News | Department of Mechanical Engineering

New microCT machine unites biologists and materials scientists

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

A versatile new device will soon come to campus thanks to an interdepartmental collaboration between biologists and engineers.

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Umesh Mishra (left) and Tyler Susko will receive Innovation Awards tonight from the Pacific Coast Business Times.

Innovation Awards for UCSB Professors

Thursday, March 20, 2025

Umesh Mishra and Tyler Susko to receive awards tonight from the Pacific Coast Business Times.

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Photo Credit Brian Long/UCSB
Disk-shaped robots can act collectively to accomplish tasks such as lifting and manipulating objects, or supporting weight

How to get a robot collective to act like a smart material

Thursday, February 27, 2025

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and TU Dresden are blurring the lines between robotics and materials, with a proof-of-concept material-like collective of robots with behaviors inspired by biology.

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Jeff Sakamoto; photograph by Lilli Walker

Lithium Shows its Metal

Monday, February 24, 2025

A new study finds that adding certain dopants could lead to safer, more energy-efficient batteries.

Akinwole Akinbolagbe Black History Month

Black Student Stories: Akinwole Akinbolagbe

Thursday, February 13, 2025

In honor of Black History Month, the COE spoke with a handful of Black students who represent the next generation of innovators and leaders in engineering. Akinwole Akinbolagbe, an undergraduate mechanical engineering student, shared with us his inspirations, his experience as the only Black male undergrad in his year, and finding his community on campus.

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Researchers who captured fluid finding its way through a maze now understand what drove the counterintuitive phenomenon.

UCSB Researchers Solve A Fluid -Mechanics Mystery

Monday, February 3, 2025

Seven years ago, UC Santa Barbara researchers caught an unexpected phenomenon on film: A pool of red dye that somehow “knew” how to solve a maze filled with milk. Propelled forward by a couple drops of soap, it unerringly found its way, avoiding dead ends and even making 90 degree turns in its path toward the exit.