2025 | Drexel Engineering

- Understanding Orderly and Disorderly Behavior in 2D Nanomaterials Could Enable Bespoke Design, Tailored by AI
  
  September 05, 2025
  Since their discovery at Drexel University in 2011, MXenes — a family of nanomaterials with unique properties of durability, conductivity and filtration, among many others — has become the largest known and fastest growing family of two-dimensional nanomaterials, with more than 50 unique MXene materials discovered to date. Experimentally synthesizing them and testing the physical properties of each material has been the labor of tens of thousands of scientists from more than 100 countries. But a recent discovery by a multi-university collaboration of researchers, led by Drexel University researcher Yury Gogotsi, PhD, and Drexel alumnus Babak Anasori, PhD, who is now an associate professor at Purdue University, that sheds light on the thermodynamics undergirding the materials’ unique structure and behavior, could be the key to supercharging this endeavor with artificial intelligence technology. The discovery was recently reported in the journal Science.
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- Drexel Study Delivers Practical Design Tools for UV Disinfection
  
  September 02, 2025
  
  The study centers around 222 nanometer far-UVC, a type of ultraviolet light with germicidal properties that is often used in ceiling-mounted fixtures to disinfect air and surfaces in occupied spaces.
  
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- Systems Thinking at Drexel Turns Technical Range into Leadership
  
  August 27, 2025
  
  When Colin Weber wanted to advance his career, he looked to Drexel's systems engineering master's program to teach him how to manage across disciplines and frame decisions with data.
  
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- Shanghai Ranking Places Drexel Materials in Top 50 Materials Programs Worldwide
  
  August 18, 2025
  
  In the 2024 Shanghai rankings of global academic programs, Drexel Materials placed 41 globally, making it the 15th highest U.S. materials program on the list.
  
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- Drexel Joins National Effort to Advance AI-Driven Wireless Chip Design
  
  August 11, 2025
  
  The project is one of several major initiatives backed by the NSTC, a national consortium established under the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen U.S. leadership in semiconductor research and innovation.
  
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- New Exhibition Traces Drexel's Co-op and ROTC Origins Alongside WWI Military Engineer Training for Philadelphia College Students
  
  August 07, 2025
  A new exhibition in Drexel University’s Rincliffe Gallery explores the unique role of Army engineers during World War I, focusing on college-aged students in Philadelphia and institutions like Drexel, that played a role in supporting the war effort. Following the story of a local college student — from his training at the armory in Philadelphia to the trenches of the Western Front — the exhibition shows how vital engineers were to war effort and how pivoting to support U.S. involvement in WWI laid the foundation for Drexel’s distinctive experiential educational model.
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- Faculty Highlights: Recent Awards and Grants
  
  July 31, 2025
  Last term, Drexel University faculty members were recognized for their scholarly research and prolific academic and professional contributions.
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- How Are Coastal New Jersey Communities Communicating Hazards of Climate Change?
  
  July 30, 2025
  Recent climate-related crises — from severe storms and flooding to extreme heat — have raised new questions about how local governments communicate the risk of these crises and what they are doing to keep their citizens safe. To better understand what this communication looks like at local level, and the factors that may be shaping it, researchers from Drexel University analyzed climate resilience planning information available on the public-facing websites of 24 coastal communities in New Jersey that are contending with the effects of sea level rise. Their report, recently published in the Journal of Extreme Events, found wide variation in the number and extent of mitigation actions taken and how the websites describe causes of coastal hazards — for example, only half of the communities are acknowledging sea level rise as a contributing factor to these hazards.
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- Drexel to Lead $5 Million Multinational Effort to Produce MXene Materials for Water Desalination and Medical Diagnostics
  
  July 23, 2025
  Drexel University is embarking on a three-year, $5-million multinational collaboration to produce MXene nanomaterials. The project, which is a collaboration with Kalifa University in the United Arab Emirates, the University of Padua in Italy and the Kyiv, Ukraine-based MXene manufacturing company Carbon-Ukraine, seeks to use the promising nanomaterial, first discovered at Drexel, to provide clean drinking water for arid areas of the world threatened by climate change and improve cell labeling and tracking technology for biomedical analysis.
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- Drexel Engineers Want to Make Buildings More Energy Efficient by Making Walls, Floors and Ceilings More Like Elephant Ears
  
  July 16, 2025
  Drawing inspiration from the veinous ears of jackrabbits and elephants, Drexel University researchers have come up with a new approach to passive heating and cooling that could one day make buildings more energy efficient. Their concept, recently published in the Journal of Building Engineering, embeds a vascular network within cement-based building materials that, when filled with paraffin-based material, can help passively regulate the surface temperature of walls, floors and ceilings.
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