The University of Houston (UH) is ideally located less than fifty miles from Galveston, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. As the fourth largest city in the United States, Houston is home to a significant percentage of the U. S. oil, gas, refining, and petrochemical industries and to the largest US shipping port. Texas, as a state, is experiencing unprecedented growth, adding more population year-on-year than any other state in the union and is well placed to pivot to a significant contribution to the Blue Economy and Marine Energy. The Gulf Coast, as a region of the country that is especially prone to hurricanes and flooding from tropical storms, is a strong motivation for our team to demonstrate the opportunity space that exists connecting marine power and water desalination and, in the process, building more resilient coastal communities to natural hazards along the Gulf Coast.
Our team is led by:
Arunabh Sarmah, Bachelors student
Mechanical Engineering
Arunabh Sarmah is a junior in the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Houston, and his interests lie in innovating new and dependable alternative fuels and energy sources that are sustainable for our development. After graduation, he plans on pursuing renewable energy in the transportation sector, mainly in the automotive industry.
Hanadi Rifai, PhD, PE, Fellow ASCE, John and Rebecca Moores Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Dr. Rifai is Director of the Environmental Engineering Graduate Program at UH. Her research interests encompass resiliency and sustainability of water, power, and energy systems, particularly when faced with natural hazards.