Message from the Chair

Every day we are reminded in engineering of the many opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed. At Northeastern University, the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) is ready to educate and prepare our students for professional and technical excellence. We motivate students to perform research to advance the science and practice of engineering. Engaging in service activities that advance the department, the university, and the profession is highly encouraged. Our students’ habits and attitudes that promote ethical behavior, professional responsibility, and careers that advance the well-being of society are prominent. Our faculty are also recognized as global leaders in their fields, and the department continues to leverage these strengths to address societal needs through engineering in an evolving and complicated world.

Addressing engineering challenges, such as climate change, data science, supply chains, rethinking/reshaping cities, sustainable manufacturing, refining health, and well-being, and identifying new energy resources, in the coming decade is profoundly important. To this end, the MIE department has identified key collaborative research themes, including Robotics, Energy Systems, Sustainability & Environmental Protection, Resilient & Sustainable Service Systems, Mechanics, Human-Technology Integration and Systems, Materials for the Future, Intelligent Manufacturing, Networks and Complex Systems and more! Our department is comprised with over 80 tenured/tenure-track, teaching, and research faculty, where more than 33 percent of the MIE tenured/tenure-track faculty have received prestigious Young Investigator Awards. This speaks to the quality of our faculty and research.

Faculty research efforts are broad, interdisciplinary, and current. Some of these research areas include the transformation and modernization of manufacturing to remain competitive globally, applying artificial intelligence techniques to healthcare problems to maximize patients’ quality of life, while minimizing the potential financial burden for healthcare organizations, origami-inspired engineering, prevention of opioid addiction, combating human trafficking, use of recycled paper to cool the air helping homes stay cooler during warmer temperature, and the development of robots able to learn and adaptively execute autonomous behaviors.

The MIE department offers degrees to the doctorate and has  seen continual growth in our program offerings, with the addition of combined majors such as the BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and Design, a minor in Aerospace, as well as an MS in Advanced and Intelligent Manufacturing. These new and innovative programs for MIE bring together our disciplinary concentrations of mechanics, materials, mechatronics, and industrial engineering. Overall, we offer 37 different degree programs, certificates, and minors. MIE is the largest disciplinary department within Northeastern’s College of Engineering, with a total student enrollment of over 3,700 in the fall of 2023.