Harnessing Biological Sensors Outside the Cell
The bacterial sensory system developed by Northwestern Engineering’s Neha Kamat could lead to novel biosensors with applications in diagnostics and environmental monitoring.
RESEARCH & FACULTY
Northwestern is a diverse and dynamic research institution whose innovations benefit millions of people around the world
News
Metal-filtering Sponge Removes Lead from Water
A reusable sponge developed by Professor Vinayak Dravid can capture and recover critical metals and heavy-metal pollutants.
Scientists Warn of Disinfectant Overuse
More than two-dozen scientists, including Northwestern Engineering’s Erica Hartmann, have issued a warning about the overuse of antimicrobial chemicals.
Student-Designed Avatar Makes Public Debut at Panel, Theatrical Production Is Next
A group of students advised by Professor Kristian Hammond introduced Elizabeth, a digital avatar powered by ChatGPT, during Chicago Innovation’s “AI vs. IQ” panel discussion on the future of artificial intelligence.
Collaborative Research
Collaboration drives innovation
Our world is changing at an accelerated pace, and the boundaries between disciplines are blurring. Under these dynamic conditions, we face global challenges at a scale never before seen.
At Northwestern, we are making strategic investments in research areas that will drive our progress in the coming years. As these areas intersect, they provide focal points that connect our faculty and students throughout the school. In addition to collaborating with different schools and departments across campus and serving as a hub for Northwestern’s interdisciplinary research efforts, engineering researchers have ongoing collaborations with dozens of universities, organizations, and research centers worldwide. These collaborations are changing the world and expanding the boundaries of our established knowledge.
Key External Collaborators
Argonne National Laboratory
Through the Northwestern-Argonne Institute for Science and Engineering (NAISE), engineering faculty regularly partner with researchers at Argonne National Laboratory, one of the nation’s oldest and largest science research centers and home to some of the most high-tech facilities in the world.
Northwestern Medicine
Northwestern engineers work closely with professors and physicians at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS) to advance medical progress and inspire new partnerships.
Art Institute of Chicago
Northwestern Engineering partners with the Art Institute of Chicago to conduct scientific research and offer classes to advance the role of science within art history, curatorial scholarship, archaeology, and conservation, as well as use art to convey engineering research.
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Northwestern engineers collaborate frequently with the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, the nation’s top-ranked rehabilitation center, to design better rehabilitation robotics and artificial limbs.
Facts and Figures
Northwestern's engineering research enterprise funds more than 1,000 researchers in more than 250 labs. While the majority of Northwestern’s research funding comes from government sources, corporate sponsored research represents a growing opportunity for engineering professors.
1000+
researchers
across more than 250 labs
$166M
research expenditures
from a diverse set of funding sources
11%
increase in research funding
in the past fiscal year
Global Initiatives
Creating a worldwide network of researchers
Global Initiatives help all Northwestern Engineering scholars — including faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates — to engage in the global marketplace of talents and ideas, developing research collaborations worldwide.
Visit Global Initiatives
Patent & Startup Support
Bringing innovations to market
Engineering professors work with Northwestern’s Innovation and New Ventures Office (INVO) to turn their research and innovations into patents and businesses. A hub for innovation, Northwestern Engineering is consistently responsible for more than half of all the University’s invention disclosures and faculty startups.
Visit the Innovation and New Ventures Office
Faculty
World-class experts
Our award-winning faculty, including many members of national academies, collaborate across disciplines to create new knowledge while maintaining a solid grounding in the fundamentals. They transfer their expertise and passion for their fields to every student and collaborator they work with as they continue to advance scientific and engineering knowledge.
Meet our faculty
Centers and Institutes
Innately interdisciplinary
Centers Based in Northwestern Engineering
- Center for Advanced Regenerative Engineering (CARE)
- Center for Advancing Safety of Machine Intelligence (CASMI)
- Center for Catalysis and Surface Science (CCSS)
- Center for Computation and Theory of Soft Materials (CCTSM)
- Center for Computer Science and Learning Sciences (CSLS)
- Center for Deep Learning (CDL)
- Center for Engineering Sustainability and Resilience (CESR)
- Center for Human-Computer Interaction + Design (HCI+D)
- Center for Innovation in Global Health Technologies (CIGHT)
- Center for Optimization and Statistical Learning (OSL)
- Center for Photonic Communications and Computing (CPCC)
- Center for Physical Genomics and Engineering (CPGE)
- Center for Quantum Devices (CQD)
- Center for Robotics and Biosystems
- Center for Smart Structures and Materials (CSSM)
- Center for Surface Engineering and Tribology (CSET)
- Center for Ultra-scale Computing and Information Security (CUCIS)
- Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics
- Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
- Northwestern Center for Engineering Education Research (NCEER)
- Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
- Northwestern University Transportation Center (NUTC)
- Segal Design Institute
Engineering-Related Centers Reporting to Northwestern's VP of Research
- Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center (ANSER)
- Artificial Intelligence at Northwestern
- Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science (CBES)
- Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts
- Center for Synthetic Biology
- Innovation and New Ventures Office (INVO)
- Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN)
- International Institute for Nanotechnology
- Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC)
- Northwestern-Argonne Institute for Science and Engineering (NAISE)
- Northwestern Initiative for Manufacturing Science and Innovation
- Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS)
- Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics
- Simpson Querrey Institute (SQI)