News | Department of Mechanical Engineering

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Sauret Research: Strangely Shaped Bubbles Tell the Story of Ice’s Formation and Composition

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

As water freezes, most of its dissolved gases get expelled. But some tiny bubbles near the freezing edge can get trapped in the solidifying ice, where they keep growing. Virgile Thiévenaz, who studies fluid mechanics at Paris’s Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Education Institute, and Alban Sauret, a mechanical engineer at the University of California, Santa Barbara, re-created this process in the laboratory to tease apart the factors that affect growing bubbles’ shapes and sizes.

ME Alum William Heap Earns Coveted Knight-Hennessy Scholarship

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

UCSB CoE mechanical engineering alum Heap will put his Knight-Hennessy scholarship towards his doctorate in mechanical engineering at Stanford School of Engineering. He aims to translate novel research into impactful robotic systems through a combination of technical, managerial and entrepreneurial skills. He is currently working to develop soft, pneumatic “vine” robots for use in search and rescue and hazardous environment inspection.

Beth Pruitt American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Two professors in UC Santa Barbara’s College of Engineering, Beth Pruitt and M. Scott Shell, have received a distinguished lifetime honor within the scientific community: they have both been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), landing among 502 scientists, engineers and innovators across 24 disciplines who make up the 2023 class.

2024 NSF GFRP Recipients

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Congratulations Sophie Paul (Hawkes Lab) for winning this year's NSF GRFP and Sean Bohling (Dressaire Lab) for an honorable mention.

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2024 Grad Slam Winners- Daniella Walter & Zachary Maches

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Congratulations to Daniella Walter for winning 1st place and Zachary Maches for being selected as Runner Up in the 2024 Engineering Grad Slam Event.

Francesco Bullo Leads Team Receiving 2024 DoD MURI Award

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Congratulations to our ME colleague Distinguished Professor Francesco Bullo for leading the team that was selected for a FY24 DoD MURI award.

Gallery of Soft Matters 2024 Poster Winners: Sreeram Rajesh and Alban Sauret

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Congratulations to graduate student Sreeram Rajesh and Professor Alban Sauret for winning a 2024 Poster Award in the Gallery of Soft Matter through the American Physical Society