hand putting liquid in lab dish with tool

Research Centers & Institutes

The College of Engineering has 20 multidisciplinary research centers and institutes with funding by eight federal agencies. The college is also a partner of the university’s Institute for Experiential AI.  You may also be interested in our recent Annual Reports for the college and each engineering department. View the faculty profiles to learn about faculty laboratory research efforts.


  • Academic Center for Reliability and Resilience of Offshore Wind (ARROW)

    ARROW is a first-of-its-kind center of excellence on offshore wind from the Department of Energy and the states of Massachusetts and Maryland.

  • air plane and explosives abstract Awareness and Localization of Explosives-Related Threats (ALERT)

    ALERT seeks to conduct transformational research, technology and educational development for effective characterization, detection, mitigation and response to the explosives-related threats facing the country and the world.

  • computer with data graphs Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (Gordon-CenSSIS) and ALERT

    The Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (Gordon-CenSSIS) is dedicated to revolutionizing the detection of biomedical and environmental-civil objects or conditions that are underground, underwater, or embedded within cells or inside the human body. Since 2008, the team has transitioned to focus on the ALERT Center.

  • city bridges and highway abstract Beyond Traffic Innovation Center

    Beyond Traffic Innovation Center; designated by the US Department of Transportation, BTIC leads interdisciplinary research on transportation challenges of the next three decades for the Northeast region.

  • security board abstract Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust (CHEST)

    CHEST will coordinate university-based research with the needs of industry and government partners to advance knowledge of security, assurance, and trust for electronic hardware and embedded systems.

  • abstract nanomanufacturing Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN)

    The Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN) is focused on developing tools and processes to enable high-rate/high-volume bottom-up, precise assembly of nanoelements (such as carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles) and polymer nanostructures.

  • Center for Signal Processing, Imaging, Reasoning, and Learning (SPIRAL)

    Conducts fundamental and interdisciplinary applied research in the areas of computational modeling, computer vision, distributed computing, image analysis, machine learning, optimization, and signal processing.

  • nanoscale image Center for Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems (TANMS)

    Center for Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems (TANMS) works to engineer a revolution in miniature electromagnetic electronics through development of a new class of nanoscale multiferroic materials.

  • transmission network Center for Ultra-wide-area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Networks (CURENT)

    The Center for Ultra-wide-area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Network (CURENT) mission is to build a more reliable, secure and efficient electric grid transmission system that uses renewable energy sources.

  • Global Resilience Institute

    The Global Resilience Institute is developing and deploying practical and innovative tools, applications, and skills that strengthen the resilience of individuals, communities, infrastructure, systems, networks, and societies.

  • woman touching tablet screen Healthcare Systems Engineering Institute (HSyE)

    The Healthcare Systems Engineering Institute (HSyE) will embed proven evidence-based industrial and systems engineering (ISE) improvement methods into local healthcare organizations, similar to as used in other complex industries.

  • chemical work in lab Institute for Chemical Imaging of Living Systems

    The Institute for Chemical Imaging of Living Systems focuses on in vivo chemical analysis and imaging, and leverages key university strengths, including nanosensors for in vivo chemical analysis, imaging, soft robotics, and embedded systems. At its core is an imaging center open to the Northeastern community

  • robotic arm Institute for Experiential Robotics

    The Institute for Experiential Robotics focuses on the development of robots able to learn and adaptively execute autonomous behaviors from human partners and/or other robots.

  • Institute for Mechanobiology

    Northeastern University’s Institute for Mechanobiology accelerates mechanobiology discovery and technology to advance human medicine and health. It is one of only a few in the world specifically dedicated to mechanobiology study and innovation.

  • Institute for NanoSystems Innovation

    The Institute for NanoSystems Innovation at Northeastern University is a global hub focused on pioneering semiconductor research, learning, and innovation.

  • mother board Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things

    Northeastern’s Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things is pioneering research in wireless systems and networks to make the next generation of Internet of Things a continuum of connected devices able to interact in new ways with people and the environment— from connected cars and drones, to implantable medical devices and smart communities.

  • computer binary code Institute of Information Assurance (IIA)

    The Institute of Information Assurance (IIA) focuses on protecting the integrity and security of information and reducing the vulnerability of hardware and software systems to attacks.

  • sensor Northeastern SMART

    The Northeastern SMART research center focuses on conceiving and piloting disruptive technological innovation in smart devices and systems that are required by a number of industries including the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, Digital Agriculture, Robotics and Healthcare to make everyday life safer, easier, and more efficient.

  • baby in mother's arms PROTECT Center

    The PROTECT Center will study exposure to environmental contamination in Puerto Rico and its contribution to preterm birth (less than 37 completed weeks of gestation). PROTECT also seeks to better understand the phenomena affecting fate and transport of hazardous substances in karstic aquifers and to develop green remediation strategies that attenuate and mitigate exposure to protect human health and ecosystems.

  • Concept digital technology Soft-target Engineering to Neutralize the Threat RealitY (SENTRY)

    SENTRY (Soft-target Engineering to Neutralize the Threat RealitY) addresses the many challenges of protecting soft targets and crowded places in our homeland.