Mechanical Science and Engineering at Illinois

09/03/2026

Join us for an RTX info session on Tuesday, September 8th from 7:00-8:00pm in Lu MEB 2051!

09/02/2026

MechSE has announced the appointment of professor Craig Bradshaw as the new director of the department’s Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering (M.Eng.ME) program.

The department’s professionally oriented non-thesis master’s degree program has a current enrollment of 96 students, with online students making up just over half of that total. The program has grown exponentially since its launch in 2015 and whose online component now ranks #3 in the country.

“I’m excited to step into leading MechSE’s M.Eng.ME and work with our wonderful program staff in the interest of supporting our students,” said Bradshaw. “My aim this year is to enhance the program’s engagement with industry partners and to bolster our already incredible online component.”

Bradshaw joined MechSE in 2024 as an associate professor from Oklahoma State University. He also serves as executive director of the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Center at Illinois.

https://mechse.illinois.edu/news/89085

Starting this academic year, MechSE Prof. Craig Bradshaw has assumed leadership of the master of engineering in mechanical engineering (M.Eng.ME) degree program.

09/01/2026

Check out the recent renovation of the John Deere Pavilion and other conference rooms in the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory!

09/01/2026

Happening tomorrow! Sign ups are still open here: https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/1491976656?referrer=https://shibboleth.illinois.edu/

08/24/2026

Incoming students spent two weeks on campus this summer in the ARISE Summer Bridge Program, a preparatory experience built to strengthen critical thinking, problem solving, math, and engineering skills before the fall semester begins. On the first day, students attended presentations introducing them to the departments and majors available to them before moving into hands-on work.

In the Motion Session, 24 students interested in MechSE, AE, and ISE majors designed and iterated a balsa wood glider, then built and refined a PVC pneumatic launcher. They also took on an optimization challenge called "pack your plane," working out the best and worst things to bring to college and learning how problem formulation shapes the quality of a solution. The session closed with a Shark Tank style pitch of their designs at the ARISE Expo, where students from every session shared what they had built.

In the Information Session, 24 students interested in ECE and CS majors learned to solder, run copper tape, work with electronic components, and program in Arduino to control LEDs, motors, and photoresistors, ultimately building a bio-inspired robot. Students also visited the MNMS cleanroom to pattern a silicon wafer.

Thanks to Stephanie Ott-Monsivais for leading the program, and to the faculty, staff, and students who made it happen: Samridh Singh, Kevin Wandke, Justin Yim, Brian Woodard, Stephanie Sims, James Rhyne, Joe Maduzia, Ranveer Singh, EJ Ignacio, graduate student Sadman Sakib, and undergraduates Sergio Bahena, Ailyah Benson, Daniel Kesse, Emily Hernandez, and Shantal Urbina.

Learn more: https://arise.grainger.illinois.edu/admitted-students/events

08/24/2026

Innovation News Network has featured the Roadmap for In-Space Manufacturing of Resilient Structures Workshop, hosted by the Center for In-Space Manufacturing of Resilient Structures (SpaceMaRS), including work presented by MechSE professor Sameh Tawfick, a principal investigator with the center.

Tawfick presented on Mission Illinois, which will demonstrate an energy-efficient curing process aboard the International Space Station to manufacture carbon fiber composite structures. Those pieces are meant to serve as building blocks for large structures built in orbit, such as next-generation space telescopes and antennas.

Read the full article:

Experts developed roadmaps for robotic assembly, lunar habitats, and demonstration infrastructure to advance space manufacturing

08/21/2026

08/21/2026

A warm welcome to our incoming cohort of MS and PhD students! Today marks the start of an exciting journey at Illinois. Work hard, take care of yourself, and don't forget to go to a football game!

08/18/2026

The eight-part film series MechSE Communications produced on the coral reef research project led by MechSE professor Amy Wagoner Johnson is now on view at Krannert Art Museum.

The exhibit includes an interactive multimedia display that invites visitors to "choose their own adventure" and explore different aspects of the research project. The videos include footage of engineers and scientists conducting fieldwork in Curacao, as well as experiments being run in Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory.

This interactive video experience is part of "Stitching Ecologies: Urbana-Champaign Satellite Crochet Coral Reef," on display through October 24. Admission to the Krannert Art Museum is free, and the museum is open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm.

Learn more: https://kam.illinois.edu/exhibition/stitching-ecologies-urbana-champaign-satellite-crochet-coral-reef

08/17/2026

The Siebel Center for Design is celebrating 10 years of teaching and modeling human-centered design. This dynamic multimedia piece by The Grainger College of Engineering includes how the center has helped change MechSE's design curriculum.

"MechSE professor Kellie Halloran said that adding human-centered design elements made her students more innovative. The roughly 500 students who take her ME 170 class, Computer-Aided Design, each year are told to redesign or design a consumer product from scratch. The open-ended project has often resulted in ideas that were impossible to implement or had already been done many times.

Emeritus MechSE professor Michael Philpott first introduced human-centered design to ME 170. Working with the Siebel Center team, Halloran has continued to develop the curriculum through additional activities and reflections. Students now spend three weeks thinking about consumer products they use and interview people about pain points in their lives. The students then synthesize the interviews and ponder solutions."

Read more: https://grainger.illinois.edu/news/stories/putting-human-back-engineering

Siebel Center for Design
The Grainger College of Engineering

The Missing Piece of Innovation: Putting the human back in engineering