energy

Buildings may one day “breathe,” and be able to function in their own environment with the help of a type of “smart skin” developed by a team of Texas A&M University researchers.

Texas A&M construction management graduate, James DeLapp ‘03, a colonel in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is leading efforts to restore electricity to critical facilities in Puerto Rico after the island’s electrical grid was destroyed by Hurricane Maria’s 150-mph winds.

As study by Ben Bigelow, Texas A&M assistant professor of construction science, is seeking best practices for attracting and retaining members of traditionally underrepresented groups, namely women and minorities, to the electrical construction industry.

A conceptual design for a Houston museum skinned with sheet metal refuse from automotive manufacturing and conceived to enhance public awareness on the environmental impact of waste, earned Yingzhe Duan first-place honors in a fall 2016 contest.

An incredibly efficient evaporative cooling technique that requires half the energy of today’s air conditioning systems isn’t just a concept — it’s currently being tested by the Texas A&M University team that developed it.

Sukjoon Oh, a Texas A&M Ph.D. architecture student, is discovering how much consumers can expect to save on their electricity bills in a not-too-distant future when household appliances will be part of a Wi-Fi network.

Teaching excellence, inventiveness, and dedication to sustainability were cited as the top criteria for including Charles Culp, Texas A&M professor of architecture, in an online list of top-10 heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems educators.

The characteristics of new “smart” materials that, with further development, could harvest energy, water and air when embedded in a building’s exterior, are the focus of a two-year, $240,000 National Science Foundation study undertaken by TAMU faculty and students.

A research station on Palmyra Atoll, a remote, 680-acre South Pacific wildlife refuge 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, is operating primarily on wind and solar power thanks to efforts by David Sellers ‘02, a former environmental design student at Texas A&M.

For outstanding achievements in service and teaching architecture professor Charles Culp received the E.K. Campbell Award of Merit from the Life Members Club of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

For significantly improving how building energy efficiency is measured and numerous other achievements, Jeff Haberl, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, will receive the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Center Fellows Award.

Texas A&M researchers recently developed a new technique that facilitates the simulation and evaluation of daylight effects within a digitally rendered architectural model, significantly reducing the time and skills the process once required.

Clint Brown ’78, director of software products at Esri, the world’s leading developer of geographic information system applications, will keynote Texas A&M’s GIS Day festivities 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 18 in Memorial Student Center Room 2300E.

GIS Day, the worldwide salute to geospatial technology and its power to transform and enhance lives, is going to be extra “spatial” this year in Aggieland, where the Texas A&M celebration is expanding to encompass three event-packed days, Nov. 17–19.

As a leader of numerous projects undertaken in politically charged situations, Pliny Fisk, Texas A&M architecture professor emeritus, continues the legacy of 1960s progressive idealism, asserts Sarah Deyong, associate professor of architecture.