graduate work

A new book exploring critical planning issues facing Latino communities includes a chapter about a building technique in Texas colonias by Cecilia Giusti, assistant professor of urban planning at Texas A&M, and Miriam Olivares, an Urban and Regional Science doctoral student.

Five graduate students pursuing certificates in facility management at the Texas A&M College of Architecture earned scholarships from the International Facility Management Association, as well as travel/attendance packages for an October conference.

Residents of Brownwood, Texas had a chance last fall to shape their city’s future by participating in a survey developed by Master of Urban Planning students at Texas A&M, part of a collaboration with the city’s officials to update its master plan.

Students in the Master of Science in Land Development program prepared for careers in the property industry by visiting three of the Houston area’s most notable mixed-use developments, then worked with the developers to craft leasing proposals for a hypothetical business.

With a 2011 fellowship from the American Institute of Architects, Amy Kircher, an M.Arch student at Texas A&M, will design a prototype outpatient healthcare facility based on her research that suggests a new direction for preventative care building design and a new way of thinking about healthcare architecture.

Hans Schneider, a doctoral student studying urban and regional science at Texas A&M, has received a Fulbright grant funding a 10-month project aimed at developing a comprehensive regional plan for preserving eight historically significant wooden churches and other historic sites in western Ukraine.

Two Master of Science in Land Development students traveled to Chicago in July 2011 to research and document how Millennium Park, a $475 million project completed in 2004, praised as a “showcase of art and urban design” by the San Francisco Chronicle, has affected the vicinity’s real estate value.

As a “student evangelist” for Autodesk, designer of 3-D architecture, building construction and engineering software, Ph.D. architecture student Francisco Farias will be networking with Autodesk’s top clients, receive intensive training and certification, and supervise Autodesk’s top student "experts."

Graduate visualization students won scholarships for their makers funded by major animation studios and former student animators. Former students at Pixar, DreamWorks Animation and Industrial Light and Magic made lists of the videos they deemed the best.

An idea to rent folding bicycles from a kiosk earned first prize and $3000 for Patrick Daniels, a Master of Science in Land Development student, and Martin Griggs, a Master of Urban Planning student, in the 2011 Ideas Challenge, sponsored by the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship.

Six doctoral students in the Urban and Regional Science program at Texas A&M University honed their teaching skills this year while earning fellows certificates from the university’s Graduate Teaching Academy. They attended seminars, choose a faculty mentor, observed classrooms and created a teaching portfolio.

Undergraduate and graduate construction science students gathered April 29 at the Langford Architecture Center to present their thesis research to faculty and peers at the Spring 2011 Department of Construction Science Research Symposium.

Texas A&M Architecture Ph.D. student Simge Andolsun is investigating how a modified air-conditioning system can produce energy savings for low-income households in hot, humid climates. Her study is funded by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

“The Bricklayer’s Disaster,” an animated short created by graduate students at Texas A&M’s Department of Visualization, earned the 3D Animation Award at the Animex International Festival of Animation and Computer Games in Middlesbrough, England.

Students studying abroad in South Africa are designing a starter campus for the university and developing a business plan for a nonprofit utility company while working on a groundbreaking real estate development located on the coast of the the country’s Eastern Cape.