Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Through a 21-month, $300,000 project with funding from the Small Business Innovation Research of the U.S. Air Force Laboratory and in partnership with Kinnami Software Corporation, engineers in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources are making it possible for combat search and rescue operations to pinpoint isolated personnel without using radio GPS that can be intercepted.

After years of use, mattresses and the materials that form them are eventually discarded into landfills creating methane gases while their chemicals and dyes seep into soil and groundwater. West Virginia University researchers are working on ways to recycle used mattress textiles to help create biodegradable products as replacements for single-use plastics.

With help from new Department of Energy grant funding, Xingbo Liu, a West Virginia University engineer, will work to develop new, cutting-edge coatings for the blades of turbines used in large-scale power generation. These protective layers will be able to withstand the extreme heat and corrosion of hydrogen combustion but work with the principles and technologies of existing natural gas turbines, primarily in power plants.

With a $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, the University is launching an immersive, interdisciplinary program that centers on WVU’s Inhalation Facility. The 40 doctoral students who participate will use the Facility, one of only a few like it in the country, to analyze the toxicity of air samples they’ve collected in the field and investigate how air pollution affects entire systems of the body, rather than just single cells.

Twelve West Virginia University students will expand their educational horizons this summer through study abroad programs provided by the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. The Gilman Scholarship is a competitive national award for undergraduate students interested in opportunities abroad.

West Virginia University has released its Spring 2022 Dean’s and President’s lists, as well as the full list of graduates for the spring semester.

In this post-commencement season, three West Virginia University graduates are making plans to help improve West Virginia with research work focused on a range of issues.

Messages of hope and thunderous applause resounded throughout the West Virginia University Coliseum and Canady Creative Arts Center as nearly 4,500 May 2022 graduates received their diplomas during 16 in-person commencement ceremonies filled with traditional pomp and circumstance May 13-15.

In the latest edition of Gee Mail, President Gordon Gee acknowledges the dedication and resilience of the Class of 2022 as graduates prepare for their next journeys.

Armed with keyboards, ones and zeros, a squad of West Virginia University students were among the 2,000 participants who competed in Operation Locked Shields, an international cyber defense exercise run by NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia. The teams, which included members of the West Virginia and North Carolina National Guard, took orders from the Department of Defense and the Defense Information Systems Agency during the April 19-21 exercises.