The University of Oklahoma and its Gallogly College of Engineering have built a world-class, one-of-a-kind ExxonMobil Lawrence G. Rawl Engineering Practice Facility (REPF) where current engineering students are benefiting from a real-world interdisciplinary experience; and kindergarten through 12th-grade students are inspired to become tomorrow's engineers and scientists.
The two-story, 41,000-square-foot ExxonMobil Lawrence G. Rawl Engineering Practice Facility includes 10,000 square feet that students can use to design and build engineering projects. Tens of thousands of people will look in on many varied and interesting projects, including students and teens from kindergarten through 12th grade. This helps to inspire today's young people to become tomorrow's engineers and provides a pipeline of future engineers for industry.
The ExxonMobil Lawrence G. Rawl Engineering Practice Facility (REPF) is a perfect fit for the student of the 21st century. This progressive facility provides a one-of-a-kind showcase for engineering education in the state of Oklahoma. The REPF provides all the tools required to bring an idea from concept to finished product and to recruit, motivate and develop our graduates to become professionals and leaders in their community.
It is this synergy of effort that the Gallogly College of Engineering is confident will inspire tomorrow’s engineers by exciting young elementary, junior high and high school students about the possibilities that exist in an engineering career.
The first-floor of the REPF includes the five practice bays with large bay doors that open facing Jenkins Ave., including one fully-vented closed bay for the Concrete Canoe team. Students are equipped with the tools needed to design, build, and compete at regional and national competitions. A machine shop, complete with safety training, provides additional experience in fabrication of essential vehicle components.
Also on the first floor is the outreach arm of the Gallogly College where kindergarten through 12th grade students and teens are introduced to the many possibilities an engineering degree provides. We hope many of these visitors will return as engineering students on their way to becoming tomorrow's engineers.
This space provides undergraduate students a location for hands-on application for smaller projects. Computer science, industrial engineering, and electrical and computer engineering students are able to demonstrate concepts they discuss in the classroom, and apply these concepts to hands-on applications. Students work on circuit boards, and build and test their own systems.
The Dunham Leadership Area serves engineering students, providing spaces where groups can gather, study and plan and locked spaces for student organizations are available via an application process. Additionally, resume help and career planning are available.. The key to this center is that many functions are in one centralized location, allowing more students to take advantage of all that is being offered.
Collaborative space is a very important feature of the Practice Facility. Team rooms have been included on floors one and two. These rooms are available on a twenty-four hour basis to students. Additional collaboration space can be found in the second floor gallery. This space overlooks the open practice bays on the first floor. Students are able to view the projects and work going on downstairs without interfering. Small groupings of furniture are located along the perimeter creating gathering spaces for unplanned meetings between students and colleagues.
Students that are interested in joining a team must contact the appropriate team leadership on becoming a member. The team’s contact information can be found on the college’s website and through the team’s social media and Engage portal.
Each team has its own requirements and processes for new members that you will need to do in order to join. Generally, all teams are open to all currently enrolled OU students at any skill level.
After joining a team, students are required to complete the REPF safety quiz and facility use forms. These are digital forms created by REPF staff to ensure that students complete all appropriate paperwork to use the facility and have a strong understanding of the rules policies and procedures in the building. All team members, new or returning, are required to complete the safety quiz and facility use forms annually for each academic year they are on the team. Links to the quiz and forms are kept and distributed by competition team officers and advisor.
Students will first complete REPF Facility Use Forms. These forms include OU’s Waiver and Release of Liability Form, the Medical Form and Release, the OU Talent Release Form, Acknowledgement of Student Travel Policies and general Gallogly College of Engineering guidelines for traveling student groups.
Once the forms are completed, students will be required to complete the REPF Safety Quiz. This quiz will cover all of the material in the REPF Safety Manual. Students will be required to earn a 100% to pass the quiz. The quiz will not allow you to continue unless every question is correctly answered on each page.
Upon completion of forms and quiz, the student will be emailed confirmation that they have completed the forms. The REPF Coordinator and Engineering Student Life Coordinator will also be alerted.
Once the quiz and forms are completed, students will be allowed to enter the machine shop and REPF bays through the machine shop entrance on the south side of the building during normal business hours. Students that enter through this entrance will be required to check-in at the Excel sheet near the entrance, entering their name, ID, and what team they are on.
Throughout the day, the REPF staff will check the list to make sure that everyone inside has completed the forms and quiz. If a student is found to have not completed the quiz or forms, they will be asked to leave and come back once they have completed the forms and quiz. When students are leaving, they do not need to check-out with REPF staff.
Students using REPF facilities are expected to primarily work during staffed hours and be finished working and leave before midnight.
Card swipe access to the bays and bench lab is available to team members that need access to work on team projects independently or outside of staffed hours. Swipe access is primarily given to officers within the team and team members by officer request. Members that are interested in gaining card swipe access must be active on the team and access must be requested by the team leadership or advisor to the REPF Coordinator. Card swipe access requests from anyone that is not team leadership or advisors will not be considered
Per the college, active members are considered to be students on a team that are consistently involved with their team and are actively contributing as a member through work on the project, learning new skills, or working with the team in an organizational capacity. All students with card swipe access must be compliance with all OU, GCoE, and REPF policies and procedures, including the completion of the REPF safety quiz and facility use forms.
Machine shop card swipe access is not generally available to students. Officers and advisors can work with the REPF Coordinator on obtaining temporary afterhours access to the machine shop for the team’s benefit.
Students interested in using the machine shop facilities are required to be trained on them. In order to be trained on the machines, students must do the following:
To receive training, students can attend REPF Training office hours. Each training will be for several hours where students can work on the things they need to do for their team, gaining training on the tasks they will be performing for the team. Each training session will cover different machines. Trainings are only offered during the Fall semester
For reference, a copy of the REPF Safety Manual is available below. A physical copy is also available in the machine shop.
If your competition team is traveling or testing a project, you will need to fill out the appropriate forms. When performing an offsite test, at least 24 hour notice must be given to the REPF Coordinator via the Offsite Testing Form. You can access this form below.
If you need to use the REPF vehicle when traveling, you can access the REPF Vehicle Request Form below. This form must be filled out at least one week prior to travel. Additionally, the REPF Vehicle Policy is listed below.
For travel, students will need to fill out the digital travel forms. All students are required to complete the first set of forms, which they will obtain from passing the safety exam. Students that are driving, traveling by air, providing a personal vehicle, or going internationally will need to complete the second set of form. To access these second forms, team leaders will need to alert REPF staff during the PMAP process.
OU Rocket Team Club is an interdisciplinary academic team in which students design, build, and launch high-powered rockets. The team trains and certifies members to build rockets, compete nationally in various events, and takes on experimental independent projects.
The ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition provides students a unique opportunity to gain hands-on practical experience while testing their skills with concrete mix designs and project management challenges. The first ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition was held in 1988, but the history of Concrete Canoe goes back to the 1960s, when a small number of ASCE Student Chapters began holding intramural concrete canoe races. This elite competition combining engineering excellence, hydrodynamic design, and racing technique is known as the "America's Cup of Civil Engineering."Consequently the club is most involved within the civil engineering department, but we like to attract and draw in talent from a range of other departments to get a diverse set of perspectives.
This is The University of Oklahoma competitive AIAA Design, Build, Fly team. We provide the opportunity for students interested in the Aerospace Industry to get hands on experience. This team's goal is to design, construct, and fly an unmanned aircraft to complete missions defined by AIAA and to win the competition in Spring.
SCR is an umbrella organization for all competitive robotics happening at OU. We have many teams with difficulties ranging from basic to advanced that compete across the country, including Mercury and IGVC. If you are new to robotics or have been doing it for years, there's always more room to learn and grow. Every one of our teams has an opportunity for students to improve their technical engineering skills, as well as their ability to manage projects and work in diverse teams. More info about each team can be found on our website. We meet in Bench Lab 2 in the REPF basement so come on down!
Sooner Off-Road is an engineering competition team that designs, builds, and races an off-road vehicle every year in a competition against teams from across the nation and world. Our mission is to provide engineering students with an opportunity to apply the knowledge they learn in the classroom to real-life engineering projects, to build engineering experience and provide them with skills to succeed in an engineering career. Our team is mostly composed of mechanical engineers, but is open to all majors, and no prior experience is necessary.
The Sooner Racing Team is an engineering competition team which designs, builds, and races a formula-style racecar each year as a part of the Formula SAE competition series. Our members constantly strive to improve every aspect of our car and team. We take pride in our work, and constantly push the boundaries set before us. Our members are passionate about engineering, learning, and competing to be the best. Most of all, we love what we do: building racecars!
The Sooner Rover Team designs, fabricates, and tests a rover to compete in the University Rover Challenge each Summer. Our organization is comprised of engineering majors from across the GCOE, as well as geology and business members.
The annual Student Steel Bridge Competition is organized by the American Institute of Steel Construction. In the competition, students are challenged to create a scale model steel bridge. Students in the team are responsible to plan, organize, design, construct, and finish the bridge throughout the year. The planning and designing process usually takes place in the fall semester for the OU team and the construction and competition are usually in the spring term. The bridge needs to be designed so that it meets competition rules and guidelines provided for that academic year. The bridge will be load tested and weighted. As mentioned in the AISC website, the mission of the competition is "to challenge students to extend their classroom knowledge to a practical and hands-on steel-design project that grows their interpersonal and professional skills, encourages innovation, and fosters impactful relationships between students and industry professionals."
Engineering Practice Coordinator
jimmyray@ou.edu
(405) 325-6844
Outreach and Recruiting Director
dbrasington@ou.edu
(405) 325-3445
Engineering Student Life Coordinator
jglidus@ou.edu
(405) 325-4724
Director, Jerry Holmes Leadership Program for Engineers and Scientists
kimw@ou.edu
(405) 325-3892
REPF 113
