Department News

2026 Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Scholars announced

Nov 3, 2025

Thanks to the generous support of Stanley and Karen Pigman and Kentucky’s Research Challenge Trust Fund (RCTF), engineering researchers are receiving additional annual funding to enhance the research priorities and programs of the Pigman College of Engineering. Established in 2024, the Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Endowment supports faculty, research, graduate students, facilities and research infrastructure in the Pigman College of Engineering. This year, the endowment made $235,000 in funds available for distribution.

UK Pigman Engineering researcher awarded NSF grant to harness AI aimed at detecting calf illness

Lindsey Piercy

Oct 30, 2025

Simone Silvestri, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Computer Science in the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering, is part of a research team that has been awarded a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to answer that very question.

CS Department Chair Joshna and Nathanial

Computer Science student and alumnus honored at 34th annual Lyman T. Johnson Awards

Oct 29, 2025

Alumnus Nathaniel Hudson was awarded the Torch of Excellence Award alongside current graduate student, Joshna Kurra, who received the Torch Bearer Award.

Group photo of the new Pigman College of Engineering faculty in 2025

Pigman College of Engineering welcomes 7 new faculty members

Aug 26, 2025

This month, the University of Kentucky Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering welcomed seven new members to its faculty. Brooks Lane, assistant professor in the F. Joseph Halcomb III, M.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering Lane earned his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 2019 and most recently served as a postdoctoral fellow at Drexel University. His research interests are:

UK Engineering receives record number of NSF CAREER awards

Aug 20, 2025

Six Pigman College of Engineering faculty members received National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) awards, the Foundation's prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty, in the 2025 funding cycle. This year, the Pigman College of Engineering recorded its highest number of NSF CAREER awardees in the 30-year history of the program. In addition, the college boasted a 75% success rate for CAREER awards in the 2025 funding cycle.

Seales to present in NSF CISE Distinguished Lecture Series September 11, 11:00AM-12:30PM

Aug 20, 2025

Dr. W. Brent Seales, Stanley and Karen Pigman Chair of Heritage Science and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Kentucky will be presenting "On Perseverance: Virtually Unwrapping the Herculaneum Scrolls" in the Computer & Information Science & Engineering Directorate (CISE) Distinguished Lecture Series.

Herculaneum scroll with red laser lines being scanned at Institut de France by Brent Seales and his team.

UK’s Brent Seales, global team secures Europe’s top research grant to digitally decode Herculaneum scrolls

Lindsey Piercy

Jul 28, 2025

Brent Seales, heritage science chair in the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering at the University of Kentucky, has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant as part of an international team seeking to unlock the secrets of the Herculaneum scrolls.

SEC engineering leadership comes to the Commonwealth

Eric Sanders

Jul 24, 2025

Engineering education leaders from across the Southeastern Conference (SEC) gathered at the University of Kentucky for the annual SEC Engineering Leadership Meeting. The meeting welcomed more than 100 participants, including engineering deans, associate deans, department chairs and other higher educational leaders.

Gloved hand in lab with tray of chemicals

20 Pigman College of Engineering researchers among top 2% of world’s most-cited

Jul 3, 2025

The University of Kentucky is well-represented on a list of the most-cited researchers in the world. In a database compiled by Stanford University in a partnership with Elsevier, 136 current UK scientists and scholars appear among the top 2% of the most-cited researchers across 22 disciplines. Of those 136 scientists and scholars, 20 are UK Pigman College of Engineering faculty.

Judy Goldsmith National Center for Women & Information Technology award graphic

Goldsmith honored by National Center for Women & Information Technology

May 12, 2025

Judy Goldsmith, professor and associate chair in the Department of Computer Science, was named the 2025 Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award recipient by the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

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