Research News at UT Dallas

Research

News for and about the people whose discoveries, inventions, designs and scholarly achievements bring UT Dallas toward its goal of becoming one of the nation’s best public research universities.

Solar Flares May Disrupt GPS Systems, Researcher Says

If your GPS navigation system goes on the fritz in the coming days, you might have the sun to blame. Early this week, the sun released three X-class solar flares, the strongest type of flare. Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predict a 40-percent chance of more X-class flares in the coming days, some possibly pointed toward the Earth.

Study Links Adolescent Bullies to Criminal Behavior Later

Adults who say they bullied others when they were adolescents may have a higher likelihood of engaging in criminal behavior later in life, according to new research from UT Dallas. The study, which appeared in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, examined data gathered on a group of more than 400 men over the course of several decades.

Student-Designed Solar Chargers Shine in First Months of Testing

A promising display of carbon-free energy has been quietly humming along for three months on the UT Dallas campus. Specialized solar-powered golf cart charging stations placed in January have withstood the elements and created a tantalizing example of the effectiveness of alternative energy sources.

Former Cowboys Star to Join Researcher at Concussion Talk

Recent research on concussions and the impact of those findings on NFL football will be the topic of a talk set Tuesday by former Dallas Cowboys fullback Daryl “Moose” Johnston and the Center for BrainHealth’s medical science director, Dr. John Hart Jr. The breakfast lecture, titled “Beyond the Game: Boosting Brain Performance,” will be at 7:15 a.m. at the center.

3-D Project Bridges Research, Dallas Community Awareness

Dr. Georgia Fotopoulos and her graduate students in the Department of Geosciences have completed a project called “3D Dallas,” which aimed to raise awareness of the interactions between natural and urban environments.

Capitol Ideas: Undergrads Take Research Results to Austin

Four UT Dallas undergraduates showcased their work to legislators and the public last week in Austin for Texas Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol. The event raised awareness of outstanding research conducted by undergraduates at the state’s institutions, as well as the impact of that research on Texans. About 60 research posters were displayed, representing nearly 50 higher education institutions.

Undergraduate Research Journal Enjoys 2nd Edition Since Debut

The Office of Undergraduate Education recently celebrated the latest issue of The Exley, UT Dallas’ undergraduate research journal. Supporters and students who contributed research articles and creative works to the journal attended a luncheon to recognize The Exley. Also attending was Elizabeth Exley Hodge, a former long-time UT Dallas staffer whose contributions helped launch the new journal last year and for whom it is named.

Undergraduate Student Research Projects Showcased

Industry representatives recently selected winners in a poster contest for undergraduate researchers. Each year, dozens of undergraduates participate in research projects ranging from social sciences to physical sciences, and in emerging fields such as nanotechnology, biomedical devices and cyber security.

Issues Explores Health Care, Work/Life Balance in Science Careers

The nation’s healthcare system, balancing work and life in science and engineering careers, and governing research are among the topics included in the spring edition of Issues in Science and Technology. The award-winning journal is produced by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and The University of Texas at Dallas.

Malware’s Threat to Data Security is Focus of Kusch Lecture

Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham, an expert in data security and data mining, will discuss an especially dangerous type of malicious code and the measures that are being taken to fight it at the 2013 Polykarp Kusch Lecture. Thuraisingham is director of the Cyber Security Research and Education Institute at UT Dallas.

Wharton Tops UT Dallas Business School Research Rankings

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania held its firm grip on the No. 1 spot in The UT Dallas Top 100 Business School Research Rankings for 2013 released Wednesday by the Naveen Jindal School of Management. Harvard University, No. 2, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, No. 3, also maintained their places in separate annual rankings of schools in North America and worldwide. Both sets of rankings measure business school research productivity by tracking contributions in leading publications.

Let the Games Begin: Competition is Key in Economics Lab

The Center and Laboratory for Behavioral Operations and Economics recently opened in the Naveen Jindal School of Management with one main purpose: to play games. “This lab is a great opportunity to test analytical models for applications,” says Dr. Elena Katok, the lab's co-director. “There is so much that can be learned by how human beings interact in business.”

Biology Lecture to Honor Founding UT Dallas Faculty Member

The Department of Molecular and Cell Biology will honor the scientific achievements of one of its founding faculty members and longtime leaders with a public lecture April 3. Dr. Michael White, professor of cell biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, will give the 23rd Clowes Memorial Lecture at 5 p.m. April 3 in the TI Auditorium in the Engineering and Computer Science Building.

Materials Science Researchers Start Student Group

Students from the Materials Science and Engineering Department at UT Dallas have formed the only student chapter of an international professional organization in the state – and one of a few such chapters in the country. AVS – a professional society dedicated to the science and technology of materials, interfaces, and processing – has about 4,500 members worldwide from academia, governmental laboratories and industry. There are fewer than 10 student chapters in the entire United States.

NIH Funds UT Dallas Study on Cause of Huntington’s Disease

Dr. Santosh D’Mello, professor of molecular and cell biology at The University of Texas at Dallas, has received a federal grant for research that may shed light on why and how specific brain cells are affected by Huntington’s disease, a devastating, degenerative brain disorder. The grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, provides $1.67 million over 5 years.

2 Doctoral Students Recognized for Astrophysics Research

Two University of Texas at Dallas graduate students are recipients of the NASA/Texas Space Grant Consortium Fellowship for 2012-13. Austin Peel and Michael Troxel, both PhD students in the Department of Physics, are among 21 graduate students from 16 Texas institutions who have received $5,000 fellowships from the consortium. The award supports graduate study in the fields of space science and engineering.

BrainHealth Symposium to Explore Neuroscience of Addiction

The Reprogramming the Human Brain Symposium, an annual research- and treatment-focused conference organized in part by UT Dallas’ Center for BrainHealth, will concentrate this year on the cognitive neuroscience of decision-making and addiction. The event, which brings together some of neuroscience’s most advanced researchers, is co-sponsored by the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at The University of California, Berkeley, where this year’s symposium will be held March 28.

Study Finds Good Marriages More Likely for Teens of Happy Homes

A UT Dallas study has found that people who come from families with members who are encouraging and engaged with one another tend to have marriages with more positive outcomes later in life. Dr. Robert Ackerman, an assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and his colleagues looked at data from participants in the Iowa Youth and Families Project.

Researchers’ New Method May Sharpen Microscopic Images

UT Dallas researchers are developing a new low-light imaging method that could improve a number of scientific applications, including the microscopic imaging of single molecules in cancer research. Electrical engineering professor Dr. Raimund Ober and his team recently published their findings in the journal Nature Methods. In it, they describe a method, which minimizes the deterioration of images that can occur with conventional imaging approaches.

Hypertension Could Bring Increased Risk for Alzheimer’s disease

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Neurology suggests that controlling or preventing risk factors, such as hypertension, earlier in life may limit or delay the brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related neurological deterioration.

Team Wins First-of-its-Kind Google Research Award

Dr. Lawrence Chung, associate professor of computer science at UT Dallas, could not predict with 100 percent certainty that his cloud computing project would be recipient of a-first-of-its-kind award from Google, but he kept his hopes high. “Our research at UT Dallas is world class,” he said. “We do cutting-edge research.”

Dean Spong Kicks Off Inaugural Perot Museum Program

Dr. Mark W. Spong, a leading researcher in robotics and control theory and noted educator from the UT Dallas, recently kicked off an inaugural program at the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science called The Lab. Spong, who developed the first robot that could play air hockey, spoke about the future of robotics to the Perot Museum audience of adults and kids on Feb. 7.

Big Ideas Drive Science of the Ultra-Small and Ultra-Cold

The emerging scientific field of quantum topological materials will take center stage during a conference at UT Dallas, where some of the world's leading experts will convene Feb. 25-26. The scientific conference is sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Office, the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, and UT Dallas’ School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

International Robotics Conference Recognizes Dean Mark Spong

About 60 of the most renowned researchers in the robotics and control fields participated in a recent workshop. They came from throughout the United States and countries such as Germany, France, Japan and Sweden to present recent innovations and future directions of the closely related fields. Many of the participants had established the foundations of modern day robotics and control theory and their applications in practice.

Brain Scientists Present Groundbreaking Work at Conference

Nearly 200 researchers recently met in Dallas to share important new findings and map strategies for identifying age-related dementias as early as possible. The two-day Dallas Aging and Cognition Conference was sponsored by the Center for Vital Longevity and featured presentations by leading international investigators that focused on how the brain is affected by aging and age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Researchers Hope to Reap Benefits of Energy Harvesting

University of Texas at Dallas researchers and their colleagues at other institutions are investigating ways to harvest energy from such diverse sources as mechanical vibrations, wasted heat, radio waves, light, and even movements of the human body. The goal is to develop ways to convert this unused energy into a form that can self-power the next generation of electronics, eliminating or reducing the need for bulky, limited-life batteries.

Study to Test Whether Hearing Aids Can Help Prevent Falls

UT Dallas researchers are recruiting patients for a new study aimed at determining a connection between hearing deficits and the likelihood of falls. The research project, a collaboration with the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth, is evaluating how much hearing aids and other technologies might improve balance and prevent falls for people with auditory problems. One-third of older adults fall each year, according to recent national studies. The resulting injuries can be life-threatening. These falls also lead to greater burdens for caregivers and increased health care costs.

Researchers Pushing the Boundaries of Virtual Reality

UT Dallas researchers are extending the borders of virtual reality, going beyond virtual spaces in which people can see and hear each other to an environment that adds the sense of touch. The technology would make it possible for physical therapists, for example, to work with patients in other locations. When a patient pushes down on a device, a doctor’s device in another location would also move down with the same force, as if the patient were physically pressing the doctor’s hand.

Bail Bond Study Seeks to Predict No-Shows for Criminal Trials

Private bail bond companies may have an edge when it comes to getting criminal defendants to show up for their court dates, according to a new study by UT Dallas criminologist Dr. Robert Morris, director of the Center for Crime and Justice Studies. The study examined differences in failure to appear (FTA) in court and re-arrest among over 22,000 Dallas County criminal defendants released from the county jail during 2008 through different release mechanisms.

Researchers Say Students Should Stay in School Until Age 18

A growing body of research indicates that increasing the minimum school-leaving age to 18 not only increases high-school graduation rates but also significantly improves the life outcomes of students who otherwise would have become dropouts, according to an article in the winter 2013 Issues in Science and Technology.

Researchers on Quest to Create Next-Generation Technologies

Two teams of researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas are investigators in a $194 million national network to create the technologies of the next generation. One UT Dallas team will evaluate materials to replace silicon in integrated circuits, with the goal of creating faster electronics that use dramatically less power. The other team will help design a computer architecture that allows the many types of computers used in everyday life to seamlessly communicate with one another, making it possible to build systems to avoid traffic accidents or to lock down an area in the case of an emergency.

Study Finds That Age Does Not Impair Decision-Making Capabilities

Contrary to conventional wisdom that cognitive function declines beginning in the mid-40s, aging does not correlate with deteriorating ability to think for ourselves. These are the findings of one of the first projects to investigate the connection between cognitive health, aging and decision-making capacity. The research was conducted with men and women in their 50s, 60s and 70s by the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth and the MetLife Mature Market Institute. The study demonstrates that age alone is not a key factor in predicting the ability to make decisions.

Interdisciplinary Teams Join Forces to Help the Hearing-Impaired

UT Dallas' interdisciplinary approach to seeking new technologies and therapies to help those with speech or hearing challenges has earned the University an international reputation for educational excellence, innovative patient care and groundbreaking investigation of communication disorders.

Solutions Take Shape at Communications Technology Center

Issues involved in communication disorders are so complex that cross-disciplinary efforts are often required to figure out solutions. To inspire and nourish crossover projects, the University launched the Communications Technology Center, a collaborative effort among the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the Jonsson School and the School of Arts and Humanities.

Lecture Series to Take a Look Inside the Human Brain

The Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas is gearing up for The Brain: An Owner’s Guide, an annual series of lectures designed to translate the latest brain research and treatment developments into cutting-edge topical lectures for the lay community. The four-part series invites prominent brain researchers from across the country to discuss ways to maximize brain health. Topics include the mind’s influence over thought and action; secret decisions and emotions that shape our lives; and the Internet’s effect on the brain and information perception.

Doctoral Student Earns Top Prize for Improved Financial Policy Model

A Naveen Jindal School of Management doctoral student won a top prize in a competition sponsored by an international scientific society. His research paper describes a new model for nations to better control market timing and strategy, which can affect exchange-rate volatility and decrease expenses associated with a country entering the trading fray.

Study Finds Cognitive Impairment in Some Retired NFL Players

A study led by the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth examining the neuropsychological status of former National Football League players has found heightened incidence of cognitive deficits and depression among retired players. But researchers from the center and from UT Southwestern Medical Center say their study, published online Monday in JAMA Neurology, also is significant for what it did not find: evidence of cognitive impairment in the majority of ex-players.

Researcher Working on Wearable Computers to Monitor Health

Dr. Roozbeh Jafari, assistant professor of electrical engineering at UT Dallas, is developing wireless computers that are about the size of a button. At that size, the system can be easily worn on the body, opening possibilities to improved health monitoring for the elderly and assistance in determining changes in people’s medication dosage needs.

Research Seeks to Refine Data Transmission for Medical Diagnoses

Dr. Xiaohu Guo's research will be boosted by a $448,000 national research grant. The highly competitive grant program funds research of junior faculty who are considered likely to become leaders in their fields.

Callier Conference to Explore Complex Theory of Mind Issues

Speech-language pathologists, psychologists and educators from throughout the area will gather at UT Dallas this week to explore the complex topic of theory of mind and its potential effects on patient care. UT Dallas’ Callier Center for Communication Disorders will host an all-day Bruton Conference at its Dallas location on Dec. 15.

Speech-Language Researcher Awarded Top Honors

Dr. Christine Dollaghan, a professor in UT Dallas’ School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), received the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA) top award during this fall’s national convention. Dollaghan was selected for Honors of the Association, which recognizes members who have made distinguished contributions to the field of communication sciences and disorders. Recipients have earned the respect of colleagues around the world for long careers of innovative and insightful research, impressive clinical practice, outstanding teaching or for other significant accomplishments.

NSF Grant Funds Prof's Study of Academic Brain Drain in U.S.

Competitive salaries and research opportunities are strong incentives for foreign-born academics to work in the United States. But are they enough to keep them here? Dr. Meghna Sabharwal, assistant professor in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, recently landed a National Science Foundation grant to study these patterns of migration. “Academic scientists and engineers from other countries tend to be very productive when they come to the U.S., but we are slowly seeing that they are returning to their native countries rather than staying here,” she said. “We want to examine this trend of reverse brain drain.”

Program Funds Undergrad Research in Range of Disciplines

Seventy students, representing all seven UT Dallas schools, are recipients of Undergraduate Research Scholar Awards for 2012-13. The awards are sponsored by the Office of Research and will fund 62 wide-ranging projects. Research topics include dark matter, infectious diseases and security issues in Smartphone applications, as well as property rights in China and food choices in low-income households.

BrainHealth Team Studies Overeating as a Type of Addiction

A similar, insidious craving plagues all addicts, no matter the substance of choice. A new study published in NeuroImage from Center for BrainHealth scientists Dr. Francesca Filbey, assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and doctoral student Samuel DeWitt has found that for binge-eaters, as with all addiction sufferers, the compulsion to overeat is rooted in the brain’s reward center.

Wax-Filled Nanotech Yarn Behaves Like Powerful, Super-Strong Muscle

New artificial muscles made from nanotech yarns and infused with paraffin wax can lift more than 100,000 times their own weight and generate 85 times more mechanical power than the same size natural muscle, according to scientists at The University of Texas at Dallas and their international team from Australia, China, South Korea, Canada and Brazil. The artificial muscles are yarns constructed from carbon nanotubes, which are seamless, hollow cylinders made from the same type of graphite layers found in the core of ordinary pencils. Individual nanotubes can be 10,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, yet pound-for-pound, can be 100 times stronger than steel.

Conference to Explore Cognitive Health and Disease

Leading cognitive neuroscientists from around the world will gather Jan. 26-28 to present their latest discoveries about how the brain and cognition change with age at the 2013 Dallas Aging and Cognition Conference (Dallas ACC), hosted biannually by the University’s Center for Vital Longevity. The theme of the 2013 conference is “Predicting Successful and Unsuccessful Aging: Early Neural Markers of Decline and Disease.”

Researcher Calls for New Science and Math Education Approach

Recent research on how people learn to become experts can help to dramatically improve the effectiveness of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, according to an article in the fall 2012 Issues in Science and Technology. Nobel laureate Carl Wieman argues that despite the widespread recognition of the importance of STEM education and countless efforts aimed at improving it, there continues to be little discernible change in either student achievement or student interest in STEM.

Event to Explore the Fast-Evolving World of Medical Devices

The University of Texas at Dallas hosts the first annual Texas Medical Device Symposium this Friday, Nov. 2. The symposium provides an opportunity for the public to hear the latest findings in the field from leading academic researchers, clinicians and representatives of companies making the devices. The symposium also includes an opportunity for researchers to learn more about the federal process for getting a medical device approved for use.

Texas Biomedical Device Center to Support Tinnitus Study

The Texas Biomedical Device Center at UT Dallas has agreed to partner with neuroscience-based medical device company MicroTransponder to conduct one of the first U.S. clinical tests of a novel tinnitus therapy developed by the university’s researchers. The therapeutic approach developed at UT Dallas pairs audible tones with brief pulses of electrical stimulation to the vagus nerve. Preclinical tests demonstrated that this approach “rewires” damaged brain circuitry associated with tinnitus, potentially yielding long-term reversal of symptoms. No device-related adverse events were seen in the initial human safety study conducted in Belgium, and the initial results were encouraging.

Tech Commercialization Efforts Set Records

UT Dallas had a record number of invention disclosures, patent applications and licensing agreements in the past year, a result of the university’s growing efforts to transfer commercially viable research results from the lab to the marketplace. The numbers tell the story. According to UT Dallas’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC), in fiscal year 2012 the University had:

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