“When I started at UK almost 45 years ago, I could not have imagined in my mind — nor even in any theoretical parallel universe — that I would be getting an aerospace Ph.D. from here,” Sinha said. “Much less to be the first recipient of the degree with an aerospace major. When you get older, you start to think about legacy, and this is a legacy that will endure.”

143 current UK scientists and scholars were included on the list compiled by Stanford University in a partnership with Elsevier, and 22 of those included are UK Pigman College of Engineering faculty. 

Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky (PEIK) and SPARK Lab researchers received from the IEEE Industry Applications Society Electric Machines Committee (EMC) the Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE) Second Prize Paper Award for the article: “Winding Losses in Coreless Axial Flux PM Machines with Wave and Spiral PCB Stator Topologies”.

Assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science Yang Xiao and his team are tackling a long-standing privacy challenge faced by many people who use cell phones — mobile tracking and automatic voice calls, commonly known as robocalls.

Since May 2023, UK Pigman College of Engineering Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty have received millions in grants and awards from the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research and more.

Caigang Zhu, assistant professor in the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, is working to develop new techniques for radiation treatment to improve survival rates of patients with a specific type of cancer.

The University of Kentucky Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) named its ten finalists in the 5-Minute Fast Track Competition last week. Among those, were Sydney Chapman, a senior, majoring in computer science and Ashbey Manning, a senior, majoring in chemical engineering.

The Herculaneum scrolls are among the most iconic and inaccessible of the world’s vast collection of damaged manuscripts, but since being burned and carbonized by the catastrophic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE, they’ve been deemed “unreadable.” 

Until now. 

JiangBiao He, associate professor and endowed L. Stanley Pigman Faculty Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, serves as PI on the project, which will receive $480,000 over three years. 

Caigang Zhu, an assistant professor in the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been awarded $2,067,823 over five years from the National Institutes of Health for his work on optical metabolic spectroscopy and imaging tools for cancer research.

Sean Bailey, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is working to get ahead of the increasing threat of clear air turbulence. 

Restoring an ancient library from the ashes of Mount Vesuvius is now closer to a reality. To highlight the progress, this is the first in a four-video series featuring Brent Seales, University of Kentucky Alumni Professor in the Department of Computer Science

Peng “Edward” Wang, Robley D. Evans Faculty Fellow and an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering departments, has received the a prestigious NSF CAREER award for his research on AI in manufacturing. 

Rising senior, postdoctoral fellow and Grady publish research on biofilm formation on dental implants. 

The paper titled, "A Wearable Fiber-Free Optical Sensor for Continuous Monitoring of Cerebral Blood Flow in Freely Behaving Mice," was authored by eight UK researchers in the colleges of engineering and medicine. 

YuMing Zhang, Ph.D., James Boyd Professor in Electrical Engineering and UK Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering director of International Partnerships, is one of 16 University Research Professors for 2023-24. 

Dibakar Bhattacharyya, Ph.D., is one of this year’s Great Teacher Award recipients. For the UK College of Engineering professor known across campus as "DB," there is nothing more exciting than that “aha!” moment when a student realizes their full potential. Teaching students continues to drive Bhattacharyya, now in his sixth decade at UK.

The University of Kentucky Office of Undergraduate Research recently honored four professors for their dedication to mentoring with the Excellent Undergraduate Research Mentor Award during the 17th annual Showcase of Undergraduate Scholars.

The University of Kentucky, as lead organization, together with partners across Kentucky and Tennessee, has been awarded $1 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines, or NSF Engines, program.

The annual College of Engineering Faculty Awards ceremony was held on April 27 at Malone's Prime and Events. Awards were given in the areas of research, service and graduate studies.

Four engineering students and three engineering alumni have been awarded the coveted five-year fellowship. 

A research team in the College of Engineering is leading the charge on utilizing recycled human hair to help repair bridges and buildings across Kentucky and beyond.

Groundbreaking energy research that could lead to the first-of-its-kind deployment of carbon capture technology at a natural gas combined-cycle power plant is underway in Kentucky.

Three engineering students were selected to present their research at the Kentucky State Capitol on March 2. 

The Ablation Workshop took place on the University of Kentucky's campus on November 9-10, 2022. An international research community of scientists, engineers and students working on ablative thermal protection systems attended the event.

The goal of the project is to create a membrane-based downstream purification platform for large-scale continuous biomanufacturing of viral vectors and virus-like particles (VLPs).

Kelly Pennell alongside Anna Hoover collaborated with researchers at Purdue University and Ohio State University on a recent publication titled: “Bystander Chemical Exposures and Injuries Associated with Nearby Plastic Sewer Pipe Manufacture: Public Health Practice and Lessons”.

Four graduate students in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering traveled to Berlin, Germany to present their work at the Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing in October, 2022.

The University of Kentucky team that developed the Kentucky Re-entry and Universal Payload System (KRUPS) project received an Innovation and Technology Demonstration award at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference (ISSRDC) in July 2022.

This is the third consecutive year with such success for SPARK Lab students advised by Dan M. Ionel, ECE Professor and L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power.

The NSF-funded FABRIC project, launched with a $3 million grant in 2020, has completed Phase 1 in its work to establish a groundbreaking network testbed cyberinfrastructure to reimagine the way large amounts of data are generated, stored, analyzed and transmitted across the world.

Biyun Xie, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, received a three-year $499,365 award from the NSF Foundational Research in Robotics program for her project titled, “Autonomous Fault-Tolerant Operation of Redundant Robotic Arms.” Xie is the PI, and Jiangbiao He is the Co-PI.

Martha Grady, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is the recipient of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for her recent project, “Mechanical Mechanisms of Biofilm Survival on Implant Surfaces."

Savio Poovathingal received a three-year $600,000 award from the Department of Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR) for his project titled, “Fragmentation and melting of ice particles subjected to hypersonic aerothermodynamic environments.” 

Caigang Zhu, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, has received a National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Trailblazer R21 Award for developing novel optical metabolic strategies to provide personalized radiotherapy for breast cancer patients. 

Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E and KU), part of the PPL Corporation family of companies, and the Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky (PEIK) at the University of Kentucky have renewed their multi-year research-sponsored agreement.

A group of University of Kentucky College of Engineering students and postdoctoral scholars presented their research at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Aviation Forum and Exposition, in Chicago, IL.

Did you know, in 2019, the Aerospace Industry Association (AIA) reported nearly 30% of uncontained engine failures are caused by machining and finishing process-induced abnormalities?

Isaac Oluk, a graduate student in the Department of Civil Engineering, was awarded the Dr. Rengao Song Water Research Scholarship at the KY/TN Water Professionals Conference.

A team of University of Kentucky researchers led by College of Engineering Professor Dibakar Bhattacharyya, Ph.D., and his Ph.D. student, Rollie Mills, have developed a medical face mask membrane that can capture and deactivate the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein on contact.

For police officers, de-escalation training is critical — greatly reducing the use of force and the likelihood that anyone will be hurt during a confrontation. But preparing for a peaceful end can be challenging when officers can find themselves in a variety of scenarios. That’s where Assistant Professor Stephen Ware comes in.

Jesse Hoagg, Donald and Gertrude Lester Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has advanced controls research at UK since arriving in 2010. In this piece, he explains how his research in control systems and control theory can advance a wide array of applications in science, engineering, and technology.

Simone Silvestri, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, is the keynote speaker at the 15th IEEE International Workshop on Wireless Sensor, Robot and UAV Networks (WiSARN 2022).

Maria Hessin, a graduate student, J.D. Boyd, a postdoctoral scholar, and Laura Waldman, a postdoctoral scholar, all in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, gave talks at the Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM) annual conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A forum on Carbon (CO2) Capture Research and Deployment was held on the University of Kentucky’s campus on June 8, 2022. The forum served as a platform for collaborators to review the current status of CO2 capture technologies and the gaps to be bridged for widespread application.

Caigang Zhu, assistant professor in the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, was awarded $50,000 through the Cancer Center Support Grant Pilot award at the Markey Cancer Center to develop personalized radiotherapy for breast cancer patients.

JiangBiao He, assistant professor and L. Stanley Pigman Faculty Fellow in the University of Kentucky Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded a three-year competitive grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

The University of Kentucky has received $2.4 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to develop a cost-effective system that will capture carbon dioxide (CO2) and produce hydrogen at natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plants.

The UK Computational Electromagnetics (CEM) Group was awarded the 2022 NASA and Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) Director’s Innovation Award. The CEM team members are Rob Adams, John Young, and Cai-Cheng Lu. The three team members are faculty in the UK Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The SME Frederick W. Taylor Research Medal honors significant published research leading to a better understanding of materials, facilities, principles, operations and their application to improve manufacturing processes. Each year since 1957, one researcher is selected for this award.

Manh Tien Nguyen, a graduate student in Chemical Engineering, was selected for the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program and the Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) Energy Storage Internship Program.

Lauren Mehanna, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical Engineering, was awarded an honorable mention for the 2022 Dr. Rena Bizios Poster Award.

The University of Kentucky has received $4.9 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to provide its carbon dioxide (CO2) capture system a new challenge: to capture carbon dioxide at a low concentration from the Nucor Steel Gallatin process flue gas stream.

Ramkumar T. Annamalai, assistant professor in the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, is awarded $350,322 through the competitive NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (R21) to develop a nanomedicine-based therapy for nonunion fractures.

The University of Kentucky will collaborate on a five-year, $10 million National Science Foundation (NSF) initiative, led by the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), to reimagine cyberinfrastructure user support services and delivery to keep pace with the evolving needs of academic scientific researchers.

Justin Cooper, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering mentored by Professor Alexandre Martin, won the 2022 AIAA David Weaver Thermophysics Best Student Paper Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Ariel Gold-McCoy, a graduate student in the Department of Civil Engineering, has received a University of Kentucky W.L. Matthews, Jr. Fellowship.

Samanah Rabienia Haratbar and Mehrana Mohtasebi received awards in the Von Allmen Center for Entrepreneurship’s 5th Annual "60-second Poster Pitch" Competition on April 5th, at the 17th Annual CCTS Spring Conference.

Nathaniel Hudson, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science, has been named a Diverse Rising Graduate Scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, a newsmagazine that focuses on matters of access, diversity, inclusion and opportunity in higher education. Nominations were from all over the country, and only ten graduate students are chosen for the distinction each year.

Laura Waldman, a doctoral student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was one of four individuals awarded a University Research Postdoctoral Fellowship. 

It’s not often that seeing something you built set ablaze is cause for celebration. However, for a team of University of Kentucky students and scientists, triumph was found in seeing their work survive a fiery entry and safely land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine and College of Engineering have joined forces to track the virus’ presence in the community using wastewater testing.

The UK Superfund follows a multidisciplinary scientific approach to understanding how environmental contaminants harm the body and explore effective interventions to protect the health of communities.

Ramkumar T. Annamalai, assistant professor in the University of Kentucky F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been awarded a two-year competitive grant in the basic research category from the Orthopedic Trauma Association (OTA).

The Transportation Research Board is a division of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, formerly the National Research Council of the United States.

Jiangbiao He and Dan M. Ionel, ECE and PEIK faculty, to serve as PI and Co-Po for the UK project.

Molly Frazar is the 24th recipient of the Karen Wetterhahn Memorial Award, which recognizes one outstanding graduate student or postdoctoral researcher who exemplifies qualities of scientific excellence.

Caigang Zhu delivered an invited talk at Photonic Media to introduce his work on a point-of-care metabolic platform for cancer research. 

Faculty from the UK Departments of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering provided general reviews of past and ongoing collaborative research initiatives at a special Surgery Grand Rounds presentation in November.

The UK Superfund Research Center’s Research Experience and Training Coordination Core hosted a one-day ‘Science Visualization’ workshop.

This award will be used to purchase critical research equipment that will enable investigators to pursue more future defense related grants and educate more undergraduate and graduate students.

JiangBiao He, assistant professor and L. Stanley Pigman Faculty Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has received a new award from the US DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.

Sen-ching “Samson” Cheung, Blazie Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded an Oracle for Research Cloud Grant for the projected titled “Privacy Preserving Video Machine Learning on Autism Risk Prediction.”

Fanny Chapelin's proposal titled “Magnetic Resonance imaging of tumor-associated macrophage changes with therapy” was selected for an Institutional Research Grant by the American Cancer Society (ACS-IRG).

In addition to developing direct air capture technology, this collaborative research team will also look at the engineering design systems for utilization and storage of carbon dioxide from air.

The project is called, "FET: SMALL: New Abstraction and Design Automation for Complex Computations with DNA Using Fractional Coding.”

Dan M. Ionel, ECE Professor and L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power, director of the SPARK Lab and of the PEIK Institute, will serve as UK's principal investigator for the project.

The honor was awarded to the top paper related to manufacturing systems presented during the virtual conference.

The program provides professional development and networking opportunities for current doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers who are considering careers in higher education.

Mick Peterson and leading racecourse managers are showing racetrack employees how to improve safety by properly grading the surface.

The project is titled “Collaborative Research: Smart Coils for AC Motors,” and will be a collaboration with Kansas State University.

The grant is in the amount of $300,000 and funding will span two years.

The “TILT” alliance was recently created to support translational and clinical research in transplant/immunology related to the use of cell immunotherapy.

In addition to capturing CO2, the system will produce two value-added streams, hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2,) which can be sold to offset the cost of CO2 capture.

The award is given to a society member who has produced outstanding work in food engineering through industry, research, teaching or extension.

Faculty with the institute will serve as judges in an upcoming contest to find innovative solutions for using spent grains.

Researchers at the University of Kentucky are working with NASA to advance key technologies for exploring the moon, Mars and beyond.

Researchers from the University of Kentucky Department of Mechanical Engineering hosted collaborators from Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State University for a series of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) flight experiments June 21-24 at the new Wildcat Agricultural and Atmospheric Research Pavilion (WAARP) flight facility. WAARP is located at North Farm off Ironworks Pike, a 971-hectare agricultural research facility operated by the University of Kentucky.

The University of Kentucky, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT) and the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL) have announced a five-year, $50 million collaboration directed toward improving manufacturing capabilities in the United States.

Contributions from this project will establish a cost-effective, accurate and robust reliability improvement framework for modern electric propulsion systems.

The project seeks to extract rare earths from fossil fuel waste streams to diversify the supply base and provide economic opportunity for depressed communities. 

NSF CAREER awards are presented to young faculty members who have the potential to serve as leaders in research and education in their area of study. 

Under this three-way partnership, UK’s project will receive approximately $23.8 million from the U.S. Department of Defense

Sean Bailey, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is principal investigator for a wind probe from the University of Kentucky.

Nathan Jacobs, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, will serve as co-investigator and senior mentor.

Chapelin and Khurana saw their original work on Ultrasound Liver Imaging Reporting And Data System awarded third place for early-career research award at "Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound" 2020.

Upon graduation, Lawhorn will work as part of the Space Exploration Systems Group within Jacobs Engineering in Houston.

The NSF GRFP is the country’s oldest graduate fellowship program directly supporting graduate students since 1952.

The program was renewed by the National Science Foundation with an additional $3.5 million of support. Professor J. Todd Hastings serves as co-principal investigator.

Carson Labrado has made several outstanding contributions to research concerning cybersecurity for Internet of Things (IoT) devices and smart vehicles.

The award recognizes advanced concepts and techniques applied to a specific design project.

The American Heart Association fellowship is given to enhance the integrated research and clinical training of promising graduate students.

Price also received a 2021 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, which she declined in favor of the NASA doctoral fellowship.

The paper will be fast-tracked to publication in a special issue of Elsevier Computer Communications Journal.

Annamalai’s project titled “Immunomodulatory Therapy for Bone Regeneration" has been awarded approximately $809,586 for up to three years.

Brent Seales is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to create EduceLab — a cultural heritage imaging and analysis laboratory.

Dan M. Ionel, ECE Professor and L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power, Director of the SPARK Lab and of the PEIK Institute, will serve as PI for the project leading a team of researchers. 

Martha Grady, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering with a joint appointment in the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. Grady's project is titled, "Mechanical mechanisms of biofilm survival on implant surfaces" and will be funded in the amount of $599,796 over five years. 

Jonathan Pham, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. The award will fund his project "Wetting and dynamics on soft and swollen polymeric surfaces" in the amount of $570,000 over five years. 

Jesse Hoagg, Michael Sama and Josh Jackson have been developing a way for farmers to autonomously monitor cattle using drones.

The project is titled, “RII Track-4: Elucidating Controls of Sediment Phosphorus Delivery to Tile-Drains” and will be funded in the amount of $226,757.

The patent is titled, “Electrical Double Layer in Nanopores for Detection and Identification of Molecules and Submolecular Units.”

Agioutantis is the first faculty member to represent the University of Kentucky on the editorial board of the publication. 

Liaqat’s poster was titled, “Predicting ASD Diagnosis in Children with Synthetic and Image-based Eye Gaze Data.”

The project contributes to Silvestri's work in applying novel communication technologies to cyber-physical systems towards solving interdisciplinary research problems.

Since 2017, Dusan P. Sekulic, Secat J. G. Morris Aluminum Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been leading an estimated $1 million international research project funded by NASA and the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities in Russia. 

A new $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will expand FABRIC, a project to build the nation’s largest cyberinfrastructure testbed, to four distinguished scientific institutions in Asia and Europe. Jim Griffioen, a professor in the Department of Computer Science is a co-principal investigator on the NSF project.

Annamalai's project is titled “Effect of mechanical strain on myokine secretion and its role in diabetic bone disease.”

A major focus in Sunderam’s lab is how sleep is affected in disorders of the brain--specifically epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease--and whether improving sleep can produce beneficial outcomes.

Since 2017, Sekulic has been leading an estimated $1 million international research project funded by NASA and the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities in Russia.  

Faculty members Scott Berry and Shakira Hobbs are testing a new technology to evaluate wastewater to track community presence of COVID-19.

Sean Bailey, associate professor of mechanical engineering, is the project’s Principal Investigator.

Rottmann worked on the paper, titled, "Multiplicity of Dislocation Pathways in a Refractory Multi-Principal Element Alloy," with a team from the University of California at Santa Barbara. 

Mick Peterson, director of equine safety and BAE researcher is nationally and internationally recognized for a career in track surface safety research and testing.

Through a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the research team led by Jian Shi, an assistant professor in the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, will work to identify the reasons behind the sulfur variability in pine feedstocks by studying byproducts collected from across the nation. With the DOE grant and cost-share dollars from universities and the industry, the project will total more than $2 million.

Jian Shi, assistant professor in the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, is leading the research team.

Jim Griffioen, a professor in the Department of Computer Science is a co-principal investigator on the NSF project.

The project will be funded in the amount of $358,976 and span three years.

Mining engineering professor Jack Groppo is spearheading an effort to turn domestic electronics waste into a Kentucky industry.

The project is expected to start on November 1, 2020, and will span two years.

Engineers are often tasked with solving complex problems, and one of their most important tools in finding a solution is their own creativity.

Ingenuity — that’s exactly what Sarah Wilson would need when confronted with a public health issue in her field.

The collaborative project includes biomedical engineering associate professor Sridhar Sunderam.

Chemical engineering lecturer Sarah Wilson became interested in research on engineering student mental health while attending an engineering education conference.

Nathan Jacobs, Yu Zhang and Gongbo Liang are exploring ways of using techniques from machine learning and computer vision to analyze astronomy images.

UK scientists, including professor and KWRRI director Lindell Ormsbee, are partnering with Beam Suntory to study water sustainability.

The Kentucky-West Virginia Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (KY-WV LSAMP), spearheaded by UK, is responsible for the program.

The project began on September 1, 2020, and will span two years.

Peng Wang, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, will serve as co-PI.

The collaboration will allow two of the world’s leading carbon fiber research and development organizations to maximize their respective expertise in the field.

In the study led by BAE assistant professor Jian Shi, the dual-purpose cultivars that had the best biofuel potential, which uses the stalk, also produced grain.

Gregory Erhardt, assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, is the PI for UK.

The purpose of the Early Career Award is to initiate a relationship with young researchers who will bring a new focus into the ELECTRI “research family.”

Assistant professor Martha Grady will lead the project titled "Quantitative Mechanical Phenotyping of Bacterial Biofilms on Implant Surfaces."

Ai-Ling Lin is an associate professor at UK's Sanders-Brown Center on Aging and College of Medicine with a joint appointment in BME.

Brent Seales, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science, is considered the foremost expert in the digital restoration of damaged and unreadable manuscripts.

Bhattacharyya recently received a Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant from the NSF to develop a mask that will deactivate COVID-19 on contact.

The masks are designed to inactivate the coronavirus.

In 2020, his team has been awarded four grants from the National Institutes of Health that total nearly $5.7 million. 

University of Kentucky engineering professor Dibakar Bhattacharyya recently announced he had the concept and the means to develop a medical face mask that would capture and deactivate COVID-19 on contact. Now, the director of UK’s Center of Membrane Sciences, along with collaborators from two different disciplines, has received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to make these masks a reality.

Yu researches near-infrared diffuse optical spectroscopy/tomography through his Biomedical Optics Lab.

The award is given in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.

In August 2019, computer science assistant professor Tingting Yu received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation in the amount of approximately $500,000. The project involves collaboration between University of Kentucky and Stevens Institute of Technology, and the goal is to improve the quality of modern software systems. Yu researches the broad field of software engineering, which largely boils down to creating better software. The goal of her research is to engineer techniques that help developers create more dependable, secure and user-friendly software systems. 

Associate professor Sheng Tong joined the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D., Department of Biomedical Engineering this past fall. Prior to arriving in Lexington, Tong was a research associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University.

Tong’s research synergistically combines nanobiotechnology, drug and gene delivery, and cancer therapy. He is currently focusing on developing genome editing approaches for cancer immune checkpoint blockade therapies. 

Sean Bailey, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, joined the UK College of Engineering faculty in 2010 after receiving his Ph.D. From the University of Ottawa and subsequently completing his postdoctoral work at Princeton University. In this interview, he discusses the advantages of using unmanned aerial vehicles to measure atmospheric conditions, his various projects that use UAVs and how UAVs may prove vital in the event of an airborne disaster. 

Civil engineering assistant professor Hala Nassereddine joined the UK College of Engineering faculty this past fall as the newest member of the Construction Engineering and Project Management Program. Nassereddine teaches the introduction to construction management course and will teach a new course on lean systems in construction management in the spring. She is also involved with the Kentucky Transportation Center on multiple highway research projects.

Last summer, Nassereddine won the 2019 Construction Industry Institute (CII) Academic Showcase at the CII Annual Conference in San Diego, California. The project for which Nassereddine won the showcase is detailed below in a recent conversation we had about her research focus. 

Rodney Andrews, professor of chemical engineering, is PI on the project.

Faculty members Akinbode Adedeji and  Kevin Donohue are developing ways to keep healthy U.S. apples in the supply chain.

A unique partnership between an engineer and a scientist at the University of Kentucky has produced data that is challenging prevailing wisdom about a potentially life-threatening parasite's behavior and revealing possible targets for treatment.

The National Science Foundation grant will allow a research team to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the event of airborne contaminant dispersion.

When Mark Suckow (pronounced SOO-koh) interviewed with University of Kentucky vice president for research Lisa Cassis for the position of attending veterinarian, he posed a simple question: could he do more? 

Thanks to a prestigious grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Brent Seales can continue his quest to solve a 2,000-year-old mystery: reading the elusive texts within carbonized Herculaneum scrolls.

"I think it’s essential that we bring technology up to human standards, rather than forcing humans to adapt their ways of thinking to fit the AI system." - Brent Harrison 

Transportation Network Companies like Uber and Lyft promised to solve traffic congestion in major cities. Greg Erhardt, assistant professor of civil engineering at UK, says not so fast.

Last summer, materials engineering assistant professor Jonathan Pham received two National Science Foundation grants totaling $525,000. Pham, who joined the UK College of Engineering faculty in 2017, researches soft materials and interfaces and liquid-surface interactions, among other interests. Basically, he explores how solid materials…well, sometimes liquids…depending on the size, of course…well, probably better if he explains it.

On October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael made landfall on Mexico Beach, Florida with 155 mph winds, becoming the fourth-strongest hurricane to make landfall and just shy of a Category 5 hurricane. Thus far, it is estimated that 54 people lost their lives due to Michael and insurance claims have topped $1.5 billion with deaths as far away as Virginia and flooding as far as Maryland.

Combining physiology and engineering, UK’s Jonathan Wenk and Kenneth Campbell are developing computer software to deliver better therapies for patients with life-threatening heart failure. The National Institutes of Health recently awarded the team a $3 million five-year grant to create a computer model of the heart that can be customized to individual patients and predict long-term results.

The honor is given to academic scientists and engineers who have shown exceptional promise for doing creative research early in their career.

Brehm’s project, “Numerical Investigations of Particle Interactions with Navy Relevant High-Speed Flows,” addresses the significant gap in knowledge for particulate-laden, high-speed flows, employing one-of-a-kind numerical investigations to study the interaction of particulates with high-speed flows for geometries and flow conditions relevant to the Navy.

Funding from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health will further Cui's work in debugging large ontologies and customizing data collection systems.

Combined, the awards total approximately $290,000.

The $223,000 award will support Agioutantis’ investigation into pillar design and stability with integrated pillar load and opening convergence in mines.

A new study by University of Kentucky researchers is examining whether peach pits and walnut shells can be used to create cheaper, longer lasting lithium ion batteries.

Professor Guoqiang Yu (Ph.D.) of the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering has been awarded a two-year, $420,750 R21 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).