OCAST funds five R&D Intern Partnerships

March 21, 2013

The University of Tulsa successfully competed for three Intern Partnerships awards and ATC New Technologies of Oklahoma City captured two of the awards funded by the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. The five projects totaled $201,895 for up to two years.

OCAST funding will support undergraduate student internships in environmental technologies, robotics, transportation and energy.

Interns assist Oklahoma small businesses in their efforts to recruit hard-to-find technology trained employees. OCAST pays half of the cost for an undergraduate intern to work in a research and development setting while the business pays the remaining half.

OCAST’s program combines university faculty oversight, in most cases, with financial support and company mentoring from the private sector. Many of the college students who participate in the program become employees of the small businesses that sponsor them.

Recent program awards follow:

Environmental Technologies

• Professor Surendra Singh of the University of Tulsa is working with MIRATECH Holding LLC to oversee the work of two interns in design and development of emission solutions for bi-fuel systems. The work will enable further development of large industrial engine exhaust silencers. Students will learn to use 3-D AutoCAD applications for the emissions industry. Total for two years, $60,000

Robotics

• Professor Michael Keller of the University of Tulsa will oversee the work of two interns who will be employed by the firm CRTS Inc. of Tulsa. Students will design and build an internal weld repair tool for expediting repair of broken welds inside pipelines. The new technology will be beneficial in combating corrosion issues inside pipelines. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, 11.2 percent of all reported U.S. pipeline incidents in 2011 caused more than $30 million in property damage. Total for two years, $60,000

Transportation

• ATC New Technologies of Oklahoma City will provide technical direction from staff member Bryan Schultz to lead two interns in developing and testing a replacement battery for the Toyota Prius. Toyota installs high voltage nickel metal hydride batteries in original Prius models. ATC New Technologies will replace the original battery with a lithium ion battery produced in Oklahoma City. Total for one year, $27,200
• The University of Tulsa’s Kaveh Ashenayi will collaborate with Railroad Signal International Inc. of Tulsa in overseeing the work of one intern. The student intern will work with company engineers to develop a new arm controller/sensor design using shaft encoders and the latest microprocessor based technology. Total for one year, $25,495

Energy

• Bryan Schultz of ATC New Technologies in Oklahoma City will direct two interns on a one-year project to evaluate, using nontraditional sensors and techniques, batteries from hybrid and electric vehicles. ATC New Technologies will use a number of sensors identified in a separate Department of Energy ARPA-E grant in this project. Sensors and techniques to be investigated by the two interns include ultrasonic signals detected by microphone, pressure variation during charge/discharge, magnetic field probing, off gas detectors and heat flux. Total for one year, $29,200