Annual Report
2024-2025
This past year, the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, the largest department within Northeastern, strengthened its reputation for innovation and impact. Our 91 faculty members—including 65 tenured and tenure-track faculty—continue to forge advancements in AI, Biomechanics, Energy Systems, Fluids, Human Technology Integration, Manufacturing, Materials, Mechanics, Network & Service Systems, Robotics, and much more. Notably, over 33 percent of our tenured/tenure-track faculty have received prestigious Young Investigator Awards, speaking to the quality of our research and leadership in the field.
Overall, we offer a diverse selection of 41 different degree programs, certificates, and minors to explore these key collaborative research themes. I invite you to explore our digital annual report, where you will find stories of discovery, collaboration, and innovation along with key statistics from 2024–2025.
Thank you for your continued support and the incredible work happening here at Northeastern.
Yingzi Lin
Professor and Chair
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
5 National Science Foundation CAREER Awards in 2025
MIE Assistant Professor Ruobing Bai received an NSF CAREER Award, Interfacial Fracture, Fatigue, and Switchable Adhesion of Soft Sticky Adhesives to improve the functionality of soft sticky adhesive materials so that they do not easily crack or break, and can rapidly switch between adhesive and non-adhesive states.
MIE Assistant Professor Wei Xie was awarded an NSF CAREER Award, Mechanism-Informed AI for Biological Systems-of-Systems to Accelerate Biomanufacturing Systems Integration and Innovations to develop fundamental artificial intelligence for biomanufacturing, accelerating automation, and system integration in complex biopharmaceutical manufacturing with improved capabilities and flexibility.
MIE Assistant Professor Xiaoyu Tang received an NSF CAREER Award, Unraveling Flow-Fluid Coupling During Impact of Complex Fluid Droplets to understand and control the impact dynamics of particle-laden droplet on surfaces, for optimizing strategies to enhance precision and performance in industrial applications such as advanced manufacturing and coating processes.
MIE Assistant Professor Kayse Lee Maass received an NSF CAREER Award, Multi-Agent Network Interdiction and Service Provision Models to Counter Human Trafficking to more effectively disrupt human trafficking and improve access to critical support for survivors.
MIE Assistant Professor Shahin Shahrampour was awarded an NSF CAREER Award, Foundations of Scalable, Fast, and Online Decentralized Manifold Optimization in Multi-Agent Networks working towards the development and adoption of decentralized manifold optimization in large-scale, multi-agent optimization.
Stats
Total Enrollment (Fall 2025)
Total Faculty
including 65 Distinguished Tenured/TT Faculty
External Research Awards (2020-2025)
Research Expenditure (2020-2025)
Co-op Employers
Fellows of Professional Societies
Faculty received Young Investigator Awards (33 total)
Faculty received NSF CAREER Awards (22 total)
Bachelor’s Degrees (5 minors):
Mechanical, Industrial, ME & Design, IE & Business Admin, and more.
Master’s Degrees:
Data Analytics Engineering, Advanced and Intelligent Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, and more.
Graduate Certificates:
Data Analytics Engineering, Lean Six Sigma, Engineering Management, Energy Systems, and more.
PhD Programs:
Mechanical, Industrial, and Interdisciplinary Engineering
New Faculty
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Nivii Kalavakonda Chandrasekar joined the mechanical and industrial engineering department in August 2025 as an assistant teaching professor in Seattle, WA. She earned her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Washington in 2025. Her research expertise spans robot manipulation, machine learning, and controls, with a particular interest in teaching courses on robot learning for unstructured and dynamic human-robot interaction scenarios. |
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Ruidong Ma joined the mechanical and industrial engineering department in August 2025 as an assistant teaching professor in Seattle, WA. He earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2025, where he also completed his Master’s degree in 2020. His research focuses on biomedical engineering applications, including cryopreservation systems, cell processing technologies, and artificial organ design. |
Honors
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MIE Distinguished Professor Yiannis Levendis is the recipient of the 2025 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Robert G. Quinn Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the promotion of excellence in experimentation and laboratory instruction. |
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MIE Professor and Chair Yingzi Lin’s paper on “Isolating the Impact of Masked Perceptual Attacks on Attention in Mixed Reality” won the IISE Best Paper Award in the Human Factors & Ergonomics (HF/E) track at the IISE Annual Conference & Expo 2025. |
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MIE Associate Teaching Professor Mohammad Dehghani received the Data Analytics & Information Systems (DAIS) Data Analytics Teaching Award from the DAIS division of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, the prime national society for industrial engineering. |
Research
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MIE Assistant Professor Juner Zhu, in collaboration with Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics (PI), was awarded a $3.7M ARPA-E grant for “EV Battery Lifetime Extension With Material Intelligence (EVERMORE)” in the Catalyzing Innovative Research for Circular Use of Long-lived Advanced Rechargeables (CIRCULAR) program. |
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CEE Assistant Professor Gilbert Ye, MIE Professor and Chair Yingzi Lin, CEE Professor Andrew Myers, in collaboration with the University of Alabama, were awarded a $1M NSF grant for “Engaging and Preparing the Offshore Wind Workforce through Hybrid Experiential Learning.” |
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MIE Assistant Professor Xubo Yue, in collaboration with Brown University, has received a $1M NSF grant for “SCH: Protecting Privacy and Promoting Fairness in Advanced Genomic Research using Federated Learning.” |
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University Distinguished and MIE William Lincoln Smith Professor Ahmed Busnaina was awarded a patent for “High rate printing of microscale and nanoscale patterns using interfacial convective assembly.” |
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MIE Teaching Professor Xuemin Jin published a book on “Data Mining: Methodologies and Applications.” The book bridges theory and practice, providing foundational methodologies and practical applications across various domains. It includes real-world example, step-by-step explanations of data mining techniques with AI and analytics applications, and exercise problems, review questions, and Python code for hands-on learning. |
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MIE Professor Yung Joon Jung published his research on “Bundling Effect of Semiconductor-Enriched Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Networks on Field-Effect Transistor Performance” in Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing. The research aims to address ongoing and significant challenges in achieving electronically homogeneous channels for field-effect transistors (FETs) due to persisting metallic percolation and uncontrollable nanotube bundling. |
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Laura Lewis, university distinguished and Cabot professor of chemical engineering and mechanical and industrial engineering, who studies critical minerals and their applications, discusses a deal that would give the U.S. a share of Ukraine’s critical raw minerals. Professor Lewis is a sought-after thought leader, demonstrated by her recent features in major international media outlets, including The Economist, Newsweek, Business Insider, and a Bloomberg News TV interview. |
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MIE/BioE Professor Sandra Shefelbine, in collaboration with Brown University, was awarded a $625,000 NSF grant for “Bones and Burrowing: Mechanoadaptation in phylogeny, ontogeny and ecology of Peromyscus.” |
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MIE Associate Professor Yaning Li, her former postdoc Shujing Dong (now a professor at Shanghai Polytechnic University), and recent graduate Ammar Batwa, PhD’25, (now a professor at King Abdulaziz University), published their research on “Tuning Local Anisotropy for Macroscopic Auxeticity: Design Auxetic Meta-Lamina via Systematic Finite Element Simulations and Machine Learning Approach” in Materials & Design. Their research unveils an AI-aided design framework for meta-laminae, a breakthrough that enables the generation of an infinite variety of auxetic meta-laminae by systematically tuning local anisotropy. |
Student Achievements
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Matthew Coughlin, E’25, mechanical engineering, has been named a Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University, becoming the fifth Husky to receive the prestigious fully-funded graduate scholarship. |
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A Northeastern University student team won first place at the MassRobotics Form & Function Robotics Challenge, receiving the $10,000 grand prize. They competed against 16 teams from universities across the globe. |
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A Northeastern University student team placed third in the University Rover Challenge of The Mars Society. They competed in Utah with 39 teams from around the world against schools like the University of Michigan, Cornell, as well as teams from Japan, Bangladesh, Turkey, and more. |
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The London Northeastern Robotics Club secured first place in the 2025 National Unibots Competition held at the University of Cambridge, besting 10 other teams with its robot that incorporated a vacuum motor, which gave it an edge against its competitors. |
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Natalee Barber, E’26, industrial engineering, received the Harold and Inge Marcus Scholarship from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) in recognition of her academic achievement and campus leadership. |
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Zumrat Usmanova, PhD’27, mechanical engineering, who is advised by Ruobing Bai, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, was recognized with the highly competitive Alan Gent Distinguished Student Paper Award from The Adhesion Society. |
PhD Spotlights
Lluvia “Weijia” Jing, PhD’25, Industrial Engineering
Lluvia “Weijia” Jing, PhD’25, industrial engineering, focused on optimizing global humanitarian supply chains. As part of a multi-year collaboration with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Jing led the development of advanced models to support decision-making for both pre- and post-disaster planning strategies in regions affected by food insecurity.
Turner Jennings, PhD’25, Mechanical Engineering
Turner Jennings, PhD’25, mechanical engineering, authored a dissertation on improving helmet impact response that focused on using granular materials instead of polymeric foams to absorb impact energy. Following graduation, Jennings joined Northeastern as a postdoctoral research associate.
