building industry as a professional career choice but will
make a significant difference in
the future of Texas students who
are working toward earning construction
trade certifications or degrees and who
are planning to join the building workforce in Texas.
In 2013, the Texas Legislature passed
comprehensive education reform, giving high school students a choice in their
post-graduation path, allowing them to
prepare for college, or choosing elective
courses that prepare them for employment immediately upon graduation from
high school by, for example, earning construction industry or trade certifications.
In 2015, the Legislature passed and the
Governor signed into law, additional legislation that removed the dual credits cap,
thereby allowing students the opportunity to graduate from high school with not
only an industry or trade certification,
but with an Associates Degree.
Joe Carlyle, Chairman of the Board
of Trustees of the Texas Builders
Foundation and president of Carlyle
Homes in Troup, Texas said, “On behalf
of the Board of Trustees, I want to thank
Kelly-Moore Paints for their investment
in the future of the building industry. We
– the Foundation’s Trustees and the Kelly-Moore team – are dedicated to helping
young people achieve a certification or
degree in a construction related field, to
providing opportunities for employment
as building professionals, and to helping
Texans achieve the dream of homeowner-ship. We are committed to opening these
doors across our state.”
University of Arkansas to
Open Research Center
Focusing on Coatings
A new federally funded research center
led by the University of Arkansas will
partner with Arkansas industries and create new products for use in manufacturing, aerospace and defense, agriculture,
forestry, oil and gas, food packaging and
health care.
The Center for Advanced Surface
Engineering will be funded with a $20
million grant from the National Science
Foundation through its Experimental
Program to Stimulate Competitive
Research (EPSCoR), which promotes scientific progress nationwide by establishing partnerships with government, higher
education and industry.
Min Zou, who holds the endowed
Twenty-First Century Professorship
in Mechanical Engineering at the
University of Arkansas, will serve as the
center’s director.
We look forward to showcasing our
faculty expertise and ability to develop
solutions for our industry partners that
will create jobs for the state of Arkansas,”
said Jim Rankin, the U of A’s vice provost
for research and economic development.
“The center will be in good hands un-
der the leadership of Dr. Zou, a nation-
ally recognized scholar in mechanical and
surface engineering.”
Plans include start-up companies
and product creation. The center will
comprise four interdisciplinary research
teams made up of about 40 faculty
members from 10 Arkansas institutions.
The center will feature a curriculum
integrated with industry leaders through
internships and seminars, providing a
unique interdisciplinary educational
program for students.
Plans also include establishing
start-up companies to commercialize
technologies developed by the center,
creating new products and new jobs
to bolster the knowledge-based economy in Arkansas while also creating a
workforce with the specialized skill-sets
necessary to sustain industries that can
utilize the center’s research.
Center researchers and laboratories
will mentor students from high school
through graduate school in an integrated science, technology, engineering and
mathematics pipeline that feeds directly
into the center and out to industry.
The mechanical team will be led by
Zou and Ajay Malshe, Distinguished
Professor and Twenty-First Century
Chair of Materials, Manufacturing and
Integrated Systems at the U of A. It will
focus on durable, low-friction and self-sharpening multifunctional surfaces.
Nanoscale research in this area would
be applied to developing low-friction
coatings for mechanical systems and
self-sharpening coatings for manufacturing tools.
The cellulose team will be co-led by
Julie Carrier, a professor of biological
and agricultural engineering at the U of
A, and will focus on the surface modification of cellulose material for the development of new antimicrobial packaging
material, among other applications.
Eight other U of A faculty will conduct research in the center: Jingyi Chen,
