BiSSL had a fantastic time attending ASME’s (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers)IDETC-CIE 2026 Conference in Houston. Our lab had one paper presented in the SEIKM conference track in CIE, titled: “Integrating Bio-Inspired Design for Robust System Recovery.”
The paper was lead by BiSSL alum Dr. Emily Payne-Broucek, former Ph.D. student who has since transitioned to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. With support from a National Science Foundation CAREER grant, she was able to use our bio-inspired design for resilience research to redefine how we think about system recovery.
Key takeaways include:
🌱 Nature-Inspired Restoration: We introduced an ecologically guided recovery algorithm that uses graph-based ecological network analysis to direct the recovery sequence of power grids post-blackout.
⚡ Better Reach with Limited Power: When coupled with physics simulations, our ecological algorithm restored larger portions of network during early recovery stages compared to traditional hierarchy-based restoration procedures.
💪 Enhanced Resilience: Combining bio-inspired grid designs with the ecologically-guided recovery seems to yield equal or higher long-term robustness against cascading failures during severe outages.
A huge congratulations to Emily on this outstanding contribution to bio-inspired systems design! Looking forward to seeing all the amazing impact she continues to make in her new role. The paper is published as open access for anyone interested.
E. Payne and A. Layton. (2026) “Integrating Bio-Inspired Design for Robust System Recovery.” ASME 2026 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers & Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC-CIE). Houston, TX, USA.
Congratulations, we will miss you, and best of luck to Drs. Hadear Hassan and Emily Payne!! We’re so incredibly proud of you both!
Hadear’s Ph.D. dissertation was titled “Quantitative System Analysis of Efficiency and Resilience in Complex Systems: Manufacturing and Innovation Networks” and focused on the use of bio-inspired systems approaches to understand innovation, sustainability, and resilience in manufacturing and entrepreneurship. Her Ph.D. research produced 9 conference publications and 4 journal publications, with 1 more currently under review and 2 more to be submitted.
Emily’s Ph.D. dissertation was titled “Learning from Biological Ecosystems to Design and Analyze Resilience in Complex Multi-flow Systems” and focused on using bio-inspired systems design approaches to characterize the risk and resilience of cyber-physical power systems. Her Ph.D. research produced 6 conference publications and 5 journal publications, with 3 more currently under review. Emily will be starting this summer at John Hopkins APL.
Pepito Thelly, former student Amira Bushagour and Dr. Astrid Layton at the Design Theory Special Interest Group meeting in Paris. Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Astrid Layton
Dr. Astrid Layton has seen firsthand how quickly research can become isolating for students — hours spent troubleshooting, refining and questioning what isn’t working. Through the Donna Walker Faculty Fellowship, she is improving that experience by giving students the opportunity to step outside the lab and share their work with the broader research community.
In the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, Layton uses the fellowship to support both undergraduate and graduate students in her Bio-Inspired Systems Lab, funding travel to conferences to present their research, build networks and gain new perspectives. The flexible funding allows her to prioritize opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach.
“I think it’s really important for students to practice talking about their research within the broader community,” Layton said. “They can get stuck focusing on what isn’t working. Conferences give them a chance to focus on what they’ve accomplished and where their work can go next.”
For Pepito Thelly, a doctoral student in Layton’s lab, that opportunity became a reality when he traveled to Paris to attend the Design Theory Special Interest Group, where he presented his research on an international stage.
“Presenting our work at an international level is something I never imagined I’d be able to do during my Ph.D.,” Thelly said. “I am incredibly grateful for both the opportunity and the support that made it possible.”
The conference experience extended beyond presenting research. For Thelly, one of the most valuable takeaways was the exposure to new ways of thinking.
“The most impactful part was hearing perspectives from people outside my immediate bubble,” he said. “When we get so focused on our work, it’s easy to lose sight of alternative viewpoints. That friction is where a lot of creativity comes from.”
Layton emphasized that these moments are exactly why she prioritizes sending students to conferences. In addition to strengthening communication skills, the experience often reshapes how students view their work and their potential.
“It gives them this confidence,” she said. “They come back with new ideas, new energy and a better sense of how their research connects to a larger community.”
For Thelly, the experience also prompted a shift in how he thinks about his future.
“It gave me more perspective,” he said. “We all have a lot of potential, but we often limit ourselves based on what we think is realistic. Stepping outside the day-to-day helped me reset that mindset and reevaluate my goals.”
The fellowship’s impact extends beyond individual experiences. Because the funding is not tied to a specific grant, Layton can support early-stage projects, fund student researchers and create opportunities for undergraduates who might not otherwise have access to this level of engagement.
That flexibility is increasingly important as travel costs and funding limitations continue to rise. Without it, Layton said, many of these experiences would not happen.
“There’s no replacement for being in those environments,” she said. “That’s where collaborations start, where students meet people they might work with in the future, and where new ideas take shape.”
For students like Thelly, those opportunities offer more than just academic growth; they provide a broader view of what is possible.
“It made me appreciate how much exciting work is being done,” he said. “A lot of ideas that once felt abstract are now becoming possible and seeing that firsthand was really motivating.”
Through the Donna Walker Faculty Fellowship, Layton is not only supporting student research — she is helping shape more confident, connected and forward-thinking engineers, reinforcing Texas A&M Engineering’s commitment to hands-on learning and real-world impact.
Receiving the Texas A&M University 2026 Student Employee of the Year Award is truly an honor, and I’m deeply grateful for what this recognition represents.
Thank you to my team (Samuel Merriweather, Danisha Stern, Breana Grimes, Sherice Perkins, Aniya P., Luis Galvan, and Pablo Pineda IV) for seeing my work, believing in me, and nominating me for this award. Your support has meant more than words can fully capture. I’m also thankful for the previous staff members (Jaelyn H., Lance Bumgardner, and Cesar Rivera) I’ve connected with along the way, whose encouragement, example, and contributions helped create a path for me to grow.
To every mentor, supervisor, coworker, friend, student, and supporter who has poured into me, challenged me, or simply cheered me on – thank you.
This award is a reminder that meaningful work is never done alone. I’m grateful to be part of a community that continues to teach me the value of service, leadership, and showing up with purpose.
BiSSL Ph.D. students Hadear Hassan and Pepito Thelly represented the lab for our department’s MEEN Industry Day out at the A&M Rellis Campus. Companies attending included Airbus, Siemens, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Oxy, NOV, and Nova.
Ph.D. student Hadear Hassan joined our group in Fall 2021 after graduating with a BS in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University. As of Tuesday this week she has successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis! Her thesis is titled “Quantitative System Analysis of Efficiency and Resilience in Complex Systems: Manufacturing and Innovation Networks” and uses bio-inspiration and systems modeling and analysis approaches to advance the fields of smart and sustainable manufacturing as well as entrepreneurial success.
Hadear has been advised by myself and Dr. Cynthia Hipwell since focusing her thesis more on innovation networks thanks to an opportunity to work with NSF’s ICorps program. In addition to her research pursuits, Hadear is also deeply invested in engineering education. Hadear was awarded the J. George H. Thompson Fellowship in 2022 and the 2023 Association of Former Students Distinguished Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Teaching, and is also an Associate Fellow in the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) Academy for Future Faculty (AFF). She has also won both of our department’s Walker and Cain Impact Awards in 2023 and 2024, respectively. In 2025 she was awarded a coveted spot to attend the Global Young Scientists Summit in Singapore and the Brenda & Jerry Gray ’62 departmental fellowship.
Her thesis seeks to design systems that are both sustainable and resilient, whether those are manufacturing or innovation systems. The methodologies explored include Bio-Inspired Approaches, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, Discrete Event Simulation, and Social Network Analysis. These approaches benchmark existing systems and develop a comprehensive framework that facilitates their effective design and quantification. The framework is applied and evaluated through the case studies of manufacturing systems and innovation networks. The tools and benchmarks generated not only provide immediate sustainability benefits but also enable ongoing tracking and measurement of long-term impacts, aiding policy and decision-makers in achieving objectives while ensuring survival.
Ph.D. student Emily Payne joined the BiSSL group in Spring 2022 while she was still an undergraduate Architectural Engineering student. On January 30th she successfully defended her Mechanical Engineering PhD. Her Ph.D. thesis work is titled “Learning from Biological Ecosystems to Design and Analyze Resilience in Complex Multi-flow Systems” and has produced 5 journal papers and 5 conference papers. She’ll be starting at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) this summer after her graduation.
She is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and our Mechanical Engineering Female Graduate Student Association (MEFEGs) and actively supports engaging with the next generation of female engineers. She has collected a host of awards while a graduate student in BiSSL, including a Energy Institute Chevron Energy Graduate Fellow in 2025 and a Boeing Fellow in 2024, the Susan M. Arseven ’75 “Make A difference” memorial award from WISE in 2025, the 2023 J. Mike Walker ’66 Impact Award, and the Women in Engineering Chevron Award in 2023. Emily has worked on developing a more sustainable balance between building energy usage and resilient technology with research looking at improving the sustainable ranking of buildings. Her primary thesis work focuses on resilience in cyber-physical power systems, seeking to improve resilience through modeling the cyber-physical interface and our ability to understand risk propagation through the multi-layer complex network.
Her dissertation presents a holistic approach for the analysis of complex multi-flow systems taking inspiration from nature’s resilient ecosystems. Graph-based methodologies containing analogies from ecological modeling, including plant-pollinator networks and predator-prey networks, provide an innovative approach for balancing resilience, sustainability, and robustness. The proposed approaches assist in identifying critical interdependencies between components, analyzing patterns of adversarial system impact, and provide design suggestions for the future construction of cyber-physical power systems and sustainable buildings.
You can read a focus piece on Emily’s unique path to a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering here.
A huge congratulations to BiSSL graduate student Namrata Thakkar, who graduated with her MS degree in mechanical engineering this fall! Namrata started in the BiSSL group Summer 2023, after completing her Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from Pandit Deendayal Energy University. Her thesis, titled “Applicability of Ecological Network Analysis for Understanding Dynamic Network Resilience,” was on measuring the resilience of water network designs using bio-inspired approaches.
Congratulations to BiSSL Ph.D. student Pepito Thelly, one of 7 Ph.D. finalists in the Texas A&M 2025 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) Final! He was selected out of over 85 participants.
Pepito, a student in Dr. Astrid Layton’s Bio-inspired Systems Lab who’s bio-inspired design research has collaborated with Dr. Julie Linsey and her iDREEM lab at Georgia Tech, will present “Bio-Inspired Makerspace Networks.” Good luck Pepito!
BiSSL: Bio-inspired Systems Lab 