter
altitude sickness at ognizes his experience in research, a CAREER Award one day,” Roy has been meeting since late 2017
the German Space management, and community says. “Loving research, making and members have participated
Center in Cologne. outreach with Lockheed Martin work the first priority, aiming for in events like E-Week and Inno-
Aeronautics in Fort Worth. high-quality publications, and vation Day and passed out alum-
Narey is a technical sub- above all being a good student, ni license plate frames to new
ject matter expert on a product friend, colleague, and adviser paid graduates at commencement. The
development team that designs, off!” chapter has also hosted several
develops, and tests electric power get-togethers with speakers and
generation, conversion, distri- networking opportunities.
bution, and advanced battery The Dallas alumni chapter held
Feghali
technologies for use on the F-22, an organizational meeting in
F-16, T-50, and F-35 aircraft February and is seeking members
programs.
“It is an honor to have received Cultivates who wish to be involved.
If you are interested in becom-
this award,” he says. “Diversity
powers the innovation engine.
Burning Desire ing involved with the Dallas or
Fort Worth College of Engineering
Embrace it and encourage some- Andrew Feghali (’12 B.S., Mechan-
alumni chapters, or if you’d like to
one new to pursue their own ical Engineering; ’16 M.B.A.) be-
start a chapter in your city, please
destiny through a future STEM came an entrepreneur at a young
contact J. G. McLaughlin, director
career based on accountability, age—in middle school, he started
of development, at 817-272-5216
trust, and happiness.” a lawn service and hired neigh-
or MJGM@uta.edu.
borhood children to work for him.
Over the years he has honed that James Narey (top)
innovative spirit and, after gradu- and Nirmalya
Roy were both
ating from UTA, built a successful
Alum Wins
SPOTLIGHT recently honored
fire testing company. NUMBER WISE for their work.
A
s an undergraduate, Monica Hew (’13 B.S., Aerospace Engi-
Award States that performs burn tests on
interior components for aircraft.
Nirmalya Roy (’08 Ph.D., ’04 “I wanted to be in business
neering) focused on her goal of someday flying in space. Now as M.S., Computer Science and En- for myself, but I really enjoy the
gineering), an assistant professor engineering side,” Feghali says.
a doctoral student at Stanford University, she recently spent six of information systems at the “I’m using the engineering skills I
months at the German Space Center in Cologne studying tissue swelling University of Maryland–Baltimore developed at UTA daily as I build
County, earned a prestigious my company.”
developed in oxygen-deprived environments. She designed and built a National Science Foundation Early Last spring, he worked with undergraduate students
machine to handle an ultrasound probe, hiked 15,000 feet up a moun- Career Development Program
(CAREER) Award.
a UTA mechanical engineering
senior design team to help him
were named to the
tain to run experiments on altitude sickness, then developed a software Dr. Roy will work to design, develop and design equipment to spring 2018 Dean’s List
program to analyze the results. “Engineering is very enabling,” Hew says. implement, and evaluate smart simulate aircraft panels in flight
home sensor systems such as for burn testing.
“UTA gave me a good set of skills, which I used to build equipment, design Amazon Echo or Google Home—
software, and run experiments in an extreme environment.” along with Internet of Things
T
ing) is the information Anurag P. Lakhlani (M.S., Aerospace Engineering Depart-
and communications Electrical Engineering) ment and director of the Center hrough a gift from entrepreneur and businessman Paul
technology adviser made his publishing for Composite Materials. He
to Bangladesh Presi- debut with the release worked at UTA since 1988, serving E. Andrews Jr., UTA has established the Dr. Bob Woods Chair in
dent Sheikh Hasina. of Manage Your Mind, as associate chair of the depart- Automotive Engineering to promote research, innovation, and
a self-help book that ment from 2002-03, followed by
1999 teaches readers how a year as interim chair. He was a the development of best practices in automotive engineering and
Kevin Le (B.S., ’01 they can develop ef- Fellow of the American Society design, mechanical engineering, and the Formula SAE racing team.
M.A., ’05 Ph.D., Electri- fective skills to manage of Mechanical Engineers and the
cal Engineering) runs stress in everyday life. new tenure or American Society for Composites. The chair honors longtime FSAE adviser and Professor Bob Woods.
tenure-track faculty
Luraco Massage Chairs
“Bob has always encouraged innovation and ingenuity,” says Andrews.
with fellow alum Tom 2004 Have an item for Class Notes?
Le. He also helped Jason Treadway (M.S., since 2016 Email agor@uta.edu for possible
inclusion in the next issue.
“UTA’s Formula SAE team is the gold standard of collegiate racing, and
invent Magna Jet, which Materials Science and
Bob has been the heart and soul of the program for more than 30
circulates water in Engineering) was named
pedicure basins via air. director of the Dallas years. I am happy to recognize him by endowing a chair in his honor.”
MAVERICKS
T
industrial engineering can be
oday, when most people want sell from them face difficulties in applied to small-scale distribu-
expanding their businesses, which tion, such as backhauling, vehicle
fruits or vegetables, all they have routing, quality management,
can negate those earnings.
to do is run to the grocery store. “Knowing where your food and scheduling,” Dr. Krejci says.
comes from matters to ensure that “For example, we have helped
But what if they only want to buy develop an inventory tracking app
food production and distribution
from a seller who knows where and systems are safe, equitable, and for farmers and food-hub man-
healthy,” says Assistant Professor agers that facilitates collabora-
how that produce was grown? Alter- tion and information-sharing for
Caroline Krejci, who is applying
natives can often be hard to find. industrial engineering and logis- greater logistics efficiency. To be
tics techniques to help farmers a responsible citizen, it’s import-
Local farmers markets or road- deliver their products to consum- ant to be aware of how your food
choices can promote longterm
side food stands may be a solution,
but—despite earning better profit
ers more efficiently through food
hubs, which are values-based sustainability, where everyone in giving.uta.edu
margins—the small farmers who organizations that are concerned the supply chain benefits.”
C A M P U S U P DAT E
H
ands-on learning is a valuable part of and manufacturing equipment and teach them
an engineering education. When students to use it. “I hope having these spaces gets more
are trained to build their own prototypes students involved in hands-on projects,” says Rob
for testing and production, they are better pre- Taylor, a professor-in-practice in the Mechanical
pared to understand how to design for manufac- and Aerospace Engineering Department. “In addi-
turing, thus saving time and money. That’s why the tion to building useful skills, using this equipment
College of Engineering has created three maker enables students to apply principles learned in the
spaces on campus to give students access to tools classroom to help them become better engineers.”