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

An Evening with Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe (including the debut of a new film about her life) Thursday, August 23 6:00 p.m. reception 7:00 p.m. film / talk / Q&A Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. Sr. Rosemary Nyirumbe is a CNN Hero, recognized for her humanitarian efforts to countless Ugandan girls  whom she has protected, a nemesis to the Lord’s Resistance Army (of Joseph Kony), a builder of schools for orphans, a teacher, tailor, and nurse, a Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,  and a speaker of great joy and compassion! Sponsored by:  Pros for Africa, WaTER Center, OU School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, Sooners without Borders, OU College of Law and the OU College of Medicine           

OU Daily By Dillon Phillips    |   July 26, 2012  The OU College of Engineering is adding new faculty members courses this fall to supplement the Atmospheric Radar Research Center’s new Radar Innovations Laboratory, slated for completion next fall. The college is adding four courses to its existing radar program. The courses will deal with synthetic processing with a synthetic aperture radar, advanced electromagnetic design, radio frequency circuit design and microwave circuits, research center director Robert Palmer said. The classes will be held in the electrical engineering department of the Devon Energy Center and the meteorology department of the National Weather Center, and the courses’ hands-on components will take place in the new lab once it's completed. New faculty members also will also be joining the college. Radar engineers Caleb Fulton, Nathan Goodman, Jessica Ruyle and Hjalti Sigmarsson all arrived in Norman wit...

Oklahoman reporter Silas Allen recently reported on students in the University of Oklahoma Bridge Squad working alongside ODOT engineers to improve bridges in the state. A group of University of Oklahoma engineering students is playing a role in efforts to address one of the state’s most pressing concerns. He interviewed Katie Brown, an intern at ODOT and engineering student at OU. Read more: http://newsok.com/helping-agency-fix-bridges-gives-ou-engineers-training/article/3689441 .

by Nathan Robertson    |   June 18, 2012 OU Daily   OU engineering students and faculty collaborated with British Petroleum to host more than 50 high school students from across the state in summer engineering camps last week on campus. The two camps, BP Discovering Engineering Via Adventure in Science for girls and BP Engineering Academy for boys, were exposed to several different programs. Adam Mitchell, an electrical engineering senior who helped with the electrical engineering presentation, said the camps expose high school students to the engineering programs OU offers. “It’s about showing people engineering has a bunch of shapes and forms,” Mitchell said. Research shows simply exposing teens to engineering doubles career interest in the field, Mitchell said. BP camps strive to expose students to diverse areas of the field and excite them for their future, he said. “They’re building an entire laser-tag system based on s...

Oklahoman reporter Silas Allen recently reported bridging the gender gap in engineering enrollment. He interviewed OU College of Engineering student Morgan Weatherspoon. When Morgan Weatherspoon sits in class, it’s obvious she’s in the minority. Weatherspoon, a chemical engineering major at the University of Oklahoma, is enrolled in a summer course at OU. Out of a class of about 30 people, Weatherspoon can count on one hand the number of other women in the class. Read More: http://newsok.com/gender-gap-persists-in-oklahomas-engineering-schools/article/3683054/?page=1

From left: Barney L. Capehart and David R. Bert NORMAN, Okla. – Two exceptional University of Oklahoma alumni were inducted into the College of Engineering’s Distinguished Graduates Society at the college’s Convocation Ceremony, May 12, at the Lloyd Noble Center, 2900 S. Jenkins Ave. In 1990, the College of Engineering Distinguished Graduates Society was established to honor accomplished alumni. Selection is based upon prominent and distinguished professional or technical achievement, notable public service and significant contributions to the engineering profession. David R. Bert, P.E., is vice president of Drilling-Eastern Division for Chesapeake Energy Corp. in Oklahoma City. Prior to joining Chesapeake in early 2008, Bert served in various drilling, completion, production and midstream operations leadership capacities at BP, including wells team leader for Arkoma and Thunder Horse projects.   Bert has more than 26 years of experience in the oil and gas...

A new University of Oklahoma summer intersession course seeks to prepare students to work in developing regions. The class starts essentially from square one — most of the students haven't handled power tools. Many haven't even hammered nails. William Mwangi cuts a board in OU’s WaTER Center field methods course Monday. Norman — As Anna Humphrey lifted a circular saw, lined it up against a pencil mark on a piece of lumber and began to cut, something crossed her mind.  I could really hurt somebody with this thing, she thought. Humphrey, 22, is a part of a new course at the University of Oklahoma designed to teach students like Humphrey how to work in developing countries. Humphrey, a fifth-year undergraduate, hails from Fort Worth, Texas. After Humphrey graduates, she'd like to do water resources work in a developing country, either through a corporation or a nongovernmental organization. But there's a problem, she said. “I've never built my...

Norman, Okla.—A University of Oklahoma chemical engineering senior is the recipient of the prestigious NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences Medical Scientist Training Program grant. Brandon Smith, a fifth-year senior from Houston, will graduate in May with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering, pre-med option. Smith has accepted the stipend and tuition allowance for up to eight years, at which time he will have completed a combined M.D.-Ph.D. degree. “In receiving this prestigious NIH Training grant, Brandon Smith has demonstrated his great personal talent and hard work and the excellence of OU’s undergraduate program in the medical sciences,” said OU President David L. Boren. Smith will attend the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. After two years in Houston, he will attend Rice University for three to four years in pursuit of a doctorate in bioengineering, then transfer back to Baylor to complete his medical degree. “We’re pleased, but n...

NORMAN, Okla. – Expertise in weather radar research is synonymous with the University of Oklahoma, home of the National Weather Center, and in a strategic move to expand radar multi-mission capabilities, the university is hiring engineering expertise and building lab capabilities. While radar plays an important role in weather forecasting and prediction, its application of measuring distance, direction and speed includes many fields. In addition to traditional military remote sensing applications, such as early warning systems for incoming aircraft, radar can be used in the detection of land mines and underground gas leaks, as well as providing “sense and avoid” capabilities to Unmanned Aerial Systems. That is why the OU College of Engineering recently hired four nationally recognized radar engineers to join the faculty of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Caleb Fulton, Nathan Goodman, Jessica Ruyle and Hjalti Sigmarsson, all with doctorates in electrical engi...