Articles by Jennifer Nichols
Transforming education with virtual reality and artificial intelligence
Dr. Donggil Song, an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution, is creating artificial intelligence (AI) applications and AI-based virtual reality (VR) platforms to provide dynamic and immersive educational experiences. Song's innovations include a VR platform aimed at advancing college algebra education and a generative AI app used to strengthen the communications skills of medical students.
Queensland dairy farm facing closure offered lifeline from Kenilworth Dairies
Kenilworth Dairies has stepped up to bottle the Rozynski family's milk. The future of the 80-year-old dairy farm will depend on public support. The milk bottled direct from the Rozynski's farm should be on the shelves within weeks. A Queensland family that feared 80 years of dairying would end after a contract was not renewed has been offered a last-minute lifeline.
Queensland strawberry industry condemns labour hire company that misled Fair Work inspectors
The Queensland Strawberry Growers Association president has condemned the operators of a former labour hire provider for deliberately falsifying documents and breaching workplace laws. On August 13, the Federal Circuit and Family Court ordered Korserv Pty Ltd to pay $150,240 and fined its former manager, Janghwan Choi, $30,048. The Fair Work Ombudsman is taking action to protect workers.
Sunflower festival regenerating farmland and supporting cancer and palliative care patients
When Noel and Debbie Granshaw started sowing sunflowers, they had no idea how it would spark joy, connect them with their community and improve the lives of people in pain. The regenerative beef farmers will open Mooloo Farm's gates in Queensland's Mary Valley this Saturday to host their second annual sunflower festival. These sunflowers are being used in multiple ways.
Queensland dairy industry celebrates an end to decades of decline with new plan
After decades of dramatic decline, the number of dairy farms in Queensland has stabilised, and the industry is starting to rebuild. Advocacy group EastAUSmilk said that since 2021, between 15 and 20 new farms had entered the Queensland industry. Chief executive officer Eric Danzi estimated the state's fresh milk production had increased in that period by up to 30 per cent to more than 282 million litres.
Engineering professor honored with international education award
Dr. Albert E. Patterson, assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University, has been selected as a recipient of the 2026 Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) Ralph R. Teetor International Educational Award.
Aggie blends passion for fashion with engineering technology
Image: Donna Malak/Texas A&M Engineering Aarathi Devakumar is weaving a unique narrative in the world of engineering. With a lifelong love of creativity and technology, she has found her perfect fit in the trendsetting area of design called fashioneering. Fashioneering combines engineering and fashion to create wearable technology and interactive clothing.
Making smart tech smarter
Imagine trying to hold a conversation at a rock concert. That overwhelming noise is the same challenge wireless devices face when interference floods their communication channels. Whether caused by environmental factors or intentional attacks, these disruptions can push smart machines toward unpredictable or unsafe behavior.
Meet the AI-powered robotic dog ready to help with emergency response - Robohub
Prototype robotic dogs built by Texas A&M University engineering students and powered by artificial intelligence demonstrate their advanced navigation capabilities. Photo credit: Logan Jinks/Texas A&M University College of Engineering. By Jennifer Nichols Meet the robotic dog with a memory like an elephant and the instincts of a seasoned first responder. Developed by Texas A&M University engineering students, this AI-powered robotic dog doesn’t just follow commands.
Aggie engineering student named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list
Katie Calderon | Image: Texas A&M Engineering Katie Calderon ‘25 was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list alongside high visibility athletes and sports entrepreneurs by being a game-changer in the world of women’s golf. Driven by purpose, the Texas A&M University engineering student found herself in elite company through a fierce determination to turn technical insight into real-world impact.
Meet the AI-powered robotic dog ready to revolutionize emergency response
Prototype robotic dogs built by Texas A&M University engineering students and powered by artificial intelligence demonstrate their advanced navigation capabilities. Meet the robotic dog with a memory like an elephant and the instincts of a seasoned first responder. Developed by Texas A&M University engineering students, this AI-powered robotic dog doesn’t just follow commands — it sees, remembers and thinks.
AI-powered robotic dog sees, remembers and responds with human-like precision in search-and-rescue missions
Like humans, the robot uses reactive and deliberative behaviors and thoughtful decision-making. It quickly responds to avoid a collision and handles high-level planning by using the custom MLLM to analyze its current view and plan how best to proceed. Credit: Logan Jinks/Texas A&M Engineering Meet the robotic dog with a memory like an elephant and the instincts of a seasoned first responder.
Smarter than your average dog
Meet the AI Robot Dog Built to Save Lives | Video: Logan Jinks/Texas A&M Engineering Meet the robotic dog with a memory like an elephant and the instincts of a seasoned first responder. Developed by Texas A&M University engineering students, this AI-powered robotic dog doesn’t just follow commands — it sees, remembers and thinks. Designed to navigate chaos with precision, the robot could revolutionize search-and-rescue missions, disaster response and many other emergency operations.
Advancing coastal research with AI-guided, 3-D-printed, biodegradable sensors
A NASA-funded effort that combines advanced 3-D printing, biodegradable materials and artificial intelligence to protect vulnerable coastal environments will be strengthened by the research of Dr. Chukwuzubelu Ufodike in Texas A&M University’s Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution.
AI can change how farmers water their fields from cloud to soil
Ananya Das and Kshiti Kangovi, Texas A&M University Class of 2026, are on a mission to help solve the global problem of water scarcity and inequity impacting millions of farmers and communities. Their solution is an AI-driven irrigation management system that integrates soil sensors, crop data and weather forecasts to tell farmers exactly when and how much to water.
Conservation Director reports on online reservations
AUDUBON COUNTY - Audubon County Conservation Director Bruce Haag told the Audubon County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that he was working with an individual from Adams County to set up a place at mycountyparks.com to allow individuals to do online registration, for example, to book to use the cabins in Littlefield Park. Haag said this individual set up the online registration for Adams County, and is willing to do the same for Audubon County.
Scientists Create “Living Bricks” To Build Homes on Mars
A new breakthrough in bioengineering could bring Martian habitats closer to reality, not by shipping materials from Earth, but by growing them from the planet’s own soil. Credit: Shutterstock Scientists developed living materials that turn Martian dust into structures using synthetic lichens. This innovation enables autonomous Mars construction. Living on Mars has long captured the imagination, often portrayed as a distant goal rooted in science fiction.
Growing Homes On Mars: Texas A&M Research Pioneers Autonomous Construction Using Synthetic Lichens
Inhabiting Mars has long been a futuristic fantasy fueled by science fiction. However, successful landings on our neighboring planet over the past half-century have made this seemingly far-fetched idea increasingly plausible. But don’t start packing just yet. First, we must figure out how to build structures millions of miles from Earth. Sending rockets carrying massive payloads of construction materials into space isn’t practical or affordable.
Construction on Mars takes a leap forward
Inhabiting Mars has long been a futuristic fantasy fueled by science fiction. However, successful landings over the past half-century have made this seemingly far-fetched idea increasingly plausible. Scientists need to figure out how to build structures millions of miles from Earth. Sending rockets carrying massive payloads of construction materials into space isn't practical or affordable. Enter Texas A&M University's Dr. Congrui Grace Jin.
TAMU Research Pioneers Autonomous Construction Using Synthetic Lichens
Growing Homes On Mars: TAMU Research Pioneers Autonomous Construction Using Synthetic Lichens by Jennifer Nichols for TAMU News College Station TX (SPX) Jun 26, 2025 Inhabiting Mars has long been a futuristic fantasy fueled by science fiction. However, successful landings on our neighboring planet over the past half-century have made this seemingly far-fetched idea increasingly plausible. But don't start packing just yet.
Cracking the code: deciphering how concrete can heal itself
Imagine concrete healing its own cracks like human skin recovering from a cut. That’s the vision behind the latest research of Dr. Congrui Grace Jin, published in Materials Today Communications. Addressing one of the most persistent and expensive problems in construction, Jin, an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution, has taken inspiration from nature to develop a synthetic lichen system to enable concrete to self-repair.
Navigating A Safer Path For Autonomous Vehicles
For autonomous vehicles (AVs) to travel safely, they require up-to-date, high-definition maps that accurately reflect their changing surroundings. If not continually revised, these maps quickly become outdated, increasing the risk of accidents and stalling the development of fully self-driving vehicles.
What to do with aging solar panels?
What to do with aging solar panels? by Jennifer Nichols and Raven Wuebker for TAMU News College Station TX (SPX) Jan 26, 2025 The National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator Program has granted $5 million dollars to Phase 2 of the project "Securing critical material supply chains by enabling phOtovoltaic circuLARity (SOLAR)." SOLAR's goal is to proactively ensure circularity of solar panels by providing solutions to barriers throughout the end-to-end supply chain.
Sunshine Coast brothers start Honeyeater Farm after leaving former careers
Riley and Lachlan Hughes bucked the trend when they left the treadmill of their careers to become full-time market gardeners. For decades their family's land at Woombye in Queensland's Sunshine Coast hinterland hadn't run much more than a few cows. But Riley, a 35-year-old former electrical engineer, and his 33-year-old brother Lachlan, who worked as an urban forester in local government, have returned to their family's farming roots.
Avocado plant producing giant fruit set to hit nursery shelves
A plant producing a supersized new Australian avocado variety — four times the size of a store-bought fruit — is tipped to be a sell-out, ahead of its first release to retail nurseries and home gardeners. Lorna Spackman married into a pioneering citrus farming family on the Sunshine Coast. But the 81-year-old never expected to create a legacy with Jala, a prolific new avocado variety producing enormous slow-oxidising fruit.
Urine-stained beards and great escape stories make goats entertaining animals
From a smelly serial escapee to a mob on the run, goats with attitude are living up to their reputation as Houdini on Australian farms. It took station manager Richard Bulley three days to track down 26 adult and three baby goats after they escaped from a Woodstock horse yard near Townsville. The animals travelled 31 kilometres after flipping up an electric fence to break out of the yard.
Blueberry prices skyrocket to $20 a punnet as harvest wraps up in southern growing areas
In short: Blueberry prices have surged around the nation and strawberry prices look set to follow. The ABC has been sent a picture from Fitzroy Crossing in WA showing blueberries selling for $20 a punnet. What's next? Prices are set to ease in the next few weeks as production ramps up in Queensland. If blueberries have seemed expensive this week — you're right.
Grassley offering bill on immigration patrol
ATLANTIC – Many who attended a town hall meeting with Senator Chuck Grassley on Tuesday morning in Atlantic asked about immigration into the country, and while speaking with the media after the meeting, Grassley said he is offering a bill that would help with part of the problem. Grassley said people can be “partoled in the US,” which means they have a specific individual issue that needs to be discussed with US officials.
Spider venom to be tested in the fight against plague locusts
A University of the Sunshine Coast researcher working with the world’s “largest arachnid venom collection” is aiming to invent a honey-bee-friendly bio-insecticide for farmers battling swarms of hungry locusts. Powered by the Echo RSS Plugin by CodeRevolution.
University of Sunshine Coast researcher receives $240,000 for spider venom fight against plague locusts
A University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) researcher is milking hundreds of venomous spiders in the hope of creating a biological insecticide that can help farmers battle swarms of hungry locusts without killing honey bees. Dr Shaodong Guo has already used Blue Mountains funnel-web spiders to develop a venom pesticide commercially approved for use against aphids, spider mites, thrips, and whiteflies in greenhouse fruit, vegetable and flower crops in the United States.
Strawberry farmers using billions of tiny, blind, predatory mites as successful alternative to toxic insecticides
As concern over chemical use in food production grows and insect species become more resistant to poisons, farmers are turning to nature for solutions to pests that can cripple crop production. Billions of tiny, blind, predatory mites are being bred, harvested, packed on ice, and posted to strawberry farms in the battle against destructive sap-sucking insects.
Carer daughter calls for disability funding rethink to buy all-terrain-vehicle for dad on rural property
Atlanta Baker has painful memories of the last time she took her dad to a public park; his paranoia spiked and he scratched his arms until he bled, attracting a crowd of people and an ambulance. Ms Baker is a full-time carer for her diabetic father William Baker, who has Korsakoff dementia, is diagnosed bipolar, suffers paranoia episodes, is on blood thinners after a triple heart bypass, and struggles to walk after a serious car accident 15 years ago.
This Cairns mum was shocked at the volume of tuna imports to Australia, so she created an alternative
When Kate Lamason discovered that 99 per cent of the 50,000 tonnes of tinned tuna Australians eat every year came from overseas, she decided to do something about it. Powered by the Echo RSS Plugin by CodeRevolution.
This Cairns mum was shocked at the volume of tuna imports to Australia, so she created an alternative
Cairns mum Kate Lamason was shocked to learn that 99 per cent of the 50,000 tonnes of tinned tuna that Australians eat every year is imported and that less than a third of it is certified as sustainably fished. As a nation, we consume a staggering 336 million servings of the cheap, nutritious form of protein annually — roughly the same weight as the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Farmer anger after Woolworths axes Norco milk from all of its 150 stores in metropolitan Sydney
In short: Woolworths has removed all Norco milk from Sydney stores. 150 stores will be affected. What's next: The supermarket says it will offer an expanded range of Norco products north of Sydney. Woolworths has been slammed for its decision to remove Australian farmer-owned Norco milk from all of its 150 supermarkets and Metro-branded stores in metropolitan Sydney.
Young couple call time on gourmet mushroom business amid tough economy, failing infrastructure
The business a young couple crowdfunded to grow a head-turning array of tasty, colourful fungi closes as failing machinery and crop losses due to constant rain prove too much to overcome. Powered by the Echo RSS Plugin by CodeRevolution.
Graziers 'can't just sit and hope for rain'. Industry leaders say it's time to destock
Queensland graziers are being urged to sell their cattle as the state's bushfire emergency exacerbates an already dire national feed shortage. The fires across Queensland are burning through cattle pastures There's limited hay on the market to feed livestock Producers can access state government support to help rebuild and restock after the fires Grazier Robert Scanlan lost all his pasture in the Colosseum bushfire near Miriam Vale in central Queensland.
TAMU Research Pioneers Autonomous Construction Using Synthetic Lichens
Growing Homes On Mars: TAMU Research Pioneers Autonomous Construction Using Synthetic Lichens by Jennifer Nichols for TAMU News College Station TX (SPX) Jun 26, 2025 Inhabiting Mars has long been a futuristic fantasy fueled by science fiction. However, successful landings on our neighboring planet over the past half-century have made this seemingly far-fetched idea increasingly plausible. But don't start packing just yet.
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