AME Newsletter 2017

AME news The annual newsletter serving the students, alumni and friends of the University of Oklahoma School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

Letter From the Director

Welcome to the 2017 newsletter of the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering! As the director, it gives me great pleasure to write to you about the tremendous progress we have made during the last year. Our school has continued to be in high demand as our total undergraduate and graduate student enrollment has reached 1,000, the highest in the Gallogly College of Engineering. The quality and visibility of our student body has also increased over the recent years, evidenced by the numerous and impressive national awards our students, either individually or as a team, have received. You will read about some of these success stories in the pages of this newsletter. I am thankful to the faculty and staff who continuously work to recruit, retain and educate these highly talented students.

This rapid growth in enrollment and increased demand has created a unique set of challenges. Hence, we embarked on an ambitious plan to recruit additional faculty and renovate our school’s educational and research infrastructure, including laboratory facilities. We have also significantly increased our course and laboratory offerings to meet the increased student demand. I am thrilled to report that in 2016 we have recruited three excellent faculty members, bringing the total faculty count in AME to 25. You will learn more about the research and teaching plans of the new faculty, Drs. Lee, Shabgard and Walters on page 3. This year, we have a faculty search in the area of energy efficiency/energy systems and devices to support the increased interest in this area among students and due to the growing funding/ research opportunities in this field.

I am particularly proud of the cutting-edge research our faculty have been carrying out. We highlight some of these exciting research projects in the following pages. Most of these research projects are funded by highly competitive nationwide grants through the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Heath, Department of Defense and Department of Energy. I am confident that our faculty will continue to pave the way for exciting scientific discoveries and contribute to the development of important technological advances.

As we move forward in AME, we will continue to strengthen our educational programs, enhance our course offerings, broaden our research portfolio and recruit world-class talent to our distinguished faculty. I am grateful for the support we have received from our outstanding alumni, friends and corporate sponsors. Your heartfelt support and commitment makes AME a special place.

Wishing you a wonderful 2017!

2017

In This Issue Letter From the Director....….…………1 2016 in Review……………………........…...…2 New Faculty…………………………...............3 Faculty Research…………...……….…..4-7 Sooner Rover Team Update………....8 Design, Build, Fly Update..........………..9 Collaboratory…….............................….10 GSC Hosts AME Together.................11 Student Spotlight.............................12-13 Outstanding Students........................13 Faculty Updates...................................14 Student Team Update and Recent Graduates ....…........................15 Giving Opportunities………………........16

Recent Graduate?

Don’t forget to inform AME after you land a new job. Keeping track of recent graduates’ employment status is a vital part of our accreditation process. Email any job-related updates to AME director M. Cengiz Altan at altan@ou.edu or AME Communications Coordinator Rebeka Morales at rmorales@ou.edu

Follow AME on Social Media facebook.com/ou.ame @OUAME @UofOklahomaAME blogs.ou.edu/ame The UNIVERSIT Y of OKLAHOMA

Gallogly College of Engineering

M. Cengiz Altan

School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

2016 in Review Faculty and Staff

New Faces at AME

Chung-Hao Lee and Hamidreza Shabgard joined AME as assistant professors in August. Keith Walters joined AME as a professor. To learn more about our new faculty, continue to page 3.

Finished Renovations

Faculty

The renovations on the L.A. Comp Wind Tunnel were completed this year. The total cost of the renovations was $100,000, funded

by Dolese Tomorrow’s Engineers through Gallogly College of Engineering. The renovation included instrumentation upgrades, facility and equipment improvements.

JrSEED Program

The first Junior Science and Engineering Excellence and Diversity program occurred July 7-8. Nine high school participants attended the successful event. The goal of the program is to reach out to the community and encourage high school students to consider a career in engineering.

M. Cengiz Altan, Director Peter Attar J. David Baldwin Kuang-Hua Chang Chris Dalton Rong Gan Jivtesh Garg Subramanyam Gollahalli Kurt Gramoll Thomas Hays Andrea L’Afflitto Feng Lai Chung-Hao Lee Yingtao Liu Wilson Merchán-Merchán David Miller Farrokh Mistree Kumar Parthasarathy Mrinal Saha Hamidreza Shabgard Zahed Siddique Li Song Harold Stalford Prakash Vedula Keith Walters

Staff

Melissa Foster Staff Assistant Debbie Mattax Financial Associate Billy Mays Shop Manager

TECAID Award

AME’s Transforming Engineering Culture to Advance Inclusion and Diversity team was recognized by the Women in Engineering ProActive Network and received the President’s Award for their efforts to expand inclusion and diversity in our school.

Rebeka Morales Communications Coordinator Rebecca Norris Office Manager and Assistant to the Director Kate O’Brien Student Services Coordinator Greg Williams Shop Technician

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AME Welcomes New Faculty Chung-Hao Lee was an ICES/AHA postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. He completed his doctorate in civil engineering from UCLA in 2011.

Lee’s research interests revolve around image-based computational biomechanics, tissue mechanical and microstructural quantifications, structure-based constitutive models for biological tissues and multiscale materials modeling, with a primary focus on improving patient-specific health care of cardiovascular diseases by integrating essential biomechanical processes across molecular, cellular, tissue and organ scales.

He is excited for the new research opportunities at OU. “I am looking forward to collaborating with the colleagues in the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and the Gallogly College of Engineering at OU,” he said. “Collaborative research across disciplines will bring together engineers like me and surgeons and clinicians to facilitate health-related biomedical research.”

Hamidreza Shabgard completed his doctorate in mechanical engineering with a concentration in thermal-fluid sciences at the University of Connecticut in 2014. After receiving his doctorate, Shabgard took a post-doctoral position at Drexel University, where he worked on advanced dry-cooling technology for power plants.

Shabgard’s work is focused on development of efficient and sustainable energy systems through fundamental understanding of the underlying physics involved in fluid flow and heat transfer, as well as innovative thermofluidic design.

Shabgard has big plans for his time at the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. “Energy is critical in our daily lives, and is closely tied to environment and natural resources,” he said. “My work is related to energy and, in particular, the thermal-fluid systems involved in production, conversion, storage, transfer and management of energy. As a faculty member in AME, I will have the opportunity to work with students and carry out cutting-edge research in one of the finest educational institutions.”

Keith Walters obtained his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate in mechanical engineering from Clemson University. Currently, Walters is the associate editor for the Journal of Fluids Engineering. He recently won the ASME 2016 Robert T. Knapp Award, given to the outstanding original paper in fluids engineering arising from laboratory or analytical work.

Walters’ research covers a broad range of topics in fluid mechanics and heat transfer, with a focus on fundamental computational fluid dynamics methods development.

In his new position as professor at AME, he is looking forward to “getting to know a whole new group of students, faculty and staff, and having the opportunity to ‘restart’ my research program in the direction that best suits my interests. I can’t wait to see what we can build here.”

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Faculty Research Development of 3D Physical Models for Biomechanical Modeling and Measurement of Blast Injury and Hearing Protection Mehcanisms Professors Zahed Siddique and Rong Gan recently were awarded a Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) grant to acquire a multi-material 3D printing system. This system (Objet350 Connex3, Stratasys Inc.) will provide new research capabilities to build 3D physical models (1:1 scale) of human and animal ears with materials mimicking bone and soft tissues. This will significantly impact Gan’s currently funded Department of Defense (DoD) research project in characterization of blast damage to the ear and design of hearing protection devices (HPDs). The 3D physical model will serve as a bridge for converting the computer model into real prototypes for a better design and evaluation of HPDs. It is anticipated that a physical model of the human external ear and middle ear will be developed with the 3D printing technology. The base Finite Element (FE) and 3D physical model, validated using chinchillas and human cadaver experimentation, can be easily customized to investigate a range of property and parametric changes. The FE and physical 3D models also can be customized to mimic ears with blastrelated damage, which will facilitate development of protection mechanisms.

This research with the 3D printing system will enhance the ability of School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and College of Engineering at the University of Oklahoma to educate future scientists and engineers in multidisciplines important to the DoD mission. With the 3D physical model of the ear, students are able to visualize the ear and correlate the biomechanical measurement and modeling results to improve the design for HPDs. This process is more suitable for our students compared with using human cadaver ears, which are not easily accessible to engineering students.

Computer-Assisted Management and Treatment of Functional Tricuspid Regurgitation

Assistant Professor Chung-Hao Lee recently was awarded a $307,049 Scientist Development Grant from the American Heart Association. The grant will support Lee’s four-year research project, titled Computer-Assisted Management and Treatment of Functional Tricuspid Regurgitation, and will help to build up the foundation for Lee’s cardiovascular biomechanics research program in the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at OU. Lee’s project is designed as interdisciplinary research built upon two innovative studies: (i) integrating tissue experimentations with computational modeling at OU, and (ii) a large animal study based on an ovine functional tricuspid regurgitation performed at the University of Pennsylvania. Lee’s cardiovascular biomechanics research team in AME will conduct mechanical and microstructural experiments for ovine tricuspid valve (TV) tissues and also will develop novel computational models for designing individual-optimized annuloplasty surgical repair for treating functional tricuspid regurgitation.

With the collaboration of Ming-Chen Hsu at Iowa State University as the project consultant, a morphable tricuspid valve geometry template will be formulated based on the concept of isogeometric analysis-based geometry parametrization. Clinical collaborators in the Gorman Cardiovascular Research Group at the University of Pennsylvania will acquire in-vivo 3D echocardiographic image data for characterizing TV configurations associated with disease progression and surgical intervention, as well as for developing subject-specific computational models.

His project’s goals are twofold: to identify objective indicators for the progression of functional tricuspid regurgitation, and to help in the design of individualized tricuspid valve annuloplasty surgical repair. Using predictive computer simulations developed in this project, Lee’s research team hopes to improve the long-term surgical outcomes of valve repair, reduce cost of surgery re-operation and decrease risk of mortality and morbidity.

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Decision-Based Collaborative Design Workflow Management and Architecting Fail-Safe Supply Networks

This is a research partnership between Professors Janet K. Allen and Farrokh Mistree (Systems Realization Laboratory, OU), Jitesh Panchal (Design Engineering Laboratory, Purdue), BP Gautham (Tata Consultancy Services, Pune, India) and Ramakrishnan Srinivasan (Tata Consultancy Services, Cincinnati, Ohio).

Decision-Based Collaborative Workflow Management: Tata Consultancy Services is developing a platform called the Product Realization Environment of Engineered Materials and Products (PREMΛP) for discovering new materials and concurrently designing materials, manufacturing processes and engineered components. PREMΛP is envisaged to help address problems related to new product design, materials and process substitution, new material development and product re-design in industrial environments. The partners are developing a decisionbased engine for collaborative workflow management that can be integrated with PREMΛP with the goal of significantly impacting both the efficiency and effectiveness of the designer.

Architecting Fail-Safe Supply Networks: A fail-safe supply network is designed to mitigate the impact of variations and disruptions on people and corporations. This is achieved by (1) developing a network structure that mitigates the impact of disruptions that distort the network structure and (2) planning flow through the network to neutralize the impact of variations. Contrary to current thinking, decisions made to manage disruptions are not independent of decisions made to manage variations associated with operational flow planning. The framework and models can be generalized and applied to other networks such as transportation network (flow of freight moving through an infrastructure network), distribution channels (flow of products moving from manufacturers to end customers through intermediate distributors), multistage manufacturing systems (flow of material and components through a network of machines to complete a production process), power grid (flow of electricity through a power infrastructure), etc. A monograph on this topic is slated to be published by CRC Press in 2017.

Testing of Oil-Water Separation Device Assistant Professor Jivtesh Garg has been working with General Electric Research and Development to investigate the performance of the oil-water separation device. Garg’s research involves setting up an oil-water flow loop in the propulsion lab at OU and performing a series of experiments to test the performance of the separator.

Two different separators will be studied – a hydrocyclone and a surface separator. Oil and water from two different reservoirs are mixed and passed through the separator, which produces separate oil and water streams.

Different valves and flow meters in the loop are used to regulate and measure the flow of the two components. The performance of the separator is identified by measuring the water level in the separated oil outlet stream and vice versa.

The flow loop has been installed in the propulsion lab on two different skids.

The first two months of the project will focus on studying the hydrocyclone separator. This will be replaced by the surface separator in later stage of the project. Billy Mays (Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering machine shop manager) and four undergraduate students from OU currently are involved in the setting up and running of these experiments.

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Faculty Research Divergent Thinking in the Engineering Design Context: Experimentation to Connect Performance to Neurocognitive Responses According to Professor Zahed Siddique, in collaboration with a team from Pennsylvania State University, industrial and academic leaders have long expressed concerns about the impact of traditional engineering education on the divergent thinking and creative potential of future engineers. A lack of creativity is viewed as problematic in a rapidly changing, technology-oriented world where generating new ideas is essential to survival.

Divergent thinking is generally associated with ideation, and refers to the process of generating diverse and original ideas with fluency and speed.

Engineering programs, in general, do not address the need to enhance divergent thinking. To a certain extent, this is due to a lack in knowledge on the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying divergent thinking, and creative ideation more generally. This two-year interdisciplinary and transformative project funded by the National Science Foundation will combine and integrate designs and techniques from engineering, neuroscience and cognitive psychology, and potentially provide critical insights and tools to enhance engineering students’ creative thinking. This will be one of the first studies focused on using cognitive neuroscience to develop a systematic way to measure effects of different techniques on divergent thinking to develop effective creativity curriculum for engineering.

The use of EEG techniques in a pretest-posttest experimental design enables the research team to track changes in brain activation patterns associated with divergent thinking over time, and as a function of the three engineering interventions under study. A critical aspect of the proposed work is the engineering-centric assessment of the ideation outcomes using quantity, variety and rarity, and involves the use of formerly tested design tasks whose solution spaces have been solidified through ideation studies.

Demonstration of a Building Automation System Embedded Performance Degradation Detector Using Virtual Water/Air Flow Meters Associate Professor Li Song is conducting research concerning the Demonstration of a Building Automation System Embedded Performance Degradation Detector Using Virtual Water/Air Flow Meters. The objective of this research is to reduce operation costs and energy usage of a building by up to 50 percent. The projected date of completion for this research is in 2017.

A mathematical formula was created by Song’s research team based on existing output data such as pump speed and power. This formula allows monitoring of energy use in heating, ventilation and air conditioning units. From these results, the formula can detect unreliable systems and faulty equipment that affects energy consumption. The formula creates virtual sensors used to identify energy waste in an air-handling unit and in a whole building.

Song’s research has grown from the corporate sector and now focuses on the government division starting at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City. The U.S. Department of Defense awarded her research team a three-year, $1 million contract to increase building efficiencies at military installments.

Song is only one of a few researchers working on efficiency improvements in heating, ventilation and conditioning units using virtual sensor measurements. In addition, she currently is developing a smart device that contains the mathematical formulas allowing building owners to easily monitor an existing system as an ongoing task.

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Saha, Liu Receive Research Funding From Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, LLC – Kansas City Plant

Associate Professor Mrinal C. Saha and Assistant Professor Yingtao Liu recently received research funding from Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, LLC - Kansas City Plant for research titled Stress Sensing Silicone Films. The OU researchers will develop smart nanocomposites with autonomous sensing capability. Once complete, this project will result in highly flexible sensors for the accurate realtime measurement of mechanical load and structural health condition monitoring.

The proposed multifunctional materials disperse nanoscale carbon particles into elastomeric polymer systems to improve the materials’ mechanical, electrical and thermal properties. Once fully characterized, the nanocomposites are fabricated into optimal geometries and built as a sensing array for large scale in-situ sensing and monitoring.

“The proposed sensors are very soft and highly flexible and they emulate the properties of human tissue and living cells. Thus, the sensing function of the proposed nanocomposites will mimic many biological systems that can continuously measure external load,” said Saha.

“The benefit of using these new nanocomposites is that it provides additional functions to traditional structural materials. Therefore, the long-term economic benefits are essential.”

The long-term goal of this project is to develop a family of nanocomposites with multifunctional capabilities to autonomously sense mechanical load and repair structural damage for the applications of structural health monitoring, damage prognostics and even biomedical systems.

Control, Drones, and Improved Weather Forecasts at AME Assistant Professor Andrea L’Afflitto is a control theorist with background both in aerospace engineering and mathematics, but what is “control theory?” He likes defining this discipline as the art and the science of modeling, predicting and regulating the behavior of natural events. The main question that drives Dr. L’Afflitto’s research is: how can we control something, such as a robot or an aircraft, without an accurate model of the vehicle and the surrounding environment?

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS, or more commonly, “drones”) provide an exceptional benchmark for L’Afflitto and his four students to test their results and be inspired by new challenges. UAS are an exceptionally promising technology, as they allow reducing the risks and costs of operations in numerous applications, which range from infrastructure inspection to autonomous parcel delivery.

L’Afflitto recently has established an interdisciplinary research collaboration with researchers at the National Weather Center and the Advanced Radar Research Center of OU to employ UAS and improve weather forecasts in the presence of severe and rapidly changing atmospheric events. In this research, which is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, L’Afflitto designs control systems for UAS, which autonomously fly to those areas where additional measurements of wind velocity, air pressure and humidity allow for more accurate weather forecasts and may help in anticipating severe weather warnings.

To learn more about L’Afflitto, the Advanced Control Systems Lab and some of his other projects, contact him at a.lafflitto@ou.edu or visit his website: http://lafflitto.com/.

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Sooner Rover Team Breaks Record

In May 2016, the Sooner Rover Team took home the gold at the sixth Annual RASC-AL Robo-Ops Challenge sponsored by NASA. Not only did the Sooner Rover Team win the national competition, they set records, beating the standing rock yard record by over 200 percent. The team finished with a final score of 132. The second-place team trailed behind with a score of 48.

The Robo-Ops Challenge took place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The selected student teams had to design life-sized rovers that could move and climb through various terrain, collect rock samples and store them and navigate through the rock yard, all while being controlled remotely from each team’s home university with real-time video feeds from the rovers’ cameras.

Teams had one hour to collect and secure the rock samples along with bonus challenges. In addition to the rock yard challenge, teams also had to present a technical paper, a poster and carry out a public outreach program.

Among the eight teams at the competition, the Sooner Rover Team stood out from the beginning with their unique design. Rovie McRoverface (the rover’s name, chosen by a public vote) was modeled after a 1980s Russian lunar rover featuring a spine, six cone-shaped wheels and a robotic arm. This allowed the rover to bend and travel through various terrain at the competition more easily.

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Rovie McRoverface collected all 26 rock samples and completed all four bonus challenges flawlessly.

The team’s score was recorded on the scoreboard

by NASA followed with a “WOW.” “I felt a little like I was dreaming that the rover was performing so well,” said Dane Schoelen, Sooner Rover Team project lead. “When mission control successfully completed the contingencies task through amazing teamwork and improvisation, I felt like there was no way I wasn’t dreaming. It is satisfying that after all of the blood, sweat and tears that went into creating our rover, we were able to put on an outstanding performance.”

The team is made up of all Gallogly College of Engineering students and advised by AME Professor David Miller, Ph.D. The team members at mission control were Bill Doyle, Brent Wolf, Alex Borgerding, Jacob Jordan, Oskar Paredes, Ashley Findley, Janella Clary, Matthew Solcher and Aaron Condreay, and the members who went to competition were Nathan Justus, Dane Schoelen and Kevin Cotrone.

The team won first place, broke and set records and brought home a $6,000 prize that they hope will go toward next year’s rover. It is safe to say the team will be set with experienced members, as Justus was the only senior. He will start his career at NASA in Houston as an operations engineer at mission control for the International Space Station.

“I cannot emphasize enough how hard our team worked to make sure that we were prepared for that day. Our performance and the recognition we got from NASA, NIA and the other teams made all of that work worth it,” said Nathan Justus, Sooner Rover Team chief engineer. “Of course, the project had merit of its own and the learning process was substantial, but whatever, it feels good to have DESTROYED and earned that with blood and mind power.”

Crimson Skies Design Build Fly

Join us in congratulating the University of Oklahoma’s Crimson Skies Design Build Fly team for their fifth-place finish at the International AIAA Design Build Fly Competition in Wichita, Kansas, April 15-17.

The competition hosted 80 teams from across the world, including the University of Texas, Georgia Institute of Technology, Cornell University, University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cairo University, Johns Hopkins University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.

Competition Details: • The team successfully completed tech inspection on its first attempt.

• [Mission 1] The airplane overheated and short circuited a motor on the first flight (working hard against 20 MPH Wichita winds melted the insulating enamel on the coils).

• The team was prepared with spare parts to repair the aircraft and propulsion system. They removed two cells to avoid a similar motor failure and were successful in the very next flight window (~1.5 hours later, still in 20MPH winds).

• [Mission 2] Mothership airplane carried the smaller craft internally, one lap, good landing just as practiced (25MPH winds).

• [Mission 3] The team executed the most problematic mission without issue in the most challenging winds of the contest (30MPH).

Team members of Crimson Skies include: • Dalton Gregory, Project Manager • Seth Fackler, Chief Engineer • Alex Spens, Structures Group Lead • Dan Carlton, Propulsion Group Lead • Nathan Justus, Aerodynamics Group Lead • Aaron Allred, Control Systems Specialist • Alec Watson, Propulsion Dynamometer Lead • Chris Sherlock, Manufacturing Specialist • Christine Greve • Hunter Herzfeld • Timothy Blackford • Clayton Smith • Amy Griffin • Alex Bryant • Vishnu Priya Parasaram • Dylan Gregory • Assistant Professor Thomas Hays, Faculty Advisor

This top-five finish was the best-ever finish for OU’s Crimson Skies DBF. A very special thanks to NORDAM for its team sponsorship. The success of OU at this competition is in great part due to the resources made available by NORDAM. Congratulations, Crimson Skies! We are so proud of your hard work and great success!

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Collaboratory

Before

The Collaboratory was re-opened in late summer 2016 after a 12-month renovation. In its prior incarnation, the space was the AME CAD Lab, a traditional computer laboratory. Now, the room has been re-imagined as a collaborative learning space that provides students with multiple sub-spaces for study and interaction with computer and audio/ video resources.

After

organized in two pods of four each, a laser printer (black, color), a fixed projection system, three glass boards, a four-seat glass-top table and an informal seating area. This room has been configured for informal student study and collaboration.

Accessible from the larger room, the small room is configured as a conference room and has a single computer and a multi-mode A/V system

Before

After

The Collaboratory houses nine high-performance Dell workstations running the Windows 7 operating system. These machines were installed new in July and are scheduled to be replaced by newer replacement models in July 2018. Because the goal of the Lab is to provide access to advanced engineering computing applications, the machines have been configured to support a variety of computationally intensive software packages. Some of the representative applications available in the lab are ANSYS, Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA, Pro/ MANUFACTURING, SolidWorks, MATLAB, Mathcad, and LabVIEW; in addition, the usual complement of Microsoft Office applications is available.

The lab facility is divided into two rooms. The larger room has eight dual-monitor computers

and glass board. The entire lab is available 24/7 for student use, and access is controlled by a cardswipe system, activated by the students’ University ID cards. In the spring 2016 semester, over 800 AME undergraduate and graduate students were granted access to the lab. Prior to its conversion to the Collaboratory, two courses, AME 2401: Engineering Computing and AME 3103: Engineering Design Graphics, used the lab as a classroom and have since been moved to another location.

J. David Baldwin headed the renovation design with input from AME faculty and staff. Also, a big thank you to Billy Mays and Greg Williams from the AME Machine Shop for all of their help executing the renovations.

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GSC Hosts AME Together

The AME Graduate Student Community holds a weekly seminar series hosting various faculty and graduate students. As the group hoped to expand the series, they applied for and received funding from OU’s Graduate College and Campus Activities Council Speakers Bureau, along with other contributors, to host Valerie Young. She is an internationally-known speaker, a leading expert on the impostor syndrome, and author of awardwinning book The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It. Young visited OU on Feb. 4 for a presentation called “Imposter Syndrome” in the Meacham Auditorium of Oklahoma Memorial Union. “Imposter

Syndrome” refers to high-achieving individuals who are marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and suffer from persistent fears of being exposed as frauds.

In addition to Young’s presentation, GSC and members of AME’s Student Advisory Council (SAC) planned an event to kick-off the presentation.

Before the presentation, AME undergraduate and graduate students set up a show-and-tell-style walkthrough featuring various research, projects and teams. The event was known as “Celebrating Our Accomplishments.” Together, the two events were publicized as “Celebrating Accomplishments and Not Being a Fraud.” Both events were open campuswide and free of charge.

The day of the event, participants arrived early to set up their builds and research posters. A steady flow of attendees passed through the event from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Young arrived and began her

presentation at 5 p.m. Her presentation took the form of an engaged discussion in which participants were encouraged to form groups while interacting and exploring their feelings and interpretation of impostor syndrome.

“I’d like to highlight the fact that GSC is dedicated to improving the experience of graduate students at AME, but also interested in assisting their undergraduate counterparts in planning and leading events,” said Jawanza Bassue, GSC member and SAC chair. “Fostering a better relationship between the mostly segregated groups.”

Because “Celebrating Accomplishments and Not Being a Fraud” was a success, the GSC and SAC hope to grow the event as an annual occurrence with increased planning and further engagement of students.

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Student Spotlight

Christine Greve, AME senior, recently was chosen as a recipient of the Astronaut Foundation Scholarship. This foundation was created by the Mercury 7 Astronauts and their families to provide merit-based scholarships to the best and brightest university students who excel in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Greve is a senior at AME pursuing her bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and a minor in Spanish. She has a long list of accomplishments, including multiple honor rolls, a National Merit Scholarship and membership in several organizations, including: Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, OU’s Chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Crimson Skies Design Build Fly. Last summer, Greve interned at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where she characterized components of a propellant feed system through test design, data acquisition and data analysis. Since January 2016, Greve has continued her work with an independent study program.

Greve plans to work in the space industry after graduation in May 2017, and she also hopes to earn her graduate degree while continuing her research in the field of in-space propulsion.

“For my career, I see myself focusing on either electric or nuclear propulsion,” she said. “I want to work toward the advancement of in-space propulsion for manned spacecraft to make interstellar travel an achievable goal in my lifetime.

I want to offer new opportunities in spaceflight to help inspire younger generations to continue exploring the stars. I want to rekindle the flame that enabled the incredible engineering of the Apollo missions and that held the world captive as man first stepped onto the moon.”

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Miles Burnett is a mechanical engineering student at AME. He is involved in two areas of research. He works as an undergraduate research assistant with J. David Baldwin in the Structural Durability Lab to improve predictions of fatigue failure in ductile metals based on strain measurements. Additionally, he works with Wilson E. Merchan-Merchan in the Combustion, Plasma and Nanoparticle Lab to characterize the soot agglomerates that are formed from the combustion process of various biodiesels.

Originally from Diamondhead, Mississippi, Burnett is a second-generation OU student. He chose AME because of all the opportunities in which students are actively encouraged to take advantage during their first year in the College of Engineering.

“I believe my time in AME has equipped me with the tools necessary to flourish as an engineer in any setting, whether it is the research-focused environment I will encounter in graduate school, or the more interpersonal industrial setting I have encountered in previous internships,” he said.

Burnett has participated in internships at Coast Electric Power Association, Baker Hughes Inc., and ExxonMobil. He also is involved on campus as president of the Oklahoma Sigma Chapter of Pi Tau Sigma and as a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Tau Beta Pi. He plans to pursue a doctorate in mechanical engineering beginning next year with a focus on either energy sustainability or automotive innovation. Burnett would like to either move into a research-based industrial setting following the completion of his doctoral degree or start his own company if his research is marketable.

Alejandro Rivas is a graduate student pursuing a master of science degree in mechanical engineering, working alongside Li Song. Recently, Alejandro received a joint scholarship from the Oklahoma City Community Foundation and the Central Oklahoma American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and AirConditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

He is the current president of the ASHRAE student chapter at OU, and he also attends many central Oklahoma ASHRAE meetings and activities.

During spring 2016, Alejandro won the Tom J. Love Outstanding Student Member Award and received the Robberson Conference Presentation and Creative Exhibition Travel Grant. In June, he presented a conference paper titled “Uncertainty Studies of Airflow Measurements in Non-Ideal Conditions in Variable Air Volume Air Handling Units” at the ASHRAE Annual Conference in St. Louis. In January 2017, he will present a technical paper at the ASHRAE Winter Conference in Las Vegas.

His research interests are in the field of energy efficiency, such as enhancing heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems’ performance with new control techniques that provide high accuracy with lower cost, and also airflow measurement for variable air volume systems under field and testing conditions. Alejandro is working with Song, Gang Wang, Jesus Elizondo and Wesley Thomas on a research project at Tinker Air Force Base, which is

sponsored by the Department of Defense.

The project is testing new technologies in flow measurement.

“With this research, I am looking forward to improving and updating the current airflow measurement industry methods and standards,” said Alejandro. “The final goal is to build a robust and accurate measurement method for HVAC researchers and contractors taking full advantage of what a VAV System has to offer in terms of energy savings.”

Alejandro is from Caracas, Venezuela.

He received his bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering and a master of science degree in reliability of industrial systems from the University Simon Bolivar in Caracas. After that, he began working as an HVAC&R engineer. Not far into his career, he realized there was a gap of information and experience that he wanted to fulfill through academics, which brought him to the United States in January 2015. He chose AME due to Song’s research.

In addition to Alejandro’s research and academics, he enjoys spending time outdoors, especially at the beach, and hiking in Venezuela. He also enjoys watching and playing sports. One of his favorite sports is baseball; he even played in college.

Alejandro has a love for animals, especially his dog, Danna.

With plans to graduate in December 2016, Alejandro accepted a full-time job as a mechanical engineer with focus on HVAC and plumbing design at Harley Ellis Devereaux in Chicago after completing an internship with HED in summer 2016.

Outstanding Students 2016 Outstanding Students are selected by AME’s Undergraduate Committee every academic year based on academic excellence, leadership and campus involvement.

Outstanding Students for 2016 (from left) are Joel Jimenez Cortez, Mechanical Engineering Outstanding Junior; Nathan Justus, Aerospace Engineering Outstanding Senior; Jordan Logue, Aerospace Engineering Outstanding Junior; Dickens Danson Mugumya, Aerospace Engineering Outstanding Sophomore; Octavio Serrano, Mechanical Engineering Outstanding Sophomore; and Tim Willis, Mechanical Engineering Outstanding Senior.

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Faculty Updates Summer Abroad in Italy with J. David Baldwin

J. David Baldwin and his wife, Carole, enjoying a sunny afternoon in Assisi

Trevi Fountain in Rome

Associate Professor J. David Baldwin, Matthias Nollert (CEEMS) and a group of OU students arrived in Rome on June 27. The group consisted of 16 students from various majors, including Mechanical Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Chemical Engineering. Before classes began, they visited the Appian Way, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Vatican

In-between class days, the group went on faculty-led excursions in Arezzo, Florence, Assissi, Maranello, Orvieto and Pisa. The group visited the Art Restoration lab, a wine tasting at La Stricia Winery, pasta-making at Tuscanative, and Piero della Francesca frescoes in Arezzo. While visiting Florence, they toured the GE Oil and Gas Nuovo Pignone facility, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, the

Baldwin and Nollert at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello

Student Group in Florence

Museum (including the Sistine Chapel), St. Peter’s Basilica, Roman Forum, and Colosseum.

On July 1, the group transitioned to Arezzo, Italy, to begin classes. Baldwin taught ENGR 4510 (From the Appian Way to the Testarossa – Engineering and Design Through Italian History) and co-taught ENGR 2002 (Professional Development) with Nollert.

Uffizi Gallery, the Galleria dell’Accademia, and the Galileo Museum. During the excursion to Maranello, the group went on the Ferrari Museum factory and test track tours.

For more information about the GCoE study abroad program, please visit: www.ou.edu/content/ coe/currentstudents/studyabroad.html

Teaching Award Chris Dalton, Ph.D., was awarded the Brandon H. Griffith Award at the Engineer’s Week banquet on Feb. 27. The Brandon H. Griffith Award was established in 1969 in honor of Professor Brandon H. Griffith, one of the most beloved and respected professors ever to teach in the Gallogly College of Engineering. The award recognizes excellence in teaching and extraordinary support for students. Professors receiving this award have demonstrated their dedication while making their teaching a priority.

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Student Team Update In April, Crimson Skies team traveled to Wichita, Kansas, to compete in the International AIAA Design Build Fly competition. They placed fifth, the highest finish ever for an OU DBF team, and beat out more than 75 other schools, including University of Texas, MIT, USC and Purdue. DBF is advised by Thomas Hays.

Sooner Off-Road competed this spring at the Baja SAE California competition in Gorman and placed 69th in acceleration, 68th in maneuverability, 48th in suspension and traction and seventh in hill climb.

Sooner Off-Road is advised by Chris Dalton.

The Sooner Powered Vehicle team competed in April at the ASME Human Powered Vehicle Challenge West, hosted by Santa Clara University in California. They placed 15th overall out of 32, and were especially proud to achieve a seventh place finish in the 2.5-hour endurance race. SPV is advised by Kim Wolfinbarger.

The Sooner Racing Team recently attended Formula SAEÂŽ Lincoln. Out of 80 teams, SRT finished 18th overall and placed 16th in endurance, 3rd place in fuel efficiency. With their thirdplace finish, SRT brought home a trophy for the first time in several years! SRT is advised by Zahed Siddique.

Congratulations, Graduates!

FALL 2015 GRADUATES B.S. Aerospace Engineering Bipin Pallipparambil Varghese B.S. Mechanical Engineering Sarah Bedell Alen Spiller M.S. Mechanical Engineering Andrew Johnson Jelena Milisavljevic Nathan Snow Joshua Webster SPRING 2016 GRADUATES B.S. Aerospace Engineering Aaron Allred Jason Bertels Daniel Carlton Seth Fackler Ryan Fitzgerald Karl Geerts Hannah Hunt Justin Jackson Nathan Justus Mitchell Lonergan Sean Ly Tonci Maleta Alexander Mckinstry Constantine Nyalenda Samuel Parrill Nicholas Pequeno Travis Phifer Dustin Rann Luis Rodriguez Christopher Sherlock Brandon Siok

Alexander Spens Charles Thuo Vladimir Velasco Morales Alec Watson Chelsea Williams Kayla Witthus B.S. Mechanical Engineering Wiley Abbott Jeremy Adams Abdularhman S. Al Soiad Abdullah M. Albukhidhr Christie Alexander Brian Allen Michael Allen Hussain Almarhoon Gatlin Arnold Othman Bawareth Mckenna Beard Jonathan Britton Adam Brobson Austin Burrus Remington Butler Christina Chavez Christopher Damron Ahmad Dashti Sean Davison Sam Delagi Michael Dillon John Downey Daniel Edlin Joshua Ellenburg Karl Geerts David Graft Blake Harms

Laura Haselwood Nathan Herrera Michael Howell Ryan Jacob Kody Jones Nicholas Julch Taewoong Kim Cody Lawler Konnor Lohman Andrew Lucas Wenyuan Luo Jordan Maun Brandon McCabe Christopher McMahon Crislyn McWethy Jordan Miller Ross Moseley August Murdock Michele Musgrove Tanner Nees Bao Ngo James Nguyen Khiem Nguyen Ryland Oliver Briek Pauwels Keelan Prewett James Ross Tyler Spencer Jensen Stenberg Colin Sullivan Marli Sussmann Garrett Svane Viet Tran Vu Tran

Jerry Varughese Matthew Von Gonten Kyle Wager Stephen Walta Catherine Wanezek Brandon Warner Timothy Willis Jordan Winslow B.S. Mechanical Engineering Pre-Med Austin Hicks M.S. Mechanical Engineering Anna Masters Maryam Sabeghi Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering Oluwaseyi Ogunsola SUMMER 2016 GRADUATES B.S. Aerospace Engineering Jacob Bass Jonathan Gregory Di Zhu B.S. Mechanical Engineering Ben Berka Sara Bondy Paul Curtis Caleb Davis Joseph Ducker Alex Stockard Kevin Withers B.S. Mechanical Engineering Pre-Med Davis Boatright M.S. Aerospace Engineering Josh Haines M.S. Mechanical Engineering Davis Crane

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Giving Opportunities Are you interested in making a gift to the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering?

To contribute, visit www.ame.ou.edu.

Funding Priorities Student Support: -Fellowships for graduate and undergraduate students: $100,000 Program Support: -AME Machine Shop and Capstone Program enhancements: $250,000 Facility Enhancements: -Renovations of Experimental Laboratories: $200,000

The University of Oklahoma School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering is home to more than 900 undergraduate students, 60 graduate students and 25 faculty members. We are pleased that our programs have continued to attract highly qualified students and have grown considerably over the past several years. The School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering has the highest number of students in the Gallogly College of Engineering, graduating nearly 30 percent of all engineers. To ensure that AME students have the facilities, programs and teaching excellence needed to have a succeessful career, the school must secure strategic resources to recruit, retain and graduate the very best. For questions or more information, please contact Jill Hughes, executive director of development, at (405) 325-5217 or jillq@ou.edu.

The UNIVERSIT Y of OKLAHOMA

Gallogly College of Engineering School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering 865 Asp Avenue Felgar Hall, Room 212 Norman, OK 73019-0390

The University of Oklahoma, in compliance with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, gender expression, age, religion, disability, political beliefs, 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. Inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies may be directed to: Bobby J. Mason, University Equal Opportunity Officer and Title IX Coordinator, (405) 325-3546, bjm@ou.edu, or visit www.ou.edu/eoo. • This publication, printed by University Printing Services, is issued by the University of Oklahoma. • 200 copies have been prepared and distributed at no cost to the taxpayers of the State of Oklahoma.