Researchers Win $500k Grant to Write Structural Material Design Specs

Before structural engineers can include composite materials in roads and bridges, design guidelines and specifications that outline how their use in infrastructure must be written. That’s the task Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering DJ Belarbi and his colleagues, assistant professors Mina Dawood and Bora Gencturk, have taken up. The team is developing design guidelines and specifications for the use of prestressed carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) in the construction of new bridges. To conduct this work, they recently won a three-year, $500,000 grant from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, a group administered by the National Academy of Sciences and voluntarily funded by state transportation boards.
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Computer-aided Engineering for Oil and Gas Production: Research Could Revolutionize Industry
Mike Nikolaou, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering with the Cullen College, is using the superior ability of computers to balance different variables in order to improve the efficiency and safety of petroleum retrieval. His research has proven to be so vital, in fact, that his article “Computer-aided process engineering in oil and gas production,” which was published this year in the journal Computers & Chemical Engineering, was one of the most downloaded articles on the journal’s website. Read More

TcSUH Scholarship Connects Students with Biomedical Sciences
When Dhivya Ketharnath was in high school, she knew she wanted to be an engineer, but she never would have predicted she would be conducting nanoparticle research for cancer therapy applications inside some of the finest biomedical laboratory facilities the city of Houston’s medical center has to offer. Now, thanks to a grant from The Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH), along with UH’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the Cullen College of Engineering, Dhivya will continue pursuing her Ph.D. in electrical engineering with a $2,500 stipend to continue her research within the TcSUH laboratories. Read More

Rifai Named “Environmental Professional of the Year”
Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Hanadi Rifai has been named the Environmental Professional of the Year by the Texas Association of Environmental Professionals. Rifai is widely respected in the civil and environmental engineering communities. She has identified several major sources of water pollution in the Houston region and the Houston Ship Channel, including one location that was named a Superfund cleanup site by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. In 2012, she received a $500,000 grant renewal from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to expand her work into open areas of Galveston Bay. In addition, she was named a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2012 and has served as editor-in-chief of Bioremediation Journal since 2002. Read More

Videos: Why Should You Invest In A New Engineering Building For The Cullen College?
The UH Cullen College of Engineering has grown tremendously in recent years, with research expenditures and enrollment at or near all-time highs. We must keep this momentum going, but in order to do so, we must first expand our facilities. We are long overdue for a new, state-of-the-art engineering research and academic facility. To address this critical need and to ensure that the forward-momentum of the college continues, we must build the Multidisciplinary Research and Engineering Building, or MREB. The proposed four-story, 120,000 gross-square-foot facility will support both academic and research programs within the college. Read More

Catalysis Research Gest a Boost through Joint U.S./Israel Grant
It’s not unusual for scientists to take their cues from nature. In fact, Jeff Rimer is building much of his career on such cues. Rimer, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, is an expert in the field of crystallization. The processes behind crystal growth and formation impact everything from drug development to chemical synthesis to medical diseases such as kidney stones and malaria. One of the primary efforts of Rimer’s lab involves a class of crystals known as zeolites. These are widely used by the chemical and petrochemical sector as catalysts, which initiate or speed up chemical reactions. Read More