FALL 2024

Reigning champions Team Mountaineers represented the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at WVU, placing second in the 2024 University Rover Challenge (URC) finals held at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah.

With $1 million in NASA funding, West Virginia University is preparing its undergraduates and students across West Virginia to build the robots that will build the future.

As one of the largest contributors to research conducted at WVU, the Statler College has experienced rocketing growth with a 72 percent boost in externally funded engineering and computer science research and development since 2020.

WVU roboticists are working on an alternative path to robot autonomy in Loopy, a “multicellular robot” composed of a ring of individual interconnected robot cells.

Launching a satellite into space takes a lot of planning. From development to operations to Federal Communications Commission regulations, successful missions go through extensive design and test phases before anything leaves the ground. Mechanical and aerospace engineering students Isabella Hart, Sam Blair and Evie Harper got hands-on experience this summer through the University Nanosatellite Program in New Mexico, a collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA.

Researchers at WVU are making strides once again in robotics, one of the fastest-growing disciplines in the Statler College.

WVU has released its Spring 2024 Dean’s and President’s lists, along with the complete list of spring semester graduates.

WVU students are enriching their college experience by exploring exciting opportunities — and occasionally finding joy in the unexpected — thanks to private scholarship support.

The WVU Statler College proudly announces that Hannah McFadden, aerospace engineering undergraduate student from Leesburg, VA, has been awarded the SMART Scholarship.

At WVU, women account for about 18% of undergraduate students and 24% of graduate students at Statler, and those figures have increased over the past 20 years. Students and faculty shared their experiences and emphasized the importance of scholarships to enhance student opportunities in the Statler College.

Developing a new kind of rechargeable battery — zinc-ion batteries, a cheaper, safer alternative to today’s lithium-ion batteries — is the goal of Xiujuan Chen.

Learn more about alumna Emily Calandrelli, her journey from engineering classrooms to zero gravity, and get the inside scoop on her upcoming mission that'll make her the first WV woman in outer space.

The latest installment of Alumni Who Inspire! features WVU alumnus Conlan Grossman, Industrial Software Business Development Manager at Equipment and Controls Inc.

We honor our college and department alumni who have made significant contributions to their fields and will always be remembered.

Faculty leadership development is one of the core values of the Statler College at WVU. Learn more about MMAE faculty Andrew Rhodes and Loren Rieth, their recent appointment and their initiatives as recently named Dean’s Leadership Fellows.

Piyush Mehta, associate professor in the MMAE department, has been named to the newly elected Class of 2025 Associate Fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and appointed to the Space Weather Advisory Group — a Federal Advisory Committee for the White House Space Weather Operations, Research and Mitigation subcommittee.

Dear MMAE Alumni and Friends

As the weather has finally turned in Morgantown and the leaves are showing color, I hope you are enjoying the season. This Fall semester, we are proud to report that our externally funded research expenditures of the department’s faculty have doubled over the past four year period. In 2024, the department’s total externally funded research exceeded $14 million as compared to about $7 million in 2020. Meanwhile, student enrollment in our undergraduate programs for this fall is up about 10% as compared to last year.

In this newsletter, you will learn about how we are fortunate to have secured $1 million funding from NASA to help strengthen our robotics laboratory spaces and bolster outreach materials in order to support the launch of the new degree program in robotics engineering. This news came on the heels of our University Challenge Team earning 2nd place from a field of 108 teams at this year’s robotics competition following their 1st place victory in 2023.

Our students continue to take on new challenges and impress us. Robotics doctoral student Clarus Goldsmith earned recognition at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation for their research by winning a workshop demo. This past summer, a group of students participated in the University Nanosat Program in New Mexico to develop a mission concept.

From our faculty, Dr. Piyush Mehta has been named to 2025 class of AIAA Associate Fellows, Dr. Rhodes has been selected as a Dean’s leadership fellow to help develop new educational programming in the college, and Dr. Rieth has been selected as a Dean’s leadership fellow to strengthen college research ties to the WVU Health Sciences Center.

We are excited that our alumna Emily Calandrelli is slated to become West Virginia’s first female astronaut with a planned flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepard. She recently held a Q&A video session for WVU and K-12 students at the start of the semester.

Lastly, our Academy of Distinguished Alumni is seeking nominations. Please use the following form: Submit Nomination or email Statler-MAE@mail.wvu.edu with any questions.

Let’s go!

MAILING ADDRESS:
Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering | West Virginia University
1306 Evansdale Drive | P.O. Box 6106 | Morgantown, WV 26506-6106
PHONE: 304.293.3111 | EMAIL: Statler-MAE@mail.wvu.edu

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