Aerospace Engineering
The Department of Aerospace Engineering at Mississippi State University provides the foundation for students to be critical thinkers and to assume leadership positions in their careers. This is accomplished by combining the expertise of the faculty with world-class research facilities, including the ERC and the Raspet Flight Research Laboratory. This results in a comprehensive research environment to develop fully the potential of the student to initiate, conduct and lead research programs. Current areas of concentration include fluid dynamics, computational field simulation, flight mechanics, aerodynamics, structures, structural dynamics, composite structures, and nondestructive testing and evaluation.

Originally established in 1986 with a gift from Honda R & D and the Dow Chemical Corporation, the Fatigue and Fracture Testing Laboratory provides graduate students and faculty with the capabilities to test advanced materials and structures under various loading conditions. The laboratory has also fulfills external contracts and grants for various government organizations and industries.

Agricultural & Biological Engineering
The Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering has researach thrusts in the areas of biomedical engineering, bioenergy, environmental engineering, and precision agriculture. Basic and applied research expenditures for 2002-2003 were over $1.7 million. Example project areas include: tissue engineering of cartilage, improvement of orthopedic and dental implants, gasification or biomass for energy utilization, improvement of biodiesel fuel, best management practices for water management in urban and rural settings, restoration of wetlands and coastal beaches, remote sensing of crop stress, sensor development for precision farming, and robotic mechanization for traditional agriculture and horticultural applications. Funding for our research comes from such sources as NIH, the Whitaker Foundation, NSF, USDA, and NASA. The departmental faculty work with other researchers in the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, the College of Veterinary Medicine, ICET, the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Department of Biological Sciences, the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, and the Department of Biomaterials at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. In all of our research, we are applying engineering techniques and approaches to solve problems in living systems. For furthur information about our faculty and their research, please visit our web site at www.abe.msstate.edu.

Chemical Engineering
The Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering has four primary research thrusts: Environmental Engineering, Biotechnology, Energy Engineering, and Chemical Engineering Fundamentals. These four thrust areas are supported by state-of-the-art research laboratories located in the three year old Swalm Chemical Engineering Building. Each thrust area is supported by several different faculty members working together as a research team with funding from a wide variety of industrial, state, and federal funding sources. This research is carried out in 17 state-of-the-art research laboratories supporting research in the four thrust areas. For more information on research within the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, visit our website at www.che.msstate.edu.

Civil Engineering
Research in the MSU Civil Engineering Department is broad based. Projects are underway in all three thrust areas, structures, water resources/environmental and transportation/materials/geotechnical engineering. Funding sources include, Mississippi Department of Transportation, Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U. S. Navy, U. S. Department of Transportation, EPA, U.S. AID, Northrop-Grumman, and other agencies, companies and organizations.

Structures research includes application of finite element analysis, structural reliability, and physical testing of steel, reinforced concrete, timber, and composites structures. Recent research projects include: finite element analysis and testing of a composite mobile bridge joint; optimization of a submarine sail structure; analysis and testing of the DDX-class destroyer structural panels; development of a numerical model for the behavior of masonry walls subjected to blast loads; dynamic testing and finite element analysis of metal building roofs under non-uniform, time-varying wind loads; and development of reliability-based, load and resistance factor (LRFD) engineering design codes.

Water Resource Engineering research focuses on quality and quantity of surface water, with emphasis on computational environmental hydraulics, computational surface water quality modeling, sedimentation engineering and waterborne transportation/navigation engineering. Current and recent research projects include the development of improved hydraulic and water quality models and application of those models to assess water quality variations, such as in the development of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). Examples of recent model applications include St. Louis Bay (MS), the Big Sunflower River (MS), the Harpeth River (TN), Cahaba River (AL), and Big Bear Lake (CA). Other research includes developing engineering solutions to chronic port sedimentation problems; and developing tools for the planning of intermodal infrastructure improvements for handling increased freight flow economically and with the least environmental impact.

Materials, geotechnical and pavement research benefits from well-equipped laboratories for testing soils and pavement materials. Research interests include foundations and pavement design, construction; management, maintenance, and rehabilitation. Research capabilities include full HMA material constituents (asphalt binder, aggregate, and additive) evaluation, Superpave HMA mixture design and analysis, HMA mix accelerated performance testing, and portland cement concrete design and mixture analysis. Pavement material characterization along with finite element analyses of pavement systems is also being conducted. Currently research is being conduced on air void structure distribution in portland cement concrete mixes, hot mix asphalt (HMA) layer interface shear strength, HMA moisture susceptibility, and HMA dynamic modulus testing.

Transportation research focuses on applications of new technologies and advanced modeling techniques to solving existing transportation problems. Research interests include modeling and simulation of transportation networks, transportation planning, intermodal transportation, and intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Recent and current research projects include development of an accident detection system at intersections, intermodal freight transportation planning, microscopic traffic simulation and modeling, development of trustworthy intermodal traffic measures, and study of traffic flow in freeway work zones.

Computer Science & Engineering
The Department of Computer Science and Engineering places emphasis on three research focus areas: high-end computing and visualization, artificial intelligence, and software engineering. Faculty members in the high-end computing and visualization are participate in projects that involve parallel computing, scientific and information visualization, computer graphics, time-varying volume visualization, computational field simulations on high-end computing platforms, biomedical imaging, and distributed interactive simulation frameworks.

Faculty members working in the area of artificial intelligence conduct research in the areas of planning under uncertainty, neural networks, genetic algorithms, data mining, knowledge discovery, and bioinformatics.

The software engineering faculty members are conducting research in software design, testing, and evolution; computer security, information assurance, computer forensics, software metrics, and the assurance of software for critical systems.

Research projects are funded by a variety of funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Naval Oceanographic Office, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, the Army Research Laboratory, and NASA. In addition, faculty members participate in research with national laboratories and private companies and
industries.

Electrical & Computer Engineering
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is engaged in numerous funded research programs with research awards in excess of $9 million in FY 2002. Departmental centers and laboratories include the Emerging Materials Research Laboratory, the High Voltage Laboratory, the Institute for Signal and Information Processing, the Mississippi Center for Applied Semiconductor Processing, the Microsystems Prototyping Laboratory, and the Telecommunication and Information Technology Laboratory. ECE faculty members also participate in university research centers including the ERC - GeoResources Institute and the ERC - Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems. Fundamental areas of research include: Wide band gap semiconductor materials, power electronics, digital image processing, speech processing, telecommunications, self-timed digital design automation, and high-voltage engineering. Funding agencies include the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research, Air Force Research Laboratory, U.S. Army, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and others.

Industrial & Systems Engineering
The industrial engineering faculty has a strong research program in the areas of applied operations research, ergonomics, logistics and transportation systems, management systems engineering, and production systems. The Department's research activities focus on analyzing and modeling system dynamics and human performance in order to improve system design and organizational performance. The research is supported by external funding from many government agencies (e.g. National Science Foundation, Departments of Defense, Transportation, and Commerce, NASA, State of Mississippi), as well as large and small private companies (e.g. Nissan, Northop Grumman, Whirlpool, Delta & Pine Land Company, Mueller Industries). The Department also plays a major role in two interdisciplinary research centers: the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems and the National Center for Intermodal Transportation.

Mechanical Engineering
The faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering is very active in research and graduate education, with degrees offered at both the master's and doctoral levels. In keeping with the broad technical mission of mechanical engineering education, the department has both the faculty expertise and the facilities to conduct a wide variety of design, analysis, and testing functions. The primary research strengths of the faculty are in the areas of heat transfer, fluid mechanics, mechanical systems, mechanics, materials, and manufacturing. The current research projects in the heat transfer/fluid mechanics area include: Computational Fluid Dynamics, Heat Exchanger Design, Heat Transfer Enhancement, Energy Conservation, Thermal and Fluid Systems Modeling, Advanced HVAC Technology, and Uncertainty Analysis. The current research projects in the mechanical systems/materials area include: Computational Solid Mechanics, Finite Element Analysis, Metal Casting Technology, Fatigue and Fracture of Metals, and Composite Materials.