>>> veteran enrollment at ut arlington has more thangn doubled in t last few years alone, but b many areny having a tough time making the grade. that's why the unithversity is also doing ground breaking research to help them succeed. cbs 11's arezow doost with the story all new at 10:00. >>t reporter: brian redd iste not your typical student. he's a little older and says he has to study a little harder. >> it takes me probably two or three timesre as long l to write a paper than it does my fiance who f is in the program with me. >> reporter: the 34-year-old from arlington is also a veteran. the army serygeant was deployed to iraq most recently. >> aircraft recovery, i didy, lose fellow soldiers. i went and cleaned up the scene. so i do have, i you know, k sleeping problems at night. >>t reporter: he rte went back to school. he's studying s ocial s work, w but realized it wasn't always so easy being back in the classroom. >> reading a technical manual, we'll be reading a scholarly journal or article, something like that, it's hard to pick up a lotp of things. you have to have a dictionary next to you. >> reporter: he is r now part p of o a ground breaking study fordy f veterans at the univerrasity of texas at arlington. >> hold this? >> reporter: that's r where w their brains are being studied using an optical imaging macgihine. researchers want toar see if there's a link between troublero in class and posttraumatic stress disorder. researchers can peek into the veteran's brain, for instance, memory, how fast they arew t thinking, their reading ability, all being tested. quite a few of the participantsci have a premilitary service issue of l iearning issues, whether attention deficitte disornder, whether a reading problem. >> reporter: redden wiepll graduate in december with honors. >> whole goal is to help veterans. >> reporter: he says war changed his ligefe. he just never thought it tt would impact him in the classroom. arezow doost, cbs 11 news. >> the results of the research are not yet complete. it could help autop accident victims and othersnd who may have sustained head injuries. >>