Research
Convergent research with collaboration across government, industry, and academia
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering attracts exceptional faculty who conduct state-of-the-art research, are dedicated educators at both the undergraduate and graduate level, and advance the state of professional practice. Faculty conduct interdisciplinary research in department research areas, as part of the college’s multidisciplinary research centers and institutes, Research Initiatives, and within their laboratories, as well as working across the university, and with industry, government, and academia.
The department also has dedicated staff who provide a range of operational services, including laboratory technicians, a dedicated machine shop, and budget and finance.
View faculty profiles including faculty laboratory research, and recent Scholarship Reports.
Quick Facts
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering education and research missions are focused on Urban Engineering, anchored by several multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional centers and programs. Building on current strengths and expanding into new and vital areas, three overarching interdisciplinary research and education thrusts of the department include Environmental Health, Civil Infrastructure Security, and Sustainable Resource Engineering, with subthemes and disciplinary excellence in each of these areas. We have premier departmental strengths in four integrated enabling technologies that include Simulation (both computational and experimental), Smart Sensing, and Data and Network Science, and Urban Informatics.
q.wang@northeastern.edu
Urban and social resilience; geo-social networking; coupled, human-natural systems, natural disaster response and evacuation; urban computing
ya.zhang@northeastern.edu
Air quality; atmospheric chemistry; cloud/aerosol microphysics; sensitivity and uncertainty analysis; multiscale atmospheric modeling and forecasting; climate and Earth system modeling; health impact assessment; eco-environmental sustainability; human-Earth system interactions
Recent News
How nature-based solutions are being used to fight rising seas
CEE Assistant Professor Julia Hopkins has been working to improve her designs for the Emerald Tutu project, a floating marshland made of interconnected mats of marsh grasses, which could serve as a defense system to protect against future floods caused by rising seas, while also purifying the surrounding waters.
Sustainability and Data Sciences Laboratory Invited to Present at United Nations HQ
The Sustainability and Data Sciences Laboratory presented at a United Nations event on disaster risk reduction, highlighting the importance of data-driven climate resilience and resilient infrastructure.
Coming soon: A co-op experience living under the ocean in the world’s largest undersea science station
MES/CEE Professor Mark Patterson and CEE Affiliated Faculty Brian Helmuth serve as chief science advisors for the Proteus project, which involves the development of an underwater habitat observatory and lab off the coast of Curacao to research marine science and train for extreme environments like outer space.
Ministerial Delegation from the Government of Indonesia Visits the SDS Lab at Northeastern
A high-level delegation from BAPPENAS, the Indonesian Ministry for National Development Planning, visited the Sustainability and Data Sciences Laboratory (SDS Lab) at Northeastern University on May 1, 2023 to discuss long-term collaborations. The ministerial delegation from Indonesia included the Chief Secretary Dr. Taufik Hanafi, the Director of Data and Information Dr. Agung Indrajit, Special Adviser Dr. Kemal Taruc, […]