Engineering Students Recognized

Each year the Department of Engineering honors our top students at the College of Science, Technology and Health awards banquet in April. This year, we recognized three graduating senior engineering students for their academic and service success. Ethan Pike (not pictured) was awarded most outstanding electrical and computer engineering student. Samuel Davis (left) was awarded most outstanding mechanical engineering student, and Kevin Nolan (right) was given the outstanding service award. Congratulations to our students!

Engineering Students and Faculty at the Maine Engineering Expo

The Maine Engineering Expo celebrates Maine’s passion for engineering and provides Maine youth fun, hands-on, learning opportunities to encourage pursuing engineering education and careers. The University of Southern Maine Department of Engineering joined their colleagues from the Maine College of Engineering and Computing (MCEC), Maine Engineering Promotional Council (MEPC) and local companies to host hundreds of families at UMaine in March, 2025. Thank you to our student volunteers for their time and enthusiasm.

Engineering Professor Publishes Book

Dr. Ashanthi Maxworth is an expert in electromagnetic fields, antennae design and frequency data analysis. She has recently published a book entitled One Hundred Applications of Maxwell’s Equations which is a complete introduction to the theory of electromagnetic fields, but with accessible use cases built from her extensive academic teaching and research experience. This unique book is sure to make “waves” in the engineering and physics communities. Congratulations Dr. Maxworth!

Engineering Students at NASA Internships

Mechanical Engineering Sophomore Sadie Lebsack (top) and Mechanical Engineering Senior Logan Butler (bottom) represented the University of Southern Maine in prestigious NASA internships this summer with financial support from the Maine Space Grant Consortium. Sadie was stationed at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland where she worked on the “Performance Characterization of Tactical Cryocoolers” under the supervision of Dr. Howard Tseng. Logan was stationed at Langley Research Center in Virginia where he worked on numerous projects under the supervision of Dr. Marile Colon Robles including the “Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE)” project. Congratulations to you both!

Engineering Professor Makes Medical Donations

Dr. Lanba and University of Southern Maine engineering students spent the academic year making a 3D printed lower arm prosthetics for underserved populations. They developed novel prosthetics in the department of engineering labs which incorporate a system of low-cost electric motors and pullies activated by retrofitted wireless garage door opener signals. During May 2024, in partnership with the Portland Rotary Club and local medical staff, Dr. Lanba visited the Dominican Republic to donate and outfit recipients with the prosthetics devices. We look forward to many successful future events!

Engineering Students at Research Symposium

Engineering student research was on display at the University of Southern Maine’s Thinking Matters symposium in April. Students participated in oral and poster presentations on a range of topics including artificial intelligence, antenna design (pictured left), remote sensing strategies, low cost prosthetics, among others.

Program Highlights

  • Internships/Jobs- Our location in southern Maine provides excellent opportunities for internships and job placement at local engineering firms, such as Pratt & Whitney, Texas Instruments, Bath Iron Works, IDEXX Laboratories, Lanco Assembly Systems, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and numerous other firms in the state.
  • Hands-on Learning- The programs encourage hands-on exploration of the learning environment and incorporates this exploration in most of its courses. The percentage of courses that require an open-ended design component is greater than that of many similar programs.
  • Our programs offer small class sizes taught by experienced and dedicated faculty.
  • The department hosts several student-run extracurricular groups, such as the Engineering Student Committee (ESC), which includes IEEE, ASME student chapters, and SAMPE.
  • Accreditation- Our electrical and mechanical programs are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). We are seeking ABET accreditation for the new industrial engineering program.