Research at SEAS

Research plays a central role in achieving our vision to become a world class center for innovative and collaborative engineering research and learning in the heart of the nation's capital. Strong research programs allow us to recruit the very best faculty, to attract outstanding graduate students, to offer exciting and challenging research opportunities to our undergraduates, and to serve society by addressing some of the most complex problems facing our nation and the world. Here in the nation's capital, surrounded by government agencies and by technology companies large and small -- some well-established and others starting-up -- we have access to a vast array of possibilities for collaborations and, ultimately, for career opportunities for our students.

Our teaching and research facilities are located both on the Foggy Bottom campus in the heart of Washington, DC and at the Virginia Science and Technology Campus (VSTC), a 100-acre site in Loudon County, Virginia. Strategically positioned in the Northern Virginia technology corridor near Washington Dulles International Airport, Loudon County is growing rapidly and is home for the world headquarters of many Internet-related, defense, and technology companies. VSTC is the home of our centers of excellence in transportation safety, energy science, and high performance computing. At Foggy Bottom, the Science and Engineering Hall, a half million square feet, $300 million building, is under construction and will house the engineering school as well as several science departments. It will open in late 2014 and will be a catalyst in enabling our vision.

Some of the research priorities of our departments and faculty are presented below.