Research

The ability to see and hear beyond the spectrum of human sensitivity could be granted to those who don a Microsoft visor equipped with new software created by Carol LaFayette and Frederick Parke, visualization faculty members at Texas A&M University.

Undersized technology budgets in the construction industry are responsible for a lack of industry innovation, poor “cloud” security and other problems, according to an annual survey developed in part by two construction science faculty members.

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.

Can moving to an activity-friendly neighborhood enhance the health of previously sedentary residents? That’s one of many questions at the intersection of public health and the built environment to be considered by researchers in a $2.7 million active living study.

As a vice president at the Landscape Architecture Foundation, Forster Ndubisi, head of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, guided development of two award-winning initiatives aimed at enhancing the quality of designed landscapes.

An upcoming event focused on the nexus of art and science attracted influential leaders from both worlds, including Carol LaFayette, a professor of visualization at Texas A&M University, and head of the Network for Sciences, Engineering, Arts and Design.

The Texas A&M College of Architecture’s 17th annual faculty research symposium, “Natural, Built, Virtual,” took place Oct. 19, 2015 at the Langford Architecture Center on the Texas A&M College Station campus.

Students successfully grew eight varieties of vegetables on the roof of Texas A&M’s Langford A building during the 2014-15 academic year, advancing findings in an ongoing green roof research project led by Bruce Dvorak, associate professor of landscape architecture.

Interdisciplinary groups of faculty and students in five U.S. universities will pair with counterparts in The Netherlands in a research project led by Sam Brody, professor of urban planning, to determine how to reduce the impact of coastal flooding.

Nurses with access to private break areas could experience significant stress reduction and raised job satisfaction, potentially leading to improved care for the patients they serve, said Adeleh Nejati '15, a former Ph.D. architecture student at Texas A&M, in her Ph.D. dissertation.

Texas A&M is listed in the top six percent of the world’s top universities for architecture and the built environment in a new ranking compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a British company providing higher education guidance and career services.

A proposed “Ike Dike” to protect the Galveston/Houston area from hurricane storm surges should incorporate business parks, public spaces and pedestrian thoroughfares, concludes research funded by Texas A&M’s Institute for Sustainable Coastal Communities.

Naomi Sachs, a Ph.D. architecture student at Texas A&M who is developing methods to design and assess healing gardens in healthcare settings, was honored for her work with a New Investigator Research Award from a national healthcare design group.

Instead of using keyboards, mice and screens to interface with digital technology, young children and the elderly are delightfully using stuffed toys and plants developed at Texas A&M’s Department of Visualization.

A research team from Texas A&M’s Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center is working to identify best practices in pre- and post-disaster planning in communities recovering from a variety of natural and man-made disasters.