Vulnerability Assessment for Hood County, TX

One year after the Tornado of 2013, Hood County is now among the recovery and mitigation stages of the four-stage disaster cycle. In the Fall of 2014, fourteen Master’s of Urban Planning students at Texas A&M University created this assessment report as part of the graduate course “Disaster Recovery and Hazard Mitigation” instructed by Yu Xiao, Ph.D., AICP. The purpose of this assessment is to understand the potential threats for Hood County that will support the County to improve post-disaster mitigation and planning.Looking forward, we mapped the 100-year and 500-year floodplains in the County. A 100-year floodplain indicates areas that have a 1% chance each year of flooding. The majority of the floodplain follows the Brazos River, as would be expected, and its small tributaries and creeks. This floodplain does flow through the historic area of downtown Granbury and along the Lake. We also mapped potential sources of technological disaster or spills including known Superfund sites (areas the EPA has identified in need of hazardous waste clean-up) and areas that host tanks or can have spills of toxic substances. There are two Superfund sites, one in downtown Granbury along the River and one to the north-east of town.Texas Target Communitie

Robots for Humanity: Using Assistive Robots to Empower People with Disabilities

Assistive mobile manipulators have the potential to one day serve as surrogates and helpers for people with disabilities, giving them the freedom to perform tasks such as scratching an itch, picking up a cup, or socializing with their families. This article introduces a collaborative project with the goal of putting assistive mobile manipulators into real homes to work with people with disabilities. Through a participatory design process in which users have been actively involved from day one, we are identifying and developing assistive capabilities for the PR2 robot. Our approach is to develop a diverse suite of open source software tools that blend the capabilities of the user and the robot. Within this article, we introduce the project, describe our progress, and discuss lessons we have learned.This is an author's peer-reviewed final manuscript, as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by IEEE-Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and can be found at: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=100. ©2013 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.Keywords: Medical robotics, Biomedical equipment, Robots, Control systems, Handicapped aids, Software development, Exoskeletons, Sensory aids, Human factors, Prosthetic

South College District Redevelopment Plan, Bryan, TX

The site, South College Corridor District, is located between the boarder of the city of Bryan and College Station where Texas A&M University is placed. South College Corridor has been served as a major throughfare to connect Texas A&M University and Downtown Bryan. In 1910, the City built a trolley system along South College Avenue.Along with the growth of Texas A&M University and its expansion toward Texas Avenue, TX6, and University Avenue, South College Avenue has lost much of its glory as a destination point. The district has been mainly developed for single family housing units, mobile homes, and few restaurants and bars. However, recent private development projects with mixed-use buildings and apartment complexes nearby will change the topography of this area. To provide a big picture and guide future development in this area, students were created redevelopment plans for several parts of the whole community.Texas A&M University, Texas Target Communities, Yunmi Par

Liberty County Strategic Plan 2016 - 2036

In the fall of 2015, the County of Liberty and Texas Target Communities partnered to create a task force to represent the community. The task force was integral to the planning process, contributing the thoughts, desires, and opinions of community members—as well as their enthusiasm about Liberty’s future. This fourteen-month planning process ended in August 2016. The result of this collaboration is the County of Liberty Strategic Plan, which is the official policy guide for the community’s growth over the next twenty years.Liberty Strategic Plan 2036 provides a guide for the future growth of the county. This document was developed by Texas Target Communities in partnership with the County of Liberty

Burleson County State of the Community Report

Burleson County was founded in 1846 and was created from Milam and Washington Counties. It is named after Edward Burleson, a General during the Texas Revolution, the third Vice President of the Republic of Texas, and later a State Senator for Texas (TSHA). The City of Caldwell was founded in 1830 and incorporated in 1891, it has been the County seat since 1846. Somerville was incorporated in 1880 as a railroad spur town. Snook was incorporated in 1972.Texas Target Communitie

Robots for Humanity: Using Assistive Robotics to Empower People with Disabilities

©2013 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.DOI: 10.1109/MRA.2012.2229950Assistive mobile manipulators have the potential to one day serve as surrogates and helpers for people with disabilities, giving them the freedom to perform tasks such as scratching an itch, picking up a cup, or socializing with their families. This article introduces a collaborative project with the goal of putting assistive mobile manipulators into real homes to work with people with disabilities. Through a participatory design process in which users have been actively involved from day one, we are identifying and developing assistive capabilities for the PR2 robot. Our approach is to develop a diverse suite of open source software tools that blend the capabilities of the user and the robot. Within this article, we introduce the project, describe our progress, and discuss lessons we have learned

Reporter

Reporter Vol. 67 No.