Message from the Chair

Welcome Back, USC!

The Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering continues to expand with the hiring of four tenure-track assistant professors for the 2019-20 academic year. Quan Nguyen specializes in control and optimization approaches for highly dynamic robotics. Paul Plucinsky's research interests lie at the interface of solid mechanics, materials science and mathematics. Ananya Renuka Balakrishna's research provides insights into fundamental material behavior that guides the development of the next-generation energy storage and energy conversion materials. Hangbo Zhao's focus areas include advanced manufacturing, engineered surfaces/interfaces, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), bio-integrated electronics, and active/smart materials.

Aerospace engineering and mechanical engineering remain attractive majors with 619 undergraduates, 370 master's and 94 Ph.D. students. We are very fortunate to have excellent students and accomplished teaching faculty. For instance, the USC AeroDesign Team continues to rank among top teams in the annual AIAA Design-Build-Fly competition, earning 4th place in 2019, while the USC Racing Team Formula SAE finished 1st at the SoCal competition in October 2019.

There's so much we've done and so much more is expected in the near future. Welcome, read on and find out about all that's been happening in AME this last year.

Julian Domaradzki, Ph.D., Professor and Chair