Research Centers

Rensselaer’s School of Engineering is home to seven research centers. Because research at RPI is by its nature multidisciplinary, faculty from throughout the Institute participate in these seven centers, and RPI engineers conduct research across the Institute. For information on all Rensselaer research centers and institutes, visit the Office of Research

Researcher setting up seismometers

Center for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (CEES) 

CEES is a multidisciplinary research center that provides internal and external researchers a state-of-the-art facility to conduct analytical, experimental, analytical-experimental, and multidisciplinary research within, and outside, earthquake engineering. 

Subsonic Large Scale Wind tunnel

Center for Flow Physics and Control (CeFPaC) 

CeFPaC conducts research in flow physics, prediction, modeling, and control. The center focuses on a combination of basic research aimed at verifying or developing theories for fluid dynamic behavior, and the application of these theories toward controlling flows. 

Highway car lights

Center for Infrastructure, Transportation, and the Environment 

The Center for Infrastructure, Transportation, and the Environment (CITE)'s vision is to become a national and international leader in research, education, outreach, and technology transfer in the areas of infrastructure, transportation, and their linkages to the environment. 

Mobility with Vertical Lift

Center for Mobility with Vertical Lift (MOVE) 

MOVE's mission is to pursue cutting-edge research to better understand fundamental phenomena, leading to technical solutions and new directions in the development of high-speed VTOL, e-VTOL, as well as classical VTOL aircraft technologies; attract the very best students to vertical lift and produce M.S. and Ph.D. graduates who will be future leaders in the vertical lift technical community; and collaborate with Rensselaer researchers, government, industry, and other academic institutions toward the advancement of vertical lift. 

Electric Energy Transmission Networks

Center for Ultra-wide-area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Networks (CURENT) 

This interdisciplinary center brings together a consortium of academia, industry, and national laboratories to tackle the grand challenge of enabling a more intelligent, resilient electrical grid that accepts more renewable energy sources. CURENT is jointly funded by NSF and the U.S. Department of Energy. It is the first ERC dedicated to power system transmission. 

Linear Accelerator

Gaerttner Linear Accelerator Center (LINAC) 

The Gaerttner Linear Accelerator Center (LINAC) is one of two unique facilities available in the Nuclear Engineering program at RPI and has been engaged in active research continuously for over 50 years. Current areas of research at the LINAC include thermal reactor physics, photoneutron reactions, neutron cross sections, radiation effects in electronics, and production of medical isotopes. This laboratory has well served government and industry in numerous applications where it has provided a unique and highly intense radiation environment. 

Multicolored lights

Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications 

Through a fusion of advanced light sources, sensors, and integrated control systems, the Center will create revolutionary, intelligent “Lighting Systems that Think” to promote improved health, productivity, and well-being, while delivering greater energy savings. 

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