OU Engineering

University of Oklahoma engineering faculty and staff make significant contributions in the classroom, the lab, the community and far beyond the campus. Each April on the Norman campus, several recognition ceremonies are held to recognize these contributions. OU Faculty Awards and Honors 2023 Five OU Engineering faculty members received top honors at the 2023 OU Faculty Tribute hosted by the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost. They are: Anindya Maiti , an assistant professor in the School of Computer Science and a member of the Data Science and Analytics Institute, received the Outstanding Faculty Award presented by the Student Government Association.  Steven Crossley , a professor in the School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering, received the Award for Excellence in Research in Engineering and Applied Science given by the OU Vice President for Research and Partnerships.  Roger Harrison Jr. , a professor in the School of Chemical, Biological and M...

From left: Luis G. Urbina Barrios, Joshua K. Cunningham,  Ricardo D. Pena Ontiveros with  mentor, Dr. Syed Ashik Ali The Sooner Road Warriors team from the University of Oklahoma won the 2023 regional Asphalt Road-eo competition. Three undergraduate students from the Gallogly College of Engineering, representing the OU Chapter of the Transportation Leadership Council, competed with teams from universities in neighboring states. Asphalt Road-eo is a team-based competition for undergraduate students, organized to gain design experience in asphalt materials in the form of an open-ended design problem. Organized by the Texas Asphalt Pavement Association, Texas Department of Transportation, and the University of Texas at Austin, the competition occurred April 15 in Buda, Texas. Nine teams from six different universities participated. The organizers provided each team with the same materials to design an asphalt mixture and prepare a 20-inch x 20-inch slab using this design. Pe...

OU-Tulsa’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering hosted a 20-year anniversary celebration on April 6-7. Alumni, faculty, and university and Gallogly College leadership gathered to celebrate the school’s more than 200 graduate alumni and 190 grants and awards totaling approximately $35 million. The Williams Chair of Telecommunication and Networking for the OU-Tulsa School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Hazem Refai, welcomed guests by sharing the impact graduates are making now as engineers and the exciting future potential of current students in the school. “The evolving technology in the areas of optical science, wireless networking and cryptography continue to be areas of expertise needed in our state and country,” said Refai. “The continued growth of our advanced degrees from OU-Tulsa are meeting a workforce demand and place our graduates ahead of the curve as they go to work in the field.” April 7 was a full day of presentations by professionals in the field of ...

F rom left: Civil engineering master's student Omar Yadak with advisor and Associate Professor Royce Floyd stand on a hill overlooking the dam. University of Oklahoma School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science faculty member Royce Floyd and master's student Omar Yadak collaborated on a project to replace the Eufaula Dam Spillway bridge, completed March 31. Supported in part by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Floyd and Yadak worked closely with the contractor and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the three-year project. The Eufala dam is the first bridge in the state to use ultra-high performance concrete for connections of precast deck panels and for an overlay.  UHPC is an innovative cementitious material with material properties and durability significantly exceeding that of conventional concrete.  Floyd provided advice about the new material and the best methods to use during planning, pre-construction and application. He and Yadak measured...

By OU Marketing and Communications On April 7, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff met with Tribal leaders and University of Oklahoma energy experts for a roundtable discussion on how the power and potential of geothermal energy can be harnessed for the benefit of Indigenous communities. “We are incredibly grateful to have hosted Secretary Granholm, Second Gentleman Emhoff and our Tribal leaders at the University of Oklahoma,” said OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. “Our discussion today honors our shared commitment to working together to develop sustainable energy solutions for people and communities across America. At OU, we leverage more than a century of energy expertise to unlock new energy pathways that will power future generations.” Tribal Nations met with Department of Energy representatives and OU energy faculty to discuss Oklahoma’s potential for geothermal energy production as a component of energy sovereignty. The discussion also addr...

Three students in the Gallogly College of Engineering at the University of Oklahoma have been selected as 2023 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows.  The fellowships provide students with a three-year annual stipend, allowance for tuition and fees, and access to opportunities for professional development available to NSF-supported graduate students.  The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program is the country’s oldest fellowship program directly supporting graduate students in various science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Since 1952, NSF has funded over 60,000 Graduate Research Fellowships out of more than 500,000 applicants. Currently, 42 Fellows have gone on to become Nobel laureates, and more than 450 have become members of the National Academy of Sciences. OU Engineering interviewed the newest NSF Graduate Research Fellows: Blake Bartlett, of Greenwood, Arkansas, earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Oklahoma State Univ...

Over 100 middle school girls attended the biannual GLAMS event on March 31 at the University of Oklahoma. The GLAMS program – Girls Learning and Applying Math and Science – introduces girls to the engineering field through activities led by OU Engineering students. Inspired by the Star Wars saga, the girls studied six types of engineering: biomedical, mechanical, civil, electrical, computer and engineering physics. Star Wars themes – Midichlorians and Mitochondria, Under Pressure, The Force: Magnets and Other Attractive Things and Cool Circuits – were used to convey complex engineering procedures and designs. In 2011, OU Engineering created the program specifically for middle school girls. “Students start thinking about their career track as early as middle school. So, middle school is a prime time to engage girls in STEM and engineering as a potential pathway for school and their career,” said Dominique Pittenger, Ph.D., director of the college’s Women in Engineering program. “This ev...

Martin Jischke, Ph.D., presented the Sam A. Wilson Lecture on March 23.  Jischke (photo, on right) is no stranger to OU, having served 17 years⏤11 as a faculty member and director of the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, five as dean of the College of Engineering and one as interim president of OU. He then became chancellor of the University of Missouri-Rolla, president of Iowa State University and the 10th president of Purdue University.  Steven Crossley, Ph.D., a professor in the School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering, received the inaugural Jischke Prize in Engineering created to support faculty excellence in the college by providing a $10,000 award to a faculty member who has demonstrated exemplary teaching, research and service. To learn more about the School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering, visit ou.edu/coe/cbme .

The University of Oklahoma has received an $8.7 million grant through the Air Force Research Laboratory in partnership with the Air Force Sustainment Center, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex (OC-ALC) and GE Additive for a comprehensive metal additive manufacturing research project to test the design and fabrication of replacement parts that could meet the certification requirements for airworthiness qualification by the U.S. Air Force. “Additive manufacturing, also known as 3-D printing, is layer-by-layer printing to produce 3-D objects,” said Zahed Siddique, the principal investigator for the project and the associate dean for research at the Gallogly College of Engineering.  Metal additive manufacturing uses metal powders and advanced processing technologies integrating powder bed fusion and direct laser melting, allowing for the direct manufacturing of replacement parts, meaning quicker, cheaper and – as the project aims to show – more reliable and sustainable manufacturing. ...