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.

UVA Engineering's DARPA Young Faculty Awards

What Will the Next Transformative Material Be?

Prasanna Balachandran, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering, combines artificial intelligence and quantum mechanics to better target research and development of high entropy alloys that perform well in extreme environments.

How to Catch Fire

Chloe Dedic, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, employs a state-of-the-art laser technique to measure the properties of flame and contribute to research on combustion at hypersonic speeds.

Feeding the Endless Appetite for Endlessly Better Technology

Jon Ihlefeld, associate professor of materials science and engineering and electrical and computer engineering, is working to develop insulating materials for transistors that must perform reliably in high-temperature environments.

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