IMPACT 2007-08 by Oklahoma State

IMPACT

07 08

College of engineering, architecture & technology OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY

It is a pleasure to present another “fully We are proud that CEAT students continue to Advancing a packed” issue of Impact magazine. The College earn national honors and acceptance into some of Tradition of of Engineering, Architecture and Technology the most competitive graduate programs in the too many compelling stories to include nation. Three of our recent graduates are doing Excellence has within these pages, but the alumni, faculty graduate work at M.I.T. and one is at Georgia Tech. and student achievements featured here reflect the emphasis on excellence that has become CEAT’s hallmark. Alumni and friends rallied behind CEAT with an extraordinary response to Boone Pickens’ $100 million challenge to more than double the number of endowed chairs and professorships at OSU, as well as in the CEAT. Prior to the “fund raising blitz” in June 2008, the CEAT had 13 endowed chairs and professorships. The contributions of individuals and corporations during the “blitz,” combined with Pickens’ dollar-for-dollar match and the state’s matching funds, created 19 new endowed chairs and professorships in the college. Endowed faculty positions greatly enhance the ability of the College to attract and retain eminent scholars with exemplary teaching and student mentoring abilities and internationally respected research accomplishments, and who can provide intellectual leadership in technology areas of strategic importance to the College. Awards of chairs and professorships are also used to honor and reward faculty members who have established themselves within the College as exemplary mentors, teachers and researchers. The college has gained an increased advantage in recruiting outstanding high school graduates from across the nation thanks to the generosity of alumnus Wayne Allen and expansion of the Allen Scholars program. Now considered to be the premier engineering scholars program in the United States, this program features a one-year study abroad at Cambridge University. Unique scholarship and enrichment programs have been a hallmark of the CEAT. The ConocoPhillips SPIRIT Scholars Program, the Chesapeake Scholars Program, and the Garmin Scholars Program have made a real difference in our ability to attract some of the very best high school graduates in Oklahoma and the surrounding region. Growth of corporate and individual support for scholarships has come at a critical time because of substantial increases in the costs of university education over the past five years.

photo / Gary Lawson

Read in this issue about the national recognition received by Cortney Timmons, Sarah Shields, Heather Beem, and Renee Hale. CEAT student groups also win the highest honors in national competition, such as the best Student Council in America and first and third place in an international aerospace design/build/fly competition involving entries from the best aerospace programs in the nation. The M.I.T. team held a banner that said “BEAT OSU.” Our 2007 and 2008 graduates join a list of distinguished alumni whose accomplishments have helped shape the world. The Lohmann medal winners in 2007 and 2008 are giants in the fields of architecture and structural, electrical and process engineering. The two graduates inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007 and 2008 have been leaders of Fortune 500 companies. People make a difference. The critical shortage of qualified professionals in the engineering fields continues to be of major concern to all in engineering education and practice. Through its landmark report titled “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” the National Academy of Engineering has set forth an action plan that we have embraced. By focusing increased CEAT resources, energy and leadership on the FIRST Robotics Program and the Pre-Engineering Academies in Oklahoma during the past two years, we are beginning to see an increased demand for CEAT programs in engineering and technology. We are especially indebted to the CEAT Associates serving as a Strategic Advisory Committee for the College, for their wisdom and guidance in setting priorities in these endeavors. Read more about these and other exciting accomplishments in the pages that follow!

Karl Reid, Dean

College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology

PHOTO / Joseph Mills Photography

About the cover

Through the additional generosity of alumnus Wayne Allen, top, the W.W. Allen Scholars Program has been expanded and is now considered to be the Premier Engineering Scholars Program in the United States. Allen Scholars have the opportunity to pursue graduate study at Cambridge University in their fifth year. Current Allen Scholars are, pictured clockwise from top, Matt Grant, Brad Grover, Mark Nelson, Renee Hale and Ward Kable. Cover photography is by Chris Lewis. The related story is on page 22.

6 Into the Future

New alumna Heather Beem lives her dream.

12 A New Path

OSU engineers and scientists work at the vanguard of 21st century challenges.

26 Rising Star

OSU aerospace program dominates the competition, again.

36 At the Summit

CEAT honors outstanding alumni.

41 Scoring a Triple

Center proves a boon to the state’s economy.

Departments

2 Student Digest 10 Research, Teaching, Outreach 36 Alumni Success 40 Noteworthy

Rand Elliott, Chesapeake Boathouse, story page 38

IMPACT is a publication of the Oklahoma State University College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology and is designed to provide information on college activities and accomplishments while fostering communication among the CEAT family and friends. Visit www.ceat.okstate.edu, or arrange a VIP visit by contacting Dean Karl Reid at karl.reid@okstate.edu or 405-744-5140. The office of publication for IMPACT is 121 Cordell North, Stillwater, OK 740788031. Copyright © 2009, IMPACT. All rights reserved.

IMPACT

Eileen Mustain, editor Aaron Dickey, art director Paul V. Fleming, supervising art director Janet Varnum, associate editor Kyle Wray, associate vice president of enrollment management and marketing

Oklahoma State University in compliance with Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Executive Order 11246 as amended, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, andother federal laws and regulations, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, disability, or status as a veteran in any of its policies, practices or procedures. This includes but is not limited to admissions, employment, financial aid, and educationalservices. Title IX of the Education Amendments and Oklahoma State University policy prohibit discrimination in the provision of services of benefits offered by the University based on gender. Any person (student, faculty or staff) who believes that discriminatory practices have been engaged in based upon gender may discuss their concerns and file informal or formal complaints of possible violations of Title IX with the OSU Title IX Coordinator, Dr. Carolyn Hernandez, Director of Affirmative Action, 408 Whitehurst, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, 405-744-5371 or 405-744-5576 (fax). This publication, issued by Oklahoma State University as authorized by the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, was printed by Career Tech, at a cost of $14,445.00 16,050/June 2009/job #2620.

The 2007–2008 student council executive team members, pictured from left, Rusty Wallace, David Eyster, Ashley Butterworth, Cortney Timmons, Grant McCool and Justin Roberts.

Building a Tradition of Excellence

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

Top Student Leadership

OSU’s chemical engineering students The OSU College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology’s student continued to expand their record of excellence council won “best council” honors from the in 2007–2008. National Association of Engineering Student Councils at the association’s national conference in April. The top honor recognizes CEAT’s Student Council for its coordination of programs and activities in support of college students, as well as its outreach, recruitment, leadership development and philanthropic and community service activities. The CEAT Student Council — which coordinates OSU’s only career fair planned, organized and run entirely by students — competed for the award against councils at larger schools such as Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Purdue and the University of Illinois.

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers designated OSU’s student chapter “outstanding” for the 10th consecutive year in 2007–2008. The recognition, based on the group’s programming, participation and professional development, places OSU’s student-led AIChE among the top 10 percent in the nation. OSU students, Aleisha McCabe, Grant McCool and Derek Sumner, also received first place in the 2008 AIChE national student design competition. Their challenge was to design a chemical plant to create methanol using the synthesis gas from coal gasification. In the competition’s 14 years, OSU students have won first place five times. No other university has won first place more than twice.

FIRST Robotics Takes Off

photo / Gary Lawson

IMPACT

“There has been enormous change in Oklahoma FIRST Robotics since we began Founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, inven- hosting the kickoff event,” says Dean Karl tor, engineer and entrepreneur, FIRST (For Reid. “We had one active team in 2005, seven OSU’s Women in Engineering, Architecture Inspiration and Recognition of Science and in 2006, 12 in 2007 and 38 in 2008.” and Technology initiated the WhEATies Technology) is an international nonprofit orgaFunding also increased in 2008. The House monthly breakfast in fall 2008. nization promoting science, engineering and Education Committee, chaired by State repreSponsored by Schlumberger, the breakfast technology in high schools. In 2008, 1,500 teams sentative Tad Jones, a strong supporter of FIRST provides an informal setting where students involving 37,500 high school students from eight Robotics, appropriated $100,000 to encourage can become acquainted with the college dean, countries were engaged in intense competition, building new teams. Twenty new teams received associate deans, faculty and advisers as well as not unlike that found in the sports field. The $5,000 grants from the state, and 15 received campus-wide administrators. VISION of FIRST is “To create a world where $6,000 grants from NASA, Reid says. “Students give WhEATies high marks in science and technology are celebrated … where Oklahoma also held its first FIRST Robotics several aspects of this professional development young people dream of becoming science and regional competition in 2008, made possible, activity,” says Angie Bale, WEAT coordinator. technology heroes.” Reid says, by the commitment of a strong “But the breakfast speakers are an all-around The multinational competition requires team of Oklahomans including OSU President favorite.” high school participants, under the guidance Burns Hargis. Since its inception, WhEATies breakfast of mentors, to work in teams to build robots “Under his leadership as chair of the Oklahoma speakers have included, among others, OSU’s over a six-week period. All teams receive the City Chamber of Commerce, Oklahoma City Marlene Strathe, provost and senior vice presi- same basic kit but must determine how best became a Segway City — Segway inventor dent, and Professors Suzanne Bilbeisi, architec- to build their robots to perform specified Dean Kamen is founder of FIRST — and ture, Camille DeYong, industrial engineering tasks. The teams compete in regional contests embraced FIRST Robotics as the highest visiand management, and HeatherYates, construc- with the top teams advancing to the national bility “Creativity Project” for Oklahoma City tion management technology. competition. A strong concept embedded in in 2008. Bale says balancing life and work is the current FIRST is “gracious professionalism,” a focus “President Hargis was the ‘clean up hitter’ that topic for WhEATies breakfast speakers. on teams helping each other. made it possible for us to convince the National As of Nov. 2008, CEAT female enrollment Oklahoma FIRST Robotics has grown FIRST Organization that Oklahoma should totaled 426. At 15 percent, the number of rapidly in the last two years, following approval hold a regional competition in Oklahoma,” women enrolled in the college is keeping pace as a satellite KICKOFF site. The College of Reid says. with female enrollment in these fields at other Engineering, Architecture and Technology “Having a regional contest in Oklahoma universities. has hosted the first four Kickoff events where means our teams do not have to incur the high students learn about the annual competition cost of traveling out of state.” and receive the rules and the basic kits.

‘Champions’ Start the Day

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How Hard Can It Be? She dances. She sings. She plays classical music on the piano and violin. And in between, Renee Hale is a 17-year-old chemical

engineering sophomore who learned to drive a backhoe this summer. Oh, then there’s the internship at IBM. At the historic technology firm, Hale learned what an environmental engineer does through being one. Before the internship, she let the Hale family motto, “How hard can it be?” guide her. “It’s gotten us quite a few places,” she says. “So I’ve never been an environmental engineer, never tried that, but hey — I’m up for it.” She was home-schooled along with her sister, OSU graduate and 2006 Goldwater scholar Melinda, while growing up in the small New York town of Fishkill. The Hales have been Cowboys “So I’ve never been an for four generations: her environmental engineer, parents, paternal grandnever tried that, but parents, and paternal greathey — I’m up for it.” grandparents earned their — Renee Hale undergraduate degrees from OSU. Her grandfather, Jerry Hale, played basketball for Coach Henry Iba and later coached at ORU in the 1970s. Her mother, who holds a master’s degree from Boston University, taught her how to approach learning. Her dad, Michael Hale, holds a master’s and doctoral degree in mechanical student digest engineering from MIT. After Renee completed a couple of years in community college, Mike convinced her research, teaching, to try OSU. She at first balked at engineering outreach because she thought she’d end up working with heavy machinery. Karl Reid, dean of alumni success the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, debunked her misconceptions, and she enrolled in 2006. noteworthy She’s been a dedicated engineering mind ever since. Last year, Hale won the Freshman Research Scholars Award for her work with her 4 mentor, Heather Fahlenkamp, studying how better to grow human dendritic cells, which have shown promise for use in vaccines and

fighting cancer. She presented her findings at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Salisbury, Md., in April. Working with Hale may have spoiled Fahlenkamp, a chemical engineering professor who joined OSU in 2006 from the biotech company VaxDesign. Fahlenkamp calls Hale an astounding talent. “What really amazed me was how quickly she was able to adapt to working in a research lab,” Fahlenkamp says. The two are working on a journal article, and Fahlenkamp says her protégé’s work could end up helping others lead healthier, longer lives. Matt Elliott

A Touch of Class When Paul Egan tells people he’s an engineering major, no one bats an eye, nor

Physics explains how the world works. Engineering teaches him how to make the world do what he wants. Adding philosophy to the mix helps him understand the nature of consciousness — what motivates people to do what they do, and how approaches to problems can influence results.

Matt Elliott

IMPACT

do they when he says he’s also an applied physics major. But heads turn when the Goldwater Scholar reveals his triple major includes philosophy. “In my experience,” Egan says, “people either really love philosophy, or they seem to wonder, ‘Why are you wasting your time doing that?’” The reason is Egan’s thirst for knowledge beyond the equations and theorems of hard science. Physics explains how the world works. Engineering teaches him how to make the world do what he wants. Adding philosophy to the mix helps him understand the nature of consciousness – what motivates people to do what they do, and how approaches to problems can influence results. Egan hopes this multi-faceted perception will culminate in groundbreaking artificial intelligence research. Also, it’s fun. “I got into physics because I read a lot of Stephen Hawking’s books,” he says. “And then I read Einstein and eventually moved into more abstract works. If it’s just technical work, I get kind of bored with it because really it’s only looking at the world from one of many useful purposes.” Egan’s also made time for off-campus endeavors related to all three of his majors. Besides a physics internship at Los Alamos National Laboratory and mechanical engineering work in Los Angeles, Egan also participated in two summer programs at Cambridge through OSU’s scholar development office. Last fall, he headed to New Zealand’s University of Canterbury for further philosophy research. Egan’s mentor, philosophy professor Doren Recker, says Egan chose to work on metaphor in science for a 17th century philosophy course. Recker did not hear from Egan until he turned in his paper a week ahead of schedule needing only minimal direction from his impressed professor. “Paul works very well independently,” Recker says. “He can read and interpret on his own. But at the same time he collaborates very well, too.” Egan showed his leadership skills last April while heading up the first-place OSU-Black team that won the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Design/Build/Fly Competition. His team’s flexible, creative approach to aircraft

design helped beat the competition, including MIT and Purdue, and will help future teams remain strong competitors. He plans to graduate in 2009, pursue a doctorate in mechanical engineering and then go into education. A recent job interview with an oil company lessened his interest in private industry. “They told me, ‘You don’t wear the engineering tie. You don’t wear the engineering shoes. We want to hire somebody like us. You need to join the student council or lead AIAA.’” But, Egan has different plans. “I’m not interested in that. I like to do science and figure things out,” Egan says. “I’m happy with my accomplishments because I took an unconventional approach and surpassed the expectations of those who favor a more commonly accepted path.”

07 08

photo / Gary Lawson

Explorer for the 21st Century

After graduate school, Beem hopes to land a position at a federal facility such as Sandia National Laboratories, a complex of research facilities in Albuquerque run by a company owned by Lockheed Martin Corp. She’s also These days, Beem, an OSU alumna and MIT graduate exploring work in the space industry, either for NASA or student, lives her dream, studying ocean engineering at in the private sector. both MIT and the nearby Woods Hole Oceanographic It’d be a fitting goal after a lifetime spent satisfying Institution. her curiosity. She graduated from Norman North High “The ocean is just this huge frontier with mysteries to School at 15. She showed uncommon aptitudes evidenced be solved and lots of technology to be developed to figure in a summer engineering camp at Oklahoma Christian out what’s going on down there,” says Beem, who received University that taught problem solving with robotics and a $232,000 National Defense Science and Engineering miniature roller coasters. Graduate Fellowship to attend MIT. “You get to go on She came to OSU in 2003, choosing the College of research cruises around the world and test what you’ve Engineering, Architecture and Technology because of its been working on. That’s pretty fascinating.” reputation and its CEAT and Allen Scholars Programs that Beem has been busy since she graduated from OSU in encourage leadership in high achieving students. She says May. She studied for two weeks in China, where she toured no other Oklahoma university had similar programs. research centers, universities, manufacturers and the Three In 2006, a trip to Japan with the scholars group allowed Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. After that, Beem, who her to visit relatives in Taiwan. While touring Taiwan’s speaks Mandarin and German, took two weeks off to travel National Taipei University of Technology, Beem convinced through Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. researchers to hire her as an intern. Then she headed to Mountain View, Calif., and an “They were working on a bioengineering application using internship at NASA’s Ames Research Center, where, aided the antibacterial properties of silver in wound dressings,” by the world’s second-largest wind tunnel (the largest was Beem says. Her work with the team to craft a bandage that next door), she worked on theoretical and experimental releases silver particles became the first of several papers of helicopter aerodynamics. There, she developed imaging which she has been a co-author or principal author. techniques to measure the structural loads of rotor blades In 2007, she studied abroad at Germany’s Technische on the military’s most widely used utility helicopter, the Universität München. She interned that summer at Sandia, Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. where she modeled the performance of a powder gun used A few months later, she began her first classes at MIT, to launch explosives. which she chose over a host of suitors, including the “National labs like that are great because they have so University of California-Berkeley, Stanford and the Rensselaer many different things going on,” she says. “You can work in Polytechnic Institute. one area for a year and then do something else and always The MIT program gives her the option of starting at be learning new things.” MIT and later studying at the oceanographic institution She finished her undergraduate career after leading the near Cape Cod. She also can choose the faculty members structures group of OSU’s first-place Black Team in the she wants to work with from both institutions. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Student “MIT is a truly exciting place to be,” she says. “It pulses Design/Build/Fly Competition in April 2008. with energy. The professors, who’re often authors of courses’ She laughs that her choice of MIT for graduate school standard textbooks, are dynamic and create a vibrant class- made her the butt of many of the team’s jokes since the room setting. All the students are hard working and extremely institute’s plane crashed during the competition. sharp. I’m pleased to say that instead of those factors creating “We destroyed MIT. Everybody was teasing me because that’s a cutthroat environment, they make for an atmosphere in where I was going,” Beem says. “They were like, ‘It’s a horrible which the students join up and work hard together.” school. They did so badly in this competition.’”

The lure of the unknown has been irresistible for Heather Beem ever since NASA’s Mars Rover landings in 2004 began an intensive look at the red planet’s past and present.

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

Matt Elliott

IMPACT

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photo / phil shockley

“The things other cultures see as valuable are different than what we see here.”

— Carol Jones

photo / Gary Lawson

Sherri Treat, a mechanical engineering junior, and Laura Merriman, a biosystems junior

A World In this age of fluctuating energy prices Sherri Treat, a mechanical engineering economic crises, the United States has junior, and Laura Merriman, a biosystems Beyond and much to learn from countries that have made junior, took the Italy course with Jones in 2007. do with less.

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

That’s why study abroad in engineering is so important, says Carol Jones, a biosystems engineering assistant professor who teaches two-week and 10-day study abroad courses. Jones is part of a group of faculty who alternate teaching the courses each year, taking students to countries including Italy and Brazil. “The things other cultures see as valuable are different than what we see here,” Jones says. “Having lots of room and extra things around us is what we consider being successful, but in other countries it’s considered very wasteful. Through study abroad, our students realize what they do in the scientific world affects the rest of the world, and they must keep in mind these cultural differences.” During summer 2007, Jones took a group of students on a two-week course to Italy. This summer, she’ll take a group to Brazil. The course goal is to get students looking at different ways to produce goods and services. The courses also teach how the cultural history shapes a nation’s industry, education and science.

Both found it useful, but they also found it to be just plain fun. “That was neat to see the different projects they did,” says Treat, who toured everything from factories and laboratories to museums and farms. “It was a good mixture of culture and technology.” Merriman, who comes from a central Oklahoma farming community, found the agriculture tours particularly fascinating. She saw environmentally friendly ways to use fertilizer and manage land where limited space requires farming practices that use land efficiently. “I just think it was a great opportunity to get my feet wet with international travel,” Merriman says. “There really is something there for everybody,” Jones says. “I think one thing that surprises our students is that the world out there doesn’t live just in engineering or just microbiology or the college of agriculture or arts and sciences. It’s much more horizontal.” Matt Elliott

photo / phil shockley

COMMITTED TO THE FUTURE PLANET’S

Cortney Timmons, biosystems engineering senior

The work was similar to her research at OSU, where, among other things, she has studied how to use special sensors to monitor the movement of cattle waste and its effect on water quality.

IMPACT

“She demonstrates conviction and dedication in everything she undertakes, and she is one of the most positive, friendly and caring individuals that you’ll ever meet,” he says. “Cortney has a very bright future ahead of her, and she will help to bring out the very best in those around her.” “Cortney has a very bright After graduating in May, Timmons hopes future ahead of her, and she to earn a master’s degree from the University Truman Scholar and biosystems engiwill help to bring out the very of Cambridge through a Gates Cambridge neering senior Cortney Timmons may best in those around her.” Scholarship. She’s looking into the university’s have had the most diverse summer of any — Ron Elliott land economy department. OSU student. Her success isn’t surprising to those who “It has a really good environmental policy Timmons, a 2007 Morris K. Udall scholar, spent a week in the Mexican mountain cities know her. Timmons, who last year was a emphasis, and that’s another area I’ve been of Cholula and Puebla last May with OSU’s semi-finalist in Glamour’s Top Ten College looking into, how policy impacts what we do Blue Key Honor Society. There, she worked Women competition, is one of the most deco- as engineers and environmentalists,” she says. with other students at an orphanage and rated students in OSU’s history. In addition Also, “they take into account agricultural aspects visited two OSU sister universities, Universidad to her Truman and Udall scholarships, she when looking at the environment.” Land management is a huge issue for Popular Autonoma del Estado de Puebla and is a former Frank Lucas Agricultural Policy intern who earned two Lew Wentz Research Oklahoma with its status as an agricultural the Universidad de las Americas. From Mexico, Timmons went to the sewers of Project Awards and a first-place research award state. The issue is among her chief concerns. rural Oklahoma as an environmental engineer from the American Society of Agricultural and She hopes to one day bring her expertise back home. intern with Myers Engineering, an Oklahoma Biological Engineers. In 2007, she started a recycling program “Since coming to college, I have traveled City corporation that helps small towns tackle during home football games. She organized to over twenty different states and studied or sanitation problems. “It’s not as bad as it sounds,” says Timmons, student volunteers who collected paper, plas- traveled in Japan, the United Kingdom and whose internship, based in her hometown of tic and glass from the tailgaters that throng Mexico,” she says. “I have yet to visit a place Ada, Okla., took her all over the region. She the parking lots surrounding Boone Pickens that I like better than Oklahoma. I could never inspected, smoke-tested (using smoke to find Stadium. Three home games later, Real call anywhere else home. This is where my leaks in piping) and analyzed towns’ sewers, Cowboys Recycle had grown to 20 volunteers, family and my future family live. No matter including Comanche, a town of about 1,500 and Timmons started fielding interviews from where I go for graduate school, I do plan state news reporters. to come back to Oklahoma to live, work and people northeast of Wichita Falls, Texas. “She is an incredibly talented and accom- raise a family.” “They pretty much let me plan, implement and carry out operations,” she says. “They gave plished individual,” says Ron Elliott, professor Matt Elliott me a lot of responsibility. I saw what it was like and biosystems and agricultural engineering to work with a client and see a project through department head. “She is an exceptional scholar and leader, and a real difference maker. firsthand. I saw what the issues were.”

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OSU Helps Beijing Bring Home The Gold by Janet F. Reeder

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

Timothy Ryan, a 1984 OSU journalism graduate who has worked on the past four Olympics, provided the Bird’s Nest photo. A long-time world traveler, Ryan celebrates his work in a personal blog carried by Reuters, Fox News and the Chicago Sun Times: “From the Far Away, Nearby — A Celebration of Travel, Nature and the Poetry of Place,” www.adventuresoftimtim.blogspot.com.

In a manner of speaking, OSU helped the Beijing Olympic Village win the gold — the gold award for lead-

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ership in energy and environmental design from the U.S. Green Building Council. Years before selected to host the 2008 Olympics, China set out to make Beijing a showplace for environmentally friendly and sustainable technology, including ground source heat pump technology developed at OSU and promoted by the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association in OSU’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The games brought ground source or geothermal technology to the world’s attention with its use in the Olympic Village, most notably the site of the opening ceremonies, the National Stadium. Named the Bird’s Nest by the Chinese people, the stadium’s extensive GSHP systems use the earth’s constant temperature to heat and cool the interior. Phil Schoen, president of Geo-Enterprises, Inc., of Catoosa, Okla., was in China last fall working with Chinese engineers who installed equipment and oversaw drilling to support GSHP technology in the expansive National Stadium and its connected athletic facilities. “We were actually on five or six different projects. One of them is the Bird’s Nest Stadium — which required 104 boreholes on the track and field area,” Schoen says, noting that planning for the stadium’s GSHP installation started in 2004 and is probably some of the first GSHP work done by China. “Water to water heat pumps work with geothermal heat exchangers to heat and cool much of the facility’s athletic suites, dressing areas, media rooms and underground venue,” Schoen says of the stadium’s systems. In addition to a growing number of public buildings throughout China, at least six other Olympic buildings, including part of the Aquatic Center, use GSHP technology. China’s move toward energy conservation and higher environmental standards is apparent throughout the larger cities, particularly in Beijing, where of the 2 million square meters of buildings used for the Olympics, nearly 30 percent are powered by clean energy such as solar, wind and geothermal. “Certainly ground source technology is something China’s Ministry of Construction has focused on as very promising,” Schoen says. Schoen is returning to China this fall and will continue to promote and develop GSHP technology there. He will spend more time on Beijing’s Grand MOMA project. Currently one of China’s largest construction projects, the Grand MOMA is an innovative new ecological residential community adjacent to the embassy neighborhood and the central business district. Time magazine named the Grand MOMA one of 2007’s 10 architectural marvels for an eco-friendly approach that makes it a showcase of innovation. “The project includes radiant cooling with geothermal and pivoting walls, among other features. The entire complex uses ground heat pump systems that require some six hundred 100-meter deep wells for heating and cooling,” Schoen says. “It is state-of-the-art.”

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y

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photo / Gary Lawson

Heather Fahlenkamp, chemical engineering

by Matt Elliot

body. The effort merges chemistry and biology while the experiments require an engineer’s In February 2008, the National Academy of background in design. Among other things, Fahlenkamp is developEngineering, a nonprofit group that advises the federal government, unveiled those of the 21st ing an eye model with living blood vessels for century. Its “Grand Challenges for Engineering” an Oklahoma City pharmaceutical company, range from developing clean power and nuclear Charlesson, to test new therapeutics for eye diseases. It’s complex work and, if perfected, will fusion to ensuring water quality. Cracking one of these challenges, OSU decrease human or animal testing, she says. In that sense, the research differs much faculty members are devising better medicines through a field that pairs medicine with engi- from traditional experiments, which makes it neering. Their work covers everything from harder for some in her field to accept. But she detecting cancer to easier organ and tissue sees that changing. “If we can show that these models are relitransplants. The professors working in this new arena able, show how they compare to animals and face unique challenges as they search for solu- human clinical studies, then they’ll start catchtions. Along the way, some of them met with ing on,” she says. roadblocks to grant money, but they agree Developing image accuracy the future of the new field is bright, partly There’s no denying that prostate biopsies because of new opportunities from technolare unpleasant for patients. That’s because the ogy and stronger emphases on collaboration most common way of getting flesh for biopsy across the sciences. involves an ultrasound-equipped probe firing a needle a dozen times or more through the Crafting reliable models Working in tissue engineering, Heather wall of the anesthetized patient’s rectum into Fahlenkamp, assistant chemical engineering the prostate. Physicians use the probes’ ultrasound imagprofessor, uses her discipline to craft systems of cells mimicking those found in the human ing to guide the needle, but the process can miss tumors or show nonexistent ones.

Every age brings a new set of problems to overcome.

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

photo / Gary Lawson

Zhen Jiang, graduate student; Daqing Piao, electrical and computer engineering; and Gilbert Reed Holyoak, veterinary clinical sciences

(continues)

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Daqing Piao, a biomedical engineer, is part By comparing readings from healthy and of an OSU and OU interdisciplinary team devis- sick patients, the team created software that ing an ultrasound probe aimed by near-infrared can recognize atrial fibrillation and a heart imaging so physicians can improve the tests’ attack with about 90 percent accuracy, says accuracy. The team’s system can better detect mechanical engineer Ranga Komanduri, who unexplained spots in the gland that could be leads the group along with pharmacologist subtle harbingers of cancer as well as providing Bruce Benjamin. Their goal is to provide better cardiac care patients a less invasive procedure. Previously funded by a grant from the U.S. to people in remote areas, Komanduri says. Army’s Medical Research Program, the technol- It works by a nurse collecting data from a ogy has been successful in animal trials, but patient and feeding the information to the Piao says research must answer many questions program. The program analyzes and sends before clinical acceptance and commercial the results electronically to a cardiologist, typiproduction. cally far away, who reviews them and makes “We need more support to further develop recommendations. this technology,” he says. “The key part is to The team would like to raise the predicvalidate this technology with human pros- tion rate to greater than 99 percent accuracy, tate problems, make sure it works in clinical Komanduri says, but the researchers need settings. How much of an improvement is it 50,000 more test subjects and grant money to over ultrasound alone? How much cost will continue, says chemistry professor Lionel Raff, it add to prostate biopsies? There are many a collaborating investigator. issues involved in having a clinically ‘signifiImproving diagnoses cant’ technology.” Like Piao, Guoliang Fan wants to use Engineering better cardiology imaging technology to improve medical What if a computer program could diagnoses and procedures. One of his projanalyze EKG signals and help doctors deci- ects is a computerized tool derived from an pher the machines’ readings? That’s the research algorithm to help remove physicians’ guesswork from diagnosing diabetic retinopathy, subject for a group of OSU professors.

OSU faculty members are devising better medicines through a field that pairs medicine with engineering. Their work covers everything from detecting cancer to easier organ and tissue transplants.

07 08

“It’s always a satisfying achievement if you can have a positive impact on human welfare.”

— Jim Smay

photo / Gary Lawson

Lionel Raff, chemistry, and Ranga Komanduri, mechanical engineering

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

or diabetes-induced blindness. The program works by determining the number, size and concentration of the disease’s lesions and presenting the information to a doctor. “Although our research is ongoing, we see great promise in the computer software’s ability to help physicians in accurate and efficient disease diagnosis,” says Fan, an electrical and computer engineer. “We’re collaborating with Inoveon, a company in Oklahoma City that delivers those kinds of medical services.” Fan, who has co-written several papers on the work since 2003, says he is still fine-tuning the program. He believes it needs more testing before use in a disease diagnostic system.

“This is particularly relevant for facial injuries such as reconstructing smashed maxilla resulting from car crashes,” Smay says. The scaffold’s pores, shaped similar to those in bones, can be filled with drug-carrying plaster that prevents blood from clotting in the implant. The plaster dissolves quickly, leaving the scaffold and making room for new tissue growth before the body can absorb the whole structure. Once perfected, such scaffolds could reduce the need for harvesting bone material from other areas of patients’ bodies or the risky practice of implanting bones from donors that could spark an immune system reaction. Tests in simulated body fluid show the scafRepairing bones folds dissolve as expected, Smay says. Most Jim Smay, an associate chemical engineer- recently, NYU clinical studies using rabbits have ing professor, has a project with NYU medical shown promising bone growth and absorption and dental school researchers to reproduce bone results that have surprised researchers. scaffolding made from a calcium phosphate “The design of these scaffolds based on the composite the body can absorb. dynamic process of bone repair is a nice marriage He uses three-dimensional printing to assem- of engineering and biology,” he says. “It’s always ble the material, pockmarked with millions of a satisfying achievement if you can have a posimicron-sized pores, as a structure to support tive impact on human welfare.” bone regeneration at breaks or other injuries. Matt Elliott Its use lies in patients with severe bone injuries from cancer or fractures that won’t heal without intervention.

High Praise It’s not every day academia hands out the term “brilliant.” The competition is, well, tough.

photo / phil shockley

“Today, our lab is studying the very near surface regions of finely finished surfaces, whether they are surfaces of semiconductors or molds for precision optics,” says Lucca. The foundation will fund projects for 12 years, and the last round of funding, received in 2008, will last until 2012. Lucca sees his work continuing into realms that include how to use ions to improve optics molds with ceramic nanophase coatings — the dust-mote thick layers with special properties created without a furnace firing. Alan Tree, associate dean for research in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, says Lucca’s research puts him among the world’s leaders in his field. “His techniques are so good that he can determine atomic perfection,” Tree says. Matt Elliott

IMPACT

Yet that’s what reviewers from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s German counterpart, called OSU mechanical engineer Don Lucca’s co-authored proposal to renew funding for optics work at the German Transregional Research Center. The center comprises three universities at OSU-Stillwater and in the German cities Aachen and Bremen. Its scientists examine how to improve manufacturing of super-precise optics in large quantities. Breakthroughs in those areas could be useful in new technologies for automobiles and other industries. The DFG’s ranking, largely based on the strength of Lucca’s work, is among the highest its teams have ever given, says the research center’s coordinator. Since 2000, the DFG has funded the German portion of the work, and the NSF has funded Lucca’s work. Lucca’s collaboration with the center sprang from international connections he made working in Bremen through a Humboldt Research Award. The research began by “looking at the forces and energies in ultraprecision machining in the late 1980s,” says Lucca of the collaboration enabled by modern-day video conferencing and the internet. “This is work I had done with a colleague at Los Alamos, and I continued it when I came here to Oklahoma State in 1990.” The work blends mechanical engineering with materials science and applied physics. Over time, it grew into the study of surfaces created during processes such as polishing – an action that could change or damage the properties of a material. The high-tech research uses techniques including transmission electron microscopy and a particle accelerator that fires ions used to determine materials’ atomic structure.

07 08

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

photo courtesy of Chief Chris Mickal, New Orleans Fire Department

Venerable Program Celebrates

SUCCESSFUL YEARS

Mike Wieder, assistant director and managing editor, Fire Protection Publications

IMPACT

Generations of firefighters worldwide have honed their skills using training materials developed at OSU. In fact, OSU’s Fire Protection Publications (FPP), an auxiliary enterprise of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, is the world’s leading developer of fire service training materials. OSU is also home to the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA), the group that assures the validity and technical accuracy of the training materials. Both celebrated their 75th anniversary in 2008. “The OSU orange and black is well known at the many fire service conferences we attend around the country each year,” says Chris Neal, Fire Protection Publications director and leader of the group’s editorial and production functions. “With our wide range of fire service training programs and the materials we produce, it’s hard to run across a firefighter anywhere in the country who hasn’t benefited in some way from OSU’s commitment to firefighter education and training.” The program began in July 1933 when a group of Oklahoma fire service leaders met in the Stillwater Central Fire Station to explore better ways to deliver firefighter training and document training procedures. The group created 10 basic courses and laid out a plan to develop written training materials. OSU would house both the publications and training programs. Impressed by this effort, the Western Actuarial Bureau — an insurance industry trade group — sponsored a meeting in Kansas City in 1934 to encourage other states to adopt the Oklahoma model. The attendees formed an organization called the Fire Service Training Association to develop training materials for FPP to publish and distribute. The organization grew rapidly and changed its name to the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA) in 1955 when the first Canadian members began to participate. The organizations have evolved from a minor back room publishing office with one editor and a shared secretary to a full-scale modern publishing operation with more than 60 employees. IFSTA/FPP is the world’s largest producer of fire fighting training materials. In addition to textbooks, they also develop video, electronic and curriculum materials to support the manuals.

07 08

photo / Gary Lawson

Scholarship recipients don’t always garner internships with the corporate sponsor, but being a part of a company’s scholarship program does offer an advantage. Garmin considers its scholars first when filling paid intern positions, Farr says. “The recruitment process is the same for scholarship recipients and others, but we certainly give priority to Garmin Scholars.” Chesapeake Energy also gives interview preference to its scholars when filling internships. The Oklahoma-based company sponsors two scholarship programs at OSU, the Chesapeake Energy Engineering Scholars program for mechanical or chemical engineering students and the Chesapeake Mechanical Engineering Technology Scholarship program for students in mechanical engineering technology. “With approximately 50 percent of the current workforce approaching retirement age, education has become key to the success and the future of our nation’s energy industry,” says Patricia Otero, community relations specialist for Chesapeake Energy. “Since graduates from Oklahoma State University are Company sponsored scholarships can be a lifeline for students who need help reaching their educational goals. exceptional students, it is our responsibility as a corpoBut that’s just the initial investment. Corporate scholar- rate citizen to offer those individuals our support. It then ship programs pay long-term dividends for the College of becomes our hope that they will want to begin or build Architecture, Engineering and Technology, its students upon their professional careers with us.” Although the recruitment process is the same for all and the supporting companies. Enrollment shortfalls in science, technology, engineering applicants, internships often do lead to employment. “We and mathematics make the business of recruiting and retain- look to our intern population first when hiring new graduing top engineering students increasingly more competitive. ates,” says Elizabeth Costello, coordinator of Devon Energy’s In addition to being a testament to the strength of CEAT’s campus recruitment and scholarship program. “For 2009, 80 percent of our new graduates were once programs, corporate scholarship programs give the college interns with Devon.” a recruitment advantage. The professional contacts that interns make at Lockheed The shortage of engineering and technology students also “makes it necessary for all technology-based companies Martin might give them an edge, and hiring interns can be to invest in future talent through scholarship programs,” an advantage for the company as well, Watts says. “Statistics show that retention improves significantly for says Megan Watts, CEAT alumna and recruitment engineer for Lockheed Martin, sponsor of the Lockheed Martin those who accept a full-time position after receiving monetary support and/or an internship from the company. This Aeronautics Scholars at OSU. “OSU has a proven and respected technology program with benefits the new employee and the company,” she says. “The OSU students we hire enter the company with clear particular emphasis in engineering disciplines important to our company,” Watts says. “Scholarship programs build an expectations and understand the role for which they’ve been hired. As such, their transition is seamless.” effective talent pipeline for future leadership positions.” With many professionals approaching retirement age, the Another corporate sponsor, Garmin International, offers scholarships worth $5,000 per year for eight OSU students energy companies such as Chesapeake face a widespread in electrical and computer engineering. Gretchen Farr, need for young professionals. Educating engineers to step college relations recruiter for Garmin International’s schol- into these positions relies on the collaboration between arship program, says the company, which currently offers academe and industry. Corporate scholarship programs scholarships at eight universities, selects schools based on provide the means to tap into that talent. “Devon Energy sees a direct correlation between assisting the company’s strong relationship with these universities students with their education and assisting us in building and the quality of the education they provide. “We understand the long-term importance of building and strengthening our relationships with the key departinterest in the fields of electrical and computer engineer- ments we recruit from,” Costello says. “Being based in Oklahoma, we’ve worked hard to build ing,” she says. “We believe the Garmin Scholarship program is a way to attract top students to these fields, support strong ties to the universities. We are committed to their educational experience while undergraduates, and continuing to develop and build new relationships with graduate these stellar scholars as the next generation of OSU going forward.” engineering leaders.” Eileen Mustain

The Recruitment Advantage

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

“I figured a chemical engineer was someone who wore a lab coat. The Chesapeake scholarship changed my whole mindset.”

— Terrell Grayson

Fueling Intellectual Engines All Terrell Grayson knew was that he wanted to work in energy. Fossil fuels. Nuclear. Anything.

photo / Gary Lawson

Four of the programs at OSU fund scholarships in everything from business to geology, Otero says. The corporation will add new scholarships in 2009 for students of management information systems, geosciences and mechanical engineering technology. Chesapeake’s support of OSU stretches back to 2003, when the company first created its scholarship programs in Stillwater. Its donations to OSU total more than $1 million. If Grayson is any indication, Chesapeake’s donations to universities across the nation are paying off for students as well as industry. In recognition of that, Otero adds that Chesapeake plans to expand its scholars program in the future. “During the next few years, we will place greater emphasis on scholar recruitment and would like to provide students with greater exposure to our company and industry,” she says. Matt Elliott

IMPACT

He came to OSU in 2006 to be a chemical engineer, following his sister who turned a mechanical engineering degree into a job with Toyota. The College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology’s prestigious CEAT Scholars Program accepted Grayson when he was a sophomore. But he didn’t learn about the energy industry’s many uses for chemical engineers until he became a Chesapeake Scholar — a recipient of a scholarship funded by the nation’s largest producer of natural gas, Chesapeake Energy Corp. “When I first started at OSU, I was looking at a chemical engineering degree. It just sounded cool,” he says. “I figured a chemical engineer was someone who wore a lab coat. The Chesapeake scholarship changed my whole mindset.” Grayson says the scholarship did that through a paid internship last summer that paired him with a mentor in the corporation to help him learn the ropes. He has a second internship with the corporation this summer. The experience has led him to consider working in the field once he graduates. The OSU scholarships are part of more than 50 funded nationwide by Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake. They are part of a broad effort by the company to give students from Chesapeake’s operating areas access to a college education that will benefit the company and industry overall, says Patricia Otero, a Chesapeake community relations specialist. “We must be engaged in building and developing our future workforce,” says Teresa Rose, Chesapeake’s community relations director. “One of the ways we do that is by providing scholarship support. By placing our focus on education that is directly tied to our industry, we are fueling our country’s intellectual engines.”

07 08

student digest research, teaching, outreach

Leadership That Makes a Difference

alumni success noteworthy

photos / Gary Lawson

With a commitment to OSU that spans decades, alumnus Wayne Allen has helped

IMPACT

shape his alma mater through his generosity and tireless leadership. Allen, who holds a bachelors’ degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in industrial engineering and management, provides leadership in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology as well as the OSU Foundation, including five years as chair of the university’s first major comprehensive campaign that resulted in more than $225 million for OSU programs. He is a CEAT Hall of Fame and OSU Alumni Association Hall of Fame inductee and a recipient of OSU’s highest humanitarian honor, the Henry G. Bennett Distinguished Service Award. Awarding him its highest honor, the state inducted the retired CEO of the Phillips Petroleum Company into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. All of his many contributions to OSU, including his leadership in expanding corporate sponsorships, are impressive, but none is more important to CEAT students than the scholarship opportunities he’s created. Allen first established the Phillips Petroleum Engineering Scholars initiative, a corporate and academic partnership aimed at accelerating the intellectual and professional development of young people who pursue careers in engineering. The program was a national model for partnerships between business and academe.

“I believe the best way to serve OSU is by funding programs that enrich the entire student experience,” says Allen, who also started the W.W. Allen Engineering Scholars program — a program he recently expanded to include professional mentoring and study abroad experiences. The program’s primary focus is to attract and recruit the nation’s best high school students to engineering based on their intellectual success and leadership development and their potential to make significant contributions to their professions. Students selected as Allen Scholars receive generous scholarships throughout their undergraduate study and national and international travel, leadership and professional development opportunities as well as a chance to pursue a one-year, post-graduate study abroad at the University of Cambridge in the UK. “Too few engineers are graduated each year,” Allen says. “I believe our programs will encourage students to consider engineering as a career and might even open doors that were previously closed to higher education.”

07 08

“I believe the best way to serve OSU is by funding programs that enrich the entire student experience.”

— Wayne Allen

Alumnus Wayne Allen established a scholarship program in 2004 that’s tailor-made to produce engineering leaders. Three years later, Allen enlarged the program adding $25,000 for a year of graduate study at Cambridge and making the WW. Allen Scholars Program the premier undergraduate engineering scholarship and enrichment program in the nation.

photo / Gary Lawson

W.W. Allen Scholars Ward Kable, left, and Matt Grant with Boys and Girls Club Scholar Ashton Santine.

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

The Deciding Factor

Mechanical engineering senior Ward Kable knew what he wanted out of a university:

an engineering degree and a big scholarship to get him there. As a high school senior, he narrowed his search to the University of Arkansas and OSU. Neither is too far from his hometown of Wichita Falls, Texas, and both are homes to stellar engineering schools. Only one school had the scholarship he wanted. And for Kable, who came to OSU in 2004, that was the deciding factor. After two years as a College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology Scholar, he was invited to join the W.W. Allen Scholars Program established in 2004 by alumnus and former Phillips Petroleum Co. CEO Wayne Allen. The scholarship is tailor-made to produce leadership-ready engineers who, steeped in the scholarship’s emphases on global perspectives

and engineering excellence, go on to become giants in their disciplines. Allen’s contribution doesn’t end with funding. He serves as a mentor to the W.W. Allen Scholars sharing his career experiences at Phillips, which stretched from 1961 when he began as an engineer to his retirement in 1999 after serving as CEO for five years. The students meet with him once a semester, and Allen Scholar Matt Grant says they revel in his stories of international travel and weathering the vicissitudes of the oil business. The students also take trips to Japan and Washington, D.C., where they get insider-level tours of manufacturers, engineering sites and businesses. In November 2007, Allen reinvigorated the program with a fresh donation making it what Karl Reid, dean of CEAT, calls the premier undergraduate engineering scholarship and enrichment program in the nation. Allen

Scholars have the opportunity to apply for a the University of Cambridge. She finished and For him, too, the interaction with Allen one-year study abroad towards a master’s degree moved on to MIT, where she is researching new makes the program special, Grant says. at the University of Cambridge. ways to cut down on carbon dioxide in coal “You get to know him as an individual. That’s “Mr. Allen’s generosity and passion for enrich- power plant emissions. what’s great about this program. It’s more than ing the educational experience of our engineerHildebrand says her W.W. Allen Scholarship just a check written to you. When you sit down ing students has made and will continue to sparked her interest in helping the environment. and think about the opportunities that the make an incredible difference in our ability to She also cites the program for her interaction Allen Scholars Program is giving us students, with Allen. it really is above and beyond what you think recruit outstanding students,” Reid says. “Because of the unique scholars programs, in “The W.W. Allen program definitely gave me of as a prestigious scholarship.” the CEAT, more than forty percent of the new a broader sense of what I, as an engineer, am Matt Elliott freshmen entering each year rank in the top capable of accomplishing,” Hildebrand says. four percent of students in the nation.” Matt Grant, a sophomore chemical engineerBy the time Allen expanded the program, it ing and pre-med double major, is new to the had already helped launch OSU students such as W.W. Allen program but has already seen its Ashleigh Hildebrand. After graduation in 2005, benefits. He first learned of it during his second the Allen Scholar received at Gates-Cambridge semester at OSU. The program accepted him at Fellowship to work on her master’s degree at the beginning of his sophomore year.

A Selfless Gift “Wayne Allen has two great passions — an engineering education that includes study abroad and the Boys and Girls Club of America,” says Dean Karl Reid. “He found a

way to combine his support for the club and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology.” In 2006, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Boys and Girls Club of America, Allen established the W.W. Allen Boys and Girls Club of America Engineering Scholarship Fund. The scholarships provide financial and enrichment opportunities for qualified club members who are pursuing an engineering degree at OSU.

The club’s regional office in Dallas put Nagel in touch with Dean Reid, and the promoion of the Allen scholarship has been “a big part of my life ever since,” Nagel says. Nagel committed five years to provide the continuity needed to establish the program. He promotes the scholarship to graduating high school seniors who have an interest in engineering and science and reviews the application process trying to screen for those likely to be successful in the program. Allen and Reid select the recipients from those identified by Nagel. “The program is designed and funded to provide at least one student each year a full ride scholarship for five years in a degreed engineering program,” he says. “If the winning candidate qualifies for other financial aid, we may take part of the funding and give to someone else.” Nagel is committed to the program for the long term. “This is Wayne Allen’s way to give back to an organization that has set many young people on the right path. This is a selfless gift on his part.”

IMPACT

Oklahoma County Boys and Girls Club volunteer and scholar Rick Nagel

Allen, who has served on the organization’s national board of governors, says he learned the importance of scholarship and service when he was growing up in Fort Smith, Ark., as a member of the Boys and Girls Club. “I saw great value with the social and peer support I received through the Boys and Girls Club of America,” he says. “I truly believe it helped build my character.” Another “Boys and Girls Club kid from Fort Smith, Ark.,” Rick Nagel also credits club experience as an influential force in his life. A partner in Acorn Growth Companies in Oklahoma City, Nagel received a Phillips Petroleum scholarship especially for Boys and Girls Club members that helped him earn an engineering degree in environmental science from the University of Oklahoma. Like Allen, Nagel wanted to give back to the organization that helped him. He became an Oklahoma County Boys and Girls Club volunteer serving on the board of the Oklahoma City club and chairing the alliance of clubs in Oklahoma. When he heard about Allen’s Boys and Girls Club scholarship at OSU, Nagel saw another way to lend support to the organization dedicated to helping young people reach their potential. “The scholarship is for Texas and Oklahoma students who have had a meaningful Boys and Girls Club experience, but there was no effective means to market the scholarship in Oklahoma,” Nagel says. “Because the organization is driven by volunteers who come and go, there was no one to get out the word about it.”

07 08

Eileen Mustain

Photo / phil shockley

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

An Education and More

Paula Rogge and Manny Cortez knew they wanted to be engineers before arriving at OSU. She, passionate about her high

school physics class, wanted to figure out how mechanical things work. He, inspired by his electrical-engineer father and an early love of cars, developed an interest in the oil and gas industry. Motivated and talented, Cortez and Rogge are realizing their ambitions in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology with the help of ConocoPhillips SPIRIT scholarships. Alumnus Wayne Allen created the ConocoPhillips SPIRIT Scholars program to build upon another Allen initiative, the Phillips Petroleum Engineering Scholars program. The SPIRIT program extends scholarships to business as well as engineering students and continues to broaden the earlier program’s professional development component with enrichment activities, mentoring and internship opportunities.

Available to sophomores, juniors and seniors, the SPIRIT scholarship awards $5,000 annually for recipients, but the benefits go well beyond the financial, says Rogge, mechanical engineering senior and SPIRIT Scholar for the last two years. “The financial assistance has allowed me to continue my education without taking out student loans,” she says. “But being part of the program has also improved my confidence level in a professional setting.” The program pairs students with ConocoPhillips employees who serve as mentors and the students’ point of contact with the company. Mentors accompany students to social events and other enrichment activities such as last year’s trip to the ConocoPhillips facility in Houston. Rogge says these networking opportunities with other students as well as working professionals taught her confidencebuilding communication skills.

The SPIRIT scholarship also gives students the opportunity to interview for internships and employment with ConocoPhillips. The company does not require scholars to intern with it, but those who do become eligible for a scholarship upgrade of $1,000. Cortez interned with ConocoPhillips last summer as a project engineer in ConocoPhillips’ Ponca City pipeline company. “It was an awesome experience,” he says. “They gave me a lot of responsibility right off the bat. I had several projects ranging from $200,000 up. I worked with an assigned mentor to complete the projects, and I helped him with his projects. It was very beneficial applying what I learn in school.” Rogge, who graduates in May, did not intern with ConocoPhillips, one of her two top choices, but she says being a SPIRIT scholar greatly improved her opportunities. Opting for the smaller town of Broken Arrow, Okla., she interned with her other choice, Zeeco, a designer and manu- “Being a part of the organization facturer of flares and and having the SPIRIT scholar label incinerators, where she has a certain level of prestige will work as a combus- associated with it. Other employers tion engineer and proj- look at that as being a high honor.” ect manager following — Paula Rogge graduation. ConocoPhillips is a great company to work for, Cortez says, but with graduation still a year away, he wants to continue exploring all future job opportunities. Whether or not its scholarship leads to employment with ConocoPhillips, the award carries with it a cachet that helps scholars achieve the internships and employment they desire, Rogge says. “Being a part of the organization and having the SPIRIT scholar label has a certain level of prestige associated with it. Other employers look at that as being a high honor.” Cortez agrees. “Receiving an award from a company like ConocoPhillips is a humbling experience. Such a prestigious award puts you in the top level with your peers.” Eileen Mustain

IMPACT

SPIRIT Scholar mentors, many of whom are OSU graduates, build professional relationships with students. Mentors discuss issues, answer questions and provide career guidance. Rogge’s mentor helped her understand how to balance work and life. “She was helpful. It’s nice to see what it’s like on the other side. She also helped me understand how course work helps in the workplace,” Rogge says. “Our mentors are young,” says Cortez, mechanical engineering junior and SPIRIT Scholar for the past year. “Being fairly new to the company they can tell you what you need to know that would have helped them had they known it when they entered the workplace.” Mentors also help with networking, and “Networking is a big thing,” Cortez says, noting that students often network with people they may work for in the future. “It’s not just the monetary but also the professional development opportunities. You can talk to ConocoPhillips employees and have a chance to get to know them personally.” Networking helps a student decide about internships and to establish a career path, Cortez says. “If company employees already know you as a good student, a good professional, you’ll have a better shot at moving up the career ladder. People in a company tend to go to those they know.” Honing leadership skills is another consequence of the ConocoPhillips SPIRIT Scholars program. While the scholarship does not require involvement in student and professional organizations, the program does ask students to demonstrate leadership abilities. Both Rogge and Cortez agree that companies generally value these activities in potential scholarship recipients and future employees. Rogge is president of the OSU chapter of the Society of Women Engineers and is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. She is an active member of the CEAT Student Council, as is Cortez. He also serves as coordinator for the CEAT Freshman Council and as president of the OSU chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and president of the Pi Tau Sigma, OSU’s mechanical engineering honor society. “Leadership experience is necessary to become successful in the business world,” Cortez says. “Especially if one aspires to the corporate management level as I do. Involvement in leadership positions is helping me build those skills I’ll need in the future.”

07 08

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

Last year OSU’s aerospace engineering program, the oldest and largest in the state,

Flying High by Matt Elliott

celebrated its 80th anniversary with the highest enrollment in its history. Unique in its close cooperation with mechanical engineering, the aerospace program attracts students with its opportunities for experiential learning and student success. From their introductory class as freshmen to their senior capstone class, OSU’s aerospace engineering students learn firsthand how to take to the skies.

On The Threshold Guided by Professor Andy Arena, OSU aerospace engineering students collaborated during the summer with physics students to launch a cosmic radiation detector they built under the direction of physics professors Eric Benton and Eduardo Yukihara. Arena and his students rigged a helium-filled balloon 12 feet in diameter to carry the detector. It flew more than two hours and reached the edge of outer space at an altitude of 104,000 feet. A NASA EPSCoR (Experimental Project to Stimulate Competitive Research) grant funded the project to promote student interest in science and engineering through experiments with highaltitude balloons. In addition, NASA will use the sensor’s recorded radiation levels at various altitudes to help develop new radiation sensors for use in space. To publicize the work, Arena and his students equipped the balloon with a camera that recorded remarkable photographs such as this view of Oklahoma from 104,000 feet. Arena posted the photos on flickr.com. The ensuing internet buzz earned Arena an interview on Shutterbug Magazine’s radio show.

IMPACT

07 08

OSU aerospace engineering teams took first and third place in the 2008 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Design/ Build/Fly Competition and first and third place in 2001. In 2004, OSU teams became the first from the same university to win both top spots. OSU continued to hold first and second place for an unprecedented three years in a row.

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

Photo / phil shockley

Above the competition

“That’s the idea,” Arena says. “I’m not out there cracking a whip saying, tion last April of the American Institute of ‘You’ve got to get this done.’ I walk a fine line Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Design/Build/Fly between letting them fail and letting them Competition. OSU’s Black and Orange teams learn from their mistakes,” he says. “You could placed first and third respectively, marking make a really interesting reality show on aero the fifth time since 2001 both Stillwater teams capstone because of the kind of stuff that goes on at night out there, everything from people placed in the top three. Despite that record, Arena says there’s no being totally stressed out to people blowing OSU swagger, no chip on anyone’s shoulder, off steam.” The program’s success is evident when no showboating, no runway dancing. That’s because each year a new crop of seniors looks former students who’ve gone into industry at their capstone course as a springboard to careers tell him how much they appreciated the capstone course. And it’s not for the reasons graduate school or industry. Students from all over the world partici- one might think. “It’s never the technical stuff,” says Arena, pate in the competition. They spend at least a semester designing and building unmanned whose students have participated in the compeairplanes from scratch, following rules set tition since 1995. “It’s always related to projects, deadlines, competition and trying to work on forth by the AIAA. “It takes a lot out of you, but it’s a lot of fun,” a team with other people.” says Arena. “We’ve always had students who At the controls step up and really work hard and put in extra Andy Arena was born with jet fuel in effort. They’re willing to work at the Design his blood. and Manufacturing Lab day and night.” The OSU aerospace engineering professor Last year’s teams were chock-full of talent, grew up in Tucson, Ariz., on the edge of Davisfrom the Black Team’s chief engineer, Paul Egan, Monthan Air Force Base. and his teammates, to the Orange Team and “My mom always joked, ‘Every day you’d hear chief engineer Dustin Gamble. Both succeeded those jets taking off, and that jet fuel just got with unconventional and ultra-light designs that in your blood,” Arena says. “I can’t say when I set them far above the international competifirst developed that love, but I just remember tion’s 58 engineering powerhouses such as MIT it always being there.” and the Turkish Air Force Academy. He also grew up fascinated with World War Egan says it was a learning experience for II airplanes and tales of the air war over Europe. all involved, from working as a team to engiHis favorite fighter was the P-51 Mustang. His neering for unpredictable variables such as favorite bomber was the B-17 Flying Fortress. wind and weather.

Professor Andy Arena’s capstone aeronautics students continued their domina-

“Whenever an airplane flies over campus, I can’t help but look. I have to see what it is,” Arena says. When his eyesight forestalled the dream to become a U.S. Air Force pilot, he went into engineering, attending the University of Arizona and graduate school at Notre Dame. He came to OSU in 1993, where he has won numerous awards for research and teaching. But he prefers to tout the success of his students, rather than honors such as his 2007 Faculty Advisor of the Year award from the world’s largest technical aerospace society, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In 2008, Arena’s capstone students placed first and third in the AIAA’s Design/Build/Fly Competition, winning the event for the fifth time since 2001. During the summers of 2006 and 2007, Arena, an experienced pilot, advised students who set three world flight records with unmanned planes. Thomas Hays and Dustin Gamble’s Dragonfly broke the distance and endurance records. Also in 2007, students Gamble, Ryan Paul and Valentin Sanchez worked with California State University students on the Pterosoar that set a point-and-return record while powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

Photo / Gary Lawson

Last summer, Arena’s students collaborated with OSU physics professors Eric Benton and Eduardo Yukihara on a NASA EPSCoR (Experimental Project to Stimulate Competitive Research) grant to develop new radiation sensors for use in space. It’s all part of his goal to involve students in as much hands-on work as possible. In addition to Design/Build/Fly for seniors, taking taking the introductory aerospace engineering course get to design weather balloon-based satellites, replete with working sensors and a camera to study the upper reaches of the atmosphere. The students launch the balloons and track them with GPS locators after they fall to earth. “They’re right out of high school, and they’re making stuff that’s going into space,” says Arena. The School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering’s future looks bright, especially after last fall when it reported its largest ever freshman enrollment. His department put in a request with the OSU/A&M Regents to start a graduate program in aerospace. Arena also submitted a proposal to Oklahoma’s Economic Development Generating Excellence board to start an unmanned aircraft program at OSU in conjunction with its new University Multispectral Laboratories.

The professor’s drive is part of what places OSU’s aerospace program among the best in the world, says Karl Reid, dean of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. “He has done an incredible job building that program, building its reputation and stature,” Reid says. “If you look at aerospace programs around the country, they probably have not experienced the enrollment growth that our program has because they don’t have Andy Arena. He has just done an incredible job.”

Photo / phil shockley

“All programs have to have the theory that’s required by accreditation. But not everyone has Andy Arena’s commitment to giving students real hands-on experience from their freshman year all the way through their senior year.”

— Karl Reid, dean

IMPACT

Freshman students in Engineering 1111 work in teams to build a satellite and launch it 100,000 feet using a weather balloon. The teams build relay circuits to fire a camera, program a data logger, build pressure boards to take pressure and temperature data, and then track and recover the balloon and its payload.

07 08

Photo / Todd Johnson

Forage sorghum is one of a number of crops OSU is studying for its potential use as an Oklahoma-grown alternative-fuel crop.

The OSU Biofuels Team:

Awareness of the role research and development will play in the diversification

by Donald Stotts

tighten their budgets – with a notable exception, Oklahoma’s investment in biofuels, particularly cellulosic ethanol. “Oklahomans are expanding the possibility and viability of cellulosic ethanol. And it is critical that we continue our commitment to this visionary enterprise,” Henry says. Among those fully engaged in the “visionary enterprise” is the OSU Biofuels Team, which is examining the sustainable bioenergy potential of lignocellulosic feedstocks from straw and woody materials to sorghum, switchgrass and many other natural grasses. These energy crops offer prime benefits, says Ray Huhnke, biosystems and agricultural engineering professor and director of the OSU Biobased Products and Energy Center. “They minimize negative effects to the world’s food and fiber needs; demand relatively low inputs such as fertilizer, which result in a higher energy return; and are naturally adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions,” he says. OSU’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources created the center last year to meet ever-increasing demands for the university’s biofuels expertise. The team is a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional consortium of

Working toward of Oklahoma’s future energy portfolio was in tomorrow’s full evidence during Gov. Brad Henry’s 2009 of the State address, wherein he spoke prosperity today State about the need for government agencies to

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

scientists and engineers within the division; the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology; the University of Oklahoma; and Brigham Young University. The center coordinates and provides leadership for OSU’s bioenergy programs and serves as liaison with industry. It also streamlines efforts to provide solutions to the state’s bioenergy issues by identifying priorities, developing grants and facilitating agreements with state agencies, tribal governments and private industry. Key areas involve identifying and developing biomass feedstock sources; managing harvest logistics; handling and transporting feedstock and processed products; developing efficient biomass conversion processes; increasing efficiency in biobased fuels, materials and products; providing marketing and contractual assistance; and determining the economic, social and environmental effects. Recent highlights include the research of Carol Jones, biosystems and agricultural engineering assistant professor whose findings show square bales work better in the harvest, storage and transportation of lignocellulosic biofeedstock. Jones is principal investigator in modeling the logistics chain for switchgrass and in developing a storage and transport system adaptable to multiple crops and climate conditions. “A biobased economy must be both doable and cost-effective if it is to provide value to agricultural producers, manufacturers and consumers,” she says.

Others on the team are creating renewable energy from high-yield, high-quality plants in economically viable and environmentally sound ways. “It’s a simple concept, but the science needed to realize the goal can be quite involved,” says Yanqi Wu, of the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, whose biofuels research got a boost in November with new funding from the Oklahoma Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.

Ray Huhnke, biosystems and agricultural engineering professor, directs the OSU Biobased Products and Energy Center that coordinates and provides leadership for OSU’s bioenergy programs.

EPSCoR is on tap to receive $20 million from the National Science Foundation and Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education at a rate of $4 million annually, renewable for the next five years. The EPSCoR funding supports a collaborative project led by Huhnke; Lance Lobban, director of the University of Oklahoma’s School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering; and Kirankumar Mysore, a professor at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. “Dr. Wu, in collaboration with Drs. Ranmanjulu Sunkar and Ramamurthy Mahalingam of OSU’s biochemistry and molecular biology department, will study switchgrass DNA and work with scientists across the university community to produce improved varieties of plants and to enhance the yield and quality of switchgrass,” Huhnke says.

“Think of the EPSCoR funding as growing Oklahoma’s intellectual capacity in the field of plant development and conversion technologies,” he says. “This will attract industry to the state and solidify Oklahoma’s status as a leader in the use of state resources to develop liquid fuels and other forms of energy.” Lauding OSU for its “leadership and expertise in every aspect of biofuels research and development,” Oklahoma Secretary of Energy Robert Wegener says, “There is no substitute for diversification of our energy portfolio. Energy infrastructure is the backbone of our economy, accounting for one-seventh of our total tax dollars. “Research and development of new technologies that increase efficiency or create new energy sources represent the passport to our energy future,” he says, noting this research positions OSU to take a lead role in helping the U.S. become a viable biobased economy.

Shaping Oklahoma’s Renewable Energy Future Traditional economics suggest that bigger is better, but this may not be the case for all forms of renewable energy. OSU’s vision for the future intersection of energy and agriculture involves a decentralized energy production system. The system would consist of dispersed energy generation plants, potentially using a different technology and/or biomass feedstock combination appropriate to specific regions of states and the nation. A decentralized system offers numerous benefits:

This involves matching a region to the appropriate resources and generating local solutions for the fulfillment of energy needs.

Reduced Feedstock Supply Risk

Photo / Todd Johnson

Diversification of feedstocks leads to improved logistics and reduced risks associated with fueling huge energy production systems, particularly important for the low-density feedstocks with potential use in agriculturebased energy production.

Simplified Byproduct Utilization

Many byproducts associated with renewable energy production will be available for beneficial, cost-effective local uses in a decentralized system.

A decentralized system reduces transportation costs threefold, in the feedstock supply chain, distribution of the final product and in the dispersal of byproducts and/or waste products.

Expanded Rural Economic Development

A decentralized energy production system helps to disperse monetary gains, particularly into local economies. If agriculture is to play a significant role in the future of renewable energy, there must be a significant benefit to America’s agribusiness operators and rural communities.

Lessened Vulnerability to Sabotage

Dependence on a small number of energy sources makes the nation’s energy supply vulnerable to potential attacks. Diversification reduces that risk.

Reduced Burden on Local Utilities

As new industries set up in local communities, the demand on utilities can be significant. Processing may require large water supplies as well as increased wastewater treatment capacity. A decentralized system provides a better means to distribute the burden and reduce the effect on local municipalities.

IMPACT

Optimum Technology Selection

Reduced Transportation Costs

07 08

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

The Helmerich Advanced Technology Research Center’s design, which not only integrates seamlessly with other structures, features works of art and an innovative foundation to eliminate imperceptible movements caused by equipment within the facility and by passing cars and trucks that can wreak havoc with sensitive imaging equipment. Two floors hold secure labs, including clean rooms for the fabrication of micro and nano devices; an imaging suite housing equipment such as scanning electron microscopes and atomic force microscopes so vital to world-class research in advanced materials; special environmental chambers to support work in bio- and biomedical technologies, office space and seminar rooms. Its heart is a massive atrium over which hangs a drifting mobile, framed by floor-to-ceiling pillars and backlit by large windows facing a water sculpture and downtown Tulsa. Due to the center’s strong public mission, its high-ceilinged lobby and state-of-the-art seminar rooms have already been the venue for a number of public functions and technical conferences.

Dedicated in November 2007, the Helmerich Helmerich ATRC Advanced Technology Research Center at Bridges the Gap OSU-Tulsa bears the name of one of the state’s

most prominent energy industry executives, in part because of Walter Helmerich’s lifelong friendship with legendary Aggie basketball coach Henry Iba. But the primary reason Walter and Peggy Helmerich helped fund the center is to make a difference in Oklahoma. “I know it will help Tulsa just like North Carolina’s Research Triangle, where many of the discoveries in their labs result in small businesses in the area,” says Hans Helmerich, the couple’s son and president of Tulsa-based Helmerich & Payne Inc. “It’s just such a significant deal for a state that has one of these.” Industry and university officials agree the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology’s 123,000-square-foot new facility, which will focus on advanced materials research related to energy, aerospace, information and medicine, imaging and bioengineering, will shape Tulsa and the state.

Few are as excited about the Helmerich ATRC as Michael Carolina, executive director of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. OCAST, which funds numerous projects by OSU faculty, is the state’s agency for technology-based economic development. The center collaborates with the private sector and higher education to fund innovative research projects with huge economic potential for the state. “We’re very excited about this world-class facility that will help advance our state in science and technology,” Carolina says. “It’s going to be a tremendous asset for our state.” CEAT alumnus Cal Vogt says the center would’ve helped his businesses when he first entered industry in 1968. During his career, the electrical engineer bought and started several Tulsa companies, including one that developed a collection box for parking fees that dominated its market for a generation.

“An opportunity developed in one of my companies to introduce an electronic product to the line of entirely mechanical products,” Vogt says, “but we didn’t have staff with the proper background to pursue it. We used part-time consultants, some not well qualified, and it was slow in coming. The ability to partner with staff in a place like the Helmerich ATRC would have been a big help.” The center’s strategic plan calls for an additional 20 faculty members within five years and includes several endowed chairs in advanced materials related to the historic “fabric” of Tulsa — energy, aerospace and information technologies — and in the rapidly growing biotechnology and biomedical areas. Included in the facility are offices for 25 professors and 100 graduate students or visiting scientists as well as a host of labs equipped for interdisciplinary work. Matt Elliott

IMPACT

Karl Reid, dean, points to the center’s projected annual payroll of up to $10 million when fully staffed and to its emphasis on developing new products forged in a partnership between commercial and academic interests. Partial funding for the center comes from $30 million in Tulsa County tax dollars (VISION 2025) and $13 million from a state bond issue. The project’s total funding is a mix of public and private money and underscores the importance of a strong partnership between industry and academia, Reid says. That partnership will require faculty and engineers of a rare caliber, says Rudy Herrmann, retired CEO of Dover Resources, because industry often requires a quicker turnaround on ideas than that of academia. That can only mean good things for OSU and its students. “It creates all kinds of opportunities for students, both undergraduate and graduate,” Herrmann says. “I think it becomes a potentially very significant boost for the university. To be developing technologies that are highly relevant to the constituents of OSU is right in the sweet spot of a land-grant university’s mission.”

07 08

by Adam Huffer

Digital devices capable of transmitting in one second enough data to fill an encyclopedia set and medical

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

imaging more revealing and safer than X-rays are some of the innovations that may become possible due to Daniel Grischkowsky’s contributions to the science of light. The world will need a few years to appreciate his impact, but the scientific community already has ranked Grischkowsky, OSU Regents Professor and Bellmon Professor of optoelectronics, among the most influential optical engineers and scientists of the 20th century. A paper by Grischkowsky is one of the Journal of the Optical Society of America’s top 50 articles most cited by other academicians, scientists, engineers and researchers. Based on a tally of the citation index of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science, the society compiled and reprinted the articles online in celebration of 90 years of publishing peer-reviewed, scientific journals. Cited nearly 400 times since its 1990 publication, “Far-Infrared Time-Domain Spectroscopy with TeraHz Beams of Dielectrics and Semiconductors” documents a study on electromagnetic waves at terahertz frequencies by Grischkowsky and his post-doctoral colleagues at IBM. The groundbreaking project, an analysis of the interaction between terahertz radiation and materials designed to conduct as well as insulate against electromagnetic waves, introduced techniques that became the basis for terahertz time-domain spectrometers in use worldwide today. It was also a preview of Grischkowsky’s work at OSU after leaving IBM in 1993. “We use short-pulse lasers as drivers in electrical circuits and can get an electronic response 10 times faster than what is capable with any other techniques,” Grischkowsky says, describing the work of his Ultrafast Terahertz Research Group at OSU. “This lets us generate a new class of beams that are not light or radar beams, though they’re probably more like radar than light, in an altogether different frequency, or wavelength. We’re looking at the world in a different color than what most people have ever looked at it,” he says. The group’s efforts to demonstrate the sensitivity and effectiveness of terahertz time-domain spectroscopy have involved dozens of experiments and led to more than 130 journal publications with more than 6,000 citations.

Never-before-seen places the group has explored using terahertz radiation include the far-infrared adsorption spectrum of a flame, part of an unprecedented study that had not been possible with existing measurement techniques. “We were interested in what molecules could be seen in our frequency range, and the idea was to try to find radicals and unstable molecular entities and define these products of combustion,” Grischkowsky says. “Our spectrum was dominated by water vapor, and we could see, for the first time, the line strengths and line widths of water vapor at temperatures above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.” The group’s hybrid technique may affect areas from medicine, health, defense and homeland security to communications. Engineers and scientists are exploring the use of terahertz radiation in medical imaging due to its propagation characteristics, including line of sight travel and the ability to penetrate tissue, and the fact that unlike X-rays it does not damage DNA or cells. Its ability to penetrate clothing, wood, cardboard, plastics, masonry and ceramics suggests that terahertz radiation also can support package inspection and tracking, security screening and detection of concealed weapons. It is also hypersensitive to explosive, biological and chemical agents. Combining lasers and microchips they custom design and fabricate in their laboratory’s clean room in OSU’s Advanced Technology Research Center, Grischkowsky with faculty members Alan Cheville and Weili Zhang and their students in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering have developed some of the world’s fastest performing optoelectronics for many research applications. Working with IBM researchers, they demonstrated the possibility of transmitting information at data rates approaching one terabit per second, a factor of 200 times faster than today’s high performance fiber optics. And as part of radar ranging studies for the military, the group verified how terahertz radiation can be used to determine enemy warplane radar signatures precisely using miniature, scale-sized models instead of the actual aircraft. “We’re trying to deliver the equivalent of a new telescope or a new microscope with capabilities that are better than other approaches for a whole class of problems,” he says. “Our work in terahertz science and photonics is about trying to understand the technology, and once we do that, it will lead to fruits of application.”

IMPACT

07 08

While maintaining a productive, superlative research program at OSU, Regents Professor and Bellmon Professor of optoelectronics Daniel Grischkowsky has frequently addressed international conferences and appeared as a guest of honor at the dedications of new terahertz research facilities, including the W.M. Keck Laboratory at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In April 2008, Grischkowsky received an honorary professorship from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, where he travels once a year to help advance the research on terahertz waves. Three professional societies, American Physical Society, Optical Society of America, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, have elected Grischkowsky Fellow.

photo / Gary Lawson

CEAT Bestows Highest Honor The College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology established the Lohmann Medal award in 1991 in honor of Melvin R. “Pete” Lohmann who served at OSU for 36 years. As dean from 1955 to 1977, he led the college to national prominence while providing leadership in the movement to develop the professional school concept in engineering education. Largely because of his service as president of the Engineers Council for Professional Development and the American Society for Engineering Education, Lohmann became a national advocate for the professional school model for engineering education, a model with many characteristics of law and medical schools. The engineering programs at OSU today include many elements of the model Lohmann espoused.

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

Leslie A. Priebe

During a 30-year career, including time at Texas Instruments, the 2007 Lohmann Medal recipient Leslie A. Priebe made fundamental contributions to some of the most significant innovations in electronic defense systems by the world’s leading developers of defense technologies. However, due to classification, the extent of Priebe’s engineering contributions to the security of free nations and the fighting men and women who defend them will likely remain unknown. That includes the details of almost 20 years of Priebe’s work, nearly half of his career, dating from the end of his service in the U.S. Marine Corps to his days at RCA helping with ocean range testing of ballistic missile technologies. As a systems engineer at Texas Instruments and then Raytheon responsible for the performance modeling, system design and analysis for the High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile, or HARM, antennae and seeker, Priebe revolutionized the direction-finding performance of missiles used by aircraft to destroy various early warning radar systems. A robotic fabrication and test facility he conceived for the project, combined with rapid test methods for HARM systems and the digital signal processing methods he invented, saved millions of dollars in equipment costs and reduced test time from 24 hours to less than one. Priebe directed development of an electronic combat and reconnaissance version of the German tornado aircraft for European NATO partners England, Italy and Germany that resulted in the highest performance and most reliable tactical electronic support system in existence.

He and his team advanced the state-of-the-art for complex microwave-module design and testing, helping vendors develop manufacturing capability and raising the bar for the entire industry. Priebe’s work influenced the advancement of systems engineering, architectures and critical technologies for RF transmitters and receivers for radar and electronic warfare systems. This included wide band receiver technologies, digital receivers and signal processing for missile and emitter location systems; world-class systems for suppression of enemy air defenses and airto-air combat missions; and the next generation multi-sensor, multi-spectral, multi-function systems that detect targets in clutter, noise and countermeasures. The most significant testament to his achievements is his ascent to senior principal engineering fellow at Raytheon, the company’s foremost rank for technical professionals, where he initially served as homeland security technical director of Raytheon Network Centric Systems. He is now technical adviser to Raytheon’s Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Task Force that is trying to develop systems, concepts of operations and technologies that materially improve the survival of troops in the field. Recognition of Priebe’s accomplishments include being named a TI Senior Technical Staff Member, TI Fellow, Raytheon Senior Fellow and Raytheon Senior Principal Engineering Fellow. He is a member of the National Defense Industries Association and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Priebe holds three patents for digital signal processing architectures and methods for multifunction systems and is the author of more than 35 publications. His earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at OSU before accepting a National Science Foundation traineeship to complete his master’s at the University of Texas, where studying the biomedical use of lasers, he designed automated data collection and analysis equipment for laser safety research. He also received a doctorate in biomedical engineering at the University of Texas, simultaneously serving as a faculty member and director of the biomedical program’s laser research laboratory and overseeing groundbreaking study on diagnostic and surgical applications.

Ron G. Morgan

Samir Lawrence

Samir “Sam” Lawrence, 2008 Lohmann Medal recipient, dreamed of becoming a structural engineer starting at the age of 6. Through the years, he pursued his passion, and today his peers know him as an extraordinary engineer who has made an indelible impact on structural engineering throughout the world. Lawrence was born in Baghdad, Iraq. He began his professional education in 1960 by earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering physics at Al Hikma University in Baghdad. Professor David McAlpine, while teaching for a short period in Baghdad, encouraged Lawrence to pursue graduate study in civil engineering at OSU.

Under the tutelage of Professor Kerry Havner, Lawrence earned a master’s degree in structural engineering from OSU in 1963. A graduate of the engineering management program at the California Institute of Technology, he completed the executive program in the Management of Change in Complex Organizations at the MIT Sloan School of Management. The professional career of Lawrence spans 45 years in structural engineering related to new construction, retrofits and modifications of existing structures. He began the first seven years of his professional career with Bechtel Power Corporation as a structural design leader. He has spent the majority of his professional career, beginning in 1974, at Parsons, a worldwide comprehensive infrastructures services corporation with over 11,000 employees. From engineer to structural design leader, Lawrence has made a real difference for Parsons. Throughout his career, he has been involved in many once-in-a-lifetime structural design opportunities, and they have taken him all over the world. Examples of his work as a project and supervising structural engineer include Prudhoe Bay facilities during the construction of the Alaska Pipeline; international airports in Abu Dhabi, Athens, Guam, Seattle and San Diego; the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo; Marriott hotels in China; an ethylene plant in Saudi Arabia; waste processing sites at Savannah River for the Department of Energy; and Disney Imagineering’s Wonders of Life pavilion at Epcot Center. Even with a demanding schedule, Lawrence maintains involvement in many professional organizations such as the Structural Engineers Association of Southern California and the American Society of Civil Engineers. A member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Lawrence has provided critical seismic evaluations of hundreds of buildings in Los Angeles, China, Mexico and Japan.

IMPACT

Ron G. Morgan, 2008 Lohmann Medal recipient, saved or made millions of dollars for his companies by bringing an unusual insight and expertise in process engineering and applications, process cost analysis and cost reduction. Morgan amassed numerous academic honors at OSU before earning a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering in 1975. The American Society of Agricultural Engineers named him the most outstanding junior in the nation in 1974. He was a two-time winner of ASAE’s national student paper contest as well as OSU’s top engineering graduate and one of OSU’s top 10 graduating seniors. He received a master’s degree in agricultural engineering with a process engineering emphasis from OSU in 1976 and a doctor’s degree in agricultural engineering with a food engineering emphasis from Texas A&M University in 1979. As a doctoral student, he co-authored a textbook titled Introduction to Thermodynamics and Unit Operations in Heat Transfer. He began his professional career with Ralston Purina Company in St. Louis in 1979. During his six years with Ralston, he quickly advanced from project leader to senior project leader to director of R&D information systems and later to product manager for Protein Technologies International. From 1985 to 1987, Morgan served as an associate professor of food engineering at Michigan State University, followed by a three-year period with KRAFT General Foods as head of process engineering research and development. He then worked as senior director of research and development with Kentucky Fried Chicken, a division of PepsiCo, from 1990 to 1993.

After that, he worked three years as a consulting engineer before joining Halliburton Energy Services in Duncan, Okla., as a senior scientific adviser for research. Since 2005, he has served as technology applications manager in cementing methods and materials. Author of more than 50 publications, Morgan is a registered professional engineer and has been actively involved in the Society for Engineering in Agricultural, Food and Biological Systems for over 20 years. He is also a member of the Institute for Food Technologists, the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Advisory Committee, the Industrial Advisory Committee for the OSU School of Chemical Engineering and the Society of Rheology. In 2004, OSU named his son, Matthew, as one of the top 10 graduating seniors, the same honor Morgan received when he graduated from OSU.

07 08

Hall of Fame Inducts Elliott, Damore

The College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology’s 2007 Hall of Fame inductees are two illustrious architects, Rand Elliott and Michael Damore. Both are 1973 graduates of OSU’s School of Architecture, and both have made an indelible impact on the profession of architecture and public appreciation of how superb architecture influences our lives.

Rand Elliott

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

During the past 32 years, Rand Elliott’s Oklahoma City firm, Elliott + Associates Architects, has received more than 200 international, national, regional and local awards for excellence in architectural, interior, lighting, furniture and graphic design. Elliott + Associates Architects has received 10 national American Institute of Architects honor awards, placing the firm as the eighth most recognized firm in the U.S. since the professional organization created the award in 1949. Among those Elliott credits for his success are OSU professors Wayne Bartels and Bill Schillig and his college classmate and longtime colleague Ben Yen as well as the contributions of the professionals who have been part of Elliott + Associates Architects over the last 30 years. The emerging tradition of contemporary architecture in the region encompassing New Mexico, Texas, Nebraska, Arkansas and Iowa has changed long-held sentiments that one can only find great architecture in places like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Elliott has been a driving force of the tradition in Oklahoma. The firm’s notable Oklahoma City creations include the 222 Residence, the Heritage Hall Athletic Facility, the Beacon of Hope Sculpture, the Will Rogers World Airport Snow Barn, Image Net and the renovated tunnel system connecting buildings downtown, a mix of artistry and utility hailed as “classic Elliott.” Some say the Chesapeake Boathouse, another of the firm’s projects, has all the hallmarks of an Elliott + Associates’ project — a passion for the way architecture responds to the landscape, a gift for materials and a disciplined attention to quality and functionality. He tries to make each project an “architectural portrait,” different from the last and faithfully capturing the client’s heart and soul. Elliott, who made his career choice at 8 years of age, says he feels like he has just begun his mature period.

Michael Damore

Michael Damore, felt compelled to draw buildings as far back as he can remember, has made a career of designing socially responsive buildings that help define some of the world’s most notable city skylines. He currently serves as executive managing director and president of architecture and interior design at A. Epstein and Sons International Inc., a multi-national firm headquartered in Chicago with offices in Los Angeles, San Antonio, New York, Warsaw, Bucharest and China. He joined Chicago’s Skidmore, Owings and Merrill after graduating from OSU where professors Chamberlain, Bass and his mentor Wayne Bartels influenced the young architect. After three years with the firm, Damore helped start SOM’s Houston office, which grew from two-person office to 200 engineers and architects in two years. Although Damore was involved in many award-winning projects, the Dallas skyline especially bears the imprint of his work with such projects as the Trammel Crowe Center Office Building, the First Interstate Bank Building and the Texas Commerce Tower. In 1987, Damore returned to SOM’s Chicago office where he spent the next four years managing projects in London, Orlando and Memphis and helped expand SOM’s international business in Europe and Asia. He became a partner in 1989. Since moving to Epstein in 1991, Damore has balanced the firm’s capabilities between commercial and industrial and has expanded the firm’s services, project types and geographic reach, fostered new forms of teamwork and extended the role of design excellence as a tool for business administration, collaboration and excellence. He has directed many award-winning projects such as the Harold Washington Library Center, the Wilmette Public Works Facility, the University of Illinois Engineering Hall Renovation, the McCormick Place Convention Center South Expansion, Northern Illinois University Convocation Center, Hyatt Center and Beijing Century City East. Damore says his most satisfying and challenging venture was launching Epstein|China, which opens doors for the U.S. architectural industry.

Humphreys, Hoffman Join Hall of Fame in 2008

The College of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology’s 2008 Hall of Fame inductees are two executive giants, Donald D. Humphreys and Ronald L. Hoffman. These two sons of Oklahoma graduated within a year of each other with degrees in different fields, but both have climbed to top leadership positions in Fortune 500 Companies. Both have influenced the success of these multi-million dollar corporations.

Donald D. Humphreys

Ronald L. Hoffman

Drawings / jon Dickey

IMPACT

Ronald L. Hoffman recently retired as CEO of Dover Donald Humphreys has been an “Exxon man” from the start of his professional life. With a bachelor’s degree Corporation, a worldwide, diversified manufacturer of in industrial engineering and management from OSU industrial products. Some have called the company a “jewel in 1971, military officer’s service and then an MBA in of America” because its continued success sets it apart from finance from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton others. Hoffman played a key role in that success. School in 1976, he was a prime candidate to develop and The Collinsville, Okla., native completed an associmature with Exxon. ate’s degree in aeronautical technology at OSU before His 32-year career with the corporation began in 1976 receiving a bachelor’s in engineering technology in 1970. as a systems analyst at Exxon Chemicals and progressed He also completed the Advanced Executive Management in 1978 to business services supervisor in Baton Rouge, Program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of La. In 1981 he became business services department head Management in 2001. He began his career at Allis Chalmers in 1970 and in in Baytown, Texas, and IT systems department head and 1972 moved to Tulsa Winch, where he rose to president, financial reporting manager in Houston in 1984. Humphreys’ next big step came in 1986 when the led a management buyout and managed a company company promoted him to senior financial advisor for turnaround. He served as president of Tulsa Winch from Exxon Corporation, headquartered in New York City. In 1985 to 2000. 1988, Exxon Company International named him finanHoffman joined Dover Corp. in 1996 when he and cial reporting manager, and he later became assistant the other owners sold Tulsa Winch to Dover Resources, general auditor. an operating subsidiary of Dover Corporation. From His position as upstream controller with Exxon 2000 to 2002, he served as executive vice president of Company USA took him back to Houston before his Dover Resources. four-year stint in Kuala Lumpur as finance director for Through mid-2000, Hoffman led Tulsa Winch’s acquithe Esso Companies in Malaysia. sition of the major U.S. industrial winch companies. In Corporate headquarters, now in Dallas, brought him January 2002, he became president and chief operating back in 1997 for positions as assistant treasurer, controller, officer of Dover Resources and, a year later, president and treasurer and management committee member. His involve- chief operating officer of the parent Dover Corporation. ment in the negotiation, planning and implementation of Hoffman served as CEO from 2005 to his retirement the merger of Exxon and Mobil is one of his significant late last year. professional and managerial achievements. Dover Corporation, which has 37 companies worldwide, He says that achieving a position on the ExxonMobil is a global producer of innovative equipment, specialty Management Committee representing the company’s top systems and value-added services for the industrial prodfour executives has been a true honor. ucts, fluid management, engineered systems and electronic Exxon Mobil has a long history of leadership in the technology markets. In Hoffman’s five-plus years as a Dover Corporation petroleum and petrochemical Industries, and Humphreys is a part of that history. executive, earnings per share grew at a compound annual His decision to attend OSU prepared him for his career rate of 23 percent. Sales increased from $4 billion to $7.5 with Exxon — a decision he made after being recruited billion, and the company’s market cap grew by more by fellow student and fraternity brother Burns Hargis, than $2 billion. now president of OSU.

07 08

PHOTO / Congressional Fire Services Institute

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

Honored for Nancy Trench, OSU assistant director at fire Trench’s ongoing dedication to the Fire Safety publications, has received national Solutions research projects has yielded successLeadership protection recognition for a lifetime of advancing fire and ful programs that promise to refocus the way life safety education. The Home Safety Council, the only national nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing home-related injuries, honored Trench with the Dr. Anne W. Phillips Award for Leadership in Fire Safety Education during the Congressional Fire Services Institute’s 20th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services dinner in April of last year. During her career, Trench has been instrumental in helping institutionalize injury prevention education as part of the core mission of the fire service. For more than 20 years, she has played a critical leadership role in founding and organizing the annual Oklahoma Fire and Life Safety Education Conferences and has forged valuable partnerships to develop the Fire Safety Solutions for People with Disabilities program.

the fire and life safety community approaches high-risk populations, including young children and people with disabilities. She leads several research projects, exploring topics ranging from effective methods and materials used to teach fire safety to young children to the factors that affect the safety of the nation’s firefighters. “Her dedication to advancing cutting-edge fire service issues, together with her ability to translate innovative research into community practice, makes her an indisputable choice for the leadership award,” says Meri-K Appy, president of the Home Safety Council. “Nancy has made a major contribution to fire safety in America, inspiring and preparing many in the fire and life safety field to do work of lasting significance.”

photo / Gary Lawson

Center Triples Its Work Ranji Vaidyanathan, director of OSU’s New Product Development Center, shakes his head at the numbers.

The company’s general manager, Mike Medlock, says the Gon-Topper helped his company branch out with new customers. In 2006, the work won the center the Oklahoma Journal Record’s Innovator of the Year Award. The center’s personnel, including its associate director, Dan Tilley, learn clients’ problems and look for OSU faculty members who can help solve them. Aided by applications engineers, as well as OSU interns in engineering, agricultural communications and business, the work can be a lifesaver for companies without the staff to effectively develop or promote products. And, many of the center’s clients, including a Mill Creek company with a product barring feral hogs from cattle feeders, are the main employers in their home towns. “It’s about giving the little guy out there in industry a better chance to be successful,” says Tilley, who’s also an agricultural economics professor at OSU. “And, it’s absolutely fascinating to see. It’s exciting to see the students who work with us get enthusiastic about helping people and helping these companies.”

The center works by meeting with clients referred by the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance. The businesses must be Oklahomabased and have existing products and facilities. The new products must have the potential to create at least 20 new jobs and annual revenues of $1 million. OSU’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, the Center for Innovation and Economic Development and the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources fund the center. The future should bring more growth. The NPDC’s annual budget amounts to about $600,000. Vaidyanathan says he’d like to grow it to $2.5 million. “Now we are only in Stillwater,” he says. “We want to use the facilities we have in the Helmerich Advanced Technology Research Center in Tulsa. We not only want to do the projects brought to us but we also want to develop products that the manufacturer has not even yet envisioned.” Matt Elliott

IMPACT

The center, of which he became director in August 2007, has gone from helping about 16 Oklahoma companies per year to 53 projects in 2007 alone. Add to that six patents, and the center’s impact on the state has ballooned. The growth is due in part to broadening the mission to include marketing and communications for the seven-year-old operation that helps companies develop, manufacture and sell their products. “You can’t just take the projects that come from the manufacturers alone and give it back to them later,” says Vaidyanathan, who came to OSU from Tucson, Ariz., where he was composite materials director at Advanced Ceramics Research. “You have to go way beyond. That’s what we started doing by looking at the manufacturers’ capabilities and needs.” The center’s success stories include that of Klutts Equipment’s Gon-Topper, a wireless remote-controlled machine that unloads railcars.

Pictured at the New Product Development Center are Doug Enns, OSU applications engineer; Ranji Vaidyanathan, NPDC director; Chris Tietz, owner of Kirtz Shutters, Stillwater, Okla.; Dan Tilley, NPDC associate director and professor of agricultural economics; and Jeremy Morton, mechanical and aerospace engineering assistant professor.

07 08

Stronger Than a Speeding Bullet

student digest research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

Last year, OSU professors used a lighterthan-air material known as “frozen smoke” to stop a rifle bullet traveling at 2,800 feet per second. Hongbing Lu, mechanical and aerospace engineering professor, says the substance, called X-aerogels, could revolutionize everything from body armor to insulation used in construction, automobiles and aircraft. Taking the water out of a silica gel and replacing it with a gas such as carbon dioxide creates the substance. It has pores the size of dust particles that make it lightweight and give it an insulating power rated better than that of the best polyurethane insulation. Invented by a science and technology professor at the University of Missouri, aerogels and their bizarre properties have been around since 1930, but until recently, they were too brittle for practical use. All that changed in 2002, when Lu’s research partner, Missouri chemistry professor Nicholas Leventis, invented a way to coat aerogels with a nanometer-thick polymer that hardens and makes them more flexible without adding significant weight. Working together, Leventis devised the formulas while Lu helped him make the material. Because of that collaboration, Lu has several aerogels projects, including development of the body armor plate that stopped the bullet during a study with Donna Branson, director of OSU’s Institute for Protective Apparel Research and Technology. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory granted $1.3 million to help develop the plates. The material, although far from commercial production, is better suited for armor than current technology, he says. That’s because common products such as Kevlar don’t keep the wearers from injury when they stop a round or piece of shrapnel, although the material usually prevents projectiles’ penetration. X-aerogels will stop a bullet and absorb its energy so no force injures the wearer.

photo / Gary Lawson

“This aerogel can provide higher energy absorption than spider silk, which is considered the toughest material in nature,” Lu says. “We need to find ways to design products to take advantage of the good properties of this material, which is not an easy challenge.” Lu has other aerogels projects that have brought in grants from the National Science Foundation and the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. He’s looking at studying how to use the material in aircraft insulation to protect sensitive equipment from extreme temperatures. He points to NASA’s success in protecting sensitive equipment inside Mars rovers that have been roaming the cold, red planet since 2004, well beyond their three-month life span. “For now, the material has just been synthesized in government and university labs,” he says. “There are only a few groups working on this type of material, but aerogels’ sales, as a new class of materials, are expected to grow by about 70 percent annually over the next twenty to thirty years.” Matt Elliott

Moving Forward John Veenstra’s promotion to head OSU’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering isn’t too big a change for him. He’d spent a year as interim department head by the time his promotion took effect in December 2007. As head, Veenstra, who started at OSU as a professor in 1980, hopes to help blur the silos of engineering to open the way to new ideas in efficiency and other areas. He says civil engineering has traditionally focused on building and maintaining what makes the nation run, but modern problems require working with other disciplines. “Problems today are large and complex enough that you need a larger skill set,” Veenstra

photo / Gary Lawson

You might say that Michael Larrañaga got a baptism of fire within nine months on the job as head of OSU’s Fire Protection and Safety Technology Department. During May and June 2008, Larrañaga raised $370,000 to endow the Dale Janes Professorship in the school. This amount was matched by the historic $100 million gift to OSU by Boone Pickens, and the sum will be matched by the state of Oklahoma. The donations came from 473 loyal alumni and corporations including BP, CITGO and Valero Energy Corp. Since July 1, 2008, additional donations totaling $58,000 have been received from 71 alumni and corporations. Larrañaga sees the combination of alumni and industry support as a solid-gold endorsement of his department. Its students go on to high stakes careers in the world of forensic engineering, fire protection and environmental health and safety, potentially keeping millions of people safe from accidents. Other graduates help keep cultural sites and artifacts safe from fire and other hazards in locations stretching across the country, from the Statue of Liberty in New York City and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., to Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. OSU’s is the only fire protection and safety program of its kind in the United States accredited by the Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), an organization that assesses engineering and technology programs on how well they prepare their graduates for industry. Larrañaga graduated from OSU in 1996 and returned as head of the Department of Fire Protection and Safety Technology in 2007.

He holds a doctoral degree from Texas Tech and a master’s degree from the University of Houston-Clear Lake. His career spans everything from forensic engineering to safety in south Texas’s sprawling petrochemical industrial complex. And his résumé doesn’t stop there. In between graduate degrees, he was a member of a Los Alamos HAZMAT team specializing in nuclear weapons safety. Larrañaga, whose department of five faculty members taught 213 students last fall, would like to grow the program and produce more alumni as industry faces a nationwide shortfall of qualified graduates. Matt Elliott

photo / Gary Lawson

IMPACT

says. “I think our best ideas may come from interacting with other disciplines.” While he was interim head in 2007, the department added two assistant professors, including Tyler Ley, who studies efficient ways to build bridges using pre-cast concrete forms. The second addition is Jonathan Goode, whose background in wind’s effects on structures is new to the department, Veenstra says. During his administration, he would also like professors to merge teaching and research while growing the number of graduates. Other changes he’d like to make include starting an Engineers Without Borders chapter at OSU. The global nonprofit organization encourages students to volunteer for sustainable engineering projects in developing countries. Veenstra, a native of West Des Moines, Iowa, holds a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Iowa.

Meeting the Test

07 08

A Celebration is Coming

The OSU School of Architecture expects to move into the new Donald W. Reynolds School of Architecture Building in August or September 2009. The new facility will be dedicated at the time of the 100-year anniversary of the architecture program at OSU.

Matt Elliott

photo / Gary Lawson

Chemical Engineering Update

Rhinehart Retires as Head Chemical engineering professor Russ Rhinehart is stepping down after more than 10

student digest

years serving as the department’s head, guiding it through accreditation twice and a modernization that expanded the process unit operations lab so students can better understand principles, computerization and application. He’s also proud of the department’s student success with teams from the OSU student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineering winning the institute’s national plant design competition five times during the last 14 years and “outstanding” chapter designation 10 years in a row. “Our students’ pass rate on the Fundamentals of Engineering exam far exceeds the nation for chemical engineering,” he says. “For a program of our size, it’s just incredible the number of students we’ve had win top scholarships: Goldwaters, Gates, USA Today Top 20 Students.” Rhinehart, who took the position in 1997 after leaving Texas Tech, admits he was standing on the shoulders of his predecessor, Rob Robinson, who retired in 2001 and left an outstanding faculty legacy. Although he’ll miss showing off the department to high school students and their parents, he says he’s moving back to his original attraction, research and teaching. Khaled Gasem took over for Rhinehart as department head October 2008.

research, teaching, outreach alumni success noteworthy

photo / Gary Lawson

Gasem Takes the Helm Khaled Gasem, the new head of the School of Chemical Engineering, calls it “the productive type of stress.”

It’s the kind of stress that comes from taking over as an administrator for the first time while continuing to teach classes and do research. It’s the kind that is demanding much of his energy these days. Gasem’s promotion in 2008 is the latest in his 26-year tenure at OSU. He joined the university as a doctoral student in 1982 after earning his master’s degree in refining from Colorado School of Mines and his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He says he won’t change much of the school’s direction largely because he believes that his predecessors Russ Rhinehart and retired Professor Rob Robinson, steered the program excellently through modernization and growth. He’d like to continue down that path. “Both Robinson and Rhinehart guided the effort to make sure that we sustain the excellence of the program and grow it,” says Gasem, a native of Tripoli, Libya. “Another of their objectives that I’d like to build on is to identify unique areas of research where our faculty can contribute significantly.” The school will continue its productive research in energy, bioengineering, process modeling and materials, he says. But he hopes to continue to grow other areas of research, too, such as sustainability and specialty chemicals. He’d also like to expand the graduate program to meet the demands of research. Matt Elliott

photo / Gary Lawson

photo / phil shockley

Among the Best OSU’s undergraduate architecture program ranks among the top 20 of America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools. Design Intelligence, a bi-monthly journal for design leaders, based the standings on information from more than 200 leading U.S. architecture firms and some 900 students. The survey asked professionals which academic programs best prepare students for practice and questioned students on satisfaction with their educational programs. The ranking places OSU’s School of Architecture in an elite group that includes programs at Cornell, Rice, California Polytechnic and Syracuse.

Thank you, alumni and friends Last year when Boone Pickens issued his $100 million challenge to double OSU’s endowed chairs and professorships, hundreds of you united in a show of unprecedented support for the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. Your generous backing combined with the Pickens’ dollar-fordollar match and the state’s matching program created 19 new chairs and professorships. Thank you for ensuring new opportunities for CEAT students for years to come. Continental Resources Chair in Petroleum Engineering Harold Courson Chair in Petroleum Engineering Samson Investment Co. Chair in Petroleum Engineering Lew Ward Chair in Petroleum Engineering Center for Innovation & Economic Development Chair in Sensor Technology OG+E Energy Technology Chair Edward Jullian III Chair in Engineering Donald & Cathey Humphreys Chair in Industrial Engineering & Management Donald & Cathey Humphreys Chair in CEAT John Hendrix Chair in Engineering Cal & Marilyn Vogt Professorship in CEAT Centennial Professorship in Architecture and Architectural Engineering (30 donors) Construction Management Technology Advisory Board Professorship Dale F. Janes Professorship (544 donors) Halliburton Professorship in Engineering Jim & Lynne Williams Professorship in Energy Technologies Ray and Linda Booker Professorship in Aerospace Engineering Williams Companies Professorship in Civil Engineering Wilson Bentley Professorship in Industrial Engineering & Management (27 donors)