NEWS
CITY, STATE – Students from the Gallogly College of Engineering brought illuminating engineering to the Chickasha Festival of Light this year. Four students in OU’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering led a comprehensive redesign of the festival’s beloved Christmas tree, a focal point of the display.
“We are thrilled that the City of Chickasha had the vision to partner with the OU Gallogly College of Engineering and give our students the opportunity to apply their technical skills for social good and community development,” said Senior Associate Dean Randa Shehab. “This special collaboration gives OU engineering students a chance to leave their mark on a strong Oklahoma tradition and know that they played a role in bringing joy and excitement to thousands of Oklahomans and visitors for many years to come.”
The students, under the guidance of engineering faculty, redesigned the festival’s Christmas tree, integrating state-of-the-art smart RGB LED lighting and an improved power distribution system. The LED lights can display an array of colors and patterns and are controlled through software developed by the students. The new power distribution system enhances the tree’s safety and reliability, improving its resilience against winter elements and ensuring consistent performance.
“By leveraging dynamic system theory and machine learning, our students created a system that adjusts instantaneously, offering a truly immersive and responsive experience that ensures swift processing and improved system reliability. This collaboration exemplifies the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s dedication to experiential learning and community engagement,” said Reza Saeed Kandezy, assistant professor and faculty lead for the project. “Our students are applying their technical expertise in a real-world context, developing innovative solutions that have tangible benefits for the community. It is a prime example of how we prepare our students to lead and innovate in their future careers.”
The Chickasaw Festival of Light is free to attend and is open now through New Year’s Eve. More information is available at chickashafestivaloflight.org.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.
In a rare achievement for an undergraduate student, Colby Higdon, a geology major on the paleontology track with the University of Oklahoma has published original paleontological research conducted at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History that reveals new insights into whether competition between ancient animals was responsible for their extinction.
Newly published research in Science Advances, led by Jessica Cerezo-Román, at the University of Oklahoma, documents the oldest known cremation in Africa and provides some of the earliest evidence for intentional cremation using a pyre in the world.
Three University of Oklahoma graduate students have been named winners of the 2025 Three Minute Thesis competition, which challenges participants to explain their research in three minutes to a non-specialist audience.
