Grad Profiles - Texas A&M Kingsville Engineering

Overview
Texas A&M University-Kingsville was established in 1925 as Texas State Teacher's College and has since evolved into a comprehensive institution of higher learning. Its name and scope have undergone major changes, most recently in 1989, when the University became a part of the Texas A&M University System, and in 1993, when the name was changed to Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

The total University enrollment is 6,869. Of the Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering's 1,059 students, 333 are enrolled at the graduate level and 22 are pursuing a doctoral degree. International students make up 57 percent of the graduate student enrollment, but the student population is very diverse.

The Location and Community
Texas A&M University-Kingsville is located in semitropical south Texas. Kingsville is situated about 40 miles southwest of Corpus Christi, 153 miles southeast of San Antonio, and 120 miles north of Mexico. Kingsville, a town of about 25,000 people, is in a semirural area but is easily accessible to urban areas. The coastline is nearby, making water sports and activities popular. The King Ranch, one of the largest commercial ranches in the world, provides tours and other community services. Nearby Corpus Christi features many social and cultural activities, including museums, concerts, plays, and minor league baseball.

Programs of Study and Degree Requirements
The Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering offers several interdisciplinary courses of study leading to Master of Science and Master of Engineering degrees in chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, environmental engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and natural gas engineering and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering. For Master of Science degrees, both Plan I (24 semester hours of course work and 6 semester hours of thesis) and Plan II (36 semester hours of course work) are available. The Master of Engineering degree is a special program intended to provide practicing engineers with the opportunity for advanced studies, for which 36 hours of course work are required (registration as a Professional Engineer in Texas may qualify a person to complete the program in 30 hours). Students intending to pursue a Ph.D. are urged to complete the Plan I requirements. Comprehensive oral exams are required for all degrees.

Chemical and natural gas research areas include gross error detection and data reconciliation, rheology, thermodynamics, process control, and optimization. Civil engineering research includes structural dynamics, concrete design, and groundwater hydrology. Electrical engineering and computer science research involves compiler design, real-time systems, control system synthesis, digital signal processing, communications, and integrated electronics. Environmental engineering research explores air pollution control, wastewater treatment, bioremediation, solid/hazardous waste design, industrial health/safety, and product safety/toxicology. Mechanical and industrial engineering research includes network flows, computer-integrated manufacturing, advanced dynamics, and intelligent control.

Facilities & Resources
The Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering's research facilities are divided into a number of laboratories in four engineering buildings: the Kleberg Engineering Building, the Dotterweich Engineering Laboratory, the McNeil Engineering Laboratory, and the Engineering Complex. Advanced specialty equipment is housed in dedicated labs for each discipline for materials testing, electronic design, chemical separation and distillation, and environmental analysis. Extensive computer facilities utilizing 486 PC and Sun SPARCstation machines are available to all students. In addition, research facilities in other areas of the University (e.g., biology, chemistry, earth sciences), such as an advanced scanning electron microscope, are available for engineering usage.

Expenses and Aid
Tuition and fees (13 semester hours) for Texas residents are $1519 per semester. The cost for non-Texas residents and international students is $4510 per semester.

Financial Aid
University teaching and research assistantships provide annual stipends, while fellowships and internships supported by federal, state, and University funds provide stipends of $1000 to $14,000. International students are required to guarantee their support but are eligible for in-state tuition rates if awarded competitive fellowships.

Housing/Living Expenses
The cost of living in south Texas is relatively low when compared to that of other areas of the country. Apartments and rental homes in the $300 to $400 per month range can easily be found. Several apartment complexes and rental properties are within walking distance or short driving distance of the University. Dormitory rooms for unmarried students and apartments for married students and their families are available through the University. Dorm rooms with optional meal plans start at about $1700 per semester. Student family apartments rent for about $360 per month.

How to Apply / Application
Candidates must submit admissions applications to the Admissions Office and must be admitted to the College of Graduate Studies and the engineering program of their choice. Students must have a GRE score of at least 1000 (verbal plus quantitative); environmental engineering applicants must have a GRE score of at least 1100 and an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.0. Students whose native language is not English must supply a minimum score of 550 on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Application deadlines are for the fall, July 1; spring, November 15; and summer, April 15.

Who to Contact
Graduate Coordinator
(Department of interest)
Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering
Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Kingsville, Texas 78363-8202

361-593-2001

Graduate Programs
Civil Engineering
Computer Science
Chemical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Environmental and Civil Engineering
Industrial Technology
Industrial Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Natural Gas Engineering

The Faculty and Their Research
• Hayder Abdul-Razzak, Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; Ph.D., IIT, 1988. Design, analysis, and modeling of fluid/thermal systems; numerical computations.

• Francisco Aguiniga, Assistant Professor of Civil and Architectural Engineering; Ph.D., Texas A&M College Station, 2003. Hurricane vulnerability of coastal bridges, composite materials for construction.

• Faleh T. Al-Saadoon, Professor of Chemical and Natural Gas Engineering; Ph.D., Pittsburgh, 1970; PE. Unconventional gas resources, profile control/modification using cross-linked polymer.

• Breanna Bailey, Assistant Professor of Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering; Ph.D. Texas A&M University, 2006. Computational design, structural optimization, and historical preservation.

• T. Joe Boehm, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Ph.D., Oklahoma State, 1975. Ultra-low-level and ultra-stable empirical studies, fluctuation phenomena.

• Rajab Challoo, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Ph.D., Wichita State, 1988; PE. Modeling, analysis, and design of linear and nonlinear dynamic systems/control systems; intelligent control of robotic systems.

• John L. Chisholm, Associate Professor of Chemical and Natural Gas Engineering; Ph.D., Oklahoma, 1992. Microbially enhanced oil recovery, reservoir simulation, time-series analysis.

• Lee W. Clapp, Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering; Ph.D., Wisconsin-Madison, 1999. Biological treatment, including optimization of biological wastewater processes and development of innovative processes for bioremediation of contaminated soil and groundwater.

• Amit Cholkar, Lecturer, Mechanical Engineering M.S. Texas A&M University-Kingsville Computer Based Graphics and Design and Manufacturing.

• Horacio A. Duarte, Associate Professor of Chemical and Natural Gas Engineering; Ph.D., Texas A& M University,1988. Thermodynamics, Physical Properties Measurement, Chemical Process Synthesis, Modeling and Simulation of Chemical Processes.

• Yousri Elkassabgi, Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; Ph.D., Houston, 1986; PE. Heat transfer with or without phase change, fluid mechanics, energy conservation.

• Mohammed A. Faruqi, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering; Ph.D., Arkansas, 1996. Structural materials, concrete structures, structural dynamics, model analysis, and mathematical modeling of composites.

• James (Jim) Glusing, Architectural Engineering Lecturer, Master of Architecture, Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture, University of Houston, 2003. Computer aided drafting, sustainable materials and design.

• Wei-Da Hao, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Ph.D., Portland State University, 1990. Parallel Computation, Algorithm, Modeling and Simulation, Software Defined Radio.

• William A. Heenan, Professor and Dean of Chemical and Natural Gas Engineering; D.Engr., Detroit, 1969; PE. Chemical process control and optimization, error detection/data reconciliation.

• Farzin Heidari, Associate Professor of Industrial Technology; Ph.D., Idaho, 1990. Automation, cellular manufacturing, flexible manufacturing systems (FMS).

• Kai Jin, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; Ph.D., Texas Tech University, 2002. Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing, Lean Manufacturing, Quality Control, Six Sigma, Optimization, Supply Chain Management and Information Mining.

• Kuruvilla John, Associate Professor and Chairman of Environmental and Civil Engineering; Ph.D., Iowa, 1996. Air pollution, impacts, and control strategies; urban and regional scale air-quality studies; monitoring air quality and meteorology; emissions inventory assessment; tropospheric ozone and photochemical oxidants; fine particulate matter; photochemical and dispersion modeling; air pollution meteorology and forecasting; regional/global change impact analysis; stochastic and neural network modeling.

• Kim D. Jones, Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering; Ph.D., Georgia Tech, 1997; PE. Geochemical interactions between organic pollutants and soils and sediments; characterization of natural organic matter extracted from soils, sediments, and natural waters; industrial process waste minimization, treatment, water reuse, and closed-loop process planning; fate and transport of contaminants in subsurface systems; solid and hazardous waste management.

• Sangyong Lee, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering; Ph.D., Pittsburgh, 1999. Thermodynamic model to predict water-gas-hydrate phase equilibria, model for binary and ternary gas systems, kinetic research on gas hydrate formation in pipelines, prediction of the solubility of CO®MD+SD¯2®MD-SD¯ at high pressure and low temperature conditions, technology for ocean carbon sequestration, gas hydrate formation in porous media, methane gas hydrate formation with suspended particles.

• Young Lee, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Ph.D., Auburn University, 2007. Software Metrics, Automated Software Environment, Software Quality Engineering, Software Visualization.

• Pat T. Leelani, Professor and Chairman of Civil Engineering; Ph.D., Akron, 1980; PE. Geotechnical engineering, static and dynamic properties of soil.

• Chung S. Leung, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Ph.D., Florida Atlantic, 1989; PE. Speech recognition, data compression, pattern recognition, neural networks, fuzzy logic.

• Bruce Marsh, Associate Professor of Industrial Technology, D.I.T., University of Northern Iowa, 1996. Six Sigma Quality Improvement, Lean Production, Research Methods and Statistics.

• Alvaro Martinez, Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering; Ph.D., Central Florida, 1993. Advanced control of emissions from combustion using free radicals donors, control of hazardous pollutants and sulfur compounds using biofiltration.

• Lifford McLauchlan, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Ph.D., Texas A&M University, 2000. Control Systems, Adaptive Controls and Signal/Image Processing, Intelligent Controls and Signal Processing, Digital Watermarking.

• Frank M. Mullen, Associate Professor of Industrial Technology; Ed.D., East Texas State, 1983. Industrial materials, 1983 industrial controls.

• Reza Nekovei, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Ph.D., Rhode Island, 1994. Massive parallel processing, rapid prototyping, medical imaging, distributed systems.

• Syed Iqbal Omar, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Ph.D., Carleton, 1971. Intelligent systems, image processing, telerobotic protocols.

• Selahattin Ozcelik, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; Ph.D., RPI, 1996. Adaptive control, robust and nonlinear control, robotics, intelligent control, flexible structures and active vibration control.

• Sung-won Park, Professor and Chairman of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Ph.D., New Mexico, 1985; PE. Spectral analysis, data compression, speech processing, image processing.

• Larry D. Peel, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Ph.D., Brigham Young, 1999, PE, 2006, Mechanics, Fabrication, and Testing of composite structures. Auxetic materials, Morphing wings.

• Ali A. Pilehvari, Associate Professor and Chairman of Chemical and Natural Gas Engineering; Ph.D., Tulsa, 1984; PE. Rheology of non-Newtonian fluids, including drilling fluids, cement slurries, solid-liquid, and gas-liquid.

• David Ramirez, Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering; Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005. Sustainable technologies for air quality control. Capture and recovery of organic vapors from waste sources using carbon based adsorbents.

• Jianhong Ren, Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering; Ph.D., Northwestern, 2003. Contaminant, sediment, stream, streambed, particles, processes, modeling, transport.

• William Rosenkranz, Lecturer Industrial Technology; MS, Texas A & M, 1994. Hazardous materials/environmental regulations-environmental science: MS, Kansas State, Microwave integrated circuits-electrical engineering.

• Joseph O. Sai, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering; Ph.D., Texas A&M, 1982; PE. Water resources, liner systems design and evaluation, infiltrometers.

• Barbara Schreur, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Ph.D., Florida State, 1979. Real-time, systems software reliability, Oort cloud, presentation software-based instruction.

• Robert Serth, Professor of Chemical and Natural Gas Engineering; Ph.D., SUNY at Buffalo, 1968; PE. Gross-error detection/data reconciliation.

• Dazhi Sun, Assistant Professor of Civil and Architectural Engineering; Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005. Intelligent Transportation Systems, Transporation Planning, Traffic Operations and Safety, Traffic Control and Simulation, and Transporation Security.

• Venkatesh Uddameri, Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering; Ph.D., Maine, 1998. Fate and transport modeling, risk management, system analysis, artificial intelligence, geoenvironmental engineering, environmental statistics, mass transfer and public safety.

• Donald A. Varvel, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Ph.D., Texas at Austin, 1994. Algorithms and complexity, real-time and embedded systems, DBMS.

• Amit Verma, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Ph.D. Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. Modeling and characterization of nano-materials and devices.

• Gang Wang, Assistant Professor of Civil and Architectural Engineering; Ph.D., Harbin Institute of Technology, 1996 and Ph.D., University of Nebraska -Lincoln, 2005; Energy-efficient building engineered systems.

• Daniel S. Wright, Lecturer, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering; MSE, UT Austin, 1994. Materials testing, failure analysis, machine design, mechanics.

• Muhittin Yilmaz, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ph.D., Penn State University, 2005, Robust Control Theory and Applications, Computer Architecture, Electric Machinery and Drives, Power Electronics, Artificial Intelligence.

• Nuri Yilmazer, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Ph.D., Syracuse University, 2006, Array Signal Processing, Smart Antennas, Applied Electromagnetics, Signal Processing, Sensor Networks.

• Hong Zhou, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Ph.D., Tennessee Tech, 2005, Compliant Mechanisms, Parallel Manipulators, Mechanical Design, Geometric Modeling, Computational Mechanics.

• Yifang Zhu, Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering; Ph.D., University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), 2003. Air pollution, environmental exposure assessment, aerosol science and technology, vehicular emitted ultrafine particles.