The College of Engineering is home to more than 75 faculty whose research tackles today’s most pressing local and global challenges. From coastal resiliency and offshore wind energy to robotics, nanotechnology, and water reuse, our faculty lead nationally and internationally recognized work that blends interdisciplinary discovery with user-driven, applied solutions to real-world problems.
Over the past two decades, the College of Engineering at the University of Rhode Island has received multiple CAREER Awards from the National Science Foundation. Faculty have also earned prestigious Young Investigator Awards from the Office of Naval Research and Young Faculty Awards from DARPA. These national honors reflect both the exceptional talent of our early-career faculty and the growing recognition of URI Engineering’s leadership in key research areas, including resilient infrastructure, advanced materials, AI and cybersecurity, robotics, biomedical technologies, and naval and marine engineering.
This momentum is backed by a dramatic rise in research activity. Since 2017, external research funding has had an eight time increase, driven by interdisciplinary collaboration with government, industry, and academic partners at the state, national, and global levels.
Research News
URI Hosting Biomedical Engineering Symposium Aug. 14 - The one day symposium, Advances in Translational Neurotechnologies for Healthcare and Rehabilitation Symposium, will bridge gap between academic discovery and real-world application.
Underwater ribbon cutting ushers in new URI Ocean Robotics Laboratory - KINGSTON, R.I. – June 26, 2026 – The University of Rhode Island celebrated a major milestone in the $300 million, multi-phase revitalization of the Narragansett Bay Campus with a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Ocean Robotics Laboratory on June 25.
Master’s graduate receives 2026 Academic Achievement Award from the American Water Works Association - WASHINGTON, D.C. — June 25, 2026 — Carrie Ellis received the 2026 Academic Achievement Award at the American Water Works Association Annual Conference and Exposition (ACE26) this June. The Academic Achievement Award recognizes contributions to the field of public water supply via a master’s or doctoral dissertation. Ellis’s thesis, “Electrochemical Regeneration of Manganese Oxide (MnOx)-Coated […]