Honors College engineering student CLICs with success

When Caleb Barr, a Honors College student and mechanical engineering major, recently received the Outstanding Performance Award in the inaugural class of the Chrysler Learning and Innovation Center for Sheet Metal Forming (CLIC-form), he highlighted not just his Honors College credentials, but the wonderful opportunities OU students have to develop initiatives across the student body with OU faculty and with industry. With the strengths of the School of Engineering and Computer Science (SECS), Honors College students such as Caleb are working with their peers to further build on their success.

Dr. Lorenzo Smith, the founding director of CLIC-form, a one-of-a-kind metal forming education center at Oakland University and associate dean in SECS, is currently one of The Honors College "Champions of Research." The initiative, launched with the Michigan Center for Undergraduate Research and the Center for Undergraduate Research Leadership, aims to honor the work of OU researchers who have not only contributed to the advancement of knowledge through their own research, but also played key roles supporting undergraduate research. Dr. Smith has mentored a number of Honors College senior thesis projects and been a much-appreciated voice at "Making Discoveries," The Honors College Freshman Colloquium, and speaking about engineering careers at the annual freshman Career Day.

Of course, it is not only his mechanical engineering prowess that Caleb feels has made his time at Oakland so very successful. He adds: "I chose OU for its Japanese program. I felt it was necessary for me to continue studying Japanese both for employment success along with personal growth. The Japanese program at OU is great; it has provided me the tools to work in a Japanese setting, and I cannot wait to use them!"

In the next 12 months, the SECS and The Honors College will share further mutual ambitions and successes: with both have new buildings under construction.

The Honors College will move to its new location in Fall 2014, and the excitement in already obvious as this new space will offer vastly increased opportunities for collaborations and outreach and developing local, national and international connections. As for the new Engineering Center, Caleb speaks for many when he says, "it will not only help the school - it will help this state."

Together, these two new major developments represent key aspects of Oakland's spectacular future, but they could not succeed without the quality of OU students, faculty and staff.

Caleb comments, "I have also been in Japan Club, Aerial Systems and Robotics Club, and have done community service. Now, it is my turn to give back to OU. I have been helping the SECS on the Engineering and Computer Science Day for a few times now. I speak as a representative of the student body in classrooms at this event. Truthfully, I enjoy giving back in these ways and I do not feel like I am doing enough."

The presence of students of Caleb's caliber and their continued success during their time at Oakland promises to enhance the university's already substantial reputation for top quality teaching and world-class research.