News
Jul 01, 2026
What Severe South American Quakes Teach Us About West Coast Disaster Readiness
Following a devastating doublet earthquake in Venezuela, Northeastern structural and resilience experts are urging California to bolster its preparedness for a future major rupture along the San Andreas Fault. Interim Dean Jerome Hajjar and CSSH/CEE Associate Professor Serena Alexander highlight that true mitigation requires addressing vulnerabilities across both interconnected physical infrastructure networks and local neighborhood emergency support systems.
Jul 01, 2026
Turning Industrial Wastewater Into a Sustainable Supply Chain for Green Energy
Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor Damilola Daramola and PhD student Qudus Rafiu published a study in Joule revealing that extracting critical minerals like lithium and magnesium from industrial wastewater could cleanly power the green energy transition.
Jul 01, 2026
Why Extreme Summer Temperatures Are Pushing Engineering Limits
As extreme heat strains infrastructure worldwide, CEE Associate Teaching Professor Nancy Varney and Professor Auroop Ganguly emphasize that prolonged spikes in temperature threaten to overwhelm power grids and public transit networks by exceeding baseline engineering parameters.
Jul 01, 2026
ECE PhD Earns Spot at Inaugural ACM AI Leadership Summit
Computer engineering PhD student Amir Taherin has been accepted to present his research at the first annual ACM AI Leadership Summit Doctoral Consortium, which is a dedicated day of mentorship, networking, and career development for doctoral students.
Jun 22, 2026
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.
Jun 22, 2026
Automated Vehicle Mounted Sensor Array Wins First Place at SICK 10K Challenge
Ben Cometto, MS, robotics and James Tukpah, E’20, MS’22, PhD’27, computer engineering won first place at the SICK $10K Challenge for developing an automated, vehicle-mounted sensor system that uses lidar and hyperspectral imaging to map and measure the moisture content of vegetation in real time, significantly speeding up how assessment teams identify potential wildfire fuels.
Jun 22, 2026
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.
Jun 22, 2026
Mythbusting Bioplastics: Insights from a Materials Engineer
ChE Assistant Professor Bryan James was featured in the Surfrider Foundation article “Mythbusting Bioplastics: Insights from a Materials Engineer.”