ASME Receives Awards at National Conference

ASME OU received multiple awards at E-Fest West, ASME’s national conference. The conference took place in Pomona, California on March 15-17, 2019.

The ASME OU Officer Team won 1st place in the Altair Design Optimization competition. Treasurer Matt Muhlinghause won 1st place in the Old Oral Guard competition and the technical award for the Old Guard Oral competition.

ASME’s Engineering Festivals (E-Fests) are regional events for engineering students that include design competitions, career development workshops, access to thought leaders and innovators in various engineering fields, and networking opportunities. They host many competitions, leadership opportunities, and social activities for students to meet engineers from other colleges.

Congratulations ASME OU!

AME Staff featured on TECAID

AME was one of the selected schools to be featured on the TECAID website with WEPAN. This website focuses on transforming engineering culture to advance inclusion and diversity. TECAID is an active program in which engineers can learn about the environment they are in while learning about their skills and knowledge. They focus on how to create the best personalized experience for their engineers.

https://www.wepan.org/mpage/TECAID

We are now highlighted in multiple Webinars (2 and 3) along with a photo of the OU team. An interview was done with our director, Dr. Zahed Saddique. The interview can be found at this link: https://www.wepan.org/mpage/TECAID_MechEngDepts

We would like to thank Phil Dineen who served as TECAID’s web designer and ASME who provided funds to make these final updates possible.

Two Undergraduates Win ASME Awards

Two of our AME undergraduate students, Janella Clary and Colton Ross, received ASME awards on April 26th. Janella received the Tom J. Love Outstanding ASME Student Member Award from ASME Central Oklahoma Section while Colton received the ASME Central Oklahoma Section Undergraduate Scholarship of $500.

Janella Clary a senior from League City, Texas, is a mechanical engineer major with minors in business, Spanish, and international studies. She’s involved in the Gallogly College of Engineering as well as an active member of SHPE, SWE, ASME, MEP, and AISES. Last year she was the secretary for OU’s ASME chapter and this year she is serving as president. Additionally, Janella is involved in the OU Triathlon team, OU Sailing Club, Global Engagement Fellows, and OU Cousins. Recently, she has completed two internships with Exxon Mobil in Spring, Texas, as an offsites and utilities engineer and she will intern with them again for this summer. Next year she will be graduating in June 2019 and plans to start with Exxon Mobil fulltime after graduation, unless she is selected for the Fulbright award, then she plans on completing an independent research project at OU starting in September 2019.                                                                                Colton Ross, who is a junior mechanical engineering major, is a new member of the ASME student chapter. Currently, he is an undergraduate researcher working with his mentor and future M.S. thesis advisor, Dr. Chung-Hao Lee, in the Biomechanics and Biomaterials Design Laboratory. Colton has presented at the ASME/AIAA sponsored symposium, hosted by OCU, in April. His future plans include pursuing his accelerated master’s degree as well as furthering his education through a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering. Congratulations go out to both Colton and Janella on their ASME awards and future endeavors.

 

AME Honors Outstanding Students at Annual Ceremony

        On April 20th, AME recognized current graduate and undergraduate students on their outstanding achievements for the 2017-2018 school year at the annual Board of Advisors and Student Recognition Ceremony. Undergraduate mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering students received the Outstanding Student awards. The graduate student awards include scholarships and fellowships received for the upcoming academic year. Graduate students recognized for their respective scholarships include:  

Thomas Milam, Sr. Endowed Fellowship: 

  • Robert Blake Anderson 
  • Timothy Blackford 
  • Julius Marshall 

Frank Chuck Mechanical Engineering Scholarship: 

  • Jingyu Wang 

Chevron Texaco Scholarship: 

  • Alireza Abdi 

John E. Francis Scholarship:  

  • Mohammad Charara 

Jim & Bee Close Engineering Scholarship: 

  • Tausif Jamal 
  • Rajmohan Muthaiah 
  • Mohammad Abshirini 

Marathon Oil Scholarship: 

  • Richard Perry 

In addition to the graduate students recognized at the ceremony, AME also honored our outstanding students who excel both inside and outside the classroom and are leaders among AME students. The students are selected for these awards by AME faculty for their performance in their respective classes. Dr. L’Afflitto and Dr. Siddique presented the outstanding performance awards for aerospace engineering, and the awardees and their respective awards include: 

Outstanding Sophomore in Aerospace Engineering: 

  • Glenn Medina 

Outstanding Junior in Aerospace Engineering: 

  • Alexander Speed 
  • Alexander Bryant 

Outstanding Senior in Aerospace Engineering: 

  • Joseph Sullivan 

Mechanical Engineering awards were presented by Dr. Baldwin, who is the undergraduate mechanical engineering committee chair, and Dr. Siddique. The awardees with their respective awards include: 

Outstanding Sophomore in Mechanical Engineering: 

  • Duncan Merchan-Breuer 

Outstanding Junior in Mechanical Engineering: 

  • Colton Ross 

Outstanding Senior in Mechanical Engineering: 

  • Sarah Libby 

Congratulations to these groups of outstanding students for their achievements at AME and their great accomplishments!

Wind Tunnel Design Team Takes 2nd Place at AIAA Student Conference

AME’s student wind tunnel design team recently accepted an award in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the weekend of April 13th at the student conference of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Representing the team, Karen Martinez Soto traveled to the conference to accept the 2nd place award on behalf of her team for the AIAA region IV team technical paper category. In addition to Soto, her teammates include Samuel Jett, Orhan Roksa, and Marko Mestrovic, who are all undergraduate students at AME.                                         Their paper highlights the design, fabrication, and uniformity testing of a low-budget, wind tunnel. With a budget of only $5,000, their group examined characteristics of wind tunnels through computer models and they continued their study further by building a tunnel of their own to test other aerodynamic components. The focus of their design and construction for this tunnel, according to their paper, serves to provide “a robust platform for development and testing of many aerodynamics components, including UAV propellers.” Congratulations to Karen, Samuel, Orhan, and Marko for their impressive efforts to design and test a wind tunnel and their 2nd place award from the AIAA student conference.

Link to the team’s paper: design-fabrication-uniformity (1)-1ghgtt2

Devin Laurence Wins Grand Prize at 2018 Research Day at the Capitol

Devin Laurence, a senior mechanical engineering student at AME, recently participated in the 2018 Research Day at the Capitol in Oklahoma City on March 27, 2018.  The poster competition is presented and sponsored by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, Oklahoma Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research and the National Science Foundation. The event offers an opportunity for nominated, undergraduate students currently enrolled in Oklahoma universities to present science-based research to a panel of judges, State Legislators as well as the public. He was required to give a brief oral presentation regarding his poster’s topic, participate in a short Q&A session with a panel of judges, as well as present a technical abstract on his topic.   

Devin received the Grand Prize for his presentation on: “Integrated Experimental-Computational Approach for Multiscale Investigations of Atrioventricular Heart Valves With Applications to Individual-Optimized Surgery Planning.”  His prize included a $500 award as well as a $4,000 summer research internship. A hearty congratulations goes out to Devin on his success for presenting at the capitol and for the recognition of this prestigious award.

(View Poster Here: Laurence_RD@C-24m2pfb)

Undergraduate Student, Pranav Mohan, Wins Prestigious Awards

AME congratulates Pranav Mohan, an undergraduate student at AME, for his recent success and awards. Pranav, along with Abhishek Yadav, an industrial and systems engineering major, and Cindy Belarado, an environmental studies and pre-med major, crafted a proposal titled, “Money Spent Right – Menstrual Cup for Women’s Empowerment.” They were awarded $10,000 for their distinguished proposal. Both Janet K. Allen and Farrokh Mistree mentored Pranav and Abhishek through this project proposal. 

Additionally, Pranav is one of 20 OU male juniors and seniors to be recognized with the “Big Men on Campus” award this year. This award aims to recognize students for their outstanding accomplishments in leadership, service, honors, and academics. Pranav exemplifies each of these qualities and will be recognized at the campus awards ceremony on April 17th for his distinctions. Congratulations go out to Pranav, Abhishek, and Cindy for their successful project proposal and to Pranav for receiving the prestigious “Big Men on Campus” award. 

3 Minute Thesis Competition Winners

The Gallogy College of Engineering would like to congratulate those who participated in the 3 Minute Thesis competition, which was held on January 23, 2018.  The University of Oklahoma’s Three Minute Thesis competition is an opportunity for people to share their research with a broad audience as well as compete for competition prizes.

A special congratulations goes out to Lin Guo (ISE) for placing first in the 3 Minute Thesis competition for her presentation “Improving Social-Ecological System through Dam-Networking Planning.” Lin will proceed to represent OU at the Regional 3 Minutes Thesis competition later this year. Additionally, Lin is a member of the Systems Realization Laboratory here at OU and is being mentored for her dissertation by Janet K. Allen and Dr. Farrokh Mistree.

A second congratulation goes out to Bhagyashree Waghule (AME) for placing second in the 3 Minute Thesis competition for her presentation “Artificial Gravity for Long Human Space Flight Missions.” Bhagyashree is currently being mentored for her master’s degree by Dr. David Miller.

We would like to thank the Graduate Student Community (GSC) leadership team for helping Bhagyashree, Lin, Abhishek Yadav (ISE), and Reza Alizadeh (ISE) prepare for the first round of competition. Lastly, thank you to Mustafa Ghazi for preparing and sharing material, along with his experience to help the competitors prepare for the 3 Minute Thesis Competition. It was great to see the excellent turnout of GSC members at the 3 Minute Thesis Competiton!

Student Spotlight: Robert Kunkel

AME-robert-kunkel-blog-2AME undergraduate student, Robert Kunkel, represented OU in Washington, DC at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center and at ANSER.  Mr. Kunkel entered the AME program as a National Merit Scholar and is in his 3rd year of Mechanical Engineering with 18 additional hours for a pre-med emphasis and in the Honors College.

“I wasn’t sure how demanding the internship would turn out to be, but my experiences at OU, both in the classroom and in the practice facility made me confident that I was prepared to handle anything that I encountered,” said Mr. Kunkel.

He applied for the internship at NASA at the OU Job Fair.  In the interview process, he was so highly regarded that they gave him 2 projects instead of one.  He worked with the NASA NIAC team (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts) at Goddard for a project analyzing all project proposal submissions from 2011-2015. The executives at NASA will use the data from his project for future planning and funding for their programs.

For Mr. Kunkel’s second project, he was loaned to ANSER, a high-level Washington think tank. He was the only NASA intern that did this. His project was to work with a well-respected and published researcher on radiation, Dr. Ron Turner, to research Mitigating radiation on long-term astronauts by sheltering in lunar lava tubes. He is also cited as a co-author on this paper that will be published and presented at a conference in 2017.

He achieved his security clearance for this work and socialized with some of the top scientists in the country as they came to Washington for the NIAC events.  He also has personally read all NIAC proposals submitted by them since 2011.  At the conclusion of the internship, NASA had a ‘Poster Day’ where all the interns display the results of their work over the summer.

AME-robert-kunkel-blog-1

In the future, Mr. Kunkel wants to work in research and development or possibly explore the private sector. He will pursue a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and is interested in biomedical engineering as an emphasis.