Reading history might be expected in many class schedules.
Updating history might not.
Fifth-year architecture students
in the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture’s
digital fabrication class were up to the challenge when
they chose a class project involving a famous, but never
realized, architectural work.
“Our students reimagined the Grotto for Meditation
by Frederick Kiesler, the Austrian architect’s famous
design,” says Andrew Vrana, visiting assistant professor
of architecture. “This reimagined version uses contemporary
digital technology to bring Kiesler’s creation closer
to reality.”
Digital fabrication refers to objects and prototypes designed
and generated on computers using 3-D modeling software
and computer-aided manufacturing equipment. In 1963, Jane
Blaffer Owen commissioned Kiesler to create the Grotto
for Meditation as a quiet, meditative spot for the arts
community of New Harmony, Ind. He designed the space using
dolphin and shell-inspired forms, but it was never built.
Enter UH architecture students.
“We used today’s technology and applied it
to Kiesler’s concept, and it is very much in keeping
with his idea,” says lecturer Joe Meppelink. “Digital
fabrication has allowed us to find a very unique solution
for our grotto.”
Plans are under way to construct
The New Harmony Grotto, which will overlook a water garden
on the east side of the architecture building. The approximately
300-square-foot finished project will feature Kiesler’s
shell with space for visitors to lounge and listen to
the water as it trickles through.
Wind-Win Situation
No
one believes that solving the nation’s energy
problems will be easy. One important part of the solution,
however, should be a breeze.
Wind energy is becoming an increasingly significant power
source, and UH has been given the green light to play a
crucial role in developing that valuable resource.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently
completed an agreement authorizing the UH-led Lone Star
Wind Alliance to design, construct, and operate a state-of-the-art
wind turbine blade testing facility at Ingleside, Texas
(near Corpus Christi). UH will receive technical and
operational assistance as well as $2 million in equipment
from NREL for the Gulf Coast testing site.
When construction is completed in
2010, the Texas-NREL Large Blade Research and Test Facility
will perform full-scale testing of massive turbine blades—the
length of a football field. The site will be one of only
two such sites in the country with that capacity.
“Houston is the energy capital, and UH is well on
its way to becoming the energy university,” says
UH President Renu Khator. “The development of this
world-class facility is a perfect example of the innovative,
research-based support that we are providing to advance
Houston’s and the state’s global leadership
in energy.”
On Shaky Ground
Houstonians may not feel it, but
the ground beneath them is moving. That could mean trouble
for buildings, roads, and pipelines located on the hundreds
of faults traversing the region’s surface.
Although geologists have long known
of the existence of faults in Southeast Texas, only recently
have UH researchers produced a comprehensive map pinpointing
these locations. After finding more than 300 surface
faults in Harris County, a UH geologist now has information
that could be vitally useful to the region’s builders
and city planners.
Shuhab Khan, assistant professor of geology, and Richard
Engelkemeir, geology Ph.D. student and recent graduate,
began looking at data compiled during a 2001 study funded
by FEMA and the Harris County Flood Control District after
Tropical Storm Allison.
Khan and Engelkemeir pored over
the data—the most
accurate and comprehensive of its kind. Many of the faults
were associated with the salt domes in the southeast part
of the county. Others were in the county’s west,
northwest, and southwest areas. Khan now is turning his
attention to Fort Bend County. Using lidar data (advanced
radar-like laser technology), Cecilia Ramirez, a master’s
student working under Khan, found one potential fault near
the Brazos River levee.
Kahn says that while these faults
are not like those that wreak havoc in earthquake-prone
California, they can move up to one inch a year—causing
serious damage, over several years, to buildings and
streets that straddle a fault line. Moreover, structures
on the subsiding side of fault lines could be more susceptible
to flooding due to the lower elevation over time. Knowing
surface fault locations, builders and government planners
can avoid those areas or accommodate potential ground
shifts in their construction plans.
First,
Do No Harm
One month of tough breathing may
help asthma sufferers breathe easier in the long run.
Relying on a medical taboo to treat asthma, Richard Bond,
associate professor of pharmacology, is challenging one
of the most basic tenets of the Hippocratic Oath—first,
do no harm.
Although counterintuitive, these
studies are like hair-of-the-dog folk wisdom—treating like with like—using beta
blockers instead of stimulants in asthmatics. Termed “paradoxical
pharmacology”—treating patients with medicine
that initially worsens their symptoms before eventually
improving their overall health—this research has
moved into human clinical trials.
Bond’s tests, initially done on asthmatic mice and
later replicated in his first clinical trial with humans,
showed that while beta blockers made breathing problems
worse, their continued use resulted in improved respiratory
function after a twenty-eight-day period, thereby helping
the airways’ smooth muscle lining to relax and dilate—allowing
air to flow more freely.
Quick Takes
Jerald W. Strickland, assistant vice chancellor for
international studies and programs, has been appointed
interim vice chancellor of academic affairs for the
UH System and interim senior vice president of academic
affairs and provost for UH. Strickland is a highly
regarded administrator who has been the College of
Optometry dean and previously served as interim provost
for the university.
The African American Studies
Program received the
National Council for Black Studies’ Sankore Award
for its contributions to Africana Studies, research,
community partnerships, and academic excellence.
Olafs Daugulis, assistant professor of chemistry,
was named a prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow,
a distinction bestowed on exceptional researchers early
in their academic careers. Daugulis developed a simplified
process for forming compounds that may be used for
manufacturing pharmaceuticals and plastics.
The Department of Health and
Human Performance is No. 1 in the nation among colleges and universities
with health, physical education, and recreation programs.
Tony Hoagland, professor of creative writing, received
the Jackson Poetry Prize, which is awarded to an American
poet of exceptional talent.
EunSook Kwon, associate professor of architecture,
was named general director of the World Design Olympiad
Seoul 2008. Kwon will oversee the international event’s
planning, promotion, and evaluation.
Vassiliy Lubchenko, assistant professor of chemistry,
was named one of only sixteen recipients of the coveted
Beckman Young Investigator Award.
The Norman Hackerman Advanced Research Program awarded
a total of $2.5 million in research grants—the
second highest amount given to any Texas university—to
twenty-one UH professors representing the colleges
of Engineering, Optometry, Pharmacy, and Natural Sciences
and Mathematics.
Bringing
Things
into Focus
Christa Raley, junior sports administration
major, expected to field grounders, hit balls, and run
bases while playing third base for the Cougar softball
team. What she didn’t
expect, however, was hitting balls in the dark with a strobe
light flashing behind her. She also never imagined she’d
be fielding grounders by playing tag with a board of lights.
“The visual system is more than just ‘what’s
the smallest line on the chart you can see,’” says
Kevin Gee, American Academy of Optometry fellow and UH
clinical assistant professor of optometry. “Specifically
for sports, it consists of depth perception, color, speed,
accuracy of movements, and contrast sensitivity—or
the ability to detect an object off a background.”
To assess these skills, Gee and
the College of Optometry’s
Sports Vision Performance Center staff use instruments
such as a 3-D movie projected on a computer screen with
shimmering objects that pop up to measure depth perception
as well as a lighted batting test that can gauge timing
and accuracy up to one-thousandth of a second. A Dynavision™ board—a
vertical, lighted peg board—also is used to determine
reaction time, peripheral awareness, and accuracy of movement.
Raley met each challenge with a “bring-it-on” attitude. “This
is one of the best years I’ve ever had, and I think
it’s because I’ve been seeing the ball better.
It actually gives me more confidence because when you see
the ball better, it looks bigger,” she says.
Tight
Gas for Tight Times
The Challenge: Gas shales … tight
gas sands
The Proposal: Increase the nation’s supply of energy
from unconventional sources
Two UH chemical engineering professors
have been selected to participate in the U.S. Department
of Energy-funded Research Partnership to Secure Energy
for America’s
Unconventional Resources Program. Their proposals were
two of only nineteen funded nationwide.
Professor Michael Nikolaou is part
of a multidisciplinary team that proposes to develop
a Web-based system for the analysis, design, and prediction
of gas production from tight gas reservoirs. The system
will provide its users—exploration
and production companies—with the ability to mathematically
model scenarios and develop predictions that can help them
determine where to drill wells for natural gas and how
to produce from these wells.
Natural gas in shales, known as “tight gas,” presents
many challenges to exploration and production companies
who seek to produce it. The process often is unpredictable
and, therefore, quite risky. In order to extract tight
gas, companies have to drill wells and fracture rocks to
create “superhighways” for the gas to escape.
According to Nikolaou, knowing exactly how to fracture
these rocks in a way to control the flow of gas is a major
obstacle. He will receive $500,000 in initial funding for
his portion of the project.
In a separate proposal, Professor
Kishore Mohanty and his team are seeking to develop ultralightweight proppants and non-damaging fracturing fluid to minimize
the damage of hydraulic fracturing to gas shale reservoirs.
Since a wells’ productivity is often limited by
damage caused by hydraulic fracturing, the team will
develop fracture treatments for tight gas reservoirs
that will enable the production of large amounts of natural
gas. Mohanty also will receive $500,000 in funding.
One month of tough breathing may
help asthma sufferers breathe easier in the long run.
Relying on a medical taboo to treat asthma, Richard Bond,
associate professor of pharmacology, is challenging one
of the most basic tenets of the Hippocratic Oath—first,
do no harm.
Tight
Gas for Tight Times
