Engineering student shakes hand with a humanoid robot with telepresence.

Department of Mechanical Engineering News

The Department of Mechanical Engineering prepares students for the lifelong practice of mechanical engineering and related engineering disciplines. Our students to become problem solvers through applying science to deal with the relations among forces, work, or energy, and power in designing systems, which ultimately contributes to the betterment of the human environment.

Current Mechanical Engineering News

four men adjusting a drone before flight under popup tent
Campus News |

Through hands-on exercises and access to premier lab space, students gain experience sought by the nation’s top research facilities.

students in spring
Campus News |

News highlights starring UNLV students and faculty who made local and national headlines.

four students in suits in front of equipment
People |

Justin Negron's UNLV turnaround story starts with a visit to his advisor and ends with Senior Design Competition wins and a job offer.

group of students holding a frame that says President's Innovation Challenge
Campus News |

Team Protégé wins Shark Tank-style competition for AI-powered speech feedback app.

a crane pours glowing hot steel into a large vat
Research |

Funding is part of Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program to develop zero emissions ironmaking and ultra-low life cycle emissions steelmaking.

Spring Flowers (Becca Schwartz)
Campus News |

A roundup of the top news stories featuring UNLV students and faculty.

Mechanical Engineering In The News

Las Vegas Sun

Three UNLV professors are working on an iron-production method that doesn’t generate carbon emissions, part of an effort to clean up one of the world’s dirtiest industries.

Las Vegas Sun

Three UNLV professors are working on an iron-production method that doesn’t generate carbon emissions, part of an effort to clean up one of the world’s dirtiest industries.

KSNV-TV: News 3

The next generation of engineers is ready to solve real-world challenges. Engineering students at UNLV showcased their skills at the Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition on Thursday. Over 180 students across 38 teams presented their technology advancement ideas to a panel of industry judges.

TechXplore

You wanna see her move? I think that's the fun part. The room is thick with anticipation and fabricated skulls. She's gonna wake up. Give her a second. Matt McMullen eyes his creation as her eyes flutter open in return, her gaze settling upon all the disembodied faces and mechanical mandibles surrounding her in this workshop where fake hair co-mingles with real ambition.

Las Vegas Review Journal

Amid a world of evolving AI, a Las Vegas man brings his creations to life.

KVVU-TV: Fox 5

This weekend teams from across the Valley and around the world will meet on the field of battle to put their robots to the test. The teams are made up completely of high school students, with the help of some very special mentors sent to them from UNLV. FOX5 caught up with one team to learn more about the competition, and the bonds formed while building robots and futures.

Mechanical Engineering Experts

An expert in nuclear physics, radiation, and mechanical engineering.
An expert in mechanics and manufacturing.
An expert in atmospheric water harvesting.
An expert in soft robotics and active materials, particularly nanomaterials.  

Recent Mechanical Engineering Accomplishments

Senior student Daniel Fisher (Mechanical Engineering) won the 2024 Craig F. Bohren Best Student Presentation Award, at the 2024 SPIE The Bioinspiration, Biomimetics, and Bioreplication conference in Long Beach, California. His presentation was titled, "From Bioimaging to Artificial Anatomy: 3D Printing Biomimetic Marine Life…
Alexander Barzilov (Mechanical Engineering) received a $400,000 award from Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the nuclear workforce fellowship program. Two Ph.D. students and two M.S. students will be supported by the program.
Emma Regentova (Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Alexander Barzilov (Mechanical Engineering) received a $350,000 award from Battelle Savannah River Alliance for their "Advanced Machine Learning-Based Analysis of Optical Sensor Data on the Drone Platform for Robust Detection of Methane Leaks" project. Two graduate and four undergraduate…
Professor Kwang Kim (Mechanical Engineering) co-authored a paper titled, "Functionally antagonistic polyelectrolyte for electro-ionic soft actuator," in a recent issue of Nature Communications (2024)15:435.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced the Phase I winners of 19 teams for Innovating Distributed Embedded Energy Prize (InDEEP). The UNLV team from the Active Materials and Smart Living (AMSL) laboratory, led by Ph.D. mechanical engineering student Nazanin Minaian, was selected as one of the 19 winners. Professors Alexandrea…
Prosun Roy (Mechanical Engineering), Lung-Wen Antony Chen (Environmental and Occupational Health), Yi-Tung Chen (Mechanical Engineering), Sajjad Ahmad, Eakalak Khan (both Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction), and Mark Buttner (Environmental and Occupational Health) published an article on "Pollen Dispersion and …