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Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering School of Engineering

Selvum Pillay

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Professor and Director of Materials Processing and Applications Development (MPAD) pillay@uab.edu
Business & Engineering 254
(205) 996-5797

Research and Teaching Interests: Composite Materials, Manufacturing, Quality, Engineering Design

Office Hours: By appointment

Education:

  • B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Durban University of Technology, 1988
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, FAMU-FSU COE, 1999
  • Ph.D., Materials Engineering, UAB, 2005

Dr. Pillay has had a very unconventional path into academia. He served an apprenticeship as a boilermaker in the shipbuilding industry and worked as a tradesman in structural steel from 1980 to 1983. He continued his education part time and completed his UG in Mechanical Engineering at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), Durban, South Africa in 1986. He worked for Toyota Manufacturing for eight years as a design and manufacturing engineering, before returning to DUT to setup a manufacturing lab and teach. He was awarded a USAID scholarship that allowed him to complete an MS in Mechanical Engineering at Florida A & M/Florida State College of Engineering, Tallahassee, Florida in 1999. He joined UAB in 2001 as a PhD student through a scholarship from the SA Government. He completed his PhD in 2005 and joined the MSE department in 2006.

Dr. Pillay has served as a research associate, assistant and associate professor of the MSE Department. He served as department chair from 2016-2019. His background in South Africa and industry experience gives him a unique perspective of engineering education, which he brings to the classroom when teaching. He also serves as the Director of the Design Lab and the MPAD Center (30,000 square feet), both state of the art, industrial scale manufacturing facilities dedicated to applications development and hands-on experience for students. Dr. Pillay is passionate about issues on social justice.