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 Scholarship Report highlights pioneering research and achievements over the past year.
The College of Engineering has over 195 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 18 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 a 82% increase in external research funding from 2015 to 2021, and by an investment in research capabilities such as our 223,000 square foot, six-story Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex.
Government and Industry Partnerships
Industry and government partner with Northeastern for basic and applied research. The reason is simple: they know that at Northeastern, our two guiding principles are interdisciplinary collaboration and engagement with the real world. These principles are reflected in our research programs, which are driven by critical issues in materials, processes, systems and infrastructure. Our research collaborations are a win-win-win: our partners receive knowledge and products tailored to their needs, our researchers validate and extend their work, and our students receive training and experience to become the next generation of effective technologists.
Research At-A-Glance
a.alshawabkeh@northeastern.edu
Geoenvironmental engineering, soil and groundwater remediation; electrokinetic and electrochemical processes; contaminant fate and transport environmental restoration
Recent News
2022 Spark Fund Awardees
BioE Professor Jeff Ruberti, ECE Assistant Professor Aatmesh Shrivastava, ChE Assistant Professor Benjamin Woolston, and MIE Associate Professor Yi Zheng are recipients of Spark Fund Awards, which help Northeastern researchers bridge the gap between promising lab results and demonstrating a commercially viable prototype.
Ensuring Well Water is Safe to Drink
CEE Assistant Professor Kelsey Pieper is researching private wells, which serve about 15% of the US population, to determine if they have been contaminated after events like floods.
Creating a More Comfortable Fitness Tracker
ECE Associate Professor Canek Fuentes-Hernandez is creating a thin, flexible fitness tracker that doesn’t consume a lot of power.
Checking to Determine if a Mask is Counterfeit
ECE Associate Professor Taskin Padir explains how to help determine if N95 and KN95 masks are counterfeit by checking for certain codes and expiration dates.