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