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Message from the Chair

Dear Colleagues and Friends, 

I hope this message finds you productive and ready for the holiday season. Please take a moment to enjoy our latest updates within the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego. From notable advancements in fusion research to a testbed aimed at developing resilient, sustainable power grids, our community continually pushes the boundaries in engineering research. Explore our news below!

Stefan Llewellyn Smith
Professor & Chair

Jacobs School Launches New Fusion Engineering Institute

UC San Diego’s Fusion Engineering Institute, led by faculty within the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, tackles the biggest challenges in the field. Under the leadership of Javier Garay, Associate Dean and Professor, the institute drives collaborative innovations in materials, lasers, and magnetic confinement to create clean, affordable energy for the future. Read More>>

$42M Testbed Will Shape the Future of the Power Grid

UC San Diego’s DERConnect, led by Professor Jan Kleissl, is a groundbreaking testbed that essentially replicates the California power grid on campus. Supported by a $42M NSF grant, DERConnect allows researchers to test and control distributed energy sources—like solar panels and EV chargers—to provide crucial insights for developing resilient, sustainable power grids. Read More>>

Fusion Research Gets a Boost with $1.35M DOE Award

A $1.35 million award from the Department of Energy is paving the way for fusion research at UC San Diego. Led by researcher Matthew Baldwin in collaboration with Professor George Tynan, the funding will open the PISCES facility to external research teams, providing a unique environment to test materials under extreme fusion reactor conditions. Read More>>

Robotics Forum Highlights the Power of Embodied Intelligence

At the 9th San Diego Robotics Forum, UC San Diego experts delved into the connection between robotics and artificial intelligence, focusing on real-world interactions. From robots that imitate flapping wings (Associate Professor Nick Gravish) to those that swim like an eel or tuna (Professor Mike Tolley), the potential of AI systems interacting with the physical world is advancing rapidly in a wide range of environments. Read More>>

MAE Researcher Joins MIT's Elite "35 Innovators Under 35"

Assistant Professor Haiwen Luan, from UC San Diego’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has been recognized in MIT Technology Review's “35 Innovators Under 35” China list. His pioneering work in bio-integrated microsystems, including 3D neural interfaces and microfluidic networks, advances health technologies with potential applications in drug delivery, artificial organs, and neurological studies. Read More>>

Building a New Nanofabrication Facility for Undergraduates

Professor James Friend (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) and Associate Professor Oscar Vazquez Mena (NanoEngineering) received a grant to establish an Undergraduate Nanofabrication Facility. This cleanroom trains students in microfabrication using lithography to produce ~10 µm parts. Open to students in MAE 143B and 150, it complements the MakerSpace and prepares users for NANO3.

Sparking Curiosity in MAE 156A: Fundamental Principles of Mechanical Design I

An integral undergraduate course, MAE 156A, received a CDIIP grant to develop labs exploring engineering components. Students will view disassembled components, hypothesize their functions, and verify their results with instrumented measurements. Project leads include Development Engineer Tom Chalfant, Teaching Professor Nate Delson, Associate Professor Nick Gravish, Teaching Professor Jennifer Mullin, and Lecturer Jerry Tustaniwskyj.

A paper by Jingwen Hui, Songyuan Lu, Eric Lee, and Frank E. Talke received the best paper award at the 10th World Congress on Electrical Engineering and Computer Systems and Science (EECSS 2024) in Spain. 

Tania Morimoto was promoted to Associate Professor and Michael Tolley was promoted to Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. 

Three MAE professors at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering were awarded endowed chairs: Professor Olivia Graeve as the Elias Masry Chair, Professor Jan Kleissl as the Henry G. Booker Chair, and Professor Sonia Martinez as the Benjamin W. Zweifach Chair.

Professor Marc Meyers was recently awarded the 2025 Acta Materialia Gold Medal.