Northeastern University College of Engineering

Northeastern University College of Engineering

Type	Private
Established	1909
Parent institution	Northeastern University
Dean	Gregory D. Abowd
Academic staff	169[1]
Undergraduates	3398[1]
Postgraduates	4,259[1]
Location	Boston , Massachusetts , United States 42°20′18.3″N 71°5′19.8″W / 42.338417°N 71.088833°W / 42.338417; -71.088833
Website	coe.northeastern.edu

The Northeastern University College of Engineering (COE) is the engineering school of Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.^[2] It offers Bachelor of Science (BS), Master of Science (MS) and doctoral degrees, as well as graduate certificates, in a variety of engineering fields, as well as undergraduate and graduate degrees in interdisciplinary and engineering fields. It is by the accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET^[3]

An engineering department was first established around 1901 as part of the evening educational program at the Boston Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA).^[4] The variety in engineering courses was meant to prepare men for work in engineering and industrial design. A Co-operative School of Engineering, the institution's first day school, was formed in 1909. Carl Ell, a future president of Northeastern, joined the engineering faculty after graduate work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1910. He became head of Northeastern's civil engineering department two years later and dean of the School of Engineering in 1917. In his first year as dean, he nearly doubled the size of the cooperative education, or co-op, engineering student body from 160 to 235 and the number of co-op engineering industries from 27 to 42.^[5] Ell was credited with transforming Northeastern's campus and making its cooperative education, or co-op, program, originally an option within the engineering school, an integral part of the university-wide curriculum.^[6]

In 1920, the engineering school received degree-granting powers.^[5] In 1936, however, the school failed to receive accreditation largely due to cramped classrooms and inadequate laboratory facilities at the Huntington Avenue YMCA building, but also because its four-year curriculum that included the co-op experience was deemed too short. As a result, a new governing body, the Northeastern University Corporation with an independent board of trustees, was created to give the Boston YMCA less control over the university. The curriculum of the engineering school, which by that time included civil, mechanical, electrical, industrial and chemical engineering programs, was expanded to five years. And the university constructed its first campus building, Richards Hall. By 1960, enrollment at the College of Engineering had reach 2,734 students, making it the largest undergraduate engineering program in New England and one of the largest in the country. Eventually, the engineering school moved into its own space, designed by Keyes and Associates, in 1983.

Centrally located on Northeastern’s Boston campus, the College of Engineering is housed in the Snell Engineering Center. George Snell, a 1941 alumnus, and his wife, Lorraine, donated money to establish the facility.^[7] The building occupies the same area where the first World Series baseball game was played in 1903.^[8]

In 2017, Northeastern opened a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary facility in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood on Columbus Avenue. The Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC) includes wet and dry laboratory facilities, classroom and office space, a 280-seat auditorium and a large atrium with a spiral staircase totaling 234,000 square feet (21,700 m²) of space to accommodate approximately 700 faculty and graduate students. The construction of the six-story facility is part of the university’s ongoing effort to expand its research across disciplines.^[9][10] A second 350,000 square feet (33,000 m²) eight-story research building, called EXP, is to be located west of the first building on Columbus Avenue and will contain labs, a cafe and a faculty club.^[11][12]

The College of Engineering offers 65 undergraduate and graduate engineering degree programs at the BS, MS and PhD levels, in addition to a wide range of minors and graduate certificates, including the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program which can be combined with any master’s degree. Undergraduate students can participate in the PlusOne accelerated master’s degree program. In addition to the Boston campus, some graduate programs are offered at the university's satellite campus locations.^[13]

Beginning in 1909, the College of Engineering was the first school at Northeastern to offer the co-op program. The co-op program gives undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to work within their profession for four, six, or eight-month periods as part of their educational experience. Co-op positions are available locally and globally, and for industry and research positions.^[14]

The College of Engineering contains five departments:

• Bioengineering Department
• Chemical Engineering Department
• Civil & Environmental Engineering Department
• Electrical & Computer Engineering Department
• Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Department

Northeastern University's College of Engineering programs are highly ranked by U.S. News & World Report as some of the best engineering programs in America. For the magazine's 2025 edition, the undergraduate engineering program was ranked #35 and its graduate engineering #34. In 2015, Business Insider ranked the college #29 on its list of the 50 best computer science and engineering schools in America.^[15]

A major goal of Northeastern engineers is to lead the way in interdisciplinary research. Collaborations between biologists, chemists, physicists, geologists and physicians seek new answers to problems like tumor detection, soil remediation and emissions control. Some of these explorations with industrial partners have been instrumental in making better products in industries from telecommunications to automotive manufacturing.

Federally-Designated Research Centers Led by Northeastern

The College of Engineering has a significant track record of leading federally-designated centers. Centers which have graduated from their federal funding, and centers for which the college is a partner, are listed below.

• PROTECT Center - Designated by the National Institutes of Health as a Superfund Research Center, PROTECT studies exposure to environmental contamination in Puerto Rico and its contribution to preterm birth. PROTECT also seeks to better understand the phenomena affecting fate and transport of hazardous substances in aquifers and to develop green remediation strategies.
• Soft-target Engineering to Neutralize the Threat RealitY (SENTRY) - Designated a Center of Excellence by the Department of Homeland Security, SENTRY (Soft-target Engineering to Neutralize the Threat RealitY) addresses the many challenges of protecting soft targets and crowded places in our homeland.

Federally-Designated Research Centers Where Northeastern Is a Partner

• Academic Center for Reliability and Resilience of Offshore Wind (ARROW) - Designated by the Department of Energy with additional support from the states of Maryland and Massachusetts, ARROW is a first-of-its-kind center of excellence on offshore wind.
• AI Institute for Future Edge Networks and Distributed Intelligence (AI-EDGE) - Designated by the National Science Foundation as an NSF AI Institute, AI-EDGE leverages the synergies between networking and AI to design future generations of wireless edge networks.
• Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust (CHEST) - Funded by the National Science Foundation as an Industry-University Cooperative Research Center, CHEST will coordinate university-based research with the needs of industry and government partners to advance knowledge of security, assurance, and trust for electronic hardware and embedded systems.
• Center for Pandemic Insights - Funded by the National Science Foundation as a Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention Center, CPI aims to harness new technologies and develop sensing to detect, investigate, and ultimately prevent pandemics at their source.
• Center for Solid-State Electric Power Storage (CEPS) - Designated by the National Science Foundation as an Industry-University Cooperative Research Center, CEPS is advancing critical solid-state energy systems research and battery supply chain challenges for portable and medical applications, the automotive industry, centralized and decentralized electric grids, military applications, and energy security.

University Research Institutes and Centers

Northeastern institutes support interdisciplinary, cross-sector teams working on societal changes with wide-ranging applications to groups with a more singular focus. The College of Engineering leads four university institutes, partners with 10 more, and supports one college center.

• Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things - WIOT pioneers research in wireless systems and networks to make the next generation of internet of things a continuum of connected devices able to interact in new ways with people and the environment—from connected cars and drones, to implantable medical devices and smart communities.
• Institute for Experiential Robotics - IER focuses on the development of robots able to learn and adaptively execute autonomous behaviors from human partners and/or other robots.
• Institute for NanoSystems Innovation - The institute is a global hub focused on pioneering semiconductor research, learning, and innovation.
• Institute for Mechanobiology - The institute accelerates mechanobiology discovery and technology to enhance human health and advance medicine. It is one of only a few in the world specifically dedicated to mechanobiology study and innovation.
• Cross-College Magnetics Center - The center advances the frontiers of magnetic science and technology through interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. Our center develops strong partnerships with industry, government laboratories, and leading magnetics programs worldwide to serve as a global hub for cutting-edge magnetics research.
• The Plastics Center - The Plastics Center is a global leader in the fight against plastic pollution. By collaborating with partners from across Northeastern's global network and institutions in the Global South, we work to drive research, contribute to global policy-making, and enhance sustainability worldwide.
• Center for Signal Processing, Imaging, Reasoning, and Learning - Conducts fundamental and interdisciplinary applied research in the areas of computational modeling, computer vision, distributed computing, image analysis, machine learning, optimization, and signal processing.

COE Researchers Are Active in Northeastern Research Institutes

• Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis - Developing and applying technologies for biopharmaceutical characterization and proteomics and systems biology.
• Coastal Sustainability Institute - Creating cleaner, safer, smarter coastal communities, using environmental sensing, predictive analytics, and other technology tools to reduce threats at the land-sea interface, including sea-level rise, collapsing fisheries, coastal pollution, and gaps in port security.
• Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute - Forging partnerships with experts in industry, government, and academia worldwide, the Institute's faculty and students develop, protect, and enhance technologies on which the world relies—from mobile devices and smart IoT applications to tomorrow's self-driving cars and delivery drones.
• Dublin Innovation Institute - The Dublin Innovation Institute facilitates groundbreaking research addressing global challenges through responsible technology and innovation, health and wellbeing, sustainability and climate action, AI and data science, and advanced manufacturing.
• George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security - Fostering collaborative, use-inspired research aimed at expanding the capacity of communities, critical systems, and infrastructure to withstand, respond to, and recover from manmade and natural catastrophes.
• Global Resilience Institute - Informing and advancing societal resilience around the world by partnering with other leading academic research institutions, nonprofits and the public and private sectors to devise and apply practical, interdisciplinary innovations and solutions to resilience challenges.
• Institute for Experiential AI - The true promise of AI lies at the intersection of humans and intelligent machines, helping each achieve what neither could alone and to transform society for the better. Northeastern's Institute for Experiential AI advances this human-centered approach, enabling us to design, implement, and scale AI to help people reach greater productivity and creativity at work, lead healthier lives, and build stronger communities.
• Institute of Information Assurance - Protecting the integrity and security of information and reducing the vulnerability of hardware and software systems to attacks.
• Quantum Materials and Sensing Institute - Developing the next-generation of quantum materials and sensing technology for impactful real-world applications.
• Roux Institute - Spurring innovation, building talent, and driving economic growth in Portland, the state of Maine, and the Northeast. Partnerships—with industry, academia, and government—set its research and education model apart.

In addition to these centers, COE has several major research initiatives and facilities.

• College of Engineering website
• Northeastern University website