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.
Last month, 40 University of Kentucky Department of Mining Engineering students attended MINEXCHANGE 2026, the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME) Annual Conference & Expo in Salt Lake City, Utah. UK mining engineering faculty and students also presented 27 papers.
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.
Two engineering undergraduate researchers, Jacob Childress, Katelyn Straw, will present their work at the 24th annual Posters-at-the-Capitol on March 5.
The KREPE-3 mission capsule sendoff offers a unique opportunity to view all 12 flight capsules before their delivery to the International Space Station.
Diana M. Byrne, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering, has been honored with the 2026 Best Reviewer Award for the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. The Best Reviewer Award is selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI) awards committee and Byrne will be honored at the 2026 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress in Mobile, Alabama in April.
Hortin and her winning Engineering Design Challenge team decided to tackle the challenge of carbon sequestration. They prototyped a plant window box named, “C- filtration box,” that leverages photosynthesis to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – turning every apartment window in an urban city into a micro-carbon filter.
The University of Kentucky placed third at the 28th Annual Carlson Senior Mine Design Competition. The national competition invites students from accredited mining engineering universities to submit their capstone projects to compete with other universities on the best overall mine design.
Daykin Schnell, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mining Engineering, recently finished in the top three of the Pittsburgh Coal Mining Institute of America and Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME), Pittsburgh Section's Short Presentation Contest for his presentation, "Full-scale and small-scale modeling and testing of underground methane explosions."
UK alumnus Eric Wooldridge ‘01, ‘19 ENG uses a little concrete, a little technology and a lot of ingenuity as he constructs houses for Kentuckians that can take a real wallop.
