OU Engineering

 October 6, 2008 Mouhammad Al-Akkow, left, and Adam McDonald put the hood on a small helicopter. (Photo by Kirby Lee Davis) TULSA – The mechanics differ little from the remote-control helicopter Adam McDonald flew as a teenager. But snap on a neural network software package, camera, radar or identification tag reader, and that yard-long chopper becomes a front-line defense tool for safeguarding the nation’s ports. Researchers from the University of Oklahoma demonstrated such a helicopter Friday at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa with Autonomous Aerial Robotic Systems of Goodlettsville, Tenn.Associate professor Sesh Commuri from the OU School of Electrical and Computer Engineering wheeled out a different robot built from a small all-terrain vehicle, capable of electronically monitoring shipyards, warehouses and other cargo areas. The devices offered the most colorful demonstration of how a group of professors and students at the landlocked Norman university may soon play a huge role in de...

 Zach Moorhead, a mechanical engineering sophomore works on the Dyno machine, which measures car engine power, for the Sooner Racing Team's car Saturday morning in Felgar Hall. Photo by Michelle Gray Jamie Hughes/The Daily Monday, October 6, 2008 Many students fetch coffee and run errands as interns to gain experience for their resumes, but members of the Sooner Racing Team actually build and race competition racecars. The team competes in Formula SAE, a student design competition organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers International. Students design, build and race a prototype race car from the ground up, and in return, receive feedback from specialists in the automotive industry. “We do all the design, manufacturing, assembly and fundraising,” said Dave Collins, captain of the Sooner Racing Team. “We do anything a professional racing team does.” Formula SAE is often a college requirement for those hoping to work as designers or engineers at most major auto manufacturing ...

 When engineering students and faculty look at the new Engineering Practice Facility rising from the ground across from Sarkeys Energy Center, they see an opportunity where one day classroom knowledge will take on real world challenges. When Kelly Rawl Guziejka and family look at the facility, they see “Dad’s building.” In 2006, ExxonMobil honored its former CEO Lawrence G. Rawl with a $5 million gift to the University of Oklahoma Foundation for the nation’s first engineering practice facility. The ExxonMobil Lawrence G. Rawl Engineering Practice Facility will offer 41,000 square-feet to engineering students of all disciplines, including five bay areas where they can design and build projects. Rawl, himself a 1952 OU petroleum engineering graduate, served as chairman of the board and CEO of Exxon Corporation from 1987 until his retirement in 1993. He died in 2005, at the age of 76. Now the Rawl family has added its own gift of $350,000 to the facility to inspire young engineers bef...

 John Woodson is spending his summer thinking about what most other people around the nation are thinking: the price of oil and its effect on the bottom line. The big difference is Woodson is focusing on this subject on behalf of one of the largest chemical companies in the world. Woodson, a chemical engineering senior, is doing a summer internship at Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. As a sales and marketing intern at the company's Texas headquarters, Woodson is studying various markets to determine how John Woodson poses outside Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. Woodson, a chemical engineering senior is doing a summer internship with the company. oil and gas prices are going to change. "I am working to develop a list of key metrics of the primary cost drivers for each product such as crude oil so that it is easier for CPChem to determine how the market is going to look," Woodson said. "I am analyzing the rise in energy prices so we can make sure that our prices adjust acco...

 Seven people have been selected for induction into the 81st class of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. They will join 621 people who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame since 1928. “Being inducted into the Hall of Fame is the highest honor Oklahomans can receive for their contributions to and representation of the state,” said Shannon L. Nance, president of the Oklahoma Heritage Association and the Gaylord-Pickens Museum in Oklahoma City. The 2008 nominees are: Bill W. Burgess Jr., Lawton; Shawnee native Robert H. Henry, Oklahoma City; Donna Nigh, Oklahoma City; Ronald J. Norick, Oklahoma City; Carl R. Renfro, Ponca City; Charles C. Stephenson, Tulsa; and Jordan J.N. Tang of Oklahoma City. Bill W. Burgess Jr. Burgess is chairman of the board of Vortex, the senior partner of Burgess & Hightower Law Firm and chairman emeritus of Techrizon, which he has developed into the largest Oklahomaowned software engineering company. Burgess was appointed to the Oklahoma State Regents for Hig...

 Oklahoma secured land for the world’s largest stand of switchgrass devoted to cellulosic ethanol production. Acknowledging concerns over ethanol production impacting food prices, Oklahoma advances switchgrass, a different type of energy crop, which has higher energy output than corn and does not compete with human or animal food sources. The Oklahoma Bioenergy Center (OBC), a state-initiative championed by Gov. Brad Henry, secured land to enable the planting of more than 1,100 acres of production-scale demonstration fields for cellulosic energy crops, such as switchgrass and sorghum to contribute to the United States’ bioenergy effort. Planting will take place within the next 45 days. The critical piece of this effort is 1,000 acres of switchgrass which will be planted near Guymon, Okla. in the state’s panhandle. This switchgrass field will be the first of its size anywhere in the world focused on biomass production. Additional acreage of sorghum and switchgrass will be planted ne...

 The video game technology that seems to have kidnapped our children is opening a new avenue to learning in the 21st century. By Bill Moakley Because of the University of Oklahoma K20 Center for Educational and Community Renewal, your child may be playing video games in the classroom. You should be thankful. The center, part of OU's College of Education, is the engine behind a unique video game-based approach to getting Oklahoma eighth- and ninth-grade students excited about learning. Far from handing students an Xbox and the latest versions of Madden 2007 or Guitar Hero, the center has developed its own game-based learning experience. The K20 Center’s game encompasses math, science, language arts, social studies, technology and a host of other disciplines students must master to compete in the digitally driven, globally competitive workplace they will step into when they step out of the classroom. Funded by a STAR Schools Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the introducti...