OU Engineering

NORMAN, Okla. – The University of Oklahoma Water Technologies for Emerging Regions (WaTER) Center has named development activist Ada Oko-Williams as the recipient of the 2013 University of Oklahoma International Water Prize. Oko-Williams, associate director at Water and Sanitation for Africa. was nominated and selected for her advocacy and collaborative community approach for clean water, sanitation and hygiene in Africa. From poor, rural, disease-stricken communities in Nigeria to communities of the deep forests of war-torn Sierra Leone and Liberia to desert communities in Niger Republic, Oko-Williams is engaged with issues affecting access to water and sanitation. Born and raised in Nigeria, Oko-Williams understands firsthand the problems a lack of access to water and sanitation can mean to a country’s development. She believes Africa’s development problems can be solved with the support and collaboration of the developed world and achieved with African ci...

From left: Roger Harrison, Lance Lobban, Ken Starling, Barbara Starling, Musharraf Zaman and Sridhar Radhakrishnan Ken Starling, emeritus George Lynn Cross Research Professor and emeritus Cedomir Sliepcevich Professor of Chemical Engineering was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame Oct. 9, 2012 at the Jim Thorpe Association and Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame Museum. Starling received a bachelor of science degree in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&I University, a master of science degree in Gas Engineering and a doctoral degree in Gas Technology from Illinois Institute of Technology. Starling’s experience includes service for Conroe Drilling Company, Republic Pipeline Company, research engineer for the Institute of Gas Technology, senior research engineer for Esso Production Research Company, planning group of Electric Power Research Institute, and professional consulting. Starling taught training courses for many years with the John M. Campbell Company,...

  (Left) Moien Farmahini, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering, runs experiments with mechanical engineering professor Wilson Merchán-Merchán in the lab on the University of Oklahoma Norman campus.   NORMAN, Okla. – A new discovery by University of Oklahoma and North Carolina State University researchers shows a breakthrough in speeding up the process for synthesizing transition metal oxide nanostructures. What had once taken days can now be accomplished instantaneously. After previous success using an oxygen-enriched flame to synthesize common nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, nanofibers and fullerenes, OU College of Engineering professor Wilson Merchán-Merchán and his team conducted experiments using the same method to create a new form of nanostructures. Instead of synthesizing the carbon nanomaterials, they discovered a method of creating 1-D and 3-D TMOs that have distinctive electronic and mechanical properties. With a multi-yea...

For immediate release Contact:  Jana Smith, Director of Strategic Communications for R&D University of Oklahoma 405-325-1322; jana.smith@ou.edu Norman, OK— Learning to crawl comes naturally for most infants, but those with cerebral palsy lack the muscle strength and coordination to perform the 25 individual movements required for crawling. With a $1.135 million, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s National Robotics Initiative, University of Oklahoma researchers from the Norman and Health Sciences Center campuses are combining robotics, machine learning and brain imaging to assist infants with CP with the challenging, life-altering skill. “Because infants with CP are unable to reliably perform the individual movements that make up crawling behavior, they learn to stop trying instead of continuing to practice these movements,” said Project Leader Andrew Fagg, associate professor in the OU departments of Computer Science and Bioengineering ...

NORMAN, Okla.- Move over money, there is a new currency to make the world go round. As increasing volumes of data become accessible, transferable and, therefore, actionable, information is the treasure companies want to amass. To protect this wealth, organizations use cryptography, or coded messages, to secure information from “technology robbers.” This group of hackers and malware creators is increasingly becoming more sophisticated at breaking encrypted information leaving everyone and everything, including national security and global commerce, at risk. But the threat to information breach may be drastically reduced due to a technology breakthrough that combines quantum mechanics and cryptography.  University of Oklahoma electrical and computer engineering professor Pramode Verma and his colleagues Professor Subhash Kak from Oklahoma State University and Professor Yuhua Chen from the University of Houston have, at the College of Engineering labs, OU-Tulsa, demon...

Cate Lynn, a senior at the University of Oklahoma, and Chris Breazile, a civil engineering graduate student, spent most of June in Uganda, where they did development work. While there, the two worked on the construction of an eco-latrine, which turns human waste into compost. Read more: http://newsok.com/university-of-oklahoma-engineering-students-bring-eco-latrines-to-ugandan-school/article/3701007#ixzz23crThupy

Fat stem cells from liposuction used to form functioning blood vessels By Loren Grush Published July 26, 2012 FoxNews.com Liposuction may yield more than just a leaner figure – it can potentially produce stem cells for tissue reconstruction. Researchers from the University of Oklahoma, in Norman, Okla., have successfully extracted adult stem cells during liposuction and used them to generate healthy blood vessels. These newly formed blood vessels can be used in heart bypass surgery and other complicated procedures requiring healthy vessels, according to the researchers, who presented their findings at the American Heart Association’s Basic Cardiovascular Sciences 2012 Scientific Sessions. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/07/26/fat-stem-cells-from-liposuction-used-to-form-functioning-blood-vessels/#ixzz227LkrrPA