Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Courtesy of OSU News The vehicle shown is a data collection vehicle used by CIVE’s Dr. Joshua Li and his team. The vehicle is equipped with the capability to scan a road surface and create an accurate profile of the conditions of the road. It is shown at highway-rail grade crossing location.
CEAT professor focuses on safety while researching highway rail-grade crossings Courtesy of OSU News
One research project currently underway with CIVE’s Dr. Joshua Li is studying safety around highway-rail grade crossResearch in the Colings, or railway crosslege of Engineering, ings that are at the same Architecture and Technol- height as the road they ogy’s School of Civil and cross. Environmental EngineerLi’s current research ing focuses on public is studying strategies and safety in all aspects of technology that can aid society. in warning, detection and
prevention of drivers tres- studying post-accident passing near highway-rail data, analyzing risk-prone grade crossings. events and near misses to Oklahoma has more researching simulationthan 3,475 public, atbased safety evaluations. grade crossings, and Li This project is geared said the state ranks in the toward studying the factop 10 in the nation for tor of human behavior the number of wrecks at and the impact it has on these crossings. Li has wrecks near highway rail been involved in multiple crossings, especially tresresearch projects on safe- passing at these sites. ty at these crossings, from According to the Fed-
eral Rail Administration, 94% of all rail-related fatalities and injuries occur due to trespassing at these crossings. Trespassing also accounts for 70% of all railroad-related deaths, many within 1,000 feet of a highwayrail grade crossing. Due to crashes at these crossings being sparce, it hasn’t been
researched heavily. Li said the trend of crashes at these crossings has been going up, even though there is a notable decrease in crashes when there have been new federal standards adopted for safety. He said there is not a consensus for why the number of crashes has been slowly trending up. See CEAT on page 3
Gus Malzahn saw ‘gold mine’ in UCF, now hopes to awaken sleeping giant
Daniel Allen Staff Reporter
File Photo Oklahoma State’s top two receivers in 2023, Brennan Presley and Rashod Owens, are returning for the 2024 season.
OSU football position preview: Wide receivers and tight ends Parker Gerl Staff Reporter
knows what to expect, perhaps everywhere, for the 2024 season — pass catchers included. According to ESPN, The O’Colly is prethe Cowboys brought viewing the eight Oklaho- back 79% of their offenma State football position sive production from last groups during the next season, which ranks 15th four weeks. Next up: wide best in the NCAA. And receivers and tight ends. among those returnees is the trio of receivers Oklahoma State Brennan Presley, Rashod
Owens and De’Zhuan Stribling — returning quarterback Alan Bowman is probably pleased. When opposing defenses look to stop Ollie Gordon II, the Cowboys will have plenty of options out wide to counter. Experienced and talented ones. And it’s why their receiver room should have another year as a strong
complement to Gordon and the ground game. “Experience and reps is something we feel like you can’t really replace,” OSU head coach Mike Gundy said during spring ball. “You learn on the run, and we have a lot of maturity in that room.” Presley, heading into See Football on page 7
Gus Malzahn saw something others didn’t. When UCF athletic director Terry Mohajir came calling about the Knights’ head coaching vacancy shortly after the end of the 2020 season, Malzhan couldn’t resist the opportunity. The resources. The passion of the fanbase. The location and area. All of it made for a perfect storm. One that Malzahn has made use of since his hiring. Heading into Year 4 of his tenure in Orlando and Year 2 of UCF in the Big 12, Malzahn has lofty expectations for his Knights. Perhaps loftier than most. But in his mind, it comes with a good reason. “This place is a gold
mine,” Malzahn said during Day 2 of the 2024 Big 12 Football Media Days. “I’ve said it before; this is a sleeping giant.” Some might call that far-fetched. But not Malzahn. The Knights went 6-7 in their first season in the Big 12 and 3-6 in conference play. Right where most national media members pinpointed them preseason of last year. Still, that wasn’t good enough for Malzahn. UCF, albeit a young Division I program only in its 30th season at the D-I level, has endured an abundance of success. From 2017-18, the Knights went 25-1, including two AAC conference championships and a Sugar Bowl win over Auburn to end the 2017 season, when Malzahn was still the head coach of the Tigers. In 2019, the Knights followed with a 10-3 season, coming See Malzahn on page 5