Areas of Research Excellence

School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering researchers have achieved global prominence in six signature areas – Advanced Manufacturing; Design; Production, Service and Human Systems; Next-Generation Materials; Renewable Energy and Energy Sustainability; and Robotics.

Our interdisciplinary approach allows us to attract and retain world-class faculty across the core disciplines of engineering, and promote further excellence in thinking and breakthrough research within our collaborative environment. It is a model that suits the needs and minds of our students as well – who also seek to solve global challenges and real-world problems.

Advanced Manufacturing
  The Advanced Manufacturing group focuses concurrently on fundamental research and the commercially feasible development of manufacturing processes and systems that enable the high-value products of tomorrow. Specific research areas include scalable nanomaterial synthesis and thin-film deposition, powder sintering and injection molding.

Design Engineering
  Design Engineering research focuses on understanding and improving the process of design in order to facilitate the creation of groundbreaking technologies. With seven active faculty, the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering is one of the largest academic mechanical engineering design research lab in the United States.

Next-Generation Materials and Devices
  Next-generation materials research in MIME focuses primarily on structural materials, biomaterials, electronic ceramics, energy materials, sensors, and bulk and thin film materials processing.

Industrial and Systems Engineering
  Industrial and Systems Engineering researchers focus on the design, integration, and optimization of systems to efficiently integrate people, equipment and information.

Thermal-Fluid Science
  Our thermal-fluid science faculty seek to understand and engineer the transport of matter and energy from the molecular to megawatt scale. Our work drives the creation of technologies that impact nearly every facet of modern life including providing clean electricity and water, enabling sustainable transportation, and improving the safety and efficiency of advanced electronics, energy storage and manufacturing systems.

Robotics
  Robotics researchers focus on design, modeling and control of systems that observe, move within, interact with, and act upon their environment. Such systems include mobile robots, micro-aerial vehicles and large active-sensor networks.