IMPACT 2014

Fighting The Flu

Dr. Heather Fahlenkamp’s project aims to offer new ways to test, treat and prevent influenza and other lung infections.

DEAN, COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY

Paul Tikalsky, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, F.ACI, EACR

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

Sandi Bliss, CQ

MARKETING MANAGER AND MANAGING EDITOR

Wravenna Bloomberg, MBA; Chelsea Robinson

UNIVERSITY EDITOR

Dorothy Pugh

ART DIRECTOR

Paul V. Fleming, BCE, BFA, MS

PHOTOGRAPHY

Phil Shockley, Gary Lawson, CEAT Staff

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Wravenna Bloomberg, Pam Covington, Maddy Haigh, Mallory Pence, Erin Portman, Erick Reynolds, Logan Scott, Doug Wright

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. WWW.CEAT.OKSTATE.EDU

The office of publication for IMPACT is 121 Cordell North, Stillwater, OK 74078-8031. © 2014, IMPACT. All rights reserved. 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, and other 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 educational services. Title IX of the Education Amendments and Oklahoma State University policy prohibit discrimination in the provision of services or 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. Rosalyn Green, 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 University Marketing Services, University Printing Services, at a cost of $13,920.00 8M/ Oct 2014/job #5541.

PHOTOGRAPHY / GARY LAWSON / UNIVERSITY MARKETING

The engineering and technology sectors of the economy are expanding at a rate not seen in 25 years. The rapidly advancing unconventional oil and gas industry, alternative energy demand and the return of manufacturing to the United States, driven by a weak dollar and strong U.S. industrial efficiency, are creating new opportunities for the

next generation of graduates. It would have been hard to envision this change a few years ago, but the new industries and innovation in the U.S. economy require mechanical, chemical and industrial engineers.

From the Dean’s Office 1

The broader backbone of these industry changes is in our nation’s infrastructure with power, electrical, environmental and civil engineering and technology. U.S. industry is expanding its investments in pipelines, electrical distribution systems, rail transport, environmental safety and much more to support a sustainable energy future for our nation. All are supported by engineering and engineering technology. Our cities, regions and nation grow together. Innovations in sustainable and energyefficient architecture are reducing the demand for energy and bringing innovative systems to our lives.

Engaging and training students to tackle the challenges of the 21st century requires the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology and OSU to envision and deliver the education of professionals that embraces innovation and know how both the fundamental systems and the next generation of technology work. The college is embarking on a venture to build the nation’s most advanced undergraduate laboratory building with integrated design input from leading industry experts, hands-on experimental systems and room for students to innovate and discover new ideas. We are not replacing aged labs but creating new labs that support the next generation of intellectual capital for our nation — CEAT students.

In the past year, CEAT has awarded 620 bachelor’s degrees (28 percent more than two years ago), admitted the three highest enrollments in its history and offered $2.1 million in scholarships to our students (75 percent more than two years ago). These students lead OSU in academic admissions markers, and our graduates lead OSU in starting salaries. The growth in demand for CEAT graduates and for admission to the college requires new commitments to education. CEAT is increasing its faculty size by 30 percent by 2018, and we hope to see alumni, corporations and students support a new pedagogical paradigm in next-generation, hands-on laboratories, which focus on digital control, data acquisition and evaluation, precision manufacturing and testing, communicating results, and innovating better systems.

As you read through this issue of Impact, you will see the everadvancing college. Many of you have contributed generously to support the students and programs that make OSU the great land-grant of Oklahoma. We will need your continued support. As we work toward our strategic goals, a donor has offered to match the first 150 donors that contribute at least $2,500 to the new laboratory building. Please visit OSUGIVING.COM and search for fund NO. 26-71500 ENGINEERING BUILDING FUND in order to give directly to the project. Each of these donors will be commemorated in the building and have an engineering scholarship named for them for the next academic year.

PAUL TIKALSKY DEAN, COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY

Expanding Capabilities

New equipment gives students experience in digital fabrication

AT OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY, the School of Architecture established a new digital fabrication lab in the DONALD W. REYNOLDS ARCHITECTURE BUILDING last year, using a one-time allocation of student technology fee funds. This new hands-on digital fabrication equipment, consisting of 4-by-8 foot three-axis CNC MACHINES (COMPUTER NUMERICAL CONTROL), automated milling devices that make industrial components without direct human assistance, three 3-D printers, and a large-bed laser cutter, has been helping the school expand its digital design and fabrication capabilities.

“The digital fabrication tools were used by architecture students at the third-year level where they are introduced to building information modeling (BIM) as part of one of their required computer courses, ARCH 3262, an advanced computer class in conjunction with the third-year design studio work, which was coordinated with professor PAOLO SANZA,” says AWILDA RODRIGUEZ, assistant professor at the School of Architecture.

The students became familiar with tools such as the CNC and the 3-D printer for digital fabrication prototypes through digital procedures and took on responsibility for the critical aspects of design.

Working on the physical model allowed the students to quickly grasp a sense of scale while they could explore all possible changes equally quickly in the virtual environment.

“The new hands-on equipment) … has infused our school with a new sense of possibility and enhanced our relationships with those outside of our discipline. It has fostered collaboration and been enjoyable.” — Nathan Richardson

One of the successful projects created in the fabrication lab in the ARCH 3262 course was Museo Nazionale D’Arte Romana in Rome, created by CLARISSA HOSKISON, MICHAEL MUELLER AND DREW PHILIPS. The equipment helped them create a quality design, Rodriguez says.

With students getting the opportunity to build like professionals in the field, the School of Architecture received great feedback from students who are interested in more hands-on experience with design.

The new technology provides better opportunities and education for students, making it easier to move design ideas past the drawing and modeling phase and into full-scale mock-ups of products and architectural proposals.

“There’s always a learning curve to new technology, but the new equipment works really well. Our shop manager, DAVID HORTON, has been instrumental in compressing the learning curve and helping me and others take full

advantage of the technology in our classes and research projects,” says NATHAN RICHARDSON, assistant professor in the School of Architecture.

Richardson is a part of an ongoing collaboration with the School of Entrepreneurship in the Spears School of Business and DR. CRAIG WATTERS, director of the Riata Center. In their course, they have been dealing with the issue of housing in very poor townships in South Africa, and it has expanded to the students’ research, design and building prototypes. The new equipment allows them to fabricate physical studies from their digital drawings by cutting or scoring a range of materials such as paper, plywood and aluminum.

The students from this elective Entrepreneurship and Architecture course were successful with their projects, and their intent to create housing solutions for many places of need, including Africa, was worth it.

“The School of Entrepreneurship brought a delegation of entrepreneurs from Africa, and while they were here

this spring, they toured our exhibition and the prototypes we created,” says Richardson. Entrepreneurs suggested that these proposals could actually work well throughout Africa, and these facts led to the construction of at least two of the prototypes on campus for longer-term testing in the outdoor environment and possibly deploying them abroad in the future. The construction is going to happen this summer and hopefully help with the deployment in the next few years.

The new hands-on equipment has been a success not only for professors, who appreciate the new tools helping with preparing students for their future career, but also for the students, who welcome new learning technologies that gives them more experiences, a better understanding of equipment used in the real world, and higher chance to succeed in careers.

“It has infused our school with a new sense of possibility and enhanced our relationships with those outside of our discipline. It has fostered collaboration and been enjoyable,” adds Richardson.

ENDOWED POSITIONS

HEAD RANDY SEITSINGER, AIA

FOCUS AREAS

Building systems

Computer architecture

Commercial building

Design and structural concepts

Digital systems

Environmental designs

Historical architecture

Innovative designs

Materials

Modern architecture

Structural systems

Sustainable building

Urban design

DEGREE OPTIONS

Architecture

Architecture Engineering

Adding Recycling to Renewable Energy

OSU research may lead to lower production costs for ethanol

AS ENERGY COSTS RISE, finding new sources for renewable energy is in great demand. OSU’s School of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering is researching several ways to make energy production more efficient, including in nanomaterials.

“High enzyme costs make the conversion of cellulosic biomass to ethanol economically unattractive and hinder the industrialization of cellulosic ethanol production,” says DR. DAN THOMAS , school head. “The research team led by DR. YU ‘JESSIE’ MAO is working on immobilization of cellulases on magnetic nanoparticles for quicker enzyme recycling in cellulose hydrolysis.”

In plain English: Naturally occurring enzymes produce sugar and break down to cellulose. These cellulase-enhanced nanoparticles demonstrate up to 67 percent of the original enzyme activity and can be quickly separated using a small magnetic field. Thus, this can be reused — recycled — up to 10 times.

“Recovery and reuse of cellulases will significantly decrease enzyme costs for cellulosic ethanol production and positively impact the industrial conversion of cellulosic biomass to biofuels,” says Thomas.

Ethanol produced from cellulosic biomass is an exciting renewable energy source. However, current production is based on one-time use of the expensive enzyme ingredient.

“Our technology allows the enzymes to be separated using a medium magnetic field after each hydrolysis. Preliminary results showed that the enzymes can be reused multiple times,” says Mao.

OSU has been doing research in this area since 2010.

“Our long-term goal is to lower the biofuel production cost and improve the conversion efficiency of cellulosic ethanol production,” Mao says. “The objective of current research is to investigate

cellulase immobilization on magnetically separable nanoparticles for reuse in cellulose hydrolysis.”

Recycling cellulase in cellulose hydrolysis will significantly decrease the enzyme cost for cellulosic ethanol production. This will benefit starting cellulosic ethanol plants and positively impact the efficiency in industrial conversion of cellulosic biomass to biofuels.

“This research will develop a simple method to immobilize cellulase enzymes on magnetic carriers,” says Mao. “The methodology can be extended to advance the technology in immobilizing and reusing other biomass degrading enzymes in biofuel conversion.”

With exciting outcomes on the horizon, this research still faces some challenges.

Mao hopes this study will improve the efficiency of renewable energy. With increasing demands for additional energy sources, OSU biosystems and agricultural engineering is on the cutting edge of beneficial research.

Dr. Yu “Jessie” Mao is leading research at OSU that could lead to lower costs for producing ethanol.

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Air

Animal

Biobased

Bioenergy

Biochemical

Biofuels

Biomass

Biomass gasification

Bioprocessing Ecology mass

Enzymatic

Ethanol

Fire

Reactor design

Regulations

Sediment control

Sustainability

Synthesis gas fermentation

Water quality

Waste management engineering

DEGREE OPTIONS

Biomechanical

Bioprocessing and Bio-technology

Environment and

Natural Resources

Food Processing

HEAD DAN THOMAS, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASABE, F.ASCE

Flu Fighter

Associate professor developing tool for testing, treating lung infections

OSU Chemical Engineering is on the forefront of tissue engineering as researchers such as DR. HEATHER FAHLENKAMP blaze new trails in modeling lung and other human tissue.

This research provides hope and opportunities for those with compromised immune systems.

“The goal of my project is to create a tissue-engineered lung model that can be used to investigate how one’s immune system responds to infectious agents,” the associate professor says. “Specifically for this project, we are focusing on influenza, commonly known as the flu.”

Lung infection from influenza is a leading cause of disease and death worldwide, says the World Health Organization. There are many strains of influenza, and some are stronger than others.

“The damaging health effects of the highly pathogenic strains are related to an excessive immune response,” says Fahlenkamp. “The lung model would provide a critical tool, making it possible to investigate some of the key aspects of influenza pathogenesis.”

Fahlenkamp’s proposed model will contain multiple human cell types within a 3-D environment that provides for cell movement and interaction.

“The results of this project will have an important positive impact because the new information on the immune response to influenza has great potential to provide new targets for preventive and therapeutic interventions in influenza infection. The lung model will be of great and continuing value for testing treatment strategies,” she adds.

Dr. Heather Fahlenkamp is working on creating a lung model that can be used to battle the flu worldwide.

HEAD

JAMES (ROB) WHITELEY, Ph.D

Chemical Engineering

CFD-combustion reactor design

Fluid mechanics

Emulsion Formation and Stability

Enhanced unconventional gas recovery

Gas testing

Gene delivery

Heat transfer

Mass Transfer

Naterial science

Modeling

Nanoparticles and biomembranes

Petroleum

Polymeric systems

Process development

Reactor design

Sustainability

Thermodynamics and thermophysical property prediction

Tissue engineering

Viscoelasticity

Water process and ion exchange

DEGREE OPTIONS

Chemical Engineering

• Biomedical / Biochemical option

• Environmental option

• Pre-med option

“Being part of a research center also provides access to core facilities that would otherwise not be available to a single investigator, as well as access to a wealth of expertise from mentors and consultants associated with the center. I will have the opportunity to work with experts in the field and to build collaborations for future projects. The grant will help me take my research to the next level.”

— Dr. Heather Fahlenkamp

A Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence grant funds supplies to carry out her experimental work and pay graduate students’ salaries to work on the project. The grant also covers a portion of her academic salary, allowing her to focus more time on the research project. She will have funds to travel to meetings and conferences to present her research findings and learn about other work being done in this area.

“Being part of a research center also provides access to core facilities that would otherwise not be available to a single investigator, as well as access to a wealth of expertise from mentors and consultants associated with the center,” Fahlenkamp says. “I will have the opportunity to work with experts in the field and to build collaborations for future projects. The grant will help me take my research to the next level.”

Fahlenkamp’s research aims to create and characterize a lung model that behaves similarly to human lung tissue. The lung model will be used to study the effect of various strains of influenza virus on key cell types that influence the immune response to the virus.

“By the end of the first year, I expect to have designed the 3-D environment for the model, which includes a porous scaffold that allows for cell migration and growth within the entire scaffold and culture conditions to maintain the multiple cell types within the model,” she adds.

Fahlenkamp received a National Science Foundation Career award for another project in tissue engineering. The goal was to create an advanced 3-D tissue model that can be used for testing and studying human allergic inflammatory responses. Over the last few decades, allergic diseases have increased dramatically in developed nations. The tissueequivalent model can be comprised of patient-specific cells in order to function as an allergy sensor to detect specific biomarkers that are expressed during an allergic inflammatory reaction.

Broader impacts of this project include a new way to test allergens and other inflammatory stimuli and evaluate sitespecific delivery of active compounds to alter the local inflammatory and immune response. This research project has the potential to provide health care providers with more information to better manage patients with allergic diseases and a better understanding of inflammation in a broader sense. Such an aggressive approach could change how immunotherapies are tested, perceived and developed against diseases associated with inflammation.

While her research in lung tissue has the potential to contribute to the future development of better flu vaccines, there are some immediate benefits as well.

“Oklahoma State University, students and I will benefit from the immediate impact of adding resources and publicity to this important area of research,” says Fahlenkamp. “The state of Oklahoma also stands to benefit with an increase of technical expertise in the research area that could serve as an incubator for startup companies with the addition of new technical jobs within the state.”

“We can actually show someone how much time they are able to save. It will give contractors a way to visualize the benefits of prefabrication and also perhaps identify some of the disadvantages of it.” — Phil

Lewis

Perfecting Prefab

Assistant professors lead productivity study in electrical construction

Prefabrication, long used to improve productivity in many parts of the construction industry, is gaining popularity with electrical contractors. This growing trend in the electrical industry is of special interest to ELECTRI INTERNATIONAL, which has provided a grant to an OSU research team to quantify the benefit of prefabrication in electrical construction.

Principal investigator PHIL LEWIS, PH.D., P.E., is leading the collaborative effort with co-PI YONGWEI SHAN, PH.D., P.E. Both are assistant professors in OSU’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. The two researchers will be working with the Oklahoma chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association, Oklahoma City electrical contractors OESCO and Dane & Associates Electric Co., and Raleigh, N.C., contractors Carolina Fabricators, Code Electric Inc., LL Vann Electric Inc. and Strategic Connections.

The investigators will identify the best practices in prefabrication using on-site interviews with the electrical contractors. Productivity data will be collected from different electrical construction projects and differences between conventional approaches and those using prefabrication will be compared at the Oklahoma NECA chapter’s training facility.

Using the data, a building information model will be created to simulate the impact of prefabrication on productivity. Instead of a 3-D model, the BIM will be a 4-D model since it will add the fourth dimension of time.

“We will use this concept to do a side-by-side comparison of traditional methods and prefabrication methods to compare how much benefit you can get in terms of productivity in prefabrication in electrical construction,” says Shan.

“We can actually show someone how much time they are able to save,” says Lewis. “It will give contractors a way to visualize the benefits of prefabrication and also perhaps identify some of the disadvantages of it.”

Electrical contractors use prefabrication in precut conduit, precut electrical cable, prewired raceway and box and bracket assemblies, to name a few. According to Lewis, industry consultants estimate that electrical contractors could improve their average productivity 30 percent by using at least some prefabrication practices. Lewis and Shan’s yearlong study for ELECTRI International will provide real-world data to quantify the impact of prefabrication on electrical labor productivity.

“We’re doing this for the electrical industry, but it would certainly apply to other trades in construction, particularly mechanical and plumbing, and maybe even other areas that you wouldn’t consider candidates for prefabrication,” Lewis says. “This could get people thinking outside the box about how to be more productive.”

PHOTOGRAPHY / GARY LAWSON / UNIVERSITY MARKETING

Yongwei Shan (left) and Phil Lewis are leading a study on the usage of prefabrication in electrical construction.

HEAD JOHN VEENSTRA, Ph.D, P.E.

Civil and Environmental Engineering

RESEARCH AREAS

Concrete

Construction

Energy

Environmental

Geotechnical

GIS

Pavement

Pavement data systems

Recycling

Sensors and data transfer

Soil effects

Structural engineering

Steel structures

Transportation

Water quality

DEGREE OPTIONS

Civil Engineering

• Environmental option

Going Up

New Cooper Lab Building to expand civil engineering

A NEW LAB BUILDING

under construction will benefit OSU civil engineering students once it’s finished in November. Students will be able to broaden their education with the state-of-the-art lab space.

This 35,000-square-foot building, to be called the COOPER LAB BUILDING, is a creative learning environment that will prepare students for a future of innovation and leadership. It will offer a hands-on environment for multiple educational, research and outreach opportunities with its industry leading technology.

The only facility of its kind in the Midwest, it will feature capabilities nearly unmatched in the nation. A 5,000-square-foot strong floor capable

of testing full-scale bridge components, multistory structural assemblies and next-generation building materials will be the central focus of the research laboratory.

This facility also includes an advanced construction materials laboratory focusing on simulating different environmental exposures from the initial construction throughout the material’s life. The materials laboratory incorporates large environmental chambers that can simulate extreme heat, extreme cold and adverse drying conditions. In addition, the lab building features state-ofthe-art capabilities for testing structural assemblies in case of fire, blast and other extreme environmental conditions. The envisioned live fire chamber will be able to measure the heat produced by fires in real time and to measure gas discharges.

The new building lab will offer unmatched collaboration between structural research, fire protection and safety testing.

The lab also features equipment and spaces to advance the development of sensors to measure, monitor and assess the performance of construction materials. The facility includes instrumentation and equipment capable of exploring phenomena that control the formation of new materials at the microscopic level. Additionally, the lab includes experimental and analytical instrumentation for viewing the formation of composite materials and new ceramics at the micro and nano scales. This aids scientists and research engineers in understanding, predicting and developing innovations that will lead the construction industry into the next several decades.

Above rendering shows the finished Cooper Lab Building.

Expanding a Mission by Advancing Careers

Professional Development offers non-credit adult education programs and professional development services through strong partnerships with the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology and industry leaders. For nearly 90 years, this outreach and extension unit has enhanced careers and extended OSU’s mission both locally and abroad through:

Customized courses that offer training simulation of real-world scenarios. Hands-on experience that translates seamlessly into worksite application. A long-standing tradition of exceeding industry standards.

Thank you to our alumni and current clients for your continuing support, and we welcome all who have never experienced America’s Brightest Orange.

Go Pokes!

Life-Saving Engineering

Liver transplant research might sound like something you’d be more likely to see at a medical school, but DR. DAQING PIAO, associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is focusing on biomedical research that he hopes can expand the availability of livers for transplants.

In one of his current research projects, he is working to help develop a technology to objectively evaluate whether one specific condition of a donor’s liver will make it unacceptable for transplantation.

“There are always more patients waiting for a transplant than there are donor organs that are available,” says Piao, who joined the school nine years ago. “There are about 6,000 liver transplants being done annually in the United States, and patients on the waiting list can be about 17,000.”

IT’S ALWAYS A LIFE-OR-DEATH SITUATION.

“Because of the growing demand for liver transplantation with a concomitant shortage of donor livers, livers of marginal quality, such as with fatty changes, sometimes will have to be used for transplant,” he notes. “None of the fatty changes of liver is healthy;

however, when there is only a fatty liver available, using it could save lives, but not without serious risk.”

Both the extent and the type of the fatty changes affect the functioning of the liver after transplant. The less fatty changes a donor liver has, the less risk it brings.

Piao says there are basically two types of fatty changes that are relevant to his work. One type occurs when a large single fatty particle is formed in a liver cell, squeezing and deforming the normal material within the liver cell. This type of fatty change significantly risks the functioning of the organ after being transplanted, so it should not be used for transplantation. The other type occurs when numerous small fatty particles are formed in a liver cell, making space among but not deforming the normal material there. This type of fatty change doesn’t affect the functioning of the organ after being transplanted, so the liver is usually acceptable for transplantation.

Piao is developing a fiber optic probe that can fit in a small needle in order to evaluate the extent and possibly the type of fatty changes.

“The need of an evaluation technology like this one we are developing was actually suggested by a doctor whom I know personally,” Piao says. “Liver transplant surgeons are in need of a fast and reliable method to know about the interior conditions of the donor liver. If a very small fiber can be placed to probe the donor liver deeply, and there are some optical signals or images that can show if the tissue has low-extent and low-risk fatty changes, the doctors can make a better decision for the patient.”

Piao says the fatty condition is only one of many things that can affect the viability of a donor liver.

“Eventually, we would like to see our method helping the surgeons determine if a donor liver cannot be used because it has become too fatty or it has a highrisk type of fatty change,” Piao says. “To do that, we will need to have a tool for them to evaluate objectively how much fatty change has occurred in the liver, and possibly which kind of fatty particles, bigger one or smaller ones, is more prevalent in the fatty change.”

The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology funded the three-year research project, which began in 2011.

Research project could lead to more liver transplants

“There are always more patients waiting for a transplant than there are donor organs that are available.” — Daqing Piao

“This

“We are right now on the third year, and we have already developed the prototype and continue to optimize the algorithms,” Piao says. “We have started developing a rat model of fatty liver to test if our system can at least tell the extent of the fatty changes and then can potentially tell the different types of the fatty changes.

“Over the past year, we have completed the measurement phase of the study on 18 rats, and in the remaining six months, we have 12 more rats to go,” he says. “This study is not possible without the collaboration with an exceptionally devoted team of investigators from the OSU Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.”

Experts assisting with this study include:

DR. KENNETH E. BARTELS, DVM, MS, McCasland Foundation Laser Surgery Professor and Kerr Chair for Biophotonics; DR. G. REED HOLYOAK, DVM, Ph.D., head of Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, professor and Bullock Professorship in Equine Theriogenology; DR. JERRY W. RITCHEY, DVM, Ph.D., professor, diplomate, American College of Veterinary Pathologists; DR. COREY R. WALL, DVM, assistant professor; and JILL K. MURRY, veterinary technician III. Additional staff members from Lab Animal Resources are involved as well.

“The workhorse of this study is Ph.D. student NIGAR SULTANA,” says Piao. “She has done a marvelous job by keeping her head out of tons of data needing her careful acquisition and analysis.”

Piao says he’s confident the project will benefit liver transplant patients if it’s successful.

“We will be hopeful,” Piao says. “The state agency also thinks this may be useful as we predicted, but we need to test it out.”

Dr. Daqing Piao (right) adjusts light as Dr. G. Reed Holyoak runs tests on a lab rat involved in the project on fatty changes in the liver.

study is not possible without the collaboration with an exceptionally devoted team of investigators from the OSU Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.” — Daqing Piao

INTERIM HEAD

JAMES WEST, Ph.D.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

ENROLLMENT (FALL 2013) 417 undergraduates

Communications systems and signal processing

Computational intelligence, perception and neuroscience

Computer simulations

Digital and embedded systems

Pattern recognition and machine learning

Photonics

Plasmonics

Robotics and embedded computing sensors

12 associate professors

5 assistant professors

ENDOWED POSITIONS

1 Chair

3 Professorships

RESEARCH AREAS

Laser spectroscopy

Biomaterials

Biophotonics/biomedical optics

Classical optics

Electronic materials and devices

Energy and renewable energy sources

Image processing and computer vision

Intelligent systems and control

Laser optics

Medical imaging

Microelectromechanical systems

Metamaterials

Nanomaterials

Optical imaging

Solar hydrogen Systems theory and instrumentation

Terahertz photonics

Thermoelectric

Tissue engineering

Ultrafast femtosecond lasers

Very large scale integration

DEGREE OPTIONS

Electrical Engineering

Computer Engineering

Emergency Aid

OSU team developing apps for use in crises

Making sure needed resources are in the right places during an emergency can be a daunting task for officials. Oklahoma State University and the University of Louisville are developing mobile apps and support tools for a real-time, decision-support system to help personnel with decisions on allocating scarce resources in a pandemic influenza or other viral attack.

The $3.3 million project development is funded by the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY’S SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DIRECTORATE, through a technology development and deployment program managed by the National Institute for Hometown Security. At OSU, DRS. SUNDERESH S. HERAGU, Donald and Cathey Humphreys Professor and head of the School of Industrial Engineering and Management, CAMILLE DEYONG AND MANJUNATH KAMATH are leading the project.

Emergency officials, concerned about the impact of the next pandemic attack, need a real-time decision support system to assist decision-makers during and immediately after a pandemic outbreak.

With studies suggesting that up to 40 percent of the population could be affected by an influenza virus, the Department of Homeland Security wants to upgrade current health care systems for the most efficient and effective response to the next pandemic. These tools support that.

A web portal would help strategic national stockpile coordinators and emergency medical services coordinators know what is where, with live data from multiple sources. Not only can that help, for example, in storing and distributing vaccines, it can also help in dispatching emergency medical services in response to new patient calls and changing conditions such as hospital diversion, ambulance unavailability, road closures and other factors.

A fully deployed system should be able to optimally solve resource allocation problems in real-time and display the information on a map or in a format that’s easy to use by novice users.

Camille DeYong (left) and Manjunath Kamath are on the School of Industrial Engineering and Management’s team developing mobile apps to help officials in cases of emergency.

Analysis to Impress

Team led by engineering student shows off expertise in data mining

An OSU team led by JUAN MA , a doctoral student in industrial engineering and management, finished second out of more than 50 teams competing in the SAS ANALYTICS SHOOTOUT COMPETITION at the 2012 Analytics Conference in Las Vegas.

Ma’s team, SHIRMEEN VIRJI, MATTHEW DALE RUMSEY AND ISAAC PISORS, demonstrated their expertise in data mining in the competition.

Ma received a data mining certificate through the SAS and OSU certificate program (offered in three levels: data mining, predictive analytics or marketing data science). This program produces capable and analytic understanding managers who will be a great fit at leading teams of IT, marketing and strategy personnel in any organization, and by analyzing data, they will be able to solve business problems. This course was designed with help from SAS, a leading provider of business analytics and data mining software and services. Any current OSU graduate student with a technical background is eligible to receive this certificate by completing course requirements.

Ma joined the SAS and OSU datamining program to learn about data analysis, predictive modeling, model deployment and other related topics.

ANALYTICAL DATA MINING LOOKS AT WORDS AND THEIR CONTEXTS TO ANALYZE THEIR MEANINGS.

Keywords

Language

choosing a model that carefully looks at when to distribute the vaccine and how to market it, you can reduce the impact of these viruses in the coming flu season.” — Juan Ma

Analytics

SIMULATED

She led a team consisting of business and industrial engineering students, who answered all the questions the competition demanded:

Which virus to include in vaccine?

Which promotion program to apply?

What amount of vaccine to produce?

How to predict influenza impact?

Students had an access to data from California, Michigan, New Jersey and Washington that included details on the number of people infected by influenza, hospitalizations and deaths, along with details on marketing plans. Teams had to choose a promotional plan; to ensure they chose the right one, students analyzed data that showed the percentage increase in vaccination (the lift rate) for each plan.

“By choosing a model that carefully looks at when to distribute the vaccine and how to market it, you can reduce the impact of these viruses in the coming flu season,” Ma says. “When we looked at the literature, no one had really tested this type of prevention model.”

The team discovered marketing the vaccine is ineffective until enough is available to meet the demand.

“In some sense, the value of the research was to solve a complicated, large-scale, real-world problem, which has a good potential to yield a plan of reducing influenza impact,” Ma says.

Ma calls this program a great opportunity for students. OSU teams have consistently placed in the top three in the shootout for the last seven years.

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Industrial Engineering and Management

DEGREE

“This exciting research puts OSU on the leading edge of unmanned systems.” — Ben Loh

Flying’s Just the Beginning

Doctoral student works on a safer and more versatile UAV

Search and rescue, military tactics and observation in potentially dangerous situations are all possibilities that current research in Aerospace Engineering at OSU could benefit. Doctoral student BEN LOH has been perfecting his UNMANNED FLYING AND ROLLING ORB since 2011.

“Imagine a survivor is trapped inside a building under a pile of rubble. The UFRO can land in any orientation and roll towards the survivor without imposing propeller hazard to the survivor,” says Loh.

This device was developed at OSU as a multifunctional spherical robotic vehicle designed for search and rescue that combines hovering, forward flight and ground mobility. The latest prototype consists of a single propeller controlled by eight vanes enclosed in a spherical frame reinforced with carbon fiber.

“This exciting research puts OSU on the leading edge of unmanned systems,” says Loh. “The ability to return to flight is one of the unique features. The UFRO can land on the ground without any landing coordination, roll on the ground to get away from obstacles and self-upright using propeller slipstream before returning to flight. This is a recovery feature that is not available in any other platforms such as ducted fan, multi-rotor, fixed wing [aircraft] or helicopter.”

The UFRO has a GPS module for autonomous flight control and proximity sensors for altitude hold and object avoidance purpose.

“An operator can use a smartphone or tablet to control the UFRO using Bluetooth,” says Loh.

Open-tip propellers on hand-tossed fixedwing unmanned aerial vehicles and multirotor platforms can present safety hazards to the operator and are likely to get damaged upon contact with an object. The need to avoid these problems has led to the development of several shrouded-fan vehicles with robust control systems.

“A flipped vehicle without self-upright capability has no further operational benefit,” says Loh. “To operate in an urban environment or even indoors, a search and rescue oriented UAV should consider functionalities such as object detection and avoidance, hover, small landing footprint and self-recovering in an undesirable environment.”

This need in search and rescue led to the UFRO.

“The UFRO can also carry payloads such as alarms, GPS modules, light beacons to help rescuers locate the survivors quickly,” says Loh.

A few direct areas that could benefit from this research include:

MILITARY APPLICATIONS

Search and rescue

Proximal reconnaissance, indoors or outdoors

Damage assessment in urban and military environments

Mine detection in war zones

Formation flying of hovering air vehicles for multiple mission objectives

Deployment of multiple micro air vehicles by a central command for distributed monitoring

CIVILIAN APPLICATIONS

Inspecting electrical transmission lines, oil and gas pipelines

Police surveillance, interdiction, SWAT; border patrol (immigration and drug)

Search and rescue over disaster area

Riot monitoring system

“We have five patents on this vehicle,” says Loh. “OSU Cowboy Technology is helping us to create a startup company to commercialize the UFRO.”

HEAD DAN FISHER, Ph.D.

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

ENROLLMENT (FALL 2013)

1, 244 undergraduates

161 graduates

FACULTY

11 professors

5 associate professors

14 assistant professors

ENDOWED POSITIONS

3 Chairs

5 Professorships

RESEARCH AREAS

Acoustics

Aerospace

Aircraft

Automation

Building systems

Cardiovascular

Coatings

Computational fluid dynamics

Design systems

Dynamics

Electromagnetics

Fire

Fluids

Heat pump

Heat transfer

Image processing

Lasers

Material science

Mechanics

Polymers

Precision engineering

Refrigeration

Robotics Systems

Thermal systems

Tissue engineering

Unmanned aerial systems

Vehicle stability and control

Winding

Wrinkling

DEGREE OPTIONS

Aerospace Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

• Biomedical option

• Pre-med option

The Diamond Answer

body

Research being done at Oklahoma State University on ways to deliver drug treatments inside the body could lead to diamonds becoming everyone’s best friend.

How can this elegant material be used to administer healing agents to the human body?

“Due to its low chemical reactivity and unique physical properties, diamond nanoparticles may be useful in a variety of biological applications such as carriers for drugs, genes or proteins; novel imaging techniques; coatings for implantable materials; and biosensors and biomedical nanorobots,” says DR. CHUCK BUNTING, associate dean of research and sponsored programs in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology.

OSU is on the cutting edge of research in nanomaterials, and diamond nanoparticles — also referred to as DNPs — promise an exciting future with possible usage in bio-sensing applications, catalysis, electrochemical applications, quantum computing and quantum optics.

The research into using DNPs for drug delivery is taking place in the School of Material Science and Engineering at OSU by DR. RAJ SINGH in collaboration with DRS. RASHMI KAUL AND ANIL KAUL at OSU’s Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa. DNP is just one piece of research that could help millions that’s being conducted in the Helmerich Advanced Technology Research Center.

“The most important aspect of this research will be to use diamond nanoparticles as agents of drug delivery,” says Singh. “In order to achieve this, we have to find new ways of attaching drug molecules to diamond surfaces.”

For example, DNPs could be used in treating urinary tract infections, considered the second most common infectious disease in the United States and resulting in more than $6 billion in health care costs. The high recurrence rate of UTIs shows a significant need for better treatment options.

The research for DNP found persistent UTIs are caused by a virulent form of bacteria known as Dr + E. coli , which invades and survives in tissues for extended periods of time by binding

to a known host cell receptor. Rashmi and Anil have been working with this specific type of bacteria and its specific receptors for more than 20 years and have a variety of patents dealing with urinary tract infection pathogenesis.

Traditional methods of treating UTIs involve high dosages of antibiotics such as amoxicillin. However, the widespread use of such high-dosage antibiotics leads to the evolution of antibiotic-resistant pathogens and unwanted side effects, which is where using DNPs becomes more appealing.

“If successful, the drug-loaded nanoparticles can be more effective in treating the infections without the adverse side effects of antibiotics,” says Singh. “Prevention and more effective treatments can also lead to cost savings for health delivery systems.”

Diamond nanoparticle research lays the foundation for targeted, low-dosage antibiotic treatments. It demonstrates that DPNs are viable platforms for efficient delivery of drugs, such as amoxicillin to kill Dr + E. coli in cells.

“This research requires the use of new approaches to modify and control diamond surfaces using chemical means so that drugs can bind/attach and keep the drugs there until released at select locations to treat infections,” says Singh. “This will help in administering a lower amount of drugs to treat the diseases and prevent the proliferation of the drug-resistant bacteria.”

OSU researchers say precious mineral may be used to pinpoint drug delivery in

“This will help in administering a lower amount of drugs to treat the diseases and prevent the proliferation of the drugresistant bacteria.”

— Raj Singh

RAJ SINGH, Ph.D.

Materials Science and Engineering

LAUNCH DATE

Fall 2013

FACULTY

2 professors

3 assistant professors

ENDOWED POSITIONS

3 Chairs

RESEARCH AREAS

Biomechanics/biomaterials in medicine

Biomechanics/biomaterials in tissue engineering

Biomimetic photothermal hydrogen production

Electric eel bio-mimicry

Filament winding

Fuel cell

In vitro/in vivo studies

Ion channel arrays

Lipid multilayer assemblies

Liposomal drug delivery

Manufacturing

Nanomaterial for medicine

Natural gas

Nonotubes/nanorods

Polymer composite

Processing

Properties of nanostructured materials

Scaffold design

HEAD

iPlanning for the Future

Construction Management Technology adds ‘giant wide-screen tablet’ to courses

Some big technology is being used at Oklahoma State University’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology — and not just in size.

OSU’s Construction Management Technology department is incorporating an iPROJECTSOLUTIONS iPLANTABLE in some of its courses for hands-on learning.

“It’s essentially a giant wide-screen tablet, and it allows you to work with blueprints, or what we would consider prints,” says DR. HEATHER YATES, interim CMT department head and associate professor.

The 55-inch screen iPlanTable functions as a normal computer as well. It can compile all types of documents, allowing those working on projects to visually change the documents as well as add details. Links can also be added.

The iPlanTable makes construction sites run more efficiently by eliminating large paper blueprints and heavy construction specification books.

“On a construction project, we’ve got the big set of blueprints, and then we’ve got the huge spec book,” says Yates. “You can actually link them together on the iPlanTable, so when you touch the concrete, or whatever, you essentially link it to the spec book just by clicking concrete. It can be fully integrated, eliminating the need to flip through 570 pages.”

This technology is relatively new to construction management. In fact, only a few other universities offer this type of training technology. Pittsburg State University was the first to purchase the iPlanTable in December 2012.

This modern technology places OSU in an elite group to equip the next generation of construction management professionals. The department’s goal is that every student will be comfortable with the iPlanTable by graduation.

Students in Construction Management Technology work with the iProjectSolutions iPlanTable.

DANA HOBSON, Ph.D., P.E.

DIVISION

OF

Engineering Technology

RESEARCH AREAS

Concrete design and law

Construction design and management

Construction

Data acquisition and control

Development equipment design

Electrical infrastructure

Embedded microcontrollers

Engineering technology

Environmental building

Fire control

Fluid power

Geotechnical engineering

Ground source heat pump

Hazardous material incident

Industrial hygiene

Instrumentation development

Manufacturing systems

Materials science

Safety

Security in emergencies

Systems process and management

DEPARTMENTS AND DEGREE OPTIONS

Construction Management

• Building option

• Heavy option

Electrical Engineering Technology

• Computer option

Fire Protection and Safety Technology

INTERIM HEAD

Supporting Success

$2.1 million of CEAT scholarships help ease students’ worries, enhance their paths

IN THE UPCOMING 2014-15 ACADEMIC YEAR, OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY’S COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY WILL AWARD MORE THAN 980 SCHOLARSHIPS TO STUDENTS WORTH $2.1 MILLION. IT’S AN INVESTMENT IN STUDENTS AND THE FUTURE.

These scholarships would not be possible without the help and support of generous donors who give back to the school. Because of their generosity, this $2.1 million helps students reach their financial and career goals.

The money is awarded through 101 different departmental scholarship funds and 58 CEAT scholarship funds to incoming freshman, transfer and continuing students within CEAT. The 58 scholarships supporting these students include awards such as the DOLESE SCHOLARSHIP, as well as programs such as the PHILLIPS 66 SHIELD SCHOLARS PROGRAM

The Dolese Scholarship provides aid to undergraduate students who are majoring in engineering and in good academic standing. About 60 percent of the Dolese funds support students that have significant financial need. This scholarship will be awarded to more than 350 CEAT students for the 2014-2015 academic year, and funds range from $1000 to $3000 per student.

ZACHARY DEMARCO, a civil engineer senior, received a Dolese scholarship for the 2013-1014 school year.

“My biggest goal, is to graduate without student loans,” DeMarco says. “So every time I get a scholarship, I’m one step closer to meeting that. I have one year left, and it’s looking good.”

For most of these students, a scholarship means more than money; it means time. Without financial aid, many

students would be forced to take out loans or work part-time or full-time jobs. Scholarships allow students to focus on their education and not stress about its cost.

JORDAN THOMAS, a chemical engineer senior who qualified for the Dolese Scholarship for the upcoming 20142015 year, already sees the benefits of this financial support in her life.

“I currently work three jobs,” says Thomas. “With the help of this scholarship, I will only need to work two. This is a huge stress off of my shoulders, and a huge financial burden lifted.”

Donors also support several scholars programs such as the Phillips 66 SHIELD Scholars Program. This program supports 10-12 CEAT students each year who are interested in the energy industry and are majoring in chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, fire protection safety technology, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering or materials engineering.

It offers a $3,500 scholarship, plus mentorship, professional development, enrichment activities, community service and cultural events. The program explains it best with its full name, Students Heightening Involvement in Education, Learning and Development Students must be involved in community service and activities that focus on leadership and service learning while maintaining a 3.5 or greater GPA in sophomore — through senior-level classes.

ALEXANDRA POND, a mechanical engineer senior and SHIELD Scholar, has benefited from the program in many ways.

“I have had several opportunities arise since I received this scholarship,” Pond says. “Not only have I been able to

attend several cultural and community events with other scholarship recipients, but I have also accepted a summer internship with Phillips 66 at its refinery in Ponca City.”

ANTHONY GASKILL, an electrical engineer senior and SHIELD Scholar, has seen the program enrich his college experience.

Part of the SHIELD’s program includes mentorship and interaction with Phillips 66. Last spring, Gaskill attended a leadership seminar at the SHIELD Scholars’ forum, where he learned about the history of Phillips 66 and networked with current employees.

The scholarships provided to these students create a path, both directly and indirectly, to help them achieve their dreams.

DeMarco works as an intramural sports supervisor. Because of his Dolese Scholarship, he was able to work less and spend more time with various organizations. This past year, he was president of Oklahoma State Officials Association, which further trains OSU student officials in intramural sports, and joined the American Society of Civil Engineers. Both of those helped prepare him for his future career, where he would someday like to be a project manager.

“I think my leadership experience has set in place a management position in my future career,” says DeMarco. “Any time not spent working [to pay for school], I can spend in these associations, which will help me get the job I want.”

Thomas hopes her degree takes her to South America, where she wants to do mission work through water purification. Ultimately, she wants to give back to the world she lives in by helping people who are less fortunate than herself. By having a Dolese scholarship, she can get there with less stress and more money.

“This scholarship helps me because it allows me to be less stressed and stay in better health,” Thomas says. “It will also help me graduate with fewer loans, so I can afford to do mission work when I graduate.”

Pond hopes to stay in Oklahoma after graduation and find a job working as a proposal or applications engineer. She also has plans outside the engineering world. Being a SHIELD Scholar is helping her start out with less debt.

“I’d also like to run a business and own a boutique,” Pond says. “This scholarship is helping me reach my goals by providing funds for my undergraduate degree.”

Gaskill has seen a large need for young engineers in the electrical utility field and hopes to fill that need with his innovation. He hopes to help design the next generation of power grids in the U.S. Through the SHIELD program, he’s been able to connect with engineers who can help him get where he wants to be.

“I hope to help make the grid smarter and more adaptable for new energy sources such as solar, wind and hydroelectric,” Gaskill says. “This scholarship has allowed me to interact with other engineers in the power field. This has allowed me to expand my network of fellow engineers.”

Without the support of the donors who generously give to CEAT scholarship funds, these students would not have experienced countless opportunities. Donors help create the future by allowing students to pursue education without the stress of worrying about how they will pay for it. Every dollar given helps students reach their dreams of providing water to third-world countries, improving eco-friendly energy, training future supervisors and creating new businesses.

“I always make sure to come across grateful for everything,” says DeMarco. “I hope one day, I can return that favor and help someone else accomplish their educational goals through scholarship support.”

Dolese gift helps college expand

The largest gift ever made to an OSU academic unit has increased support for engineering students, expanded the rolls of aspiring engineers and fostered innovation in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology.

DOLESE BROS. CO. split a stock gift worth approximately $210 million among OSU, Kansas State University and the University of Oklahoma. In addition to gaining shares worth about $70 million, the schools became a nonvoting majority shareholder in Oklahoma’s largest supplier of ready-mix concrete, crushed stone, gravel and sand.

The gift was rolled out privately at OSU in 2010 and has since contributed to a 30 percent enrollment spike in engineering disciplines. It has also led to a commitment to hiring more faculty.

CEAT DEAN PAUL TIKALSKY says Dolese’s generosity will help OSU meet the needs of the state, region and nation.

“These graduates are the intellectual capital for growing companies throughout the nation and building a strong economy,” Tikalsky says.

“Young engineers are leading the next generation in building a more sustainable world, creating new entrepreneurial business, improving medicine, securing our nation, advancing new energy resources and efficiencies and developing systems that deliver goods and services to every nation,” he says. “This gift will benefit engineering students generations to come by funding new scholarships each year to help students succeed.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HOW YOU CAN HELP THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY, CONTACT SANDI BLISS, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, AT SBLISS@OSUGIVING.COM OR 405-564-4378

“This gift will benefit engineering students for generations to come.”

— CEAT Dean Paul Tikalsky

35

National Conference Comes Home

CEAT Student Council welcomes representatives from 44 schools to OSU

“STAKE YOUR CLAIM” This theme came to embody a host of emotions and accomplishments for the Oklahoma State University College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology’s Student Council during the 2014 National Association of Engineering Student Councils National Conference, held in April in Stillwater.

NAESC is the official overarching body for all engineering student councils throughout the nation. The head organization provides individual resources and developmental advice for nearly 50 undergraduate councils nationwide. The annual national conference draws members of those councils, sponsors and volunteers.

In planning the conference, the OSU executive team hoped to showcase the current works of OSU CEAT as well as the economic prosperity, rich history and cheerful nature of the entire state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma and OSU have a storied legacy of innovation coupled with an immense melding of cultural perspectives. The aim was to inspire all attendees to respect the beauty and the pride we as Oklahomans have for our heritage while recognizing the vast frontier awaiting the next generation of leaders.

The 2014 conference drew more than 250 students, sponsors and volunteers from 44 different institutions from the United States and abroad. The CEAT Student Council opened the festivities with a unique rendition of the state song “Oklahoma!” to an audience radiating the same excitement that the settlers did long ago. The opening ceremony also included an engineering rap by the CEAT Freshman Council and a keynote address by Assistant Dean Ed Kirtley.

Members of engineering student councils from across the country gather at a banquet in the Chase Building hosted by the Oklahoma City Petroleum Club as part of the 2014 National Association of Engineering Student Councils National Conference.

The culmination of the conference on Saturday evening embodied the resurgent and vibrant culture of Oklahoma on the dawn of a new horizon in downtown Oklahoma City.

Attendees immersed themselves in various council chats and informational sessions to collaborate and brainstorm ideas about council development. Attendees also learned professional development skills from some of the most renowned industry leaders. Corporate sponsors interacted with students and conveyed advice about effective communication skills, career building strategies and professional ethics.

Attendees also experienced the rustic and western culture that Oklahoma is known for. Nightly functions allowed the attendees to meet and connect with each other in more colloquial settings. Friday evening took the entire group to the White Barn Estates in Stillwater, where a traditional Cowboy barbeque was held. Former CEAT Student Council President Brian Engelman spoke about the balance between personal and professional life with personal anecdotes and witty demonstrations. Following that keynote address, the banquet hall was cleared and members of OSU’s council demonstrated another invaluable life skill: country two-step dance lessons. The group danced deep into the Oklahoma evening.

The culmination of the conference on Saturday evening embodied the resurgent and vibrant culture of Oklahoma on the dawn of a new horizon in downtown Oklahoma City. Following a presentation by Oklahoma City’s City Council, a walking tour covered the developing modern downtown district.

That evening, the Oklahoma City Petroleum Club hosted a banquet at the Chase Building. An industrial panel comprised of engineers throughout their careers, ranging from new hire to senior project manager, provided perspective and advice on how to navigate a path through one’s professional career. Purdue University and the University of Pittsburg were recognized as the Best Overall Large and Small Council (respectively) at the conference awards ceremony.

“… I want to make sure people know that geothermal is a great unbelievable heating and cooling system when it is used in the right application.”

Nationwide Notice

STORY BY JANET F. REEDER / PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN O’CONNOR / THIS OLD HOUSE

OSU technology highlighted on ‘This Old House’

Ground-source heat pump installations in homes in the colder reaches of the American Northeast, has been popular, though not widespread, for years. The technology and its outstanding energy savings are both already established. But getting notice from a national television program of the caliber of PBS’ This Old House for a geothermal project is definitely new. And it is just exactly the kind of public exposure and credibility the technology, as well as the industry, needs to help spread the word.

The energy-efficient technology advocated by the Environmental Protection Agency and supported by the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association is gaining in popularity around the world. IGSHPA provides training nationwide; Geo Outlook , a quarterly trade magazine; and a national conference annually to promote, train and educate about the technology.

A COTTAGE OUTSIDE ESSEX, MASS., WAS RETROFITTED WITH A GEOTHERMAL HEAT PUMP SYSTEM ON THIS OLD HOUSE .

— Ross Trethewey

A geothermal project in Massachusetts that involved IGSHPA members and the show cast from the popular home improvement television show brought the association, the industry and the technology to weekend television. It also placed an important footprint for geothermal technology online at www. thisoldhouse.com. The show originally aired in February 2013 but is still being rerun in different regions of the country. Episodes can be seen at the show’s website.

This Old House crewmembers included regulars NORM ABRAM, TOM SILVA, RICHARD TRETHEWEY, ROGER COOK and show host KEVIN O’CONNOR .

This project covers the transformation of an English-style cottage from neglected to an accessible, stylish and energyefficient home. The quaint 1935 cottage belongs to John and Julie Corcoran, who purchased it to remodel into an aging-in-place residence for Julie’s parents. The home renovation, which included a geothermal retrofitting, is in the Cape Ann area near Essex, Mass.

All of this fell in place because Richard Trethewey of the Emmy Award-winning series had worked on other projects with IGSHPA member and marketing chair JACK DIENNA. DiEnna, a long-term geothermal advocate, is also executive director of the Geothermal National and International Initiative and always looking for ways to promote the geothermal industry.

He called on and recommended other IGSHPA members to make the project happen. ROGER SKILLINGS, an IGSHPA dealer/contractor and accredited installer and driller out of Amherst, New Hampshire, was contracted by the show for the heat-exchange work. DiEnna also sought a heat pump manufacturer that would donate the system. IGSHPA Advisory Council member and CEO of Enertech Global LLC STEVE SMITH stepped up.

An Enertech heat pump, a Hydron twostage 3-ton, water-to-water unit using 410A refrigerant, was selected for the project. Radiant floor heat is used to heat the home.

Richard Trethewey’s son, renewable energy specialist ROSS TRETHEWEY, consulted on the geothermal installation and designed the geothermal system from the ground loop heat exchanger to the loop manifolding and pump.

“The system is a perfect match for that type of house, and it is going to work great,” Ross Trethewey says.

Skillings and Sons Inc. put in two 350-foot closed loops for the cottage and another for the carriage house in its most unusual drilling project. Roger Skillings says the experience added some notoriety to his crew and challenged them daily with all of the stopping and reshooting to capture the video of the drilling. He says his crew is used to staying “hard at it” to get the drilling done. He had to coach them to be patient.

and well system and think about how we were going to heat and cool the building,” he says, explaining that information drives the mechanical system planning.

“You have to do a heating and cooling load on a building to know how much energy it is going to need to heat it and how much energy it is going to take to cool it. Otherwise, you are just guessing,” Trethewey says.

“Computer systems are very smart these days. Controlling is very sophisticated,” he says. “You put that all together, and with all the right inputs from the architect, from the homeowner, from the builder — and you can basically come up with the game plan and direction on how that building can be heated and cooled.”

“[Radiant floor heat] is a perfect fit for a water-to-water heat pump. You can’t get much better than hydronic floor heat matching up radiant and water-to-water for heating,” Trethewey says. “That is why I want to make sure people know

“Filming is different. They are never satisfied with the first shoot and have to repeat it,” Skillings says. He says geothermal is still in its infancy in the heating and cooling world in the Northeast. “The neat thing is that this gives geothermal some real publicity.”

Ross Trethewey first needed to establish a heating and cooling load. “Once we got that, then we could design the geo system

that geothermal is a great unbelievable heating and cooling system when it is used in the right application.”

The This Old House Essex project did a great job of bringing ground-source technology to a huge audience by spotlighting the project. It gave homeowners and contractors real information about applying the technology in residential remodeling projects. And it all came back to IGSHPA and OSU.

THE SKILLINGS AND SONS CREW WORKS TO GET IT RIGHT FOR THIS OLD HOUSE CAMERAMAN STEVE “DINO” D’ONOFRIO. DOUG SKILLINGS IS ON THE TRUCK, AND PAT CHAMBERLAIN IS HANDLING THE LOOP COMING OFF THE REEL.

Investing in Oklahoma Manufacturing

New Product Development Center teams up on $1.1 million project

Manufacturing plays a key role in Oklahoma’s economy, boosting the state’s revenue, creating new jobs and enhancing capital investment. In turn, that boosts the national manufacturing industry.

Teams such as the OKLAHOMA MANUFACTURING ALLIANCE, THE OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT CENTER AND THE OKLAHOMA CENTER FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY strive to improve Oklahoma’s manufacturers through economic development initiatives and manufacturing improvement programs.

The OMA and NPDC completed a National Institute of Standards and Technology ECAR project in September 2013. The project was a three-year, $1.1

million grant proposal funded by NIST, which grants awards to manufacturing extension partnership teams that provide the biggest impact and technological change.

In 2010, an ECAR award was granted to the OMA and the OSU NPDC for its proposal for sustainable manufacturing innovations and designs and how these teams focus on the practical technology needed in the manufacturing industry.

CHUCK PRUCHA, president of the OMA, fully supports the work of the OMA and NPDC and its innovations through ECAR.

“Much of what we do at the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance improves a company’s bottom line by increasing efficiency through Lean Manufacturing

concepts,” Prucha says. “But that’s only half the solution. For a firm to be successful, it must expand its markets and innovate. That improves the top line and that is the role of the NPDC.”

The NPDC is a multidisciplinary organization working with small and medium-size manufacturers across Oklahoma. The center’s goal is to improve the economic development and product innovation for rural manufacturers, so companies can become more competitive.

Through the ECAR program, NPDC design engineers assisted manufacturers in developing proposals for state and federal funding, helped with the introduction of new products and provided process innovation support for small manufacturing companies in Oklahoma.

“Using the resources of NPDC, Oklahoma companies can survive and thrive when they otherwise might not have.”

— Chuck Prucha

These ECAR-funded initiatives helped revolutionize productions and processes to keep manufacturers competitive in the marketplace.

JENNIFER VINYARD, a senior design engineer for NPDC, was leading this product revolution.

“ECAR helped Oklahoma manufacturers hire more individuals, increase profit margins and capital, and keep money in Oklahoma,” Vinyard says.

In addition to keeping money in Oklahoma, the ECAR grant created and improved 79 projects; 64 companies were positively affected by ECAR. The program created 117 jobs and retained 90 jobs. Additionally, the grant generated capital investment of more than $3.3 million and avoided unnecessary investments by more than $6.8 million.

The program also resulted in a change in sales of more than $34 million and retention of sales of $31 million. Overall, ECAR had a cost savings of more than $9 million over the three-year program.

The ECAR program was instrumental in the NPDC’s growth to five, full-time employees and 30 students. Student interns gained real-world experiences by helping develop products and solve problems. The students brought creative, fresh ideas and positive energy to new product or process development for the manufacturer. The program created an

environment where students from engineering and business disciplines were working directly with Oklahoma companies on manufacturing innovation projects. This gives the students a level of on-the-job training while still in school.

ROBERT TAYLOR, a research professor and the NPDC director, is proud of the hard work and accomplishments of the staff and student interns at the center.

“With the supervision of staff members, students analyzed and redesigned manufacturing products,” Taylor says. “These products are more affordable, reliable and durable now because of the work of our team.”

HEATHER LEWIS, a design engineer for NPDC, participated in the studentintern program with ECAR.

“Because of ECAR, students have developed a real-world application of engineering and developing product solutions to impact the economy,” Lewis says. “They have gained experience with mechanical and chemical design and analysis and research testing.”

The OMA and NPDC team is excited about the future economic impacts for the manufacturing industry. The initial connection through ECAR has given OMA and NPDC ties to future grant opportunities to continue economic development and manufacturing improvement

Design engineers from the New Product Development Center work on a National Institute of Standards and Technology ECAR project to create new sustainable manufacturing innovations for use throughout the industry.

in Oklahoma. ECAR is clearly paving the way for continuous innovations for the manufacturing industry.

However, ECAR did more than just boost the economy; it also brought federal money to the state of Oklahoma for economic development. As a result of this grant, many company relationships have developed that continue to foster proposal generation.

“The NPDC, Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance and OCAST team has been supporting proposal development for both small and medium-sized companies throughout the state as part of a joint economic development effort to increase federal awards to state-based companies,” Taylor says. “In the development process, the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance identifies clients with a technology need and guides the client through the proposal process. The NPDC and OCAST bring proposal development expertise to the process and foster research teaming efforts to aid in the development of a successful pitch to the federal government.”

The NPDC team fosters innovation and provides helpful change to Oklahoma manufacturers.

“Using the resources of NPDC, Oklahoma companies can survive and thrive when they otherwise might not have,” Prucha says.

A 3-D Approach

Early engineering course gives students experience with latest technology

klahoma State University’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology strives to stay multifaceted in modern technology and trends for learning.

One of the newest methods available for CEAT students is the 3-D engineering printing lab.

“The 3-D printing allowed for the assignment to have a high level of complexity,” McDermott says. “We were able to take the project as far and as complex as we wanted.”

Hays supervised and supported the students during the course. He provided guidance for students as they brainstormed and designed different 3-D structures.

“The course allowed students to create their own proposals, and it became their pride and joy,” Hays says. “The assignment allowed for more accidental learning in a positive way. Some students even took it above and beyond the course requirements and learned additional skills that are taught in upper-level courses.”

ANNA O’HARE, a freshman engineering student, enjoyed the hands-on learning experience.

OSU opened the 3-D printing lab with 10 printers for the ENGR 1332 course this year. The printing lab was funded by a student tech fee grant and will be fully equipped for six years.

ENGR 1332 introduces students to engineering design using modern design methods and computer-aided tools for mechanical and aerospace engineering. The design, construction and testing is through participation in a multidisciplinary teambased design project contest.

THOMAS HAYS is the ENGR 1332 instructor who introduced the engineering students to modern design methods.

“Providing constructive learning opportunities to engineering students is important because it gives them an opportunity to apply theory to practical applications,” Hays says.

Groups of five individuals submitted a proposal to the instructor for review. The groups with the winning ideas would design the models with the 3-D printer.

The 3-D models are created with SolidWorks 3-D CAD software, then converted to a file format for use on the 3-D printers. The printers take the drafted designs and create them with ABS and PLA filaments. The printer heats the filaments to provide a pliable material to print the plastic layer by layer and as it cools, it molds and seals together.

There were 11 completed projects during the semester. Projects included a servo-operated low cost prosthetic hand (pictured left), a small working bicycle, a 3-D printed chess set (pictured above), a robot model (pictured right), a mechanical clock and others.

DANIEL McDERMOTT , a sophomore engineering student, was a member of one of the successful idea groups.

“The project allowed each group to take what could have been a boring assignment and care about our work because there were no restrictions,” O’Hare says. “We were getting to create something of our own.”

The assignment also gave students a sense of what the business world is like.

“The project exposed students to what a real-world product bid cycle is like,” Hays says. “A key part of engineering to implement scenarios that are constructive to the real world. So this class approach allowed students to refine their technique, which will benefit them as they grow older and continue to study in the college.”

MALLORY PENCE

“Be willing to make decisions. That is the most important quality in a good leader.” — George S. Patton

Building Leadership

Oklahoma Fire Service adds formal training program

The Oklahoma Fire Service has been in the decision-making business for many years. It just comes with the territory.

In January 2013, Oklahoma State University’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology; OSU Fire Service Training; Council on Firefighter Training; Oklahoma Fire Chiefs Association; Oklahoma State Firefighters Association; and other Oklahoma fire leaders, under the guidance of Assistant Dean ED KIRTLEY, began to implement a formal leadership and ethics program into the Oklahoma Fire Service.

“FST is proud to have been able to bring this leadership program forward for consideration,” says Kirtley, former OSU Fire Service Training director.

“As the state training agency in Oklahoma, we are proud to work with all of our training partners to bring this program to the market and make it available for the current and future leaders of the Oklahoma Fire Service,” says OSU Fire Service Training Director DR. ERICK REYNOLDS

The planning team, after reviewing many different programs, chose a leadership and ethics training program developed by the INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS INSTITUTE. This program offered a well-developed, focused approach to instructing people in leadership and ethics, and its principles could be applied to almost any type of organization.

The curriculum consists of 160 hours of facilitated learning. It is an interactive, student-based program with a focus on learning activities in which the student is an active player. The overall program was designed by public safety professionals with the support of the PHI

THETA KAPPA INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

THE FOUR COURSES IN THE PROGRAM ARE EACH 40 HOURS LONG: DEVELOPING A PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY OF LEADERSHIP aims to give the student a deeper understanding of self as it relates to leadership philosophies, knowledge, skills and abilities for effective and ethical leadership.

LEADING OTHERS ETHICALLY offers the knowledge, skills and abilities to effectively and ethically lead others.

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS provides a deeper understanding of the knowledge, skills and abilities for effective organizational leadership.

In ETHICS AND THE CHALLENGE OF LEADERSHIP, students correlate values and characteristics to complex ethical decision-making models. Students will also examine challenges and develop strategies for exercising leadership in public safety organizations serving diverse and dynamic communities.

The coursework includes works from such historical figures as Plato, Socrates, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other noted authors in leadership and ethics. Some of the videos offering leadership perspectives included in this program are Oh Brother Where Art Thou; Dave; The Lion King; The Contender; A Few Good Men; Citizen X; Crimson Tide; A Bug’s Life; Patton; Twelve O’Clock High; Remember the Titans; Cider House Rules; Billy Budd; and The Bridge on the River Kwai.

The application process mirrors that of the National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer program. The initial Oklahoma Executive Fire Officer Leadership Program has 20 members representing fire departments in Broken Arrow, Claremore, Edmond, El Reno, Guthrie, Moore, Mustang, Norman, Oklahoma City, Pryor, Seiling, Stillwater and Tulsa. Two volunteer firefighters are also in the class ranks.

Program facilitators come from many fire departments in Oklahoma and even Rogers, Ark., bringing hundreds of years of leadership experience in fire service.

CHRIS NEAL, a facilitator for the first course, says: “The Oklahoma Executive Fire Officer Leadership Program was developed and has successfully arisen to prepare exceptional leaders of change. I have no doubt that we’ll look back years from now at this time as a watershed moment that began a radical, positive shift in our state’s fire service culture, and ‘excellence’ will be both our evidence and our mantra.”

“The future of fire and emergency services presents a multitude of challenges to deliver exceptional services to our communities,” says Jarett Metheny, lead facilitator for the first course. “The challenges range from recruitment and development of personnel to budgetary issues to changing community risk. To address these challenges, future leaders need not only excellent technical skills but also leadership skills. The Oklahoma Executive Fire Officer Leadership Program is a unique, humanities-based approach for fire officers to develop and practice their ability to exercise leadership.”

“I have no doubt that we’ll look back years from now at this time as a watershed moment that began a radical, positive shift in our state’s fire service culture, and ‘excellence’ will be both our evidence and our mantra.” — Chris Neal

theUppingExperience

Students in OSU’s FabLab widen their circle of knowledge

The Mechanical Engineering Technology Lab in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology has grown to a fully functional laboratory from a humble beginning with donated equipment in 2006 under the direction of associate professor WARREN LEWIS

“FabLab operates like a working hospital,” says Lewis. “Students are supervised by professional engineering staff while operating under standard business practices. The long-term goal is to have 30-40 interns a year.”

“The FabLab at OSU is a rather unique facility as it provides a cross-cutting platform to provide instruction and training on design and manufacturing technologies,” says DR. RAMAN SINGH, associate dean of academic affairs for CEAT. “Such facilities are not common. In addition, the OSU FabLab has implemented a number of practices to provide a truly professional experience for our students.”

On the academic side, the lab can offer modules for all CEAT units. It also provides trained staffing support for academic units, Lewis says.

“We currently have 16 labs for two schools within CEAT-Industrial Engineering and Mechanical Engineering Technology,” says JEREMY CROCKER, FabLab developer and former intern. “We take the virtual and theoretical world and integrate them into hands-on instruction by using computer tablets utilizing videos and instructional presentation to create an interactive lab experience at the machine work station. This unique application, termed ELI (Electronic Laboratory Instructor), represents a step change from traditional classroom instruction to self-paced content with a rich electronic delivery of training.”

“The potential for the FabLab is the growth in the use of FabLab by all our academic programs. The goal is that faculty will see this as a collaborative solution creating interactive experiences, not just as creating metal.” — Ed Kirtley, assistant

dean, outreach and education

“Students watch online videos before class, take a quiz when they walk in the door and then move onto the lab activity utilizing ELI,” Crocker adds. “This allows the students to answer small questions on their own and frees us to answer key questions that will help them make the jump from theory to reality.”

Students are learning concepts with the latest technology.

“With the ELI instruction, students are not just hitting green continue buttons that allow them to make it all the way through the material without demonstrating an understanding of the concept,” says Crocker. “There are built-in places in the ELI application that require the students to demonstrate or explain verbally to instructors what was covered in the software. This allows for safety and accountability within the program. If needed, instructors can make students review the section again before continuing on to the next section.”

ALWAYS IMPROVING

The lab is always in a continuous improvement process, according to Crocker. What is taught one semester won’t necessarily be what is taught the next semester because the staff is continually looking at how to improve the student and industry experience.

“The potential for the FabLab is the growth in the use of FabLab by all our academic programs,” says ED KIRTLEY, assistant dean of outreach and education for CEAT. “The goal is that faculty will see this as a collaborative solution creating interactive experiences, not just as creating metal.”

FabLab also embraces the outreach component of the land-grant mission.

“The outreach component consists of taking technology into the field for those who can use it,” Kirtley says. “The FabLab provides outreach opportunities for companies who need work done to get it done. Students are part of the process by developing the project, creating a budget and doing the work.”

Students can start as an intern at the FabLab as a freshman and work until they graduate. As an intern, students work with researchers, businesses and entrepreneurs in developing products for which a company lacks the resources.

Interns are involved in the whole process from the start of working with design modules and designing products to shipping the product in a way that upholds the integrity of the project.

“Sometimes, researchers can be focused on the theory and not necessarily the manufacturability of a design,” Crocker says. “Interns walk through the design and have an open dialogue with researchers about design aspects that will or will not work for manufacturing. Students work with the researchers to enhance the design’s feasibility and functionality while simultaneously preparing to perform the fabrication of the design at the FabLab.”

‘WIN-WIN SITUATION’

Students will enter the workforce with real-life experiences from the internship, Kirtley says.

“This is a win-win situation that takes the latest technology to the industry and helps solve their problems,” Kirtley says. “Students get the opportunity to be involved in real-life projects they will be using when they enter the workforce. Students are engaged in learning where they don’t talk about projects, they do projects.”

Students learn more than the manufacturing process at the FabLab.

“At the FabLab, we are not making students machinists or welders, we are introducing students to engineering concepts at work,” Crocker says.

There is room for more engineering classes to utilize the FabLab.

“The lab is continuing to grow larger and larger as more faculty engage in the process,” Lewis says. “We need to see our students as valued resources and not just students. CEAT and OSU can benefit from this resource today and tomorrow.”

The FabLab offers a professional, clean environment, similar to industry standards. Students work well in the FabLab environment due to their determination and ability to see projects in a different way.

“Students are willing to go the extra mile with projects,” Crocker says. “It is eye-opening to students to see the design for manufacturing side of things. As an intern, I was thrown into complex projects where I had to work with outside suppliers and vendors to transform a conceptual design into reality. This collaborative process is merely hinted at in traditional curriculum, but at the FabLab, we are able to focus on that process.

“Fires spark in students that allow them to learn how to apply theory in a working environment. Not all students are driven by math and science; rather, they may be driven by the process of design or something as abstract as culture.”

EARLY BEGINNINGS

Because students can begin the program their freshman year, they have the invaluable opportunity to add extensive work experience to their portfolio.

“We like to catch the interns as freshmen so they can get as much exposure and work as possible,” Crocker says. “Those with a special quality in machining could be … teaching assistants. Students

have come from professor Lewis’ classes in the past, but he is in the process of working with other professors in engineering to identify potential interns. We do not care what department or discipline students come from as long as they are driven to excel. We want to help students reach their full potential.”

FabLab interns can help professors with research projects as well.

“Our college needs to have a facility to support the research our faculty is working on,” says Lewis. “Normally, researchers have to find resources to be able to do the work for the research area. FabLab provides these resources and engages undergraduate students with research.”

Students provide an additional benefit to researchers, too.

“We have brilliant professors at OSU, but it doesn’t hurt to have someone else look at a design and ask what if,” Crocker says. “Students are great at asking what if, and this can enhance the researcher’s design.”

A current research project at the FabLab is developing water pumps for third-world countries. Students are developing low-cost, dependable water pump components that can be manufactured locally in these countries. Students are refining the seals and components of the pump to be manufactured using green technology that can also be locally sourced.

Other projects the FabLab has been involved in include the Extra Vehicular Activity educational museum kits for NASA, research tests stands for heartflow analysis and thickening of the heart wall, and the Manual Dexterity Exploration Station project for the KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

OUTSIDE PROJECTS

The FabLab has also worked with a manufacturing company that produces high-density polyethylene pipe to develop solutions to internal and commercial projects that are currently being used by the company.

The first project the FabLab did with this company was a general modification of the leveling carriage on a powered transport used in commercial pipe fusing. This modification enhanced the functionality and mobility of the leveling carriage. The second project consisted of a general redesign of an adjustable pipe stand to improve the functionality, transportation and cost of manufacturing. Both projects are in advanced stages of implementation by the company.

There is a benefit to employers who hire FabLab interns.

“Students who intern at FabLab and are hired in the industry save businesses thousands of dollars because the students are ready to go to work and they do not have to be trained to do the job,” Lewis says. “In the FabLab, we treat workers like they will be treated in industry. Students get a taste of real world life working in the FabLab.”

Professor Lewis has a continuing vision for the future of FabLab.

“We are expanding class offerings and content while increasing the student involvement,” he says. “Industry and donations continue to allow the FabLab to evolve into the premier training facility in the nation. The preparation of students to go to industry and be the best will continue.”

The Transportation Intern Program in the CENTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY, an outreach unit of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, has placed 32 undergraduate and graduate students in paid summer internships over the last five years.

The internships are with local and tribal government transportation agencies for students with transportation-related majors. This program provides students with learning experiences related to their academic coursework and local and tribal governments get valuable work that benefits the community. It also fosters employment for students as local government transportation professionals after graduation, demonstrates principles and practices taught by CLGT’s LOCAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE and S OUTHERN PLAINS TRIBAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS, addresses diversity issues in transportation and creates cultural exchanges between students and the communities they serve.

A Win-Win for All

STORY BY DOUGLAS WRIGHT / PHOTOS BY CLGT

CLGT’s Transportation Intern Program provides education, job opportunities

Student interns’ accomplishments over three summers in Nowata County in Oklahoma from 2010 to 2012 are an example of the program’s best work. A student under the supervision of engineers at Circuit Engineering District 1 in Tulsa developed a protocol for the implementation of an asset management inventory in a rural county road district the first year. This student also began the implementation of the inventory in one of the three Nowata County road districts that summer.

During the summer of 2011, a student continued the inventory in the other two Nowata County road districts. During this time, another student also working under the supervision of engineers at CED1 analyzed the hydrology of the drainage structures inventoried during the previous summer.

A student completed the inventory and hydrology study in the remainder of the county in 2012. These students’ work made Nowata County the only county in the state that possessed this type of information at that time.

Alan Ting, a master’s candidate in civil and environmental engineering at Oklahoma State University, learns how to ride on the Nowata County, Okla., farm of Richard and Cindy Murphy. Ting, a native of Malaysia, interned with Nowata County the summer of 2012 and completed an asset management inventory and hydrology study begun by interns the previous two summers. He also lived with the Murphy family.

DOUGLAS WRIGHT

Nowata County commissioners now know what they own. When drainage structures, such as culvert pipes, are lost due to damage, flooding or development, they know the correct size to replace the structure with. County commissioners from Mayes, Delaware and Pawnee County understood the importance of gathering and determining this information and requested interns in subsequent summers to perform similar work.

As a result of the success of these interns’ work, the director of the Oklahoma Cooperative Circuit Engineering Districts Board requested an intern for the summer of 2014 to develop educational materials that will facilitate inventories of this type on county road systems throughout Oklahoma.

These internships create “win-win” situations for the students and the hosting agencies. Students experience the realworld application of skills and practices learned in their academic course work. They are also exposed to the day-to-day

workings of public transportation agencies, as well as learn to understand operational procedures and management practices. The agencies have available to them an employee with skills and abilities far beyond what they would normally be able to hire on a part-time basis in the summer. These programs help students demonstrate the importance of principles and practices to local and tribal government officials.

An additional benefit of these internships is in recruiting students for employment with transportation agencies after graduation. Traditionally, it has been difficult for these agencies, particularly those located in rural areas of the state, to attract professionals for employment. Several TIP interns from the first four years of operation of the program have been directly or indirectly employed with their host agencies after graduation.

Diversity is also addressed, in that students serve both tribal governments and local governments that work directly with tribal governments. Students also work in economically disadvantaged areas of the state.

Another benefit of the TIP internships has been the cultural exchanges that develop between the agencies, communities and the student interns.

The program has been of tremendous benefit to both students and communities served. The Transportation Intern Program brings classroom lessons to life by creating a win-win situation for all involved.

DOUGLAS WRIGHT IS DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY IN THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY AT OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY.

Agbetunsin Olugbemi, a civil and environmental engineering major at Oklahoma State University, turned his 2011 summer internship with Circuit Engineering District No. 8 into a fulltime position after graduation.

Benjamin Partain collects the location of a low-water crossing using a handheld GPS receiver for an asset management inventory and hydrology study he conducted on the Mayes County road system. Partain, a civil and environmental engineering major at Oklahoma State University, interned with Mayes County in Oklahoma during the summer of 2013.

Brice Fiddler, a civil and environmental engineering major at Oklahoma State University, delivers his end-of-internship report in August 2012 after his summer internship with Miami, Okla.

Reflections on Development

CEAT’s Foundation team offers thoughts on Branding Success

The BRANDING SUCCESS: THE CAMPAIGN FOR OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY has had a direct and lasting impact on the future of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The development team for CEAT has experienced this impact most directly by working with many of the donors who have made the campaign so meaningful for students, faculty and alumni.

BLISS

SANDI

JILL BLAKE JILL JOHNSON

WAYS TO GIVE TO CEAT

OUTRIGHT GIFTS go to scholarship/fellowship, faculty support or programs.

ENDOWMENTS provide continuing assistance for OSU students, faculty and staff and create a lasting legacy in your name.

SCHOLARSHIPS offer financial assistance for undergraduate students.

FELLOWSHIPS offer financial assistance for graduate students.

CHAIRS provide financial assistance to honor an elite faculty member.

PROFESSORSHIPS provide financial assistance to recognize a professor as a distinguished faculty member.

PLANNED GIFTS include those from an estate plan, life insurance, annuity, trust or other planned gifts.

SANDI BLISS Senior Director of Development

As I look back at my six years in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, I am truly grateful for the generosity CEAT alumni and friends have shown. The impact of these gifts for the college is transformational. During my time in CEAT, I have had the opportunity to work with two remarkable deans: KARL REID and now PAUL TIKALSKY. Under Dean Tikalsky’s leadership, the college is poised for success, with the newly created CEAT Student Excellence Center — a space that will provide a specific area for CEAT students to work and study together. The next phase of investment under the bold vision of Dean Tikalsky is a new undergraduate lab building. I am excited about the future of the college and look forward to continued work with CEAT alumni and friends who want to invest in the college’s future successes.

JILL JOHNSON Senior Director of Development

I feel honored to work at the OSU Foundation on behalf of DEAN PAUL TIKALSKY and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The dean has a progressive, student-centered vision, one that is easy to enthusiastically embrace. CEAT alumni and friends are excited to learn of the vision and generous with their support to be a part of the plan. I’m glad I can serve as a conduit between the college and alumni; I enjoy sharing the vision and forging relationships that will yield benefits for more than just alumni, friends and the college, but also for students, the community and the state. The connections to OSU are important; I am glad I can play a role in helping people connect or re-connect with OSU.

JILL BLAKE Constituent Relations Associate

As far back as I can remember, my mom taught me the importance of writing thank-you notes. I recently joined the OSU Foundation team as the constituent relations associate and have the pleasure of writing thank-you notes to CEAT donors. Dean Tikalsky and the CEAT professors are genuinely appreciative for your support. One professor shared with me, “We are grateful! We are grateful for every dollar that comes to CEAT.” I am uplifted and honored each day to be able to convey their heartfelt thanks to you. THANK YOU!

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HOW YOU CAN LEAVE A LEGACY AND SUPPORT CEAT, VISIT OSUGIVING.COM OR CALL SANDI OR JILL AT 800-622-4678

CEAT Donors 2013

THIS LISTING REFLECTS DONORS WHO HAVE GIVEN $1,000 OR MORE TO THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY AT OSU IN 2013.

$500,000 – $1.5 MILLION

Dolese Bros. Co.

Decker Dawson

$100,000 – $499,999

Chesapeake Energy

ExxonMobil *

Phillips 66 *

Sunderland Foundation/ Ash Grove Cement

$50,000 – $99,999

ASHRAE

ConocoPhillips *

Goss International Inc.

Jim and Pam Knight

Niagara Bottling LLC

Charles & Lynn Schusterman

Family Foundation

Phil and Ruth Terry

$25,000 – $49,999

Avery Dennison Corp.

BP *

Brady Corp.

Brueckner Group USA Inc.

Cessna OSU CEAT Alumni

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co.

DuPont

Paul and Pamela Crawford +

Gerard and Patricia Desormeau +

Joanne H. Lawrence

Procter & Gamble Co. *

Art M. Rigg +

Spirit Aerosystems Inc.

Gene and Lynne Smith

Ed and Claudia Stokes

Gary W. and Kerri Wilson +

Jim and Darlene Woodson

Brent and Mary Jane Wooten

Darton and Jamie Zink

$10,000 – $24,999

Abbott Laboratories *

Charles and Deborah Adams

AEP/Public Service Co. of Oklahoma

Gary D. and Judy Allen +

Ken and Maureen Barrett +

Chris and Andrea Beall

Bobby C. Blair +

Russal and Phyllis Brawley

Mark and Beth Brewer

CapSpire

Dennis and Gayle Collins + Dewberry

Extreme Environment Electronics LLC

Linda A. Foster

Halliburton Inc.

Kerry S. Havner

Holcim Inc.

KAO Family Foundation

Keystone Engineering and Land Surveying

Lambert Construction Co.

Material Handling Industry

National Council of Examiners for Engineering & Surveying

OG&E Energy Corp. *

Billy and Ann Oglesby +

James R. Penn +

Ashley G. Price +

K. Kamalakar Rao

Gary and Nancy Roberts

Bob and Jean Schuetz

Martha Seabolt

Megan M. Storm +

Thai Nguyen University of Technology

Steven and Linda Wegener

Eldon and Carol White +

$5,000 – $9,999

ABB Inc.

AGC of Oklahoma Building Chapter

AISC Education Foundation

John and Judy Brown +

Larry Blake and Kathy Cowan +

Paul L. and Mabel Caldwell +

John and Mary Clark

Michael and Patty Cowan

Jack E. Bobek +

Boeing *

Jim and LaVerna Cobb

Devon Energy Corp. *

Mark and Lee Ann Dickerson +

Kevin and Christine Dillow +

Dow Chemical Foundation *

Scott and LouAnn Edwards +

Jacque M. Fowler

Cameron P. Gaddy +

Steve and Julie Guy

Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa

William C. Hubbard

Edwin Malzahn

Lockheed Martin *

John and Carolyn Lawrence

Ed I. Lynch

Metcel LLC

Nabholz Construction Corp.

National Fire Protection Association

Kurt T. Nelson

Matt T. Nelson

Ray and Shirley Pappe

Bard W. Peevy

SGA Design Group

Thunderhead Testing LLC

Paul and Julie Tikalsky

Williams

$1000 – $4,999

Acme Brick Co. of Fort Worth, Texas

Adolfson & Peterson Construction

AIA Oklahoma

Balfour Beatty Construction

BASF

Boldt Co.

Bonavista Technologies Inc.

Burns & McDonnell

Engineering Co. Inc.

Caminos Fire LLC

Cantera Concrete Co.

Centennial Contractors Enterprises Inc.

Center for Life Safety Education

Central Oklahoma Section

Illuminating Engineering Society

Chevron *

CNA Foundation

Cooley Construction Inc.

Crossland Construction Co. Inc.

$1,000 – $4,999 CONTINUED

B.N. Suresh Babu and Sridevi Sureshbabu

Charles and Jeanne Bacon

Charles and Susan Heller

Cliff Clottey

Daniel and Frieda Grischkowsky +

Everett and Jean Thomas

Jim E. Cox

Karl and Verna Lou Reid

Kenneth and Karen Bell

Kevin and Vicki Ehlers

Lynn and Debbie Ebbesen

Moreland and Nancy Herrin

Richard L. Bush

Richard Weidner and Mee Mong Lee

Robert D. Kersten

FCI Constructors Inc.

Flintco LLC

Hensel Phelps Construction Co.

Intel Corp. *

JE Dunn Construction Co

Lauren Engineers & Constructors Inc.

Lithko Contracting Inc.

Manhattan Construction Co.

Marathon Oil Corp. *

McCarthy Building Cos. Inc.

Motiva Enterprises *

Mountain Top Enterprises LLC

A.J. and Ruth Meyer +

Adam J. Burns

William S. and Ann Atherton

Billy and Janan Martin

Brian and Brenda Price

Brian K. Rogers

Cary and B.J. DeHart

Charles and Carolyn Tobin

Charles and Lorene Williams

Charles and Yvonne Williams

Craig Henry and Cindy Schultz +

Daniel and Stacie Bierly

United Acoustics Inc.

David and Susanne Purvis +

David L. Hieronymus +

Derek and Stacie Wrobbel +

Don and Mary Pruitt

Donald and Janet Purvis

Donn Wooldridge

Doug and Barbara White +

Duoying and Yuan Yue Liu

Earl and Carolyn Glimp +

Edward and Valerie Hatley

Edward and Lauren Bond

Eric and Jennifer Hoffman

Gene and Roberta Myers

Glen and Diane Hicks +

Gregory and Martha Mooney

Howard and Wanda Flanders

James D. Waggoner

Jack H. and JoAnn Graham

Jack and Carol Corgan

James F. Jones +

CEC/Infrastructure Solutions

Joe D. Owen +

John and Carol Baker

Johnnie E. Boyle +

Jonathan D. Holden +

Ken and Janell Cooper

Kenneth and Mary Davey

Kent and Sheryl Powers

Kerry and Donna Gannaway

Kevin and Colette O’Brien

Ross Group Construction Corp.

Kim and Pam Ehlers

Lee and Grace Raney

Mark and Ann McWatters

Mark J. Marston

Matthew and Shannon Engelman

Michael and Sherolyn Reifel

Michael and Verna Gilbert

Mike and Anita Dossey +

Monty and Vickie Karns

Otis and Joyce Courtright

Patrick Z. and Joyce Wyers

Philip M. Maltby

Randy Seitsinger and Jeanne Homer

Richard and Rosemary Gray

Rick and Terry Bentley

Rick E. Lippert Jr.

Rick L. Sievert +

Robert G. Denyer

Roger and Karen Beecham

Ronald and Diana Orr

Ronald and Sherry White

Russell J. Miller +

Samir and Lucille Lawrence

Scott and Karen Greer

Lingo Construction Service Inc.

Steve and Becky Irby

Steve Huff

Tarek L. Radjef

Terry and Karen Stewart

Thomas and Kimberly Graham

Thomas and Martha Engle

Walter and Elaine Classen

William and Barbara Kelton

Bill and Jill Johnson

Jodie L. Millemon +

Marsha W. Slaughter

Sally A. Thomas

OK Structural Engineer Association

Pickard Chilton Architects Inc.

Poe & Associates Inc.

Raytheon Co. *

Sherwood Construction Co. Inc.

Stillwater RC Flyers

University of Tulsa

Walvoil Fluid Power Corp.

Younger-Holmes Electrical Contractors Inc.

Fluor Foundation *

BHP Billiton *

Jerry L. and Almeta Robertson +

Cary and Deborah Watson +

Charles R. and Vivian Yarbrough +

Dan and Andrea Novak

Danny R. and Melanie Blakely +

Fred C. and June Haub +

Jack L. and Susan Goertz +

Jason Kruska

Jeffrey and Dena Mojo +

John and Teresa Hendricks +

Kurt E. Metzinger +

Lee J and Marta Henderson +

Mark K. Kelley +

Michael R. and Alison Pinkston +

Neil J. and Katherine Ryan +

Robert K. and Susan Merkle +

William H. and Barbara Johnson +

Barney L. Ghiglieri +

Donald J. Ebbs Jr +

Lucas Spinazzola

Mary C. Funderburg +

Diana R. Grundmann

Southern Company Services *

Texas Instruments Inc. *

Textron *

DONORS WHO CHOSE ANONYMITY ARE NOT INCLUDED ON THIS LIST. WE REALIZE ERRORS CAN OCCUR. IF YOU SEE SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE CORRECTED, CONTACT JILL BLAKE AT 405-385-5156.

*COMPANY PARTICIPATING IN A MATCHING GIFT PROGRAM IN 2013

+INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPATING IN A COMPANY MATCH GIFT PROGRAM IN 2013

CEAT Hall of Fame Inductees

the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board and is a certified safety professional, certified protection professional and a charter member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (UK).

RIXIO MEDINA

Fire Protection and Safety Technology (associate, 1976; bachelor’s, 1977)

Vice president, southern business unit, AcuTech Consulting Group

RIXIO MEDINA is a native of Cabimas, Venezuela. Born in 1953, Medina credits his parents, Jacinto and Luz, with enabling his success. Their sacrifices and financial support allowed him to pursue his educational dreams in the United States.

He was inspired to attend OSU by an introduction to a fire chief who had received a degree in the Fire Protection and Safety Technology program at Oklahoma State University. Medina graduated with an associate degree in 1976 and a bachelor’s in 1977 in Fire Protection and Safety Technology from OSU. In 1982, he completed his master’s degree in industrial science at Central Missouri State University (now the University of Central Missouri).

He has held several positions for companies including Mobil Oil, Citgo Petroleum, BP and AcuTech Consulting. Medina has been a board member on

Medina was named an American Society of Safety Engineers fellow in 2012 and a distinguished alumnus by the Oklahoma State University Alumni Association. He has been a vice president for the Council of Professional Affairs with the ASSE, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Ergonomics Technologies Corp. and an adjunct professor for process technology, fire and safety with Del Mar College.

He has worked with the U.S. secretary of labor as a safety professional and National Advisory Committee member during four presidential terms and as chair of the Civil Service Commission for Corpus Christi, Texas.

He spent more than 30 years with Petroleos de Venezuela — Lagoven/ Citgo Petroleum. His positions included manager of safety and industrial hygiene, manager of health and safety, manager of corporate process safety and fire prevention and training supervisor. In 2004, Medina was named Citgo’s vice president of health, safety security, environmental protection and shared services. In 2012, he became a process safety auditor with BP, performing audits of business units and facilities around the world.

In July 2013, Medina became vice president of the southern business unit for AcuTech Consulting Group in Houston. He and his wife, Alejandra, have two children, Oscar Medina and Alejandra McKinney.

ROBERT SCHAEFER

Architecture (bachelor’s, 1974; master’s, 1976)

Co-founder, Selser Schaefer Architects

ROBERT SCHAEFER originally thought the world of medicine was calling him. But by the spring of his freshman year at Oklahoma State University, his passion changed from a pre-med major to architecture — where it has remained for more than 40 years.

Schaefer, who was born in 1950 to Harry and Jane Schaefer in Vinita, Okla., earned his bachelor’s (1974) and master’s (1976) degrees in architecture from OSU under the mentorship of Cuth and Christine Salmon. To this day, Schaefer credits OSU with providing him the foundation for a successful career.

Schaefer co-founded Selser Schaefer Architects in 1993. As a dedicated Cowboy, he has provided countless opportunities for other OSU graduates. The company has hired more than 65 OSU grads and participated in the OSU Discover Architecture program for more than 10 years.

Schaefer believes good architecture design is sensitive to its surroundings and complements the fabric of the community. He has designed buildings for the Cherokee Nation, Crest Foods, Continental Medical Rehabilitation Hospital, the Philbrook Museum, H-E-B, Oklahoma State University, Tinker Air Force Base, Wal-Mart, Tulsa International Airport, Hillcrest Medical Center, UPS, YMCA and countless churches, community centers and schools.

His work is known for its timeless appeal, sustainable architecture and functional design, which benefit people, communities and the environment.

Schaefer’s work has been featured in such magazines as Modern Healthcare and Building Design + Construction. His numerous awards include the Foundation Leadership Award by the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture, the Citation for Design Excellence by the AIA of Central Oklahoma, the Excellence in Construction Award, Merit Award for Design Excellence, BE Inspired Award, IIDA Pinnacle Award Texas/Oklahoma, Innovator of the Year by The Journal Record, and Public Works Project of the Year by the American Public Works Association.

Schaefer is a registered architect in Oklahoma, a registered interior designer in Oklahoma, accredited with LEED AP BD+C and certified with the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. He has served as a committee chair for the AIA Central States Regional Conference Excellence in Design Awards, a board member of the National Council of Architectural Registration, and a member of the American Institute of Architects and the U.S. Green Building Council.

Schaefer and his wife, Janet, have three sons, Rob, Scott and Allen. With a career full of success and accomplishments, Schaefer sums up his passion for architecture simply: “I’d rather be drawing.”

RICHARD ‘RICK’ WEBB

Architectural engineering (1977)

Industrial engineering and management (master’s, 1979; doctorate, 1984)

Senior vice president, global business processes, Wal-Mart

College of Engineering, Architecture

and Technology alumnus RICHARD “RICK” WEBB has taken his OSU degrees to a career of solving challenging problems.

After all, it was the challenge of solving problems that led him to major in architectural engineering in the first place, graduating with a bachelor’s in 1977. He went to graduate school at OSU, earning both a master’s (1979) and a doctorate (1984) in industrial engineering and management. During his graduate work at OSU, Webb won the Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Memorial Scholarship.

Since his graduation, he has held prominent positions with Arthur and Young, KMPG and Stillwater National Bank. He also served as president of the Webb Group from 1998-2003.

Webb joined Wal-Mart in 2004, where he is currently the senior vice president of global business processes after 20 years of consulting in the retail industry for companies such as Disney, Warner Bros., Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Barnes & Noble, Sears and J.C. Penney.

At Wal-Mart, he and his team are responsible for enhancing the shopping experience and all store operating procedures and systems; increasing the effectiveness of the merchandising/planning/ marketing organizations by streamlining processes; and developing supporting systems and identifying opportunities to optimize merchandise flow.

The Walton family awarded him the Sam M. Walton Entrepreneur Award at the 2009 shareholders meeting in recognition of his leadership and impact to the Wal-Mart business.

Webb is a registered professional engineer, a board member for the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter and a member of the Strategic Advisory Council for CEAT.

He and his wife of 35 years, Sandra, live in Bentonville, Ark. They have two daughters who both work for Wal-Mart: Megan, senior director of frozen foods; and Jaclyn, senior manager in global talent development. Webb, born in 1955 to parents Bill and Joyce, grew up in Seneca, Mo.

Webb is a keynote speaker for the Spears School of Business Executive Management Briefings and Tulsa Business Forums this year. He is active with his local Bible study group and strongly supports increasing STEMbased learning.

MEDINA, SCHAEFER AND WEBB WERE INDUCTED INTO THE CEAT HALL OF FAME ON SEPT. 27, 2013.

Lohmann Medal Honorees to be Recognized at Annual Hall of Fame Ceremony

FOR THE FIRST TIME, AN ANNUAL BANQUET WILL FEATURE BOTH THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES AND THE LOHMANN MEDAL RECIPIENTS. FIVE NEW HALL OF FAME MEMBERS AND THREE MEDAL RECIPIENTS WILL BE ADDED TO THE LIST OF DISTINGUISHED INDUSTRY LEADERS AT A CEREMONY HELD OCT. 11.

For more information on the Hall of Fame and Lohmann Medal recognitions, visit ceat.okstate.edu.

THE LOHMANN MEDAL WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1991 AS HIGHEST RECOGNITION FOR ALUMNI OF THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY, SELECTED FOR THEIR TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROFESSION OR EDUCATION OF ENGINEERS, ARCHITECTS OR TECHNOLOGISTS.

DR. MELVIN R. “PETE” LOHMANN SERVED THE COLLEGE FOR 36 YEARS. WHILE DEAN FROM 1955-1977, LOHMANN LED THE COLLEGE TO NATIONAL PROMINENCE. HE SERVED AS NATIONAL PRESIDENT OF THE ENGINEERS COUNCIL FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION. / FOR A LIST OF PREVIOUS AWARD RECIPIENTS, VISIT WWW.CEAT.OKSTATE.EDU/LOHMANN-MEDAL

6 CEAT students named

A chemical engineering major with a Spanish minor from Edmond, Okla., ASHLEE KEENUM is the daughter of John and Sherrie Keenum.

At OSU, she served with the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology Student Council, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, CEAT Ambassadors, CEAT Freshmen Council and OSU President’s Leadership Council. Her community involvement includes volunteering with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ ChemKidz K-12 Outreach Program, Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s Operation Blue, Salvation Army’s Moore tornado relief, St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, and as an OSU Student Learning Volunteer Center ambassador. Keenum is a two-time Lew Wentz Research Scholar, a CEAT Scholar, an AlChE Donald F. and Mildred Topp Othmer National Scholarship Award winner, an OSU Journal of Undergraduate Research article author and a winner of general and CEAT awards.

“OSU has prepared me technically and given me the soft skills to succeed in the real world,” Keenum says. “I really value what my professors and my mentors here at OSU have taught me. I feel like I can both succeed as an engineer on the job and in interacting with people. I have been prepared with the life skills that I need to succeed on my own.”

Keenum plans to move to San Antonio and work as a field engineer in the Eagle Ford Shale for Chesapeake Energy before returning to Oklahoma City to pursue a career as a production engineer.

HALEY KINCANNON, fire protection and safety technology senior, is the daughter of Bobby and Cheryl Kincannon of Duncan, Okla.

At OSU, she has served as treasurer of Alpha Epsilon Delta and the American Society of Safety Engineers, vice president of development for the Pi Beta Phi fraternity and a member of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology Student Council and the Fire Protection Society. In the community, she volunteered at the Payne County Health Department’s Free Clinic, served as a reading buddy at Highland Park Elementary School, participated in Relay for Life, and volunteered with the Humane Society and St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Her accolades include the Phi Kappa Phi honor society, OSU ConocoPhillips SPIRIT Scholar, OSU Boots and Coots Scholar, one published paper and several internships.

“OSU has prepared me for my future by giving me the confidence to know that I will be successful in whatever I do,” Kincannon says. “It’s also allowed me to become involved, which is something I know I want to be — involved — once I graduate and move on.”

She plans to attend the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tenn.

ANDREW MARTIN , a mechanical engineering senior from Omaha, Neb., is the son of Scott and Polly Martin.

At OSU, Martin has served as president, vice president of committees and secretary of the CEAT Student Council, president of Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honor Society, director and vice director of the Student Government Association Athletic Alliance, a CEAT Academic Success coach and a residence hall floor president. Martin has also been an assistant high school wrestling coach, college-readiness speaker at high schools and a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and Toys for Cowboys. He was named a CEAT Scholar, Phillips 66 Shield Scholar, Chesapeake Scholar, Top 20 Freshmen Man and Sports Illustrated Superfan.

“Within the engineering college, OSU’s combination of curriculum, professors and various opportunities provide a framework that provides all of its students with the best background they could possibly have when going into the workforce,” Martin says.

Martin will join ExxonMobil’s development division in Houston as a mechanical engineer on an offshore oilrig installation.

ASHLEE KEENUM

HALEY KINCANNON ANDREW TIMOTHY MARTIN

REBECCA PURVIS, a biosystems engineering senior from Houston, is the daughter of David and Susanne Purvis.

While at OSU, Purvis has been the president, social chair and CEAT Student Council representative for the Society of Women Engineers; vice president of Cowboy Waterworks; a member of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers and the Mortar Board honor society; and a Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Ambassador. She participated in SWE’s Junior Girl Scout Day, SWE’s High School Outreach Event, Sangre Ridge Elementary School’s Outdoor Classroom Cleanup with the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, Into the Streets and Big Event. Purvis’ awards include first place in the Undergraduate Poster Competition at the 2013 ASABE annual international meeting, Outstanding Undergraduate Oral Presentation in the 2013 OSU Student Water Conference, Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation in the 2012 OSU Student Water Conference, OSU General and Departmental Honors Awards and OSU Wentz Research Scholar.

“OSU has helped prepare me for my future in many ways,” she says. “It has helped get me ready for the real world where I have to take on a leadership role, and I don’t always have the resources that I need so I know people I can go talk to. Just putting me in situations that I might not normally be in but allowing me to better prepare myself to handle random situations, and I also have the support and the knowledge and background to go out and do what I know I want to do.”

Purvis plans to pursue a master’s degree in biosystems engineering at OSU.

LOGAN SCOTT, a chemical engineering major with a minor in nuclear engineering senior from Jones, Okla., is the son of Jim and Vickie Scott.

During his time at OSU, Scott has been the public outreach executive for the OSU Homecoming executive team, president of the CEAT Ambassadors, 2014 National Association of Engineering Student Councils National Conference executive director, vice president of membership development and chaplain for Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, and chairman of the Student Government Association Speakers Board. His community involvement includes volunteering with the Jimmy Everest Children’s Cancer Center, Rebuilding Together, Children’s Miracle Network, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and Stillwater Public Schools. Scott was named to the OSU Jim Halligan Hall of Scholars, awarded a WISE Fellowship, named Sigma Phi Epsilon J. Edward Zollinger Outstanding Senior, and honored as a Top Ten Freshmen Man and Wentz Research Scholar.

“Oklahoma State has given me a lot of skills that will transfer into my future,” Scott says. “As a chemical engineering major, obviously I have a technical background now going through that program. It’s made me want to be a leader. It’s made me want to show that orange pride that is deep down inside and show that because I’m a Cowboy that’s why I am successful, that’s why I can be successful. It’s lended that to me in both the technical and personal aspects.”

Scott plans on continuing his education either domestically or abroad through graduate work in nuclear engineering.

While at OSU, Worth has been chairman of the Student Government Association Senate, the National Association of Engineering Student Councils’ 2014 National Conference executive director, President’s Leadership Council facilitator, CEAT Student Council member and Society of Petroleum Engineers founding member and club representative. He also served as a CEAT Ambassador and a volunteer with the Big Event, OSU Fanfare of Lights, Oklahoma City Regional Food Bank and Filling the Void-Tulsa. Worth’s accolades include being named a W.W. Allen Scholar, Lew Wentz Foundation Research Project Award winner and George & Donna Nigh Leadership Scholar.

“OSU has prepared me for my future in so many ways,” Worth says. “OSU is such a unique place to be. First of all, the general education you are going to be getting. I believe the engineering college has done a phenomenal job of being able to prepare me for the future. But more importantly, it’s just the culture that is here at OSU. There are so many things that are really intangible that you really can’t get just through the books or one way or another but just a culture.”

Worth plans to attend the University of Cambridge and pursue a master of philosophy in energy technologies degree.

DONNIE JOE WORTH, a chemical engineering major with a petroleum engineering minor from Tahlequah, Okla., is the son of Steve and Jodeen Worth.

REBECCA PURVIS LOGAN MICHAEL SCOTT

DONNIE JOE WORTH

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY

Dr. Paul J. Tikalsky, P.E., F.ACI, F.ASCE, EACR Dean

Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Chuck Bunting

Associate Dean of Research and Sponsored Programs

Halliburton Professor in Engineering

Professor of Electrical Engineering

Dr. Raman Singh

Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Ed Kirtley

Assistant Dean of Outreach and Extension

COLLEGE LEADERSHIP

Randy Seitsinger, AIA Professor and Head, School of Architecture

Dr. Dan Thomas, P.E. Professor and Head, School of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Dr. James (Rob) Whiteley Head, School of Chemical Engineering

Bartlett Chair in Chemical Engineering

Professor, Chemical Engineering

Dr. John Veenstra, P.E.

Head, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dr. James West Head, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr. Sunderesh Heragu Head, School of Industrial Engineering and Management

Donald and Cathey Humphreys Chair Professor, Industrial Engineering

Dr. Raj Singh, Sc.D. Head, Material Science and Engineering

Williams Cos. Distinguished Chair Professor Director, Energy Technologies Program

Dr. Dan Fisher Head, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

L. Andrew Maciula Professor of Engineering

Dr. Dana Hobson, P.E. Head, Division of Engineering Technology

Professor, Engineering Technology Director, International Ground Source Heat Pump Association

CEAT STRATEGIC ADVISORY

Debbie Adams President, Transportation ConocoPhillips

Rick Webb

Senior Vice President, Global Business Processes

Wal-Mart

David Swank

Chief Executive Officer

CREC

COUNCIL

Jeff Hume

Vice Chair and Chief Operating Officer

Continental Resources Inc.

Mitch Johnson

Principal Consultant / Investor

Bill Remy

President and Chief Operating Officer

TBM Consulting Group

Jeff Fisher

Chief Operating Officer

American Energy Partners

Mike Carolina

Executive Director

OCAST

Joe Hall

Chief Executive Officer General Contractors

Darton Zink

Chief Executive Officer and President

ZEECO

Jack Lee

Chairman and Vice President

Jamco

Dana Weber

Chief Executive Officer and President

Webco Industries

Chris Goble President

SGA Design Group

Gregg Bradshaw

Senior Vice President

Lambert Construction

Singh named associate dean Kirtley named assistant dean

DR. RAMAN P. SINGH has been appointed the associate dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology and the C.F. Colcord Endowed Professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Oklahoma State University.

His master’s degree and doctorate in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics are from the University of Rhode Island; his bachelor’s is from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, India. He came to OSU in 2006 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook; before that, he was a post-doctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology. At OSU, he is also the director of the Helmerich Research Center in Tulsa.

“Dr. Singh is an accomplished researcher, instructor and most importantly a successful leader,” says College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology Dean Paul Tikalsky. “His strategic plans for enhancing the academic elements of our college are exciting. He brings valuable insight and has proved to be a significant hire.”

Singh’s academic interests are in student mentorship, development and retention with a focus on new teaching methods. His research interests are in the mechanics of advanced materials with an emphasis on the investigation of modern engineered materials and development of new techniques for mechanical characterization at highly localized length scales.

Besides academia, Singh enjoys road trips, backpacking, being a lifelong student, photography and spending time with his two daughters.

ED KIRTLEY has been named assistant dean of Outreach and Extension for the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. With almost 30 years of experience in fire service, he brings a practical perspective and fresh outlook to this position.

“This is a significant hire,” says CEAT Dean Paul Tikalsky. “His direct knowledge of the impacts OSU outreach has on the state, coupled with his progressive vision and goals for the college, make him the perfect addition to our leadership team.”

Kirtley previously served as the director of OSU Fire Service Training and chief of Guymon (Okla.) Fire Department from 1998-2004.

He has been involved with the National Fire Academy since 1989 as an adjunct faculty member and curriculum developer, participating in the development of seven courses. He also co-authored two U.S. Fire Administration manuals. The USFA has recognized him twice for his contributions to fire safety education and fire service training.

Kirtley is active in the National Fire Protection Association professional qualifications standard process, including serving as the chair of the NFPA 1035 committee for 10 years. He is currently a member of the NFPA 1041 and 1001 committees.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in management and a master’s degree in education.

New faculty chairs, professorships and appointments

FACULTY CHANGES

Steven O’Hara

Professor and ITLE Teaching Fellow, Architecture

James Robert Whiteley

Professor and head of Chemical Engineering Hendrix Chair

Damon Chandler

Associate professor and ITLE Teaching Fellow, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Manjunath Kamath

Professor — Regent Distinguished Teaching Award, Industrial Engineering and Management

James Keith Good

Professor and Noble Foundation Chair — Regents Distinguished Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Daniel E. Fisher

Professor and head, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Albert H. Nelson Chair

James E. Smay

Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering

NEW FACULTY

Stanley Carroll

Assistant professor, Architecture

Geir Hareland

Professor, Petroleum Engineering Continential Resources Chair

Prem Bikkina

Assistant professor, Chemical Engineering

Jindal Shah Assistant professor, Chemical Engineering

Ashlee Ford-Versypt Assistant professor, Chemical Engineering

Julie A. Hartell

Assistant professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Mark J. Krzmarzick Assistant professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Qiang “Joshua” Li Assistant professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Yong Wei Shan Assistant professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Subhash Kak Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Jingtong Hu

Assistant professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Richard Guo

Assistant professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Nishantha Ekneligoda

Assistant professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Nirmal Govindaraju

Research assistant professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Sarin Pankaj

Assistant professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Arash Pourhabib

Assistant professor, Industrial Engineering and Management

Chaoyue Zhao

Assistant professor, Industrial Engineering and Management

Brian Elbing

Associate professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Arvind Santhanakrishnan

Assistant professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Xiaoliang Jin

Assistant professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

James Manimala

Assistant professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Christian Bach

Assistant professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Shuodao Wang

Assistant professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Virginia Charter

Assistant professor, Fire Protection and Safety Technology

Robert Agnew

Assistant professor, Fire Protection and Safety Technology

Antone Kusmanoff

Assistant professor, Electrical Engineering Technology

Rachel Mosier

Assistant professor, Construction Management Technology

Lantz Holtzhower

Assistant professor, Construction Management Technology

selectedSpitler for Fulbright honor

OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY REGENTS PROFESSOR JEFFERY SPITLER IS WORKING WITH HIS COUNTERPARTS IN SWEDEN IN ADVANCING GEOTHERMAL TECHNOLOGY, THANKS TO A PRESTIGIOUS FULBRIGHT AWARD.

Spitler, mechanical and aerospace engineering professor, adviser and researcher in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, was selected for this honor based on his research on the performance and emissions of geothermal heat pumps as an alternative energy source.

He will serve as the 2014-2015 Fulbright Distinguished Chair of Alternative Energy Technology at Chalmers University of Technology during his yearlong stay in Gothenburg, Sweden, while on sabbatical leave from OSU.

Spitler is one of only 37 Fulbright Distinguished Chairs worldwide. They went through a rigorous application process and review by national and international Fulbright Commission panels.

“I am looking forward to gaining a better understanding of this process and developing different perspectives on current and future models, especially considering my previous work with Swedish researchers and the advancement of geothermal heat pump technology in that country,” Spitler says.

Signhild Gehlin, one of Spitler’s colleagues from the Swedish Centre for Shallow Geothermal Energy, is pleased to have the opportunity to work with him.

“Sweden already has a strong position within this field, and the collaboration with Professor Spitler will be of great importance to further development of ground source heat pump technology in Sweden as well as in the USA,” Gehlin said.

Spitler has been a faculty member at OSU since 1990 and is the recipient of several national and international awards and grants.

The Fulbright Program was established by Congress in 1946 after being introduced by Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. More than 8,000 grants are awarded each year.

Engineering Distance Education Advance your career today

Oklahoma State University’s online engineering degrees and courses are designed for personnel around the world.

Start the path to advance your career. Visit de.ceat.okstate.edu today.

• OSU’s engineering programs are ranked in the nation’s top 10 for both quality and affordability by GetEducated.com

• Internationally distinguished faculty

• In-state tuition rate for military personnel

• Complete online graduate programs in:

• Engineering and Technology Management

• Electrical and Computer Engineering

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• Undergraduate courses in:

• Electrical Engineering Technology

• Electrical and Computer Engineering

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• Industrial Engineering and Management

• Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

• Nuclear Engineering

Designer of eternal flame at ORU was OSU alumnus

Architectural engineering alumnus

DONALD JOSEPH IVERSON , who designed the eternal flame for Oral Roberts University’s Prayer Tower in Tulsa, died April 14, 2013. He was 87.

He was born in Tulsa on Feb. 5, 1926, to William Joseph Iverson and Ethel Dorothy (Whitmer) Iverson. William Iverson worked at Oklahoma Iron Works, which supported the oil industry and related manufacturing. The father was a skilled mechanic who died when his son was 2 years old, leaving his mother alone to raise Don and his infant sister, Judy. To support her family during the Great Depression, Ethel Iverson took in boarders. Once Don was old enough, he sold newspapers and magazines to help the family out.

Don inherited his father’s talent for working with his hands. At an early age, he began using his late father’s tools to build go-carts and more, utilizing old crates from the neighborhood grocery store. He had a very creative mind and ability to design, draw and build whatever he set his mind to. The tools remain in the family to this day.

In January 1951, Mr. Iverson graduated from Oklahoma A&M College, now Oklahoma State University, with a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering.

In 1951, Mr. Iverson put his degree to work with John Zink Co. in Tulsa, joining the company when it had only a few employees in the engineering department. “We did a lot of our own drawings, price quotations and even went out and sold burners. We just changed hats whenever we had to. That was Mr. Zink’s theory,” Mr. Iverson told his family. His education gave him the knowledge he needed to team with other engineers to develop the perfect heat source for almost any application. Mr. Iverson’s work took him to hundreds of petroleum refineries throughout the United States and abroad. His knowledge of the company’s early products became indispensable. Mr. Iverson remembered in 1994, “There is a burner that we designed and built that is 48 years old and still in use” — a remarkable feat.

Most of Mr. Iverson’s designs were primarily for oil refineries and other industrial purposes. However, in 1966, he was asked to be part of the Oral Roberts University’s Prayer Tower project. His contribution was designing the eternal flame feature, which would be nearly 200 feet in the air, displayed for all to see. Mr. Iverson’s son, Mike, says, “As you might imagine, there was a lot of wind up there, and they were concerned about it staying lit. But it did.” It continues to burn today, more than 45 years later. “The eternal flame at ORU is rather difficult to see in the daylight, but it’s there, dancing in the wind, never going out, thanks to Dad,” Mike Iverson says.

While the flame was Mr. Iverson’s brief detour into public art, his passion for his work continued throughout his career. In the 1980s, John Zink Co. became a division of Koch Engineering Co. Inc. Mr. Iverson retired after 43 years at John Zink Co., helping expand the company around the world.

Mr. Iverson’s survivors include his wife of 59 years, Barbara; three children; and five grandchildren.

PHOTOS COURTESY / TULSA WORL D & THE IVERSON FAMILY

DON IVERSON

W.W. Allen Scholars Program

Recognized as one of the nation’s premier undergraduate engineering scholarship programs, the W.W. ALLEN SCHOLARS PROGRAM is designed to accelerate leadership and professional development while stimulating intellectual growth and fostering career perspectives.

Generously funded by the WAYNE ALLEN family, this program aims to initiate the development of future engineering leaders worldwide.

These scholars, who are recruited nationally, receive more than $86,000 in scholarship and enrichment activities at Oklahoma State University. The program is highlighted by the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree at the UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE in the United Kingdom. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWALLEN.OKSTATE.EDU

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY

Oklahoma State University

201 Advanced Technology Research Center

Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078-5013

Office of the Dean