The wave disk engine is an internal combustion engine currently being developed at Michigan State Unvirsity in conjunction with researchers from the Warsaw Institute of Technology. A team of researchers, led by MSU Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Norbert Müller, are working on this project. The project has received considerable financial backing, including a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Deparment of Energy's ARPA-E program. According to the project's summary on ARPA-E's website, if successful the engine could "reduce the weight of vehicles by up to 20%, improve their fuel economy by up to 60%, reduce their total cost by up yo 30%, and reduce their CO2 emissions by up to 90%." The engine would not be limited just to vehicle use, though: it could potentially be used to great advantage anywhere gas powered generators are currently in use.

      The project had a lot more publicity a couple years ago than it does now. It was announced in 2009, a time when the auto industry was suffering quite a bit. With the promise of a much more efficient and cheaper engine, the project received quite a bit of support. Less and less has been anounced about the engine, and ARPA-E's funding ran out in May 2013. As of their last major update the team is looking into commercialization of the engine, having some difficult technical problems to overcome before the engine is viable for large scale use (more on this in the issues section).