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 ...