The department has modern, well-equipped laboratories that support the research and graduate study activities of the department. Assistive Device Design Laboratory Emphasis is on actually constructing a device that has been designed for a specific disabled person to improve their quality of life and provide greater self-sufficient capability.
Some devices are of general enough nature to also be of use to non-disabled persons.
A major sponsor of the Laboratory, currently in its second five-year funding cycle, is The National Science Foundation, as one of about twenty awardees in the United States. Creativity and innovation are de rigueur and design and construction is expedited by computer tools and a well-staffed and equipped machine shop. Ten to twenty devices are typically designed and constructed per year with several U.S. patents awarded and foreign patents pending. This laboratory provides opportunity for researchers to conduct both fundamental and practical combustion studies. In addition, the laboratory contains a fully equipped spray characterization facility, for simultaneous drop size, velocity, and number density measurements in liquid propellant rocket engines and diesel engines.