Research

To mark 25 years of disaster-related research at Texas A&M University, many of the nation’s top hazard researchers are gathering on campus April 4-5 to present their latest work as part of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center’s “Planning for Disaster Resilience Symposium.”

Amid the twerking and frolicking in “We Can’t Stop,” a 2013 Miley Cyrus music video, are brief scenes of pioneering experiments in computer-animated facial expression developed by Fred Parke, professor of visualization at Texas A&M, when he was a graduate student at the University of Utah in the early 1970s.

Francis Quek, who joined the Department of Visualization in the fall 2013 semester as part of an initiative by The Texas A&M System to attract top-notch faculty, will heighten the department’s involvement regarding the interaction between people and technology.

Graduate students in Italy, using a survey developed at Texas A&M’s Center for Health Systems & Design, found that many outdoor spaces in Milan nursing homes could benefit from improvements that increase residents' outdoor access.

Communities can improve their hurricane resilience by better protecting wetlands, diversifying their respective economies and building communication networks for socially vulnerable groups, said Sam Brody, Texas A&M professor of urban planning.

An innovative, energy saving lighting system that can pipe healthy, full-spectrum daylight more than 40 feet into a building and potentially raise worker productivity is being tested at the Texas A&M College of Architecture’s Daylighting Laboratory.

Research findings create the ingredients for design, allowing architects to create amazing environments based on the best possible information and insight, said Upali Nanda, HKS Inc.’s new director for research, who earned a Ph.D. in architecture at Texas A&M in 2005.

Last summer, Texas A&M hazard mitigation researchers partnered with their Dutch counterparts at Delft University in The Netherlands to developed a joint research agenda to combat a common enemy — flooding.

Toby Israel, a pioneer in the emerging field of design psychology, discussed how a client’s personal history can be used to inform the design process in her keynote address at the Texas A&M College of Architecture’s 15th annual faculty research symposium.

The Texas A&M College of Architecture’s 15th annual faculty research symposium, “Natural, Built, Virtual,” took place Oct. 21 in the Langford Architecture Center.

A remarkably diverse coalition including national science, arts and education groups assembled by Carol LaFayette, associate professor of visualization at Texas A&M, is advocating for the inclusion of the arts in science and technical education, an idea gaining traction among educators across the United States.

Two Texas A&M College of Architecture professors who are researching how urban design can encourage, rather than impede, physical activity and help combat sedentary lifestyles.

Though natural and man-made disasters are inevitable, scientists at the Texas A&M College of Architecture are working on ways to minimize their impact, hasten recovery and gain valuable insight from the process.

A new comprehensive evidence-based guide for designing healing gardens and therapeutic landscapes for healthcare facilities was co-authored by Naomi Sachs, a Ph.D. architecture student at Texas A&M.

Digital models of the Alamo, a shrine in Texas’ battle for independence from Mexico, are being created by Bob Warden, director of Texas A&M’s Center for Heritage Conservation, and Master of Architecture students at Texas A&M.