News – Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Systems Engineering

Industrial and Systems engineering professor working to make voting processes run smoothly - ‘Election administrators everywhere want to make sure their system works,’ says associate professor Gretchen Macht.
URI off to successful start in partnership in nuclear engineering with Australian university - The University of Rhode Island and Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, have established a groundbreaking partnership in nuclear engineering.
URI mechanical engineering professor awarded NSF, DARPA early career honors - University of Rhode Island mechanical engineering assistant professor Yang Lin has been awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation Early Researcher Initiation and a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Young Faculty Award.
URI engineering professor awarded Office of Naval Research grant to study heat transfer - The Office of Naval Research has awarded a three-year, $418,300 grant to University of Rhode Island mechanical engineering assistant professor Ashutosh Giri
Andrik Puentes strives to make meaningful impacts in engineering field - Andrik Puentes’ journey to graduation at the University of Rhode Island has been an extraordinary blend of academic rigor and leadership that significantly shaped his path to become an engineer.
Graduate with passion for sustainability discovers deeper depths of major - Malinda Fry always enjoyed math, science and problem-solving, so it wasn’t a surprise when she followed in her mother’s footsteps to pursue engineering.
Student fueled by dream to work in aerospace - Mycarthy Newton decided she wanted to be an engineer and work on rockets. It is that dream that has kept her motivated.
Manufacturing Pioneer and URI Professor Geoffrey Boothroyd Passes Away - Professor Geoffrey Boothroyd, internationally renowned for breakthrough research in design for manufacturing assembly (DFMA), passed away peacefully on January 3 at the age of 91.
Student Research Paper Receives Artificial Intelligence Award - The paper, by two mechanical engineering students, outlined a new way to train a soft robot model using machine learning called deterministic learning.
IEP Student Prints Her Career Path - Mechanical engineering major Sofia Lanzi spent a year studying and working in France as an intern at Constructions-3D, a company that manufactures 3D printing machines.
Meet Mechanical Engineering Student Caroline Dowling - Mechanical engineering major Caroline Dowling, who did her capstone design project for NASA, talks about her experience at URI.
Record Number of Students Receive Black Scholar Awards - Thirty-four students received Black Scholar and Onyx Society awards recently, said Dr. Chris Hunter, interim Dean of University College and chair of the event. Hunter says the awards recognize a blend of academic scholarship as well as community service. “It’s amazing to see what students do to contribute to the University of Rhode Island community […]
Professor Arun Shukla Awarded ASME Drucker Medal - By Hugh Markey For the past 42 years, Prof. Arun Shukla has been a part of the URI mechanical, industrial, and systems engineering department, supervising over a hundred graduate students, conducting research, and making substantial contributions to the engineering community. Those efforts were recently recognized with the awarding of the Daniel C. Drucker Medal, given […]
Student Spotlight: Alexandra Barbato - By Kat Billo ’25 Tell us a little about yourself. “My name is Alex Barbato and I am from Utica, NY. I am a senior Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) major.” Why Engineering? “I chose engineering because I can’t handle blood, but I love math and science. I am naturally “systems” minded and am constantly […]
Dragsters, Animatronics Featured in Tech Competition - North Kingstown schools had a great day at a recent Technology Student Association (TSA) competition held at URI’s College of Engineering as part of their spring conference. The event drew some 200 students and judges from schools across the state. Shannon Donovan, a teacher at Wickford Middle School and their state advisor to the TSA […]
Ash Giri Published in Nature - Of all of the honors in science and engineering, being published in the journal Nature is at the top of the list. Congratulations to URI Engineering assistant professor Ash Giri and his student C.J. Dionne on their recent publication. Ash’s research is related to nanoscale thermal transport, energy conversion and storage, nano mechanics, condensed matter […]
URI Professor Discusses Nuclear Fusion Discovery - URI Professor Bahram Nassersharif discusses the U.S. Department of Energy’s announcement that fusion ignition has been achieved. Last year, Nassersharif’s students worked with NASA on a project involving nuclear thermal propulsion.
URI VOTES Using Engineering Tools to Support Democracy - Leading up to this year’s Election Day results, University of Rhode Island engineering professor Gretchen Macht and her team were thinking about how the votes would tally — but not for the reasons you might think.
Wave of the Future - Faculty and students in URI’s College of Engineering are partnering with federal defense and private industries to advance naval technology and keep the U.S. submarine fleet ahead of those from other countries.
Solar Energy Competition Demonstrates Power Generated from the Sun - It’s common for students at URI to catch some rays on the quad toward the end of the school year. The students in the Solar Energy Systems course, however, weren’t on the quad to work on their tans. They were catching rays for academic reasons.
In the Field of Heat Transfer, URI’s Ashutosh Giri has Emerged as a Leading Expert - Ashutosh Giri, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at URI, is making a name for himself in the field of heat transfer. Giri was named the 2022 recipient of the Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award, presented to an engineer who has demonstrated the potential to make significant contributions to the field of heat transfer.
Partnership with Navy and UConn Continues to Make Impact on Research and Workforce Development - When the National Institute for Undersea Vehicle Technology was formed in 2017 as a partnership of URI, UConn and General Dynamics Electric Boat, it created collaborative opportunities in applied research, technology transition and workforce development.
Where Motivation Meets Inspiration, You’ll Find URI Senior Raymond Turrisi - At the URI College of Engineering, there are loads of highly motivated students. One of the finest examples is Raymond Turrisi, who will graduate from URI this spring with dual degrees in mechanical engineering and computer science, and minors in mathematics and robotics.
Industrial and Systems Engineering Major Engineers Recycling Plan - Almeida decided to create a Brookside recycling outreach initiative to teach residents the proper recycling rules, and thanks to her tireless efforts, Brookside residents will now have the option to recycle. Almeida recounted her story in a recent interview with the Office of Sustainability.
Testing the Limits and Properties of Structures - Helio Matos, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at URI, conducts research on how materials and structures perform under dynamic conditions.
Microparticles Could Provide Insight on Environmental Pollution and Heart Disease - Yang Lin, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is implementing acoustofluidics to control particles as tiny as one micron. His research could help identify ocean pollutants or reveal new information on cardiovascular disease.
After Four Decades, Arun Shukla’s Legacy Extends Well Beyond His Lab - In the 40 years Arun Shukla has been an engineering professor at URI, he’s secured more than 100 research grants totaling over $14 million, earned many prestigious awards and has been published in the most prominent journals. His success is also reflected in the impressive achievements of the 105 graduate students he has mentored.
Keeping It Cool: URI Researcher Using Young Investigator Award to Study How to Prevent Heat Buildup in Electronics - URI Assistant Professor Ashutosh Giri is researching how to prevent heat buildup in electronic systems at the nanoscale. His research is funded through the Office of Naval Research’s Young Investigator Program. The three-year grant is for $500,000.
Goldwater Scholarship Earned by Mechanical Engineering Student - URI mechanical engineering student Raymond Turrisi has earned a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the most prestigious national scholarship for undergraduate students studying the natural sciences, mathematics or engineering.
A Bright Future for Student Studying Solar Energy Systems - Losing electricity was a daily event in Jesse Duroha’s home in Lagos, Nigeria. That was part of his motivation for pursuing a doctorate in industrial and systems engineering with a focus on solar energy systems at URI.
401 Tech Bridge Partners With URI College of Engineering to Assist Manufacturers - Three Rhode Island companies will benefit from faculty expertise at the URI College of Engineering as part of the 401 Tech Bridge Materials Innovation Challenge. Professors and students from two engineering labs will collaborate with the companies by offering modeling, research, testing and validation assistance.
Student Studies Effects of Noise and Shock Loads on Marine Mammals - Irine Chenwi, a mechanical engineering doctoral student at URI, joined a team of oceanographers, marine biologists and engineers at NUWC this summer to study the effects noise and shock loads have on marine mammals.
Students Study Sustainability In India During Winter J Term - A group of engineering students studied sustainability practices in India during URI’s Winter J Term. The students gained first-hand experience in five different cities.
Gretchen Macht Named to PBN’s 40 Under Forty List - The Providence Business News (PBN) has named University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor Gretchen Macht to its 2019 40 Under Forty list.
Considering ‘The Human Factor’ In Engineering - URI Assistant Professor Gretchen Macht explains why the key to building a sustainable future is to create systems informed by the human factor, which, at its core, is how we think and work.