Research institutes, centers, and initiatives

Major research institutes

CyLab Security and Privacy Institute

The CyLab Security and Privacy Institute brings together experts from a variety of disciplines across the university to collaborate on cutting-edge research and educate the next generation of security and privacy professionals. The institute aims to improve the security and privacy of artificial intelligence, IoT devices, and blockchain, among others. Our researchers are fueled by their passion to create a world in which technology can be trusted.

Manufacturing Futures Institute

The Manufacturing Futures Institute at Carnegie Mellon University strives to drive innovation in manufacturing for agility, intelligence, efficiency, resilience, and sustainability. As pioneers of the fourth industrial revolution, our engineers and scientists lead groundbreaking research in additive manufacturing, materials discovery, AI, robotics, machine learning, digital twin systems, policy, and workforce training, shaping the future of manufacturing.

Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation

The Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation tackles global energy challenges through collaborative research, partnerships, policy outreach, entrepreneurship, and education. Our researcher's impactful work aims to optimize resources, mitigate the environmental impacts of energy, and address the interconnected issues of energy and social equity. Focused on fostering breakthrough technologies, the institute strives to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon energy future.

Research centers and initiatives

Carnegie Bosch Institute

The Carnegie Bosch Institute represents a distinctive partnership between CMU and the Bosch Group, harnessing the synergies of academia and industry. This collaboration extensively explores the convergence of business and technology, emphasizing artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and privacy, and sustainability.

Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center

The Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center collaborates with industry, labor, government, policymakers, and other pertinent stakeholders to tackle strategic issues within the electricity sector. The center actively identifies, addresses, and resolves crucial challenges for the industry. Additionally, it provides training for graduate-student researchers, preparing them to confront the sector's most significant hurdles.

Center for Advanced Process Decision-making

The Center for Advanced Process Decision-Making is engaged in process systems engineering research. The center promotes and enhances modeling, optimization, numerical methods, and computing fundamentals for process synthesis, design, operations, planning and scheduling, process control, and optimization under uncertainty.

Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies

The Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies is advancing state-of-the-art knowledge through research and active participation in the evolution of environmental policy related to particulate matter. The center’s members are recognized internationally as leaders in the study of air quality and atmospheric chemistry.

Center for Climate and Energy Decision-Making

Anchored at Carnegie Mellon’s Engineering and Public Policy Department, the Center for Climate and Energy Decision-Making is working on problems related to the electric grid, energy storage, and decarbonization, among others. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the center includes researchers and experts from ten universities and organizations.

Center for the Engineering and Resilience for Climate Adaptation

The Center for the Engineering and Resilience for Climate Adaptation is an interdisciplinary research center committed to developing a suite of novel methods, tools, and analyses needed to incorporate climate change impacts into engineering infrastructure designs and decision-making. Headquartered in CMU’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, the center brings together world-class engineering, climate science, social science, and public policy researchers from around the world to advance the state of knowledge in engineering and resilience for climate adaptation.

Center for Iron and Steelmaking Research

The Center for Iron and Steelmaking Research is devoted to education and research on ironmaking, steelmaking, and metals processing. Housed in Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The center is supported by a number of industrial partners.

Data Storage Systems Center

The Data Storage Systems Center is a world-leading academic research institution in data storage technology, focused on magnetic data storage technology for hard disk drive applications, as well as emerging solid-state memory technologies. With many DSSC inventions being utilized in current commercial products and others awaiting deployment, researchers at DSSC are making important contributions in the memory technologies space.

Mobility 21

As the population grows and our nation’s cities expand, congestion is becoming a bigger problem outside of rush hour. Incredible innovations within the transportation sector are needed to avoid global gridlock. Mobility 21, a National USDOT University Transportation Center for Mobility of People and Goods, aims to discover, shape, and guide new possibilities to transform transportation as we know it for all modes of transportation in all regions of the country.

Next Manufacturing Center

The Next Manufacturing Center is one of the world’s leading research centers for additive manufacturing, leveraging the engineering and data science expertise from across Carnegie Mellon University to advance the field. The center strives to inspire, engineer, and lead technological and workforce advances for agile, intelligent, efficient, resilient, and sustainable manufacturing.

Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research

The Steinbrenner Institute seeks to change the way the world thinks and acts about the environment by facilitating connections and coordinating new research initiatives, promoting and helping build the strengths of our environmental research centers, supporting the development of educational materials to build climate fluency across CMU’s education units, and advancing emerging and interdisciplinary interests in environmental education and research.

Bioengineering Organs Initiative

The Bioengineering Organs Initiatives aims to save lives by increasing the amount of organs available to patients in need. Its multidisciplinary research team is designing, creating, and testing a new generation of long-term replacement organs engineered from a combination of bioprinted cellular and synthetic materials. This lifesaving technology has the potential to one day eliminate the current organ transplant waiting list.

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Center for Data-driven Material Design of Multifunctional Material Systems

The Center for Data-Driven Design of Multifunctional Material Systems leverages the strengths and talents of Carnegie Mellon University and the Air Force Research Laboratory in materials and computer research to establish a pipeline of research talent with expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and materials science and to advance the materials science field by integrating AI into materials research and design.

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Center for Software-defined Nanosatellite Constellations

A software-defined constellation is a collection of nanosatellites capable of autonomously sensing the environment, processing data, and cooperatively planning and taking mechanical actions. The Center for Software-defined Nanosatellite Constellations realizes this vision through cross-cutting cyber-physical systems research spanning computer systems, control, planning, actuation, machine learning, and communications.

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Center for Quantum Computing and Information Technologies

The Center for Quantum Computing and Information Technologies is bringing together an industry consortium, government laboratories, faculty, and students to apply quantum computing and information technologies to solve practical problems that cannot be addressed with classical systems. The National Science Foundation and the consortium support the center's work.

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Critical Technology Initiative

The Critical Technology Initiative focuses on creating the intellectual foundations, data, and analytic tools to support the government in designing critical technology, supply chain, and infrastructure strategies that realize win-wins across its multiple objectives (national security, economic prosperity—including jobs, and social welfare—including health, environment, and equity), beyond profitability/growth.

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Human+AI Design Initiative

The Human+AI Design Initiative democratizes engineering design through research, teaching, and applications of human-AI collaboration. Specifically, the initiatives researchers aim to develop and assess AI agents that collaborate with humans both as individuals and through teams; apply those AI agents to previously unsolved problems in engineering and design; and prepare the next generation of AI engineering practitioners and researchers through teaching and training efforts.

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Mobility Data and Analytics Center

The Mobility Data and Analytics Center aims to collect, integrate, and learn from the massive amounts of mobility data and contribute to the development of smarter multi-modal multijurisdictional transportation systems to provide archived and real-time traffic data of every element of multi-modal transportation systems, reveal the behavior information for both passenger and freight transportation,  and serve as a key instrument for managing transportation systems.

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NSF Center for Deep Decarbonization of Global Industrial Supply Chains

The NSF Center for Deep Decarbonization of Global Industrial Supply Chains at CMU is identifying opportunities to accelerate industrial decarbonization, conscious of the possible impacts on communities.

Safety 21

The US Department of Transportation Safety 21 Center is led by Carnegie Mellon University and actively seeks to enable and accelerate this transformation to a safer, more efficient, and equitable transportation network.

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SSyMBioTIC Biohybrid MURI

SSyMBioTIC leverages the expertise and talents of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University, and The Georgia Institute of Technology to improve biohybrid actuators' strength, lifespan, and control. This collaboration builds a network of stakeholders across academic institutions and national research laboratories to enhance research outcomes, share fabrication systems, and create workforce pipelines through personnel exchanges.

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