Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Annual Report Annual Report 2016 | Page 3

offerings and to accommodate our ever-growing student body. As a department, we also find ourselves strategically placed at the heart of Virginia Tech’s Destination Areas, a cross college and multi-disciplinary approach to new programs within the university with major resources and investments. In recognition of our outstanding faculty, last year, the department and college awarded one new faculty fellowship (John Jones III Fellowship); renewed two five-year term professorships; and is currently seeking nominations for two more faculty fellows to be awarded this year. Mechanical Engineering hosts 12 endowed faculty professorships and fellowships and our faculty and staff were the recipients of dozens of awards and certificates. Three of our students received recognition awards at graduation in May 2015. Our students had a remarkably successful year in various competitions and projects, fielding six strong teams in national competitions as part of our experiential learning. A few of them were among our senior design projects including the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team that competes in the EcoCAR Challenge. The team placed second nationwide in 2016, and they held the distinction of being the only team that converted a V8 engine into a hybrid system, challenging themselves and the perception of what is possible with hybrid energy vehicles. The VT Hyperloop team, made up of 33 undergraduate students from all engineering disciplines and the Pamplin College of Business, earned fourth place at the international Hyperloop Design Competition held at Texas A&M University in January. In September, they unveiled the pod they’ll take to the next round of competition in January 2017. To help them in their research, the university has agreed to build a Hyperloop test track at Virginia Tech – the first INSIDE Facts at a Glance Thrust Areas Faculty and Staff Laboratories Senior Design Student Teams Donors 4 6 16 24 39 46 52 of its kind on the U.S. East Coast. 3 In 2015-2016, one-third of ME's forty-five senior design project teams were sponsored by industry and tackled real-life design and development problems over two semesters. This year we are adding more sponsors, with the goal to have all of our teams working on industry-sponsored challenges that incorporate new levels of expectations and opportunities for our students. As part of our strategic direction, in full harmony with that of the college and university, the department has embarked on a strong diversity and inclusivity plan and actively works to enhance the diversity of our student body, and training our workforce to be actively engaged in the university’s plan. As part of that effort, we have admitted more female graduate students, reaching 13.94% this year. This is one of ME's strategic goals, whic