When it comes to success in engineering studies, the data is clear: the better students do in their first-year core classes, the higher the chances that they will complete their engineering degrees.

Excellence in engineering took center stage as Joseph W. Tedesco, Elizabeth D. Rockwell Dean of the Cullen College, recognized the outstanding performances of faculty, staff and students in teaching, research and service at the spring faculty and staff meeting.

Three days a week Konrad Krakowiak, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, stands before 13 students that make up his Cullen College engineering materials course to talk about concrete. Eighteen-hundred miles away, at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Professor Franz-Josef Ulm does the same thing, teaching the same course to his six students.

Neurological disorders like Parkinson’s, the aftermath of stroke, limb loss and paralysis significantly diminish the length and quality of life – affecting about one in six people worldwide. But a growing number of biomedical innovations, driven in large part by an aging population dealing with debilitating health issues, are improving both cognitive and motor function.

Just yesterday it seemed to be an empty office space you probably ignored as you walked off the elevator on the third floor of the Cullen College of Engineering Building Two. What a difference a day – and the Engineering Career Services Center – can make.

As one of the pioneering instructors in the subsea engineering program, Phaneendra Kondapi is a familiar name at the UH Cullen College of Engineering. Now Kondapi is forging new paths at the college once again, this time as the founding director of engineering programs in Katy, Texas.

When it comes to clean water, Yandi Hu and Debora Rodrigues have a thirst for it. Hu, UH assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, works with Flint, Michigan on their water crisis and conducts research on reducing lead release in water lines. Rodrigues, UH associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, helps improve global access to clean water with a nano-sized technology that can weed out metals and microorganisms from drinking sources.

Imagine an electronic “tattoo” on your skin that could continuously monitor your health, or tiny, biocompatible sensors that could treat a traumatic brain injury at the site. It may seem like science fiction, or at least a dream of a very distant future – but as John Rogers of Northwestern University explained to the UH community last week, these are both current examples of biocompatible devices that can integrate with the human body.

Approximately 120 Houston high school students blasted onto the UH campus to launch into engineering! The 5th annual “Launch into Engineering” is a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) outreach event to attract college-bound students to the STEM fields.