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.

Collaborators Elisa Konofagou (right) with Stergios Zacharoulis, photographed at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Teaming Up to Transform Pediatric Brain Cancer Treatment

An engineer and a physician are working together to pioneer a new approach using focused ultrasound to treat dozens of brain diseases.

Robot, can you say ‘Cheese’?

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.