Investigator: Dr. Bo Sun, Dr. Qin Qian, Dr. Jing Zhang, Dr. Thinesh Selvaratnam, Dr. Frank Sun.
Investigators: Dr. Ashley Dockens, Dr. Jeremy Shelton, Dr. Tim Smith, Dr. Amy Jones and Dr. Brett Welch
In the wake of a decade marked by relentless natural disasters and the global pandemic, the
Gulf Coast region of Southeast Texas stands at the forefront of the urgent need for resilient
higher education. 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳, recognized as a leader in online learning, embarks on a
transformational journey to fortify higher education institutions in this vulnerable region.
Leveraging the transformational potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), this interdisciplinary
initiative endeavors to not only address immediate challenges but to fundamentally reshape
the educational landscape in the face of adversity.
The Gulf Coast region, prone to hurricanes, floods, and climate-related events, faces continuous
disruptions in the lives of its residents and the infrastructure that supports education.
Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the imperative for adaptable and flexible
learning models, underscoring the necessity for educational continuity during crises. Lamar
University, renowned for its expertise in online education, recognizes the critical role of AI in
enhancing educational resilience.
Investigators:
PI: Dr. Berna Eren Tokgoz, Dept. of Industrial and Systems Engineering, College of Eng. Co-PI: Dr. Cagatay Tokgoz Dept. of Electrical Engineering, College of Eng. Co-PI: Dr. Ginger Gummelt, Social Work, College of Arts and Sciences Co-PI: Dr. Brian Williams, Political Science, College of Arts and Sciences Co-PI: Dr. Seokyon Hwang, Construction Management Program, College of Business Senior Personnel: Angela Clavijo, Instructor of Social Work, PhD student
This project aims to increase community resilience and well-being in the US Gulf of Mexico region by investigating the resilience indicators. The communities in the region are under the threat of violent storms that often severely damage infrastructure systems and thereby present social, technological, environmental, and economic challenges. Unfortunately, the frequency and intensity of natural disasters have been growing in the last 30 years, resulting in direct damages to the infrastructure systems and substantial impacts on the well-being and economy of the communities. The proposed research will seek to complete a community resilience indicator framework which is a branded name specifically for the Center for Resiliency as CRISys Community Resilience Framework. This framework specifically targets flooding and wind related disasters in Southeast Texas communities. The research team believes that creating custom resilience indicators based on available datasets in a specific region will help enhance resilience in the region by increasing a data-driven understanding of community resilience. Previously introduced community frameworks are typically too generic to apply to all regions. Hazard vulnerabilities of communities differ and play a big role in defining community resilience. In addition, some regions might have available datasets to compute community resilience indicators, while others may not have them. Thus, determining regional situations and needs is crucial when defining community resilience. This effort will cultivate public-academic partnerships through interactions with the area’s emergency management experts and other collaborations will be developed during the timeframe of the project.
Investigators:
Xianchang Li, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering
Carla Tucker, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences
Hassan Zargarzadeh, Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering
Gevorg Sargsyan, Department of Economics and Finance, College of Business
Xinyu Liu, Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering
Jenny Zhou, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering
Brian Williams, Department of Political Science, College of Arts and Sciences
This proposal is to phase up the project of a Net Zero Energy Building funded last year and integrate the weather station into the building. The two assets together can greatly facilitate the study of energy resilience at Lamar. In the United States, more than one-third of electricity has been used by residential buildings, which mainly includes space heating, spacing cooling, and lighting, even though some of the space heating is directly fueled by natural gas or other fossil fuels, not electricity. The power supply becomes the most critical component of people’s daily life. Natural disasters in the Gulf Coast region can fail the grid power and result in a serious problem. As a big picture, there are two issues to be addressed in this proposal: (1) how to make the residential buildings more energy resilient towards any grid power failure, and (2) how to make the residential buildings more energy resilient towards reduction of energy usage. A simple answer to the two questions above is a Net Zero Energy building. However, such a building needs to be fully demonstrated, considering the local weather conditions, in this case, southeast Texas. Therefore, it is proposed to design and develop a Net Zero Energy building at Lamar, which can serve as a model for the energy resiliency of residential houses in the Gulf Coast region. The Net Zero Energy building relies solely on renewable energy resources such as solar, geothermal, and wind energy. To ensure people’s comfort in the building, a combination of heat pumps, solar heaters, solar panels, and earth cooling/heating, together with advanced insulation and lighting technologies, needs to be considered in the design. The incentive for working on solar energy is supported by three facts. First, Southeast Texas has stable and strong sunshine throughout the year; second, the area has considerably low utilization of renewable energy production. The last and most important fact is the low resiliency of the power system in this area. Hurricane Harvey, Rita, and Ike were the largest and most damaging hurricanes to hit Beaumont, TX, causing $125, $11.3 billion, and $31.5 billion, respectively, in total damage to the U.S, and there was no electricity for 21 days in some places. To further optimize electricity generation and usage, it is proposed to integrate the weather station at Lamar into the net zero house. This project aligns well with the CfR’s mission to confront multi-disaster events. It can also provide educational opportunities and community engagement. Therefore, the proposed project is a combination of research, education, and outreach, and it can have a long-term impact on the Lamar and southeast Texas residents. Once sufficient data are collected from this research and a conclusion can be reached, the design of this model building can be promoted through partnering with city or local government agencies. Home builders can also incorporate some of the elements into their design when a new house is built.
Investigators:
Ginger Gummelt, PhD, LCSW Chair, Sociology, Social Work, Criminal Justice, & Anthropology
Karen Roebuck, MS Instructor of Criminal Justice
Lori Wright, LCSW-S Social Work Field Director
Mamta Singh, PhD Associate Professor - Education
Stephan Malick, M.Ed. Instructor – Communication
In collaboration with the Spindletop Center Local Mental Health Authority (LMHA), the District Attorney’s Office, local judges and defense attorneys, and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, the MIND project will continue evaluating the effectiveness of a pilot program aimed at diverting mental health referrals to the criminal justice system and develop a model for student high-impact learning internships which effectively address the mental health needs of the community following disasters. Research indicates that mental health issues and referrals to the criminal justice system increase significantly following disasters and individuals involved in the legal system are at significantly greater risk of mental health and/or substance use issues (Prelog, 2016; Spencer, 2017). The trauma related to natural disasters is exacerbated for vulnerable populations who often lack the resources to effectively handle these drastic situations. This project aims to expand mental health diversion services within the courts systems in three ways: (1) expand the interprofessional experiential learning opportunities for students addressing mental health diversion services; (2) further develop and implement a model program for mental health intervention and diversion services focused on post-disaster trauma for replication in other courts, counties, and Centers, and (3) create and launch a Mental Health Diversion Center for Jefferson County. These goals will be met by providing outreach, education, training, and supervision to target populations and providers in a sensitive and trauma-informed approach. This research project will take a unique multidisciplinary approach to identify evidence-based intervention and communication strategies to increase public support for policies diverting people with mental illness from being processed into the criminal justice system. This wrap-around approach will begin with the training of student interns to provide early identification and referral to individuals and families at-risk of emerging mental health issues. Undergraduate students from multiple disciplines will work collaboratively in their internship to effectively identify and refer high-risk individuals and families for coordinated services. This experiential learning process will begin with the Professional Learning Workshop (PLW) and weekly interdisciplinary supervision meetings to expand and enhance the knowledge and skills of the student interns, resulting in a trauma-informed social emotional learning environment for all student interns. Student interns from criminal justice, social work, teacher education, political science, psychology, and communication will collaborate with external agencies to deliver coordinated mental health services for individuals identified through the court system. These specialized services, such as assessment, diagnosis, medication evaluation referral, and healthy coping strategies offer clients an opportunity to meet their unique needs and successfully transition to sustained healthy lifestyle maintenance rather than the short-term punitive consequences of the criminal justice system. Qualitative and quantitative data will be collected throughout the internship process in order to evaluate effectiveness and improve the learning model. Lastly, data collected over the longevity of this project will be used to inform and create a Diversion Center (funded by the American Rescue Acts Fund) which will effectively and safely meet the mental health needs of the community while serving as a learning lab (internship opportunities) for 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ students.
Investigators:
Matthew P. Hoch, Ph.D. (Biology) – Lead PI
Garrick Harden, Ph.D. (Sociology) – PI
Maryam Hamidi, Ph.D. (Industrial Engineering) – PI
TianXing Cai, Ph.D. (Chemical Engineering) – PI
Qin Qian, Ph.D. (Civil and Environmental Engineering) - PI
Yong Je Kim, Ph.D. (Civil and Environmental Engineering) – PI
Xingya Liu, Ph.D. (Computer Science) - PI
Zhe Luo, Ph.D. (Construction Management) - I
John McCollough, Ph.D. (Business)- I
Over recent decades societal awareness of the progressive degradation or loss of coastal ecosystems (dune, systems, salt to freshwater marshes, barrier islands, estuaries) due to climatic change and other anthropogenic drivers has increased. These losses include the ecological services and goods that coastal communities depend on for sustainability and resiliency to natural and anthropogenic hazards, including infrastructure protection from destructive storm energy, economic values of fisheries and wildlife, food security, tourism income, and water quality. Environmental restoration of coastal ecosystems includes hydrological modification to increase freshwater and sediment input to marshes, restriction of saltwater intrusion, elevation of subsiding marsh with dredge material, stabilization of eroding shorelines, and reconstruction of barrier islands. Within the past decade in Jefferson County, TX, all these restoration types have been implemented in Salt Bayou Watershed and Sabine Lake estuary. However, much more coastal restoration is needed, not just in SETX but across the Gulf Coast. Growing expectations for new coastal restoration projects include designs that maximize enhancement of ecological outcomes and provide benefits to society for sustainability and resiliency. The collective approach is called Sociological-Ecological Restoration. 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳, CfR needs to lead in research into, and contracts for implementing, this approach to coastal restoration, which will provide project opportunities for students interested in LU’s growing multidisciplinary EwN curriculum.
The LU Coastal Sociological-Ecological Restoration Group (CSERG, pronounced “sea surge”) is a group of Social Scientists, Coastal Ecologists, and Environmental Engineers galvanized in our common interests to study, advance, implement, and teach coastal resiliency through nature-based restoration solutions that benefit societal needs with ecosystem benefits. CSERG has improved LU faculty communication within an expanding network of external experts from County, State, and Local government agencies, and Stakeholder organizations from the environmental sector. Web-based tools for outreach and education are developed and soon to launch. We have facilitated a stakeholder-based approach toward funding the reconstructive restoration of the eroded north end of Pleasure Island, Port Arthur, TX. The latter efforts have included a sociological attitude and benefits survey of the local public to assess their priority needs and perceptions that can drive project design options. We have built capacity in acquiring equipment to develop protocols for remote sensing via UAV and mapping of coastal marsh vegetation health. Specifically, this approach will study the beneficial use of dredge material to elevate subsiding marsh with intent to restore vegetation productivity, and it is in collaboration with TPWD, J.D. Murphree W.M.A. in Jefferson County, TX. We are also partnering with TxDOT to understand erosional energy dynamics within the Bolivar Peninsula area of the Gulf Intercostal Waterway (GIWW) that are implicated in negative impacts on safety and cost to maritime transport industry due to loss of protective barrier Islands. Our goal is to partner with TxDOT in sociological-ecological restoration of the barrier island, returning marshes and stabilizing GIWW shorelines with nature-based approaches. In year three, CSERG will continue to elevate the LU CfR as a coastal sustainability and resiliency leader in this United Nations, Decade of Ecosystem Restoration.
Investigators
PI: Dr. Paul Bernazzani
Co-PI: Dr. Xuejun Fan
Co-Pl: Dr. Sushi! Doranga
Co-PI: Dr. Ping He
Co-Pl: Dr. Xianchang Li
Co-PI: Dr. Berna Eren Tokgoz
Co-PI: Dr. Chun-Wei Yao
Co-PI: Dr. Julia Yoo
Semiconductors are the foundation of today's information age and underpin the global economy. They are critical to U.S. economic and national security. The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented supply chain disruptions, which highlighted both the critical importance of semiconductors and the fragility of the semiconductor ecosystem. Statewide, Texas is poised to become a new semiconductor hub in the U.S. to improve the supply chain resilience of crucial semiconductor manufacturing. The recent passage of the CHIPS and Science Act is a once-in-a generation opportunity to revitalize the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem. While traditional silicon transistor scaling continues, heterogeneous integration through advanced semiconductor packaging is driving future innovation and breakthroughs. However, given the complexity of three-dimensional packaging toward 3D chip's city, ensuring the reliability of heterogeneously integrated semiconductor packaging imposes many new challenges that were never addressed in the past. Additionally, semiconductor devices operating in southeast Texas are constantly under attack by marine tropical environments. The deleterious effects of marine tropical environments, including temperature extremes, humidity, moisture, dust, mud, oil and solvents, corrosive effects of chemicals, and the destructive effects of tropical storms and hurricanes, present threats to the integrity and reliability of the regional infrastructures including electronics infrastructure.
Research into the reliability of semiconductor packaging in marine tropical hazards is extremely important in terms of cyber-security and resiliency. In this proposed project we aim to develop a framework of a multidisciplinary program,'l'am including research, education, and outreach for semiconductor packaging resiliency and reliability, with cross-college collaboration. There are six tasks in a short term. Task 1 is to develop multi-physics models considering a combination of tropical marine environments. Task 2 is to perform experimental thermal and physical properties analyzes focusing on the reliability of electronic components. Task 3 is to study risk and supply chain management. Task 4 is to identify talented graduate/undergraduate students with interests in the semiconductor field. Task 5 is to perform outreach activities including both professional workforce development and recruiting high school students. Task 6 is to assess the study for the project including research, education, and outreach. In a long-term outlook, we seek to create an internationally recognized program in the field of semiconductor packaging manufacturing resiliency and reliability, in partnership with semiconductor company stakeholders, toward a Semiconductor Packaging Resiliency and Reliability Center. The proposed project will have broad impacts not only contributing to the next-generation workforce development in the semiconductor industry but will also preparing LU for the future of education and training for diverse industries.Semiconductors are the foundation of today's information age and underpin the global economy. They are critical to U.S. economic and national security. The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented supply chain disruptions, which highlighted both the critical importance of semiconductors and the fragility of the semiconductor ecosystem. Statewide, Texas is poised to become a new semiconductor hub in the U.S. to improve the supply chain resilience of crucial semiconductor manufacturing. The recent passage of the CHIPS and Science Act is a once-in-a generation opportunity to revitalize the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem. While traditional silicon transistor scaling continues, heterogeneous integration through advanced semiconductor packaging is driving future innovation and breakthroughs. However, given the complexity of three-dimensional packaging toward 3D chip's city, ensuring the reliability of heterogeneously integrated semiconductor packaging imposes many new challenges that were never addressed in the past. Additionally, semiconductor devices operating in southeast Texas are constantly under attack by marine tropical environments. The deleterious effects of marine tropical environments, including temperature extremes, humidity, moisture, dust, mud, oil and solvents, corrosive effects of chemicals, and the destructive effects of tropical storms and hurricanes, present threats to the integrity and reliability of the regional infrastructures including electronics infrastructure.
Investigators
Philip Cole (Con-esponding PI) Professor and Chair
Daniel Chen (Co-PI) University Professor and Scholar
We seek to identify and quantify methane leaks remotely and empirically understand the fluid dynamics of methane leakage through various soils, which then may exit into the atmosphere. This research project promotes the CfR's mission in adapting novel and innovative methane detection technologies for solving challenges faced by the petroleum industry in the midstream arena through enhancing resiliency. Our research further promotes the public good by coordinating with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality {TCEQ) in protecting Texas's public health and natural resources in providing affordable compliance. In 2003 the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ordered studies to determine whether Optical Gas Imaging technology, via infrared cameras, could be used to better monitor fugitive emissions, or addressing the inadequacies of the EPA 's Method 21. Natural gas leaks pose a clear risk of explosions, cause product loss, and the release potent greenhouse gases. Persistent emissions from the natural gas infrastructure (e.g., well pads, compressors, and gas plants) jeopardize the role of natural gas as a clean energy. Acoustic sensors have long been used to detect water pipe leaks and above-ground methane leaks from natural gas compressor stations. This proposed project will further enable "hearing" through employing dual acoustic sensors for detecting these leaks and thereby home in on identifying the location of leaks from buried natural gas pipes. The acquired data will be processed to reveal the signature frequencies and the leak location by evaluating the signal delay between sensors. The addition of acoustic sensors will enhance identification of leaks; the full complement of detectors will let us "see" with a tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS), and "probe" methane residue for our fluid-flow analysis, but further will leverage the ability to "hear" the provenance of gas leaks.
We will augment the optical detection of methane leaks with telltale acoustical signatures. The addition of these acoustic devices will enable line inspectors to "hear" the gas leaks from pipelines buried beneath various soils specific to Southeast Texas, such as Beaumont clay, river silt, and beach sand. Acoustic signatures will provide an additional means towards identifying the location of the leak. We will employ two types of listening devices that span from very low (4 to 500 Hz) to very high frequencies (20 to 40 kHz). In the future, data fusion systems from multiple sensors will afford us a mechanism to positively identify the leak species, leak location, and leak rate with the objective of finding and repairing remote pipeline ruptures. Towards this end, artificial intelligence tools such as the MATLAB neural network toolbox coupled with the predictive maintenance toolbox will be indispensable. The experimental data from this research with serve as a basis to validate future computational fluid-dynamics modeling of methane transport through various soil media. The project will be the foundation for seeking extramural funding to the federal agencies: DOE, USEPA, and USPHMA, as well as within Texas through the TCEQ. Further, we will certainly explore opportunities with the Pipeline Research Cotmcil International and other industrial entities within the GPA Midstream sector.