Category: Technology

WFAA: SMU to study recent North Texas quakes

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date June 10, 2009

SMU researchers will deploy seismic stations in North Texas in an effort to gather information about the recent spate of earthquakes in the area, according to a June 9 report by WFAA-TV Channel 8 news reporter Jason Whitely. Read the full story.

Excerpt

By Jason Whitely
WFAA News
DALLAS — In the frenzied pace of everyday life, few North Texans think much about what happens beneath their feet. However, the recent earthquakes in the Cleburne area have changed that for many.

There were two more earthquakes Tuesday. The first measured 2.4 and the second, which happened an hour later, was 2.1.

“This is not a place where earthquakes occur, so this is not a place where small earthquakes have been studied,” said Dr. Chris Hayward, a geophysics research projects director at SMU.

Southern Methodist University is preparing to embark on a first in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“This is the equipment we’ll be putting out in the field to detect earthquakes,” said Ashley Howe, a SMU earth science student, while standing over a portable hi-tech seismic station.

The university is deploying ten portable seismic stations to better pinpoint why the ground has started to rumble.

Read the full story

Tags Ashley Howe, Brian Stump, Chris Hayward, Dedman College, Huffington Department of Earth Sciences

Technology

Icons of industry align with Texas universities to supercharge technology

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date March 12, 2009

SMU is a partner in a newly designated National Science Foundation research consortium aimed at building both military and commercial superiority by making technology faster, better and smarter.

The Net-Centric Software and Systems Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, which also includes two other universities and 11 companies, will focus on improving how complicated information is gathered, shared and used, from the battlefield to the boardroom.

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For example, FedEx’s package tracking system, which links employees, customers, suppliers and partners, is an example of a commercial application of net-centric technology. And on the battlefield, where information superiority already translates to combat power, future net-centric systems will connect ground and air combat, linking shooters, decision makers and sensors toward a common goal.

“This opens a lot of doors,” said Jeff Tian, associate professor of computer science in SMU’s Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering. “We envision this consortium becoming a leading research alliance in the United States. Because we can cooperate with the expertise of academic institutions and high-tech companies, we have much greater research capabilities than any one institution working alone.”

Academic partners in the consortium are Southern Methodist University, the University of North Texas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The center’s industry partners are Boeing, Cisco, Codekko Software, EDS/HP, Fujitsu, GlobeRanger, Hall Financial Group, Lockheed-Martin Aero, Raytheon, Texas Instruments and T-System.

“Net-centric” describes a continuously evolving, complex community of people, devices, information and services interconnected by a communications network that can instantaneously measure and apply all available resources to a particular challenge. It is becoming increasingly important for the realization of important defense, commercial, healthcare, education, communication, social networking and entertainment applications.

The consortium is one of approximately 40 such centers nationwide that develop long-term partnerships between industry, academia and government. The National Science Foundation makes an initial investment in these centers, but each one is primarily supported by center members. Their focus is on research recommended by industrial advisory boards. — Kim Cobb

Tags Jeff Tian, Lyle School of Engineering

Technology

Lockheed Skunk Works® chief to lead-off SMU lecture series

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date March 11, 2009

Innovation is a tough concept to define and even harder to teach. But Lockheed Martin’s legendary Skunk Works®, where the fastest military jets are born in secret, is sharing its name and formula for innovation with Southern Methodist University’s Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering.
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Frank Cappuccio, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and Skunk Works® director, will deliver the program’s inaugural lecture at 3:30 p.m. March 18 in the Hughes Trigg Student Center Theater on the SMU campus. Cappuccio will be speaking on “Creating an Environment for Innovation” to mark the beginning of this unique partnership.

The SMU/Lockheed Martin Skunk Works® Program is the first university program anywhere to teach the storied approach to problem solving behind aviation marvels like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. SMU students will not design airplanes — but they will learn the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works® method of tackling daunting problems in small teams under high-pressure deadlines. The program is part of Lyle School’s Caruth Institute for Engineering Education.

Every SMU engineering graduate will experience the Skunk Works® program, starting with the incorporation of philosophy and case studies in undergraduate coursework. Lockheed Martin will rotate Skunk Works® engineers through the SMU program as visiting mentors and lecturers.

The best student opportunities for learning engineering innovation will come from varying degrees of immersion into Skunk Works® lab research. Those projects will last anywhere from a week or two between terms to an intensive, semester-long assignment for senior-level students working on a challenging problem.

As part of its ongoing mission to strengthen American engineering education at every level, the Lyle School will develop curriculum from the Skunk Works® experience that can be applied at other universities.

The Caruth Institute for Engineering Education, under the leadership of former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Delores Etter, already is home to nationally recognized programs to prepare middle school and high school students for engineering education and careers.

“We are committed to improving American engineering education,” Etter said. “You don’t do this with little steps — you do this with big steps.”

Lockheed targets 50 percent of its philanthropic work and outreach to support education, and Cappuccio is bullish on attracting the brightest students back to the industry that was perceived as so glamorous during the early space race. As a group, he says, engineers need to be less wedded to process and structure.

“What we want to do is apply the philosophy of the Skunk Works®, which is imbedded in founder Kelly Johnson’s 14 different principles,” said Geoffrey Orsak, dean of the Lyle School. “The key is doing things quickly. In today’s world doing things quickly is very important. If you take too long, you lose out.”

SMU’s Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering, founded in 1925, is one of the oldest engineering schools in the Southwest. The school offers eight undergraduate and 29 graduate programs, including both master’s and doctoral levels. — Kim Cobb

Tags Delores Etter, Geoffrey Orsak, Lyle School of Engineering, SMU/Lockheed Martin Skunk Works&#174 Program

Technology

Hi-tech lens sharpens military surveillance

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date March 10, 2009

In Greek mythology, Argos Panoptes was a giant sentry with a hundred eyes. But in the lab of Electrical Engineering Associate Professor Marc Christensen, Panoptes is a type of camera technology. The technology is being developed with funding from the U.S. military for surveillance by small aircraft at low altitudes.

The research should eventually provide helmet-mounted surveillance equipment for soldiers on the ground. Lens performance tends to improve with size, which is why a small cell phone camera can’t produce a very good image.

But the Panoptes technology uses the power of a computer to combine overlapping images of dozens of tiny lenses — producing a clear picture without the size and weight of a large lens.

Christensen, chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering in SMU’s Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering, has built a nationally recognized research group in photonics and computational imaging.

His work with imaging sensors and micro-mirror arrays has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, among others. In 2007 he received the DARPA Young Faculty Award.

Christensen also leads a project with researchers from the University of Delaware, UT-Dallas and Sandia National Laboratory.

Tags Lyle School of Engineering, Marc Christensen

Earth & Climate Energy & Matter Health & Medicine Technology

Barnett gas-drilling boom pollutes Dallas-Fort Worth air

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date February 11, 2009

The first comprehensive analysis of air emissions associated with natural gas and oil production in the Barnett Shale finds that those emissions might be a significant contributor to smog formation in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The emissions are comparable to the combined emissions in the Dallas-Fort Worth area from all cars and trucks. State regulators for years have targeted cars and trucks as a major source of smog in the D-FW area.

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The study, “Emissions from Natural Gas Production in the Barnett Shale Area and Opportunities for Cost-Effective Improvements,” was written by Al Armendariz. He is a research associate professor in the department of environmental and civil engineering in the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University.

The report takes into consideration the emissions of smog-forming compounds, such as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. In addition, it also looks at air-toxic chemicals and greenhouse gases.

The study found that emissions of carbon dioxide and two other major greenhouse gases underlying climate change were estimated to be roughly equivalent to the impact of two 750-megawatt coal plants.

“It’s true that Barnett Shale oil and gas activities are producing significant air emissions, but there’s good news as well,” Armendariz said. “There are off-the-shelf technologies that can greatly reduce these emissions and improve the D-FW area’s air quality.”

Experts say cost-effective control strategies are readily available and can substantially reduce emissions from production in the massive Barnett Shale, a 5,000-square-mile geologic formation.

“These controls can in many cases, reduce costs for oil and gas operators after short payback periods,” said Ramon Alvarez, senior scientist with Environmental Defense Fund, which commissioned the study. “Such controls are already used by some producers, but not universally.”

The City of Fort Worth recently adopted an ordinance requiring the use of “green completions” to capture the greenhouse gas methane and volatile organic compounds during well completions. That is one of the controls recommended in the report for areas throughout the Barnett Shale area.

Natural gas production in the Barnett Shale region of Texas has increased rapidly since 1999, where as of June 2008 there are now more than 7,700 oil and gas wells producing and permits issued to drill another 4,700.

In 2008, the Barnett Shale was responsible for 21 percent of the state’s natural gas production. Unlike most historical drilling for oil in Texas, this activity is taking place in and around a heavily developed and populated area.

Natural gas is a critical feedstock to many chemical production processes. It has many environmental benefits over coal as a fuel for electricity generation, including lower emissions of sulfur, metal compounds and carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, oil and gas production from the Barnett Shale can impact local air quality and release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, according to the Armendariz study.

The report examines each step of the gas production process, from well drilling and completion, to gas processing and transmission. It concludes that peak summertime emissions of smog-forming emissions from production activities in the Barnett Shale are about the same as the emissions from all the cars and trucks on the road in the D-FW area. Barnett Shale emissions total 307 tons per day, while cars and trucks total 273 tons per day.

Tags Al Armendariz, Lyle School of Engineering