OCAST board funds six R&D Intern Partnerships

November 18, 2008

Six new R&D Intern Partnership awards have been approved for funding by the governing board of OCAST, the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.  Each R&D Intern Partnership will operate two years in collaboration with universities and private-sector companies in Tulsa, Claremore and Stillwater.

Awards total $316,142 over a two-year period and support undergraduate student internships in energy conversion, computer systems and software applications, manufacturing process optimization, electronic instrumentation/sensors and control systems, ranching and aircraft manufacturing.

Since 1998 the OCAST R&D Intern Partnership program has assisted Oklahoma small businesses in locating hard-to-find technology trained employees.  OCAST pays half of the cost for an undergraduate intern to work in a research and development setting.

The number of undergraduate students who have interned at 80 Oklahoma firms and farms is approaching 500.

OCAST’s program is designed to assist technology-based job creation.  It combines university faculty oversight with financial support and company mentoring from the private sector.  Many of the college students who participate in the program eventually become employees of the small businesses that sponsor them.

The most recent program awards follow:

Energy Conversion

Tulsa & Claremore – Surendra Singh of the University of Tulsa will mentor interns who will help design and develop electric submersible pump components including electric down hole motors, seal sections, gas separators and gages for monitoring down hole conditions.  The $60,000 two-year project will be conducted in collaboration with Centerlift, a division of Baker Hughes in Claremore.

Computer Systems and Software Applications

Tulsa – Jerald Dawkins of True Digital Security Inc. of Tulsa will mentor interns who will be involved in security evaluation and software development processes.  With the task of developing a critical component to the True Company’s analytical capacity, the students will work on network flow analysis, protocol detection, anomalous behavior, statistical analysis, database scalability, data visualization and clustering technologies.  The $59,140 project is for two years.

Manufacturing Process Optimization

Tulsa – Kaveh Ashenayi of the University of Tulsa and Steve Berge from Larbarge Inc. will mentor interns who will be hired by the company in Tulsa.  Interns will help improve the production process for high end printed circuit cards.  Their tasks will include process evaluation, interviewing operators, collecting data, developing flowcharts and recommending improvements.  The one-year project will receive $22,659 from OCAST.

Computer Systems and Software Applications

Tulsa – Jeremy Dailey of the University of Tulsa will work with interns assigned to Avansic Inc. of Tulsa.  Interns will study traffic crash reconstruction and digital forensics. They will collect and evaluate data from air bag monitors, global positioning systems, antilock breaking sensors, electronic stability controls, rollover sensors and tire pressure monitoring devices.  OCAST has awarded $54,343 for the two-year program.

Electronic Instrumentation/Sensors and Control Systems and Ranching

Stillwater – Steve Trost of Strategic Solutions International LLC in Stillwater will mentor interns on refinement of wireless sensors configured as a livestock health monitoring system.  The technology will be adapted to other industries including home temperature automation, shipping container monitoring and construction quality control.  The award is for $60,000 for two years.

Aircraft Manufacturing

Tulsa and Stillwater – Jay Hanan of Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, and OSU-Tulsa, will oversee the work of interns on a project to add new sensors to a prototype non-destructive analysis used in the maintenance of military aircraft.  The team will work on updates of control software for new and existing sensors.  The two-year project was awarded $60,000 from OCAST.