(NewsNation) — From radar detection and military engineering to artificial intelligence, students are receiving real-world training on the University of Oklahoma’s campus to ensure that the nation’s defense systems are running smoothly.
Nestled in Norman, Oklahoma, is the university’s Advanced Radar Research Center, where the sky is truly the limit. It’s the training ground for some of the country’s most brilliant budding engineers, such as second-year Ph.D. student Rachel Jarvis, who is building her own microwave filter.
“This would be very important for the U.S. military to make sure frequencies are going where they should and not going where they shouldn’t,” Jarvis said.
Elsewhere, graduate student Khuda “KB” Burdi, is helping design and outfit a radar drone.
“If there’s a radar deployed in a war zone, this system could realistically be applied there,” Burdi said
The University of Oklahoma is planting its flag in the defense space, and global events have heightened its hoisting.
“My initial reaction if I go back 12 months is … it’s a pretty stark reminder,” said Gen. Don Wetekam, chief strategist at the Oklahoma Aerospace and Defense Innovation Institute (OADII).
When Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, the conflict gave gravity to college curriculum from international relations to cybersecurity.
“There’s a criticism that the military is always fighting the last war,” said Dean Hougen, the university’s interim director of Computer Science. “We need to make sure they’re ready to fight the next one.”
Hougen’s students have closely examined mass drone fleets, robots and artificial intelligence — all of which have been deployed in Ukraine. Much of this research was already in play before Russia’s invasion, but the past year has underscored its importance.
“There are the technologies being developed in terms of artificial intelligence, machine learning, that are so completely applicable to the challenges that we’re facing,” Hougen said.
As for mechanical engineering, students are developing prototypes that would protect American troops in future battles, said Zahed Siddique, associate dean for research at the University of Oklahoma’s College of Engineering.
“One that comes to mind is looking at blast impact on hearing and developing new kinds of ear protection systems for the soldiers,” Siddique said, adding that there are other projects looking at traumatic brain injury.
Also on campus is an electromagnetically shielded anechoic chamber. The U.S. Army uses those to test radio frequencies for soldier technologies and vehicles.
“This room is really for fundamental research, because it helps us characterize in a completely sterile, electromagnetic environment various antennas, various transmitters, without any kind of stray radiation from the exterior,” said Mark Yeary, presidential professor at the Advanced Radar Research Center.
With seven major military installations across the state, Oklahoma has long been defense-friendly.
Ukrainian troops currently are training on American-made missile defense systems at Fort Sill, a military base about 80 miles from the University of Oklahoma.
“We need to remember that this is not a situation in a vacuum,” said Mark Raymond, OADII associate director for international security studies. “Other countries are watching very closely.”
According to Raymond, there’s no plausible scenario in which the U.S. sees that level of conflict on domestic soil, but Americans shouldn’t turn a blind eye.
“The well-being of people in other places has a very direct effect on the United States’ economic prosperity,” Raymond said. “There are all of those kinds of social effects as well that we shouldn’t lose sight of, because they affect people’s mental health and well-being, their productivity, the strength of their families.”
In the meantime, students at the University of Oklahoma continue their own training for whatever global events might lie ahead.