fulbright Taiwan online journal

fulbright Taiwan online journal

Tag: engineering

Wei-Cheng Mau: Social/Cognitive/Cultural Factors of STEM Career Aspirations and Decision-Making

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5GEebQPOfQ Over the last decades, Taiwan has experienced great success in recruiting and preparing students to enter the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) work force. This video presents findings from a study that explores factors related to STEM career interests of Taiwanese students, as guided by Social-Cognitive Career Theory. Wei-Cheng Joseph Mau is a professor of Counseling, Educational Leadership, Educational and School Psychology at Wichita State University, in Wichita, Kansas. His research focuses on educational and vocational aspirations of women and minority students. He currently serves as the Program Chair and Graduate Coordinator of the Counselor Education Program.

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James Winkler: A Computational Infrastructure for Understanding Tolerance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBrdljFhe2g Currently, our ability to understand how microbes tolerate different environmental conditions, antibiotic treatments, and other insults is limited by the lack of a centralized resource containing genetic and gene expression data. Dr. James Winkler introduced the creation of a tolerance-focused database (the “Resistome”) and present preliminary analysis of trait interactions. Originally from Houston, Texas, Dr. Winkler completed both a bachelors and PhD in chemical engineering at universities in Texas. He subsequently moved to Colorado to conduct research in the Ryan Gill research group at University of Colorado-Boulder in order to better understand how we are currently engineering bacteria to produce fuels, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals needed for a renewable economy. As a Fulbright scholar, he is extending the research to understand how microbes and other organisms tolerate different types of chemical treatments, including antibiotics. The ultimate goal of my research is to design novel, evolution-resistant methods for combining antibiotics and engineering tolerance phenotypes into industrial biocatalysts.

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Smart Sensors for Safer Bridges: An International Collaborative Effort

Bridge Scour      The erosion of soil, sand, and riverbed materials near bridge foundations due to flowing water (or wind in some cases) is a phenomenon known as bridge scour. Despite our awareness of its occurrence, bridge scour remains one of the deadliest causes of overwater bridge failures worldwide, particularly in the United States and in Taiwan.      For instance, a notable scour-induced bridge collapse in the United States was the Schoharie Creek Interstate Highway Bridge incident in Mohawk River, New York, which happened in April 1987. The 32-year-old bridge collapsed due to extensive flood-induced scouring at one of its piers, and 10 people lost their lives. In Taiwan, similar incidents have occurred as well. More recently in September 2008, Typhoon Sinlaku brought heavy rainfall across many parts of Taiwan. The Houfeng Bridge collapsed due to flooding and severe scouring near one of its piers, although it was suspected that long-term riverbed degradation following the Chi-Chi earthquake in 1999 also contributed to its failure.      Events like these could be traced back through the histories of both countries. Even worse is that overwater bridge collapses after scouring continue to occur and threaten public safety. The inability to

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Research & Reflections

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