Research
The MABE Department consists of approximately 30 full-time faculty members, plus numerous adjunct faculty and postdoctoral associates. The faculty hold doctoral degrees from major research universities of the United States and other countries. Research activities are funded by highly respected government agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Defense (DOD), and by industrial companies such as Exxon, Boeing, Denso, Dupuy products, and Lexmark. Members of the faculty are involved with basic research, design, and implementation of hardware and software systems across all of the topical areas that are associated with MABE. Many faculty serve on the editorial boards of recognized journals, hold professional society officer positions, and are nationally recognized.
Automotive Systems: Alternative fuels, emission controls and evaluation, hybrid electric vehicles, dynamometer design and control, vehicle dynamics and control.
Biomedical Engineering and Biomechanics: Tissue engineering, cellular biomechanics, exercise equipment design, human body and hand/arm vibration analysis, trauma biomechanics, biofluid mechanics modeling and rheology.
Computational Mechanics: Computational fluid mechanics, inverse problems, optimal control, casting, quenching, heat treating process simulations, computational structural mechanics, reacting, bio-environmental systems simulations, aerodynamics, diffuse plasmas, and turbulent reacting flows, composite materials, fatigue, and fracture mechanics.
Mechanics of Composite Materials: Small scale structural manufacturing, and mechanical testing, effects of moisture and fluids, non-linear and time-dependent material response, process optimization, damage mechanics, fracture and fatigue, failure analysis, constitutive modeling of piezoelectric actuation, smart materials and structures.
Robotics, Automation and Manufacturing: Telerobotic systems for hazardous environments, advanced teleoperations, human-machine systems, redundant manipulator systems and control, sensor-guided manipulation, structural compensation of robot manipulators, human-interactive 3D geometric modeling, advanced mechatronics, and unmanned ground vehicle systems.
Structures and Vibrations: Ductile fracture in metals and polymers, fracture mechanics, dynamic simulation of mechanical and structural systems, modal testing, fluid-structure interaction, structural vibration damping using passive and active control methods, helicopter and wind turbine rotor dynamics.
Thermal Fluid Systems: Heat transfer in manufacturing processes, inverse solidification design processes, casting simulation and mold design, inverse analysis, computational heat transfer, microgravity fluid flow and heat transfer, two-phase flow, thermoacoustic convection, heat transfer in hypersonic flight, exergy analysis, thermoeconomics, and combustion.
College of Engineering Research Centers