OU Engineering

By Jana Smith, Director Strategic Communications for R&D Norman, Okla.— A University of Oklahoma-led research team has conducted a study on the diversity of microbial communities that demonstrates the effects of human-caused changes in climate, land use and other factors.   In this study, researchers show the diversity of soil bacteria, fungi and nitrogen-fixing bacteria all are better predicted by variation in environmental temperature rather than pH. Jizhong Zhou, director of the Institute for Environmental Genomics and professor in the Department of Microbial and Plant Biology and School of Civil Environmental Sciences, OU Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Gallogly College of Engineering, leads the research project with assistance from the University of Arizona, The Santa Fe Institute, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa and University of New Mexico.   Zhou is an affiliate of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Tsinghua University. The sig...

By Jana Smith, Director Strategic Communications for OU R&D Arnold Rech, Fort Towson High School; Laura Lewis, RET program manager and graduate research assistant; Niccole Rech, Fort Towson High School; Joseph Albrecht, Liberty High School; Ashley Rodriguez, Clinton High School; Mark Nanny, RET director; Sue Flaming, Foyil Junior/High School; and Shawn Cusack, Northwest Technology Center Norman, Okla.— Six science and mathematics teachers from rural high schools in Oklahoma are engaged in a National Science Foundation-supported summer program at the University of Oklahoma’s Center for BioAnalysis in an effort to improve STEM teaching in rural classrooms and increase the number of rural students who select and successfully graduate from a higher education STEM field.     “Combining the teaching expertise of the high school teachers with the research expertise of the faculty creates a powerful synergism for producing innovative and dynamic science curricula ...

View the video. As geotechnical and structural engineers work to better understand the survivability of different building types under seismic loads, a key frontier of study is deep foundations. This study, the first of its kind, sought to better understand the performance of helical pile deep foundations under earthquake conditions.  During the Feb. 22, 2011 earthquake, Christchurch, New Zealand was damaged by a tremor that registered at 6.3 magnitude. Due to the soils in the area and the shallow focus point, some areas of the city were devastated by a peak ground acceleration of almost two times the force of gravity. This peak ground acceleration, one of the most powerful ever recorded, severely damaged or destroyed many buildings in downtown Christ Church and caused the tragic collapse of the CTV office building, killing 115 people. A post earthquake survey found that all buildings constructed on helical piles survived with minimal structural damage, adding to t...

TULSA, OKLA (April 18, 2016) — Five OU-Tulsa Telecommunications Engineering students — Nishaal Parmar, Mitun Talukder, Satish Thomas, Sandeep Sharma, and Mohamed Elgrew — won first place in the national Case Study competition at the 2016 Conference on Telecommunications and Information Technology.  This is OU-Tulsa’s third win in six years. “I’m incredibly proud of our Telecom Engineering program, headed by Dr. Pramode Verma, and all our students who continue to represent OU-Tulsa on a national level,” said Campus President John. H. Schumann, M.D.  The national Case Study competition is a highlight of the annual conference, hosted by ITERA (Information and Telecommunications Education and Research Association), where teams of graduate and undergraduate students present their solution to a challenging network design.  This year, the challenge was to design a network to support public safety cameras and systems. OU-Tulsa’s team presented their solution, Adv...

Senior electrical engineering major, Tyler Helps, has received four awards for his paper titled “Enhancement of a Bluetooth Battery Management System.” The paper presents a Bluetooth based Battery Management System (BMS) that uses modern balancing technology and a wireless connection to replace traditional wire bundles inside of multi-cell battery packs. By integrating contemporary cell management technology with the mobile systems consumers carry in their pocket every day, one can combine the safety and care of battery management with the ultimate convenience of wireless connectivity. Helps paper placed in the following competitions: 1st place – Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Paper Competition in February 2016 at the Ford AV in Oklahoma City 2nd place – North Area Student Paper Competition in March 2016 The North Area serves the Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Southern Illinois reg...

Posted: Saturday, February 13, 2016 12:00 am |  Updated: 7:42 am, Mon Feb 15, 2016. By GINNIE GRAHAM News Columnist | Tulsa World OU-Tulsa researchers Dr. Hazem Refai (left) and Omar Al Kalaa are leading the way in development of wireless medical devices with assistance from the Tandy Supercomputer at the Oklahoma Innovation Institute. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World   Imagine a hospital room without wires. A patient could move freely as sensors instantly send information about heart rate, organ functions and hormone levels to the doctor. Advances in wireless medical devices go beyond a medical facility’s walls. Parents with a diabetic toddler could check the child’s glucose levels from their smartphones. Patients with chronic illnesses wouldn’t have to stop by offices for vital-sign checkups. This is a sliver of the research being conducted by the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa’s Telecommunications Engineering program in partnership with the Oklahoma In...

Posted:  Thursday, January 21, 2016 10:18 pm By Jessica Bruha Transcript Staff Writer Four students from the University of Oklahoma are showcasing a project this week at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Read the Norman Transcript story linked below. http://www.normantranscript.com/news/university_of_oklahoma/ou-students-showcasing-climate-game-in-d-c/article_ab04939a-ee04-5687-b83e-0a819c34fbec.html