In Memory of Col. Joe Kittinger
Aviation legend and UF alum Joseph Kittinger died of lung cancer on December 9 at the age of 94. Kittinger grew up in Orlando and attended UF in the 1940s before enlisting in the US Air Force Aviation Cadet Program. He was an officer in the Air Force from 1950 to 1978, earning Command Pilot status…
Autodesk provides $100,000 to College of Engineering in latest donation
The San Francisco-based software company Autodesk has donated about $100,000 to the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, with the money specifically going toward the classroom initiatives of MAE’s Dr. Sean Niemi and ISE’s (Industrial and Systems Engineering) Katie Basinger. Autodesk is a multinational corporation whose software products are used in a variety of fields, including engineering,…
University of Florida Team Will Produce Solar Hydrogen
October 3rd, 2022, Gainesville, FL – The University of Florida announced that it was selected to receive a $2,700,000 award from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) to accelerate the large-scale development and deployment of concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) technology for industrial decarbonization and electrical power generation and storage. This project will develop a solar reactor powered by high…
Sidharth Sanadhya Achieves Major Breakthrough in Separation Science
Graduate research assistant Sidharth Sanadhya made a significant and consequential discovery in the field of separation science earlier this year, and submitted a 150-page paper on it that was accepted for publication by the Journal of Molecular Liquids. The paper, which was published in the JML this month, described Sanadhya’s work on predicting phase separation behavior…
Solar Gators team competes at Formula Sun Grand Prix
During the first week of July, the Solar Gators student engineering team left the swamp to head west and manifest destiny on the wide-open prairies of the heartland. And the challenge that awaited them in Topeka, Kansas, was the Formula Sun Grand Prix. At the FSGP, teams from universities across North America race solar-powered cars on…
In Memory of Dr. Ross, Emeritus Professor of Engineering Mechanics
Dr. Claudius Allen Ross, Emeritus Professor of Engineering Mechanics at the UF-REEF, passed away on August 21, 2022. Dr. Ross, a 6th generation Floridian was born in Holder, Fl. He served in the United States Air Force from 1948-1952, including eight months in the Korean War. After serving his country, he entered the University of Florida…
Dr. Peter Ifju gives prestigious Murray Lecture at Society for Experimental Mechanics
Ever since he was a graduate student in the 1980s, Dr. Peter Ifju has held the Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM) close to his heart. And after 25 years of membership, which included a stint as president in 2011-2012, he received one of the society’s highest honors on June 14. In front of about 400 people…
Swamp Launch rocket design team thrives at NASA competition
In a field of 60 teams at the NASA Student Launch competition on April 23, UF’s competitive rocket design team, Swamp Launch, blasted its way to 4th place overall in the launch category and 3rd place for the payload design award. The event, hosted at the Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is an annual contest…
MAE alum Tracy Gill has vital role in NASA Artemis missions
When NASA establishes the first ever long-term human presence on the Moon, and eventually uses that base as a springboard to Mars, this seminal achievement will undoubtedly go down as one of the most significant events in the history of our species. And humanity’s upcoming return to the magnificent desolation, as Buzz Aldrin described the barren…
Gator Motorsports Wins Third Place Overall at FSAE Michigan
UF’s Formula SAE team zoomed to the second best result in its 31-year history at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. Out of 100 teams representing universities from six countries, Gator Motorsports finished third place overall. The team’s only higher finish was second place in 2015. For FSAE competitions, students spend a year designing and…