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Research
Overview
Research efforts focus on four core areas: Robotics and Electro-Mechanical Systems, Mechanics and Materials, Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, and Biomechanics, as well as six application areas:
- Micro/Nanoscale Science and Engineering: probing MEMS materials, micro-cooling, bubble pumps, functionally graded material and structures, high-strain rate behavior and impact dynamics, sensors and actuators
- Computational Engineering: computational modeling of complex flows, large eddy simulation, immersed boundary methods, fluid-structure interactions, crystal plasticity, mechanism-based multiscale modeling, molecular dynamics, discrete dislocation dynamics, microstructure-resolved modeling, localizing failure processes, smooth particle hydrodynamics, impact hydrocodes, impact crater and asteroid disruption simulations, stochastic simulations, fatigue failure modeling and life prediction (both automotive and aerospace applications), multi-physics modeling of sensors and antenna and bone-prosthesis modeling
- Aerospace and Marine Systems: complex turbo-machinery flow, underwater noise, underwater robots for deep ocean exploration, cavitation, spacecraft protection systems, impact hazard mitigation
- Robotics and Human/Machine Interaction: dynamic systems and control, robot design and kinematics, bio-inspired robot design and control, teleoperation, robot locomotion, underwater vehicles, self-replicating robots, haptics, prosthetics, virtual environments
- Energy and the Environment: oil-water mixing, fluid mechanics of wind farms, underwater particle image velocimetry, plankton motion and fluid dynamics, atmospheric turbulence and Large Eddy Simulation, bubbly flows
- Mechanical Engineering in Biology and Medicine: mechanics of the heart, tissue dynamics, impact injury biomechanics, cellular and subcellular biomechanics, protein folding, surgical robotics, surgical simulation, animal locomotion, control-theoretic analysis of biological systems, traumatic brain injury, accident reconstruction, single-neuron mechanics, sub-cellular testing platforms, ocular and blast injury.
For research associated with an individual faculty member, please go to the Faculty pages.
Affiliated Research Centers
Mechanical engineering is a foundational field that is integral to many exciting interdisciplinary research programs. Consequently, many of our faculty members are associated with cross-disciplinary research centers throughout the university:
- Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR)
- Center for Environmental and Applied Fluid Mechanics (CEAFM)
- Center for Advanced Metallic and Ceramic Systems (CAMCS)
- Center for Computer Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology Seminars (CISST)
- Institute for NanoBioTechnology (INBT)
- Center of Excellence on Integrated Materials Modeling (CEIMM)