Category: MAE

Few celestial events capture the imagination quite like a total solar eclipse, and the one on April 8 promises to be particularly remarkable. Alicia K. Petersen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida, is shedding light on the significance of this upcoming cosmic phenomenon.

ME Capstone students are collaborating with Dr. Antonio Faciola, an associate professor of animal sciences at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), to redesign legacy cow digestion simulators pivotal for ruminant nutrition research. This interdisciplinary partnership leverages the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department’s EML4502 course, taught by senior lecturer Dr. Matthew J. Traum.

Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, in partnership with NASA, is making a significant contribution to the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. UF is the only academic institution in the United States to be awarded a contract to develop hardware that will fly on the LISA mission.

The Consortium for Nuclear Forensics, a UF-led team of 32 scientists and engineers at 16 universities, has been awarded a five-year, $26.4 million grant from the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Agency to develop new nuclear forensic technologies and to train the next generation of nuclear sleuths to use them.

A joint project between the University of Florida and Synhelion, a global pioneer in the field of carbon-neutral solar fuels, has been awarded $2.7M from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO). The project aims to accelerate the large-scale development and deployment of concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) technology to produce green hydrogen for industrial decarbonization and electric power generation and storage.

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced $40 million in funding for 15 projects that will develop high-performance, energy efficient cooling solutions for data centers.

Thomas Angelini, Ph.D., associate professor in MAE, and Senthilkumar Duraivel, a graduate from MSE working out of Angelini’s Soft Matter Lab, have collaborated on an approach to 3D print soft silicone structures like miniscule vascular bodies by turning the conventional process on its head.

With the goal of creating a resilient supply chain for a sustained presence in space, researchers at the University of Florida (UF) are bioengineering microbes for experimentation on the International Space Station (ISS) they hope will reliably produce biopolymers, nutraceuticals, and antibiotics in variable gravity conditions.

The University of Florida will lead a $25 million, 16-university team of 31 scientists and engineers in the development of new techniques and the training of future specialists in nuclear forensics, which identifies and tracks nuclear materials to support global safety.​​ 

The University of Florida chapter of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, “Florida Alpha,” was recognized as the R.C. Matthews Outstanding Chapter, an award which goes to the chapter determined to be the best out of over 250. Florida Alpha won the award because of its Gatortrax outreach program which educates young children about engineering.