News | Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grad Slam winners_ Warren Zamudio_Ashlynn Overholser_Lina Koutova

2026 Grad Slam Winners

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

2026 ME Grad Slam winners.

Janel Birk and Jeff Moehlis Distinguished Aluma Award

2026 Department of Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Alumna Award

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Janel Birk, a medical device R&D, product development, and project management consultant at 3D3 LLC, receives the 2026 ME Distinguished Alumna Award.

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UC Santa Barbara mechanical engineer Elliot Hawkes and collaborators are developing a soft, autonomous robotic system designed to navigate blood vessels and remove dangerous blood clots, potentially expanding access to lifesaving stroke treatment.

Brain Surgery by Autonomous Robot? It's Possible — and Could Save Lives

Wednesday, October 14, 2026

UCSB researchers are developing an autonomous robotic system that could navigate the brain’s blood vessels, remove dangerous clots, and make lifesaving stroke treatment more accessible.

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UCSB faculty member Emilie Dressaire will use her recent NSF CAREER award to work on flows in microgels. Made of soft, slippery particles, these gels more closely resemble the body's extracellular environment than many traditional gels used to study cells, cell aggregates and microbes. Image credit: Brian Long

A “Ball Pit” for Cells

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

UCSB’s Emilie Dressaire receives an NSF CAREER award to study transport in microgels that may help cancer research.

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UC Santa Barbara engineering faculty members (from left) Daniel Oropeza and Yangying Zhu recently received an award from the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities (HSRU) to investigate a reusable thermal protection system that could protect Earth-bound spacecraft from the heat of re-entry. Photo credit: Lilli Walker

Beating the Heat of Re-Entry

Monday, September 14, 2026

UCSB engineering team receives inaugural award to design reusable systems for spacecraft returning to Earth.

Emilie Dressaire selected for 2026 NSF CAREER Award

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Emilie Dressaire: Creating cell culture environments for better biotech and medicine.

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Enoch Yeung (left) and PhD student Aleczander Taylor are developing a first-of-its-kind system to observe how DNA physically behaves during gene activity thanks to bridge funds from the W.M. Keck Foundation.

Keck Bridge Grant Supports New Ways to Visualize Gene Control

Monday, June 22, 2026

Associate professor Enoch Yeung and PhD candidate Alec Taylor are developing a first-of-its-kind system to observe how DNA physically behaves during gene activity.