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
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
Autonomous Wheelchair Project Positively Impacts Individuals
ECE Professor Taskin Padir talks about an AI-powered autonomous wheelchair that could be an impactful technological advancement for individuals with quadriplegia and other physical conditions.
New Sensor Design for Early Single-Cell Cancer Diagnosis
ECE Assistant Professors Siddhartha Ghosh, Marco Colangelo, and Associate Professor Cristian Cassella published their research on “Topologically enhanced guided acoustic wave sensors” in Physical Review Applied.
Strategy for Inventors Placing Talent in Complex Innovation Networks
MIE Associate Professor Babak Heydari’s research on “Core or periphery: Examining where to allocate heterogeneous inventors and the impact on firms’ innovation” was published in the Strategic Management Journal.
Making Exoskeletons Safe Through Uncertainty
Research conducted by Fatima Mumtaza Tourk, PhD’27, mechanical engineering; Bishoy Galoaa, PhD’29, computer engineering; Sanat Shajan, COS’25; ECE/Khoury Assistant Professor Michael Everett; and Bouvé/MIE Assistant Professor Max Shepherd on “Uncertainty-Aware Ankle Exoskeleton Control” was published in Robotics.