• Antra Ganguly, a UT Dallas biomedical engineering graduate student in Dr. Shalini Prasad’s lab, welcomes visitors to a lab in the University’s Science Learning Center during Science in the City.

The University of Texas at Dallas teamed up with The Dallas Morning News to give the public a chance to see the research being done on campus during Science in the City on March 30. Scientists, graduate students and professors showed off their work in bioengineering, nanotechnology, mechanical engineering and neuroscience to groups of eager participants.

Dr. Shalini Prasad, Cecil H. and Ida Green Professor in Systems Biology Science in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, and her team presented a device that detects pesticides in produce.

Dr. Ray Baughman, director of the Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute and the Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Chemistry in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and his team demonstrated how to make artificial muscles from nylon fishing line, while Dr. Yonas Tadesse, associate professor of mechanical engineering, showed how he uses those muscles in his robotics research.

Dr. Ted Price BS’97, Eugene McDermott Professor of neuroscience in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, showcased his research on pain in the Bioengineering and Sciences Building. Participants also toured the new Engineering and Computer Science West building and saw a demonstration of a self-driving robotic car in a session led by Dr. Tyler Summers, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.