About

The department is home to such diverse research activities as biomechanics, mechanics of materials, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, control and robotics, manufacturing, energy systems, MEMS, and nanotechnology. Our faculty members have distinguished themselves internationally through a wide-ranging array of groundbreaking research areas and activities, including: robotics, smart machines, nanomaterials, morphogenesis and tissue development, and sustainable systems.

Current cutting-edge research programs include:

• Contact mechanics, lubrication of diarthrodial joints, and cartilage tissue engineering
• Material constitutive behavior at the micro- and mesolength scales
• Iterative learning control and repetitive control
• Nonlinear/hybrid/distributed/embedded systems and control of autonomous vehicles, mobile robots, and air and ocean robots
• Laser materials processing
• Medical robotics and robotic surgery
• Extraction of carbon dioxide from air, distributed sensors for energy and environmental systems, and micropower generation
• Nanostructures for photonics; nanomaterials such as nanotubes and nanowires and their applications, especially in nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS)
• Interfacial phenomena in the presence of drops, bubbles and microspheres; and microfluidics for biological applications

Through partnerships with other departments, both at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, as well as the Lamont-Doherty Geological Laboratory and the Columbia University Medical Center, the Mechanical Engineering Department actively participates in a number of leading-edge centers for interdisciplinary research.