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 215 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 80% increase in external research funding from 2016 to 2022, 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
Creating New Sensor Technology
ECE Associate Professor Cristian Casella and Professor Matteo Rinaldi were awarded a patent for “Subharmonic tags for remote continuous and threshold sensing.”
Advancing All-Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries
MIE Associate Professor Hongli Zhu received a $770K grant from the DOE Office of Science for “Uncovering the mechano-electro-chemo mechanism of fresh Li in sulfide based all solid-state batteries through operando studies”.
New Methods to Improve Phosphorus Recovery
ChE/COS Assistant Professor Damilola Daramola’s research on “Considerations for Electrochemical Phosphorus Precipitation: A Figures of Merit Approach” was published by The Electrochemical Society.
Studying the Impact of Comics as Visual Learning Tools
ChE Distinguished Teaching Professor Luke Landherr was awarded a $300K NSF grant for “Conservation Principles, Illustrated: Analyzing the Impact of Informal Visual Learning Tools on Educational Engineering Through Comics.”