Mad Science Club/UIL Science Events

****Teachers/Administrators – I hope you will be supportive of these individuals that are giving of their time to present real-life science to our students.  A good attendance by our students and faculty would certainly show support and help in attracting future speakers. Thank you all for your support of our student’s interests and of Madison science.       Joe Dungan   jdunga@neisd.net

 

Date

Presenter

Topic

Location

Time

4/01

 

Open to all students, faculty, administrators, and parents

Dr. Anthony P. Ambler

Chairman, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering,

BN Gafford Endowed Professor in Electrical Engineering

University of Texas at Austin

Pursuing an Engineering/Science degree at UT Austin

Schedule of Events

Tues, April 01
 JMHS Auditorium

9:00 a.m. - 3:45 p.m.

Schedule of Events

4/24 & 4/25

AP Chem & Physics students

Very limited space.

Must register in room S-210

Trip to Johnson Space Center

Level 9 Tour and Lab Activities

Thursday, April 24 & Friday, April 25

Leave early morning 1/24 and return late evening 1/25

 

 

Mad Science Engineering Day Presenters – April 1, 2008

Anthony P. Ambler

Professor and Chair
Electrical and Computer Engineering
B.N. Gafford Professorship in Electrical Engineering

Phone: (512) 471-6179
Fax: (512) 471-3652
Email: ambler@mail.utexas.edu
Dr. Ambler's Web site

Dr. Anthony “Tony” Ambler earned his Ph.D. in 1981 in electrical engineering from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in the United Kingdom. He joined the faculty of the Cockrell School of Engineering in 1996, and now serves as chairman of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Dr. Ambler’s research looks at electronic design-for-test methods that allows electronic components, boards and systems to be tested more easily, quickly and cheaply. Dr. Ambler has developed design guidelines for application-specific integrated circuits for use in safety-critical applications - these circuits are now being used in nuclear power plant protection systems. More recent work is looking at the testing of larger computer systems.

Research Interests:

  • Design for test of electronic components, boards and systems
  • Economics of design for test choices
  • Design of safety-critical systems

Philip S. Schmidt

Professor
Mechanical Engineering
Donald J. Douglass Centennial Professor in Engineering
Virginia H. Cockrell Chair Fellow
University Distinguished Teaching Professor

Phone: (512) 471-3118
Fax: (512) 471-1045
e-mail: pschmidt@mail.utexas.edu
Dr. Schmidt's Web site

Dr. Philip Schmidt earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 1968. He joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin in 1970. Schmidt is a faculty member of the Thermal/Fluid Systems Program and the director the Mechanical Engineering Department’s Project-Centered Engineering Education curriculum reform effort. Schmidt was named an inaugural University Distinguished Teaching Professor in 1995.

Dr. Schmidt specializes in the design of industrial thermal systems and processes for manufacturing. Specifically, he is interested in the application of industrial electrotechnologies and of microwave and radio-frequency heating to industrial heating and drying. He is also a nationally-recognized leader in the application of electronic media to engineering instruction.

In 2004, Dr. Schmidt was named Associate Chair for Undergraduate Program Development. In this capacity, he has overall responsibility for planning, fundraising, financial management and implementation of programs to develop excellence in mechanical engineering undergraduate education.  

Research interests: 

  • Microwave regeneration of adsorbents
  • Microwave and radio frequency-enhanced drying
  • Electrotechnology applications and economics
  • Industrial energy conservation

Tim D. Taylor

Senior Lecturer
Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering

Phone: (512) 471-3208
Email: tdtaylor@mail.utexas.edu

Dr. Tim Taylor earned his Ph.D. in petroleum engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 1979. He joined the faculty of the College of Engineering in 2002. Taylor is a senior lecturer and program coordinator for the department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.

Dr. Taylor recently started a program that takes groups of students to facilities of Shell Oil Company and Halliburton, where they gain hands-on petroleum engineering training. In addition to teaching PGE courses, Dr. Taylor serves as chairman of both the Scholarship Committee and Alumni Relations Committee. Due to a shortage of petroleum engineers and a high demand for hydrocarbons, there is a great need for new engineers in this discipline. Through an intensive recruiting program, Taylor has been instrumental in improving the quantity and quality of freshman seeking PGE degrees.

E. Glenn Lightsey

Associate Professor
Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
W.R. Woolrich Professorship in Engineering

Phone: (512) 471-5322
Fax: (512) 471-3788
or
Phone: (512) 232-5781, 471-5573
Fax (512) 471-3570
e-mail: lightsey@mail.utexas.edu

Dr. Lightsey specializes in the dynamics and control of space vehicles using avionics sensors such as the Global Positioning System for navigation and attitude determination. Prior to joining the Cockrell School of Engineering in 1999, he worked at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for 13 years.

Dr. Lightsey is affiliated with the Center for Space Research (CSR).

Research Interests:

  • Vehicle Dynamics and Control
  • Relative Navigation and Control of Multiple Vehicles
  • Global Positioning System

 

Development of an Autonomous Satellite Control Center

PRESENTED BY:

Dr. E. Glenn Lightsey, Associate Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering & Engineering Mechanics

OVERVIEW:

The Satellite Control Center (SCC) is a facility in the W. R. Woolrich building that is used to track satellites. The facility has had increasing capabilities since its initial operation in 2003. There will be a major step up in the responsibility of the SCC next year when it is used to communicate with, command, and control satellites that were built by students at UT-Austin and will be launched into space in 2009-2010.

In preparation for this new role, an Academic Development Funds grant was used to support work in the SCC in Fall 2007. The grant was used to improve the functionality and autonomy of the ground station. Remote operations, scheduling, and autonomous operations are some of the features that have been added to the fully operational station. In addition, software was developed that allows a user to control other participating ground stations in a global satellite tracking network.

W. Mack Grady

Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Jack S. Josey Centennial Professor in Energy Resources

Phone: (512) 471-5231
Fax: (512) 471-8198
Email: grady@mail.utexas.edu
Dr. Grady’s Web site

Dr. Mack Grady earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Purdue University in Indiana in 1983. He joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin that same year. He directs the university’s Texas Solar Radiation Database which uses monitoring equipment on top of the Engineering-Science (ENS) building.

Dr. Grady researches electric power systems, with special focus on harmonics and power quality. He also consults for various utilities and industries on power quality-related issues. He has written widely-used computer programs for harmonics analysis and other power system applications which are free and available from his Web site. One current project studies electric power systems on future electric drive battleships for the U.S. Office of Naval Research. On a grant from the National Science Foundation, Grady is studying system response during power outages to determine accurate load models for grid stability studies. For TXU Energy, he is studying the impact of widespread single-phase power electronic loads on system equipment. Research he is doing for EPRI Solutions studies the house of the future, which employs smart loads, renewable energy sources and storage to minimize energy use, impact on the environment and affect on the power grid. In 2002, he started a power electronics teaching lab, which now serves more than 120 upper-division electrical and computer engineering students each year.

Research interests:

  • Electric power systems
  • Power quality and harmonics
  • Renewable energy
  • Power electronics

Gary A. Hallock

Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Archie W. Straiton Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Engineering

Phone: (512) 471-4965
Fax: (512) 471-5532
Email: hallock@ece.utexas.edu

Gary Hallock earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. He joined The University of Texas at Austin in 1984, after working for several years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Dr. Hallock’s research focuses on plasma thrusters, devices used to provide forward motion for positioning satellites and other space propulsion applications. He investigates the effect of the ionized plasma plume on spacecraft communications. The plasma can corrupt microwave signals, which are important in communications satellites and deep space applications where signals are weak. Hallock also researches the development of diagnostics, such as interferometers and imaging systems, for studies of plasma confinement and turbulence in controlled fusion experiments.

Research interests:

  • Plasma propulsion
  • Fluctuations and turbulence in plasma
  • Advanced diagnostic development