Purdue Mechanical Engineers have followed some pretty incredible paths to their career achievements. Moira Gunn's journey should definitely be filed under the "far from ordinary" track.

Congratulations to our 2018 Distinguished Engineering Alumni, Christine Barman of New Shore LLC, and Richard Kyle of The Timken Company.

With SpaceX launches capturing the world's imagination, the 21st century has become a golden age of rocketry, and it's never been easier to build a rocket that launches to incredible heights. But a student team called Purdue Space Program has taken this ambition to the next level. They have built a rocket fueled by liquid methane -- something no university has ever attempted -- and in May, will launch it as part of a $100,000 competition.

Congratulations Paul Somers, for receiving the Best Paper Award for Applications of 3D Printing, at the recent SPIE Photonics West conference.

Jaylon Tucker, senior at PurdueME: "Purdue is not just a good school, but an inviting community with a plethora of mentors to guide me through being an undergrad. I knew that I would not be alone in my journey."

David Cappelleri and his team develop micro-robots, smaller than a millimeter. Their latest creations are All Terrain Microbots, which can "tumble" over obstacles in both dry and wet environments, using a rotating magnetic field. They envision biomedical micro-robots being injected into patients for super-focused drug delivery.

He started out at Purdue in the 1980s, programming lab equipment. Since then, he's lit up the Empire State Building, and brought to life a certain red-colored soft drink dispenser. Now he works with Dean Kamen to solve tough medical problems, from robotic prosthetics to wheelchairs that stand up on two wheels.

Natoli Engineering Company, Inc. donated a new pharmaceutical tablet press to Purdue University, capable of producing up to 180,000 tablets per hour. It's part of the Center for Particulate Products and Processes (CP3), a pre-eminent team which allows students to study, design, and manufacture pharmaceutical tablets at an industrial scale.

40 percent of the nation's energy is used by buildings. Think of the energy we could save if we only heated/cooled rooms with people in them. That's the idea behind the SENSOR program, which uses CO2 sensors to measure how many people are in a room. These microelectromechanical wonders cost less than 6 cents per square foot of building space, and last for 3 years. They were developed at Herrick Labs by Jeff Rhoads, George Chiu, and Jim Braun.

You Wu (BSME ’11) has been named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Manufacturing & Industry, recognizing the best and brightest innovators under 30 years old.