An Innovative Ultradeepwater Subsea Blowout Preventer Control System Using Shape-Memory Alloy Actuators

Dr. Gangbing Song is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the director of the Smart Materials and Structures Laboratory at the University of Houston. He is a NSF CAREER award recipient of 2001. Dr. Song received his Ph.D. and MS degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University in the City of New York in 1995 and 1991, respectively. Dr. Song received his BS degree in 1989 from Zhejing University, P.R.C. He has research interests in smart materials and structures, structural vibration control, and advance control methods. He has developed two new courses in smart materials and published more than 100 journal and conference papers. Dr. Song is also a coinventor of a US patent.

Mr. Ziping Hu is a Design Engineer at Baker Hughes Inc. in Houston. With $14years$ of experience in Mechanical Engineering, Hu currently works on well completion projects. Hu holds a MS degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Houston and he received his BME degree in 1987 from Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China. Hu’s interest is in the application of innovative technology and material in petroleum industry.

Mr. Kai Sun is a Petroleum Engineer who currently works in Baker Oil Tools in Houston, focusing on the application/optimization of the Intelligent Well System. With ten years of experience, Mr. Sun previously worked in WellDynamics as a Reservoir Engineer and CNPC as an Oil/Gas Gathering/Transportation Engineer. Sun holds MS degrees in Petroleum Engineering and Engineering and Technology Management from University of Houston and University of Louisiana and a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Harbin Engineering University. Mr. Sun has published 14 SPE papers with 4 of them in SPE journals.

Dr. Ning Ma is a Research Associate in the Smart Materials and Structures Laboratory at the University of Houston. Dr. Ma received his Ph.D. in the Mechanical Engineering at University of Houston, Houston TX in 2005, an MS from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Akron, Akron, OH in 2002, and a BS degree in 1993 from Shenyang Institute of Aeronautic Engineering, P.R.C. His research interests are modeling and applications of smart materials and structures, especially the SMAS, for motion control, structural vibration control, and so on. He has published five journal papers and holds one US patent.

Dr. Michael J. Economides is a Professor at the Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston, and the Managing Partner of a petroleum engineering and petroleum strategy consulting firm. Publications include authoring or coauthoring of 11 professional textbooks and books, including “The Color Of Oil” and almost 200 journal papers and articles. Economides does a wide range of industrial consulting, including major retainers by national oil companies at the country level and by Fortune 500 companies. He has had professional activities in over 70 countries.

Dr. Christine Ehlig–Economides is a Professor of Petroleum Engineering and Albert B. Stevens Endowed Chair at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX. She received a BA degree in Math Science from Rice University in 1971, MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas in 1976, and a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University in 1979. Along with Dr. Michael J. Economides, she established the BS and MS programs at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She then worked in various capacities for $20years$ in more than 30 countries with Schlumberger before returning to the academia. She has published more than 50 papers and 2 patents, and was inducted into the US National Academy of Engineering in 2003.