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7/2/2025
The Penn State Engineering Alumni Society (PSEAS) held its annual awards ceremony on June 20 at the State Theatre, building on its 53-year tradition of honoring excellence among engineering faculty, staff and alumni through the PSEAS awards. The award recipients were recognized in the categories of teaching, research, advising and service.
7/1/2025
Sarah Chekan, a master’s student in mechanical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, was selected for the 2025-26 U.S. Fulbright Student Research/Study Program. She will conduct research within the Advanced Center for Electrical and Electronic Engineering on integrating renewable energy into existing power grids.
6/27/2025
Samantha Splendido, a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering at Penn State, has been named a 2025–26 ASME Graduate Teaching Fellow, receiving a $5,000 annual stipend to support her teaching assistantship and development as an engineering educator. The fellowship recognizes her commitment to innovative instruction and aims to encourage future faculty careers in mechanical engineering.
6/23/2025
Sukwon Choi, associate professor of mechanical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, has been elevated to IEEE Senior Member status — an honor held by only 10% of IEEE’s global membership in recognition of significant professional achievement. This distinction reflects Choi’s accomplishments and leadership in the engineering field.
6/20/2025
A research team from Penn State has broken a 165-year-old law of thermal radiation with unprecedented strength, setting the stage for more efficient energy harvesting, heat transfer and infrared sensing. Their results, currently available online, are slated to be published in Physical Review Letters on June 23.
6/6/2025
Maggie Nunn, a doctoral candidate studying mechanical engineering at Penn State, was recently awarded the Amelia Earhart Fellowship. The fellowship is annually awarded to up to 30 women pursuing doctorates in the fields of aerospace engineering and space sciences, with recipients each receiving $10,000.
6/2/2025
As global temperatures rise, the demand for air conditioning is surging, driving up energy bills and straining power grids. In the United States, air conditioning accounts for nearly one-fifth of all residential electricity use, and cooling systems in commercial buildings consume about one-third of their total energy. To meet this energy need, a team of researchers at Penn State is developing new materials that cool their surroundings when bent or stressed. On the latest episode of “Growing Impact,” the team discusses how this cutting-edge technology could transform the future of building climate control.
5/27/2025
Penn State's University Staff Advisory Council honored three staff members for their outstanding contributions, including Alex Zimmerman of Mechanical Engineering, whose innovative multimedia solutions have enhanced online engineering education, and Angela Dixon of Chemical Engineering, whose leadership and compassion have fostered a supportive departmental culture. These awards highlight excellence in both the technical and interpersonal dimensions of engineering staff roles.
5/20/2025
Putting their classroom engineering skills to a practical test, a group of undergraduates designed, built and are currently testing a single-seat, open-cockpit racecar to prepare for the annual Formula SAE Electric competition, which will take place from June 17-21 at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan.
5/19/2025
Penn State’s Cocoziello Institute of Real Estate Innovation has awarded seed grants to five interdisciplinary research projects. These grants support collaborative projects led by Penn State faculty who aim to generate innovative solutions to complex challenges in real estate and the built environment.
5/15/2025
Penn State researchers have developed a groundbreaking 3D printing method that uses multiple metals within a single structure, allowing precise control of material placement to optimize properties like strength, weight, and conductivity. This innovation in multi-material laser powder bed fusion (MM-LPBF) enables the creation of complex, high-performance parts for industries such as aerospace and biomedical engineering.
5/6/2025
The Penn State College of Engineering has named its student marshals for the spring 2025 commencement ceremony, which will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, May 9, in the Bryce Jordan Center at University Park.
4/29/2025
Sukwon Choi, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, has been elected Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), one of the organization’s highest honors recognizing significant engineering achievements and professional contributions.
4/28/2025
Penn State’s Shell Eco-Marathon team recently placed third at the annual Shell Eco-Marathon, an international competition that challenges teams to design and build a vehicle with the highest possible fuel efficiency. The team — consisting mostly of mechanical engineering majors who participate in the competition as their senior capstone projects — raced against seven other teams in their category on April 2-6 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis.
4/25/2025
Faculty from the Penn State College of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science were recognized by a number of University-level awards this spring.
4/25/2025
Winners of the 17th annual Materials Visualization Competition at Penn State have been announced, with Jinsol Choi receiving Best of Show for “Nano soccer balls from nature.” The competition, which showcases materials research through visual art, awarded $1,800 in prizes across categories like scientific imaging and computer rendering.
4/24/2025
The Penn State College of Engineering will recognize 21 alumni with the 2025 Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award and Early Career Award in a ceremony on April 24 in the new Engineering Collaborative Research and Education (ECoRE) Building.
4/23/2025
The Penn State Learning Factory will host its biannual end-of-semester showcase for engineering students to present their cornerstone and capstone design projects from 1-3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29, at the Bryce Jordan Center. The?virtual showcase?will take place Wednesday, April 30, through Friday, May 9.
4/15/2025
The Materials Research Institute (MRI) at Penn State has announced the recipients of the 2025 Interdisciplinary Seed Grants and Transdisciplinary Teaming Initiative awards, designed to support collaborative, high-risk research with the potential for significant societal and technological impact.
4/15/2025
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers' (ASME) Mechanical Engineering Department Heads Executive Committee recently awarded the Penn State Department of Mechanical Engineering its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award.
4/11/2025
Christopher Kube, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics in the Penn State College of Engineering, was selected to lead a multidisciplinary team on a two-year, $1 million grant from the Structures Uniquely Resolved to Guarantee Performance (SURGE) program of the federally funded Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a method to detect, measure and localize porosity defects inside 3D-printed metal parts while they are being made. Instead of waiting until after printing to check for flaws, Kube’s team will develop acoustic sensors built into the printing platform and ultrasonic microphones to detect and measure pores during the print.
4/7/2025
A tiny, soft, flexible robot that can crawl through earthquake rubble to find trapped victims or travel inside the human body to deliver medicine may seem like science fiction, but an international team led by researchers at Penn State are pioneering such adaptable robots by integrating flexible electronics with magnetically controlled motion.
4/7/2025
Tak Sing Wong, professor of mechanical engineering and of biomedical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, was named a fellow by the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
4/4/2025
Penn State recognized 42 graduate students, including eight from the College of Engineering, with annual University awards that celebrate students' impact in research, scholarship, teaching, outreach, mentoring and more.
4/3/2025
A team of Penn State researchers used a new 3D printing method to produce a complex metal build that was once only possible with welding: fusing two metals together into a single structure. Using an advanced additive manufacturing process known as multi-material laser powder bed fusion — enabled by a newly acquired system in Penn State’s Center for Innovative Materials Processing Through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D) — the researchers printed a complex structure out of a blend of low-carbon stainless steel and bronze, which consists of 90% copper and 10% tin.
3/27/2025
The Penn State College of Engineering has added 25 faculty members since February 2024. The four tenure-line faculty and 21 professional track faculty represent 10 units and departments.
3/24/2025
The Penn State College of Engineering’s Office of Corporate and Industry Engagement
invites engineering faculty to I-CONNECT: Intellectual Property and Innovation. The event will take place virtually and on campus at 504 Engineering Collaborative Research and Education
Building (ECoRE) from 12:30 – 2 p.m. ET on April 2.
3/19/2025
The Engineering Ambassadors Network recently held a three-day-long Spring Leadership Conference at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center.
3/3/2025
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning (ASHRAE) recently awarded Wangda Zuo, professor of architectural engineering, affiliate professor of mechanical engineering and associate director for research of Penn State’s Global Building Network, the title of fellow.
2/28/2025
Andrea Gregg, associate research professor of mechanical engineering and director of learning experience design, received two awards for a book she co-authored on online learning — the 2025 Phillip E. Frandson Award for Literature and the American Library Association’s (ALA) Choice Outstanding Academic Titles Award for 2024.
2/18/2025
Ilya Kovalenko, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, earned a five-year, $689,000 U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for a project titled, “Intelligent Products for Mass Individualization in Manufacturing Systems.”
2/18/2025
Tahira Reid Smith, the Arthur L. Glenn Professor of Engineering Education and Associate Department Head for Inclusive Research and Education in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, received a Dedicated Service Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
2/17/2025
Penn State’s Office of Faculty Affairs recently named Zoubeida Ounaies, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Convergence Center for Living Multifunctional Material Systems, a distinguished professor.
2/15/2025
The Penn State Cocoziello Institute of Real Estate Innovation hosted its inaugural Student IdeaLab on the University Park campus in December 2024, bringing together a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students interested in shaping the future of the real estate and built environment sectors.
1/28/2025
Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, the James L. Henderson, Jr. Memorial Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, received a Mid-Career Investigator Award from the Chinese Association for Biomaterials (CAB).
1/27/2025
The Institute of Energy and the Environment recognized six Penn State faculty members for their research excellence - four of whom are affiliated with the College of Engineering. The College of Engineering faculty who received awards were Margaret Busse, Brian Fronk, Lauren McPhillips and Nathaniel Warner.
1/24/2025
Catherine Berdanier, associate professor of mechanical engineering, is one of three Penn State faculty members awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the White House announced on Jan. 14.
1/23/2025
Three undergraduate members of the Penn State chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), Grace Bonnell, Julio Vasquez, and Gabriel Gayoso won the Academic Olympiad competition at the 50th Annual SHPE National Convention.
1/21/2025
Several engineering programs offered by Penn State World Campus were recently ranked as some of the best in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
1/15/2025
A team led by researchers at Penn State recently received a $2,491,443 grant from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) to reduce emissions and increase thermal efficiency in industrial systems. The team, which includes researchers at Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics Inc., plans to achieve these goals by developing a new ceramic heat exchanger.
1/8/2025
Amrita Basak, the Shuman Early Career Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Herschel
Pangborn, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and of aerospace engineering, were selected to receive $750,000 to conduct research as 2025 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award recipients.
12/16/2024
In his research, Xiaogang Hu, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Neurorehabilitation and an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, focuses on creating wearable assistive robotic systems for people with limited use of their limbs, especially their hands, with the goal of the user intuitively controlling the systems and devices on which they rely.
12/13/2024
Matthew Krull, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering at Penn State, was recently awarded a four-year fellowship with NASA’s Advanced Air Vehicles Program.
11/18/2024
The Penn State Learning Factory will host its end-of-semester showcase at the Bryce Jordan Center on Dec. 10 and its virtual showcase Wednesday, Dec. 11 through Friday, Dec. 20. Both versions of the event are free and open to the public.
11/15/2024
The Penn State College of Engineering invites alumni and friends to support engineering student success through a GivingTuesday gift on Dec. 3 as Penn State celebrates its tenth GivingTuesday.
11/13/2024
Tahira Reid Smith, professor of mechanical engineering and engineering design, associate department head for inclusive research and education and Arthur L. Glenn Professor of Engineering Education, was featured on a recent episode of PBS NOVA.
11/8/2024
A WTAJ article and video featured the expansion of the Penn State Steady Research Turbine Laboratory (START Lab) and quoted Reid Berdanier, associate professor of mechanical engineering and director of the START Lab.
11/6/2024
Adri van Duin, distinguished professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, and Yun Kyung Shin, associate research professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, are part of a University of Wyoming (UW)-led research team that will study 2D covalent organic frameworks (COFs) — a family of materials designed have optimal traits for use in separating out different materials.
11/1/2024
Eight Penn State College of Engineering graduate students have received the Diefenderfer Graduate Fellowship in Entrepreneurship for the 2024-2025 academic year. The Diefenderfer Graduate Fellowship encourages and provides financial support to innovative and entrepreneurial graduate engineering students.
10/29/2024
When the brain experiences an injury, it can be difficult to definitively diagnose a concussion as the trauma is often limited to inside the skull and cannot be accurately assessed. Reuben Kraft, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Penn State College of Engineering and co-hire with the Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS), and his collaborators are using computational methods and tools — such as custom mouthguard sensors — to model and predict injury in the human brain.
10/28/2024
Mary Frecker, department head of mechanical engineering, Riess Chair of Engineering and director of the Penn State Center for Biodevices, recently co-authored an article featured in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Select Articles magazine. "What is mechanical engineering" features perspectives from Penn State alumni Michele Beisler and Brain Pandya on their work in the field.
10/22/2024
Hannah Priller has been named the fall 2024 student marshal for the Penn State College of Engineering. She will receive bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering and in chemistry from the Eberly College of Science at the University’s?undergraduate commencement ceremony, which will be held at 1 p.m. on Dec. 22 in the Bryce Jordan Center.
10/14/2024
A team of engineering researchers led by Scarlett Miller, Paul Morrow Professor of Engineering Design and Manufacturing, was awarded a five-year, $1.4 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to develop and scale their inclusive student teaming model to multiple campuses and universities.
10/4/2024
Twelve Penn State faculty members, including two from the College of Engineering, received Fulbright Scholar Awards for the 2024-25 academic year, according to the?Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.?An additional four faculty members, including two from the College of Engineering, have been named Fulbright Specialist Award recipients.??
9/30/2024
Sachin Gore, assistant teaching professor of mechanical engineering and director of undergraduate studies for the mechanical engineering department, and Andrea Ragonese, associate teaching professor in the School of Engineering Design and Innovation, were recently named 2024 Engineering Unleashed Fellows.
9/27/2024
This fall, the Millennium Café at Penn State will feature researchers who were awarded Climate Solutions Accelerator workshops by the Penn State Climate Consortium.
9/20/2024
As a part of its mission to educate and train industry partners and students on computed tomography (CT) scanning, the Center for Quantitative Imaging (CQI) recently supported a three-day additive manufacturing practicum for industry professionals to gain hands-on experience in using 3D X-ray CT scanning.
9/12/2024
Nine Penn State researchers, including three from the College of Engineering, have been named fellows of the Institute of Energy and the Environment (IEE) for 2024.
9/11/2024
This summer, the Penn State Center for Gas Turbine Research, Education, and Outreach, housed within the Penn State College of Engineering, hosted the Penn State Low-Carbon Power and Propulsion Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at University Park.
9/5/2024
The Penn State Board of Trustees Committee on Finance and Investment advanced a proposal today (Sept. 5) to complete a 13,000-square-foot addition and renovation at the Lidia Manson Building at CATO Park to expand the Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine (START) Lab.
8/30/2024
Reid A. Berdanier has been named director of the Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine (START) Lab at Penn State, effective Aug. 15.
8/15/2024
The Penn State Advanced Vehicle Team (AVT) took home multiple wins, including third place overall, in its third year of the AutoDrive Challenge II, which empowers student teams to develop and test a fully autonomous passenger vehicle on a controlled urban driving course over a weeklong competition.
8/12/2024
Placing a central line in a patient’s vein to receive fluids or medicine is one of the most common medical procedures, with more than 5 million performed each year in the United States. Researchers in Penn State’s Colleges of Engineering and of Medicine aim to reduce error rates in central-line placement by designing and implementing a novel robotic training program that uses life-like manikins and real-time feedback to simulate patient scenarios.
8/8/2024
Two Penn State College of Engineering faculty members — Jacqueline O'Connor, professor of mechanical engineering, and Parisa Shokouhi, professor of engineering science and mechanics — were selected as part of the 2024-25 cohort of Drexel University’s Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science program.
7/29/2024
A team of researchers in the Penn State College of Engineering was awarded a five-year, $1 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to study how undergraduate engineering students learn and develop into energy-literate engineers as they engage with long-term research experiences centered on decarbonization.
7/9/2024
The Penn State Center for Immersive Experiences (CIE) aims to create a “convergence accelerator for research” across the commonwealth at Penn State, according to Jessica Menold, CIE director, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences co-hire and associate professor of mechanical engineering and of industrial and manufacturing engineering.
7/8/2024
Wangda Zuo, professor of architectural engineering and of mechanical engineering, received the Exceptional Service Award from ASHRAE, formerly the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, in June at the society’s annual conference in Indianapolis.
