COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & SCIENCE

One of 15 children in a family of sharecroppers, Ragan Edmiston (Electrical Engineering ‘62) never dreamed his career would take him into the space race—that is, until a representative from NASA arrived in Ruston looking for an electrical engineer with enough knowledge to do the impossible and an affinity for learning new engineering techniques. Only one quarter from graduation, NASA’s representative had convinced him that his next big adventure was in space. As soon as the ink was dry on his diploma, Edmiston was off to NASA’s newly established Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, where he and his fellow engineers were quickly taught the fundamentals of engineering for aerospace. Combining the can-do attitude of his upbringing with the engineering foundation he developed at Tech, Edmiston thrived in the fastpaced, ever-changing environment.

Nearly three years into his Louisiana Tech education, Graduate Student Council President Mohammad Jabed Perves Bappy has built an impressive publication portfolio and a solid reputation for promoting engineering and science outreach and research. A doctoral candidate in Tech’s Micro and Nanoscale Systems Engineering program and member of Dr. David Mills’ lab, Bappy has been at the forefront of developing cost-effective antibacterial nano agents for a filtration system that integrates seamlessly with high-grade industrial plastics, a pioneering effort supported by the NASA EPSCOR Rapid Response Research Program. This project aims to reduce the presence of disease-carrying microorganisms in space significantly, a crucial step towards ensuring the health and safety of astronauts in the potentially compromising environment of outer space.

Louisiana Tech Biomedical Engineering students in Dr. Mark DeCoster’s Cellular Neuroscience Lab played pivotal roles in discovering a new nanomaterial, copper high aspect ratio structures (CuHARS), which may revolutionize medicine. In collaboration with an international team led by DeCoster (James E. Wyche III Endowed Professor of Biomedical Engineering, associate director of Tech’s Center for Biomedical Engineering and Research and a member of the University’s Institute for Micromanufacturing), Kyle Rugg, Kelly McMahen, Katie McKenzie, Maral Maghsoudloo, Shaylee Boudreaux, recent doctoral graduate Dr. Anik Karan, and Fulbright Scholar Dr. Margarita Darder helped discover and test the new material, which has antibiotic and angiogenic properties, killing bacteria and promoting tissue regeneration.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Louisiana Tech University’s online master’s programs in engineering as some of the best in the nation for 2024. The University’s online master’s in engineering options— Engineering and Technology Management and Industrial Engineering—are affordable programs that prepare students to advance their careers while allowing them to do coursework at times that work with their schedules. The inclusion in the prestigious U.S. News & World Report rankings acknowledges the rigor and value of these degrees.