University of Kentucky Pigman College of Engineering

08/21/2026

Be honest, is there a college better at move-in than one full of future engineers? 😎🔧📦

08/17/2026

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 (ISM).

Badurdeen, who leads ISM’s Manufacturing Systems and Supply Chain Research Laboratory, has been a core faculty of the institute since its inception. She is internationally recognized for her expertise in sustainable and circular product design, measurement systems for circularity and sustainability evaluation, modeling and analysis of manufacturing systems and supply chains as well as smart manufacturing.

Badurdeen has served as principal investigator and co-principal investigator for externally funded research of nearly $18 million and has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, reflecting the breadth and sustained impact of her work in circular economy and sustainable manufacturing.

Read more here:

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 (ISM) in the Stanley and...

08/03/2026

🫵 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.

07/17/2026

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 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to develop an autonomous robotic system that could transform how greenhouse-grown tomatoes are monitored and evaluated. 🍅🦾

Read more: https://uknow.uky.edu/research/uk-researcher-developing-robot-grow-healthier-tomatoes

As greenhouse agriculture continues to expand to meet growing food demands, University of Kentucky researchers are developing new technologies to produce healthier crops more efficiently, while also reducing the time and labor required to grow them.

07/10/2026

07/10/2026

We have been engineering future innovators this summer! 🔧🧠☀️

Last month, middle school students explored the exciting world of smart manufacturing, robotics, automation and engineering at the Fujio Cho Smart Manufacturing Summer Academy.

Hosted by the Pigman College of Engineering, in partnership with Toyota USA and Bluegrass Community and Technical College, this immersive experience connected students with hands-on learning, industry leaders, and real-world manufacturing environments—including visits to Toyota and the UK campus!

07/01/2026

Recently, students in the Departments of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering traveled to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility 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.

06/26/2026

06/26/2026

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: https://uknow.uky.edu/research/scott-berry-2026-27-university-research-professor-qa