Research Centers - Stevens Instittue

Academic excellence truly is the foundation of all research at Stevens. Our research community has three National Research Centers of Excellence:

On February 26, 2007, the US Department of Homeland Security announced the designation of Stevens Institute of Technology and the University of Hawaii as the co-leaders of a new center responsible for conducting research and developing new ways to strengthen maritime domain awareness and safeguard populations

and properties unique to U.S. islands, and remote and extreme environments. Stevens leads research and education for port security in its resulting Natioal Center for Secure and Resilient (CSR) Maritime Commerce.

Academic excellence is the foundation of world-class research conributions. Stevens designation by the US Department of Homeland Security as the lead research center for secure and resilient ports was no accident. This award culminated decades of academic excellence in port and estuary sensing, modeling, and environment engineering innovation including passive isolated swimmer detection at long range and at low cost. Located on the bank of the Hudson River directly opposite midtown Manhattan, New York City, Stevens is ideally situated and resoruced for continuing leadership in port operations, security and resilience. The Port Security Research tab provides quick access to our research enterprise from this perspective.

CSR is an example of an emerging global research theme that can be called cognitive or sentient spaces, where the unique mission, location, physical structure, fixed and wireless infrastructure, patterns of activity and most importantly "the people in and around the space" shape an integrated information environment that may be leveraged for greater convenience, efficiency, security, and/or resilience, depending on the needs of the space and the situation. Other examples of cognitive spaces of research interest at Stevens include elder care facilities, farms, emergency response scenes, and medical facilites.

In November, 2008, The US Department of Defense (DoD) announced that Stevens Institute of Technology had won the national competition for Systems Engineering Research to be managed by the US National Security Agency (NSA). Although much smaller institutionally than the competition led by The Johns Hopkins University and Georgia Tech Research Institute, Stevens made up in quality what we lacked in quantity, attracting true world-class contributors to our team such as Dr. Bary Boehm, the father of modern software systems engineering, now at USC. The resulting Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) provides basic research in systems engineering to any DoD or partner government agency via an umbrella contract. The first two tasks address processes and metrics for information-intensive systems. See the School of Systems and Enterprises home page for the latest research in systems engineering for complex systems, systems of systems (SoS), network centric sysetms, and cognitive enterprises.

Our Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) provides a second example of academic excellence leading to research impact. In the late 1990's as a defense contractor, Dinesh Verma realized that the US DoD needed much stronger educational offerings in systems engineering that would apply to their increasingly complex systems. Joining Stevens shortly thereafter, he formulated and began to teach domain independent systems engineering. The need in fact was so great that the demand was overwhelming. Course offerings grew with strategic hiring of national experts like Professor Wiley Larson, known to astronauts and NASA administrators alike as one of the true thought leaders and leading educators in space systems. Domain independent systems engineering began to meet a critical need at the US National Security Agency (NSA), and teaching the nation's leaders in information assurance and cybersystems contributed greatly to the rapid evolution of the Stevens curriculum. Based on its teaching, peer reviewed publications, and practical relevance, Stevens won the US DoD competition for Systems Engineering University Affiliated Research Center (UARC). Dinesh now is Dean of our School of Systems Engineering and Enterprises

For more information, please visit the SERC web site!

There have been significant improvements in the process design function in today's shipbuilding industry. There has however been little focus on integrating, perhaps through radical design changes, all the engineering disciplines associated with shipbuilding. A major challenge in U.S. Navy ship design in the 21st Century is ensuring performance and affordability with a reduced crew size while also maintaining high reliability and damage control. This challenge is particularly evident in the design of vessels to meet the Navy's new and emerging needs in the littoral zone. These needs require fast, relatively small vessels capable of operating in the range of weather and ocean conditions encountered in the littoral environment while also meeting the Navy's payload requirements.

The Atlantic Center for the Innovative Design and Control of Small Ships is addressing this issue by focusing on two key areas. First is in establishing an environment where engineering disciplines associated with hull design and ship automation can be brought together within the context of the total ship system architecture, thereby facilitating the creative knowledge development, educational changes and discipline integration required for true innovation. Second is the utilization of this unique education and research environment in the recruiting, training and long-term career development of the best and brightest young engineers in the U.S.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is the funding agency for a new and far-reaching naval research and engineering center. Located on Stevens campus, the Atlantic Center for the Innovative Design and Control of Small Ships involves an impressive consortium of co-investigators, including personnel from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD.; University College, London, England; and the Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Center for Environmental Systems (CES)

The Center for Environmental Systems (CES), a unique synthesis of the professional and academic worlds, is dedicated to applied, interdisciplinary research for the solution of pressing, real-world environmental problems. Through advanced knowledge and in-depth professional] expertise, CES is recognized as a leader in the development, evaluation and implementation of new environmental technologies.

CES excels in the following areas:

Environmental Research and Development
- Generating new scientific knowledge leading to the creation of innovative technologies, sound environmental policy, and sensible resource management
Education
- A leader in providing environmental education at the graduate and undergraduate level through degree and certificate programs
Technology Development
- Development and application of new and innovative environmental technologies for industry, government, and environmental service organization
Technology Commercialization

Supporting Stevens’ Technogenesis environment through the marketplace realization of home-grown environmental technologies (high-tech spin-off companies such as HydroGlobe and PlasmaSol)

For more information, please visit the CES web site!

Center for Maritime Systems (CMS)

The Center for Maritime Systems works to preserve and secure our nation’s maritime resources and assets through collaborative knowledge development, innovation and invention, and education and training. This Center has become the world’s leader in delivering new knowledge, advanced technology, and education in support of the maritime community.It uniquely integrates the fields of naval architecture, coastal and ocean engineering, physical oceanography, marine hydrodynamics and maritime security to create a trans-disciplinary enterprise that can address both the highly-specialized issues confronting each discipline, as well as the more complex, integrated issues facing natural and man-made maritime systems. The inclusion of undergraduate and graduate students in this collaborative research endeavor continues the Stevens tradition of Technogenesis® - where students, faculty and industry jointly nurture new technologies to the benefit of society. The Center is composed of four integrated laboratory activities and three support groups.

For more information, please visit the CMS web site!

The NJ Center for Microchemical Systems

The NJ Center for Microchemical Systems (NJCMCS) is a global leader in the design and characterization of microchemical Systems that emphasizes the rapid transfer of technology innovations to the marketplace in partnership with biomedical, chemical, defense, energy, and pharmaceutical industries.

NJCMCS aims to build the core knowledge base required to design, integrate, and produce microchemical devices on a rational basis, as emerging platforms for chemical process intensification and miniaturization. Currently, the Center is carrying out several vibrant projects, through innovative university-industry-government partnerships, for miniature fuel cell power devices and safe and cost-effective on-demand production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals

For more information, please visit the NJCMCS web site!

Highly Filled Materials Institute (HfMI)

The founding of our Research Center, the Highly Filled Materials Institute (HfMI) at Stevens in May 1989 has capitalized on the existing research of Prof. Kalyon and his colleagues at SIT. This research has especially focused on the areas of characterization and processing of soft solids and complex fluids, including various structured materials like polymers, suspensions, dispersions, nanocomposites, gels, and especially concentrated suspensions incorporated with solid particles at concentrations which by design attempt to approach the maximum packing fraction of the solid phase (highly filled materials)

We carry out contract research for companies and Government agencies in a wide range of fields which include the synthesis of crystalline particles and nanoparticles, wetting and compounding of nanoparticles and particles with polymeric binders and gels, analysis of rheological behavior of suspensions and rheology of polymers and characterization of various material parameters for viscoelastic and viscoplastic constitutive equations, analysis of the microstructure distributions and degree of mixedness of ingredients and particle size distributions, control of the ultimate properties including magnetic and electrical properties, processability analysis in single and twin screw extruders, modeling and numerical analysis of various processing operations. One principal area of current focus is in the area of preparation and manufacture of scaffolds from biodegradable polymers for various tissue engineering applications.

For more information, please visit the HfMI web site!

Design & Manufacturing Institute (DMI)

The Design & Manufacturing Institute (DMI) is a research and development center at Stevens Institute of Technology established in 1988. Since inception DMI has been working on research on integrated product, process and materials development; Tools and methodologies for design process optimization; and knowledge-based design and manufacturing technologies.

For more information, please visit the DMI web site!

Center for the Advancement of Secure Systems and Information Assurance (CASSIA)

The mission of the center is to foster collaboration and act as a catalyst for research, education, and entrepreneurship in information assurance and cybersecurity. Advances in the field require conceptualizing, measuring, modeling, and countering a multitude of rapidly evolving threats. Crucial efforts to meet these challenges include investigation of appropriate theoretical frameworks, novel analysis of existing defense mechanisms, technical innovations, development and deployment of commercial solutions, adoption of suitable policies and standards, and education of systems professionals, managers, policy-makers, and the general population. The center promotes a cohesive undertaking of the above endeavors to maximize their effectiveness and impact.

The center is a nexus for:

basic and applied research in secure, dependable, and sustainable computing and communications systems;
exploration of the implications to information assurance and cybersecurity of ubiquitous computing and other visionary scenarios;
anticipation of cultural evolution resulting from the inception of innovative technologies such as social networking;
public-private partnerships for threat assessment, response, technology development and deployment;
entrepreneurship and transfer of security and IA-related technology to the IT industry;
education of professionals in security technologies, policy, and commerce;
education of non-technical users: children, parents, teachers, small-business owners.

For more information, please visit the CASSIA web site!

Center for Decision Technologies

The Center for Decision Technologies focuses on networks of people, sensors, and robots. We are examining human-robot interaction in emergency response situations. We are designing new ways of placing sensors, as well as responding to emergencies using mobile ad hoc networks. We also have been examining the relation between transportation and communication networks, which together constitute the infrastructure of social networks. Our team includes cognitive psychologists who are computationally modeling human category learning. We are also finding ways to detect hostile intent based on movement patterns.

For more information, please visit the CDT web site!

Center for Innovation in Engineering & Science Education (CIESE)

To catalyze and support excellence in teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and other core subjects through innovative, research-based instructional strategies and use of novel technologies.

CIESE collaborates with K-12 and university educators, researchers, policymakers and educational organizations to develop curriculum materials, conduct professional development programs, and research new methodologies to strengthen STEM education.

For more information, please visit the CIESE Web site!