Harsh Sharma is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering whose research sits at the intersection of computational science and mechanical/aerospace engineering, with a focus on the design, analysis and control of complex engineering dynamic systems….
As NASA plans crewed surface missions to the Moon and eventually Mars, researchers say managing cognitive fatigue may be essential for safe, effective deep space exploration. As NASA prepares to send astronauts back to the…
Badger Engineers are cleared for takeoff. The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents voted to approve the creation of a new aerospace engineering major within the UW-Madison College of Engineering on Feb. 5, 2026….
When So Yeon Kim tells people that she has worked on designing materials for both solid-state batteries and next-generation nuclear reactors, they are often surprised, assuming that these energy systems are very different. “But from…
While fantasies of mechanical maids aren’t yet reality, autonomous aides are emerging in a few areas of the modern world. Highlight reels from the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games, held in August 2025 in Beijing,…
The cells in our bodies move in groups during biological processes such as wound healing and tissue development—but because of resistance, or viscosity, those cells can’t just neatly glide past each other. Or can they?…
In their senior years, University of Wisconsin-Madison mechanical engineers apply four (or more) years’ worth of skills to a real design project. Historically, the ideas and support for those projects—designing a tool or devising a…
Concentrating solar power plants use a large array of mirrors to focus the sun’s rays and capture their heat, which boils water for steam turbines to produce electricity. The technology and systems in these massive…
The magnetic soft robots in Yunus Alapan’s lab on the third floor of the Mechanical Engineering Building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus don’t look like complex miniature droids or anything you’d find in a…
There’s a booming industry demand for microchips, which are used in virtually all electronic devices today. But meeting that demand is challenging for chipmakers, because current mechatronic systems have reached the limit for how fast…