From VR labs simulating mining on the moon to crane-operated 3D concrete printers, UNSW Engineering offers cutting-edge facilities ready for you to explore.
UNSW has invested over $100 million in its facilities since 2015. Ranked #1 in Australia for Engineering and Technology (QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2025), our facilities allow students, researchers and teachers to embody our core value - doing makes the thinking stronger.
The newly built Tyree Energy Technologies building demonstrates the scale of UNSW’s investment and focus on new forms of energy generation and renewable energy engineering. It’s a 6 Green Star rated building where research, education and industry collaborate. The building was designed with a range of intuitive energy-saving technologies as well as wet and dry research laboratories, teaching laboratories, learning and collaborative spaces, a rooftop experimental space and a prototype carbon trading office.
With our renowned facilities, industry-leading teaching staff and diverse learning experiences, our engineering students have opportunities to invest in future innovation during the study. See what our students have been up to lately.
Biomedical Engineering
Habib Joukdhar, Biomedical Engineering PhD candidate, and Lynn Ferris, Biomedical laboratory manager, examine the outcomes of liquid nitrogen freezing regimes.
Touring the expansive engineering facilities UNSW offers students, Lynn Ferris, Biomedical Engineering Laboratory Manager, points out a complex set-up that will allow researchers to eventually create a bionic eye.
In the next lab where research students are putting cutting-edge ideas to the test, Lynn watches on as Habib Joukhdar experiments with nitrogen freezing regimes for silk. This work aims to use silk as a scaffold to guide isolated heart stem cells to grow and behave as they would in a real human heart.
Mining Engineering
Patrick Peng, Mining Engineering Multimedia and Immersive Technologies specialist, facilitates the VR experience.
In a dark, circular theatre-like room, floor to ceiling screens come to life as Patrick Peng, Mining Engineering Multimedia and Immersive Technologies specialist, facilitates the VR experience, projecting real-world mines into a 360-degree virtual reality experience. As we find ourselves on the moon, Patrick explains that the concept of off earth mining isn’t as far off as we may think, with virtual reality scenarios like the one we’re in making off earth mining a very real reality.
“We have leading innovation technologies here such as VR/AR that are used in industry. Some of them were first time implemented in Australia. They’re improving the way people study and work in relevant industries” Patrick says.
Thomas Brown is a Mining Engineering student at UNSW, and he’s able to take his in-class learnings and bring them to life in the facilities on offer. “We have many different facilities to expose us to an immersive learning environment. The School of Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering has VR technologies as well as a 360-degree 3D cinematic room, which helps expose students to classroom concepts in a virtual real-world setting,” Thomas explains.
Mechanical Engineering
Sinead McCraith and Jack Sargent, Mechanical Engineering students, examining a practical example of their in-class learnings.
Sinead McCraith is studying a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering/Master of Biomedical Engineering. “The range of facilities have allowed me to extend my learning and research in ways I would never have imagined. The chance to image something as small as a cell moving through a heart stent at very high speeds is baffling and not something everyone can say they have done.”
Jack Sargeant is studying the same degree as Sinead. “The facilities have had a massive impact on my confidence as an engineering student. Having the opportunity to apply what I’ve learnt into designing, building and testing a device, has revealed how much I have learnt throughout my degree and been a very satisfying process,” Jack says.
Electrical Engineering
Dr Arash Khatamianfar, Electrical Engineering senior lecturer and Shevaani Rams, Electrical Engineering student, examining her 3D printing work as part of a student-led project.
Dr Arash Khatamianfar embodies the innovation and problem-solving nature so common at UNSW Engineering. When COVID-19 first required students to transfer to online learning he devised a way for students to remotely access the Electrical Engineering Lab operating sophisticated lab technology from their homes.
Arash is passionate about how these facilities help him be a better lecturer, “I always aim to translate the content I teach into practical experiences during the labs, enabling students to understand the connection between the theory taught in lectures and their real-world applications.”
"Hands-on experience in labs is an indispensable part of engineering education. For me to see that my students can test, practice and trial different equipment, with confidence and support from our great casual academic staff is a huge joy" Arash elaborates.
Computer Science and Engineering
Computer Science and Engineering students Olivia Wang and Zoey Chen are using advanced AI and sensor technology in their work with a robotic dog and UNSW’s RoboCup robots.
Computer Science and Engineering education at UNSW takes an out-of-the-box, out-of-the-classroom approach to learning, as students step onto the soccer pitch to put their knowledge into practice. This is where the UNSW RoboCup learning initiative takes place. RoboCup allows students to apply their skills in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence to develop and refine autonomous robots that compete against teams from universities around the world.
Civil Engineering
Ayesha Siddika, Civil Engineering PhD candidate, came to UNSW for its facilities which assist her in developing sustainable construction materials from waste byproducts.
Ayesha Siddika is a young woman from Bangladesh who chose to undertake her PhD in Civil Engineering at UNSW because of our facilities and focus on sustainable engineering. She has always been interested in developing sustainable materials by recycling waste for infrastructure applications.
Ayesha is currently developing sustainable insulation material using recycled glass from discarded windows and car windshields.
“I aim to reduce the energy consumption in manufacturing insulation materials and greenhouse gas emissions from them. The contribution of supervisors and available laboratory facilities is a big support in achieving my research goals” Ayesha says.
It’s the brilliance of our students, researchers and academics, and their desire to solve real and meaningful problems that makes UNSW Engineering’s facilities and technology shine. It showcases the possibilities of engineering and the innovation that occurs through cutting-edge technology and the brightest minds.
For our Engineering’s facilities to truly meet their true potential, it takes someone like you—a person with a problem they want to solve or an idea they believe is a change for good—to roll up their sleeves and get to work.
Want to find out more about Engineering study options?
Discover the abundance of diverse learning opportunities available for every kind of student at UNSW. Work alongside fellow problem solvers, learn from leading minds and put theory into practice to become the best engineer you can be at UNSW. Explore all that UNSW Engineering has to offer today.
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