Publisher's Note: This is the final edition of the Provost's Academic Bulletin for 2020. Publication will resume in January 2021.

News and Notes

Princeton Review Ranks OU Entrepreneurship Among Best

The entrepreneurship programs at the University of Oklahoma are among the top in the nation, according to new rankings by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. The Michael F. Price College of Business is ranked eighth in the country for its graduate program in entrepreneurship and 23rd in the nation for its undergraduate program. The graduate program climbed nine spots from last year’s ranking – the biggest increase among previously ranked graduate programs. The undergraduate program jumped 20 spots, tying it with two other schools for the largest leap among previously ranked undergraduate programs. Read more
 

OU Diplomatic Archive Now Open for Research

OU Libraries special collections processing unit successfully completed a two-year project to make all collections in the Libraries’ Diplomatic Archive available for public research. The archive contains official declassified and personal papers of former ambassadors and other presidential appointees who have ties to Oklahoma. Learn more
 

Nominations Open for the 2021 Oklahoma Online Excellence Awards 

Nominations for the 2021 Oklahoma Online Excellence Awards are now being accepted. Winners will be announced at the 2021 Learning Innovations Summit in March and will receive formal recognition at an upcoming meeting of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. Nominations are due by January 31, 2021. Learn more 

The Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing to host reading group - Tulsa 1921: Reporting a Massacre

The Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing will host three reading groups on the book Tulsa 1921: Reporting a Massacre, by Randy Krehbiel, in Spring 2021. The groups will be organized and led by Ajia Meux, MSW, a doctoral student from the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communications, and Devin McCarthy, PhD, and Michael Barnes, PhD, Institute postdoctoral fellows. Learn more
 

Lean Sigma Six Certification Workshops Coming in Spring 2021

The OU Gallogly College of Engineering offers one of the longest running Lean/Six Sigma certification programs in the country, offering workshops to students and corporate partners since 2006. Lean and Six Sigma are benchmark process improvement approaches. Organizations expect university graduates to make continuous improvements in their processes for competitiveness. Educators can instill this culture in students in classes they teach. Register and learn more

Memos and Updates

Newsletter

Research Insider from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships (Latest Edition)

Featured Academic Events

Monday, December 7

Center for Faculty Excellence Teaching Office Hours

When: December 7, 1:00pm-2:30pm
Where: Via Zoom   

Open office hours are available for OU faculty who may have any teaching-related questions for Associate Director Dr. Hong Lin. For more information, contact Hong Lin at honglin@ou.edu.

Understanding Inequity, Advancing Equity Virtual Symposium

When: December 7, 3:30pm-6:00pm
Where: Via Zoom   

The University of Oklahoma is organizing a free public virtual symposium on “Understanding Inequity, Advancing Equity.” OU faculty presenters will be joined by two keynoters: Dr. Iheoma Iruka, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: “Ensuring Youth Wellbeing and Excellence Through a Racial Equity Lens” (December 7); and Dr. Shari Watkins, American University: “Creating Equitable STEM Environments” (December 8). Register online. For more information, contact the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships at researchnews@ou.edu or visit the website. 

Tuesday, December 8

Understanding Inequity, Advancing Equity Virtual Symposium

When: December 8, 3:30pm-6:00pm
Where: Via Zoom   

The University of Oklahoma is organizing a free public virtual symposium on “Understanding Inequity, Advancing Equity.” OU faculty presenters will be joined by two keynoters: Dr. Iheoma Iruka, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: “Ensuring Youth Wellbeing and Excellence Through a Racial Equity Lens” (December 7); and Dr. Shari Watkins, American University: “Creating Equitable STEM Environments” (December 8). Register online. For more information, contact the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships at researchnews@ou.edu or visit the website. 

Annual Presentations from Advanced Sociological Statistics

When: December 8, 4:30pm-7:30pm
Where: Via Zoom   

The Sociology graduate students have been working hard and have produced some fascinating research using a variety of statistical approaches. Please come and celebrate their efforts (virtually) and provide feedback on how they might improve and move their work towards publication. For more information, contact Katie Williams at kwilliams@ou.edu. 

Wednesday, December 9

No Events Submitted

Thursday, December 10

Repetitive Tasks in R

When: December 10, 2:00pm-4:30pm
Where: Via Zoom

This workshop is an active learning “code-along” overview of how to automate repetitive tasks while programming in R. Please bring a computer with R and RStudio (suggested) installed. ***Prior experience coding in R is required.*** I.e., most of the code in lessons 1-4 in Data Carpentry with R or lessons 1 and 4-6 in Software Carpentry with R should be familiar to you. Complete novices to R should attend Data or Software Carpentry instead. This is an intermediate-level workshop for researchers presented by University Libraries to improve research efficiency with new tools and workflows. Register online. For more information, contact OU Libraries at libpr@ou.edu or visit the website. 

Friday, December 11

“Perils of Complacency: America at a Tipping Point in Science and Engineering”

Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships Distinguished Research Lecture

When: December 11, 12:00pm
Where: Via Zoom

Neal Lane, a Senior Fellow in Science and Technology, Rice University’s Baker Institute, and Norman Augustine, retired CEO and Chairman of Lockheed Martin, co-chaired a study committee that wrote a report “Perils of Complacency: America at a Tipping Point in Science and Engineering.” Lane and Augustine will summarize the findings and recommendations in the report during this Distinguished Research Lecture. Register online. For more information, contact the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships at researchnews@ou.edu or visit the website. 

Monday, December 14

“Sneezing in the Anthropocene: Humans and Coronaviruses in Deep Perspective”

When: December 14, 12:00pm
Where: Via Zoom   

The webinar series “Humanity and Health” serves as a focus for research and reflection about the social, economic, psychological, educational, and public health crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This talk by Dr. Kyle Harper, Professor of Classics and Letters, explores why the humanities can gain from deep engagement with the natural sciences and vice versa, and why our understanding of disease biology needs engagement with the humanities. Register online. For more information, contact the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships at researchnews@ou.edu or visit the website. 

Center for Faculty Excellence Teaching Office Hours

When: December 14, 1:00pm-2:30pm
Where: Via Zoom   

Open office hours are available for OU faculty who may have any teaching-related questions for Associate Director Dr. Hong Lin. For more information, contact Hong Lin at honglin@ou.edu.

Tuesday, December 16

Cleaning Data with Open Refine

When: December 16, 9:00am-12:00pm
Where: Via Zoom   

A part of the data workflow is preparing the data for analysis. Some of this involves data cleaning, where errors in the data are identified and corrected or formatting made consistently. This step must be taken with the same care and attention to reproducibility as the analysis. OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) is a powerful free and open-source tool for working with messy data: cleaning it and transforming it from one format into another. This lesson will teach you to use OpenRefine to effectively clean and format data and automatically track any changes that you make. Many people comment that this tool saves them literally months of work trying to make these edits by hand. Register online. For more information, contact OU Libraries at libpr@ou.edu.

Weekend Events

No Events Submitted