OU Engineering

Martha Gebeyehu, coordinator for Ethiopia’s Water Expertise and Training Centre, was recently named the recipient of the 2019 International Water Prize. A panel of water experts from around the world selected Gebeyehu for her ongoing commitment to empowering and training people to manage their own water and sanitation.  “Martha is serving some of the world’s poorest in some of the most rural and remote regions of Ethiopia,” said Shauna Curry, chief executive officer of the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology. “Her belief in the power of people to bring change to their own homes led to her work in the area of household water treatment. This quickly broadened to the entire area of water, sanitation and hygiene with low-cost technology that people can implement themselves.”  While pursuing a master’s degree in business administration, Gebeyehu became the first water quality analyst for the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church Development Commission implementing safe test

University of Oklahoma researcher Steven Crossley and his team have devised a novel method to determine the cause of catalytic activity. NORMAN – Catalytic research led by University of Oklahoma researcher Steven Crossley has developed a new and more definitive way to determine the active site in a complex catalyst. His team’s research was recently published in Nature Communications . Catalysts consisting of metal particles supported on reducible oxides show promising performance for a variety of current and emerging industrial reactions, such as the production of renewable fuels and chemicals. Although the beneficial results of the new materials are evident, identifying the cause of the activity of the catalyst can be challenging. Catalysts often are discovered and optimized by trial and error, making it difficult to decouple the numerous possibilities. This can lead to decisions based on speculative or indirect evidence. “When placing the metal on the active support, the catalytic a

By Jana Smith, Director Strategic Communications for R&D University of Oklahoma NORMAN—The University of Oklahoma Advanced Radar Research Center is developing an all-digital polarimetric phased array mobile radar testbed with a $5.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research, to address significant near-term obstacles and fulfill many operational missions. The ARRC team is providing a mobile radar testbed that can demonstrate multiple radar modes that increase public safety outcomes, such as weather monitoring and air traffic surveillance and control. “The University of Oklahoma is the only university developing a system like this one,” said Mark Yeary, OU ARRC team leader and professor of electrical and computer engineering, OU Gallogly College of Engineering. “The ARRC has been successful in attracting the attention of the U.S. Navy and other agencies by building a team of experts that includes both meteorologists and engineers.” Yeary and

Andrea L'Afflitto and Michel Fiddy, DARPA Young Faculty Award Program Manager Funding goes toward development of military drones Andrea L’Afflitto, an assistant professor at the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, has received the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Young Faculty Award for his proposal to develop autonomous drones for tactical operations. “We are at dawn of new technology as drones continue making great strides,” said L’Afflitto. “However, there’s still a lot more to explore with how this technology can be advantageous to our lives.” The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency award will fund the development of unmanned aerial systems such as drones. Existing technology, such as quadcopters or machines with robotic arms, move laterally. L’Afflitto’s research focuses on teaching drones to act in a tactical manner while mimicking human movements and thoughts, specifically among the armed forces. He proposed gr

Noelle Vargas - May 2018 By Noelle Vargas “People change people: that is the secret of life.” – Mark Blutman Who are we? What impact do we want to leave on our world? The definition of “our world”- what does that encompass? As an OU student, our eyes stretch from the residential towers down the South Oval to the engineering quad. However, there is more to our world than the twenty minute hike across campus. It is easy to claim that as a student “our world” is focused on improving ourselves academically and climbing organizational hierarchies. However, there is more to our world and there is more to what we can offer. Our brain for nine months in a calendar year, is focused on increasing knowledge to pursue a career in our desired field. But what world do we desire to impact through our career? Our world is bigger than OU’s campus - bigger than Norman - bigger than Oklahoma - and even bigger than the United States. This seems statistically obvious: a world is bigger than a cou

It all started with an email forward from Regennia Johnson, director of the AT&T Summer Bridge Program and staff member in the OU Engineering Diversity & Inclusion Program. Colen James, a sophomore computer engineering student from Pearland, Texas, followed through on that email about the scholarship opportunity. He’s glad he did, as he received notification in July that he is one out of 10 students awarded the $75,000 Rainbow PUSH/Excel Jesse Jackson Fellowship-Toyota North America Scholarship and CO-OP/Internship. James will be attending a celebration dinner and awards presentation ceremony this August in Chicago. James is very thankful for this honor, as demonstrated by his thank you email to the following: Regennia Johnson – Director of AT&T Summer Bridge Program, OU Gallogly College of Engineering Ms. Regennia, first and foremost, thank you for sending me the scholarship opportunity information and encouraging me to apply. Jabar Shumate – Vice Pres

Edward Holstein, Dean Tom Landers and Dolly Wagner-Wilkins at the 2018 Conovocation Ceremony In 1990, the the Gallogly College of Engineering established the Distinguished Graduates Society to honor our most accomplished alumni. Selection is based upon prominent and distinguished professional or technical achievement, notable public service, outstanding contribution to and support of education, honors of election in organizations, and other contributions to the engineering profession. Introducing the DGS Class of 2018: Edward D. Holstein and Dolly Wagner-Wilkins. These newest members of the DGS were inducted during the engineering convocation on May 12 at the Lloyd Noble Center. Dolly Wagner-Wilkins BS Industrial Engineering ’87 Dolly Wagner-Wilkins is the chief technology officer at Worldwide Express, with oversight and leadership across the technical spectrum of the company. She is accountable for the company's technology strategy, as well as development, delivery, IT opera

A University of Oklahoma professor, Mohammed Atiquzzaman, is the recipient of the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Satellite Communications Technical Contribution Award for 2018. The annual award is given to an accomplished, senior-level researcher who has achieved outstanding results in satellite communications and recognizes excellent scientific contributions done by academia and industries. Atiquzzaman will receive the award at the IEEE International Conference on Communications in Kansas City, Missouri, May 20-24.  “Professor Atiquzzaman is an international expert in the area of satellite communications as witnessed by his many research contributions and international collaborations,” said Sridhar Radhakrishnan, director, OU School of Computer Science, Gallogly College of Engineering. “We are truly honored to have such an esteemed colleague.” Atiquzzaman, a professor of computer science in the School of Computer Science, Gallogly College of Enginee

For the past eight months, I have been working at Tesla's headquarters in Palo Alto, California as a part of their internship program.  During my time there I worked on the Hardware Development, Test and Analysis team, where I specialized in test development.  As a participant on this team, I had the opportunity to focus on three different areas of test development and execution: thermal systems, off-board charging and mechanical systems.  I worked to design and execute tests for each of these areas, many of which involved prototype components.  In order to do this, I used programs such as CATIA (CAD software), MATLAB, Python and LabVIEW.  I also used resources such as thermal chambers, humidity chambers, vibration tables and Ingress Protection testing in our Powertrain Test Lab.   It was an extremely exciting time to be at Tesla! I had the opportunity to be a part of the launch of the Model 3 to the public, as well as the announcement of the Tesla semi-tr