OU Alumni

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AME Alumni Highlights: Alex Bryant and Dr. Levent Aktas

AME is delighted to have such talented Alumni who continue to make us proud after graduation. This month, we’re highlighting Dr. Levent Aktas, who received his Masters and Ph.D. from AME in 2002 and 2008 respectively, and Alex Bryant, who received his undergraduate aerospace degree in 2019 and master’s degree in 2020.

Levent Aktas, PhD

Current Position: Materials and Processes Lead Engineer at Boeing

Undergraduate and Graduate Experience:
BS, Middle East Technical University, 2001
MS, University of Oklahoma, 2002
Ph.D., University of Oklahoma, 2008

As a Technical Lead Engineer at Boeing, I am responsible for maintaining materials and process specs, making sure appropriate processes are followed during the fabrication of composites, and qualification of all metal bond and composite aircraft components used in a multitude of platforms.

My graduate degree equipped me with a deeper knowledge of composites that separates me from other engineers in my company. In addition to specific technical skills, graduate studies equipped me with technical writing skills and communication skills that help me every day.

aktas@ou.edu

Alex Bryant

Current Position: Aeronautical Engineer, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics

I have been working as an aircraft performance engineer during most of my time here at Lockheed. I have also had the opportunity to travel with the Stability & Control team for wind tunnel testing for several programs. In the next six months, I will be transitioning into a role on the conceptual design team within Lockheed’s Advanced Development Programs.

I was the aerodynamics lead for the aerospace capstone class Design-Build-Fly (DBF) team as a senior. Helped lead an underclassman aircraft construction project as a junior.

I specialized in aerodynamics for my Master’s Degree and took classes in advanced aerodynamics, composites, and computational fluid dynamics. My Master’s thesis topic was using a combination of experimental measurements and CFD to create a high fidelity propeller thrust model for use in US Navy UAVs.

My Master’s degree served me well in several ways. Teaching a wind tunnel lab section helped mold me into a better teacher, which, in addition to rehashing important material from undergrad, will serve me well when mentoring younger engineers someday. The advanced classes I took in aerodynamics and CFD have helped me in my current role within flight sciences. My thesis project forced me to put together my own schedule for research and testing and forced me to lean upon a broad base of knowledge from undergraduate courses. All of these experiences have helped mold me into a well-rounded engineer at Lockheed.

I would be lying if I said some of my favorite memories weren’t sports-related. I may be a nerd’s nerd, but I’m a sports junkie at heart. The countless OU football home games with Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, etc., watching OU softball win a national championship in person, I was spoiled as a sports fan. Some of my other favorite memories were the little things you don’t even realize you miss until much later, whether it’s getting donuts at 3AM or playing videogames until dawn with your roommates, the various projects that brought their fair share of frustration and elation, or just the general helter-skelter chaos of being on your own for the first time as a freshman. I’d do it all again (well, most of it, maybe not finals).

alexander.bryant@alumni.ou.edu

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Highlighting Devin Laurence

Devin Laurence received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering in May of 2018, he then obtained his master’s degree the following year. Since then, Laurence has continued his journey at OU by pursuing a Ph.D. with a research focus on cardiovascular biomechanics. He has earned many awards for his work including The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and The American Heart Association/Children’s Heart Foundation (AHA/CHF) Pre-Doctoral Fellowship.

Devin with his current device in the Biomechanics and Biomaterials Design Lab (BBDL)

Laurence said Dr. Lee helped him to discover his interests in research during his junior year of undergrad. Laurence said he, “started to work with Dr. Lee and realized he did some exciting research.” He was interested in applying things they learned in class to aspects of the biomedical field. Eventually, he was hooked.

With the completion of his undergraduate mechanical engineering degree and his involvement in the accelerated master’s program, he was able to transition easily into graduate school, which allowed him to focus more on the biomedical side of mechanical engineering. As he began work in the Biomechanics and Biomaterials Design Lab (BBDL), he found his passion. He really liked how “you could pursue whatever you wanted because there was so much intellectual freedom.” He said, “you’re always motivated to search new avenues and get into stuff you probably never would’ve expected.”

Presently, Laurence is taking everything he learned in his mechanical engineering undergrad and applying it to biomedical systems. He, “mechanically characterizes the heart valve leaflets and then can do things like simulate the heart function or look at the different aspects of the leaflets.” Part of his dissertation work involves studying how the heart adapts to diseases. So “if you have increased pressure in your heart, how do these structures thicken or become stiffer in response?”

Laurence is “currently designing and constructing a novel planar biaxial bioreactor system (known in his lab as the BioBiax) to characterize the cell-mediated growth and remodeling of the tricuspid heart valve leaflets. The system includes two key components: (i) the planar biaxial testing component (shown in the picture above) and (ii) a flow loop to continuously supply cell media to the tissue to maintain cell viability (under construction). Throughout 2021, Laurence will use this system to characterize how the tricuspid valve leaflets respond to pathological conditions. The tricuspid valve leaflets will be mounted to the system, cyclically loaded/unloaded for 1-2 weeks to the pathological loading, and then characterized to understand how the leaflets have changed due to the pathological loading. Data from these experiments will enable them to establish a new mechanistic constitutive model that can predict the tricuspid valve leaflet mechanical behavior and consider the cell-mediated growth and remodeling response to the pathological loading. The new model then can be employed  in computer simulations to better understand the role of the cell-mediated growth and remodeling in congenital heart diseases, such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome, or in the recurrence of tricuspid regurgitation following the clinical repair in adult patients.”

Logo created courtesy of Ryan Bodlak

Laurence’s favorite part about OU is the people and opportunities. He said, “he really enjoys everyone in the department.” Collaborating with the BME department and the Health Science Center has been a great experience for him. He said, “it’s a really interesting hub that you wouldn’t expect.”

After he receives his Ph.D., his goal is to become a faculty member. He said, “it can either be doing a postdoc right after [he] graduates or getting a little industry experience first,” but eventually, he knows he wants to be in academia.

Laurence believes that students should not be afraid to try anything. “You never know what you’re going to enjoy or what doors are going to open up.”

Below is a full list of all the awards Laurence has received so far:

  • American Heart Association/Children’s Heart Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
  • National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship
  • Second Place Winner at 2020 SB3C Ph.D.-Level Student Paper Competition
  • First Place Winner at 2019 SB3C M.S.-Level Student Paper Competition
  • Thomas Milam, Sr., Endowed Fellowship
  • OU Alumni and Foundation Recruitment Fellowship
  • OU GCoE Ph.D. Recruitment Excellence Fellowship
  • First-Place Poster Award at the 3rd OU-OUHSC Biomedical Engineering Symposium
  • Grand Prize Recipient at Oklahoma Research Day at the Capitol
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Two AME Alumni Inducted into the GCoE Distinguished Graduates Society

 

AME Alumni Michelle Coppedge (pictured) and Freda Webb will be inducted into the Distinguished Graduates Society of Gallogly College of Engineering.

Michelle Coppedge received her bachelor’s degree in 1988 for mechanical engineering. She is currently the director of Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center – Federal Aviation Administration and serves on the AME Board of Advisors. Freda Webb received her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1979. She is the Vice President of Operations for Panhandle Oil and Gas, Inc.

In 1990, the College of Engineering established the Distinguished Graduates Society to honor our most accomplished alumni. Selection is based upon prominent and distinguished professional or technical achievement, notable public service, outstanding contribution to and support of education, honors of election in organizations, and other contributions to the engineering profession. (GCoE)