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
Building Low Cost Digital Twins to Accelerate Robotics Innovation
Fatemeh Ghoreishi, an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, jointly appointed with the Khoury College of Computer Sciences, was awarded $281,660 from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Innovation Institute, supporting a $352,075 project with matching cost-share, for OpenBayes Twin-in-a-Box: A Public, Decision-Grade Digital Twin and Manufacturable Compliant Manipulation Module for Massachusetts Logistics and Manufacturing. The award, granted under the institute’s Robotic Digital Twin Initiative, was one of six delivered across Massachusetts.
Evaluating the Limits of Modern Traffic Metrics
CSSH/CEE Associate Professor Serena Alexander conducts research finding that while the new “vehicle miles traveled” (VMT) metric is an improved way to evaluate a development’s environmental impact, its success is limited by a lack of tool standardization, legal precedent, and community equity.
A Last Resort: Advantages and Disadvantages of Desalination in the U.S
CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly and others discuss the current megadrought state of the U.S and the possibility of investing in desalination as a next step.
Standardizing Spatial Data Models and Workflows to Accelerate Innovation in XR, Robotics, and AI
ECE Assistant Professor Mallesham Dasari, in collaboration with Jacob Chakareski from New Jersey Institute of Technology, was awarded a $300K NSF grant for “POSE: Phase I: Enabling an Open-Source Ecosystem for 4D Dynamic Geometry in XR, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems.”