Dr. Layton, along with Ph.D. students Hadear Hassan and Luis Rodriguez, will be hosting a bio-inspired engineering design event through Access & Inclusion’s STEM Saturday series, which targets A&M’s first-year general engineering students with fun ways to gain technical experience while learning more about various engineering disciplines to inform students’ entry to a major (ETAM) process.
outreach
Dr. Layton is a Boolean Girls Ambassador: Free Zoom Event (Girls 7-14)
MEGSO, MEFEGs, and MEEN Girls present: “Info Session for Grad School”
October 6-7, 2020

The Mechanical Engineering Graduate Student Organization (MEGSO), the Mechanical Engineering Female Graduate Student Group (MEFEGs), and the Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Women’s group (MEEN Girls) are together hosting an informational session series about “Graduate School as a Mechanical Engineer.”
Faculty/Staff Panel: Tuesday, October 6th 3:30-4:30pm
Student Panel: Wednesday, October 7th 4:30-5:30pm
Ask questions or come to hear the answers! Find out about admittance procedures, what it’s like to be a graduate student firsthand, and what opportunities you can unlock!
MEFEGs Monthly Faculty Lunch: Dr. Cynthia Hipwell speaks about “When your experiment does not go as planned”

June 26, 2020 12-1pm CT
The Mechanical Engineering Female Graduate Students (MEFEGs) is honored to invite Dr. Cynthia Hipwell to share her experience in our monthly faculty lunch this Friday noon. Dr. Hipwell spent 21 years in industry – most of that as a data storage leader at Seagate Technology, and is known as a technology and business process innovator. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Inventors and is very passionate about promoting innovative thought and curriculum at Texas A&M. The faculty lunch will be discussion based and it is a good opportunity to interact with female faculties within MEEN department.
Layton Invited Keynote at Texas A&M Regional Engineering Conference, hosted by the Student Engineers’ Council


The final presentations of the 2020 Texas A&M Regional Engineering Conference (TREC) were a huge success! The student teams presented innovative bio-inspired designs that could have a real impact on hurricane prone areas. A lot of the students had first hand experience with the problems they were looking to solve.
First prize went to the INSPIDERED team from SWE! They created a spider silk glass cover to protect from and prevent shattered glass from falling into homes and the environment – protecting clean up crews from glass shards. Congratulations!

I’m excited to help kick-off the Texas A&M Regional Engineering Conference (TREC) this Saturday with a keynote speech! TREC co-chairs Laura Orellana and Keeton Bailey have done an excellent job creating an impactful problem statement for the interdisciplinary freshmen teams to work on for the next three weeks.
TREC is an event hosted annually by the Student Engineers’ Council (SEC) at Texas A&M Engineering to foster professionalism and interdisciplinary collaboration among freshmen by developing a solution to a sustainability-related problem and presenting their product 3 weeks later.
It’s not too late to register! http://trec.tamu.edu
MEEN Girls Informational
Come check out MEEN Girls, A&M’s Mechanical Engineering undergraduate women’s group, Thursday, September 19th at 6pm for their first meeting of the semester!

Women’s History Month at Texas A&M

At Texas A&M University, diversity is changing the face of engineering, so join us in celebrating Women’s History Month! Throughout March, hear what Texas A&M Mechanical Engineering students, staff, and faculty have to say about embracing differences.
This afternoon’s shoutout goes to Assistant Professor Dr. Astrid Layton:
“Just because a subject is hard for you and seems easy for everyone else, doesn’t mean it isn’t for you! The hard stuff is often the most interesting and rewarding, and it’s hard work – not talent that creates success.”
Dr. Astrid Layton, more here.
MEEN Girls Study Break
Come take a study break and meet the TAMU MEEN Girls faculty advisors Drs. Astrid Layton and Shima Hajimirza, Wednesday, February 6, 2019 at 3pm Texas A&M Engineering

Aggie Women in STEM Conference, Hosted by MEEN Girls
Come check out the 2nd annual Aggie Women in STEM conference hosted by the amazing undergraduate female student in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M (MEEN Girls) and open to all! February 2nd, 2019 9-3pm at MSC2406
Register at aggiemeengirls.com

Winners Announced: Matrix Tray Student Design Competition

We would like to thank everyone for your participation in the design competition! There were many innovative submissions that highlighted the excellent students here at A&M, across all disciplines. I’m happy to finally be able to announce the winners to you all! The jury is pleased to announce that three prizes, first, second, and a tie for third, as well as one honorable mention, have been awarded to the following submissions:
First prize of $1000 goes to:
- The team of Will McKinney and Brooks McKinney for their innovative modular aquaponics design
Second prize of $500 goes to:
- Britteny Martinez for her unique flexible and customizable ceiling tile design
Third prize of $200 is split between two designs:
- The team comprised of Aamer Arshad Kazi, Sitangshu Chatterjee, Het Pandit, Vivek Patel, and Omprakash Das for their design of an innovative optic fibre matrix containment unit
- Shelby Warrington for her customizable lamp shade featuring colored glass design
Honorable Mention goes to:
- The team of Sarojeet Deb and Shantanu Vyas with their green building façade design
The winners have been announced on the competition website: https://matrixtraydesign.wordpress.com/competition-results/