Ground broken for Large-Scale Structural Testing Facility on West Campus

Ground was broken in September for the Large-Scale Structural Testing Facility which will be located on the far-north portion of Barshop Boulevard, adjacent to Residential Lot 4, on West Campus.

At 15,000 square feet, the Large-Scale Structural Testing Facility is the largest institutional project, fully managed in-house, in UTSA history. Significant in many ways, the building will be a game changer for the College of Engineering’s civil and structural engineering research and will have implications locally, regionally, and internationally.

The Large-Scale Structural Testing Facility will have a 40x80-foot reaction floor with a clearance of 40 feet, providing researchers the ability to test real-size structural systems and components. The reaction floor will have a thickness of at least 3 feet, with a service chase and 3-foot-thick walls underneath, conforming a reaction system with the capacity to apply test loads of up to 2 million pounds over the entire testing area. A thicker region of the floor will be rated for test loads of up to 4 million pounds, giving UTSA a capability unique in the U.S. for testing large-scale systems and components with spans of up to 70 feet. The laboratory will have dual cranes with 30-ton capacity to load, unload, and transport heavy specimens.

The laboratory will have a large-capacity hydraulic power supply (HPS) and high-pressure distribution lines with access manifolds in the service chase that will facilitate the use of servo-controlled actuators anywhere in the test floor. The HPS and distribution system will provide the ability to induce large loads at very high deformation rates, allowing researchers to simulate a wide range of problems including high cycle fatigue, earthquake, and blast loads.

The structural testing area will be complemented with support areas for fabrication and instrumentation of specimens, offices for students, faculty, and staff, and a conference room where visitors will be able to observe tests being performed in the lab.

COE faculty earn tenure and promotion

In the fall of 2017, UTSA announced the promotion of six faculty members in the College of Engineering. The promotions were approved by the UT System Board of Regents in August and became effective Sept. 1.

“Our faculty play a crucial role not only in the classroom, but also in the development of innovative research,” said JoAnn Browning, dean of the College of Engineering and the David and Jennifer Spencer Distinguished Chair. “I am extremely proud of all our faculty members who have reached this next step in their career here at UTSA.”

Krystel Castillo, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Xiaowei Zeng, Department of Mechanical Engineering, have been promoted to associate professor with tenure. Tenure is granted to faculty who have established a high standard of excellence in the classroom and have distinguished themselves through research and scholarship, as well in service to the community and the university.

The Department of Biomedical Engineering’s Jing Yong Ye and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Samer Dessouky, Heather Shipley, and Firat Testik have all been promoted to full professor with tenure in recognition of the sustained academic and civic impact they have made on the university and their students.

UTSA ranks among nation’s top minority-serving institutions for federal science and engineering expenditures

UTSA ranks No. 7 among the minority-serving institutions in the nation that received the most federal research obligations (expenditures) for science and engineering, according to data released in the fall of 2017 by the National Science Foundation regarding fiscal year 2015.

In FY 2015, UTSA expended $23.3 million in federal funding to support its sponsored projects, an increase from the $20.9 million it expended in FY 2014. Of that, $21.5 million of FY15 federal expenditures were for R&D initiatives, which supported top-tier research in cloud-computing security, the creation of cloud-computing testbeds, the development of new technology to demystify complex brain processes, and other projects. During this time, federal funding supported the creation of UTSA programs aimed at providing mentorship and assistance to financially disadvantaged students interested in engineering and science.

“Federal funding is important to UTSA because it allows us to invest in groundbreaking research initiatives that generate new leads and discoveries and attract top global talent to the university,” said Bernard Arulanandam, interim vice president for research. “UTSA’s innovative environment benefits our students, who learn and receive training from leading researchers in their fields as they prepare to become the next generation of science and engineering leaders. It benefits our society, as the breakthroughs in science, engineering, and technology happening on campus help us all.”

Funding for minority-serving institutions increased by one percent from FY 2014 to FY 2015 according to the NSF. By contrast, federal science and engineering funding to all U.S. universities declined by two percent in FY 15.

UT-El Paso and UT-Rio Grande Valley were also included in the National Science Foundation’s ranking, earning the No. 4 and 17 spots, respectively. UTSA is ranked among the top 400 universities in the world and among the top 100 in the nation, according to Times Higher Education.

UTSA Academy of Distinguished Researchers welcomes COE faculty member

Left to right: C. Mauli Agrawal, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs; Joo L. Ong, USAA Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and associate dean of administration and graduate studies; Jose L. Lopez-Ribot, professor of microbiology and the Margaret Batts Tobin Distinguished Chair in Biotechnology, Department of Biology; and Bernard Arulanandam, interim vice president for research.

The UTSA Academy of Distinguished Researchers recently inducted two new members: College of Engineering’s Joo L. Ong and College of Science’s Jose L. Lopez-Ribot.

The Academy of Distinguished Researchers was established in 2015 to select and honor outstanding faculty who are accomplished scholars and who share UTSA’s continuing commitment to research excellence; to foster the highest quality of research and scholarly activity by UTSA faculty; and to promote the University’s vision as a premier public research university. The Academy is comprised of researchers across all disciplines who represent the best of research on campus.

Each year, the group decides upon the induction of new members. Candidates are nominated by peers across campus, and their body of research work is evaluated. The Academy members review each candidate, looking at all the criteria, and discuss each candidate within the group.

“There are many components the committee considers to measure the research and academic impact of a nominee. We are looking for high-quality research and scholarly activities. It is a rigorous process to determine who is a true scholar,” explained Hamid Beladi, chair of the Academy of Distinguished Researchers.

The Academy considers a number of factors including (but not limited to): the impact and the overall quality of the research; the number of citations and publications; publication in highly recognized and leading peer-reviewed journals; recognized works, performances and exhibitions; competitive grants (federal and international) and funded research; patents; major scientific inventions; editorships; and research recognitions.

This year, two UTSA researchers were selected for induction.

Joo L. Ong, Ph.D., is the USAA Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He also serves as the associate dean of administration and graduate studies, College of Engineering.

His primary research interests focus on modifications and characterization of implant biomaterial surfaces for dental and orthopedic applications, tissue engineered bioceramic scaffolds for bone regeneration, protein-biomaterials interactions, and bone-biomaterials interactions.

Ong is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He is also the associate editor for the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, Part B. His publication portfolio includes two books (one edited), 16 book chapters, and 146 peer-reviewed journal publications. He has four issued patents from his research work and one pending patent filed with the U.S. Patent Office.

Jose L. Lopez-Ribot, Pharm.D., Ph.D., is a professor of microbiology and the Margaret Batts Tobin Distinguished Chair in Biotechnology, Department of Biology. He is also the associate director of the South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases.

His laboratory studies fungal infections, with an emphasis on the opportunistic pathogenic fungus Candida albicans, the main causative agent of candidiasis affecting an increasing number of immune- and medically compromised patients. Work in his laboratory ranges from the basic biology of the cell wall, biofilm formation, adhesion and morphogenetic conversions, to the use of animal models to better understand virulence and host responses, to the more translational and clinical aspects such as antifungal drug development, drug resistance and vaccines. The ultimate goal of his work is devising new strategies for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of candidiasis.

“The Academy of Distinguished Researchers serves as a way to recognize the high caliber of research being done at UTSA and provides a forum for our researchers to connect and collaborate. Our institutional goal is to be recognized as a research-intensive institution based on the scholarly output of our outstanding faculty members,” said Bernard Arulanandam, interim vice president for research.

With the 2017 induction, the Academy now has 15 members, representing the Colleges of Business, Education and Human Development, Engineering, Liberal and Fine Arts, Public Policy, and Sciences.

Seed funding awarded to engineering faculty members

The Office of the Vice President for Research’s internal seed funding programs support UTSA’s research enterprise by awarding faculty members seed funding to obtain preliminary data that can be cited in applications for extramural funding and enhance the breadth of scholarly and creative activity taking place on campus. These grants also support new areas of research for UTSA faculty and advance the university’s goal of research excellence. The latest round of seed funding totaled $340,000 for 29 research projects at UTSA and with collaborators at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). Five of these projects are based in the College of Engineering.

GREAT FY 2018 Awardees
Biomedical Engineering, Teja Guda
Scaffolds with Soft Zones for Bone Regeneration

Mechanical Engineering, Wei Gao
Advanced Materials Based on Two-dimensional Building Blocks – Computational Design Based on Chemistry and Topology

Mechanical Engineering, R. Lyle Hood
An Improved Cystoscopic Approach for 3D Imaging of Intra-bladder Cancers

Connect FY 2018 Awardees
Mechanical Engineering, Brendy Rincon Troconis, UTSA, in collobration with James Dante, SwRI
Effects of Triazine-Based H2S Scavenger Byproducts on the Film Composition and Cracking of Carbon Steel in Oilfield Applications

Civil Engineering, Samer Dessouky, UTSA, in collobration with Jerome Helffrich, SwRI
Promoting Sustainability and Safety for Texas Rural Roadways Through Self-Powered Sensing and Detection Systems

UTSA receives $800K grant for earthquake research

Wassim Ghannoum, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has received a grant of nearly $800,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop a new generation of computer simulation models that will characterize the impact of severe earthquake conditions on reinforced concrete structures.

The project will be conducted in conjunction with the NIST’s Disaster Resilience Grants Research Program, which supports research aimed at advancing the principles of resilience in building design and building codes and standards.

“This work is a prime example of the creative top-tier research that UTSA strives for,” said JoAnn Browning, dean of the College of Engineering. “This has the potential to have a tremendous impact on the lives of people living in our nation’s cities and to improve the way we approach construction projects.”

Ghannoum’s work focuses on concrete columns that are used in bridges, apartment buildings and office structures. If their resilience in a seismic event is subpar, the result could be a massive loss of life and crippling costs for the community.

“My plan is to create simulation models that will pave the way for a new generation of tools,” Ghannoum said. “These tools will provide engineers with critical engineering data to make more precise decisions that could prevent structures from crumbling under seismic pressure.”

Additionally, Ghannoum plans to distribute his newly developed simulation tools to the structural engineering community through open-source software, which means the research will be instrumental in reducing the building rehabilitation costs that are associated with strengthening the structural integrity of concrete buildings.

“Dr. Ghannoum’s concrete resilience research is not only vital, but it also fits into the Smart Cities model, a worldwide effort in which UTSA is involved,” said Bernard Arulanandam, interim vice president for research. “Public institutions, government entities and private organizations are using data and technology to advance and refine the functionality of a city to improve the livability for all its residents.”

San Antonio Smart City innovations startup emerges out of UTSA

A recent spinout from UTSA, Leaptran Inc., is bringing to market products that will optimize whole-building energy use while providing room-level comfort for individuals. Using artificial intelligence and smart building features, these integrated hardware and software products will optimize energy use among micro-grid distributed energy resources such as solar power generation and battery energy storage systems.

Leaptran’s technologies are licensed from UTSA and are based on co-founder and UTSA Assistant Professor Bing Dong’s more than 10 years of research in building energy efficiency, occupant behavior, big data analytics, intelligent building operation and optimization, measurement and verification, and buildings-to-grid integration research. UTSA entrepreneur-in-residence and energy storage expert Jeff Xu, founder of Leaptran, identified and evaluated these technologies and recognized their synergy with his skills as a great commercial opportunity.

Through UTSA, the Leaptran team received a $50,000 award to participate in the National Science Foundation’s Innovation-Corps (I-CorpsTM) program to optimize their product and market development focus. As a UTSA New Venture Incubator member, they then landed a SBIR Phase I award of $149,991 funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy through the Small Business Innovation Research program. In addition, Leaptran now has a contract in place with UTSA and CPS Energy to explore micro-grid-level energy optimization and the deployment of distributed energy resources intelligently.

Buildings consume more than 70% of total electricity usage in a city. Leaptran’s energy management with predictive control (EMPC) for buildings and micro-grid will integrate sensing, energy optimization, machine learning, and behavior analysis. Their technology aims to reduce wasted energy in a building up to 50 percent. This efficiency will reduce both the electric bill and greenhouse-gas emissions.

To help buildings and micro-grids incorporate more renewable and distributed energy resources, Leaptran’s products will balance increased load demands and integrate building energy management. Battery energy storage unlocks the potential for battery power in buildings and allows the grid to maximize renewable and distributed energy sources. With its intelligent capability, Leaptran’s solution can also be adapted to a smart micro-grid solution.

Advancing prostate cancer research

Jing Yong Ye, professor of biomedical engineering, has received a two-year, $354,617 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute to support the development of his noninvasive method of detecting prostate cancer. Ye’s research team has been working on the development of a novel microscope based on a photonic crystal biosensor to detect the cancer through a urine sample. It will significantly improve accuracy compared to the approach used in current clinical practice.

Prostate cancer is the second most prevalent type of cancer, and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men. Early detection is key to survival, which is why it is standard practice for doctors to screen all men over the age of 50 for the disease.

To screen patients for prostate cancer, medical professionals take a blood sample and look for prostate-specific antigen (PSA). If a high level of PSA is found, the patient is suspected to have prostate cancer and needs to have a prostate biopsy.

Unfortunately, PSA tests are far from providing satisfactory diagnoses and result in a large number of unnecessary prostate biopsies due to a high false-positive rate. This is because PSA elevation may also occur in men with infection and chronic inflammation or benign prostatic hyperplasia.

“False positive diagnoses are very common in prostate cancer tests,” Ye said. “As a result, a patient may undergo a biopsy he doesn’t need, which is painful and could cause an infection. Also, because prostate cancer is highly heterogeneous and even multicore prostate biopsy only samples a few local areas, it can easily be missed by clinicians.”

Since about 70 percent of men who go through the biopsy process are found to be cancer-free, Ye wanted to look for a better way. His research team will develop a noninvasive imaging approach to check urine samples, since cells from the prostate are shed into urine naturally.

“The system we are developing utilizes a sensitive biosensor, which allows us to distinguish cancer cells from normal cells based on a unique feature of the cells,” he said. “If you can detect a cancer cell, you’re starting from a more precise place and you can give a more accurate diagnosis.”

Ye’s laboratory develops cutting-edge tools based on different biosensors, optical imaging methods and nanobiotechnology to address critical issues in biomedical engineering research and applications.

“We need to use every weapon in our arsenal to attack this disease,” Ye said. “It’s important to think outside the box and use innovation to address these critical issues.”

Engineering faculty help preserve Edwards Aquifer

Vikram Kapoor, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Drew Johnson, professor of civil and environmental engineering, have been awarded a $692,452 funding agreement through the City of San Antonio’s Proposition 1 Edwards Aquifer Protection Program to design and implement a way to track fecal bacteria in the Edwards Aquifer so that major contamination can be stopped before it starts.

The Edwards Aquifer is the primary source of drinking water for millions of people living in Central and South Texas. Like all naturally occurring water sources, it is vulnerable to contamination from storm water runoff, municipal waste, or even leaking septic tanks on private properties.

“Some of the sources that contribute to bacteria in aquifer systems are uncharacterized and uncontrollable,” said Kapoor. “San Antonio is a forward-thinking city, and UTSA is a forward-thinking university, which is why we seek to identify sources that can be characterized and controlled. We’re going to use innovative molecular techniques to get ahead of any issues that could arise.”

The project team will spend the next two years collecting samples over several different regions of the Edwards Aquifer. The researchers will then work to identify specific DNA markers that are found in fecal bacteria to determine whether there’s contamination in the aquifer, to evaluate the level of contamination if present, and to accurately locate where it originated along the aquifer.

“Understanding and identifying the sources of surface and groundwater fecal contamination is paramount to protecting water quality and mitigating pollution and risk to human health,” said Kapoor. “We will determine whether there’s fecal contamination, then we’ll advise the city on how to mitigate it.”

Kapoor’s work is the first approach of its kind to studying fecal contaminants in the Edwards Aquifer. Once the scientific testing is complete, his project will include outreach efforts to educate the public, especially homeowners, on how to keep local water resources safe from contamination.

“We’re reaching out to our community to understand how septic tanks, pet waste, urban wildlife populations and household wells can affect our drinking water and our environment,” said Kapoor.

Education modules for the communities surrounding the aquifer, also funded by the project, will be developed and led by the UTSA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the project team will begin collecting and testing samples from the aquifer this winter.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission awards UTSA large grants for faculty and student development

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has awarded UTSA two grants totaling $849,351. The funding will support the creation of new faculty development and graduate fellowship initiatives focused on nuclear safety research and education in the College of Engineering.

In the summer of 2017, Harry Millwater, Samuel G. Dawson Endowed Professor, was awarded a $450,000 NRC grant to establish a faculty development program at UTSA. The program supports two tenure-track engineering junior faculty members in pioneering new research and an educational program related to the prevention and study of stress corrosion cracking in nuclear facilities.

With 99 aging nuclear power reactors across the U.S., the challenge of material and structural safety due to corrosion and fracture is a continuing concern for the nuclear industry.

The objective of the program is to support Brendy Rincon Troconis, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Arturo Montoya, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, in becoming leading scholars in the field of stress corrosion cracking. They will receive enrichment opportunities in the three areas most commonly used to evaluate faculty performance: research, teaching, and service. They will also receive direct mentorship and support from Millwater and Heather Shipley, the Burzik Professor in Engineering and interim dean of UTSA’s University College.

“Higher education is a competitive business, and it’s important for faculty members and students alike to know that their university is invested in their success,” said Millwater. “Strong development programs help UTSA attract and retain the nation’s best scholars, and our students deserve to be trained by the nation’s best teachers and researchers.”

Rincon Troconis and Montoya will be provided the resources to launch several initiatives with UTSA focused on nuclear safety.

“I am extremely grateful that UTSA and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have invested in our success as scholars and researchers,” said Rincon Troconis, who joined UTSA in 2016 and is researching materials degradation. “The mentorship and support that we will receive will help immensely as we work to advance and build our capabilities on testing SCC and evaluating the risk of it in nuclear facilities at UTSA.”

In fall 2017, the two researchers were tasked with developing computer modeling and testing tools to lower the instances of stress corrosion cracking and determine the probability of future risk; creating an educational program for students that focuses on the causes of corrosion and how they apply to everyday nuclear safety issues; working with the Southwest Research Institute to present educational seminars pertaining engineering practice in SCC to students; and engaging with external agencies to ensure that their research findings can be incorporated into practice and policies at nuclear facilities.

“The NRC faculty development grant sets the stage for a collaborative, leading-edge research program that brings together several UTSA researchers with complementary expertise,” said Montoya. “This grant enables me to make valuable contributions to the safety of nuclear facilities, while enriching my professional development through collaborations with colleagues, students and industry leaders.”

The NRC also awarded Shipley a $399,351 NRC grant to establish a fellowship program with the goal of creating a workforce pipeline for the nuclear industry. She worked with Montoya to design and begin implementation of the Civil and Environmental Engineering and Environmental Science (CEEES) Fellowship Program which began fall 2017.

The overall objective of the UTSA CEEES Fellowship Program in Nuclear Safety is to broaden the participation of underrepresented graduate students in the areas of risk assessment and environmental protection pertinent to nuclear engineering by providing assistance, research opportunities, and professional development. In addition to establishing the fellowship program, Shipley and Montoya will create a Critical Thinking and Research Skills Workshop Series for students and provide students with hands-on research and professional development opportunities.

“The CEEES Fellowship Program is a significant recognition of the need for training a diverse workforce that will eventually contribute to improvements in nuclear safety practices,” said Shipley. “The program will enhance how we educate and engage underrepresented students in STEM fields and provide them the skills needed to succeed in the nuclear field.”