OU Engineering Senior Wins Grand Prize at 2018 Research Day at the Capitol

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A University of Oklahoma Mechanical Engineering Senior in the Accelerated Bachelor and Master of Science program, Devin W. Laurence, is the Grand Prize winner at the 2018 Research Day at the Capitol, sponsored by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, Oklahoma Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research and National Science Foundation. Laurence was one of 23 undergraduate student researchers who presented poster presentations based on a technical abstract and five-minute presentation for review and evaluation by a panel of EPSCoR-appointed judges.

“Congratulations to Devin on his outstanding achievement. What a great success from our student representing cardiovascular biomechanics research at OU,” said Chung-Hao Lee, master’s thesis advisor and assistant professor in the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Gallogly College of Engineering. “Laurence presented, ‘An Integrated Experimental-Computational Approach for Multiscale Investigations of Atrioventricular Heart Valves with Applications to Individual-Optimized Surgery Planning.’”

As the Grand Prize winner, Laurence is the recipient of a $500 award, plus a $4,000 summer research internship. A $2,500 award is given to the sponsoring Oklahoma college or university laboratory to offset expenses of hosting the internship. In this case, OU’s Biomechanics and Biomaterials Design Laboratory (http://www.ou.edu/coe/ame/bbdl.html) will receive the award for conducting cutting-edge research in cardiovascular heart valve biomechanics.

Research Day at the Capitol was established more than 20 years ago to showcase the outstanding undergraduate research being conducted at Oklahoma’s colleges and universities in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Students are nominated by their institution’s leadership to participate in the prestigious event. Students present their research to state legislators and the public in the Capitol Rotunda during the legislative session.

Winners were announced at the conclusion of Research Day during an awards ceremony held on March 27 in the Capitol’s Blue Room. For more information, contact Gina Miller, Outreach Coordinator, at gmiller@okepscor.org.










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