- [Chelsea] Howdy from Texas A&M.

- [Dr. Roblyer] Boots are a lot more than just leather.

They're a lot more than just footwear, and they're a lot more than just a status symbol.

You don't really walk in boots, you strut in boots.

- [Dr. Savell] I think there's something emotional about barbecue.

Nobody stands in line for Tex-Mex or chicken fried steak; they do for barbecue.

- [Dave] Students that graduate from here, uh, are getting jobs at the best companies in the world, straight outta school.

That's pretty special.

- [Chelsea] Welcome to campus.

Welcome to Texas A&M Today.

(instrumental music) Howdy.

I'm your host, Chelsea Reber, at the brand new Aggie Park on the campus of Texas A&M University.

Filling 20 acres next to Kyle Field, the park is a gift from the Association of Former Students.

Envisioned as an outdoor MSC, the park includes a lake, an amphitheater, and an ice cream shop, all to bring the Aggie Network together.

As we wrap up our season, we check in with the Corps of Cadets and learn why boot donations are an important part of keeping senior traditions alive.

Plus, with Aggie animators working on major films like Encanto, and the How to Train Your Dragon Trilogy, we're finding out what makes A&M's Visualization program such a powerhouse.

We'll also explain the science behind a seven story physics experiment that draws a lot of attention.

But we'll start with something Texans know better than anyone: barbecue.

And why a special A&M program has people waiting years to learn from the Three Brisketeers.

- [Dr. Savell] There are three main foods that are in Texas: barbecue, Tex-Mex, and chicken fried steak.

Nobody stands in line for Tex-Mex or chicken fried steak; they do for barbecue.

They'll go to workshops on barbecue.

They buy books about barbecue.

They want to figure out not only how to, where to find the best to eat, but they're also intrigued because they wanna figure out how to prepare it.

It's almost like if I can only have the right equipment, and if I can get the right meat, or if I get the right seasoning, or if I can figure out the right temperature, all these moving parts, and you figure if you can just solve something you'll be able to deliver.

There is something about providing food for people that, um, that they enjoy that is so satisfying to you.

- [Dr. Griffin] We've done Barbecue Summer Camp, we started the brisket program, the Camp Brisket, and somewhere in here somebody named us the Three Brisketeers.

We've been involved with each other since the eighties.

I think we're at the point in our career where this is just fun.

Barbecue Summer Camp was really our first effort to do something for the public.

There's not many people that know all these cuts, and know the variation in them and, and what might work and what might not, and how you have to treat this one different.

Those you can put on the grill, these you can't, all that kind of stuff.

We have tried to root this in, in the science behind it.

That's what makes us a little different from some other places.

- [Ray] You, you go and, and talk to a pitmaster somewhere.

Well, he may not wanna share everything with you.

And here at the university, you know, we feel like, that we can share the knowledge that we've gained through this and not be trying to hide trade secrets or something like that.

People from all over the United States come in, you know, they've come from all walks of life, but they really have one interest and that's learning how to, how to make better barbecue.

- Because there's such a huge variance from the top to the bottom on these things.

- The first Barbecue Summer Camp we had, we sent out information about coming to it and it took a while to finally get people that wanted to come.

And we got a good number of people, but it wasn't anything that sold out.

The last time we actually had an online sign up.

It took 10 seconds before the camp was filled, and after that point, we went to a lottery system so that people would have some chance to be able to enter this lottery.

At the end of five years, if you haven't made it to the camp through the lottery, you get in automatically and it's amazing how many people have waited five years to come to the camp.

- [Hattem] I was just hungry for brisket and there was nobody making it in the UAE in 2014.

Oil and gas during the day, wearing a suit, and then wearing an apron at night.

Made I think what I thought was decent brisket, but didn't know it, didn't have a reference 'til I went back to Texas.

We were just making a lot of brisket and my character evolved.

Who I am as a person evolved.

Um, and I just got more into the hospitality side of things, meeting people, introducing what we were doing with barbecue and, uh, culture and how it connected people.

I'm hoping to take away some tips and tricks that, uh, we didn't know on the science and the process part of things, the equipment side of things, and seeing if we can't translate some of these skills into the palette and the ingredients that exist abroad that don't exist here.

- [Madailein] I am the pitmaster for my high school's barbecue team.

I just realized that it's something that I really enjoy because there's so much trial and error and there's so much to it that people don't realize.

I'm able to have some experiences like this, which allow me to learn more about barbecue and bring it back to my school and the community.

I also really enjoy being a kid in barbecue, and a girl.

I'm more of a minority, but I have a lot of fun with bringing in new aspects to the industry and also having more young people come into the barbecue world.

- [Erica] I started out as an attorney.

I never did anything culinary and it wasn't until the birth of my son, when I'm on maternity leave, that, you know, I actually had time to stop and really reevaluate who I was as a person.

I started watching TV shows and I stumbled onto competition barbecue.

I didn't realize at the time that that is not the same barbecue that you do at a restaurant, but I was hooked.

I realized that this barbecue community really is based on love and that barbecue is a welcome mat and is supposed to bring people together.

You're taught very superficially, like, oh, you know, cut against the grain, but here I'm learning the why.

I'm understanding the actual animal that I'm working on, the animal that I'm cooking and why the things I do will work or they won't work, and that's something that's really important and you need a meat scientist to tell you that because you're not just gonna get that on your own.

What, you know, I've spent hours scouring the internet to find out, and I came here and I got it in three minutes, and the brisket that I'm about to go to North Dakota, I'm using the advice that I was given here.

- [Dr. Griffin] It's been an awesome experience.

It's been an awesome run, and it's opened just so many doors and given us opportunities to do things that, you know, people might have never known anything about meat science.

But when you add that word barbecue at the front of it, then it becomes important to 'em.

- [Ray] I feel like we represent Texas A&M, and the thing that's bringing people together is the barbecue.

And then they actually get to see what we're capable of doing here at A&M, how we're able to take some of the research and share that with them as they're making better product.

- I think that that's one of the great things we have that, that we love helping people.

We love educating people.

We love hosting people, and we love hosting regardless of where they went to school.

We're glad to have people that come from all these different universities, all these different states, as well as international.

And I think it gives us an opportunity to share some of our experiences.

And part of what makes Texas A&M so special is treating people with a lot of hospitality.

- A&M also hosts a Brisket Camp each January.

Want a chance to go to either camp?

Head to our website to learn more.

Now, it's time for an Aggie fact.

(drums drumming) - [Chelsea] Instead of buying meat from the grocery store, how about buying meat from A&M?

The Rosenthal Meat Science Center stocks a retail store full of steaks, pork chops, bacon, sausage, and much more.

Each item is cut fresh by Aggie staff and students.

Their beef jerky has even made national headlines with The New York Times once naming it the best in the country, prompting a flood of orders from carnivores across America.

Next, on our trip around campus, we're heading to the Sanders Corps of Cadets Center, where shelves are stacked high with the most treasured part of a senior cadet's uniform.

Here's the story of how a simple boot donation led to a very special moment.

- It wasn't something that I started thinking about until I had to, which is my junior year.

I think the thing that you usually do is you go to Holick's and you get your pair of, like, fresh made boots just perfect for you, all sized and everything.

You have to do all these deposits and all that stuff.

And I had heard about the Aggie Boot Loan program and so I already knew that I wanted to do that.

I went down to the Corps Center just to get them sized and then there was just a whole room of just boots from all different sizes, colors and all.

(instrumental music) It was a really cool experience to kind of see that so many people donated their boots so that people like me could have boots.

I think it wasn't until I had them that I realized, yeah, they're kind of a big deal.

- [Lisa] Good, good.

Yeah, I think that might have some possibility.

You look at sort of a time capsule of the cadets that came before, whose name is in it, that might not even be the donor.

It may be somebody that was ahead of them.

Where they've bought them from them, and they've carried that on.

The people that donate their boots, they're like, I want these to have a life again.

They're having a new life, they're serving another purpose.

Okay.

Same thing, point and pull.

Oh.

Did you hear that noise?

That thump?

That's what I listen for.

That's a good, that's a good noise.

When I fit a cadet, tell them a little bit something about the donor, cadets kind of get this wide-eyed look and so I'm excited to tell them a little bit about them.

So that's him.

The first one.

Very first one, they look great.

(Lisa laughing) They look like they're still in the same shape that they were.

- [Dr. Roblyer] For me, my boots were sitting in my office on a shelf along with some of my other memorabilia and people would come in and ask me about them.

That's really the first time that they'd ever been displayed.

Until then, they'd just been in my boot bags.

A lot of times they were at my parents' house while I was moving around the military.

I just, I love the idea that the boots were gonna be able to be used by, by somebody, you know, that had been the hope in donating them.

- [Adriana] When I got them, Lisa told me, oh, they actually belong to a professor who teaches here.

And it wasn't until I got back to my dorm that I was like, wait a second, I think I have, I think I'm taking his class right now.

- I was really jazzed.

To me it was, it was the perfect way for my boots to be used.

Number one, they were being used.

Number two, they were being used by a cadet who otherwise could not have, you know, worn boots.

And then to bring that all full round for it to be a female cadet, you know, for it to be a young woman.

I just, I just think that's wonderful.

- [Lisa] Oh, he was very excited.

He was so happy to know not only that somebody was wearing them, but to have that immediate connection was wonderful.

- [Dr. Roblyer] Boots are a lot more than just leather.

They're a lot more than just footwear, and they're a lot more than just a status symbol.

You don't really walk in boots, you strut in boots.

- I think the boots are a symbol of all the hard work and all the, everything that you have to go through for, for so long.

You have to have the confidence to wear them.

- I think it's something that is so important to the cadets, to the students, to making their time memorable.

- I think it'd be really cool to talk to the next person that gets to wear them and just do this whole thing again where it's this full of excitement of learning about someone else and getting to, like, know their story.

and I get to tell them mine.

- Okay, let's, I mean, they should be about the same, right?

Look at that, look at, well, you know, I've got a little bit more in there.

- Yeah, that's true.

- I would love it to be used every year.

And so for them to be able to help, sort of, put that finishing touch on a cadet's senior year and as often as they will last and as they will fit someone, I hope that they're used and I would love to hear from every one of them.

I'd love to, you know, build that relationship with whoever it is that's wearing those boots.

Let that be the connection.

- Those boots are among about 600 pairs donated over the years.

About 125 are loaned out to cadets annually.

Next, we'll show you a 400 pound metal ball swinging from seven stories high here at A&M.

It's not just cool to look at, there's a scientific reason behind it too.

(instrumental music) Step inside the physics complex on the edge of main campus, and you'll find an homage to some of the most influential physicists in history.

Downstairs, an auditorium named after Stephen Hawking, who made four trips to Texas A&M during his life.

Look down, and you'll find a Penrose Tiling, a pattern of simple shapes that mathematically can go on forever without replicating.

The physicist it's named after has lectured here too, and he's won a Nobel Prize.

Finally, look up.

You can't miss it.

And you'll find a Foucault Pendulum hanging down from the seventh story.

But this isn't a pendulum like you'd find in a grandfather clock.

This one proves the earth rotates; and there's only six in Texas and a few hundred in the world.

- [Dr. Nodurft] So Leon Foucault was a French physicist who lived in the 19th century.

He was involved with experiments involving light and mechanics and earth rotation.

We all wanna know about nature.

We all wanna understand, be able to explain why we observe the natural phenomena around us.

And, so, this experiment is explicitly proving that the Earth rotates.

And it does in a way that is a direct measurement that we can observe right in front of us.

- [Chelsea] Dr. Dawson Nodurft teaches introductory physics classes to hundreds of A&M students each year.

- Some have some high school experience, but a lot of them come for the first time and I get to open their eyes to the beauty of the natural world.

- [Chelsea] He and the other professors in his department do that by starting with simple experiments, like Foucault's Pendulum.

I asked him to explain how it works and what it means.

- [Dr. Nodurft] So at the top of this building is the most important part.

If you think about any pendulum, like say in your, like, grandfather clock, that clock's pendulum can only go back and forth in one direction.

But this pendulum has a free joint, so it can rotate and move in any way.

So, how does this prove that the earth rotates?

That's the main question.

So let's think about this kind of pendulum being, say, at the North Pole.

Once released, it will move back and forth in one line and never change.

But over time, the earth, and us with it, rotate underneath the pendulum.

So, if we sat and watched, it would look like the pendulum is changing the way that it moves; but it's really not.

It's us moving.

From our perspective, the pendulum would seem to make a full rotation in 24 hours.

Now though, let's go down to the equator.

No matter what direction we start the pendulum in, it won't appear to rotate at all.

It's rotating with the earth in the same direction.

Here in Texas, we're in between the poles and the equator, so the pendulum will appear to rotate.

But how long will it take for a full rotation here on campus?

Remember, at the North Pole, it takes 24 hours.

The math tells us our pendulum should take 47 hours, 7 minutes, and 11 seconds to make a complete rotation.

And it does.

The only way you can explain that is by understanding the earth is rotating.

- [Chelsea] It's just one of the many ways that the A&M Physics Department showcases basic experiments to the public.

- We really care about outreach and it's all based on a passion for this department to give back to the community.

Our easily biggest event is our annual Physics and Engineering Festival.

We get people from all, you know, different walks of life and backgrounds, and we give them a chance to really interact with physics in a tangible way.

And the only reason, the only way I can explain it is that physics and science is something that everyone can enjoy.

And getting the chance to observe it and understand it resonates with anyone.

- There's a small mechanism at the top that keeps the pendulum running 24/7, even when the building is closed.

For our last story of the season, we're headed to the movies.

Have you watched an animated film lately?

There's a good chance at least one Aggie worked on it.

Our Visualization program is routinely considered one of the best in the nation, and we set out to learn why it's central to the future of the arts at A&M.

- The Oscar goes to The Incredibles!

- Frozen!

- Zootopia!

- Toy Story 4.

- [Together] Encanto!

- My first job was to make sure that the skin on the lions and the monkeys and the zebras in Jumanji looked like it was real skin, in terms of how it moved.

Seeing the credits roll and saying, Hey, that's my name rolling across the screen, that's pretty exciting.

Then onto Star Wars: Episode I and was on that for a long time.

- I've done How to Train Your Dragon 2, How to Train Your Dragon 3, Kung Fu Panda 2, Madagascar 2, Over the Hedge.

- Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, which is on Netflix, Boss Baby: Back in Business, as well as The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants.

- I wouldn't be in the industry without Viz, like, without a doubt.

Everything about Texas A&M and the theory I learned 25 years ago, I still use today.

Tools come and go.

Companies get bought and sold.

But the theory that I was taught never goes away.

And that's a lot of what we're trying to help these kids see.

Is that what they've learned is worth a lot.

They just have to learn how to put it into practice.

(students chatting) - Visualization began at A&M as a Master of Science and Visualization Sciences program.

89, 1989, 1990, around that time.

The Department of Visualization was created formally to begin in 2008.

About a dozen faculty, 5 staff and 65ish students.

In 2020, we were about 40 faculty and about 450 students.

Visualization here has really benefited from the success of our former students.

What happens is our former students go off, they'll go to a big name studio, they'll work on a big name project, and that catches people's attention.

Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney Animation, Blue Sky Studios started coming to A&M and saying, Hey, we're finding these technical directors, technical artists, that we're really, we can't find anywhere else to the same quality and level and scope as we can at Texas A&M.

They could come here and find the students that walk both sides of it.

They understand how to put together a good image aesthetically, and they understand how to do the technology, move the technology, create the technology to make that happen.

- Yeah, for something like candles, that works pretty well.

If we were doing, like, a big fire, then we'd have to render the BDB.

We're doing a summer industry course.

It's a really unique program.

In fact, I'm not sure there's anything like it anywhere else in the United States.

Right when he turns his head, right there.

Every year, the Viz lab partners with a different company and we send out mentors; we're from DreamWorks.

It's really a lot of applying theory that they learn in school into practice.

It's a bit of apprenticeship.

It's everything we do at DreamWorks Animation.

We push them to do professional quality work the same way we would.

And it's a lot of fun.

It's the greatest recruiting tool I've ever seen.

We call it a 10 week job interview.

Which is incredibly stressful, right?

To be under that kind of pressure as a student, but it's a chance for us to get to know each other.

We know that if we make a job offer, we've got a really good chance of landing that candidate because they already know that they'll be successful in our environment.

The students that graduate from here are getting jobs at the best companies in the world, straight outta school.

That's pretty special.

- I kinda want to use that for, like, a poster or something.

- [Dave] It's a lot of work though, and you have to be very passionate about it because it is a lot like the Major Leagues.

It's the best of the best.

And the best of the best work really, really hard.

- I guess, like, the big defining moment was actually seeing Ironman for the first time and seeing the pre-viz, and how the interlocking machinery of Ironman's suit came together.

And, so, that really was an inspiring moment for me.

I got an internship after completing my first semester of my MFA, and then came back, did the summer industry course here when we had Pixar Animation.

Then, I got my production assistant position and worked at DreamWorks for two years.

A lot of that was thanks to the skills I learned here at Texas A&M.

I learned a lot of different skills, whether they were technical skills with learning different software, but probably the most important is just personal skills.

So, like, working with other students, working in a team environment.

Also, learning how to manage my time very effectively.

Diversity in the school is really important too, and so learning to interact with people with all different cultures, but also different ideas that come from different students is gonna be a really exciting change moving forward.

- The MGT report came out and the path forward response that said, we wanna take Visualization as a university and we wanna build around the strength that Visualization has to create this new school: the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts.

Let's bring in performance studies and bring in dance.

Let's create connections to music activities and build out the visual and performing arts at A&M.

The Fine Arts are here, and have been here, at A&M in those forms, but now we have a chance to augment them and to bring them together, collectively, and do more with them, and, importantly, provide more opportunities for students.

Somewhere between year one and year six, we're constructing these facilities, the Visual and Performing Arts Center, and we're going to have a place where everyone comes together.

The term we use was "once in a career opportunity."

So, when do you ever get to build a new school?

It really just doesn't happen for most people and we're in a position to do it.

And, so, the pressure is on to do it right, but also to recognize the good fortune of being in that place right now and to take advantage of it and think through it thoughtfully so that we do it well.

- Dean McLaughlin and team hope to have their new building finished in the next few years.

It's expected to include comprehensive performance and learning spaces for each discipline.

Next, I caught up with a Texas A&M difference maker for a one-on-one conversation.

- [Chelsea] Today, that's physics professor Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova.

She's long been a campus favorite, but now the world knows about her too thanks to dozens of viral TikTok videos.

The fun, simple physics demonstrations have been watched more than 200 million times.

What is the mission behind things like the physics festival and your popular physics shows?

- The mission of the festival and this videos and the physics shows is bringing physics to thousands and, now with our success on social media, to millions of people in fun, entertaining way.

And it's easy to engage with people when you share with them your favorite physics toy, your favorite demonstrations.

But the festival has equally important mission of providing a superior education to our Texas A&M students.

The best way to understand something is to explain it, and we built teams of Texas A&M students who present our hands on demonstrations at the physics festival.

- Tell me how the idea to even post on TikTok came about.

- Oh, that's an interesting story.

So, this success on TikTok is success of our departmental marketing team; no doubt about that.

So how did it start?

We have a really talented science communicator, lab manager, Geoffrey Franceschi, who suggested to explore TikTok.

And for us it seemed like a risky, risky move for academic department to use TikTok.

It didn't sound right.

So, our web and communication designer, Ryan Carmichael, made a decision to take this risk and started posting these videos.

And Ryan Carmichael and his student workers are behind the camera.

They are filming, editing, posting.

So, Ryan Carmichael, um, manages to keep generating this videos that are watched by millions of people.

- Has the fame changed your life in any way?

- Of course it did.

I'm here because of this fame.

You invited me here.

- Sure.

- But you know what?

When this first videos went viral, uh, the best thing about it for me was that so many of my former students contacted me.

And your former students are always your extended family.

They leave, but they still are with you.

And they feel proud of our program, of the success of our program that they helped to build.

They feel proud of the education that they got here, and this is priceless.

- Well, thank you so much for the time today.

- Oh, thank you for inviting me.

- You can watch an extended version of this interview, plus a bonus science experiment, on our website.

It's been our pleasure to bring you six episodes of stories from across campus.

We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Gig 'em.

(instrumental music)