CORE PARTICIPANTS

Venkat Selvamanickam, M.D. Anderson Chair Professor in the department of mechanical engineering and a principal investigator in TcSUH is the TcSUH-ARH director. Selvamanickam was previously vice president and chief technical officer at SuperPower, Inc., where he headed the company's technology development group.

ENERGY FOCUS

The TcSUH-ARH works with industry to advance HTS applications in energy. A major interest is in the manufacture of superconducting wire for use in cable and other related products that are expected to play a major role in improving the electric power grid, of vital importance for the transmission and distribution of electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar.

The ARH has an extensive program on the improvement and commercialization of superconducting wire for applications in energy, through a partnership with SuperPower, Inc., a world leader in the manufacture of ‘second-generation’ high temperature superconducting wire.

Recently an ARPA-E grant for development of a superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) device was awarded to ABB, SuperPower, TcSUH/UH and Brookhaven National Lab. Other partnerships include a DOE Smart Grid program with SuperPower, Waukesha Electric Systems and Oak Ridge National Laboratory on a Fault Current Limiting Transformer, and a Sponsored Research Agreement with Bruker Energy & Superconducting Technology (BEST) to support advanced testing and characterization of BEST’s 2G HTS wire. Two spin-off companies have been established from TcSUH HTS and energy-related materials research, Metal Oxide Technologies and SeprOx.

BIOMEDICINE FOCUS

The Applied Research Hub also works with industry to develop applications of high temperature superconductors in biomedicine. TcSUH has an established, award-winning research program in medical imaging and nanomedicine and has built a network of collaborators at the Texas Medical Center. We are carrying out research in areas such as magnetic resonance imaging at high and ultra low fields, magnetic nanoparticle imaging and fetal cardiac monitoring. We have established one spin-off company in collaboration with University College, London - EndoMagnetics - from this research.

The Applied Research Hub is facilitating the applications development process, leading to a commercial cluster of HTS industries in Texas, and actively seeks the participation of other industry partners with interests in HTS and advanced materials.