Science
Scientific research at Rice University is broad and far reaching. Rice research strives to understand the world around us and our place within it through fundamental enquiry and scientific discovery. Several areas are directly related to understanding the fundamental processes that define our space environment, drive the development of advanced technologies that enable space exploration and push the envelope of human engagement in space.
Space Physics and Astronomy
Research themes include Space Weather, plasma physics, computational physics, exoplanetary science, star formation, high energy astrophysics and the early Universe. The Laboratory for Space and Astrophysical Plasmas brings researchers to explore overlapping physical themes within computational, laboratory and observational plasma physics.
Earth, Environment and Planetary Sciences
Space exploration-connected research themes encompass characterizing, sampling, and mapping planetary surface environments to pinpoint the location of materials and energy sources accessible from the surface, atmospheric physics and chemistry, environmental fluid dynamics, and weather forecasting.
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | NASA TX CONNECTIONS |
|---|---|
| Cin-Ty Lee | TX07 |
| Kristen Siebach | TX07, TX08 |
| Rajdeep Dasgupta | TX07 |
| Pedram Hassanzadeh | TX11, TX16 |
| Adrian Lenardic | TX07 |
| Laurence Yeung | TX08 |
Chemistry
Research themes encompass the composition, properties, structure, and reactivity of matter. Space-impacting research includes the development of advanced materials that form the basis of radiation shielding and communications technologies that support space travel; energy generation, storage, and transmission technologies that enable new batteries and supercapacitors; CO2 capture and sequestration and water purification technologies using nanomaterials.
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | NASA TX CONNECTIONS |
|---|---|
| Jim Tour | TX03, TX06, TX08, TX12 |
| Matteo Pasquali | TX06, TX12, TX14 |
| Christy Landes | TX11, TX12 |
| Lisa Biswal | TX03, TX08, TX12 |
BioSciences
The overall research focus is to investigate the fundamental properties of living organisms and impacts on the future quality of life on earth. Space-impacting research includes biochemistry, biophysics, cell biology, microbiology, neurobiology, plant biology, synthetic biology, and systems biology.
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | NASA TX CONNECTIONS |
|---|---|
| Kathleen Beckingham | TX06 |
| Yousif Shamoo | TX06 |
| Matthew Wettergreen | TX13 |
| Amy Dunham | TX11 |
Engineering
Engineering research at Rice is impactful and game changing. Rice engineering faculty, students and researchers aim to solve challenging problems of relevance and importance to society. Much of the research has a direct impact or influence in the exploration of space, creating technological advances that allow humans to live and work in hostile environments, robotic solutions to complex problems and autonomous smart systems for increased operational safety.
Advanced Materials, Nanotechnology, and Mechanical Engineering
Research themes include advanced manufacturing; biomaterials; nanomaterial composites; energy conversion and storage; ultra-lightweight, ultrahigh strength multifunctional materials; nonlinear dynamics; mechanical characterization; and tribology. Each of the identified research themes can play a significant role in advancing space exploration. The Smalley-Curl Institute assists its members in forging new, cross-cutting, and interdisciplinary research areas, and in seeking new means of supporting their work.
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | NASA TX CONNECTIONS |
|---|---|
| Naomi Halas | TX05, TX08, TX12 |
| Pulickel Ajayan | TX03, TX08, TX12 |
| Jun Lou | TX03, TX12 |
| Michael Wong | TX01, TX06, TX12 |
| Pedro Alvarez | TX06, TX12 |
| Stephan Link | TX03, TX06, TX12 |
| Alberto Pimpinelli | TX12 |
| Gururaj Naik | TX03, TX08, TX12 |
| Matthew Brake | TX12, TX13 |
Bioengineering
Research themes include advanced imaging systems, systems and synthetic biology, biomaterials and tissue engineering. The advanced biomedical imaging systems are being adapted for use in space and being modified for application to earth remote sensing. The Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering was established to accelerate bio-related interdisciplinary research at Rice University, foster collaborations with the Texas Medical Center, create translational research partnerships with industry, and develop exceptional research training programs
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | NASA TX CONNECTIONS |
|---|---|
| Rebecca Richards-Kortum | TX06, TX08 |
| Tomasz Tkaczyk | TX08, TX12 |
| Jane Grande-Allen | TX06, TX12 |
| Paul Cherukuri | TX06, TX08, TX12 |
Sensors
Sensor technology development involves research programs across the School of Engineering and encompasses a wide range of applications such as non-invasive biometric diagnostics, distributed arrays for monitoring system health, and algorithms for early fault detection. Many of these technologies have direct application to space exploration particularly for crew health, environmental and structural monitoring particularly as we transition to a long-duration deep space presence at the Moon and Mars.
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | NASA TX CONNECTIONS |
|---|---|
| Leonardo Dueñas-Osorio | TX02, TX08, TX11, TX16 |
| Ashutosh Sabharwal | TX02, TX05, TX08, TX10 |
Robotics
Research themes in robotics include advanced haptic interfaces, intelligent control systems, and automated motion planning. Applications include rehabilitation robots, remote inspection, and automated unmanned vehicles.
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | NASA TX CONNECTIONS |
|---|---|
| Fathi Ghorbel | TX04, TX10, TX12, TX17 |
| Marcia O’Malley | TX04, TX06, TX07, TX13 |
| Lydia Kavraki | TX04, TX06, TX10, TX11, TX17 |
Aeronautics and Aerospace
Research themes include experimental and numerical aerodynamics, performance/safety assessment for static and dynamic problems, computational flow analysis and systems dynamics and control.
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | NASA TX CONNECTIONS |
|---|---|
| Patrick Rodi | TX01, TX09, TX14, TX15 |
Data and Computer Sciences
Data Sciences
Data Science is an emerging discipline that integrates data acquisition (sensors and systems), data analytics (machine learning, statistics), and data storage to derive actionable information from diverse and potentially massive data sources. The data science initiative at Rice University is a campus wide strategy to grow the quantity and quality of data-driven knowledge and discovery with multi- and inter-disciplinary research. The Data-to-Knowledge Laboratory (D2K) provides direct access to student research teams that work to solve real world data problems.
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | NASA TX CONNECTIONS |
|---|---|
| Anastasios Kyrillidis | TX02, TX04, TX10, TX11, TX17 |
| Richard Baraniuk | TX06, TX11 |
| Chris Tunnell | TX08, TX11 |
| Genevera Allen | TX06, TX11 |
| Katherine B. Ensor | TX06, TX11 |
| Erzsébet Merényi | TX07, TX11 |
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Research efforts in artificial intelligence and machine learning focus on developing new methodologies to enable data analysis in a wide range of disciplines, including bioinformatics, graphics and image analysis, and robotics and exploring a wide range of machine learning algorithms for application to data visualization and exploration, dimensionality reduction and pattern classification and recognition. In addition, there are important and emerging signal processing problems of relevance to space exploration. The Ken Kennedy Institute (KKI) is committed to solving problems that impact the world in relevant and innovative ways through artificial intelligence, data, and computing.
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | NASA TX CONNECTIONS |
|---|---|
| Devika Subramanian | TX06, TX10, TX11 |
| Moshe Vardi | TX02, TX10, TX11 |
| Angela Wilkins (KKI) | TX03, TX04, TX06, TX07, TX08, TX10, TX11, TX12 |
Other Data and Computer Science Areas
This includes research areas in Networked Systems and Modeling. Research efforts in networked systems focus on designing secure, efficient, and reliable network systems as well as optimizing the interaction between data-processing tasks and the underlying network. Application of modeling across the space exploration mission is vast with research areas such as planetary surface modeling and tracking/imaging of Mars Rovers. The Spatial Studies Lab combines diverse sets of data in order to create novel web experiences and insights through unique data visualization.
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | NASA TX CONNECTIONS |
|---|---|
| Ang Chen (Networked Systems) | TX10, TX11 |
| Farès El-Dahdah (Modeling) | TX09, TX11 |
Human Systems Interactions
Human Factors research into human performance includes the understanding of how humans interact with the systems around them. This is of particular importance in space where survival is often dependent on these interactions. The Department of Psychological Sciences at Rice University focus on optimizing human well-being and overall system performance by considering the cognitive aspects of the interaction (e.g. design of displays, procedures and information). The disciplines of Human Factors and Human System Interaction are becoming increasingly important as the human presence in space expands from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars and becomes more reliant on automated and intelligent systems.
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | NASA TX CONNECTIONS |
|---|---|
| Akane Sano | TX06, TX11 |
| Margaret Beier | TX06 |
| Michael Byrne | TX06 |
| Patricia DeLucia | TX06 |
| Eduardo Salas | TX06, TX13 |
| Phil Kortum | TX06 |
Space and Science Policy
The Baker Institute's Space Policy Program and Baylor College of Medicine host the annual International Space Medicine Summit (ISMS). ISMS brings together the world’s leading physicians, space biomedical scientists, engineers, astronauts, cosmonauts and educators from the spacefaring nations for high-level discussions to identify not only necessary space medicine research goals but also ways to further enhance international cooperation and collaborative research.
| FACULTY AFFILIATES | |
|---|---|
| George Abbey | Neal Lane |
| Kirstin Matthews | |