There are strong ties between the Department and a number of major research units at the University of Maryland. These units provide the Department's faculty and students access to highly specialized and state-of-the-art computing and laboratory facilities, as well as opportunities for collaborative and cross-disciplinary research projects. A significant number of Electrical & Computer Engineering faculty hold joint appointments with at least one of these research institutes and/or centers:
Research Institutes
Institute for Systems Research
The Institute for Systems Research (ISR) advances and exploits fundamental methodological tools—intelligent control, modeling and optimization, communications and signal processing, computing, operations research, human factors, reliability and risk assessment, and systems integration—to solve systems engineering problems. The institute has produced enabling technologies for manufacturing processes, consumer products, and very large-scale engineering systems such as hybrid communication networks and made important contributions to basic research and education. ISR offers a full range of collaboration options for interested corporations.
Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics
A joint institute of the Clark School and the College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics (IREAP) applies basic science skills to practical problems and engineering skills to fundamental scientific investigations. The institute is recognized internationally in high-temperature plasma physics, plasma spectroscopy, relativistic microwave electronics, high-brightness charged particle beams, laser-plasma interactions, nonlinear dynamics (chaos), ion beam microfabrication techniques, microwave sintering of advanced materials, nanoscience, and nanotechnology.
Institute for Physical Science and Technology
The Institute for Physical Science and Technology (IPST) pursues interdisciplinary research and education at the University of Maryland. IPST provides support for theoretical and experimental research in areas at the intersection of traditional disciplines. Current research programs are in the areas of applied mathematics, biophysics, chaotic dynamics, chemical physics, optical physics, space physics, scientific computation, and statistical physics.
Maryland Energy Innovation Institute
The Maryland Energy Innovation Institute (MEI2) provides a platform to catalyze basic research into new technology while stimulating economic growth and improving millions of lives across the state of Maryland. The Institute brings together science, industry, government, and economic leaders to develop new energy technologies and facilitate the transfer of technology ideas into a reality.
The Joint Quantum Institute
The Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) serves as a world-class research institute, conducting fundamental investigations of coherent quantum phenomena and thereby laying the foundation for engineering and controlling complex quantum systems capable of using the coherence and entanglement of quantum mechanics. The institute maintains and enhances the nation's leading role in high technology through a powerful collaboration among NIST, UMD and LPS; and provides a unique, interdisciplinary center for the interchange of ideas among atomic physics, condensed matter and quantum information scientists.
University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies
The University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) provides a unique multidisciplinary computing environment to address some of today’s most pressing scientific and societal challenges. Led by distinguished researchers and supported by a cutting-edge infrastructure, UMIACS pioneers computational science involving national defense, precision medicine, big data, cybersecurity, language and culture, and much more.
Research Centers
University of Maryland Energy Research Center
The University of Maryland Energy Research Center (UMERC) is a multidisciplinary university initiative dedicated to advancing the frontiers of energy science and technology, with a focus on energy storage, efficiency, and clean energy generation. The Center focuses on a broad array of research areas critical for future energy technology development.
The Maryland Cybersecurity Center
Bringing together experts from the Clark School, computer science, and fields such as economics, social science, and public policy , the Maryland Cybersecurity Center partners with government and industry on two major initiatives: providing educational programs that prepare the future cybersecurity workforce and developing innovative technologies to defend against cybersecurity attacks. Research addresses software and network security, cyber supply chain security, cybersecurity policy, attacker behavioral analysis, health care IT, and many other topics.
Maryland NanoCenter
A partnership between the Clark School, the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences, and the College of Chemical and Life Sciences, the Maryland NanoCenter promotes major nano research and education initiatives, provides a single point of contact for those seeking nano expertise and partnerships at the university, and supplies infrastructure to facilitate university nano activities through equipment, staff support, and informational and administrative functions.
The Maryland Robotics Center
Through interdisciplinary research and educational programs based on a systems approach, the Maryland Robotics Center seeks to advance robotic systems, underlying component technologies, and robot applications. Research activities include development of robotic component technologies (e.g., sensors, actuators, structures, and communication), novel robotic platforms, and intelligence and autonomy for robotic systems. The center includes faculty members from multiple Clark School departments, biology, and computer science.
Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials
The Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials (CNAM) establishes a unique, interdisciplinary center for the interchange of ideas and skills among scientists working in all aspects of condensed matter, nano physics, and advanced materials. The center lays the foundations for future high technologies based on electronic properties of condensed and nano systems. CNAM receives support from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Laboratory for Physical Sciences.
Maryland Hybrid Networks Center
The Maryland Hybrid Networks Center (HyNet) is one of 17 Commercial Space Centers sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). HyNet is a research center within the Institute for Systems Research and the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. The center's primary focus is to develop hybrid networks that link satellite and wireless systems with cellular, cable, Internet, and telephone networks.
Materials Research Science & Engineering Centers
Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs) support interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary materials research and education of the highest quality while addressing fundamental problems in science and engineering that are important to society. MRSECs require outstanding research quality, intellectual breadth, interdisciplinarity, flexibility in responding to new research opportunities, support for research infrastructure, and they foster the integration of research.
Center for Dynamics and Control of Smart Structures
This center is dedicated to research aimed at the design and control of smart structures. The Center's research is concerned with issues such as the coupling of elastomechanics and fluid mechanics with electro-physical influences such as piezo-electric effects, magnetostrictive effects, and electrocapillary forces. Part of the Center's research mission is to study the use large arrays of MEMS actuators and sensors to control fluids and structures in several applications settings.
The Quantum Technology Center
the Quantum Technology Center (QTC) aims to translate quantum physics research into innovative technologies. The center capitalizes on the university’s strong research programs and partnerships in quantum science and systems engineering, and is pursuing collaborations with industry and government labs to help take promising quantum advances from the lab to the marketplace. The QTC also trains students in the development and application of quantum technologies to produce a workforce educated in quantum-related engineering.
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