Mechanical Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering

Our lives are filled with smart devices - phones, rings, thermostats, speakers, doorbells, and more. But have you ever heard of smart manufacturing?

Jie Lian, Ph.D., has been named the William Weightman Walker Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). An endowed chaired professorship is among the highest honors bestowed on a Rensselaer faculty member.  

— The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced $26 million in funding geographically and institutionally diverse awardees, including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), who will engage with additional partners and communities to further the conversation around consolidated interim storage of spent nuclear fuel.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) researchers Amir Hirsa, professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering, and Patrick Underhill, professor of chemical and biological engineering, have received a new three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for $452,847 to study the physics of protein solutions using the ring-sheared drop module aboard the International Space Station.

Tribology expert John Tichy, professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering, recently participated in the fourth edition of the African Conference in Tribology (ACT 2023) in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire.

Antoinette Maniatty ’87, Ph.D., has been named head of the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering (MANE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). MANE is one of the largest academic departments at RPI, with 53 faculty members and over 1,400 students.

There are more than 80,000 sheep and lambs living on over 2,000 farms in New York State. Their wool has many uses including clothing, carpets, furniture, bedding, insulators, fertilizers, and more. However, about 10-15% of wool is wasted during the sorting and cleaning processes. Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are aiming to turn that waste into a new profit source for farmers, and produce an eco-conscious, high-performance yarn in the process.

Building on novel experiments with amyloid fibrils — a type of protein aggregate associated with diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s —  a new set of experiments using serum albumins, the primary constituents of blood protein, was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) in March aboard SpaceX 27. This is the fourth time the experiment is being conducted on the ISS.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) was awarded $740,000 for research and education from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The project is led by Professor Jie Lian, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at RPI, and Prof. Shanbin Shi's co-PI project from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).

Faculty from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute served as experts in an exchange of information about developments in the field of sustainable energy, large-scale environmental change, and innovative and interdisciplinary research into energy storage and smart systems in the built environment on a recent visit by two members of the U.S. Congress.