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 Return to: School of Engineering and Applied Science
UVA Engineering’s research centers, consortia and laboratories are on the leading edge of technology. We place a high priority on collaboration, technology transfer and opportunities that allow our faculty and graduate students to create solutions to the problems and challenges facing the world today.
Some of the finest engineering research centers, consortia and laboratories are located on the Grounds of the University of Virginia. Detailed information about all research centers and individual laboratories can be found at the following website. Selected locations are detailed below. https://engineering.virginia.edu/research/centers
The Brain Institute The University of Virginia Brain Institute was founded in the Spring of 2016 as part of the Cornerstone Plan, with the mission to create a network of closely interacting basic, translational, data and clinical neuroscientists at multiple schools at UVA to address key problems in neuroscience for the benefit of society.
Center for Advanced Biomanufacturing The UVA Center for Advanced Biomanufacturing supports collaborative research focused on developing innovative regenerative materials for use in advanced biomanufacturing, rapid proto-typing platforms amenable to scale-up, and integration and patterning for construction of hierarchical tissue systems. The center brings together UVA’s technical expertise in advanced manufacturing, biomaterials synthesis, biomechanics, mechanobiology, multiscale modeling, imaging, orthopedic clinical translation, and rehabilitation. A central application focus is the improved treatment of the otherwise irrecoverable muscle injuries that result from trauma or congenital defects (e.g., cleft lip/palate) and acquired conditions (e.g. muscle tissue loss due to tumor excision or infection).
Center for Applied Biomechanics As the largest university-based injury biomechanics laboratory in the world, the center specializes in impact biomechanics for injury prevention. Started by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 1989, the center now operates out of a 30,000-square-foot facility located in the University of Virginia Research Park. It is recognized as one of the world’s leading research groups in the field, using state-of-the-art equipment to analyze the intricacies of how the human body responds to injury. The center is where crash survival becomes a science.
Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering (CESE) This center addresses a technologically critical field. It encompasses the broad field of electrochemical science and engineering, which affects the performance and reliability of most products manufactured in the world today. The center is a multi-disciplinary research effort that includes activities in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering, as well as interactions with Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Physics. It is one of the nation’s leading research centers of its kind.
The Center for Engineering in Medicine The mission of the UVA Center for Engineering in Medicine is to create the nation’s best ecosystem for generating, developing, and translating innovative ideas at the engineering-medicine interface to improve prevention, diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of disease.
Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust The Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center focusing on the needs of industry in the security of hardware of cyberphysical systems and the internet-of-things embedded systems and devices. The Center’s primary research goal is to understand the risk and resilience of systems with embedded devices through innovations to methodologies of risk analysis and systems engineering. Initial research topics that are led at UVA include: Resource allocation to the security of critical devices in large-scale systems, tracking emergent and future conditions of the device supply chain, and system resilience to attacks on networks of interconnected devices.
Center for Research in Intelligent Storage and Processing in Memory The Center for Research on Intelligent Storage and Processing in Memory (CRISP) is a 5-year, multi-university center, spanning 21 PIs across 11 universities, funded by the Semiconductor Research Corporation’s Joint University Microelectronics Program (JUMP). The goal of CRISP is to address the “memory wall,” a bottleneck in which many algorithms are limited by access to memory or storage. This bottleneck is only becoming worse as data sets become larger and data access patterns become more complex. CRISP, which brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines in computer science and engineering, is addressing this challenge by developing new computer architectures that bring computing closer to where the data are stored and developing associated operating system and programming language support.
Center for Risk Management of Engineering Systems The UVA Center for Risk Management of Engineering Systems (Center), internationally recognized for its research on risk, resilience, and reliability, brings together UVA’s technical expertise in collaborations across the University. The Center develops theory, methodology, and technology to identify and manage risk for engineering systems. Industry and government sponsors of research contribute their unique strengths to a broad range of ongoing Center projects including, reliability modeling and simulation of multiple failure modes in complex and embedded systems, including hardware and software performance reliability, resilience analytics, and critical cyber physical defense and civil infrastructure systems.
Center for Transportation Studies Since its establishment following the federal Surface Transportation Act of 1987, the UVA Center for Transportation Studies has become one of the foremost university sites for research dealing with information technology, highway safety, transportation planning, management, and policy. The center oversees a comprehensive transportation program that includes education, research, and professional training. Thanks to longstanding ties with such organizations as the Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research, the Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center and the Federal Highway Administration, the center offers a comprehensive research program, covering areas such as intelligent transportation systems, transportation planning and logistics, traffic simulation, highway safety, sustainable transportation, infrastructure management, and freight and traffic operations. In the area of professional training, the center’s initiatives include the UVA Transportation Training Academy and the Transportation Project Management Institute.
Center for Visual and Decision Informatics This is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. The center’s mission is to research and develop next-generation technologies in data science, big data analytics, including visual analytics, augmented intelligence, and decision informatics to enable decision makers in government and industry to fundamentally improve the way their organization’s information is interpreted and analyzed. Its goals are to: become a world leader in big data and data science; create a network of diverse and complementary research sites in the United States and abroad; accelerate the creation and transfer of technology to industry and commercial products; attract high-quality student talent; and produce a future workforce that has the potential to benefit local and global economy.
The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Logistics Systems (CCALS) CCALS is a consortium of industry, government and universities that adapts and transforms advanced logistics systems for market-ready solutions. CCALS engages and benefits its members through applied research and innovation in data analytics, cyber-physical systems, and strategic investments. The University of Virginia and other university members of CCALS bring outstanding capabilities and research depth in logistics-related disciplines. They also provide access to the best and brightest engineering, business and IT students who will compose tomorrow’s logistics workforce. Industry sets the agenda at CCALS, leveraging university expertise and real-world experience to solve logistics challenges that arise as complex technological, mechanical and human systems interact. With multiple perspectives at the table and favorable intellectual property policies, CCALS ensures that promising discoveries become effective business solutions faster than ever.
The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM) CCAM is a public-private research partnership created by the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Virginia State University, Canon, Chromalloy, Newport News Shipbuilding, Rolls-Royce, Sandvik Coromant, Siemens, and Sulzer Metco. The center’s overall goal is to accelerate new technologies from initial creation through application and proof of concept and into commercial practice by bringing researchers from the universities and industry into a shared collaborative environment. CCAM is housed in a 60,000 square-foot research facility near Richmond, Va., providing researchers access to production quality, state-of-the-art advanced manufacturing equipment for proof-of-concept experiments for new research results. CCAM provides research and internship opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students.
Environmental Resilience Institute The pace and dimensions of environmental change are now greater than in any other period in human history. Climate and land-use change, population growth, and urbanization are putting people, infrastructure, and environments at risk and affecting critical resources such as water, food, and energy. Disruptions − natural and human-caused − have now become the new norm. The Environmental Resilience Institute brings together UVA faculty, students, and external partners to conduct trans-disciplinary research at the intersection of environmental change and human wellbeing. The institute’s overarching goal is to identify solutions to some of society’s most challenging and complex social-environmental problems. These grand challenges are complex, often global, and thus multicultural. Solutions require a new paradigm of trans-disciplinary research that merges theories, methods, and data across human, natural, and infrastructure systems to both enhance resilience and to understand future scenarios of change.
Global Infectious Diseases Institute UVA’s Global Infectious Diseases Institute aims to address three major 21st-century concerns: diarrheal disease in children, pandemic threats and the most resistant and urgent infectious organisms known as superbugs. The institute takes an interdisciplinary approach, from the identification and diagnosis of disease to intervention to evaluation, in order to understand the mechanisms of disease and intervene medically, socially and through policy. The institute will involve faculty and students from the UVA schools of engineering, medicine, arts and sciences, public policy, education, nursing, business and law.
Institute for Nanoscale and Quantum Scientific and Technological Advanced Research (NanoSTAR) NanoSTAR encourages, facilitates, and supports collaborative research, education, and commercialization in the key areas of electronics, biomedicine, and energy and the environment through partnerships with academia, industry, and national laboratories. Nanoscale research at UVA encompasses three broad theme areas: electronics, biomedicine, and energy & the environment, and the university has several core facilities that support the research community.
Link Lab The Link Lab is a collaborative, interdisciplinary initiative focused on world-class research in cyber-physical systems. The lab’s faculty are dedicated to creating new knowledge and technologies at the intersection of the cyber and physical worlds, such as body sensors, smart buildings, wireless health, bio-inspired platforms and intelligent transportation systems.
NSF I/UCRC Center for Laser & Plasma For Advanced Manufacturing (LAM) The mission of the center is to develop a science, engineering and technology base for laser and plasma processing of materials, devices and systems for advanced manufacturing. LAM provides a unique environment for industry partners to stay abreast of the latest developments in advanced manufacturing technologies and access an outstanding team of scientists with top class facilities for research projects while offering excellent networking opportunities with key government personnel, industry peers, and potential future employees.
Multi-Functional Integrated System Technology (MIST) Center This is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. The center’s mission is to facilitate integration of novel materials, processes, devices and circuits into multi-functional systems through research partnerships between university, industry and government stakeholders. While there is a lot of effort in Internet of Things (IoT) applications at the software level, the focus of the MIST center is to develop the hardware base for the IoT. The UVA site adds expertise in functional materials, solid-state devices, photonics, Terahertz sensing, thermal characterization, multiscale modeling and heterogeneous integration.
Multi-Functional Materials Integration Initiative The Multifunctional Materials Integration Initiative (MMI) at the University of Virginia brings researchers from across the School of Engineering to develop ways to tightly co-design multiple technologies across length scales, enabling the next generation of integrated systems. These systems will be capable of achieving “more than Moore” and of interacting with a variety of carriers and environments by coupling multiple disparate materials and integrated processes to create hybrid technologies that enable performance, functionalities, and applications that are not possible with a single, homogeneous, monolithically integrated process.
NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST) ASSIST is a National Science Foundation sponsored Nanosystems Engineering Research Center (NERC). ASSIST develops and employs nanotechnology enabled energy harvesting and storage, ultra-low power electronics, and sensors to create innovative, battery-free, body-powered, and wearable health monitoring systems. The center’s mission is to use nanotechnology to improve global health by enabling a correlation between personal health and personal environment, empowering individuals and doctors to manage wellness and improve quality of life. The center received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2012 for five years of research, renewable out to 2022. The University of Virginia is one of the university partners.
The Rolls-Royce University Technology Center (UTC) The University of Virginia is one of only three universities in the United States chosen to join the global Rolls-Royce University Technology Centers network, comprising research groups in world-class universities identified to develop long-term research and technology programs. The centers provide mutual benefits through funding of fundamental, collaborative research to advance key aerospace technologies critical to Rolls-Royce. UVA’s center specializes in the study of advanced material systems, flow modelling and other fields. UVA works closely with Rolls-Royce to investigate ceramic matrix composite materials for use in aerospace and other high-technology markets. CMCs offer high strength at the extreme temperatures and pressures encountered in aerospace applications, but with significantly reduced weight. UVA also provides cutting-edge capability in advanced coatings, including novel compositions and application methods. Advanced coating technology is required to take full advantage of CMCs, so the center takes advantage of the synergy of both capabilities existing at the same institution. Complementary areas of research at UVA include catalytic coatings, soot emissions, aqueous corrosion and manufacturing technology development.
Rotating Machinery and Controls Laboratory (ROMAC) ROMAC conducts research in the areas of rotor dynamics, turbomachinery, structural dynamics, magnetic bearings, automatic controls, turbomachinery flows, fluid film bearings, and seals. The Laboratory’s research is supported by a consortium of industries through the ROMAC Industrial Research Program.
The Virginia Microelectronics Consortium (VMEC) is a group of colleges and universities including George Mason University, Norfolk state University, Old Dominion University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Military Institute, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and the College of William and Mary that offer a world-class program in microelectronics education and research. VMEC was created in 1997 to serve the microelectronics industry in the Commonwealth and to exploit our diverse industry and educational microelectronics resources to our mutual benefit. Member companies include Micron and BAE Systems.
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