Dr. Astrid Layton selected to attend the 2023 EU-US Frontiers of Engineering (EU-US FOE) Symposium hosted by the National Academy of Engineering and Nokia Bell Labs

BiSSL group director Dr. Astrid Layton was selected to attend the 2023 EU-US Frontiers of Engineering (EU-US FOE) Symposium hosted by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and Nokia Bell Labs. The National Academy of Engineering holds an annual US Frontiers of Engineering symposium that brings together 60 highly accomplished early-career engineers from EU and US universities, companies, and government to discuss leading-edge research and technical work across a range of engineering fields. Convening engineers from disparate fields and challenging them to think about developments and problems at the frontiers of areas different from their own can lead to a variety of desirable results. These include collaborative work, the transfer of new techniques and approaches across fields, and the establishment of contacts among the next generation of leaders in engineering. The objectives for the bilateral meetings also have the added element of facilitating international cooperation and understanding. The symposium – which covers the topics of The Quantum Era Challenge, Future Challenges in Additive Manufacturing, Clean Hydrogen, and The Computational Era of Life Sciences – will take place from October 15-18 at the National Academies’ Beckman Center in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

Graduate Awards and Fellowships for 3 BiSSL PhD Students

Two BiSSL Ph.D. students – Hadear Hassan and Emily Payne – have been awarded 2023 J. Mike Walker ’66 Impact Awards. The award is given to two male and two female graduate students who have demonstrated academic/scholarly achievements, as well as have leadership and/or entrepreneurial focus/experience and innovative excellence. The winners each receive a $5,000 fellowship. BiSSL Ph.D. student Luis Rodriguez was awarded a Sally and Ray Bowen ’58 Fellowship for 2022/23. Congratulations Hadear, Emily, and Luis! They’ll all be recognized at the 2023 Mechanical Engineering Scholarship & Fellowship Banquet in October in the Memorial Student Center.

Luis Rodriguez (back left) and Hadear Hassan (front 2nd from left) had their awards presented at the 2023 Mechanical Engineering Scholarship & Fellowship Banquet. They are both co-advised by Dr. Cynthia Hipwell (front-center).
(L-R) Emily Payne (BiSSL), Maulik Kotecha (Product Synthesis Engineering Lab), Shantanu Vyas (Mixed-Initiative Design Lab), Wanyu Xu (Product Synthesis Engineering Lab), Qiyu Li, Luis Rodriguez (BiSSL)

BiSSL Ph.D. Student Emily Payne Chosen as a TEX-E Fellow

Texas Entrepreneurship Exchange for Energy (TEX-E) is a first-of-a-kind collaboration among The University of Texas at AustinTexas A&M UniversityUniversity of HoustonRice University, and Prairie View A&M University—powered by Greentown Labs and MIT’s Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship—to create a powerful student-driven entrepreneurship ecosystem in Texas. More information can be found here: https://greentownlabs.com/tex-e/

BiSSL Ph.D. Student Hadear Hassan Awarded 2023 Association of Former Students Distinguished Graduate Student Award

Dr. Astrid Layton and award-winning BiSSL Ph.D. student Hadear Hassan.

Hadear has been awarded the 2023 Association of Former Students Distinguished Graduate Student Award for teaching!

Each year they select a group of graduate students to receive the Association of Former Students Distinguished Graduate Student Awards in one of two categories: Excellence in Research-Doctoral and Excellence in Teaching-Master’s and Doctoral. Student nominations arrive from faculty advisors or departments, and nomination represents a true honor and accomplishment, due to strenuous eligibility requirements. A panel of reviewers including faculty and administrators chooses award recipients.

“The Distinguished Graduate Student Awards recognize the top tier of Texas A&M’s graduate students for exemplifying our core values in classrooms and laboratories. These awards have been presented annually since 1965 thanks to generous gifts to The Association of Former Students’ Annual Fund,” said Porter S. Garner III ’79, President and CEO of The Association of Former Students. “We are pleased to be able to honor these exceptional Aggies for their important contributions to Texas A&M’s world-class teaching and cutting-edge research.”

BiSSL 2021 Paper is Wiley’s Top Downloaded Article

It’s great to see Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) work in collaboration with Drs. Abheek Chatterjee, Ph.D. and Richard Malak on bio-inspired systems/systems of systems design for resilience getting some attention via INCOSE!

You can check out the paper online: “Ecology-inspired resilient and affordable system of systems using degree of system order” https://lnkd.in/e6rKq-5Z

Dr. Layton Awarded the College of Engineering Excellence Award for Teaching

BiSSL head Dr. Astrid Layton was chosen as a recipient of the Texas A&M University College of Engineering Excellence Award for Teaching! It was truly an honor to receive this award at the Engineering Faculty Awards Banquet last week in front of so many friends and colleagues. The award is meant to recognize excellence in teaching amongst engineering faculty and required letters of recommendation from current and former students.

Teaching our students in the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering is such a fun and rewarding experience, we truly do have some of the best mechanical engineering students around!

Dr. John E. Hurtado (left) Dean of Engineering and Dr. Harry Hogan (right) Dean of Academic Affairs presented awards to the winners.

BiSSL Ph.D. Student Abheek Chatterjee Awarded the 2022 “J. Mike Walker ’66 Graduate Student Teaching Award”

A huge congratulations to Ph.D. student Abheek Chatterjee for being awarded the 2022 Graduate Student Teaching Award from the Mechanical Engineering Department. Based on several nominations, the department will present Abheek with the award at the spring Faculty and Staff award celebration.

“This spring, our department honored 12 members at the 2022 Awards and Recognition Banquet and celebrated the induction of three former students to the Academy of Distinguished Graduates. Congratulations to all of our honorees!”