Skip to main content
Centers/Institutes

Engineering faculty lead College Research and Academic Centers and are active members and leaders of other College Centers and University Level Centers and Institutes (ULCIs).

College Research and Academic Centers

  • Engineering Faculty: Venkat Selvamanickam, Mechanical Engineering

    The University of Houston has served as the backdrop for important breakthroughs in the field of superconductivity since 1987, when UH professor Paul Chu showcased the first high temperature superconductors to the physics world. ASMI continues in this commitment by centering on industry-ready solutions that bring the world closer to truly sustainable energy transmission.

  • Engineering Faculty: Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, Electrical and Computer Engineering

    The Building Reliable Advances and Innovation in Neurotechnology (BRAIN) Center is an Industry/University Collaborative Research Center at Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of Houston (UH). This partnership will allow rigorous testing of efficacy, safety and long-term reliability of neurotechnology that would not be otherwise possible within the traditional ‘silos’ of academic, industry, regulatory and clinical communities. The BRAIN Center will develop safe, effective and affordable personalized neurotechnologies for diagnostics, restoration, enhancement, and rehabilitation of sensory, motor, affective and cognitive functions. This mission will be pursued by supporting innovative interdisciplinary research across the multiple dimensions of brain function and behavior with the ultimate goal of improving quality of life.

  • Engineering Faculty: Ji Chen, Electrical and Computer Engineering

    The mission of the Center for Electromagnetic Compatibility is to support EMC research and education projects with a goal of developing the knowledge base, tools and people necessary to solve today's EMC problems and address the EMC problems of the future. This center is funded by the National Science Foundation and includes members from University of Houston, Missouri S&T, Clemson University and the University of Oklahoma.

  • Engineering Faculty: Cumaraswamy Vipulanandan, Civil and Environmental Engineering

    CIGMAT was established in 1994 as an industry-university consortium due to growing demand from industry for better management of information on grouts and grout applications. Ongoing research projects include rehabilitation of wastewater facilities, a new generation of deep foundations, and new pipes and materials.

  • Engineering Faculty: Dmitri Litvinov, Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Research in the Center for Integrated Bio and Nano Systems covers a range of topics related to the development and applications of novel magnetic materials and devices at nanoscale dimensions. These include nanomagnetic materials and devices directly related to the current and future magnetic storage technologies such as disk drive storage and probe storage based on MEMS, magnetic random access memory (MRAM), and magnetic cellular logic (QCA).

  • Engineering Faculty: Metin Akay, Biomedical Engineering

    This center is the successor of the Cognitive Science Initiative, and its primary mission is to conduct basic and applied research in neuro-engineering and cognitive science. Other important objectives include the education of students in a multi-disciplinary approach to topics relevant to neuro-engineering and cognitive science and the continuation and fostering of research alliances with the Houston and Galveston educational institutions and medical centers.

  • Engineering Faculty: John Wolfe, Electrical and Computer Engineering

    The mission of the Nanosystem Manufacturing Center is to develop technology for manufacturing integrated nanosystems. Support from the National Science Foundation in 2008 continued the development of an advanced neutral beam printer and supporting mask-making hardware for a high throughput lithograph in the sub-100 nm regime. Other projects by these center researchers include a proof of concept tool for removing photoresist from 300 mm silicon wafers through a collaboration with Axcelis Technologies Inc., as well as the development of two new concepts for fabricating water filters that are currently being evaluated by potential investors. Researchers also demonstrated, for the first time, the ability to fabricate nanoscale structures in 3-D

  • The mission of the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) is to provide research-quality airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) observations to the scientific community, advance the state of the art in airborne laser mapping, and train and educate graduate students with knowledge of airborne mapping to meet the needs of academic institutions, government agencies, and private industry. NCALM is based at the University of Houston and is operated in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley. The center is supported by the National Science Foundation and is associated with the multi-disciplinary Geosensing Systems Engineering & Sciences graduate program at the University of Houston.

  • Engineering Faculty: Ramanan Krishnamoorti

    The Subsea Systems Institute (SSI) was established in 2015 as a Texas Center of Excellence under the RESTORE Act and collaboration between the University of Houston, Rice University and the Johnson Space Center (NASA). In addition, the SSI and the University of Houston has partnerships with the Lone Star Community College, Texas Southwest University, Houston Community College, and other colleges to lead research and develop training and educational programs to accelerate energy related workforce development in critical areas for the state of Texas.

  • The Texas Center for Clean Emissions, Engines & Fuels is a heavy-duty diesel vehicle emissions testing laboratory. Capabilities range from bench scale reactor testing of emerging emission reduction technologies through chassis dynamometer testing of heavy-duty diesel vehicles.

Other College Research and Academic Centers

  • Engineering Faculty: Gino Lim, Industrial Engineering

    The Center for Borders, Trade and Immigration Research will address national challenges related to borders, trade and immigration through innovations in technology, data-enabled approaches to informed policy and mission-focused education and training programs.

  • Engineering Faculty: Stacey Louie, Civil and Environmental Engineering

    The University of Houston Coastal Center is designated by the Texas legislature as the Texas Institute for Coastal Prairie Research and Education. It is an environmental research and educational center about 14 miles northwest of the Gulf Coast, which contains about 300 acres of threatened coastal tallgrass prairie. UHCC aims to support environmental research on the Texas coast by providing researchers with access to field sites, equipment and facilities. The UHCC also seeks to broaden public awareness about science and the environment by supporting outreach activities with public groups and educational activities. 

University Level Centers and Institutes — ULCIs

  • Engineering Faculty: Venkat Selvamanickam, Mechanical Engineering

    The Advanced Manufacturing Institute (AMI) supports the transition of lab-scale technology to fully-fledged manufactured products for the market. Through highly-skilled leadership and scientists, AIM addresses manufacturing challenges and creates solutions in manufacturing R&D.

  • Engineering Faculty: Ramanan Krishnamoorti, Chemical Engineering

    The Mission of the Center for Carbon Management in Energy (CCME) is to establish a globally recognized Carbon Management Center for Energy to identify the key challenges and solutions necessary to lead the lower carbon future for the energy industry and societal marketplace. CCME is strategically driven by the challenges in oil and gas production, petrochemicals, and electric power sectors (including renewable energy platforms), as well as the entire energy value chain to consumer end use, to advance innovative and transformative solutions for a sustainable energy future.

  • Engineering Faculty: Chi-Chi May, Biomedical Engineering

    The HEALTH Research Institute will leverage an interdisciplinary group of researchers at the University of Houston to advance science capable of meeting the health needs of the Houston community and beyond. Our primary mission is to conduct cutting-edge research that informs novel prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and intervention strategies that mitigate a broad range of health challenges. Our partnerships with a diverse array of stakeholders will inform a growing public health challenge through multi-site cooperative trials, public health initiatives, and empowering dissemination and implementation activities that are embedded in the cultural fabric of the communities we serve.

  • Engineering Faculty: Pradeep Sharma, Mechanical Engineering

    The University of Houston’s Hewlett Packard Enterprise Data Science Institute, in collaboration with departments and colleges, leads research, education, and service activities in the broad area of data science and scientific computing and their applications. This includes application areas that are important to the Houston economy: energy and health. Research in data science will range from foundational research in data science and scientific computing to key application areas, including UH Research Thrusts: cyber and physical security, drug development and discovery, sustainable communities and infrastructure and accessible and personalized health care.

  • Engineering Faculty: Metin Akay, Biomedical Engineering

    Humana and the University of Houston have launched a strategic partnership to train future health care leaders with a focus on providing holistic, collaborative care to improve health outcomes. The Humana Integrated Health System Sciences Institute at the University of Houston (Humana Institute) fosters interprofessional team-based care in the colleges of medicine, nursing, optometry, pharmacy and social work. This collaboration will graduate health care professionals who are skilled in advancing population and community health and have a propensity for working with the underserved. 

  • Engineering Faculty: Hanadi S. Rifai, Civil and Environmental Engineering

    The Hurricane Resilience Research Institute (HuRRI) is a multi-state, multi-organization national center of excellence in resilience advancing our nation's ability to mitigate, assess, predict, protect, educate and recovery from hurricanes and severe storms for the purpose of creating and sustaining resilient communities. The mission of HuRRI is to serve as the premier resource for envisioning, promoting and institutionalizing hurricane resilience culture, knowledge, solutions and tools. The main goal of HuRRI is to change the paradigm from wait-and-pay to system-wide anticipate-and-accommodate as a framework for hurricane and severe storm resilience.

  • TcSUH is a large multidisciplinary university-based superconductivity and advanced materials research center, with over 200 faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students, housed in the Houston Science Center and several other buildings on the University of Houston campus

  • Engineering Faculty: Joe Francis, Biomedical Engineering

    It is the Mission of TIMES to advance scientific discovery through the development and application of measurement, evaluation, and statistical research methods. The primary purposes of the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics are to advance knowledge about, and to improve the behavioral, psychological, educational and developmental outcomes of children and adults through the application and development of high quality, cutting-edge research methods, and the delivery of state-of-the art research and statistical support services. 

Contact Us

Mail: University of Houston
Cullen College of Engineering
Engineering Building 2, Room E421
4222 Martin Luther King Boulevard
Houston, TX 77204-4007
egrgrant [at] central.uh.edu (egrgrant[at]central[dot]uh[dot]edu)

Google Map
UH Map & Driving Directions
(includes parking information)