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The new Bachelor of Science program kicked off this semester with their first cohort of students with classes designed to prepare them for a future of maintaining a permanent presence in space.

Illustration of a melting human brain against a background of maroon lights and circuits.
Research

AI models can get brain rot, too

Oct. 19, 2026 • 6 min. read

Researchers from the Texas A&M Department of Computer Science and Engineering determined that when large language models are trained on frivolous online content, they can get brain rot like humans do.

A headshot of Dr. Chelsea Hu on a maroon background.

Chemical engineering assistant professor Chelsea Hu has been selected for a three-year Air Force Young Investigator award, supporting her research into innovative scientific approaches with the potential for broad impact.

Stacks of computer servers lit by blue light.

Four graphics processing units provided by technology company Nvidia will enable researchers to investigate better ways of simulating radiation transport for nuclear engineering.

Three blue-tinted DNA strands, with the centered strand in focus. Two small elements within its inner helix are highlighted in orange.

Texas A&M University engineers make groundbreaking discovery about the origins of life and establish a framework that improves research outcomes.

John Hayes, sitting on the entrance to the Eight360 NOVA motion base

Graduate student and NASA fellow John Hayes took a gap year. Today, he is closing research gaps.

A translucent blue-purple gummy bear-shaped salogel sits on a white windowsill, with glossy droplets appearing to drip from its surface. Soft sunlight streams through the window in the background, highlighting the material's gel-like appearance and suggesting its role in storing and releasing thermal energy for energy-efficient building applications.

A material from the Texas A&M Soft Matter Facility that stores daytime heat and releases it at night was recently featured on the cover of a top materials journal.

A headshot of Dr. Rita Esuru Okoroafor on a maroon background.

Dr. Rita Esuru Okoroafor received the National Science Foundation's highest honor for early-career faculty for her research on understanding and sustaining hydrogen generation from reactive rocks deep beneath the Earth's surface.

A headshot of Dr. Minghui Zheng on a maroon background.

Mechanical engineering researcher Dr. Minghui Zheng wins a National Science Foundation grant for her project that implements aerial robots to improve automated harvesting in dense, complex apple orchards.

Visualization of the zinc-based metal-organic framework on a maroon background

Researchers are examining how electrons and ions move through metal-organic frameworks, offering insights to advance neuron-inspired computing.