OU Engineering

Jeff Basara NORMAN, OKLA. – You don’t have to look far to find news, opinions and studies about our world’s changing climate and its effects on humans. But what is less accessible is how a changing climate impacts beef cattle production. A team of scientists and researchers from across the region set out to answer this and other questions during the Great Plains Grazing project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Jeff Basara is an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology and School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science who was a project investigator and team leader during the five-year study. The project consisted of teams from four universities, the USDA and the Noble Research Institute. Basara and five OU graduate students focused on climate variability, including drought and excessive rainfall, how and when those extremes occur, and associated impacts on the agricultural industry. “We know precipitation

NORMAN, OKLA. – Janet Allen, University of Oklahoma professor of industrial and systems engineering, was named the recipient of the 2019 Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Design Educator Award. One of the highest honors bestowed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to engineering design education through scholarship creation, instructorship, and as a mentor and role model. Allen is one of the founders of the National Science Foundation/ASME Travel Grant Program, which she has helped run for more than 20 years. This program created a Student Design Essay Competition, funded by the National Science Foundation. Winners are awarded grants to travel and present their work at the International Design Engineering Technical Conferences annual ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. “Students go to the conferenc