SENSING A THREAT. UTA’s Institute for Research in Security (IRIS) has received a $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop advanced security detection methods to monitor, prevent and recover from natural or inflicted disasters. Computer science and engineering Professor Larry Holder is the lead investigator on the project. Assisting Dr. Holder are computer science and engineering Professors Ishfaq Ahmad and Sajal Das, electrical engineering Professor Frank Lewis, mechanical and aerospace engineering Professor Frank Lu and several graduate students. Current approaches to security detection systems—metal detectors and baggage scanners—rely on a few independent sensors to assess an individual’s threat level. The IRIS team will develop a prototype walk-through security portal that uses a variety of sensors—visible, infrared and millimeter-wave images, metal detection data and air detection data—along with other information about the individual to determine a potential threat. The researchers believe that the fusion of data from the sensors will yield a more accurate assessment than any one or more of the sensors produce individually.

RELIGIOUS WRITINGS. The importance of ethnicity and religion in the United States and how they shaped America is the focus of a chapter by history Assistant Professor Roberto R. Treviño in the book Themes in Religion and American Culture. The chapter explains how, despite the bigotry and violence that have marred its history, the United States has not become a Northern Ireland or a Yugoslavia and how religion and ethnicity have provided its citizens with positive ways of coping with change. The book received a favorable review in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Dr. Treviño is assistant director of the UTA Center for Mexican American Studies.   

A LITTLE HELP. The National Science Foundation has awarded $374,211 to electrical engineering Professor J.C. Chiao to investigate miniaturized millimeter-wave systems. He and L.W. Lin of the University of California, Berkeley are jointly working on the innovative processes with potential applications in the sensing, imaging and communication industries. The funding, which totals $750,000, and aspects of the project will be split between the universities. Design and system integration will be done at UTA and the fabrication at UC Berkeley.

FAMILY MATTERS. The School of Social Work has received $600,000 for researching “Culturally Competent Systems of Care Practice with Hispanic Children and Families.” The federal award is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families and is funded at $200,000 a year for three years. The project provides comprehensive and interactive training to help child welfare workers and supervisors increase their skills to address areas of concern for Hispanic children and families. The collaborative effort involves the UTA School of Social Work, the University of North Texas and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. UTA will be the liaison with those elements of the state system that manage and organize state training. Social work Associate Dean Joan R. Rycraft, director of UTA’s Ph.D. program, is the principal investigator. Social work Dean Santos Hernández is chairing a community and university panel of experts to provide consultation for curriculum development and delivery.

TOUGH CELL. Nokia has awarded $93,000 to UTA to research cellphone “clatter,” the bouncing effect that occurs when a phone is dropped. UTA researchers will use mathematical modeling to design a better phone with less clatter so the insides break less easily. The University will receive the funding in three areas: $50,000 for multi-physics simulations of fuel cells, directed by mechanical engineering Professor Bo Ping Wang; $25,000 for modeling and simulation of tumbling, by mathematics Associate Professor Jianzhong Su; and $18,000 for thermal characterization of base station heat sinks, by mechanical and aerospace engineering Professor Dereje Agonafer.