Materials professor Craig Hawker speaks to participants in Innovation 360, the training program that Michelle O’Malley will expand through her AIChE fellowship to help more early-career researchers explore how scientific discoveries can move toward real-world use.

"We created this seminar to help students understand AI beyond the headlines, demystify how it actually works, and give them a broader view of where the field is heading," said computer science professor Xifeng Yan, who will be teaching the seminar. Photo credit: Shutterstock

 

“What I’ve always appreciated about chemical engineering as a field is its value of the elegance and impact of working out difficult problems from a fundamental point of view,” says UCSB chemical engineering professor Scott Shell, winner of the 2026 Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering. Photo credit: Lilli Walker

UC Santa Barbara engineering faculty members (from left) Daniel Oropeza and Yangying Zhu recently received an award from the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities (HSRU) to investigate a reusable thermal protection system that could protect Earth-bound spacecraft from the heat of re-entry. Photo credit: Lilli Walker

A group of Bridge to the Doctorate Fellows, with their peer mentors and program directors. The NSF-funded doctoral fellowship enrichment program  offers twelve two-year fellowships to incoming PhD students in STEM fields.