exSEL News

Nursing Professor Judy LeFlore has earned national recognition from the 2012 Computerworld Honors Laureate program for her work using 3D gaming technology to teach students about in-hospital pediatric care.

Dr. LeFlore’s project “Can Game Play Teach Student Nurses How to Save Lives?” explored whether a 3D video game could teach nursing students how to respond to patients in a clinical setting. She and Assistant Professor Mindi Anderson worked with Marjorie Zielke, assistant professor of arts and technology at UT Dallas, to develop a game scenario called “iNursingRN: Respiratory Distress.”

The work was backed by $250,000 in funding from the UT System’s Transforming Undergraduate Education grant program. Dr. Zielke and LeFlore will receive the award in June in Washington, D.C.

Read more about LeFlore’s award.

Source: MavWire

A UT Arlington multidisciplinary team has received a $360,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to build artificial nanopores made of silicon that can detect “bad molecules” as a very early indication of cancer and other diseases.

Samir Iqbal, an assistant professor of electrical engineering who focuses on nanotechnology, is leading the project. He works with Sandy Dasgupta, the Jenkins Garrett Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Richard Timmons, a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry.

Nanopores are tiny openings—about 1,000 times smaller than a human pore on the skin or a human hair—made in very thin silicon chips. The silicon chips are the same material in computer processors and memories.

Dr. Iqbal’s team will run human blood-derived samples through these artificially created nanopores in a silicon chip and record how the composition may change as a function of disease.

Read more about the NSF grant.

Source: MavWire

Erica Castillo, a junior in the College of Engineering, has been named UT Arlington’s first Goldwater Scholar.

Castillo’s research focuses on structural health monitoring under the direction of Haiying Huang, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. She plans to expand her research to include soft biomaterials.

Elijah Stevens, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, was awarded an honorable mention in the Goldwater Scholars program.

Stevens, an Iraq war veteran, is researching high temperature thermal protection systems under the direction of Dragos-Stefan Dancila, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Congress established the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program in 1986 in honor of the former U.S. senator from Arizona and 1964 presidential candidate. The program’s goal is to encourage a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships in those fields.

Read more about the Goldwater Scholarship.

Source: MavWire

Sandy Dasgupta, the Jenkins Garrett Professor of Chemistry, is being honored as the 2012 recipient of the Dal Nogare Award today, Monday, March 12, at the Pittcon Conference and Expo in Orlando, Fla., one of the premier events in the world of laboratory science.

Dr. Dasgupta has made numerous improvements to methods of ion chromatography, the process of separating and detecting ions—atoms and molecules bearing a net electrical charge—for analysis. He is credited with the development of electrodialytic suppressors, eluent generators, and post column reagent introduction devices.

“We are so pleased to see Dr. Dasgupta honored with this prestigious award for his energetic and varied pursuits in expanding the field of chromatography,” says Ronald L. Elsenbaumer, provost and vice president for academic affairs and a former chair of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department. “Years of discoveries lie ahead thanks to the more refined equipment and better processes he has developed.”

Read more about Dasgupta’s award.

Source: MavWire

The College of Nursing will use a $419,000 federal grant to bolster recruitment of minorities to its nursing Ph.D. program with hopes of addressing cultural disparities in health research and patient care.

The grant—a three-year award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—will provide funds to recruit candidates from historically underrepresented groups and ensure the success of students through mentoring, professional socialization, and enhanced academic advising. Administrators believe their efforts will result in more students and graduates doing research related to disparities and provide more Ph.D.-prepared nurses to increase the number of minority faculty in nursing programs.

“The shortage of Ph.D.-prepared nurses is especially acute among minority nurses,” says Jennifer Gray, associate dean of the College of Nursing and principal investigator on the new grant. “As we have more and more minority patients seeking health care, we need minority health care providers who better understand their culture and could possibly be more effective.”

Read more about the nursing grant.

Source: MavWire