Susan Fullerton, Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, has been named a 2026 Experimental Physics Investigator by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The five-year award will support an effort to directly measure a hidden layer of ions that could...

Pittsburgh’s new Commercial Street Bridge reopened on July 27, 2026, after a 17-day closure of the Parkway East, one week ahead of schedule. During that closure, crews demolished the existing bridge and slid a new structure weighing more than 10,000 tons into place, restoring a route that carries approximately 100,000 vehicles a day. On September 4, four...

The University of Pittsburgh has been awarded $1.62 million by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) to establish the Pittsburgh Laser Engine, a training and manufacturing innovation center that will prepare displaced coal workers for advanced laser-processing careers and train union electricians in fiber-optic sensing for AI data centers, power systems...

The University of Pittsburgh’s Pitt Space is launching Pitt ORBIT (Opportunity, Research, Building, Innovation, and Training), a summer research program designed to immerse Pitt undergraduates in space engineering research and prepare them for careers in the field. The program is supported by a $100,000 grant from the Howmet Aerospace Foundation, in...

A paper from the lab of Juan José Mendoza-Arenas illustrating an extraordinary example of mathematical efficiency was recently highlighted by the journal Physical Review Applied as an Editor’s Choice. The work shows a method originally developed to analyze correlated quantum systems—later adapted to simulate classical fluids—can also be used to calculate the...

For Pittsburgh drivers, city officials, and repair crews, potholes are a seemingly endless source of frustration. For Keith and Lynda Giuliani and David Dietrich, that frustration sparked an idea: Pittsburgh has plenty of potholes but also a thriving robotics industry and universities with strong engineering programs. Could they bring the two together and...

Jangwon (Jang) Park has joined the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Industrial Engineering as an assistant professor, bringing expertise in healthcare system optimization and resilience. His research uses industrial engineering methods to help healthcare organizations operate more efficiently, respond to disruptions, and improve patient care. “Jang...

NIH Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31) Recipients Camila Garcia Padilla Garcia Padilla is a 5th-year PhD student in the B.I.O.N.I.C. lab, advised by Takashi (TK) Kozai. Her research addresses a gap in brain-computer interface (BCI) design, which typically focuses on neurons while overlooking glial cells. Garcia Padilla is...

The University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering has hired three new assistant professors whose research spans oil and gas, renewable, and clean energy. Alejandra Torres-Velasco joined Pitt in January 2026, and Md Nahin Mahmood and Brian Tackett (BS ChemE ’13) began this August. “With the launch of...

The University of Pittsburgh’s Brandon Grainger has been named Deputy Editor-in-Chief (Academia) of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine. Available online and in print to IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) members worldwide, the quarterly magazine features peer-reviewed articles and industry news about power electronics and its many applications. Grainger, an...

In an age of increasingly powerful computers, G. Paolo Galdi solves complex equations with pencil and paper. A distinguished professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, Galdi has dedicated his scientific life to using rigorous mathematics to test models and better...

Folk singer Bob Dylan famously took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, plugged in an electric guitar, and began belting out songs. Shocked and outraged fans, expecting him to strum his acoustic guitar, left. How could Dylan go electric? Three years ago, Panther Racing, the University of Pittsburgh’s Formula SAE team, set out in the sub-basement...

Vikas Khanna has been appointed chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, effective Sept. 1, 2026. Khanna has served as interim chair since July 1, 2025. During that time, he has met extensively with faculty, staff and students and engaged external partners to better...

The first time Prahlad Pant (MS CE ’77, PhD CE ’80) applied for a passport to travel from Nepal to America, it was denied by the then-autocratic Nepali government. Driven by a dream to become an engineering professor, he persisted, and in 1975 found himself studying engineering for a semester at the University of Pittsburgh. That one semester set in motion a...

Why are some skills easier to learn than others? Aaron Batista and his team found part of the answer to this central question in neuroscience twelve years ago. Now, a new publication has validated their findings in humans, offering promising new approaches for guiding learning and recovery. Finding the foundational framework Twelve years ago, Batista,...

From July 19 – 24, Pittsburgh was in safe hands. More than 200 researchers from around the world dedicated to assessing and managing risk across critical infrastructure, the environment, and complex systems had convened for the International Association for Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management’s PSAM 18 conference.The University of Pittsburgh’s...

A concept for programming materials from the inside out earned University of Pittsburgh researcher Mostafa Bedewy and collaborators the top honor in the 2026 NSF Manufacturing Blue Sky Competition earlier this summer.Bedewy, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, developed Protein-Based...

PITTSBURGH (August 24, 2026) ... Susan Fullerton Shirey has been named interim chair of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. Her appointment and promotion to full professor take effect Sept. 1, 2026.Fullerton Shirey is the Bicentennial Board of Visitors Faculty Fellow and serves...

Until he stepped into an operating room for the first time, Aaron Batista thought he knew a lot about the brain. "Imagine spending your entire life snorkeling, and then suddenly you go scuba diving," Batista said. "You'll quickly realize you were only scratching the surface of a deeper reality."For Batista, a neural engineer with decades of research...

The University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering is introducing “Leadership Conversations,” a speaker series exploring the experiences, decisions, partnerships, and challenges that shape leadership in research and academia. The new series is presented by the Swanson School’s Office of the Associate Dean for Faculty Development.On Tuesday, September...

Following a national search, Amin Salehi-Khojin, an energy and advanced materials researcher and current chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Southern Methodist University, has been named Harry S. Tack Professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of...

In 2017, Pitt took its first step toward becoming a space university with the establishment of the NSF Space, High-performance, and Resilient Computing (SHREC) Center.In 2024, over 100 Pitt faculty who had shared interests in space from across a variety of schools and disciplines joined force, launching Pitt Space. With it, the first official suite of four...

Many older cities across the eastern United States rely heavily on aging sewer systems that use a single pipe network to carry away rainwater and sewage. With such systems, however, heavy rains can cause huge problems. Unable to handle the deluge, the system spills a mix of stormwater and untreated sewage, called combined sewer overflows (CSO), into nearby...

Whether making grid-scale batteries safer, turning everyday telecommunications fiber into a sensing network, or developing clean-hydrogen systems that can sense their own health, University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering professors and their partner organizations are turning research into real-world solutions.R&D World recognized Pitt professors...

A multidisciplinary, multi-institutional group of researchers focused their expertise in genetics, mechanics, chemistry and biology on a chip the size of a postage stamp in order to model a particular class of heart conditions.In a first for the field, a team led by Guang Li, associate professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Cell Biology, has...

Parkinson’s Disease is characterized by a progressive loss of dopamine-producing neurons in a region of the brain involved in movement control. More than 10 million people are living with Parkinson’s, which causes tremors, slowness of movement, rigidity, balance problems, and other neurologic symptoms.Dopamine is a chemical messenger that regulates the...

Reem Alhalabe, a fourth-year PhD student in the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering Department of Bioengineering, has been named a winner of the inaugural Engineering Graduate Student Organization (EGSO) Leadership and Service Award.Alhalabe was recognized for her two years of leadership within the Graduate Biomedical Engineering Society...

Dana C. Romano, Ed.D., director of career and industry engagement at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, received the Suitable Spirit Award July 23 at the 2026 Pathways to Student Success Conference in Philadelphia.Romano was selected from 11 nominees representing nine institutions. Suitable is an engagement and success platform that...

After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Bioengineering, Rachel McLoughlin joined the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) - PhD in Bioengineering (DPT/PhD) Program at the School of Rehabilitation Sciences and the Swanson School of Engineering. Now pursuing her PhD, McLoughlin described her motivations and experiences in this...

Rohan Ramnani is a current student in the MS-MPE program at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to pursuing his master’s degree, Rohan earned his bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He chose biomedical engineering as his career path in hopes of working in a role that allowed him to help people through...

As critical infrastructure like water, energy, and industrial control networks face increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, the University of Pittsburgh Cyber Energy Center and Pitt Cyber will host their second Transforming Cybersecurity Workshop on Tuesday, August 11, 2026. The event will bring together experts across government, industry, and academia...

When the University of Pittsburgh Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) launched in 2003, its first initiative had a clear purpose: give undergraduate students an opportunity to get out of the classroom and work hands on in a lab. The following summer, through the Summer Research Training Program in Sustainability, students would learn...

At the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, Pocket Pizzutillo (BSMEMS ’25) had completed two six-month co-op rotations and 75 percent of his course work, amassing industry and academic experience. But something was missing: hands-on research.Wanting to round out his education, Pizzutillo applied to the Mascaro Center for Sustainable...

The sight of canoes on the muddy banks of Tygart Lake, in West Virginia, may have seemed unremarkable, but upon closer inspection these were no ordinary canoes. They were made of concrete, constructed and intricately decorated by the university students about to race them. For the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering’s American Society of...

Originally published in Pittwire; reposted with permission.The Resilient Energy Technology and Infrastructure (RETI) Consortium, led by West Virginia University in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and more than 60 regional partners, will use $321 million in public and private funding to develop the nation’s next...

The Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development has awarded three University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering researchers with 2026 Manufacturing PA Innovation Awards. These awards of $70,000 will promote University-industry collaboration and provide Pitt graduate and undergraduate students with meaningful, hands-on experience...

You can learn a lot about a railroad track by tapping it and measuring its vibration. That simple idea is at the heart of research that just earned the University of Pittsburgh's Piervincenzo Rizzo and his team the 2026 Outstanding Paper Award from the American Society for Nondestructive Testing. The honor comes as Rizzo steps into a new leadership role in...

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has selected University of Pittsburgh Associate Professor Mostafa Bedewy to participate in the prestigious Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering 2026 Symposium. The three-day event welcomes 74 of the brightest emerging engineers across industry, government, and academia to share ideas, solve problems, and...

Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are a group of more than 30 conditions that cause pain and dysfunction in the jaw. So what could a small tissue sample from a rat’s knee have to do with treating them?  A new publication from University of Pittsburgh researchers offers some answers. In "Advanced Tissue Clearing and Three-Dimensional Imaging Approaches to...

Before teaching her first university course, Karen Bursic worked as an industrial engineer on the floor of a General Motors plant and in offices at professional services company Ernst & Young. Armed with practical experience and a commitment to innovating and testing new teaching methodologies, she would later thrive as an educator, and what started as a...

On Tuesday, August 19, 2026, the Advanced Magnetics for Power and Energy Development (AMPED) Consortium and the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering will host its fifth annual industry meeting. Held at the Energy Innovation Center (EIC) in Pittsburgh, PA, the full-day event will connect students with industry, utilities, and academic...

A new grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will support students pursuing both their doctoral degree in physical therapy and a PhD in bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh.The Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) - PhD in Bioengineering program, a collaboration between the Swanson School of Engineering and the School of Health and...

Steven Jacobs has been around radios his entire life. His father, Paul Jacobs, designed them and launched three companies that built systems for data communication. Jacobs worked at these companies over many summers and was fascinated by the technology that could send and receive bits of data through the air. Engineering intrigued Jacobs, but he hesitated to...

A University of Pittsburgh collaboration with Lubrizol, a global specialty chemical leader, was featured in the newly released 2025 Manufacturing USA Report to Congress as a model for scalable, cost-effective domestic manufacturing.Working through RAPID – the U.S. Department of Energy–sponsored Manufacturing USA institute focused on modular chemical-process...

At first glance, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Chem-E Car Competition may not seem that daunting: design and build a shoebox-sized model car powered and stopped by chemical reactions. The catch? Only one hour before competition, teams learn for the first time the distance their car must safely travel on its own. The car closest to that...

Sensible Photonics, Inc. and the University of Pittsburgh today announced that their advanced fiber optic sensing technology has been competitively selected by the U.S. Department of Energy's Center for Used Fuel Research (CUFR) for demonstration at Idaho National Laboratory.The technology, originally developed through a Small Business Technology Transfer...

The University of Pittsburgh's Nikhil Bajaj has spent much of his career on nonlinear systems, the kind whose behavior shifts sharply once a threshold is crossed.Many of those systems depend on devices that exhibit bifurcation behavior, reading inputs and turning them into outputs in ways that can sharpen sensitivity or ease of use. And those similarities...

Andrey Ibragimov, former vice president of operations for Ambulatory Surgery at UPMC, has long envisioned university students, researchers, medical staff, and faculty of different disciplines sharing unique perspectives to improve healthcare. Yet meaningful engagement across silos always seemed elusive – until this year.This past spring, Ibragimov and his...

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Technical Committee on Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) awarded the University of Pittsburgh’s Jingtong Hu its Mid-Career Award. Hu was recognized for his ‘‘contributions to embedded systems and fairness-aware AI, advancing energy-efficient and equitable cyber-physical healthcare solutions.’’Hu,...