College of Science and Technology Spring 2020 Newsletter

TEXANS KNOW HOW. Spring 2020 Newsletter Look what’s happening at COST! Although our Spring 2020 semester was unexpectedly interrupted by COVID-19, our faculty, students, departments and alumni persevered and accomplished great things that we are very proud of!

As the new Dean, I would like to take a minute to introduce myself to the alumni and friends of the College of Science and Technology. I began at Tarleton in January, 2020 after nearly 18 years at the University of West Florida (UWF) in Pensacola, Florida. During my time at UWF, I was a professor of chemistry where I taught courses mainly in organic chemistry and spectroscopy while conducting research with nearly 100 undergraduate students. In addition, I have over 13 years of administrative experience as a department chair and college dean. I am excited to join the team at Tarleton and have enjoyed learning more about this great institution as well as the talented faculty, staff, and students in the College.

Michael T. Huggins, PhD

The Spring 2020 semester in COST will be one for the history books and one we will never forget due to the COVID-19 virus. The COST faculty completed a challenging transition to instruction being delivered using a variety of distance learning tools (Zoom, Canvas, etc) while shifting to working from home. At the same time, COST staff developed new methods for keeping the business operations moving in this new paradigm. Happily, we finished the spring semester on time completing the delivery of the courses to provide students with the highest quality educational experiences possible under these difficult circumstances. In fact, COST undergraduate and graduate degrees awarded for the spring semester increased by about 4% overall as com pared to the Spring, 2019 semester. We are all proud of how the COST faculty and staff responded, and continue to respond, to the ever-changing circumstances due to the pandemic.

We are currently planning for Fall semester where we will have students return to campus. However, it will not be business as usual. Faculty and staff are working on deploying everything needed to ensure safe operations to minimize the spread of the COVID-19 virus. As always, we are working to safeguard the COST students while providing them with the highest quality educational experiences possible to ensure they are successful after leaving Tarleton.

As the “new guy”, the first 5 months at Tarleton have certainly been interesting and challenging. I look forward to a time when things return to normal where I can have additional opportunities to learn more about Tarleton and hear the wonderful stories from our great alumni about their Tarleton experience.

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College of Science & Technology Spring 2020 Newsletter

Tarleton undergrad researcher wins award for conference presentation Tarleton State University biological sciences major Shady Kuster received the Bobby Baker Award for her presentation at the 2020 Texas Society of Mammologists Conference. She competed at the spring conference with other undergraduate students.

The award is given annually for the best undergraduate oral presentation in mammalian molecular biology, evolution or systematics. For several months prior to the conference, Shady used advanced DNA sequencing to study genetic changes in the DNA of cell compartments known as mitochondria. Her study organisms were pocket gophers.

While often considered a pest, the burrowing mammals make interesting study subjects because their populations can become isolated and genetically different over time. Occasionally, those isolated populations rejoin and combine DNA, resulting in unique genetic interactions.

Shady’s research may ultimately contribute to the broader understanding of how genes in different compartments of the cell interact — a research area with human health implications. Dr. Russell Pfau, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Tarleton, served as Shady’s mentor during her undergraduate research experience. “I initially joined Dr. Pfau’s lab because I was very interested in genetics,” Shady said.

“Through working in the lab, however, I learned how much computer work goes into genetic research, so I am now taking computer science classes and dabbling in that field. I have loved my research experience and what it has taught me. It has solidified my desire to become a scientist.”

Funding for her project was provided by the College of Science and Technology and the Department of Biological Sciences.

Shady, from Canyon, Texas, has been accepted into a summer research program at the University of Georgia that will now be conducted online. She will work with UGA faculty on an algorithm to analyze over 2,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes to identify virulence genes. She also will attend seminars on research, graduate school, bioethics and other applicable topics while also networking within the biomedical science community.

Following graduation in May 2021 she plans to work toward a PhD in genetics with the goal of becoming a university-level genetic researcher.

Tarleton professor awarded patent for water treatment invention Tarleton State University professor Rajani Srinivasan has been awarded a patent for her invention related to the use of plant-based materials in water treatment.

Dr. Srinivasan, an associate professor of chemistry and former head of the Department of Chemistry, Geosciences and Physics, was awarded the patent in October.

Her invention relates to polysaccharides and their hybrids from food-grade plant materials like seeds of fenugreek and tamarind, husks from psyllium, fruits of okra, cladodes of cactus and aloe vera leaves, for purification of water and wastewater.

The polysaccharide agents of the invention are effective to treat a variety of waters, including contaminated and waste. The water treatment agents of the invention are effective in separating solids, organic and inorganic pollutants and pathogens from water. Polysaccharides from plant sources are renewable materials, widely available, and possess biological and chemical properties including nontoxicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability and polyfunctionality. These materials are cost effective, can be used in existing water/wastewater treatment infrastructure and generate byproducts that can be used for other applications. For example, fenugreek husk, a byproduct of seed mucilage, can be used as animal feed.

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College of Science & Technology Spring 2020 Newsletter

Tarleton math students capture awards at annual conference Tarleton State University math students presented at a pair of recent conferences and brought home three awards. Seven students and four faculty members traveled to the Texas Academy of Science Meeting at Stephen F. Austin Feb. 28 and 29.

Jaryd Domine captured first place and the Amir Moez Award in mathematics and computer science section with his presentation “N-Body Adaptive Optimization of Lattice Towers.” Mason McCallum’s talk, “N-body Simulation of Contact Binary Star Evolution Using Nvidia GPUs” took first in the physics and engineering oral presentation category. Shawn Brody came in second in the graduate student oral presentation competition with his presentation “Big Jumps or Little Steps: Fighting Gerrymandering with Random Walks.”

Tarleton’s Dr. Scott Cook, assistant professor of mathematics and coordinator of the math graduate program, accompanied the team and served as vice chair of the math and computer science section and will serve as chair of the section for next year’s meeting.

Assistant professor of math, Dr. Chris Mitchell, was elected vice chair for the 2021 meeting.

Tarleton construction science team takes fifth at Las Vegas competition Tarleton State University’s construction science and management team captured fifth place in the 2020 International Builders’ Show (IBS) Construction Management Competition in Las Vegas last weekend.

Forty university teams from across the United States and the Caribbean participated as part of the annual IBS conference, with more than 75,000 builders, subcontractors, suppliers, manufacturers, business owners, students and faculty attending from all over the world.

The team submitted a project design and site development, project estimate and schedule, marketing analysis, and risk and financial breakdown for an adult-age-restricted residential community in Utah. The team worked on the project for 3½ months and defended before a panel of judges at the IBS convention Jan. 20-23. “It was a great learning experience for me because of the detail that goes into designing a community and managing a project overall,” said Tarleton team member Hayden Brown, who won the event’s Outstanding Student Award. “I learned how to overcome challenges and think critically on the fly to solve problems, and developed team building skills. These are critical components of becoming a successful project manager in the workforce.”

The team, comprised of Brown, Michael Pilato, Christopher Sauer, Dakota Boll and Larry Popkess, was led by faculty mentor Dr. Orlando Bagcal. “The student competition provides an opportunity for the students to showcase their learned knowledge and skills in construction management as well as to apply critical and analytical thinking in solving real-world problems. We can tell that our program is at par with other well-known and top-caliber universities offering construction management,” Bagcal said.

“The competition was a great team experience that taught me to better manage the coordination of efforts to create an exceptional project proposal. This will better prepare me for the future by showing me that great products can be made when the entire team is on task and believes in what they are doing,” Boll said. Tarleton’s team beat out large universities such as Oklahoma University, Penn State, Clemson, Louisiana State, California Polytechnic, Purdue and Florida. “The competition had challenges that are always involved with working with a team,” Popkess said. “But overall it expanded my knowledge of the industry and how to operate in the business world.”

Tarleton’s construction science and management program, delivered on the Stephenville campus, is the fastest growing program in the university’s School of Engineering.

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College of Science & Technology Spring 2020 Newsletter

Tarleton to offer new master's program in computer engineering Graduate students looking for a master of science program in computer engineering have a new option at Tarleton State University.

Tarleton will welcome students in the fall for the first semester of a program offered by the Department of Engineering and Computer Science in the School of Engineering designed to prepare students for career advancement or for studies at the doctoral level.

The computer engineering program is the first graduate degree for the Department of Engineering and Computer Science. It includes concentrations in state-of-the-art technology areas including distributed computing, advanced networking and cybersecurity, VLSI (very large scale integration) circuit design, machine learning, artificial intelligence and computer vision. ”This program is going to enhance the post-graduate opportunities in particular for computer science and electrical engineering students and broaden research capacity of the department,” said Dr. Denise Martinez, associate dean of the School of Engineering. “We look forward to getting started.”

Tarleton alum earns prestigious civil engineering award Allison Stamper, a 2016 Tarleton State University environmental engineering alumna, has been named the 2020 Edmund Friedman Young Engineer of the Year by the Fort Worth Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The award recognizes young members of ASCE who exhibit outstanding contributions to the public welfare via civil engineering.

Stamper has been working in civil/environmental engineering for four years. She’s with Peloton Land Solutions in the Fort Worth firm’s Hydraulics and Hydrology Group.

She is a member of the Junior League of Fort Worth and volunteers with its Young Women’s Leadership Academy. She also volunteers at the Fort Worth ISD’s Breakthrough Fort Worth, which builds the confidence and academic skills necessary to succeed in academically rigorous high schools.

She has been actively involved with ASCE, including serving as the Tarleton practitioner adviser mentoring the student chapter.

Tarleton, founding member of The Texas A&M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven education marked by academic innovation and a dedication to transform today's scholars into tomorrow's leaders. It offers degree programs to more than 13,000 students at Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan, and online, emphasizing real-world learning experiences that

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College of Science & Technology Spring 2020 Newsletter

Tarleton wins first place at WEAT Student Design Competition Tarleton State University’s environmental/civil engineering team captured first place in the recent Water Environment Association of Texas Student Design Competition.

Teams in the annual competition, held this year on a virtual platform, represented nine Texas universities and one from Mexico.

Tarleton’s five environmental and civil engineering students topped Texas Tech and Texas A&M, which finished second and third, respectively. Other high-profile schools at the meet included UT Austin, the University of Houston and Tecnológico de Monterrey.

The team, led by John Lozano (Tarleton BS in environmental engineering, May 2020), designed upgrades for the city of Pflugerville’s wastewater treatment plant. The team’s faculty mentor, Dr. Kartik Venkataraman, associate professor in the Department of Engineering and Computer Science, said the project was a real-world design topic assigned by the WEAT coordinators.

Team members included Lozano, recent graduates Lucas Ringo and Josh Rangel, and seniors Shannon Lawless and Cruz Trujillo. They began work on their design in September 2019 with mentorship from Tarleton alums and 2018 third-place WEAT SDC winners Kevin Flinn and Ty Riebe and their supervisor, Tina Hanson, all from Garver Inc. “The SDC was scheduled to be held in Fort Worth in April,” Venkataraman noted, “but was moved to a virtual setting due to covid19. Despite the move, the team made an excellent professional presentation of their final design and submitted a comprehensive design report.”

Tarleton advanced to represent the WEAT Member Association at the National Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) scheduled for October in New Orleans.

@TarletonCollegeofScienceandTechnology

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College of Science & Technology Spring 2020 Newsletter