John Pappas, Director of the Wind Energy Center and Associate Director of EI, is reviving the Wind Energy Research Group (Wind ERG). The March 26th meeting was attended by faculty and graduate students from several departments - including ECEN, CVEN, AERO, PETE, STAT, CSEN, and ISEN - as well as from Texas A&M University at Galveston and the Texas Center for Applied Technology.

West Texas A&M University also attended and made a brief presentation to the group via TTVN about the Regional Wind Test Center and some of their ongoing wind energy projects. Four other presentations were made on a variety of topics, including airborne wind energy, energy storage flywheels, wind turbine reliability and maintenance, and floating offshore wind turbines. The meeting concluded with a discussion of the Department of Energy's recently released funding opportunity in offshore wind power.

If you're interested in learning more about our activities or to sign up for future correspondence about the Wind ERG, please contact Robyn Pearson (rlpearson@tamu.edu).

The Energy Institute will host an internal workshop October 3-4, 2012 at the Hilton College Station & Conference Center to bring together researchers at Texas A&M who have an interest in or are participating in energy research.

The purpose of the workshop will be to develop a more complete awareness and understanding by the Energy Institute and TAMU energy researchers of the current expertise, interests and resources related to energy research at TAMU; to increase the visibility and familiarity amongst researchers at TAMU engaged in energy-related work; to provide information and advice to the Texas A&M Energy Institute to help and guide it as it formulates blueprints and strategies to successfully pursue new interdisciplinary research in the energy sector in collaboration with the TAMU faculty and to create an atmosphere and a forum for the exchange of information and ideas that foster interdisciplinary research in the energy sector.

The workshop will include keynote speakers and overviews from each of the 10 colleges regarding expertise, resources, ongoing research, future direction and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration within the respective colleges. Panel discussions will focus on research highlights, communications and marketing and government relations.

Attendance is open to all TAMU faculty, staff and graduate students. Registration is required to attend the event. Information regarding event details and registration information will be available in May.

The Texas Center for Applied Technology (TCAT), a center within the Texas Engineering Experiment Station and a member of The Texas A&M University System has partnered with the City of San Antonio (CoSA), San Antonio Youth (SA Youth), San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD), CPS Energy, San Antonio Water Systems (SAWS), and Alamo Colleges, to create a multi-purpose sustainability and training center. As part of its Mission Verde Resolution, CoSA selected the former James Fenimore Cooper Middle School of the SAISD to serve as Mission Verde Center (MVC) @ Cooper, a multi-purpose sustainability and training center.

The center's objective's are 1) the accelerated development and deployment of existing and new renewable energy and sustainable water technologies; 2) creation of new business and job opportunities centered on renewable energy and sustainability; and 3) facilitation of private/public investment to build new economic generators driving job growth.

To read more about Mission Verde Center @ Cooper, follow this link.

The 2012 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference was held March 5-6 in Washington, D.C. Federal funding was the focus of the conference, with presentations made by staff affiliated with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the US Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research, as well as Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the US Department of Agriculture.

The two-day conference included sessions on trends in federal R&D funding, overviews of various agency funding trends and future directions for research, research opportunities with agencies, and more.

The presentations are available for downloading at http://www.asee.org/conferences-and-events/conferences/erc/2012/program-schedule/presentations.

Gulf Times 

Latest Update: Sunday 18/3/2012, March, 2012, 12:16 AM Doha Time 

Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) and ConocoPhillips Qatar have co-hosted the annual Qatar Process Safety Symposium titled: "The importance of leadership commitment in making safety a core value".
 

The event, attended by more than 100 participants from Qatar and abroad, featured some 18 speakers presenting on topics including incident case studies, best practices in process safety, research on process safety, incident investigations and safety success stories. 
 

Chemical engineering assistant professor and symposium's organising committee chair Dr Luc N Véchotof said: "The Qatar Process Safety Symposium is a wonderful opportunity for representatives from industry, academia and regulatory institutions in Qatar to exchange ideas about process safety, an important part of Qatar's industrial and social development." 

To read more, click here.