Babak Heydari
Professor,
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Associate Chair for Graduate Affairs,
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Associate Chair,
Affiliated Faculty,
School for Public Policy and Urban Affairs
Core Faculty,
Network Science Institute
Office
- 177 HU, 1218
- 617.373.5507
Research Focus
Socio-technical systems, systems engineering and design, social and economic networks, resilience of networked systems, computational social sciences, platform-based systems, sharing economy systems, computational social sciences, game theory, artificial intelligence
About
Babak Heydari is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University, Director of the Multi-Agent Intelligent Complex Systems (MAGICS) Lab, and Core Faculty at the Network Science Institute. His research lies at the intersection of engineering systems design, artificial intelligence, network science, and complex systems.
His work addresses a central engineering challenge: how to design and govern systems whose performance emerges from interactions among people, technologies, and institutions. He studies how system architecture, network structure, information environments, and behavioral dynamics shape collective intelligence, cooperation, resilience, and system-level risk. This perspective extends engineering design beyond individual components to the relationships and coordination mechanisms that determine how a system functions and adapts over time.
His current research examines human–AI collaboration, multi-agent systems involving large language models, and AI-mediated platforms. A particular focus is how interaction architectures—the structures and rules governing how agents communicate, share information, and make decisions—can enable effective collaboration as both human behavior and AI capabilities evolve. Applications include engineering design, organizational adaptation and innovation, supply chains, public health, and digital ecosystems.
He previously served as President of the Council of Engineering Systems Universities (CESUN) and, for five years, as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Future Resilient Systems program at ETH Singapore. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of Systems Engineering and the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
Education
- Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, 2008
Ph.D. Minor in Economics and Management Science - Graduate Certificate in Management of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, 2006
- M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, 2005
- B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Chemistry, Sharif University of Technology, 2002
Honors & Awards
- 2022 College of Engineering Faculty Fellow
- National Science Foundation CAREER Award
- Wiley Systems Engineering Journal Best Paper Award
- Best Paper Award, Journal of Systems Engineering, 2016
Leadership Positions
-
- Associate Chair of Graduate Affairs, Industrial Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, 2025–present
- Director, Engineering Management Program, Northeastern University, 2020–present
- Director, Multi-Agent Intelligent Complex Systems (MAGICS) Lab, Northeastern University
- Associate Editor, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design
- Associate Editor, Systems Engineering (Wiley)
- Chair, Scientific Advisory Committee, Future Resilient Systems Program, ETH Singapore, 2020–2025
- President and Chair of the Executive Committee, Council of Engineering Systems Universities (CESUN), 2021–2023
Research Overview
Socio-technical systems, systems engineering and design, social and economic networks, resilience of networked systems, computational social sciences, platform-based systems, sharing economy systems, computational social sciences, game theory, artificial intelligence
My research examines how interactions among people, organizations, and AI systems shape collective outcomes. A central question is how to design systems in which individual capabilities translate into effective collective problem-solving, adaptation, and innovation. This requires understanding how networks, incentives, information flows, and decision-making structures influence behavior—and how those structures should evolve as technologies and participants change.
At Northeastern’s Multi-Agent Intelligent Complex Systems (MAGICS) Lab, we combine computational modeling, game theory, network science, machine learning, and empirical analysis to study these questions. Our work spans human–AI collaboration, the strategic behavior of interacting AI agents, organizational adaptation, and the effects of AI on digital platforms and knowledge production. We connect system-level patterns with the behavioral and computational mechanisms that produce them, including through controlled experiments and mechanistic interpretability.
Across these areas, our goal is to develop principles for designing and governing systems that support collective intelligence and human–AI complementarity: enabling people and AI to accomplish more together while accounting for how their capabilities, behavior, and relationships evolve over time.
Selected Research Projects
- No One Lives in a Bubble: Incorporating Group Dynamics Into Epidemic Models
- – PI, NSF
-
Design and Governance of Complex systems
-
Network Science and Multi-Agent Systems
-
AI in Systems Engineering
-
Computational Methods for Policy Design
Department Research Areas
Selected Journal Publications
- Cao, Qingtao, Heydari, Babak (2022). Micro-level social structures and the success of COVID-19 national policies. Nature Computational Science, 2(9),595-604. 10.1038/S43588-022-00314-0
- Abouk, Rahi, and Babak Heydari. “The immediate effect of COVID-19 policies on social-distancing behavior in the United States.” Public Health Reports 136.2 (2021): 245-252.
- Chen, Qiliang, Babak Heydari, and Mohsen Moghaddam. “Leveraging Task Modularity in Reinforcement Learning for Adaptable Industry 4.0 Automation.” Journal of Mechanical Design (2021): 1-35.
- Ke, Laiyang, Dan O’Brien, and Babak Heydari. “Airbnb and Neighborhood Crime: The Incursion of Tourists or the Erosion of Local Social Dynamics?.” Available at SSRN 3725823 (2020).
- Heydari, Babak, Pedram Heydari, and Mohsen Mosleh. “Not all bridges connect: Integration in multi-community networks.” The Journal of Mathematical Sociology 44.4 (2020): 199-220.
- A.Ehsanfar, B. Heydari, An Incentive Compatible Scheme for Electricity Cooperatives: Axiomatic Approach, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grids, 9(2), 2018, 1416-1424
- M. Mosleh, B. Heydari, Fair Topologies: Community Structure and Network Hubs Drive Emergence of Fairness Norms, Scientific Reports, 2686(7), 2017
- M. Mosleh, K. Dalili, B.Heydari, Distributed or Monolithic? A Computational Architecture Decision Framework, IEEE Systems Journal, 1(12), 2016, 125-136
- B. Heydari, M. Mosleh, K. Dalili, From Modular to Distributed Open Architectures: A United Decision Framework, Systems Engineering, 19(3), 2016, 252-266
- M. Mosleh, P. Ludlow, B. Heydari, Distributed Resource Management in Systems of Systems: An Architecture Perspective, Systems Engineering, 2016, 19(4), 362-374O
- D.A. Gianetto, B. Heydari, Sparse Cliques Trump Scale-Free Networks in Coordination and Competition, Scientific Reports, 6, 2016
Oct 31, 2025
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.
Jan 28, 2025
First Cohort of NSF NRT Student Trainees Share Value of Interdisciplinary Research
The first cohort of trainees of the NSF NRT Platforms for Exchange and Allocation of Resources grant share the value of the program’s interdisciplinary research, stipends, curriculum, seminars, and faculty mentorship. Applications are now open to be a trainee for the fall 2025 semester.
Aug 21, 2024
$1M NSF Award for Modeling Group Behavior To Fight Epidemics
MIE Associate Professor Babak Heydari, in collaboration with CSSH Professor Dan O’Brien (Public Policy), COS Associate Professor Gabor Lippner (Math), and CSSH Professor Silvia Prina (Economics), was awarded a $1 million NSF grant for “No One Lives in a Bubble: Incorporating Group Dynamics Into Epidemic Models,” to build computational models for group behaviors.
Aug 20, 2024
Exploring the Strategic Behavior of Large Language Models
MIE Associate Professor Babak Heydari’s research on “Strategic Behavior of Large Language Models and the Role of Game Structure Versus Contextual Framing” was published in Scientific Reports.
Sep 23, 2022
Do Micro-Level Social Interaction Parameters Effect Pandemic Policy Success?
MIE Associate Professor Babak Heydari’s research on “Micro-level Social Structures and the Success of COVID-19 National Policies” was published in the Nature Computational Science journal.
Apr 15, 2022
Faculty and Staff Awards 2022
Congratulations to all the winners of the faculty and staff awards, and to everyone for their hard work and dedication during the 2021-2022 academic school year.
Apr 16, 2020
Social distancing is controlling Covid-19; now scientists need to figure out which measures are most effective
MIE Associate Professor Babak Heydari was featured in the Stat News article “Social distancing is controlling Covid-19; now scientists need to figure out which measures are most effective“
Apr 15, 2020
Determining Which Social Distancing Policies are Effective
MIE Associate Professor Babak Heydari is analyzing COVID-19 data to see which social distancing policies are the most effective.
Jun 19, 2019
Heydari Receives NSF CAREER Award
MIE Associate Professor Babak Heydari was awarded a $490K NSF CAREER grant for “Architecting Products to Balance Innovation and Competition in Business Ecosystems”.
Apr 09, 2019
FY20 TIER 1 Award Recipients
25 COE faculty and affiliates were recipients of FY20 TIER 1 Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grants for 18 different projects representing up to $900K dollars of investment in research.
Recent Past Events
Aug 08, 2026