Breaking Ground and Launching a Future of Innovation in Engineering Education and Research

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On April 14, 2023, The University of Alabama in Huntsville held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new 80,000-squarefoot engineering facility that will be named in memory of Raymond B. Jones*, long-time business and community leader and past chairman of the UAH Foundation. The facility, which received initial approval by The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees in April 2022, will provide cuttingedge resources to support the largest college at UAH, comprising more than 2,850 students, as well as 90 faculty and staff. The new Jones Engineering Building will feature modernized, world-class research and collaborative teaching facilities that will ensure UAH continues to meet the state’s workforce needs.

“The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, Chancellor St. John and the UA System leadership understand the significance of a modern facility and what this means to UAH’s future growth, and I want to thank them for their leadership and guidance,” said UAH President Dr. Charles L. Karr. “In an effort championed by Senator Tom Butler, Governor Ivey and the Alabama State Legislature appropriated funds to make this needed building a reality, and we will forever be indebted for their commitment to higher education here in Huntsville, especially in the fields of engineering and science. I also want to thank the UAH Foundation, chaired by Dag Rowe, for its significant support. Mr. Jones was a past chairman of this philanthropic body, and because of his leadership, this university was set on a path for exponential growth.”

“Ensuring the growth and success of UAH is one of our top priorities, and the groundbreaking of this transformative building is a testament to that commitment,” said UA System Board of Trustees President Pro Tempore W. Stancil Starnes.

“The Jones Engineering Building will be integral to UAH’s role in supporting the region’s workforce, research and educational needs, and we are confident it will favorably impact this community for generations to come. The future is bright for UAH.”

UAH is known for our talented faculty and students who go on to be some of the brightest leaders in the national security, space exploration, healthcare, arts and business sectors,” said President Karr. “The Huntsville community is known for our remarkable STEM labor force, and the Jones Engineering Building will enhance our students’ experience.”

Phase I of the project received Stage II approval from The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees at its April 2023 meeting. Phase I is estimated to cost $62.38M and includes plans for new construction that will replace the Wernher von Braun Research Hall, a building constructed in 1964. The new facility will be located west of the existing Engineering Building, adjacent to the campus lake along John Wright Drive.

“This new building will serve as a centerpiece for UAH, enabling us to recruit the very best and brightest students from all 67 counties in our state, from states across the nation and beyond,” said Dean Mahalingam. “It will enable us to graduate engineers with B.S., M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees who will contribute to filling the rapidly growing workforce needs of our region and our state. Today is indeed a historic day for the College of Engineering at The University of Alabama in Huntsville.”

All stages of this multi-phased project are subject to approval by the UA System Board of Trustees.

NSF Research Seeks to Improve Resilience of Coastal Communities After Severe Weather

Improving overall hurricane and severe weather resilience of coastal communities is the goal of a five-year, $505,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant awarded to Prof. Abdullahi Salman, an assistant professor of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at UAH. This project titled, “ Integrating Resilience and Social Vulnerability into the Management of Civil Infrastructure Systems”, will advance understanding of the influence of socioeconomic factors on differential impacts of infrastructure disruptions to different populations.

Read full story here or www.uah.edu/news.

Thermal Runway and Lithium-Ion Battery Research

Assistant Prof. Guangsheng Zhang of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department won a NSF Career Award titled, “Understanding Spontaneous Internal Short Circuit Caused Thermal Runaway of Lithium-ion Batteries through In Situ Diagnosis to investigate thermal runway and lithium-ion batteries.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are expected to account for more than half of passenger cars sold in the U.S. by 2030. However, costly battery fires have become a critical challenge for the burgeoning EV industry. What makes this challenge most concerning is that, in some cases, the batteries suddenly caught fire when the vehicles were not in use. These fires have been attributed to the internal short circuit of lithium-ion batteries, which is also a major cause of battery fires involving many other applications such as smart phones, laptops, and grid-scale energy storage. This CAREER research seeks to understand how an internal short circuit forms, evolves, and suddenly causes a thermal runaway event (and potentially a fire) in lithium-ion batteries. Insights from the research will advance the understanding of energetic failures of electrochemical energy systems and the development of safer batteries for EVs and many other applications. Read full story here or www.uah.edu/news.

Prof. Zhang Guangsheng.zhang@uah.edu

Safe, Secure and Efficient Data Storage Solutions Funded by NSF CAREER Project

Professor Biswajit Ray of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department won a NSF Career Awarded titled, “Leveraging Physical Properties of Modern Flash Memory Chips for Resilient, Secure, and Energy-Efficient Edge Storage Systems“.

Exponential growth in data created, captured, copied, and consumed by people and machines has created the Zettabytes (one billion terabytes) era, posing new challenges to the future data storage platforms. To keep up with growing demands for data storage, future storage solutions will need to provide even higher bit densities, superior performance and energy-efficiency, and improved resilience, while guaranteeing end-user privacy. Addressing these challenges requires a paradigm shift in the storage system design methods beyond the traditional technology-agnostic algorithmic approaches. To achieve this goal, the project will create new techniques that exploit rich physical properties of storage media, thus enabling unconventional but highly effective storage systems. Read full story here or www.uah.edu/news.

Prof. Ray biswajit.ray@uah.edu