The OU Data Institute for Societal Challenges (DISC) has awarded $2,410.95 in seed money to support a research team that includes Shu Sun, an instructor and Ph.D. student in the Division of Landscape Architecture. The team is conducting the project “Urban Landscape: Eco-social interactions and park configurations influencing human exposure to ticks in Oklahoma City.”
The project aims to bridge knowledge gaps surrounding neighborhood park exposure and risk to tick-borne disease. The team will investigate how tick abundance relates to different landscape composition and configurations in parks. The project will also estimate the potential risk of human-tick exposure based on human behavior in parks.
Shu Sun and her team will be carrying out their research in 16 park sites in Oklahoma, where ticks are known vectors of human disease. The seed grant from DISC will allow the team to purchase ethanol, microcentrifuge tubes, and dry ice for tick preservation and storage. The team will also be purchasing insect repellent for engaging with park visitors and providing tick-borne disease education.
The project has until August to use their funding and will receive monthly support and progress check-ins from their assigned DISC mentor.
A project designed by Gibbs College of Architecture faculty member Austin Lightle has been selected for BuildFest 2026, a national art and architecture festival held at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in New York, on the historic grounds of the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival.
Two Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture alumni are helping shape recommendations that could influence affordable housing design and construction across Oklahoma.
The University of Oklahoma Libraries recently welcomed Carl Siegel as an Architecture Librarian and Archivist and Assistant Professor. In his role, Siegel supports students, faculty and staff across the Gibbs College of Architecture while also serving as archivist for the American School of Architecture Archives.
