UVA Engineering's focus on recruiting excellent faculty is paying big dividends in achieving the school's mission to make the world a better place by creating and disseminating knowledge and preparing engineering leaders to solve global challenges. Three UVA Engineering faculty have earned the highly competitive Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Young Faculty Award this year. The award is designed for rising stars in junior research positions and provides them support to develop their ideas in areas that are important for national security. Over the past six years, UVA Engineering has increased its tenured and tenure-track faculty by nearly 20%. As faculty have grown, so has the school's research program. Sponsored research funding has increased by 89% since fiscal year 2016.