Researchers to develop, test large wind turbine blades for offshore use

Efforts by the University of Houston to become a national leader in offshore wind technology received a huge boost from the U.S. Department of Energy, which recently awarded university researchers $2.3 million to establish a testing facility.

Wallace “Wally” Anderson, a former University of Houston department chair, died Tuesday in Galveston as a result of complications following a fall. He was 87.

During his 39 years with UH, Anderson was instrumental in growing the UH Cullen College of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. As the former chair, he not only helped increased the number of faculty, but also the amount of research being conducted within the department.

In support of the University of Houston’s expanding petroleum engineering program, the Society of Petroleum Engineers Gulf Coast Section has committed $250,000 to establish a professorship.

The first of its kind for the program, the SPE-Gulf Coast Section College Endowed Professorship in Petroleum Engineering will support efforts to broaden course offerings, enhance community outreach and spearhead new research by a Cullen College of Engineering faculty member.

The University of Houston has named Joseph W. Tedesco the sixth dean of the Cullen College of Engineering, effective Jan. 1, 2008.

The Department of Energy has selected the University of Houston-led Lone Star Wind Alliance as a partner in the development of one of the nation’s first facilities for developing and testing large-scale wind turbine blades to be utilized for offshore wind generation.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison toured wind-related research labs at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering before holding a press conference Tuesday to announce new renewable energy legislation and to commend a UH-led effort to bring the Department of Energy’s Large Wind Turbine Testing Facility to Texas.

Cullen College distinguished alum John Duty (1969 BSME), executive vice president of Bechtel Oil Gas & Chemicals, Inc., presented a gift to the college on behalf of the Bechtel Group Foundation to provide scholarship support for several of the college’s diversified programs and organizations, including University of Houston student chapter of The Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists (MAES).

BP representative Gabe Cuadra (1988 BSChE) presents a check to UH Cullen College of Engineering Dean Raymond Flumerfelt and Vita Como, director of the Engineering Career Center. The gift will support the Program for Mastery in Engineering Studies (PROMES), equipment purchases in the chemical and mechanical engineering departments and the UH student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Approximately 40 graduate students in the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering's electrical and computer engineering department (ECE) presented their work at the department’s first Graduate Research Conference held recently at the Texas Learning and Computation Center, more commonly known as “TLC2” (pronounced TLC-squared) in the Phillip Guthrie Hoffman building. Seventy-eight people attended the internal conference, including 51 graduate students and 27 faculty members.