Texas A&M University VIP Program


College Station, Texas 77843, United States
Website

Texas A&M University

College StationTexas 77843
United States
Latitude: 30.612884
Longitude: -96.340305

The Institution


Texas A&M University aims to be the standard for world-class universities of the future by combining knowledge, research, and innovation to create solutions that will change the world. As Aggies, we strive to lead by example in everything we do. With such a varied academic environment, Texas A&M is full of possibilities for students. The mission of the College of Engineering is to serve Texas, the nation, and the global community by providing engineering graduates who are well founded in engineering fundamentals, instilled with the highest standards of professional and ethical behavior, and prepared to meet the complex technical challenges of society.

The Program


In 2012 the College of Engineering at Texas A&M established a signature program titled AggiE_Challenge to engage engineering undergraduates in vertically integrated, multi-disciplinary research team projects for course credit. Through AggiE_Challenge, undergraduate students interact with faculty and graduate student mentors to tackle Grand Challenges in Engineering. Students are encouraged to participate in AggiE_Challenge for more than one semester and develop breadth of knowledge beyond their major and skills to support effective collaborations across disciplines (for example, T-Shaped engineer). Furthermore, teams that show exceptional progress are invited to participate in the Summer Lean Startup 10-week program designed to support teams pursuing commercial potential of the technologies developed under the program. Our contributions to the VIP Consortium includes: 1) one of the largest VIP sites in the country, 2) one of the VIP sites that requires all teams to engage at least three majors in a team, 3) extensive experience in assessment, with instruments and processes that can be shared across the consortium.

Directors


Magda Lagoudas

VIP Teams

  • Engineer a system for manufacturing hydrogel membranes with tunable properties. Engineer a system for precision manufacturing of hydrogel microspheres. Interdisciplinary training for students that spans biomedical, materials, chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineering
  • Develop a model for prediction of pre-seizure state. Integration, testing and design refinement of a wearable wireless device for EEG data acquisition. Develop an app to wirelessly operate the device and provide graphical user interface for seizure monitoring and alert.
  • Students will be joining a team of continuing students in reconstructing a 3D model of a patient’s local tumor site in a computer-aided design software that could be used to control the spatial positioning of multiple printer heads. Bioinks will be designed and tested by team members using biomedical and mechanical principles in order to print both normal tissue and cancer-esque tissues. The 3D...
  • The project will focus on assessing water demand and its supply in various regions of Texas. We will employ Advanced Vapor-Compression Desalination (VCD), a technology that has been developed through AggiE Challenge for the past three years. In coastal regions, Advanced VCD will desalinate seawater directly. In inland regions, Advanced VCD will concentrate brine from an RO plant, which will...