Research
Research News
Friday, October 04, 2024
After winning the Oakland University Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition in both 2023 and 2024, Shweta Kapur — a physical therapist, Ph.D. candidate, and graduate research and teaching assistant in the Department of Human Movement Science at OU — was encouraged by her mentor, Dr. Daniel Goble, to participate in the Worldwide 3MT competition organized by the International Society of Gait and Posture (ISPGR).
Thursday, September 19, 2024
In collaboration with five academic institutions in the state of Alabama, Oakland University in Rochester, Mich. has been awarded $5 million by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in support of a five-year project that will provide scholarships and academic, social, and professional development opportunities to high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need who are pursuing degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related fields.
Friday, July 12, 2024
Dr. Alycen Wiacek, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Bioengineering at Oakland University, has been awarded the prestigious Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) grant for $200,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for her project to develop a wireless 3D breast ultrasound imaging system for low-resource settings.
Oakland University professor co-leads study of aquatic-based, human-driven impacts on climate change
Thursday, May 30, 2024
A study published in the journal Science uses a global experiment and predictive modeling to illustrate how human impacts to aquatic ecosystems are contributing to the global climate crisis.
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Fulbright scholar Sara Fatima’s aspiration to care for society and better the world inspired her educational path in molecular biology. When it came to choosing a university to transform that passion into reality, Oakland University’s (OU) cutting-edge research labs and expert faculty solidified OU as her number one choice.
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
On May 20, Oakland University will celebrate the grand opening of the School of Engineering and Computer Science’s Research and Innovation Center (RIC), a 48,700 square foot facility located in Rochester Hills, Mich. that will house bioengineering, mechanical, electrical, industrial, and computer science labs, and serve as a hub for research conducted in partnership with industry.
Thursday, April 11, 2024
In an article published in Chemistry of Materials, a prestigious journal under the American Chemical Society, Oakland University Associate Professor of Physics Yuejian Wang explored how high-pressure techniques can induce changes in certain crystalline materials, similar to the way graphite can be converted into diamond when subjected to high pressure and high temperature.
Monday, February 19, 2024
Oakland University has joined the United States Department of State’s Diplomacy Lab, a public-private partnership between the Department of State and a network of U.S. academic institutions that harnesses research and innovation of students and faculty to solve global challenges.
Wednesday, February 07, 2024
Dr. Dawn Woods, an assistant professor in the School of Education and Human Services at Oakland University, has received a five-year, $781,196 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in support of her research project, entitled “Sparking ‘Number Talks’ to Strengthen Mathematical Identities.”
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Oakland University Assistant Professor of Chemistry Zhe Wang is helping combat the opioid crisis and protect law enforcement officers with his project, “Development of a Low-Cost, Portable, Rapid Opioid Detection Tool for Enhanced Field Decision-Making,” which just received a $300,000 grant from the Department of Justice.
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Oakland University researchers garnered three CAREER Awards from the National Science Foundation in 2023, the fourth-most among Michigan’s public universities. The recipients are Ngong Kodiah Beyeh, Jun Chen and Wing-Yue Geoffrey Louie and their work has potential to revolutionize many fields, from materials science to transportation to healthcare and education.
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Each year, nearly 40,000 infants (10% of total live births) are born prematurely (before 37 weeks of gestation) in the United States, and that number is growing. Premature infants have a high risk of developing lifelong low vision. Their eyes can also develop myopia, a common vision condition in which near objects appear clear, but objects farther away look blurry.
Friday, September 22, 2023
Dr. Ngong Kodiah Beyeh, assistant professor of organic chemistry at Oakland University, has received a five-year, $700,000 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. The award will support research and education on halogen bonding, a process that could transform the field of materials science.
Monday, April 17, 2023
Good balance is a critical aspect of everyday life. From performing simple day-to-day activities like walking and climbing stairs to more complex, athletic activities, balance is required in order to prevent falls and injuries.Seeing the need for more accessible and affordable methods of balance measuring and training, Dr. Daniel Goble, Oakland University director and associate professor of exercise science, created the Balance Tracking System, or BTrackS for short.
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Assistant Professors Jun Chen (left) and Wing-Yue Geoffrey Louie received CAREER Awards from the National Science Foundation to support research and academic programs in the School of Engineering and Computer Science.Jun Chen and Wing-Yue Geoffrey Louie, assistant professors in Oakland University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, have received CAREER Awards from the National Science Foundation to support their respective research projects and expand academic and research opportunities for students.
OU offering new bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity to meet critical state, national and global needs
Monday, March 06, 2023
Responding to critical industry needs in Michigan, the U.S. and around the world, Oakland University's Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) will launch a new Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity (pending final approvals), building on the university’s reputation as a center for cybersecurity education, research and support.
Monday, February 20, 2023
Many vaccine trials use age de-escalation with the goal of safeguarding the interests of younger, more vulnerable populations. After a vaccine’s safety and efficacy are established in adult populations, progressively younger cohorts are enrolled and studied. Although age de-escalation approaches are widely used, including in the recent development of pediatric COVID-19 vaccines, ethicists have not comprehensively addressed the benefits and risks of such approaches.
Monday, January 30, 2023
Cardiometabolic diseases are a group of common but often preventable conditions, including heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Detecting cardiometabolic disease risk in younger populations is important because children with higher cardiometabolic risk are more likely to develop those conditions, and other health complications, when they become adults. Oakland University researchers have published a study using grip strength to help assess cardiometabolic disease risk among adolescents and young adults in the U.S.
Wednesday, January 04, 2023
A long journey for Oakland University’s Department of Bioengineering has resulted in prestigious, formal accreditation from ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) — the global accreditor of college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering and engineering technologies.
Monday, December 05, 2022
A team of Oakland University researchers has published the first complete mitochondrial genome of Diadema antillarum, commonly known as the long-spined sea urchin. The invertebrate marine herbivore inhabits the shallow waters of the Western Atlantic and Caribbean and serves a crucial ecological function: grazing on algae along the region’s coral reefs, preventing overgrowth that can threaten the reefs and the biodiversity they support. About a quarter of the ocean’s fish depend on coral reefs for habitat, which makes recurring die-offs of the long-spined sea urchin particularly troubling. The species has experienced die-off events during the 1980s and 1990s, as well as in the current year, with mortality rates reaching 90-95%.
Tuesday, November 08, 2022
The Research Office at Oakland University presented awards to several OU faculty members in recognition of their outstanding research and initiative during the Research, Innovation and Engagement Town Hall, which was held on Thursday, November 3. The awards were presented virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thursday, September 15, 2022
Elizabeth Parkinson, a doctoral student in Oakland University’s Department of Biological Sciences, has been awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. The fellowship supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees with a focus on NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines.
Tuesday, August 02, 2022
The Summer Undergraduate Program in Eye Research (SUPER) at Oakland University held its 20th annual student research symposium on Friday, July 29.The highly selective 12-week program allows students to perform research on the causes and potential cures for eyes diseases — such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa, age-related macular degeneration, and very rare inherited retinal diseases in infants — with guidance from faculty members in the university’s Eye Research Institute (ERI).
Thursday, July 21, 2022
As NASA prepares to return to the moon in 2025, Dr. Luis Villa-Diaz and a team of researchers at Oakland University have been studying the effects of microgravity — the closest that we can get on Earth to zero gravity, like that found on the International Space Station — on human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC). These cells have the ability to remain undifferentiated by self-renewal mechanisms or to differentiate into virtually any cell type in the human body.
Friday, April 22, 2022
The Oakland University chapter of Sigma Xi, the national scientific research honor society, celebrated the research achievements of students and faculty during its annual lecture and banquet on April 7 on OU’s campus. The lecture was given by David Good, an author, filmmaker and member of the Yanomami tribe, an isolated indigenous people who reside deep in the Amazon Rainforest across parts of southeastern Venezuela and western Brazil.