News | Department of Mechanical Engineering

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2025 Connie Frank Fellowship recipients (left to right) Renata Dos Reis Marques, Gabriela Villapando Torres, Gianna Gathman

Recognizing Research Potential

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Engineering graduate students awarded fellowships to further investigate cardiac disease, fibrosis, and tissue self-regeneration.

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2025 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship recipients (left to right) Kyle Lee, Jordan Prescott, Anya Mulligan

COE Students Awarded Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Monday, April 14, 2025

Fellows receive three years of financial support, totaling nearly $150,000, in the form of an annual stipend, tuition, and fees.

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Photo Credit
Sakkmesterke vi Adobe Stock
Fruit fly larvae will reorient themselves toward the negative pole of an electric field.

Scientists discover that fruit fly larvae can sense electric fields

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

While it may be an unfamiliar sensation to humans, electroreception is relatively commonplace in the animal kingdom. Sharks, bees and even the platypus all share this ability to detect electric fields in their environment.

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have just added fruit flies to that list. A team of researchers led by Matthieu Louis found that fruit fly larvae can sense electric fields and navigate toward the negative electric potential using a small set of sensory neurons in their head.

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.

PECASE Award for Elliot Hawkes

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

He is recognized for his “vine” robots and record-setting jumping robots