Sooner Off-Road Team Has Their Most Successful Year

Since 2010, Sooner Off-Road has engineered a vehicle at the University of Oklahoma. Every year they design, manufacture, and compete with a Baja SAE vehicle. Baja SAE consists of three competitions that simulate real-world engineering projects and their related challenges. Engineering students are given a mission to design and build a single-seat, all-terrain, sporting vehicle that performs well with speed, handling, ride, and ruggedness over rough terrain and off-road conditions. This year the team was led by co-captains Ben Basden and Advika Kamatar and their advisor Dr. Chris Dalton to their most successful year ever!

The Sooner Off-Road team was able to compete in three events this year. One in-person event and, because of Covid-19, one event that took place virtually. In these events the team competed against teams from across the US as well as universities from around the world.

In the virtual competition, the team received 9th place in design presentation, 3rd in the business presentation, and 1st place in the cost presentation. Each of those results is the best the Sooner Off-Road team has ever done in the respective events. Overall, they ended up in 7th place, which is a fantastic result for the team!

For the in-person competition, they achieved 12th in maneuverability, 9th in hill climb, 3rd in suspension, and 2nd in acceleration.  Out of 45 teams who attempted the suspension course, they were one of only three teams to actually complete it. Amazingly, this is the best the Sooner Off-Road team has ever done in those events as well!

We are very proud of the Sooner Off-Road team and congratulate them for their tremendous success!

For more information about the Sooner Off-Road team, check out their Facebook page and follow them on Instagram.

 

 

 

 

 

Using EEG to Understand Engineering Creativity

Tess Hartog, Md Tanvir Ahad, and Amin Alhashim are working together to explore the uses of electroencephalogram (EEG) to understand neuro-responses as they pertain to creativity in engineering. They are working under Dr. Zahed Siddique; Tess Hartog is an ME MS student with a background in math and psychology, Tanvir is an ME Ph.D. student with a background in EE, and Amin is an ISE Ph.D. student. Megan Marshall was a former fellow who graduated with her MS in AE in the summer of 2020.

The main objective of the research is to study creativity in engineering by gaining a deep understanding of how creative thoughts form and how the brain responds to different levels of creative products.  The students are currently utilizing EEG to capture the neurological behaviors and responses when conducting research.

Graduate Students

Amin’s work focuses on three areas: creativity definitions, creativity models, and the effect of cues on creativity.  Through text analysis techniques, Amin is analyzing a corpus of creativity definitions extracted from literature to understand how creativity is being perceived by engineers and non-engineers.  There are many models for creativity and Amin is working on a classification scheme based on their similarity.  Such classification is important for the advancement of creativity research as evident in the history of sciences. Amin’s last area of focus is on the effect of cues on creative behavior and its relationship with how the brain behaves through the use of EEG.

 

Tess’s work focuses on a subset of EEG recording called event-related potentials (ERPs), which are time-locked neural responses to stimuli. Specifically, she investigates the ERPs (the N400response) of engineers to creative stimuli. Tess is also working on analyzing the EEG recordings of engineers during engineering design-related problems and examining whether exposure to creative stimuli will improve designs. Below are some of her preliminary ERP findings. As indicated in the pictures, she looks for differences in negative wave amplitudes for three types of stimuli around 400 milliseconds post-stimulus presentation (i.e. the N400).

 

Defining creativity is hard but the measurement of creativity is even harder. To capture the multifaceted nature of creativity; more than a hundred measurement techniques have been developed and applied including neurocognitive approaches. The brain’s neural dynamics related to creativity should be accounted to quantify the relationship between the brain regions. During divergent thinking, EEG studies aid temporal dynamics of the neuronal activations underlying cognitive insight. In order to solve real-world problems, creativity is a must for engineers. Engineers’ involvement with creative tasks; activate brain regions corresponding to the task’s demand. Identifying the significant brain temporal regions engaged with the creative tasks for engineers is a crucial question. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) which are based on event-related potentials (ERPs) have the potential ability to estimate a user’s task involvement. Therefore, the question comes: Is the creativity (neural activity) of engineers detected by ERP-Based Brain-Computer Interfaces task-specific? Tanvir’s research work focuses on addressing these questions in the Neurocognitive creativity research domain.

AME Graduate Student Award Winners Announced!

This month, AME announced the graduate students who will be receiving scholarships and fellowships for their hard work during the 2019-2020 school year. Graduate students recognized include:

Marathon Oil Scholarship:

Adam Flenniken

 

John E. Francis Scholarship:

Roshan Annam

Hootan Rahimi

 

Jim and Bee Close Scholarship:

Mohammad Abshirini

Alfredo Becerril Corral

Emmanuel Hakizimana

Anirban Mondal

Mohammad Naghashnejad

Fatema Tarannum

 

Frank Chuck Mechanical Engineering Scholarship:

Parisa Marashizadeh

 

W. Thomas Milam, Sr., Endowed Fellowship:

Tess Hartog

Blake Herren

 

Congratulations to these outstanding students for their achievements!

AME Represented at Sooner Saturday

Graduate student Cortland Johns represented AME at Sooner Saturday on April 27, 2019. She spoke to future OU students about the School of Aerospace and Mechanical engineering.

Sooner Saturday is a recruiting event for juniors in high school and their parents. Cortland talked to students about her classes, her research in Dr. Lee’s lab, and her internship with MITRE this summer. She also answered questions about the differences between Mechanical and Aerospace engineering, the different competition teams, and how to apply for internships. Additionally, Cortland answered questions for students and parents about college in general, such as ways to be involved and how to manage your time.

Dr. Zuo Presents Seminar at OU

Dr. Jian Zuo gave a seminar over drug discovery for hearing loss on Thursday, March 14th at OU. Dr. Zuo is a chairman and professor from the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Creighton University School of Medicine.

Abstract: Hearing loss caused by aging, noise, cisplatin toxicity, or other insults affects 360 million people worldwide, but there are no Food and Drug Administration–approved drugs to prevent or treat it. We first performed high-throughput screens for small molecules that prevent cisplatin-induced hearing loss in a cochlear derived cell line. The hit compounds were further validated in cochlear explants, zebrafish lateral-line neuromasts in vivo, and eventually in mouse and rat’s cochleae in vivo. We have so far identified and characterized several potent compounds that exhibit protection against not only cisplatin but also antibiotics and noise-induced hearing loss. We further investigated several targets of top compounds in knockout mouse models. To treat hearing loss, we first developed genetic mouse models in which hair cell regeneration occurred at adult ages. Based on the genetic manipulations, we performed high-throughput screens of small molecules that mimic the genetics models. We further tested these top compounds in adult mice for hair cell regeneration. Combinatory applications of these top compounds could provide therapeutic intervention of hearing loss in clinics.

Biography: Jian Zuo obtained his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China in 1985. He then immigrated to the US for his Ph.D. in Physiology from UCSF in 1993. After postdoc training in Rockefeller University, he became a faculty at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis since 1998. After 20 years, he recently moved to Creighton University School of Medicine as the Chairman and Professor in the Dept. of Biomedical Sciences in April 2018. He has published >100 research articles and >20 reviews with high impacts. He currently has 2 R01 grants, 2 DoD grants, and one MRC grant. He has trained many successful students and postdocs and has interests in the commercialization of his discoveries.

AME Hosts Seminar by Dr. Srinivas Kolla

Srinivas Swaroop Kolla, Ph.D., a research associate at the University of Tulsa, presented a seminar Friday, March 8th at OU. He spoke about the design and performance of gas-liquid cylindrical cyclone compact separators.

Abstract: Compact separation technology has continuously improved significantly in recent years, due to its applications in a variety of industries, such as Oil & Gas, Chemical, Environmental, and Aerospace. The conventional separators that are based on gravity, are bulky, heavy and expensive, which are being replaced by compact separators that have smaller foot-print, higher productivity and are less expensive to procure and operate. Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCC©) separator is one such compact separator that is simple and easy to install and operate with more than 6800 applications including subsea. The presentation covers various aspects of design modifications of GLCC separators and quantifying its performance under the limiting conditions using control strategies. Details of experimental research conducted to investigate the two undesirable phenomena, namely, Liquid Carry-Over and Gas Carry-Under are presented. The Structural integrity analysis of the GLCC inlet section is conducted using the FEA and the design modifications are validated using CFD simulations. A comparative study of the FEA analysis results and Fluid-Structure Interaction analysis results is presented. In addition, different mechanistic models developed to quantify the LCO and GCU of the GLCC are discussed. Finally, short-term and long-term research goals are presented along with guiding principles of teaching philosophy.

Biography: Dr. Srinivas Swaroop Kolla received his B.S degree (2002) from Nagarjuna University in India and M.S. (2007) and Ph.D. (2018) degrees from The University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, all in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Kolla has 9 years of experience pursuing a professional career working in cross-functional teams across Europe and India on industry projects including Oil & Gas, Medical and Automotive sectors. Between 2007 and 2015, he worked in various roles starting as a Research Engineer to Project Manager leading teams developing components and systems. During his career with FMC Technologies in France, he worked on the project “PRELUDE” an FLNG/FPSO unit being developed currently by Samsung Industries. Dr. Kolla has a multi-disciplinary background in mechanical and petroleum engineering and his research focus on Multiphase Flow, Separation Technologies, Pressure vessels, Flow Assurance, Pumps and Design of components & Systems using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) as well as Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI). He has published several refereed journal and conference papers, while some are under review.  He has also applied for 2 US patents and few more are being prepared for submission this year. He serves on executive committee of ASME Mid-Continent Section and Co-organizer of Multiphase Flow Technical Track in ASME Fluid Engineering Division Summer Conference and a member of FMTC, CFDTC, MFTC technical committees.  He also serves as a reviewer for several conferences and journals. Dr. Kolla has received several awards, scholarships, and fellowships during his career. His awards over the past 3 years include ASME Petroleum Division Scholarship, ASME Fluid Engineering Division-Graduate Scholarship, The University of Tulsa Distinguished Chapman Scholarship, Graduate Student Fellowship and Bellwether Fellowship.

Dr. Edward Guo Presents Seminar over Bone Bioengineering

Edward Guo, Ph.D., a Chair and Stanley Dicker Professor for the department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University, gave a seminar on Wednesday, March 6th at OU. His seminar was over bone bioengineering: microstructure, mechanics, mechanobiology and beyond.

Abstract: Bone Bioengineering Laboratory is developing innovative technology in microstructural assessments, biomechanical modeling, multiscale and mechanobiological approaches in skeletal research. Bone Bioengineering has both basic science and clinical significances in many medical fields, such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, or intervertebral disc degenerations. I will highlight our development of a three-dimensional imaging analysis and modeling technique for trabecular bone microstructure, its applications in basic science research of bone mechanics, and clinical applications in osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. We will discuss bone microstructural phenotypes in difference races and their implications in genetic and precision medicine, anthropology, evolution and mechanobiology of the skeletons. In parallel to these developments, we will also discuss our multiscale mechanobiological approaches in understanding the mechanisms of how bone senses and responds to mechanical loading and showcase how mechanobiology links to bone microstructure and mechanics.

Biography: Dr. Guo received his M.S. in 1990 and Ph.D. in 1994 in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from Harvard University-MIT. In 1994-1996, Professor Guo did his postdoctoral fellowship in the Orthopaedic Research Laboratories at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor with Professor Steven A. Goldstein in orthopaedic bioengineering. In 1996 he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering and then Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2001, Associate Professor with tenure in 2003, Professor in 2007, and named as Stanley Dicker Professor in 2018. He directs the Bone Bioengineering Laboratory in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia focusing his research interests in micromechanics of bone tissue, computational biomechanics, and mechanobiology of bone. His past honors include Young Investigator Recognition Award from the Orthopaedic Research Society, National Research Service Award from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), a CAREER award from the US National Foundation of Science (NSF), Funds for Talented Professionals (Joint Research Fund for Overseas Chinese Young Scholars) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He is elected fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineerin. He was one of the founders and served as co-Editor-in-Chief of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE), an international journal of US Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). He has served many review panels for NIH, NSF, and NASA. His research has been supported by the Whitaker Foundation, the NSF, and the NIH. He served as President of International Chinese Musculoskeletal Research Society, the Society for Physical Regulation in Biology and Medicine, Member of Board of Directors of Orthopaedic Research Society, and Member of Board of Directors of AIMBE. He also founded the Special Interest Group (SIG) in CMBE in the BMES and served as its founding Chair.

Chinedum Ezeakacha presents over Performance Verification and Material Testing of Liner Hanger Sealing Components for Oil and Gas Application

On Friday, February 8, AME hosted a seminar from Chinedum Peter Ezeakacha, a post-doctoral research associate at the Well Construction Technology center at OU. In his research, he speaks about performance verification and material testing of liner hanger sealing components for oil and gas application.

Abstract: Drilling operations, particularly in an offshore environment, require special tools and equipment. Liners and liner hangers are commonly used in offshore drilling applications instead of full string casings. When a well section is drilled, liner hanger and cement are used to engage and seal off the liner, connecting it to the previous casing. Typically, the liner hanger seal assembly is placed up-stream to the cement column. This arrangement prevents the independent evaluation of the integrity of both mechanical barriers (cement and liner hanger seal) after installation. The report from an oil and gas regulatory agency highlighted that the cause of a recent underground kick with this type of arrangement can be linked to the failure of he mechanical barriers under the operating conditions. While some of the design criteria for liner hangers are obtained from API 17D (Design and Operation of Subsea Production Systems – Subsea Wellhead and Tree Equipment), there is currently no standard that specifically addresses liner hangers or seals, nor how to test them. In this seminar, the performance of cement sheath and elastomeric seals used in liner hangers will be presented. Different downhole conditions in which these mechanical barriers can fail were simulated. The scope of the project necessitated a cross-disciplinary investigation involving the knowledges from mechanical engineering, petroleum engineering, and civil/material engineering. Thus, the barrier testing protocols were developed in consonance with the key questions raised by the agency, existing practice in 30 CFR 250.425, as well as ASTM and ASME standards. The summary of the findings in this study points towards testing the mechanical barriers for the anticipated downhole conditions before deploying them, particularly in gas-migration prone zones. In this study, the term “barrier(s)” defines the use of cement sheath and the liner hanger sealing assembly to prevent uncontrolled influx and migration of formation fluid to a shallow formation or surface facilities.

Biography: Chinedum Peter Ezeakacha is a post-doctoral research associate at the Well Construction Technology Center, The University of Oklahoma. He holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Nnamdi Azikiwe University Nigeria (2009). After his bachelors’ program, he worked with ExxonMobil in Nigeria as a petroleum engineer from 2010 to 2011. Before enrolling in graduate school (spring 2013), he provided field support for installation, operation, and maintenance of compressed natural gas and pressure reduction stations for NG Equipment and Systems Ltd Nigeria (2011 to 2012). From 2013 to 2015, he instructed three lab sessions (well control, drilling fluids, and petrophysics), and one class (drilling engineering) at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In December 2014, he earned a M.Sc. in Engineering from UL Lafayette. Chinedum received his Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering at The University of Oklahoma in December 2018. During his 6-year graduate program in both colleges, Chinedum had 4 scholarships and 3 travel grants/support. He participated in 12 regional, national, and international graduate student research paper contests out of which won the 1st place award three times, 2nd place award once, and 3rd place award twice. He also participated in the SPE International Petrobowl Competition in 2014 as a player (placed 5th in Amsterdam The Netherlands), in 2015 as a coach (placed 4th in Houston Texas), and in 2016 as a coach (placed 2nd in Dubai UAE). Chinedum has presented more than 12 papers at several regional, national, and international conferences, meetings, and symposiums. He has published 9 papers in 5 journals (JERT, JPSE, JNGSE, Polymer, and JPEPT) and 14 conference papers (ASME OMAE, SPE, IADC/SPE, AADE, and ARMA). His research interests are in well integrity, downhole tool/material performance, design of experiments and data analysis, and wellbore stability.

 

 

 

Thousands Strong campaign results are in!

Design Build Fly (DBF) and Boomer Rocket Team (BRT) successfully completed their Thousands Strong campaign! While it was a very close competition between the two teams, Boomer Rocket Team pulled ahead of Design Build Fly by a mere $185. Both teams did however surpass their goal of $4,000. Boomer Rocket Team raised a total of $7,300 and Design Build Fly raised $7,115. This money went towards supplies needed to build their rocket and plane. 

Thank you to everyone who supported out teams by donating!