OU Engineering

BY MICHAEL KIMBALL mkimball@opubco.com Oklahoman Published: December 24, 2011 Oklahoma City has hired David Todd, the owner of a local engineering firm and a former city employee, to be the new leader of its MAPS office and the point man for the MAPS 3 projects. Todd, who recently sold Todd Engineering Inc., so he can take the new position with the city, replaces Eric Wenger, who was promoted to be the city's Public Works Director in August. Todd said the opportunity to contribute to public works projects that are designed to end up as signature elements of a growing Oklahoma City was what attracted him to the position. “I was raised here in Oklahoma City. I really care about what's happening in Oklahoma City, and I want to be a part of it,” Todd said. “It's a really exciting time.” Todd graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. He is on the board of directors of the South Oklahoma City Chamber, is a membe...

CNI announces new leadership 12/21/2011 9:18:43 AM By STAFF REPORTS TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Cherokee Nation Industries, the manufacturing and distribution division of Cherokee Nation Businesses, announced the promotions of Brian Morris to vice president of engineering and Don Whittington to vice president of operations for the company’s aerospace and defense division. Morris, a Cherokee Nation citizen, graduated from Fort Gibson High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1995. Prior to graduation, he worked as an engineering intern at CNI providing manufacturing solutions and cost savings measures. Morris has held the titles of planning manager, operations manager and director of manufacturing while being responsible for the engineering, quality, testing, purchasing, inventory and production departments. Whittington, also a CN citizen, was born in Ventura, Calif. He is a Marine Corps veteran of 10 years and has more tha...

J. Lynn Helms, left, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, confers with Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis in June 1981 during the dispute between the FAA and the air traffic controllers union. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associate Press / January 17, 1981) By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times December 20, 2011 J. Lynn Helms, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration who carried out President Reagan's order to fire more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers and oversaw efforts to keep airlines flying during the crisis, has died. He was 86. He died Dec. 11 of cardiopulmonary failure at his home in Westport, Conn., a family spokesman said. Helms had a reputation as a decisive, technically brilliant aviation industry executive who led a number of companies out of financial straits, including Piper Aircraft, which he ran for six years. A former test pilot, he was the first FAA chief in a decade capable of designing an airplane that could fly. Several months into ...

SME Education Foundation selects Francis Tuttle Technology Center, Oklahoma City, Okla., as one of six in nation for community-based approach to manufacturing education. . DEARBORN, Mich., OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla., November 22, 2011 — The SME Education Foundation is taking a community-based approach to manufacturing education and creating strong partnerships between exemplary schools, businesses and organizations. Francis Tuttle Technology Center (FTTC), Oklahoma City, Okla., is an acknowledged leader for providing exceptional career and technology education to high school students and adults, as well as customized training for business and industry. It is one of six exemplary schools in the nation selected for the first phase of a new initiative, PRIME (Partnership Response in Manufacturing Education) launched in the fall of 2011. Other PRIME exemplary schools include: Kettering Fairmont High School, Dayton, Ohio; Walker Career Center, Indianapolis, Ind.; Summit Technology Academy, L...

A drone takes to the air as students from middle and high schools compete with flying drones at the University of Oklahoma's Rawl Engineering Practice Facility in Norman, OK, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011. By Paul Hellstern, The Oklahoman Student robotics teams from four states traveled Saturday to the University of Oklahoma in Norman to compete with autonomous flying drones. BY MEGAN ROLLAND, mrolland@opubco.com Oklahoman Published: December 4, 2011 NORMAN — Educators have been using robots for years to get students interested in math, engineering and science at an early age, but one robotics program is taking the game to new heights. The Kiss Institute for Practical Robotics rolled out its newest model on Saturday, an autonomous flying drone that students can fly around a classroom, through their halls and outside; all controlled by student-developed programming. “We teach about 8,000 kids around the world how to program and build autonomous ground robots and they think that ...

December 02, 2011 | Targeted News Service DES PLAINES, Ill., Dec. 1 -- The American Society of Safety Engineers issued the following news release: The American Society of Safety Engineers' (ASSE) Women in Safety Engineering (WISE) Common Interest Group has honored Fairmont Specialty Group'sMary Silva, CSP, of Mililani, HI, for making a difference in the safety, health and environmental (SH&E) field as part of the WISE '100 Women, Making a Difference in Safety' project. Women from around the world and throughout history have been honored for their dedication to protecting people, property and the environment and for going above and beyond to make a difference. Silva has been an active member of the safety, health and environmental (SH&E) field for more than 20 years. Last spring she joined Fairmont Specialty Group, which provides specialty niche property and accident, health insurance and surety products, as their Senior Loss Control Specialist. In additi...

Moises Martinez has been named the 2011-2012 Outstanding Senior for the College of Engineering. Moises is a mechanical engineering major from Mustang, Okla. He will serve as a representative of the College of Engineering Class of 2012 at Commencement and Convocation ceremonies in May. Moises has contributed his time and leadership to a variety of campus and community organizations including the Multicultural Engineering Program, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Deans Leadership Class, and The Big Event. Among his awards he was cited as a National Hispanic Scholar, ConocoPhillips Spirit Scholar, Outstanding Junior in Mechanical Engineering, and was awarded the Deans Advisory Board on Diversity Wayne Steen Scholarship.

By Karen Kelly Norman, Okla. – A University of Oklahoma engineering graduate student has been selected to serve as the first Department of Energy Student Ambassador from OU. Christella Chavez, a doctoral student in the OU School of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s Telecommunications program in Tulsa, will work to expand the DOE’s presence on campus and connect student jobseekers with DOE job and internship opportunities. Chavez was encouraged to apply as a Student Ambassador last summer while working at the DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she was involved in building a computational model for assessing and rebuilding the telecommunications infrastructure after a major disaster interrupts operations. Chavez considers the experience in Los Alamos “not just a career changer but a life changer.” She was impressed by the level of the DOE’s expertise, facilities and knowledge coupled with their pursuit of qualified individuals with diverse backgrounds that include not...

President and CEO of Williams Rachel Anderson Hill Alan Armstrong took over as president and CEO of Williams in January 2011, having served the company in a variety of capacities since 1986, when he started at the Tulsa-based company as an engineer. When a young engineer started with a Tulsa-based energy company in 1986, he didn’t know he would one day serve as the Fortune 500 company’s top officer. But then, one doesn’t often hear of someone who spends his entire professional career at one company. Today, that is unusual in and of itself. Alan Armstrong is not exactly a household name, but his bio can be found in the likes of Forbes and Businessweek. Why? Armstrong assumed the role of president and CEO of Williams in January 2011. As the successor to Steven Malcolm, who led Williams for eight years, his first seven months at the helm have been, well, pretty busy. Armstrong is leading Williams at a time when there are many opportunities for growth. He serves on a mile-long list...

Written by John J. Dwyer Friday, 14 October 2011 Published in The New American It is a classic story of Americana, with all the excitement, dreams, struggle, disappointment, ingenuity, resilience, triumph, love, loss, and enduring lessons common to the most memorable of such tales. Also common to such sagas — particularly those of the Christian sort — the most enduring impact is still uncoiling with the long passage of years and the generations. Those who knew Garman O. Kimmell, founder and builder of Oklahoma City-based Kimray, Inc., remember him best as a brilliant design engineer and a devout Christian man. He revolutionized the field of oil and gas production and made significant personal contributions to the field of heart treatment. But the technical nature of his inventions, coupled with a humble personality that eschewed personal glory, has consigned him to anonymity in previous American and even Oklahoman histories. That is the problem with history books — most of the...

Ceara Parks is a junior civil engineering major from Monroeville, Pennsylvania. Students active in the OU Society of Women Engineers traveled to Chicago to participate in the annual National conference Oct. 13-15. Three students placed in the Schlumberger Stilettos to Steeltoes essay competition: Ceara Parks, first place; Lauren Haynie, second place; and Carly Young, third place. The students were awarded $1,000, $500 and $250 each, respectively. Following is the first place essay entered by Ceara Parks: From my cubicle, I hope to be securely suspended from the top of the world. Instead of having a small window to peak out of from time to time, I will be observing my team’s designs from a 360 degree panorama. Below me, the floor will cease to exist; instead, the only force saving me from plummeting to the ground is the tension of the cables holding my body in place. No one told me that the road towards becoming a bridge inspector would be easy. However, it’s the sensation of p...

October 12, 2011 By James S. Tyree, The Norman Transcript NORMAN — An Australian environmental health engineer will be honored this month at the University of Oklahoma for his 30 years of trying to provide access to clean water for people in developing countries. University of Queensland professor Ben Fawcett was chosen to receive the OU International Water Prize during the 2011 OU International WaTER Conference. The event is scheduled for Oct. 24-26 and will be hosted by the OU College of Engineering’s Water Technologies for Emerging Regions (WaTER). Fawcett also plans to speak and deliver a presentation during the conference. “I hope to focus the minds of delegates at the conference on the sanitation and hygiene needs of at least a billion people living in slums in the towns and cities of the developing world — a number that is expected to double by 2030 and that will probably triple, to one third of the global population, by the middle of this century,” Fawcett said. He a...

Yacoub Najjar, professor of civil engineering, received the Thomas and Connie Paulson Civil Engineering Outstanding Faculty Award for up to two years. In addition to being a Thomas and Connie Paulson Civil Engineering Outstanding Faculty Member, Najjar has sat on the editorial boards of both the Computers and Geotechnics journal and the American Society of Civil Engineers' International Journal of Geomechanics. Najjar's research focuses on the application of artificial neural networks and computational mechanics to advance the civil infrastructure. He also conducts research on the interaction of soil and civil structures, transportation, geo-mechanics, geo-synthetics and geo-environmental systems. He has been published in many journals, teaches several courses at K-State and has received several awards and honors, including the Midwest Section Outstanding Teaching Award from the American Society of Engineering Education in 2006. Najjar received his bachelor's degree in ...

October 15, 2011 Transcript Staff The Norman Transcript Sat Oct 15, 2011 NORMAN — Five educators affiliated with the University of Oklahoma were inducted this week into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame. The 2011 inductees include Charles W. Bert III, David Morgan, David Swank and Daniel Wren from OU’s Norman campus and Joseph Ferretti of the OU Health Sciences Center. The Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society sponsors the hall of fame that welcomed its first class in 1994. Bert spent 41 years teaching in the College of Engineering and, on two occasions, directed its School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering for a combined 11 years. He retired from OU in 2004. Morgan has been a professor emeritus of political science since his retirement in 2000. He held the Henry Bellmon Chair of Public Service at OU and he remains active in the local political scene. Swank was a longtime law professor who arrived at OU in 1963 as its legal counsel and assistant profe...

Posted by berrytramel on October 11, 2011M at 10:40 pm The OU-Texas game has become a virtual week for me. Wednesday through the weekend. You learn a lot about a city when you spend four days there doing a lot of different things. I went all the way northeast to Sherman, all the way west to Fort Worth. I drove on 10 freeways: 35W, the Tollway, the Bush Turnpike, 75, 45, 183, 114, 121, 30 and 820. I went to an OU engineers dinner and an OU Club of Fort Worth luncheon. And I saw a very interesting football game. BATHROOM PROBLEMS I mentioned this in my post-game report card, but it bears more discussion. I received a couple of reports about plumbing problems at the Cotton Bowl, of bathrooms being closed — or remaining open despite no water pressure for flushing. I still haven’t nailed down how extensive the problems were. I hope to write about it later. But I’ve got to tell you. This might be the death of OU-Texas at the Fair. There’s a gorgeous stadium 20 miles to the west; Jer...

October 12, 2011 By James S. Tyree The Norman Transcript NORMAN — An Australian environmental health engineer will be honored this month at the University of Oklahoma for his 30 years of trying to provide access to clean water for people in developing countries. University of Queensland professor Ben Fawcett was chosen to receive the OU International Water Prize during the 2011 OU International WaTER Conference. The event is scheduled for Oct. 24-26 and will be hosted by the OU College of Engineering’s Water Technologies for Emerging Regions (WaTER). Fawcett also plans to speak and deliver a presentation during the conference. “I hope to focus the minds of delegates at the conference on the sanitation and hygiene needs of at least a billion people living in slums in the towns and cities of the developing world — a number that is expected to double by 2030 and that will probably triple, to one third of the global population, by the middle of this century,” Fawcett said. He a...

By April Wilkerson April is a reporter in Oklahoma City. Contact her at 278-2849 / https://twitter.com/JRAprilWilkerson Posted: 06:49 PM Friday, October 7, 2011 From left, University of Oklahoma engineering professor Jim Sluss shows students David Vreeland and Jeffrey Griffin a project on thermo-electric power. (April Wilkerson) NORMAN – Most companies focus on what their customers want, and rightfully so, but that often makes it difficult to commit time and money to investigating ideas that one day may boost their bottom line. The next generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs is being trained to think about disruptive technologies and project into the future what it would mean if their company got on board – or missed the boat – with an emerging technology. Engineering students at the University of Oklahoma have immersed themselves in a disruptive technology curriculum, and over the summer, 18 of them spent a month in Arezzo, Italy, for a historical perspective on th...