interior of building with spiral staircase

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

$104M

External Research Funding (FY2024)

20

Research Centers and Institutes

142

Young Investigator Awards (as of Aug. 2024)

163

Patents 2018-Aug. 2024


Related Resources

View the faculty directory for more information on individual researchers.


 

Recent News

Patent for Magnetic Microwires in Medical Treatments

Distinguished University and Cabot Professor Laura Lewis, ChE/MIE, and ChE Associate Professor Abigail Koppes were awarded a patent for “Magnetic microwires for energy-transporting biomedical applications.”

Juner Zhu

Developing Data-Enabled Methods for Material Characterization and Design

MIE Assistant Professor Juner Zhu and Research Scientist Wei Li were awarded a $500,000 NSF three-year grant for “Mechanics Informatics for Learning Constitutive Models: Theory, Computation, and Uncertainty Quantification.”

Aatmesh Shrivastava

Shrivastava Receives DARPA Director’s Fellowship

ECE Associate Professor Aatmesh Shrivastava has been awarded the highly selective DARPA Director’s Fellowship Award.

Mansoor Amiji standing outside looking off to the left

GLP-1 Weight Loss Drug Prices Are Unlikely To Decrease in the Near Future

Bouvé/ChE University Distinguished Professor Mansoor Amiji says people seeking weight loss drugs may be able to get help from patient financial assistance programs and alternative medications. Mounjaro weight loss drug’s active ingredient—semaglutide—is no longer in short supply, so less expensive GLP-1 compounded versions are no longer available.