The Center for Mechanics of Solids, Structures and Materials (CMSSM) promotes research addressing fundamental and applied issues in the broad field of mechanics of solids, structures and materials. The field of mechanics is playing an increasingly important role in new areas such as materials science and engineering, manufacturing, and the durable design of a variety of microelectronics devices. The backgrounds and expertise of the Center's faculty bring together the necessary focus on theoretical, experimental, and numerical approaches necessary to solve many of today's new mechanical problems.

The Center's two main objectives are, firstly, to foster interaction between its members and develop the infrastructure required by its researchers, and secondly, to disseminate the results of the research to the public, increase the visibility of the activity, and help expand interactions with industry and other research groups.

The Center maintains the following laboratories: Solids and Structures Lab, Acropolis Computing Center, Composites Laboratory, and the Mechanics of Materials Lab. The laboratories house modern testing facilities for examining the mechanical behavior of solids and materials at the structural level and the material macro, meso, and micro levels. The group has its own dedicated computational facilities consisting of several work stations, graphics capabilities, data acquisition systems, and digital image analysis systems.