After more than five years in industry, Oakes made the decision to return to school and pursue a Ph.D. with the intent to enter an academic career. He says that the "ASEE student chapter hosted programs that brought faculty from different schools to campus where they could share their perspectives about their own local institutions. The reality is that there are a very wide range of opportunities available to engineering educators." Oakes's teaching interests are in freshman engineering courses and service learning courses within engineering. He is a key faculty member in the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program at Purdue as well as the National EPICS Program.