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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

Image for Sun Receives 2027 BMES-CMBE Rising Star Award
Faculty

Sun Receives 2027 BMES-CMBE Rising Star Award

Bioengineering Assistant Professor Tao Sun has received a 2027 Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Rising Star Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society. His lab combines focused ultrasound, cellular engineering, and imaging to monitor and steer immune responses deep in the body, with applications in Alzheimer’s disease and brain cancer.

Image for INSI Researchers Lead Three Newly Funded NSF Projects in Next-Generation Wireless Networking
Faculty

INSI Researchers Lead Three Newly Funded NSF Projects in Next-Generation Wireless Networking

INSI-affiliated researchers are part of three of 19 projects funded nationwide under the NSF’s VINES program, bringing $5.6 million to Northeastern for work on AI data centers, smart cities, and aviation safety.

Image for Why Disasters Leave Countries Deeper in Debt
Faculty

Why Disasters Leave Countries Deeper in Debt

CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly and Aayushi Mishra, PhD ’28, civil and environmental engineering, analyzed how severe disasters trap vulnerable nations in a “climate-debt doom loop” and proposed financial policy reforms to help countries invest in long-term resilience.

Image for Ergun Receives Best Transportation Science Paper Award
Faculty

Ergun Receives Best Transportation Science Paper Award

MIE Distinguished Professor Ozlem Ergun’s paper “Multimodal Transportation Pricing Alliance Design: Large-Scale Optimization for Rapid Gains,” written with Kayla Spring Reyes Kummerlowe, Vikrant Vaze, and Cynthia Barnhart was selected by the Transportation Science (INFORMS flagship journal on transportation and logistics) editorial board to receive the journal’s Paper of the Year Award for 2025 in Modes and Industries.