Labs and Groups

The AOIL consists of a team of ophthalmologists, engineers, software specialists, statisticians, and trainees that focus primarily on the study of glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness in the world. The groups of Profs. Schuman, Wollstein and Ishikawa develop advanced imaging tools to detect this disease, monitor its progression, and investigate its pathogenesis.

ARPL performs fundamental and applied research in robot autonomy. The lab develops agile autonomous drones that can navigate on their own using only onboard sensors without relying on maps, GPS or motion capture systems.

We aim to establish mathematical models, quantitative criteria, and algorithmic/computational foundations toward their implementations in robotics (for design and control), biomechanical systems (for prediction and analysis), and their intersections such as lower-body wearable robots. Our current research topics include energetics of dynamic systems, legged balance and gait stability, and integration of dynamics/control with numerical optimization.

Taking advantage of state-of-art nanotechnologies and fabricating fascinating functional biomaterials and integrated biosystems, the Professor Weiqiang Chen’s laboratory addresses numerous important problems in fundamental biology as well as clinical applications in disease diagnosis and treatment.

Led by Prof. Brandon Reagen, our research group specializes in computer hardware design, with a primary goal of making privacy-preserving computation practical. 

We also focus on optimizing machine learning systems for private computation. With a strong emphasis on energy-efficiency and security, our work aims to accelerate secure computation and enable privacy-preserving machine learning.

The Building Informatics and Visualization Lab (biLAB) is part of the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering at the NYU School of Engineering. It focuses on understanding the operational challenges associated with construction and operation of facilities and infrastructure systems in urban settings.

Professor Dan Sodickson’s research primarily addressed the development of new techniques for biomedical imaging to improve human health. He leads a multidisciplinary team that develops new methods for rapid continuous imaging, taking advantage of recent developments in parallel imaging, compressed sensing, and artificial intelligence. This work extends to clinical applications of MRI, PET and CT.

CATT promotes industry-university collaborative research and development in these areas: wireless and personal communications networks and devices, secure information technologies, and media and network applications/services.

Professor Andreas Hielscher’s team focuses on developing clinically relevant optical tomographic imaging systems. They apply these devices and wearable electronics to the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, such as breast cancer, arthritis, peripheral artery disease, diabetic foot syndrome, and real-time monitoring of brain activities.

The Communication and Information Theory (CommIT) Group at New York University is led by Professor Elza Erkip. They are interested in the theoretical foundations of networks, including wireless and social networks.

The research in Professor Sage Chen’s lab aims to find solutions for real-time brain-machine interfaces, pain management, and psychiatric disorders. Developing a better understanding of memory and sleep is another goal. To accomplish all this, they advance and integrate the fields of computational neuroscience, neural engineering, and machine learning.

C2SMART is a U.S. Department of Transportation Tier 1 University Transportation Center for research, education, workforce development, and technology transfer activities. Rather than just focusing on developing technologies to make a city smarter, C2SMART is dedicated to a related critical step: how to connect these disparate technologies with cities of different population and infrastructure scales and different systems of systems.

Professor Lukasz Witek’s research group performs in vivo and in vitro evaluations of a wide range of (bio)materials that can be used as implants for dental and orthopedic applications. A special focus is on 3D printing of bio-ceramic materials for tissue regeneration.

Through the novel use of observational and analytical techniques, the Urban Observatory at the Center for Urban Science + Progress (CUSP-UO) studies the complex interactions between the physical, natural, and human components of the city as a coherent, definable system with the goal of enhancing public well-being, city operations, and future urban plans. 

Natural catastrophes are steadily increasing in severity and frequency as cities become larger, denser, and more interconnected. The Disaster Risk Analysis Lab's goal is to extend the limits of what is feasible with catastrophe modeling and collaborate synergistically with researchers within and outside civil engineering to leverage new technologies to increase post-disaster power accessibility, provide more effective disaster emergency response, and reduce risk trajectories in our cities.

Professor Maurizio Porfiri’s group conducts multidisciplinary research in the theory and application of dynamical systems, motivated by the objectives of advancing engineering science and improving society. They perform research and development in the areas of robotics and mechatronics, experimental fluid mechanics, material characterization, animal behavior, and vibrations.

The Game Innovation Lab brings together faculty and students from the School of Engineering and the greater NYU community doing research focused on games as an innovation challenge. The Lab's emphasis is on the technical / engineering / science side of games and simulations. Sample projects include user interface innovation (sensor-based tracking, multi-touch), network and video quality research, and research on games for learning.

Using advances in computer vision and machine learning, Professor Guido Gerig’s team develops image analysis methodologies related to segmentation, registration, atlas building, shape analysis, and image statistics. Collaboratively with clinical research, this work is driven by medical problems covering research in autism, Down's syndrome, eye diseases, Huntington's disease, and musculoskeletal disorders.

Todd Hudson is a computational neuroscientist whose research focuses on modeling sensory and motor systems, particularly eye and arm movements in healthy and disease states. He received his training at the Clarence Graham Memorial Laboratory of Visual Science at Columbia University, and co-founded Tactile Navigation Tools, LLC, a company that develops navigation aids for the visually impaired.

Sahu Group — Our research investigates the transport phenomena in new and novel classes of nanostructured hybrid materials that have promise for optoelectronic and thermoelectric energy conversion. Our group has expertise in colloidal synthesis, advanced characterization, and device implementation of such materials.

Professor Sohmyung Ha’s lab aims at advancing the engineering and applications of silicon integrated technology interfacing with biology. This is approached in a variety of forms, ranging from implantable biomedical devices to unobtrusive wearable sensors.

INTERCEP is the first academic center dedicated to organizational resilience and agility. The center maintains a global outreach with a special focus on multi-party collaboration including business-to-business and public-private partnerships. Acknowledging that "risk and reward" are at the core of all undertakings in both the public and private sectors, the Center focuses on the development of strategies to most effectively address uncertainty so as to achieve targeted objectives — in essence addressing "risks" to achieve "rewards".

Our goal is to develop new control and game-theoretic tools for designing agile and resilient control for smart energy systems, communication networks, secure cyber-physical systems, and human-in-the-loop systems.

Professor Alesha Castillo and her team study the interactions between mechanobiological cues and musculoskeletal systems with the long-term goal of developing novel biophysical, pharmaceutical, and stem cell-based interventions to improve musculoskeletal health

Prof. David Fenyö’s uses proteomic approaches to develop methods to identify, characterize, and quantify proteins important for various cellular processes. His efforts to integrate data from multiple technologies - including mass spectrometry, sequencing, and microscopy - have provided a wide array of powerful tools to discover and verify biomarkers and therapeutic targets in cancer.

To respond to a changing environment, cells have to express the right genes at the right time. Professor Timothy Lionnet’s lab tries to understand how exactly this is achieved and how robust responses emerge from random molecular events. Getting insights into these biomolecular processes will ultimately provide new tools to tackle, for example, wound healing, cancer, and many other diseases.

Led by S. Farokh Atashzar, the MERIIT Lab develops and implements artificial intelligence algorithms, smart wearable hardware, advanced control systems, and signal processing modules systems to augment human capabilities using multimodal robotic technologies.

The research in the Professor Yong-Ak (Rafael) Song’s group at NYU-AD lies at the interface between biology, physics and engineering. More specifically, their research is focused on applying microfluidics and nanofluidics to broad range of challenges in bioscience and medicine.

NYU’s Mobile Augmented Reality Lab is devoted to pioneering the field of mobile augmented reality with emerging AR technologies.

Home to world-class micro- and nanofabrication and metrology tools, which meet or exceed the demands of academic and industry users alike. With over ~ 2000 sq. ft. of Class 1000 space, the Cleanroom is appropriately equipped to meet the present and future demands for device fabrication.

Hoagang Cai’s lab advancec nanotechnology for biological and biomedical applications. Employing nanolithographic technology, his group creates designer biomaterials and metasurfaces with unprecedented precision and functionality. Applications range from studying T-cell activation in cancer treatment to photo-stimulation in optogenetics and brain research.

Kevin Chan and his group are developing and applying new methods for noninvasive imaging of neurodegeneration, neurodevelopment, neuroplasticity, and neuroregeneration in people with vision-related diseases and injuries. They study the structural, metabolic, physiological, and functional relationships between the eyes, brain, and behavior with the mission to improve vision.

An interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to the study of disability and the development of accessible, assistive and rehab technologies.

Research activities in Professor Yao Wang’s group deal with encoding and distributing videos among a large number of users. Of special interest are diverse network access links and applications to biomedical imaging. The lab collaborates extensively with other research groups in wireless communication and networking at the School of Engineering and NYU’s medical school and hospitals.

NYU WIRELESS is a vibrant academic research center that is pushing the boundaries of wireless communications, sensing and networking. Centered at NYU Tandon and involving industry leaders, faculty and students throughout the entire NYU community, NYU WIRELESS offers a world-class research environment that is creating the fundamental theories and techniques for future mass-deployable wireless devices across a wide range of applications and markets.

Every day, our brains cycle through different states of awareness: from the rich conscious experiences during wakefulness to dreamless sleep to the bizarre experiences during dreaming sleep. Understanding the neural basis of conscious awareness is the basic goal of Prof. Biyu He’s team. She is using a combination functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magneto- encephalography (MEG) and invasive electrophysiology to explore relevant neural mechanisms and characterize various neuropsychiatric illnesses.

Professor Smita Rao and her colleagues in the Center of Health and Rehabilitation Research study the effects of exercise in individuals with diabetes, neuropathy, osteoarthritis, and other musculoskeletal conditions. Her research focuses on improving physical therapy and rehabilitation care in these patients.

Focuses on developing responsive soft materials for biomedical applications. The group uses tools from chemical and materials engineering, nanotechnology, chemistry and biology to create functional soft materials via scalable synthetic processes and to understand the material behavior in biological systems.

Garetz Group — We investigate the ways that laser light can passively and actively interact with materials. We use depolarized light scattering to passively characterize the micron-scale grain structure of block copolymer materials, which influences their viscoelastic, adhesive, optical and electrical properties. We use lasers to actively induce the nucleation of supersaturated solutions, providing novel ways of controlling crystal size, morphology and polymorphism.

Advances in miniaturized sensors and actuators, as well as artificial intelligence (AI), have broadened horizons for assistive and rehabilitative technologies. The team of Professor JohnRoss Rizzo, MD, is leveraging these innovations to help patients with conditions such as blindness and stroke, enhancing their ability to interact physically with their environment.

The Secure Systems Laboratory (SSL), under the direction of Professor Justin Cappos, works to find practical and deployable solutions to real-world security threats.

The Silverman Laboratory conducts research to understand and design sustainable and appropriate wastewater treatment process, in an effort to protect public health and environmental quality. Our research is focused on water quality, wastewater treatment, detection and control of waterborne pathogens, design of natural wastewater treatment systems (e.g., treatment ponds and constructed wetlands), and the safe reuse of human waste.

Prof Eli Rothenberg’s team specializes in development of cutting-edge single-molecule fluorescence imaging techniques. They apply these techniques to studying molecular mechanisms relevant to diverse human diseases, including cancer. Adding novel computational methods and assays they aim to discover biomarker, therapeutic targets, and understand drug mechanisms-of-action.

How is language produced and perceived in the human brain? What are the network dynamics that allow us to fluently communicate? These questions are still poorly understood and collaborations between scientists, clinicians, and engineers are crucial for making progress in this fascinating field. Adeen Flinker and his team are using unique human neurosurgical recordings and advanced data processing algorithms to elucidate these questions.

NYU Tandon @ The Yard is a 14,000-square-foot virtual production and AR/VR/XR research facility within the Brooklyn Navy Yard, bringing research-grade emerging technology within reach of media, entertainment, and cultural sectors of the city.

In a climate-changed world, flooding is expected to have an outsized influence on public health and infrastructure in urban areas. We are looking to develop a publicly- accessible platform that provides real-time flood information and to investigate changes to the microbiome.

We are focused on creating new data-driven methodologies to observe, model, and analyze the urban environment. Our work is grounded in solving real-world problems and providing decision-makers with a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between physical infrastructure systems, natural systems, and human systems.

ViDA consists of computer scientists who work closely with domain experts to apply the latest advances in computing to problems of critical societal importance, and simultaneously generate hypotheses and methods that new data demands.