OU Engineering

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...

By Kathleen Evans, The Oklahoma Daily Published: October 5, 2011 Laura Brunson, a doctoral student in the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, recently received a research fellowship from the Environmental Protection Agency for her work in water purification. (Astrud Reed/The Daily) Research by an OU graduate student that helps reduce the fluoride levels in water, which causes bone deformations after prolonged drinking exposure, won a fellowship with the Environmental Protection Agency. Environmental science graduate student Laura Brunson received the EPA Science to Achieve Results fellowship, which offers an approximate $120,000 stipend over three years for living and research, according to a press release. “I didn’t really expect to win. You know, you set out to write a good application ...

By Coco Courtois, The Oklahoma Daily Published: October 3, 2011 Spending time at a U.S. university doesn’t always bridge the gap between college life and a U.S. family experience, but OU’s exchange students are trying to find that missing piece with host families. OU’s Friends to International Students program offers exchange students the opportunity to develop relationships with volunteering American families they don’t live with. Families serve as hosts for one semester, but can continue for the full academic year, according to the program’s website. Benedikt Kaczmar, a German aerospace engineering graduate student, said he got involved so he could get a closer look at real American culture. “I really like my host family, and the fact that we are several exchange students in the same family, we all get really close very rapidly,” Kaczmar said. “Also, I love having a host little brother to fool ar...

The exceptional drought across Oklahoma has wreaked havoc on the state's clay-rich soil, which causes problems with concrete slab building foundations. The expensive repairs can put a big dent in a homeowner's finances.   BY MICHAEL KIMBALL mkimball@opubco.com Oklahoman   Published: September 25, 2011 Oklahoma 's red dirt is as much a part of the state's cultural fabric as agriculture, oil fields and strange weather. But it can be a curse to house foundations in times of drought. “We like our red dirt here,” said Gary McManus , associate state climatologist. “But it doesn't do us any favors whenever we start to go into this type of a drought cycle.” The...