Research
Boldly innovating to impact society and transform the world.
Northeastern University has achieved the prestigious recognition as a top-tier R1 institution for research activity among U.S. colleges and universities by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Our tradition of partnership and engagement guides a use-inspired and interdisciplinary research enterprise that is strategically aligned with three global imperatives: health, security, and sustainability. Our annual Annual Report highlights pioneering research and achievements over the past year.
The College of Engineering has over 240 tenured/tenure-track faculty, each bringing complementary areas of research expertise to address pressing global challenges. Their state-of-art-research looks at critical issues in materials, processes, systems, infrastructure, hardware and software at every scale—nano to macro to global—grounded in a translational approach that integrates the values of fundamental and applied research.
Our faculty boldly innovate by collaborating across engineering disciplines and the university, as well as with government, academia, and industry. The College of Engineering has more than 20 multidisciplinary research centers and institutes with funding from eight federal agencies. Our commitment to conducting transformative research to better the world can be seen by our growth in external research funding, which exceeds $100 million annually, and by an investment in research facilities such as our 223,000 square foot, six-story Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex and 367,000 square foot, eight-story EXP facility for teaching and research.
Research At-A-Glance
External Research Funding (FY2024)
Research Centers and Institutes
Young Investigator Awards (as of Aug. 2024)
Patents 2018-Aug. 2024
Related Resources
Understand how Northeastern partners with industry for research and workforce development
View the faculty directory for more information on individual researchers.
Recent News
Amiji Publishes Book on Harnessing Endogenous Mechanisms for Targeted Drug Delivery
Bouvé/ChE University Distinguished Professor Mansoor Amiji is the co-editor of a book on “Harnessing Endogenous Mechanisms for Targeted Drug Delivery.”
Enabling Engineering Class Inspires Interactive Keyboard to Help Individuals with Communication
ECE/Bouvé Assistant Professor Kristina Johnson teaches the Enabling Engineering class at Northeastern, which encourages students to apply engineering to empowering individuals with disabilities. The students in her class developed an interactive, adaptive keyboard to help individuals improve their communication abilities.
New Research Discovers Sensor That Can Detect Single Cancer Cells
ECE Associate Professor Cristian Cassella, Assistant Professors Marco Colangelo, and Siddhartha Ghosh have made a breakthrough in their research on sensors. They have been working on a sensor that can detect objects as small as single cancer cells, which will be incredibly beneficial to the future of medical technology.
Fu Leads $3.5M NSF Award to Secure the Next Generation of Neural Implants and Brain-Controlled Interfaces
A multidisciplinary team led by ECE Professor Kevin Fu was awarded a $3.5 million NSF grant for “SCC-LSR: From Technology to Humans: Protecting Users of Neural and Medical Implant Technologies Through Resilience and Safety Engineering.”