Join us for Engineering Takes Flight on Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. at the UK Sports Club Field! 🚁 engr.uky.edu/engineering-tak…

Fazleena Badurdeen, Ph.D., Earl Parker Robinson Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and director of the graduate certificate in manufacturing systems engineering, has been named the director of the Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing. 👏 Read more here: engr.uky.edu/news/badurdeen-…

🫵 Do you know an outstanding alum who should be enshrined in the Pigman College of Engineering’s Hall of Distinction? 🗳️Nominate them at engr.uky.edu/HOD by Oct. 15th! The Hall of Distinction recognizes and honors those alumni who have demonstrated distinguished engineering professional accomplishments, outstanding character and commitment to community service.

As greenhouse agriculture continues to expand to meet growing food demands, Biyun Xie, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is developing new technologies to produce healthier crops more efficiently, while also reducing the time and labor required to grow them. Xie is the principal investigator on a nearly $1.2 million @NSF grant to develop an autonomous robotic system that could transform how greenhouse-grown tomatoes are monitored and evaluated. 🍅🦾 uknow.uky.edu/research/uk-re… #agtech #agriculture #greenhouse #robotics #engineering

Recently, students in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering traveled to @NASAWallops in Wallops Island, Virginia. 🧑‍🚀🚀 The students, along with Assistant Professor Dan Fries, were there to integrate the latest Kentucky Re-entry Universal Payload System (KRUPS) capsule into a sounding rocket, as a preliminary test for for a future orbital entry mission. KRUPS is an innovative space capsule program developed by University of Kentucky Engineering students and researchers. Designed as an inexpensive and highly adaptable flying testbed, its primary mission is to gather critical flight data on atmospheric re-entry conditions and validate thermal protection systems. Since its inception, KRUPS has been worked on by over 100 UK Engineering graduate and undergraduate students. In the maiden voyage from Earth to the International Space Station in December 2021, KRUPS capsules achieved three historic firsts: 1️⃣ The first university-built entry capsule to successfully transit a planetary atmosphere. 2️⃣ The first hypersonic vehicle flown by a university. 3️⃣ The first 3D-printed heat shield used in an entry mission. #NASA #EngineeringExcellence

Congratulations are in order for Scott Berry, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering! Berry has been honored as a 2026-27 University Research Professor. 👏 Berry’s research focuses on applying engineering principles to molecular diagnostics. Over the past 15 years, he has investigated how novel fluid mechanics phenomena can be applied to improve molecular assays, lab tests that use a sample of tissue, blood or other body fluid to check for genes, proteins or other molecules that are disease markers. In addition to reducing complexity and minimizing costs, these improvements unlocked fundamentally new functionalities, enabling clinicians and basic scientists to measure molecular and cellular analytical processes that were previously unobservable. This work led to the development of new technologies and platforms for diseases, including HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, influenza, cancer and most recently, SARS-CoV-2. Read his Q&A here: uknow.uky.edu/research/scott…

The @scrollprize has achieved a historic breakthrough in the recovery of the #Herculaneum scrolls — revealing new texts, titles and authors unknown to history and ushering in a new era for the study of the ancient world. “For nearly two millennia, many of these texts have been physically preserved but intellectually inaccessible,” Brent Seales, Vesuvius Challenge co-founder and the Stanley and Karen Pigman Chair of Heritage Science at the University of Kentucky, said. “Today — after years of interdisciplinary work combining advanced imaging, artificial intelligence (AI), academic research and an innovation contest — we are finally able to read them.” Read More: uknow.uky.edu/research/day-h…

Witness the first public reading of the newly uncovered works from the #Herculaneum Scrolls, live from Naples, Italy, on THURSDAY, June 25 at 9:30 a.m. CET (3:30 a.m. EDT). 🌋📜 LIVESTREAM LINK: youtube.com/watch?v=96oTlQm0… This event is a part of the Center for the study of the Herculaneum Papyri (CISPE) Marcello Gigante International Conference supported by the @scrollprize and hosted at the Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II and the Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli “Vittorio Emanuele III."

University of Kentucky Provost Robert S. DiPaola has announced Michael Renfro, Ph.D., as interim dean of the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering. Renfro, the Tennessee Valley Authority Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has served as the associate dean for faculty affairs and facilities since 2022. He joined UK in 2015 as a professor and served as chair of the department until 2023. As chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Renfro led the development of new curriculum and degree programs, including bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in aerospace engineering. He helped the department grow enrollment of undergraduate students by 18% and graduate students by 20%, and he grew the number of department faculty and staff by more than 20% each. Renfro is also an active researcher and student mentor. He has received more than $30 million in total funding as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator, and his current research focuses on optical diagnostics applied to power production and high temperature systems. Read more: engr.uky.edu/news/renfro-nam…

We've got a big mining milestone coming up! 🪨 🎉 Join the Pigman College of Engineering in commemorating the 𝟭𝟮𝟱𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 with a celebratory gala. 📅 Oct. 1 🕕 6 -10 p.m. 📍University of Kentucky Gatton Student Center - Harris Ballroom 📨 RSVP at mining.engr.uky.edu/125-gala

RISING HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS: Join the UK Pigman College of Engineering's Department of Civil Engineering for Civil Engineering Exploration Day (CEED) on July 7! 🏗️ CEED is a one-day event where rising high school seniors will get an in-depth look at civil engineering at the University of Kentucky. Students will see civil engineering laboratory demonstrations, hear presentations from professional engineering firms, eat in campus dining facilities, learn about admissions and scholarships, tour the Pigman College of Engineering complex and meet civil engineering faculty and current students. Register by June 26 at civil.engr.uky.edu/ceed