G.R.A.D.E. Camp Introduces Engineering to a New Generation of Girls

The University of Houston’s Cullen College of Engineering is attacking the gender disparity in the engineering industry head-on with several STEM outreach initiatives. One of these is G.R.A.D.E. Camp: Girls Reaching and Demonstrating Excellence. G.R.A.D.E. Camp is held every summer at the college for area girls entering the 8th through 12th grade in the fall. Campers are introduced to basic engineering concepts like robotics and electronics through hands-on experiments and team building exercises. The culmination of their experience is building a robot that follows a track through a maze, which they display on the last day of camp to an audience of family and friends. Read more.

News

Civil & Environmental Engineering Researcher Wins NASA’s New Investigator Award
Hyongki Lee, assistant professor in the Cullen College’s department of civil and environmental engineering, won NASA’s New (Early Career) Investigator Award in Earth Science. Out of over 130 proposals submitted to the New Investigator Program (NIP), only 21 were selected — two of which were from the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering. The New Investigator Program was established by NASA in 1996 to support outstanding scientific research and career development of scientists and engineers at the early stages of their professional careers. Read more.

$1.5M Grant Will Help UH Re-Think ‘Gateway’ Math, Science Classes
The University of Houston has received a $1.5 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to help solve a national shortage in the number of Americans with college degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The money is to be used to find new ways to encourage students who enroll in classes such as chemistry, biology, physics and math during their freshman year or after transferring from a community college to stay the course, despite the difficulty many may encounter. Read more.

ECE Ph.D. Student Expands Research to Cover Cross-Eyed Monkeys
If you think computer engineering, Rhesus monkeys and optometry have nothing in common, think again: they have Mehmet Agaoglu. Agaoglu is a Ph.D. student in the electrical and computer engineering department of the Cullen College of Engineering who is researching strabismus (the disease which causes humans to go cross-eyed) in Rhesus monkeys at the College of Optometry — and now, his research is getting noticed on a national level. Read more.

Shell Engineering Retirees Give Endowment to PROMES Program at 40th Anniversary Party
One little known fact about the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering’s PROMES program (Program for Mastery in Engineering Studies) is that the program’s year-to-year funding has relied largely on the generous donations of corporate sponsors and Cullen College alumni. Since the 1980’s, one small group of donors in particular — 10 Shell retirees — has significantly impacted the lives of a number of PROMES students by providing financial assistance to help them complete their engineering education. Now, the same Shell retirees who were early supporters of PROMES are providing an endowment to the program so that their legacy of support for PROMES students will continue to live on long after they are gone. Read more.

ECE Student Wins Outstanding Honors Thesis Award
Ramon Montano, now an alumnus of the UH Cullen College of Engineering with a degree in electrical engineering, was honored with the Outstanding Honors Thesis award by Dean Joseph Tedesco last May for his work with transparent antennas for cube satellites. The award, a new initiative from the Dean’s office, is in its pioneer year with Montano being the first recipient. Read more.

Subsea Engineering Program Bridges Gap Between Elementary School and College with ‘Passport to UH’
Classes may be over for the summer at UH, but that didn’t stop a group of burgeoning young scientists from getting their hands dirty around the Cullen College last week. A class of 40 fourth graders from Memorial Elementary was hosted by the Cullen College’s subsea engineering program for a tour of the engineering complex as well as other exciting UH landmarks, including lunch at the cougar baseball field. Read more.

PHOTOS: 2014 Engineering Alumni Association Awards Gala
The Engineering Alumni Association (EAA) held its annual Alumni Awards Gala on June 12 at the Houston Petroleum Club. The event is held every year in honor of several Cullen College alumni and faculty who are awarded for their achievements in the engineering industry. In addition, proceeds from the event are used by the EAA to help further the goals of the Cullen College and its students. To see photos from this year’s gala, click here.