Advanced Sustainable Power and Energy Lab (ASPEN)
Electrical and Computer Engineering
About the Space
The ASPEN lab at SMU Lyle advances power and energy systems through innovation in electric machines and motor drives, energy storage, and power electronics, under real-world operating conditions across transportation, grid infrastructure, and data-center environments.
The ASPEN Laboratory is equipped with advanced tools and facilities that support design, modeling, and experimental validation through testing of single devices and integrated systems.
Center for Digital and Human-Augmented Manufacturing (CDHAM)
Multidisciplinary
About the Space
Inside Lyle's 5,000-square-foot CDHAM, students work alongside faculty and industry partners like Lockheed Martin and Click Bond to build digital twins, design AR-guided training systems, and prototype the robotics and AI that will run Industry 4.0.
It's where future engineers don't just imagine the factory of the future, they help build it.
Lyle Autonomous and Applied Artificial Intelligence Lab (LAIL)
Multidisciplinary
About the Space
This new facility expands Lyle's hands-on learning and research capabilities, providing students and faculty with state-of-the-art environments to explore emerging technologies and advance engineering innovation.
LAIL features Quanser NVIDIA GPU-powered autonomous vehicles integrated with high-fidelity digital twins, creating a flexible environment for AI development, autonomous systems research and real-world systems simulation.
DFW: A Living Lab
All Departments
About the Space
Through senior design and capstone projects, Lyle students take on live optimization challenges with DFW-rooted companies like Southwest Airlines and global brands like Disney—creating data models, walking operations floors, building apps, and pitching results back to the people who actually run the show.
At Lyle, the classroom extends across the region's airlines, distribution centers, corporate headquarters, and more.
Geotechnical, Hydraulics, and Hydrology Lab
Civil and Environmental Engineering
About the Space
At SMU CEE's combined Geotechnical, Hydraulics, and Hydrology Lab, students do more than study civil engineering; they test it, model it, break it, rebuild it, and watch it flow.
From soils and foundations to rivers, stormwater, and flood resilience, this hands-on lab brings the built and natural environments together in one dynamic space. It is where future engineers learn to solve real-world problems from the ground up.
The Global Field Lab
All Departments
About the Space
A coal mine in Medellín. A solar-powered water system in rural Bolivia. A riverbank in Colombia where women pan for gold. Lyle students have worked at each of these sites through NSF's International Research Experiences for Students, Engineers Without Borders, and faculty-led sustainability research—installing methane sensors, designing clean-water infrastructure, and co-creating safer mining practices alongside the people most affected.
Beyond the engineering school halls, the world becomes a working lab where the most lasting solutions are built across languages, disciplines, and cultures.
Thermodynamics Lab
Mechanical Engineering
About the Space
Inside Lyle's new state-of-the-art undergraduate thermodynamics lab, mechanical engineering students don't just read the laws of energy — they measure them.
From engine cycles and refrigeration loops to combustion experiments and energy systems, it's where future engineers move from textbook equations to the physical systems they describe.
Competitions as Labs
All Departments
About the Space
Each year, student teams compete on national stages where their work is timed, weighed, load-tested, and pitched to industry judges.
They build 20-foot steel bridges in under 40 minutes at the ASCE Student Steel Bridge Competition, fly autonomous drones through four-task challenges at the Raytheon UAS University Innovation Showcase, pitch ideas for emerging enterprises at SMU Big iDeas Pitch Contest, and code working prototypes from scratch at HackSMU.