Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

At a U.S. Army base command center, a computer beeps and displays a warning: the power has gone down in one corner of the base. Cybersecurity experts jump into action. They ensure critical systems are on backup generators as they search for the reason for the outage. One of them points to her screen and calls out that the power grid’s information system has been compromised—a cyber attack is likely underway.

Integrating renewable energy with the power grid continues to be a big challenge for the electrical grid infrastructure in the United States. While the solution isn’t simple, it’s not impossible either, and researchers from West Virginia University have been competitively awarded $7.5 million from the United States Department of Energy to help solve a critical part of the problem.

West Virginia University has released its Fall 2021 Dean’s and President’s lists, as well as the list of graduates for the fall semester.

The space economy is on track to be valued at a trillion dollars by the end of 2030, according to Piyush Mehta, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at West Virginia University. Yet space assets–equipment that is placed in space such as navigation, weather and communication satellites that serve our society daily–are threatened by space debris.

Despite efforts to promote recycling and reuse of plastic materials, the plastic problem continues to be a global problem. West Virginia University engineers hope to debottleneck the remaining challenges for recycling of single-use plastic packaging by upcycling them into petrochemicals.

Engineers at West Virginia University are propelling exploration forward by creating control software for a group of aerial robots (aerobots) that will survey the atmosphere of Venus, the second planet from the sun.

A sea of decorated mortarboards and the sounds of cheers from family and friends and tapping of the University mace will once again fill the West Virginia University Coliseum as December and August graduates gather on Saturday, Dec.18, for two commencement ceremonies, marking a return to Mountaineer tradition.

Drivers on winding West Virginia roads often encounter road damage caused by rockfalls, even if they aren’t present when the rocks tumble down the hillside. West Virginia University researchers hope to cut down on these events, as a pair of engineers have examined countermeasures considered useful in mitigating rockfalls, which can result in vehicle damage, traffic disruptions and injury or death to motorists.

A graphics processing unit computer cluster called “Dolly Sods” will enable researchers throughout the state to accelerate computational research in fields such as drug development, interstellar phenomena, biometrics, material design and business logistics and management. Blake Mertz, associate professor of chemistry at West Virginia University, is leading the project, recently funded by a $1.1 million National Science Foundation grant.

The amount in external funding for research and other sponsored programs at West Virginia University for fiscal year 2021 tops the previous year’s record by $8 million.