As the United States pushes to accelerate innovation, researchers from the University of Kentucky will play a leading role in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission.
Researchers at the University of Kentucky and the Kentucky Transportation Center are collaborating to better understand the crash risks for teen drivers in the Commonwealth, with the goal of developing new strategies to improve driving safety. Working alongside state highway safety partners, the team is examining teen driver crash patterns to support Kentucky’s long-term safety goals. Fatal teen driver crashes are a complex, multi-layered problem, which requires expertise from an interdisciplinary team.
Mattie Brock, a chemical engineering doctoral student in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, won first place in the student research poster competition at the American Filtration and Separation Society (AFS) FILTON in Pittsburgh. AFS FILTON, held annually, is the leading conference for filtration and separations professionals and brings together experts from industry and academia to explore solutions and innovations that shape the future of the field.
Sophomore Mwajuma Alexandre is one of six University of Kentucky undergraduates selected for the Sustainability Summer Research Fellowship, a program that supports student-led projects that advance sustainable practices and community impact through research.
The cohort includes eight graduate students and four undergraduate students who will each receive a $6,000 fellowship to support their research, either during the summer or the 2026-27 academic year.
Over spring break, Pigman College of Engineering students enrolled in The Engineering Leadership Program took their classroom learning to new heights during a four-day trip to Cape Canaveral, Florida. The trip immersed students in the heart of the nation’s space industry, offering direct access to leaders in aerospace engineering and national security. Through panels, site visits and discussions with industry experts, students explored how leadership principles translate into critical, real-world environments.
Coal has long been the fuel at the heart of energy production in the Commonwealth. Kentuckians often grow up with stories of their grandfather’s days in the mines. But researchers at the University of Kentucky are finding ways to repurpose coal for energy storage — in the form of lithium-ion batteries.
Last week, the 2026 American Society of Civil Engineers Indiana-Kentucky Student Symposium was co-hosted in Lexington by the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville chapters. Twelve ASCE student chapters from Indiana and Kentucky, including Western Kentucky University, Notre Dame and Purdue University, traveled to Lexington to compete.
This semester, the SPARK Lab celebrates its 10th anniversary. The group was established by Dan M. Ionel, PhD, IEEE Fellow, shortly after starting at UK as ECE Professor and the inaugural L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power, and welcomed its first postdoctoral researcher and PhD student in early 2016.
This semester yet another generational transition of electrical engineering (EE) PhD students takes place in the SPARK Lab, which is affiliated with the Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky (PEIK) at the University of Kentucky (UK) Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering.
