building a better texas

More than 50 tech industry experts, community leaders and Texas A&M scholars gathered in College Station May 14, 2019 for the ENDEAVR Tech Summit, an event exploring the anticipated future of education as realized through “smart” cities.

Merging waste metal from the automotive industry, native plants and the ingenuity of design students and professors, a new “Living Wall” adorns the side of Langford B, adding beautification and reducing heat gain effects on the wall and surrounding area.

Two small Texas towns recovering from Hurricane Harvey are getting help from Texas A&M urban planning graduate students.

Gerald D. Hines, founding chairman of the legendary namesake firm, a global powerhouse in real estate investment, development and management, will head a team of company executives who will discuss the multibillion-dollar firm’s operations Friday, Feb. 8, 2019 at Texas A&M.

Hurricane Harvey’s widespread damage forced cities throughout the U.S. to take a more critical look at their infrastructure and hazard mitigation plans, said Galen Newman, Texas A&M associate professor of urban planning.

Urban planners in shrinking cities grappling with a growing number of vacant lots could get help from a new planning tool developed by Galen Newman, associate professor of urban planning, and a team of university researchers.

Using high-tech tools including photogrammetry, laser scanning and 3-D modeling, Texas A&M architecture students created historic documentation and restoration plans for a beloved 105-year-old Deanville, Texas-based train depot.

For his work enhancing healthcare design standards, Kirk Hamilton, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, was elevated to fellowship in the American College of Critical Care Medicine. He is only the second architect to be inducted into this elite national society.

Future initiatives to ensure the preservation of plant and animal habitats in a suburban Houston public recreation area will be aided by land use maps and master plans created last spring by Texas A&M graduate landscape architecture students.

In the future, structures will be created onsite by 3-D printers, and the construction and manufacturing industries will have much more in common, according to a multidisciplinary Texas A&M faculty team envisioning how technology will change building.

To prepare for a future in which structures are built with material from large-scale, 3-D printers, College of Architecture faculty are developing and testing environmentally responsible printing methods in a two-year study funded by a $500,000 X-Grant.

Researchers are learning how to reduce highway repavement costs and maximize rural highway safety in two multiyear research projects that include Kunhee Choi, Texas A&M associate professor of construction science, and scientists from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

Seemingly rational choices, made in the wake of natural disasters, can produce unsound results due to “uncanny wisdom,” a term, coined by a Texas A&M urban planning professor, describing actions that eventually exacerbate problems they were meant to solve.

As La Grange, Texas recovers from post Hurricane Harvey flooding, residents and elected officials are considering Texas A&M student proposals that address the town’s infrastructure, housing and transportation needs.

A recent National Academies report championing the integration of science and the arts validates a Texas A&M visualization professor's multi-year National Science Foundation-funded initiative to elevate the role of art and design in STEM fields.