Whether designing effective interventions to treat illnesses and disabilities, creating optimal materials that mimic nature’s properties, or predicting and controlling how flowing fluids interact with their surroundings, there is much to learn about the mechanical properties of complex systems and what they can teach us about solving the world’s most pressing problems. 

This year, Virginia Tech’s engineering mechanics program will continue offering students and faculty unique opportunities for research, design, and collaboration, while evolving and adapting to the current educational landscape. As of July 1, engineering mechanics is hosted by the Department of Mechanical Engineering. 

  • Graduate degrees offered by engineering mechanics and the undergraduate minor in engineering science and mechanics will continue to be available and remain unchanged.
  • All students currently enrolled in those programs will continue uninterrupted.
  • Fourteen faculty and eight staff members will relocate to the mechanical engineering department.
  • All faculty and staff positions in the engineering mechanics program have been retained.

Researchers from engineering mechanics and mechanical engineering have been collaborating for decades, combining their expertise on topics such as composite materials, adhesives, and fuel cells. Pulling the two areas of expertise into one team will allow for more frequent conversations among colleagues and students that lead to shared projects on topics such as dynamics, fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, biomechanics, and more. 

“Both mechanical engineering and engineering mechanics practitioners are interested in mechanics-based problem-solving: you apply a force to something and it moves,” said Mark Stremler, professor and engineering mechanics graduate chair. “Broadly speaking, in engineering mechanics, we seek to understand how and why, and in mechanical engineering, we use that knowledge for innovative design and development. They complement each other well.” 

That shared foundation and synergy between disciplines will open up new avenues for researchers in both disciplines while strengthening existing connections, especially when it comes to research frontiers.

“We’re very excited about this new opportunity for collaboration, especially as the mechanical engineering department looks to hone the research focus areas and work towards, in particular, creating an advanced manufacturing center in collaboration with other key players in the college,” Stremler said.

This center development is a priority for the department moving forward as Virginia Tech works to help equip the next generation of engineering talent for jobs in this booming industry. 

In order to put together a cohesive team, the focus areas of the Department of Mechanical Engineering have been organized to form new groupings for research and academics. This will bring researchers such as Raffaella De Vita, Jake Socha, and Anne Staples into more frequent contact with current mechanical engineering faculty such as Amrinder Nain, Bahareh Behkam, and Jiangtao Cheng. These faculty all work in the area of bioinspired innovation, setting a stage for new connections and inventions in areas such as cancer studies and medical devices.

The 14 faculty members making the mechanical engineering move include the following:

Also making the move are eight staff:

“We are excited to welcome a talented group of respected academics in the bioinspired and mechanics areas as well as support staff who are part of a rich legacy of excellence,” said Brian Lattimer, the Nicholas and Rebecca Des Champs Chair in Mechanical Engineering. “The addition of the mechanics program elevates our department to a new level and opens new opportunities for all of us. The merger will support aligning the faculty in the mechanics program with our advanced manufacturing initiative through better understanding of material behavior, creation of multifunctional composite materials, and development for use in new application areas.”

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