Join the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and NASA Kentucky for the Artemis II Splashdown Watch Party! Members of the research team who contributed to the Artemis II heat shield improvements will be participating in the watch party.
As Artemis II prepares to lift off — marking the first crewed mission to the moon in more than 50 years — researchers at the University of Kentucky are celebrating a milestone years in the making and their role in helping bring astronauts home safely. An Orion capsule seated atop a 322-foot rocket will blast off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida as early as 6:24 p.m. ET Wednesday, April 1. Its mission: carry four astronauts around the moon and back — sending humans the farthest they’ve ever been from Earth.
Access to safe drinking water depends not only on infrastructure, but on the people who operate and maintain it. At the University of Kentucky, Diana Byrne, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering in the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering, is addressing long-standing challenges facing small water utilities. Byrne received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award with $547,471 over five years for her work.
As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes nearly every sector — from health and agriculture to journalism and the arts — demand for graduates who understand its foundations and implications is rapidly growing. Yet, traditional AI coursework often requires advanced programming skills or a computer science background.
As self-driving vehicles and drones become more common, a University of Kentucky researcher is working to ensure these technologies can communicate and coordinate reliably in real time. Yang Xiao, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science in the UK Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering, received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award with $534,264 over five years for his work.
B.S. in Computer Science, 2001 Bio submitted by Lio:
B.S. in Electrical Engineering, 1981 Ramesh Singh is an internationally recognized semiconductor executive and technology entrepreneur whose four-decade career has helped shape mobile graphics, embedded imaging, data systems architecture and global semiconductor manufacturing collaboration. A native of Lexington and son of a University of Kentucky engineering faculty member, Singh earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UK in 1981 before completing his master’s degree in electrical engineering at Southern Methodist University.
B.S. in Civil Engineering, 1977 Ruth Coleman is a pioneering civil and structural engineer whose nearly five-decade career advanced infrastructure resilience across the nation and around the world — while breaking barriers for generations to follow.
B.S. in Chemical Engineering, 1981 Phil Foster is an industry-changing innovator whose career has shaped modern microelectronics manufacturing, advanced sensor technology and semiconductor processing across global markets. A native of Paducah, Foster earned his Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Kentucky in 1981. He went on to complete coursework at universities in California and Texas in finance, business and executive management.
B.S. in Civil Engineering, 1994M.S. in Civil Engineering, 1995 JoAnn Browning is a nationally recognized leader in civil engineering whose career reflects an unwavering commitment to resilient infrastructure, research excellence and transformative academic leadership.
