University of Virginia

Charlottesville, Virginia, United States

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Aerospace and Mechanical

The faculty of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering strives to offer graduate courses that will broaden the knowledge base of the students. The department has 132 graduate students, 22 tenured and tenure-track faculty and 515k USD research funding per tenured and tenure-track faculty. Professor Harsha Chelliah from the faculty was awarded Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2004 and Professor Cindy Chang was awarded General Motors Boss Kettering Awards in 2004, 2005, and 2008.

It aims to provide flexibility within the program students interested to pursue interdisciplinary studies.

The department’s research facilities include :

  • list items Rotating machinery and controls laboratory
  • list items Several subsonic wind tunnel laboratories
  • list items Supersonic combustion laboratory
  • with an aim to foster problem-solving abilities among students so they can resolve issues beyond their factual knowledge. UVA has the largest university-based injury Biomechanics laboratory in the world, and it emphasizes the impact of Biomechanics for injury prevention.  The department’s vision is to create a vibrant environment that looks to deliver innovation and capture the emerging research areas that address new technological and societal challenges. Three Virginia University satellites including one from UVA were launched into the orbit from the International Space Station in 2019.

    Available programs:

  • list items BS, ME, MS and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering
  • list items BS, ME, MS and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering.
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    Areas of Expertise:

  • list items Biomechanics/injury biomechanics
  • list items Rotating Machinery
  • list items Combustion
  • list items Fluid Mechanics
  • list items Morphing structures/biomimetics
  • list items Engineering Education
  • list items Microscale Heat Transfer
  • list items Mechatronics
  • List of Labs:

  • list items The Institute for Nanoscale and Quantum Scientific and Technological Advanced Research
  • list items Commonwealth Center for Aerospace Propulsion Systems
  • list items Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing
  • list items Commonwealth Center for Advanced Logistics Systems
  • list items Rotating Machinery and Controls Industrial Program
  • list items Center for Applied Biomechanics
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    Biomedical

    The course has been structured by the School of Engineering and Applied Science to train the next generation of biomedical engineers for healthcare research and development.  The department prides over its excellent faculty consisting of a combination of academic and clinical researchers. It aims to produce competent graduates through effective teaching-learning, state-of-the-art research, and innovation.

    Professor Richard W. Kent was awarded Fellow, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, and Professor Timothy A. Allen received the Faculty Banner Carrier for SEAS Class of 2017 at Final Exercises. In association with experts from the industry, UVA researchers have been putting efforts in building reproducible biomanufacturing processes and aim to make a difference with these experiments to actual healthcare.

    Available Programs:  

  • list items BS, ME, MS and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering
  • Area of Expertise:

  • list items Applications for Infectious Diseases
  • list items Applications for Cancer Fibrosis
  • list items Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials
  • list items Applications for Musculoskeletal Diseases
  • list items Biomedical Imaging
  • list items Applications for Brain Disorders
  • list items Applications for Cardiovascular Disease
  • list items Drug and Gene Delivery
  • list items Systems Biology & Biomedical Data Sciences
  • list items Biomechanics and Mechanobiology
  • List of Labs:

  • list items Center for Advanced Biomanufacturing
  • list items Center for Engineering in Medicine
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    Chemical

    Drawing on expertise in areas like catalysis, electrochemical systems, transport properties of biological systems and polymers for membranes and biomaterials, the faculty at the Department of Chemical Engineering bridges the gaps between molecular-level interactions and real-world applications. With the help of advanced molecular engineering strategies, the department is fostering innovation in fields as varied and as important to society as solar energy and battery technologies, natural gas to chemical conversions, water purification, pollutant remediation, tissue engineering and pharmaceutical processing and drug delivery.

    It also aims to build community spirit by solving societal problems for a sustainable ecosystem. It encourages its students to be responsible members of the society as adaptable engineers, entrepreneurs or leaders. It has a faculty strength of 22. Professor Bryan Berger won the National Science Foundation CAREER Award. Professor Liheng Cai won the Harvard University Postdoctoral Award for Professional Development, 2013.

    On average, there are 4 students at the graduate level per tenure track faculty. A high student-teacher ratio is maintained in order to foster excellence in education. The students are encouraged to engage in multidisciplinary research centers across various fields. A research paper by the students of the ChE department was recently published in the Journal of Power Sources focusing on tracking the lithiation and delithiation processes in lithium-ion battery electrodes.

    Available Programs:

  • list items BS, ME, MS and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering.
  • Specialization Area:

  • list items Catalysis
  • list items Electrochemical Systems
  • list items Transport Properties of Biological Systems
  • list items Polymers for Membranes and Biomaterials.
  • Areas of Expertise:

  • list items Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology
  • list items Energy and the Environment
  • list items Biotechnology and Biomolecular Engineering
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    Civil

    This field of engineering garners huge employability, and hence about 75% of the graduates from UVA’s Civil Engineering program are employed in industries, consulting firms, and government agencies. The department has an excellent award-winning faculty who have received recognitions which include Memberships in the National Academy of Engineering, NASA innovation awards, etc. Prof. Reid Bailey received the Hartfield-Jefferson Teaching Award in 2011.

    The department encourages students to write a thesis and acquire research experiences. It aims to create resilient systems to meet the requirements of the community in a collaborative effort between the students and the faculty. The department provides courses which are interdisciplinary in nature, and in order to ensure this, it actively collaborates across disciplines including public policy, business, public health, etc.

    Available Programs:

  • list items  BS, ME, MS and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering.
  • Specialization Area:

  • list items Environmental engineering
  • list items Transportation
  • list items Structural engineering
  • list items Health/medicine
  • list items Financial systems
  • list items Human factors
  • list items Cybersecurity.
  • Areas of Expertise:

  • list items Informatics for Intelligent Built Environments
  • list items Transportation
  • list items Environmental Engineering
  • list items Water Resources
  • list items Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure
  • list items Smart Cities
  • list items Smart and Connected Infrastructure Systems
  • list items Structures and Mechanics
  • List of Labs:

  • list items Center for Transportation Studies
  • list items Mid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability University Transportation Center
  • list items Environmental Resilience Institute
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    Computer Science

    The Department of Computer Science has around 200 graduate students. There has been a 97% rise over the past five years in the number of graduate students enrolled in this branch. The students of this department are currently engaged in cross-cutting research in labs throughout the School of Engineering.

    The department aims to foster amongst the students an inclination towards solving problems faced by society in the fields of healthcare, neuroscience, and sustainability. UVA Cyber Defense team defeated nine teams in 2019 to win its second National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. Professor Mark Sherriff from the department won the IEEE Computer Society Computer Science and Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2016.

    Available Programs: 

  • list items BS in Computer Science
  • list items BA in Computer Science
  • list items BS in Computer Engineering
  • list items Master of Science (MS)
  • list items Master of Computer Science (MCS)
  • list items Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Computer Science.
  • Areas of Expertise:

  • list items Computer science education
  • list items Cybersecurity and Cryptography
  • list items Software engineering
  • list items Grid/cloud/high-performance computing
  • list items Computer graphics and vision Cyber-physical systems, ad-hoc wireless sensor networks, wireless health
  • list items Algorithms
  • list items Programming languages and compilers
  • list items Computer architecture
  • list items Machine learning, text mining, information retrieval, and Bioinformatics
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    Electrical/ Electronics

    The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has a faculty strength of 43. In addition to this, it has 14 IEEE fellows. The department aspires to be the leader of innovation in fields such as cyber-physical systems and multifunctional materials integration. The department has extensive partnerships with researchers around the world which facilitate a wider range of interaction thus giving an edge to the students. The department focuses on smart energy management and the creation of life-saving healthcare devices. Faculty accomplishments include Professor Homa Alemzadeh winning the William C. Carter Dissertation Award in Dependability, 2017.

    Available Programs: 

  • list items BS, ME, MS and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering
  • Specialization Area:

  • list items Terahertz and photonic devices
  • list items Signal and image processing
  • list items Advanced controls.
  • Areas of Expertise:

  • list items Control Systems
  • list items Cyber-Physical Systems and Data Science
  • list items Embedded Systems
  • list items Nanoelectronics
  • list items Optoelectronic Devices
  • list items Wireless and Optical Communication Systems
  • list items Low Power Design
  • list items VLSI Design
  • list items Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Electronics
  • list items Signal and Image Processing
  • list items Computer Networks
  • List of Labs:

  • list items Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies
  • list items Multi-Functional Integrated System Technology Center
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    Environmental

    The Department of Engineering Systems and Environment was formed in the year 2018 to solve some of the urgent engineering problems pervading in society. The main objective of the department is to strategically integrate civil and environmental engineering and Systems and Information programs and placing this integrated combination at the center of human and socio-technical engineering studies.  It seeks to train students to become the leaders of tomorrow in a collaborative environment which brings together the best of a classroom, laboratory and field learning.

    The programs offered by the department are :

  • list items Ph.D.
  • list items Master of Science
  • list items Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Science degrees in civil engineering
  • list items Systems engineering
  • Students pursuing these degrees often specialize in areas such as :

  • list items Environmental engineering
  • list items Transportation
  • list items Structural engineering
  • list items Health/medicine
  • list items Financial systems
  • list items Human factors
  • list items Cybersecurity
  • Areas of Expertise:

  • list items Informatics for Intelligent Built Environments
  • list items Transportation
  • list items Environmental Engineering
  • list items Water Resources
  • list items Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure
  • list items Smart Cities
  • list items Smart and Connected Infrastructure Systems
  • list items Structures and Mechanics 
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    Material Science

    UVA’s Department of Material Science and Engineering has consistently been in the top 30 MSE departments nationally. The department consists of 24 nationally renowned professors including 8 endowed chair-holders and recipients of 35 fellow-of-technical-society awards. Professor Liheng Cai received the Harvard University Postdoctoral Award for Professional Development in 2013.

    It supports around 85 graduate students involved in research and related activities every year. The department has excellent laboratories in two buildings, Wilsdorf Hall and the Materials Science building. The department strives to work across disciplines to foster innovation amongst students and encourage them to find solutions for the problems faced by the society and develop cutting-edge products. 

    Available Programs: 

  • list items Master Of Materials Science And Engineering (MMSE)
  • list items Master Of Science (MS)
  • list items Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
  • list items MSE Minor
  • list items MSE Concentration With an ES/BS. 
  • Specialization Areas:

  • list items Corrosion
  • list items Electronic materials
  • list items Surfaces and interface science
  • list items Electronic materials
  • list items Computational materials science.
  • Areas of Expertise: 

  • list items Nanoelectronics and 2-D Materials
  • list items Magnetic Materials
  • list items Computational MSE
  • list items Corrosion and Electrochemical Sciences and Engineering
  • list items Metallurgy
  • list items Intelligent Processing of Materials
  • list items Materials Characterization
  • list items Surface and Interface Science and Engineering
  • list items High-Temperature Materials Science and Oxides
  • List of Labs:

  • list items Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering
  • list items Rolls-Royce University Technology Center