OU Engineering

By Susan Walden, PhD Engineering Pathways Executive Director and SEED Center Founder In November, OU engineering alumni Zach Anderson (computer engineering 2002 and MBA 2006) and Ben Ishii (chemical engineering 2010) gathered around a table with a group of boys half their size to contemplate the efficacy of building materials.  Two of the boys are their sons, Ethan Anderson and Eli Ishii, middle school students from Norman Public Schools, who were on campus as part of the Engineering Pathways office’s series of events named Engineering Experiences. The team faced the challenge of designing and building a prototype structure able to withstand modeled severe weather and earthquakes. Photo, from left, Zach and Ethan Anderson, and Eli and Ben Ishii. The Sooner Engineering Education (SEED) Center, a part of the Gallogly College of Engineering (GCoE) Office of Engineering Pathways, began hosting groups of students from area elementary, middle and high schools 12 years ago in the Rawl Eng...

The fall semester is well underway in the Gallogly College of Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. And with that, undergraduate students are being recognized at conferences, seminars and competitions. Recent awardees hail from the School of Computer Science (CS), School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (AME) and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).   AME senior Preetha Thanunathan was part of a team winning second place in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Innovation Challenge in Orlando, Florida. “This was a 48-hour hackathon. We received 48 hours to ideate, prototype and present our product,” she said.  Thanunathan's team produced an affordable small-sized drone, Sky Findr, that helps locate a missing child within a crowd, such as at a theme park. The prototype included custom Python-based facial recognition software. The team won $4,000 provided by Rockwell Automation and was comprised of students from Arizona State Univ...

The Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society recognized longtime engineering professors Daniel Resasco and David Sabatini at the Oklahoma History Center on Nov. 2. The University of Oklahoma educators were among 11 who were inducted as part of the 2020 Hall of Fame Class that recognizes outstanding service to Oklahoma higher education. Since 1994 almost 300 educators, administrators and others who have made distinguished contributions to higher education have been included. “Dr. Resasco and Dr. Sabatini have both accomplished amazing things in their careers and have used and will continue to use this success to create opportunities for our students. Their dedication to student success and commitment to innovative research in the field of engineering are well known throughout the industry and it is a pleasure to see these two faculty members formally recognized by the Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society,” said John Klier, dean of the Gallogly College of Engineering.   ...

  A $4.4 million gift to the University of Oklahoma Foundation has the capacity to transform OU’s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. Charles Jones, a 1969 ISE alumnus from OU’s Gallogly College of Engineering, has committed $2.2 million to establish the Charles R. Jones Endowed Chair in Data Science and Analytics and $2 million to the new Madelaine Pfau Endowed Chair in Enterprise Leadership for Industrial and Systems Engineering. “Data science and enterprise leadership are increasingly important to every engineering discipline,” said Gallogly College Dean and AT&T Chair John Klier. “Having access to professors who are experts in these areas will position OU students well for their future careers and also offer opportunities to work closely with faculty on contemporary research problems, which will provide yet another level of qualification that will bring graduates to the top of hiring lists.” Klier added the endowed positions will be the first two chairs in OU ISE ...

Thirumalai “Venky” Venkatesan, an internationally renowned leader in advanced quantum technology innovation, is helping shape research through a molecular device that may be able to reprogram the human brain’s logic. His work is garnering global attention for a molecular device that shows exceptional computing prowess and may have the ability to modify or rewire the brain.  Now recognized by science communities such as  Nature  and The Latest Science, the molecular device can be reconfigured quickly for different computational tasks by changing applied voltages, Venkatesan says. As nerve cells store memories, he adds that this same device also can retain information for future retrieval and processing. “In the future, this novel molecular device may help design next-generation processing chips with enhanced computational power and speed, yet at the same time, it will consume significantly reduced energy,” said Venkatesan, director of the  OU Center for Quantum Resear...

Working on a PhD during a global pandemic created new challenges for students. There’s little doubt that the pandemic created obstacles for students of all ages. At the University of Oklahoma, the Gallogly College of Engineering wants to make sure that current doctoral students have the funds – and the motivation – to complete their studies. Seven students recently received the Engineering Dissertation Award, a $5,000 award created to encourage doctoral students to graduate with excellence. While the award has been in existence for several years, this year’s crop of students faces different challenges than those in the past, says Zahed Siddique, the college’s associate dean for research who heads the awards committee.  During most of 2020, these scholars lacked face-to-face interaction with advisers and other PhD students that is critical to the doctoral process, Siddique says. Engineering dissertations take two to three years to write, with most research completed in a lab. “We ha...