Research

The College of Engineering and Computing is dedicated to finding creative solutions and developing useful technology to solve real-world problems, enhance people’s lives, and make our planet safer, cleaner, healthier, and more prosperous. We’re passionate about research. We’re passionate about ideas. We’re passionate about our community. 

Our Pioneering Research Has a Real Impact

College of Engineering and Computing researchers are at the forefront of exploration and study in a number of significant areas.

From our roots in information and communication technology engineering, we are building inroads into uncharted territories of a future that is more efficient, safer, healthier, and more prosperous. 

Researchers are improving the following critical areas:

Air transportation management – As a center of excellence in operations research (NEXTOR), our work is staying ahead of the challenge of coordinating an increasingly crowded sky.

Information and network assurance – We’re planning for the next big network hack, and building defenses to protect you, your business, and our national communications systems from attack.

Configuration analytics and assurance – The best defense is a good offense. Our researchers are constructing testing methods and automatic systems to keep up with quickly changing user environments, networks, and cyber-physical systems.

Command, Control, Communications, Computing, Cyber, and Intelligence (C5I) – We’re the nation’s first and only public university to offer comprehensive education and research in engineering for C5I. No other university has access to such research in sensing and fusion, C3 architectures, communications and signal processing, command support and intelligent systems, modeling and simulation, and distributed education and training.

Secure Information Systems – We’re imagining and composing the new structures for secure information. This realm encompasses information secrecy, integrity, and availability problems in military, civil, and commercial sectors.

Learning agents – We’re conducting groundbreaking experimental research on the development of knowledge-based learning and problem solving for artificial intelligence.

A robot arm mirroring the movements of a person's arm on the right. Both sitting on a desk.

The Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interaction (CASBBI), a multidisciplinary center, is developing a new type of prosthesis. CASBBI uses cutting-edge ultrasound technology to help people gain greater control of the devices for their arms, hands, and legs.

Computer vision and neural networks – Our efforts are peering into the complexity of human visual processing and the potential capabilities of computerized sensing and processing.

Cryptographic engineering  – The demand for high-performance, efficient, and reliable encryption has never been greater. Our researchers supply the industry with the latest techniques and philosophies that influence this changing landscape.

IT entrepreneurship  – This center promotes entrepreneurship in Information Technology across the Mason community and guides IT ventures from idea to launch.

Systems architecture – CEC researchers are making new pathways in the modeling, design, and evaluation of architectures for information systems and the design of adaptive decision-making systems. 

Structural and geotechnical infrastructure – Rehabilitating and improving utility and mobility infrastructure is an urgent national priority. We combine structural engineering, robotics, computer vision, and artificial intelligence to create new approaches for improving the systems on which society and industry depend.

Water resources and environmental quality  – Water-related disaster is not a question of “if” but “when.” Mason Engineering researchers are working intensely to increase society’s resilience to threats caused by changes in climate, rising sea levels, urbanization, and environmental degradation.