UH alumnus William A. Brookshire, Ph.D. (BSChE '57), co-founder and chairman of the board of S&B Engineers and Constructors, died on April 21, 2017.

Joseph Tedesco, Elizabeth D. Rockwell Dean of the Cullen College of Engineering said, “Dr. Brookshire was a fine gentleman and one of our great philanthropists, always in search of new ways to help students and professors. We will forever feel his generosity and his loss in equal measures.”

If there’s one thing Yan Yao gets a charge out of, it’s the idea of creating a better battery. The Cullen College assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering is known for being the most current in the battery industry. A Google search yields more than 16,000 citations of papers by Yao.

The University of Houston-Materials Research Society Chapter (UH-MRS) hosted its first student symposium in the main lobby of engineering building 1. At the symposium students presented their work to an esteemed crowd of professional members across various engineering and science disciplines at UH. The 40 presenters came from different departments including chemistry, physics; and chemical, mechanical, materials and electrical engineering.

UH-MRS winners are:

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.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) student chapter at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering (IEEE-UH) received high honors at the 2017 IEEE Region 5 Annual Conference and Student Competitions held in Denver, Colorado this April.

A group of girls cheer ecstatically as they drop their carefully-engineered egg crate from a balcony of the UH Engineering building. It hits the ground with a thud and another cheer explodes as the girls discover their egg remains intact inside. Nearby, a young girl beams intently at a robot as it scoots across a tabletop and performs tasks, too enthralled to notice the excited screams of a successful egg drop.

The Cullen College played host to the 3rd Women in Engineering spring event on March 8. The free event was funded by alumna Cynthia Oliver Coleman, P.E. (BSChE ’71).

The event took place at the UH Hilton and included female engineering students, faculty and alumnae. Aside from networking, those in attendance were inducted into the Women in Red Movement, which will serve as a registry of female students and alumnae to serve as mentors for one another. 

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.

Significant Figures: A reflection on the film ‘Hidden Figures’ by an engineering student who hides her figure