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 ...

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...