OU students launched into aerospace industry

By Ja’Rena Lunsford

Published: March 13, 2008

Although the University of Oklahoma's aerospace program was nearly grounded less than a decade ago, the discipline is soaring and providing a work force for some of the largest companies in the nation.

At one time, low attendance coupled with a cyclical industry presented OU's leadership team with the decision to either eliminate the aerospace program or keep it going with hopes it would take off again, said Sub Gollahalli, director of the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.

Gollahalli said OU President David L. Boren decided the program would remain, a decision that re-energized the faculty and started the program in a different direction: the future.

"We completely overhauled our curriculum to prepare our students for the industry in the 21st century,” Gollahalli said.

Gollahalli said it was clear that the program had to be revamped if the college wanted to continue producing some of the best aerospace engineers in the country.

From courses in computer engineering to hands-on projects with companies such as The NORDAM Group, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, the program's curriculum is taking students beyond the design of an airplane.

"That is the strength of this program, modernized curriculum,” Gollahalli said. "We tell prospective parents and students that we aren't going to just teach them how to design an airplane.

"Students get to work on real-life programs,” he said.

It's that experience that has senior Jonathan Coberly confident about life after graduation, and that does not surprise professor M. Cengiz Altan.

"I would say 80 to 90 percent of our seniors receive multiple offers before they graduate,” Altan said.

Coberly, who will graduate in May, said the fact that he's actually applied what he's learned in the classroom to hands-on projects has eased the process of securing employment after graduation.

"What you have done — it's one of the biggest things employers look at,” Coberly said. "It's attractive to employers.”

Coberly is among a group of senior students working with Altan on a research project focusing on using solar panels to harvest energy and maintain flights of unmanned aerovehicles.

"The Air Force is interested in this type of technology,” Altan said. He said harvesting energy gives an aircraft more range by enabling it to continuing flying after it is charged instead of returning to its starting point.

The Air Force Research Laboratory recently awarded a $1 million contract to Norman-based Design Intelligence Inc. to develop the power management system for the harvesting project, said James L. Grimsley, president and chief executive of Design Intelligence. OU will develop the vehicle for the project.

Research and development increasingly have played an important role in the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. From planetary rovers that have captured NASA's attention to a new radar system that is expected to keep the skies safer by pinpointing exactly where planes are, students in the program are developing technology that is expected to have a global effect.

John Fagan, an electrical and computer engineering professor, said a radar system is significantly cheaper than current radar systems — compare $1 million with $5 million — and safer.

"The real problem is the number of near-misses we've been having,” Fagan said. "This is going to hopefully manage that.” He said the multilateration system gives an update on where a plane is located every second, instead of every six seconds like other radars.

"We're coming up with ways to put more aircraft in a space safely,” Fagan said.

DAILY Q&A: Herman Bounds, the deputy campus director of Metro Technology Centers' Aviation Career Campus, discusses growth of Metro Tech's program. Page 4B

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