2008 DaVinci Fellows

DaVinci Fellows are faculty members of Oklahoma’s higher education institutions who have made an innovative and significant contribution to their academic discipline.

Following are the winners of the 2008 DaVinci Fellows :

Mary Ann Moore, Professor of Visual Art and mosaicist, Oklahoma City Community College.  Professor Moore led a two-year project to transform a 1,150 square feet concrete wall into a spectacular mural celebrating the Centennial of Oklahoma.  Not only was the challenge that the wall was irregularly shaped and featured previously existing fountains but an estimated 600,000 individual porcelain tiles had to be cut, glazed and fired and then meshed, installed, grouted and sealed.  Now called the Devon Energy Centennial Mosaic Mural, it is a prominent feature of the canal that will last at least into the state’s third century.

John Johnson, Professor of Computer Science, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.   Professor Johnson’s research focuses on artificial intelligence.  In 2007, Team Nova, a group of USAO undergraduates and graduates, with nine months of research and labor built a robotic vehicle able to traverse city traffic.  The team finished in the top 50 teams from six countries.  Using an innovative approach, Dr. Johnson has been able to create machines that can be “taught” useful skills.

Wayne Stein, Professor and Assistant Chairperson, Department of English, University of Central Oklahoma.  Dr. Stein’s teaching expertise, which includes gaming and rhetoric, Kung Fu Films, Chinese Cinematic Vampires, Cyberpunk Fill and Fiction, combines gaming and writing to make learning fun for his students. Three years ago, Professor Stein developed a different way to teach English through gaming, Using a gaming book, Languaging Force X  (LFX), created by Stein, students enter a cyberpunk game world where writing skills make one a special person of power.  Ultimately, students’ prose becomes more academic through the immersion process.

In addition to receiving a medallion and $1000 check, each will name a 2009 Martin/DaVinci Fellows’ Scholar.