The creation of three new multidisciplinary research institutes in The Henry Samueli School of Engineering is being made possible by a $50 million gift from Susan and Henry Samueli to the University of California, Irvine. Unified under the banner “Engineering+,” the Engineering+Health Institute, Engineering+Society Institute and Engineering+Environment Institute will allow researchers from diverse disciplines to conduct transformational research addressing the most important issues facing humanity today.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research, under its Defense University Research Instrumentation Program, has granted materials scientists at UC Irvine $1.5 million for the acquisition of sophisticated nanomechanical and chemical characterization equipment for biomaterial analysis and a 3D printing platform to be used for biomimetic processing.

The experiment it was involved in was part of a years-long study by UCI professor and principle investigator David Kisailus, who has been seeking to identify what makes the beetle so strong. “This diabolical ironclad beetle is not able to fly away, so it’s adapted to living on the ground,” Kisailus said. … After determining the cause of the beetle’s strength, Kisailus’ lab is working on applying the biological structure of the beetle to things humans engineer.

A team of UC Irvine engineering students will go head to head this weekend with some 120 teams from around the world as it presents its sleek, frictionless version of a high-speed train that would travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a matter of minutes. UCI students, competing in the first-ever SpaceX Hyperloop Competition, have built a scale model of their HyperXite pod (pronounced Hyper Excite). The concept uses compressed air to levitate and glide the pod along a track.