Strategic Areas | Columbia Engineering

At Columbia Engineering, our mission of Engineering for Humanity means we choose to concentrate our resources in areas where we see a convergence between our greatest strengths and the greatest potential for impact. Here’s where we will lead the way in the years ahead.

Explore Our Strategic Areas

center-for-digital-finance-and-technology-announces-inaugural-research-grants

AI & Computational Engineering

We’re exploring the vast potential of new technologies while ensuring their deployment in responsible ways that benefit everyone.

A researcher examines a test tube in the Obermeyer Health Lab at Columbia Engineering.

Medicine & Health

We’re pursuing technological innovation at the intersection of engineering and human health.

Students work in the Photonics Lab at Columbia Engineering

Materials, Sensors & Devices

We’re building a world of smarter materials and devices, designed from the atomic scale upward to make the incredible possible.

Sustainability & Climate

We’re pioneering solutions to the most daunting global challenges, helping to create a more livable future for us all.

Students work on a prototype in Columbia Engineering's Chemical Engineering deparment.

Innovation, Design & Entrepreneurship

We're fueling innovation with our thriving ecosystem of entrepreneurship and novel approaches to design challenges..

Creative Machines Lab at Columbia Engineering

21st Century Engineering Education

With cross-disciplinary and joint degree programs, as well as a curricular emphasis on human-centered design and entrepreneurship, we are developing leaders who will engineer for humanity.

The bones surrounding a knee joint glowing with blue and purple helixes

A Living Knee Replacement

Columbia biomedical engineers are collaborating with orthopedic surgeons to build a living replacement knee to be tested in clinical trials within five years.

Featured Research: Human-Robot Facial Co-Expression

Columbia engineers build Emo, a silicon-clad robotic face that makes eye contact and uses two AI models to anticipate and replicate a person’s smile before the person actually smiles -- a major advance in robots predicting human facial expressions accurately, improving interactions, and building trust between humans and robots.