technology

Any visualization student will contend that movie magic is neither art nor science but a perfect blend of the two. Personifying that contention is former visualization student Kevin Reuter, who worked on the fourth installment of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.

Members of the Texas A&M student chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association conducted an energy audit of Neeley Hall, a campus dormitory, as part of their competition entry in the NECA's annual 2011 Green Energy Challenge. Finalists will present their work at the Oct. 22–25 NECA Convention in San Diego.

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.

As part of an international design experiment in social media, students in a design studio joined architecture students from around the globe for a collaboration with top Italian designers that culminated in an April 15 exhibit at the renowned Milan Design Fair in Milan, Italy.

In the computer-animated movie “Rango,” dusty, sun-baked talking creatures and the mythical town of Dirt have a realistic look thanks in part to Kevin Reuter, one of the movie’s two look development supervisors and a former student of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture.

As part of its bid to offer a retirement home for the space shuttles Discovery or Atlantis, the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History had Texas A&M students develop design concepts for a building to temporarily house the orbiter while a permanent structure was built.

A team from Texas A&M reached the semifinal round of a worldwide competition seeking university students' ideas to solve social and environmental problems. Their idea involved kids trading points they’d earned playing video games for donations to charitable causes.

Two former Texas A&M design students that created the hugely successful Glif, a stand and tripod mount for the iPhone 4, are back with a new project: a stylus called The Cosmonaut that works with Apple’s iPad and other touchscreen devices.

Elena Manferdini, principal of Atelier Manferdini, which specializes in computer-aided design of exotic forms, visited the college March 20 – 25 as an artist in residence. In a video interview, she discusses the installation she and students designed and erected in the Azimuth coffee shop.

In a room elaborately adorned with architectural installations created by Meg Jackson's design students, students from Weiling He’s studio donned their own designs, putting on a fashion show for their peers.

Robert Riggs, who earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree in 1971, was a panelist at a social influence workshop during a 2010 emerging media conference. Riggs told participants there’s “a growing demand for users to be connected to the Internet anytime, anywhere on any screen.”

A video created by Stephanie Keske, a graduate visualization student, was part of a History Channel program documenting scientists’ and explorers’ installation and use of underground observatories to study the ocean’s crust.

A Galveston Daily News columnist said an interactive, online atlas, created by a research team at the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, has greatly increased the odds of reducing the risks of living in the island city.

Viz-a-GoGo 18, the annual showcase of digital wizardry conjured by students in the Master of Science in Visualization program at Texas A&M University, returned to downtown Bryan last May with screenings of student work, interactive exhibits, demonstrations, and more.