Research Core Facilities at UTSA

RESEARCH CORE FACILITIES

The Facilities described herein offer services and access to equipment and processing tools to all interested UTSA faculty and students. In many cases, the access is also extended to outside users such as national laboratories, universities and corporations. The respective research units should be contacted for specific details on their services and equipment.

Computational Biology Initiative (CBI)

Mr. Zhiwei Wang, ZHIWEI.WANG@UTSA.EDU; 458-7078
Department of Biology

CBI is a new interdisciplinary initiative that was launched in January 2005 and involves the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The overall goal of this Program is to build the computational infrastructure to significantly promote and advance collaborative interdisciplinary bioscience research in San Antonio.

Equipment:

Sun E2900 server- 12 Dual-Core CPUs, 96 Gb RAM
Sun Data Storage Server - 10 TB Disk Space with tape backup system
DELL 30-node cluster system, each node has 2 dual-core CPUs and 8G RAM
Five Dell 670/690 high-end workstations - Dual CPUs, 6-8 Gb RAM
MAC G5 workstation - Dual CPUs, 8 Gb RAM
Four Sun 4100/4200 servers, 2 Dual-Core CPUs, 4-8 Gb RAM
Ten Sun Ultra-20 workstations - 1 CPU, 1 Gb RAM

Software:

50 MatLab floating licenses
Three GeneSpring licenses
Two Imaris licenses
Ten GeneSifter online accounts.
Redhat Linux, site license for UTSA/UTHSCSA

RCMI Proteomics & Protein Biomarkers Cores

William E. Haskins, PhD, william.haskins@utsa.edu; 458-4511
(Bio Dept) Assistant Professor of Research,

Pediatric Biochemistry

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Proteomics & Protein Biomarkers Cores are focused on capillary liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and -tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS), to identify, characterize, and quantify proteins. We are funded by a Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) grant from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), UTSA, and generous donations. Services provided include consulting, data collection, and data analysis for sequence-specific protein identification, quantification, and characterization (including post-translational modifications). Instrumentation and software includes 2 capillary LC/MS/MS systems with collision-induced dissociation (CID) and electron-transfer dissociation (ETD) and a 10 node probability-based protein database searching algorithm.

Services:

     Consulting

Data Collection:

     LC/MS/MS with CID
     LC/MS/MS with ETD
     LC/MS

Data Analysis:

     MASCOT Database Searching
     PEAKS De Novo Sequencing
     SCAFFOLD Report
     Molecular Mass & Formula

Instrumentation:

     BIO-RAD ExQuest Spot cutter and Gel Doc XR (open-access)      Exigent nanoLC-2D w/auto sampler      Thermo-Fisher LTQ w/CID & ETD      Bruker microTOFMS      Thermo-Fisher LTQ-Orbitrap w/CID, HCD & ETD

Algorithms:

     MASCOT (10 nodes)      SCAFFOLD      Ingenuity Pathways Analysis      MaxQuant

Research Center in Minority Institution (RCMI) Advanced Imaging Core

Colleen Witt, Ph.D. Colleen.Witt@utsa.edu 458-7043
Assistant Research Professor, Department of Life Sciences

Services:

Personal and group training in the theory and application of light microscopy including brightfield, differential interference contrast, epi-fluorescence, confocal, and multiphoton imaging.

Personal and group training in quantitative image analysis.

Hands-on assistance in data acquisition and analysis. Consultation in experimental design and set-up. Assistance in manuscript preparation and grant writing.

Equipment:

BioRad 1024 confocal
Zeiss 510 Meta confocal
two (2) multi-photon imaging systems fully equipped for electrophysiology and live tissue imaging
Leica Laser Knife system

Software:

Full suite of Imaris 2/3/4D analysis software by Bitplane AG 2/3D AutoDeblur deconvolution software by MediaCybernetics Matlab

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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING LABORATORIES

ENGINEERING CORE FACILITIES

Dr. Daniel Oh; DANIEL.OH@UTSA.EDU; 458-4942

Micro-CT Scanner
Micro-abrasion/blasting unit
FTIR
GPC
SPM
MTS
Nanoindenter
Nikon Fluoroscent Microscope
Magnetron sputter coater
Histology – EXACT and Leica systems
Bioquant
Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

The SEM core consists of:
EVO-40 manufactured by ZEISS (Germany)
JCM-5700 manufactured by JEOL (Japan) with EDS.

With these SEMs, the core has attachments for different analyses, such as the nano manipulator for evaluating nanomaterials and EDS for measuring elemental composition. Analysis of dimensions or size of area of interest can also be measured using the SEM software. Other SEM capabilities include the evaluation of 3-D samples.

DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Advanced Implant and Materials Systems Lab

Dr. C. Mauli Agrawal, MAULI.AGRAWAL@UTSA.EDU;458-5526

The research areas at the AIMS lab include biomaterial constructs for both orthopedic and cardiovascular applications of tissue engineering and drug delivery. We are investigating cell interactions in cocultures and in a variety of polymeric scaffolds to develop biodegradable tissue engineering scaffolds for bone regeneration and angiogenesis in large bone defects. Tissue engineering approaches are also being employed to develop an in vivo coronary artery occlusion model as well as to improve treatment for aortic aneurysms. In the area of drug delivery, we are investigating the use of self-assembled monolayers to attach drug molecules to the surfaces of metal stents used in coronary arteries and other implants.

Cellular & Tissue Engineering Laboratories

Dr. Rena Bizios, RENA.BIZIOS@UTSA.EDU; 458-6646

These laboratories are dedicated to “Cellular and Tissue Engineering” research activities which focus on in vitro studies of mammalian cell and protein interactions with material substrates, biomaterials (including nanostructured ones), biocompatibility, and the effect of select biochemical and biophysical (specifically, sustained and cyclic pressure and electrical) stimuli on mammalian cell function pertinent to new tissue formation and regeneration.

Equipment:

In addition to three laminar flow hoods, four Sanyo CO2 incubators and two refrigerators, these laboratories are equipped with one each of the following: Millipore water purification system; Sanyo -80 degrees freezer; Sanyo autoclave; Hettich refrigerated centrifuge; Hettich Mikro 200 micro-centrifuge; BOSE cyclic pressure system; set-up for the study of electric stimulation on cells, BioTek Synergy HT Multi-Mode Microplate Reader, Leica DMB5500 fluorescence, microscope (with high-quality objectives (including 100X and 63X-oil), motorized-Z stage for increased depth-of-field imaging, low-fluorescence monochrome camera, advanced imaging software, and a vibration isolation system), and an inverted microscope. These labs also have various smaller equipment (such as heated and cooled water-baths, a cryogenic storage tank, 500W sonic dismembranator, analytical balances, pH meter, stirring plates (with heating capability), rocker tables, vortexes, and a drying oven) as well as capability to conduct various biochemical assays.

The aforementioned laboratories have three desktop computers, one laptop computer, two laser printers (one color), and a high-resolution scanner. All these computers are connected onto a laboratory network allowing for file sharing and printing, as well as providing connections between major equipment and the aforementioned computers. One of the desktops (Dell Optiplex 745) is configured to allow for computational studies. Another desktop is configured primarily for use with the fluorescent microscope.

Nano Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering Lab

Dr. Daniel Oh, DANIEL.OH@UTSA.EDU;458-4942

Functional Hybrid Biomaterials Lab

The research interest of our laboratory is developing functional hybrid biomaterials solution for implantology, regenerative medicine and specific diseases by means of surface modification, tissue engineering and nanotechnology. Our research lies at the interfaces of fundamental material science, biology and clinical applications at the macro- micro- and nano- scale level, where basic understanding of biology inspires the development of functional hybrid biomaterials for medical applications. We believe quality work depends on idea, passion and persistence. The students and postdoc fellows who join our group will have opportunities to learn from and work with engineers, biologists and clinicians. Equipment includes: Labconco Freeze-dry system (-50ºc/-58ºf); PerkinElmer Pyris 1 TGA (approx 1,500ºc)

Tissue Engineering Lab

Tissue engineering consists of four categories: scaffold, drug release, cell and signals. In our lab, we focus on optimization of scaffold design and fabrication to mimic the in vivo natural environment, to aid and induce tissue regeneration. In our lab, bioceramics, polymer and composite scaffolds with different composition, geometry structure and shapes are fabricated using different techniques, and their effect on bone cell and bone tissue have been evaluated. Currently our research is in the field of controlled biodegradable rate of scaffolds with porous covered polymeric microsphere, thereby achieving a controlled release rate of growth factor and drugs within antibacterial effect. In addition, we are interested in applying the developing biomaterials for specific diseases such as bony birth defects and cancer therapy.

Biomimetic SPINE Lab

Dr. Dawnlee Roberson, DAWNLEE.ROBERSON@UTSA.EDU; 458-5520

The laboratory is dedicated to understanding the biomechanics and neuromuscular control processes that underlie complex adaptive human movements. We are interested in examining both basic science and clinically relevant questions. The overall goal of this research is to develop an under-actuated specific control system for the virtual prosthetic hand, and then generalize it. Santello et al. showed that the human hand grip postures can be controlled, in a continuum, by 2 DOFs with a reduction of DOFs, which was found using principal component analysis (PCA) – a statistical technique often used to reduce dimensionality. The control mechanism developed will be biomimetic in that each joint and DOF is not controlled independently, and the prosthetic hand can be controlled using grasp posture. The real time controller using under-actuated mechanism will have four inputs using the electromyography (EMG) electrodes from subject’s forearm to implement the virtual hand movement mimicking a large number of grasp postures. The four movements of the wrist will be used as the input signals to represent the prosthetic hand movement as closely intuitive as possible. The specific real-time controller will be generalized into a mathematical model and validated.

Vascular Bioengineering Lab

Dr. Anand K. Ramasubramanian, ANAND.RAMASUBRAMANIAN@UTSA.EDU; 458-6555

Blood, the vascular tissue, is vital for nutrient transport, immune-surveillance, hemostasis, and wound healing, which maintain normal physiology. A number of cardiovascular diseases can be traced to an imbalance in the otherwise tightly regulated interactions between different cellular and acellular components (such as proteins and lipids) of blood. Since blood is a flowing fluid, the cells and molecules constantly experience different types and magnitudes of force, which can influence their interactions, and hence the fine line between health and disease.

Our approach is multidimensional, which takes into account the physical, chemical and biological effects in blood for reliable understanding of cardiovascular diseases, and treating them effectively. We use a number of techniques drawn from fields as disparate as Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Biology and Medicine to understand the causes of cardiovascular diseases, and develop treatment methodologies. Our research has both fundamental and applied components: on one hand, we improve our mechanistic understanding of these disorders such as abnormal cell adhesion or changes in cellular physiology, and on the other, develop new devices for treating these disorders, such as drug screening and delivery systems.

Biomedical Optics & Nano-Biotechnology Research Lab

Dr. Liang Tang LIANG.TANG@UTSA.EDU 458-6557;

This research laboratory has great interest in advancing and integrating nanobiotechnology and biomolecular engineering for diverse clinical applications, especially cardiovascular diseases and cancer research. Specifically, our research focuses include development, characterization and application of bioMEMS integrated nano-biosensing system for rapid disease diagnosis/prognosis and mechanistic probes into various pathological processes. We are also interested in the bio-imaging of heart coupled with cardiac electrophysiological study in order to investigate the mechanisms underlying cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.

Our lab is dedicated to developing multi-analytic, real-time, micro-/nano-scale biosensing systems for simultaneous detection of multiple cardiac and tumor biomarkers in trace amounts. Nanoparticles (e.g. gold nanoparticles at 5, 10, 20 nm) are being explored to develop a novel label-free nano-biosensing based on localized surface plasmon resonance mechanism (nanoSPR). We are also interested in utilizing the state-of-the-art bioMEMS and microfabrication techniques to integrate the nano-biosensing system with microfluidics to build a smart medical diagnostic device with high sensitivity, rapid response time, and wide dynamic range. Cell-based biosensing mechanism and quantum dots are also under development, which is expected to aid the process of drug discovery, drug delivery and investigation of bio-interactions at cellular levels both in vivo and in-vitro.

Advanced Biophotonics and Nanotechnology Laboratory

Dr. Jing Yong Ye,JINGYONG.YE@UTSA.EDU; 458-5056

Biophotonics has emerged in recent years as a key research field that leads to many revolutionary advances in biomedical science and clinical applications. It offers unique ways to image, analyze, and manipulate various biological systems (biomolecules, cells, and tissues) with great precision and accuracy. Especially, the possibilities of convergence with nanotechnology, allow biophotonics to address some of the most challenging problems. The primary focus of our research group is to develop cutting-edge ultrasensitive and ultrafast laser-based technologies and methodologies to address critical issues at the frontiers of biomedical science and technology. Our research activities embrace a wide range of areas in biomedical optics and nanobiotechnology, including ultrafast laser spectroscopy, multiphoton scanning microscopy, in vivo fiber-optic biosensing and imaging, photonic crystal biomolecular assay, in vivo two-photon flow cytometry, femtosecond laser interactions with nanoparticle-targeted cells and tissues, adaptive optical aberration correction in confocal microscopy, and single-molecule fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy.

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

Environmental Engineering Lab

Dr Heather Shipley, HEATHER.SHIPLEY@UTSA.EDU;458-7926

The research conducted in this lab is novel membrane separation and transfer processes for air and water systems; biological, physical and chemical processes for water, wastewater and waste treatment; water conveyance and conservation; understanding the impact of nanomaterials in the environment; and nanomaterials as contaminants sorbents for possible application in water treatment and remediation.

Equipment: ICP, ICP-MS, Delsa-Nano, GC-MS, HPLC, and Beckman Coulter Multisizer

Super Pave Facility

Dr Samer Dessouky, SAMER.DESSOUKY@UTSA.EDU; 458-7072

Research includes: Asphalt binder, aggregate and pavement concrete testing and characterization

Equipment:

The facilities include binder-related tests, such as the Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR), the Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR), the Brookfield viscometer, the Rolling Thin Film Oven (RTFO) and the Pressure Aging Vessel (PAV). These recently acquired pieces of equipment provide the laboratory with complete binder Super pave testing capabilities. Aggregate testing capabilities include conventional sieving, and specific gravity. Asphalt concrete samples can be prepared with the Gyratory compactors available. Asphalt contents can be measured via the ignition oven. Recently a Hamburg wheel tracking device has been acquired as a pavement performance test. Universal testing machine has been recently acquired for complete pavement performance evaluation. Complete furnish cement concrete lab with curing room and compressive machine. Currently, the lab is accredited by the AASHTO Laboratory Certification, which is a requirement for competing in nationally sponsored research.

Research:

Characterization of anti-oxidants to control aging of asphalt binder
Development of workability and compactability indices for widely used Texas asphalt mixes
Studying the effect of Sulfur in the oxidation of asphalt binder
The effect of polymer modified as anti-oxidants agent in binder and mixes
Evaluating the accuracy of ASTM specific gravity procedures for aggregate using SSDetect, Corelock and coating methods Evaluating the causes of edge cracking in low volume roads in Texas Evaluating the role of recycled rubber tire into cement concrete performance. Evaluating the premature failure cause of the full depth reclamation program for City of San Antonio roads

Concrete Laboratory

Dr Samer Dessouky, SAMER.DESSOUKY@UTSA.EDU; 458-7072

Research:

Portland cement concrete testing and characterization Investigate the effect of flyash in concrete hardening Using tire rubber as fillers in concrete pavement Long term performance of concrete using recycle wire fibers Investigate the effect of using Peridotite rocks in absorbing CO2 for concrete mixes

Equipment:

The lab has three 500kips compressive testing machines for breaking hardened concrete cylinders and beams. Testing capability also include beam tester for measuring modulus of ruptures. Fresh concrete testing equipment includes pressure meter, Roll-A-meter, and slump cone. The lab includes curing room for storing samples 28 days in wet bath. Sample preparation includes four 1-ft3 mixers and sample cutting includes masonry saw and coring drill.

Hydraulics Lab

Xiaofeng Liu, XIAOFENG.LIU@UTSA.EDU; 458-7851

Hydraulics Laboratory at UTSA is located in the Applied Engineering Technology (AET) building with a lab space of approximately 650 square ft. It serves the function of both research and teaching. This lab is equipped with a open channel flume and a range of measurement devices (such as the Vectrino Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) by NortekUSA which has a sampling frequency up to 200Hz). Another long open channel flume will be built to accommodate the growing research program. Another resource associated with the Hydraulics lab is a computer cluster providing high performance computing service (http://takara.hpc.utsa.edu). It has nine computational nodes. Each node hosts two Quad Core Intel E5620 CPU and the cluster has a total of 72 cores (144 cores with hyper-threading enabled). Five of the nine nodes have 24G shared memory and the rest have 12G memory, which makes the total memory of the cluster to be 168G. The interconnection between the nodes is through Mellanox Connect-X DDR Infiniband switches. The configuration of the cluster makes it suitable for both MPI and OpenMP computations. This cluster is maintained and used by members of Dr. Xiaofeng Liu's research group (xiaofeng.liu@utsa.edu) in the Civil and Environmental Department to do high performance computations (HPC) for various scientific problems.

GeoTechnical Engineering Lab

Dr Sazzad Bin-Shafique, sshafique@utsa.edu, 458-6476

The laboratory is primarily a teaching lab that has the testing facilities including soil consistency (Atterberg limits) tests, soil classification, soil compaction, consolidation, direct shear, permeability, unconfined compression, and stress and strain controlled monotonic triaxial tests. Most of the devices are equipped with computer data acquisition. Equipments for extracting field soil samples are also available. A humidity room is available for storage of field samples.

Geotechnical engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering, which deals with characteristic of soils when load is applied on soil due to the presence of infrastructural facilities. Thus, most of the tests that are done in geotechnical engineering laboratory include soil and its response to loading. Use of any chemical in geotechnical engineering laboratory is very rare.

Currently, shear strength of a series of soils is being tested with and without georeinforcement to evaluate the improvement of soil strength using geo-fibers.

Structural Dynamics and MTS Laboratory

Dr. Mijia Yang, 458-6922

The Structural Dynamics & MTS Laboratory hosts a 55 kips uniaxial tension and torsion multipurpose testing machine (MTS 493.10), a 50kips hydraulic loading frame, and a 22kips two degree freedom shake-table. All devices are equipped with computer data acquisition. The MTS equipment and the shake table are used to conduct proposed isolation system cyclic loading tests. And the loading frame is used to test connection behavior of large structural members.

Measurements and Instrumentation Laboratory

Dr. John Simonis, JOHN.SIMONIS@UTSA.EDU; 458-6529

Primarily a teaching lab, the Measurements and Instrumentation Laboratory provides undergraduate Mechanical Engineering students with hand on experiences in the use of measurement and instrumentation equipment to evaluate statistical process control, electrical behavior of circuits used to condition sensors and the application of sensors to measure mechanical processes. The laboratory is equipped with electronic and manual instruments used to measure the physical properties of mechanical objects; digital instruments to measure the electrical properties of signal conditioning instruments; and, a variety of instruments to characterize the mechanical behavior of mechanical systems including strain, displacement, and acceleration. The students use digital data acquisition systems, based on National Instruments hardware and software, to acquire and record the desired measurements. In addition, this laboratory is equipped with PCs which have numerous software programs to aid in the analysis and display of the measurements.

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Multimedia and Mobile Signal Processing Lab

Dr. Sos Agaian, SOS.AGAIAN@UTSA.EDU458-5939

The Multimedia and Mobile Signal Processing laboratory areas of research are in the area of signal/image processing as applied to problems in Multimedia signal processing algorithms (including parallel) and architectures, Information security (watermarking, steganography, steganalysis, and secure database), Secure multimedia and wireless communications, Machine vision and pattern recognition (including target detection and recognition), Mobile and medical imaging, Signal/Image enhancement, filtering, representation, modeling and compression, and Bioinformatics. The research topics range from fundamental principles to applications, from analysis to synthesis, and from theory to experiment and to simulation.

Control, Computation and Cybernetics Laboratory

Mr. Michael Frye
Mr. Justin Franz

The Control, Computation and Cybernetics ( C3 ) Laboratory is a unique combination of undergraduate, graduate, and faculty research efforts dedicated to developing innovative control technology for the difficulties associated with complex systems. Our research covers various theoretical areas all with practical importance: (1.) Autonomous Mobile Vehicles (i.e. UAVs) for active tracking and prolonged reconnaissance through unstable environments; (2.) developing hardware that duplicates nonlinear systems for implementing and testing control techniques; (3.) methods for modeling theoretical and experimental systems; (4.) new control strategies for manipulating limited or low-observable systems with bounded or unbounded states and single or multiple inputs; (5.) developing real-time computational methods for optimal control of aerospace systems, mobile or manipulator robots, and power plants.

Autonomous Control Engineering Lab

Dr. Mo Jamshidi, MOJ@WACONG.ORG;458-7074

State-of-the-art research lab concentrating on system of systems integration and technology. Focus areas include generating energy from renewable wind and solar sources; research and design into biologically inspired robotic swarm intelligence; design and testing of unmanned vehicles.

Multifunctional Electronic Materials and Devices Research Lab

Dr. Amar Bhalla, AMAR.BHALLA@UTSA.EDU; 458-6268

MeMDRL research lab interests in area of in science and engineering of electronic and materials and devices. In the areas of ferroelectric, piezoelectric, and pyroelectric oxides; crystal chemistry and structure-composition-property relationships; low loss and frequency agile microwave dielectrics and devices; electrooptic, photorefractive, and nonlinear optical single crystals in optic communications and tunable wireless optical interactions working in this lab.

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Cardiovascular Biomechanics Lab

Dr Hai- Chao Han, HAICHAO.HAN@UTSA.EDU; 458-4952

The research goal is to understand the role of mechanical stress in the development and remodeling of the cardiovascular system and thus to improve the understanding, treatment, and prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

Our research topics include the mechanism of artery kinking which often develops in elderly in internal carotid arteries and iliac arteries, the remodeling of arterial wall due to injury and pulse pressure, and the wall stress and remodeling of the left ventricle after an heart attack which will help us to understand the mechanism of heart failure after an heart attack.

Bioengineering and Nanomechanics Laboratory

Dr. Yusheng Feng, yusheng.feng@utsa.edu; 458-6479

Develops new methods and models for quantification and understanding of biomechanical and biomedical engineering problems for the purpose of ultimate improvement of health and human well-being using mathematical modeling and computer simulation, and explore nanotechnology in biomedical applications.

Computational Reliability and Visualization Lab

Dr. Harry Millwater, HARRY.MILLWATER@UTSA.EDU; 458-4481

Probabilistic Methods for Risk Assessment of Gas Turbine Rotors; Development of Enhanced Probabilistic Life Prediction Methodologies for Engine Rotor Life Extension; Innovative Methods for Engine Health Monitoring

Hard Tissue and Biomechanics lab

Dr. Xiaodu Wang, XIAODU.WANG@UTSA.EDU; 458-5565

This Laboratory conducts research to pursue the understanding of the structure-function relationship of hard tissues (e.g., bone and teeth) and its correlation with aging and pathological changes. The lab is equipped with all necessary devices for specimen preparation, macro, micro, and nano mechanical testing systems, and instruments for biochemical analysis (e.g., HPLC).

Equipment:

Bose-EnduraTec ELF 3300 system

Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Lean Systems

Flexible Manufacturing and Lean Systems (FMLS) Lab

Dr. F. Frank Chen and Dr. Hung-da Wan, FF.CHEN@UTSA.EDU;  HUNGDA.WAN@UTSA.EDU; 458-5382; 458-6325

Technological advancement and tools of flexible manufacturing systems and lean enterprise systems.

Manufacturing Systems and Automation (MSA) Lab

Dr. Can Saygin,can.saygin@utsa.edu; 458-7614

Effective and efficient integration and synthesis of automation technologies, human resources, and decision-making models for design, planning, scheduling, and control of production of goods and delivery of services.

Robotics and Intelligent Machines (RIM) Lab

Dr. Brent Nowak, BRENT.NOWAK@UTSA.EDU; 458-6772

Machine, tooling, equipment, and automation development; Adaptive end-effectors for force-precision assembly; serial manipulator design, sensors and sensing systems development, and heuristic controls.

Sustainable Manufacturing Systems (SMS) Lab

Dr. Hung-da Wan, HUNGDA.WAN@UTSA.EDU; 458-6325

Evaluation and enhancement of sustainability of manufacturing systems in three major areas: Lean Operations, Digital Factory, and Green Processes.

Advanced Machining Cell at the Engineering Machine Shop

Dr. Frank Chen, FF.CHEN@UTSA.EDU; 458-5382

Featuring with a Chevalier FNL-250Y CNC Turning-Milling Machine, Chevalier ULTRA-H612CNCII Submicron CNC Profile Surface Grinder, and ABB irb 2400 Industrial Robot.

COLLEGE OF SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

X-ray Crystallography Lab

Dr. Hadi Arman, HADI.ARMAN@UTSA.EDU; 458-6370

The X-ray diffraction facility offers the chemistry department with the means of X-ray diffraction analysis for small molecules which is the most reliable route for ascertaining the structure of crystalline materials. The facility maintains a state of the art Rigaku diffractometer. This sealed tube system is equipped with a CCD area detector and can analyze samples at various temperatures. Data processing and analysis are executed on PCs running Microsoft Windows. The lab also specializes in growing suitable single crystals for samples submitted by clients. In addition to the diffractometer, the facility also has access to the electronic Cambridge Structural Database.

Department of Geological Sciences

Laboratory for Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics

Dr Hongjie Xie, HONGJIE.XIE@UTSA.EDU; 210-458-5445

The LRSG was established in fall 2004, with support from the U.S. Department of Education through the MORE Science Program. The LRSG is located at the Science Building of the 1604 campus, including a teaching lab (SB2.01.02, tel 458-583).

Research includes remote sensing, GIS (spatial analysis, statistic analysis, geodatabase, Internet GIS), GPS, and their applications to geology, hydrology, ecosystems, agriculture, forestry, hydrometeorology, urban development, environmental studies, Antarctic, and planetary and space studies (such as Mars and Moon).

Equipment:

This lab has state-of-the-art field instruments and 30 computers and 8 high performance workstations equipped with core remote sensing and GIS software.

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Biophysics Facility

Marcelo Marucho, MARCELO.MARUCHO@UTSA.EDU;458-7862

The newly Biophysics facility is committed towards providing computational biology tools and software designed to study the physical phenomena underlying the behavior of biological systems. Shortly, this facility will be furnished with a 6-quadcore server and 4 workstations with high resolution graphics capabilities and support for many simultaneous remote users. All these computing resources will be linked via 10GB optical wires. On the other hand, the Departmental network provides high speed access to the University Computer Center main-ports and Internet.

As an extension of its functionality and performance, this facility will also share resources with the Computational Biology innovative at the Biology Department. A major goal is devoted to establishing the connection between this facility and the supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at 10GB data rate. This facility is currently used by the computational and theoretical biophysics researchers at the Department of Physics to study the properties of biomolecules that are strongly affected by their surrounding aqueous and ionic environment.

Such studies offer insight into the basic mechanisms of biomolecular dynamics and function and provide a foundation for new tools and algorithms to complement experimental research. Specifically, researchers and students using this facility are working on the development and application of a hybrid computational approach that overcomes the current limitations exhibited by oversimplified continuum models and the high cost demanded by the standard simulation techniques. This new computational biology tool incorporates the solvent effects on biomolecules via a novel approach based on distribution functions which are capable of taking into account the proper ion-ion and ion-protein interactions in the presence of essentially an infinite number of explicit water molecules at atomic level and at low computational cost. Preliminary results clearly demonstrates that this powerful tool will reduce drastically the overall computational cost of simulating the dynamics of the corresponding solvent molecules without losing important structural features of complex biological systems. The most exciting prospect from the viewpoint of interaction between the predictions provided by this software and experiment is the ability to make mutations in amino acid sequence of biomolecules like DNA, RNA and Ion channels, thereby modulating the structure-function relationship with respect to the reference (native) state. Due to the reduction in the computational cost, this software will be capable of analyzing a large number of mutations, generating a bunch of valuable information about the structure-function relationship of macromolecules. Accordingly, this software will provide the means to identify specific activities in biomolecules with only a subset of closely related amino acid sequence, a key element for rational design of ligands with outstanding selectivities. This is of critical importance for engineering novel ligand-protein interactions with biomedical applications.

Equipment:

Within the Lab is a 10Gb/s data rate connection between the high performance 6-cuadcore server in the Department of Physics and the 4 workstations in the lab itself. Each of the workstations will have a 1.5Gb NVIDIA video card (Quadro FX 4800). This (or similar) video cards combine high-performance graphics and high-performance computation for analysis of complex, multivariate data via 192 CUDA parallel processing cores providing the visual computing and 3D visualization needed to analyze the large amount of data coming from the dynamics of simulations. In principle, with this configuration, the Lab will be able to perform HPC and analyze the resulting simulations fast and efficiently without waiting (qub system) to use the cluster (nodes) at supercomputer centers and without the delay/inconvenience caused by the very slow data rate of around 1Gb/s to transfer huge amount of data from the supercomputers toward the Lab. In addition, the Lab will have a unique software (developed by UTSA) combining simulation techniques and statistical mechanics calculations that would allow the study of large (complex) systems without the need for supercomputers.

Kleberg Advanced Microscopy Laboratory

Dr. Miguel Yacaman, MIGUEL.YACAMAN@UTSA.EDU; 458-6954
David Olmos manager, DAVE.OLMOS@UTSA.EDU; 458-5474

UTSA houses the JEOL transmission electron microscope model JEM-ARM200F in the Kleberg Advanced Microscopy Laboratory, a specially designed space on the Main Campus that inhibits intrusive vibrations. Its atomic resolution is propelling world-class research in nanotechnology, biology, chemistry, geology, engineering and medicine. This facility is an aberration Corrected microscope on the STEM mode with a resolution of 0.8

A. The Equipment is fitted with an EELS Gatan Tridium spectrometer and an EDS x ray detector. It is also capable of Holography.

The advanced Kleberg lab also has a SEM Hitachi 5500 with Ultra high resolution 4 A with STEM mode and a Si drift detector for EDS analysis. The microscope also has a complete software packages for chemical analysis.

The lab also has a 2010 TEM with a resolution of 1.2 A with microdiffraction facilities and a Raman Horiba Jobin microscope for SERS and Raman images.

We also have two multimode VEECO SPM –AFM systems with many attachments including magnetic force, friction, and nanoindenters. Two optical microscopes with digital camera and sample preparation equipment.

The lab team is using the microscope to study among many other things how to develop optimally shaped nanoparticles that will be placed on a tumor and with an infra-red laser will pinpoint and burn away the damaged cells without harming surrounding healthy cells. UTSA also will use the microscope, to develop new materials and for many other applications. The microscope will be accessible to researchers around the world, operating every day around the clock.

Nanophotonics and Laser Materials Research Laboratory

Dr. Dhiraj Sardar, DHIRAJ.SARDAR@UTSA.EDU; 458-5462

Laboratory research includes the study laser-light interactions with biological materials and the optical characterization of tissues to understand the interaction. Much of the research focuses on the development of non-invasive diagnostic and therapeutic tools for medical application.

Equipment:

Continuous wave tunable Ti:Sapphire laser
1.25 meter single grating scanning monochromator with detection from 185nm to 2500nm
Upgraded CARY14 spectrophotometer
Hammamatsu NIR CCD camera
10ns pulsed Nd: YAG laser with 2nd and 3rd harmonic generation
High temperature furnace 1200C

Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics

Dr. Lorenzo Brancaleon, LORENZO.BRANCALEON@UTSA.EDU; 458-5694

The research activity includes (i.) the study laser-induced conformational changes of proteins; (ii.) the study of the structure/function relationship of protein active sties; (iii.) the investigation of methods to prompt non-native properties and functions in proteins and (iv.) early protein aggregation events. Much of the research focuses on viewing proteins as nanoparticles whose properties can be “manipulated” for various applications.

Equipment:

UV-Vis spectrometer
Double monochromator fluorimeter
Single photon counting equipment for picosecond fluorescence decay
Four IBH picoseconds sources at 280 nm; 295 nm; 405 nm and 457 nm
Olis spectrometer for circular dichroismNexus 470 FTIR spectrometer with ATR attachment
CW solid state laser at 405 nm (output 185 mW)

MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) Research Laboratory

Arturo A. Ayon, Ph.D. Arturo.Ayon@utsa.edu; 458-6564 Professor, Physics and Astronomy Department

Facility Manager: Hongbing Ji, Ph.D. Hongbing.Ji@utsa.edu

Services:

Microfabrication Training and Consulting

Thin Film Characterization

Instrumentation:

Porosimeter

Vector Network Analyzer

Interferometer

Ellipsometer

Profiler

Contact Angle Measurement

Film Stress Measurement

Electrostatic Voltmeter

Tensile Tester

Metal Evaporator

Hot Embosser

Photolithography

Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)

Four-Point Probe

Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR)

Plasma Etchers

Metal Sputterer

Other: Oscilloscopes, Multimeters, Microscale, Centrifuge, Function Generators