Take a walk back through history to see some of the milestones and achievements that made The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science the institution it is today.

Our vision—Columbia Engineering for Humanity—sets a bold path for a sustainable, healthy, secure, connected, and creative humanity. It is exemplified by the pioneering work our faculty and students are doing across departments and disciplines, in partnership with sister schools, institutes, government, and industry. We have never been more optimistic about the role engineering can play in the service of society and in bringing those advances to the many challenges facing our world. See the impact Columbia Engineering is having today. Soundtrack by $3.33

The department is home to such diverse research activities as biomechanics, mechanics of materials, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, control and robotics, manufacturing, energy systems, MEMS, and nanotechnology. Our faculty members have distinguished themselves internationally through a wide-ranging array of groundbreaking research areas and activities, including: robotics, smart machines, nanomaterials, morphogenesis and tissue development, and sustainable systems.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) with industry partners is investing $100 million to advance next generation wireless networks. Led by Columbia Engineering with research partners at Rutgers, and NYU, the platform, called COSMOS, will be a testbed in West Harlem for data-intensive applications, virtual reality, and smart cities.

The Robotics And Rehabilitation (RoAR) Lab develops innovative robots and methods to help humans relearn, restore, or improve functional movements. The lab is housed both in Engineering and Medical campuses of Columbia University. Led by Dr. Sunil Agrawal, the lab works actively with clinical faculty from Columbia University Medical Center and hospitals around New York City. Human studies have targeted elderly subjects and patients with stroke, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, and others.

With a $15.8M DARPA grant, Dr. Kenneth Shepard’s lab is revolutionizing brain-computer interfaces using silicon electronics. Read the full story on our website.

Karen Kasza, Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, won the prestigeous NSF Early Career award for her proposal on “Biophysical Mechanisms Underlying the Generation of Tissue Structure and Mechanics during Drosophila Development.” Kasza, who joined the School in 2016, uses approaches from engineering, biology, and physics to understand and control how cells self-organize into functional tissues with precise mechanical and structural properties. She is particularly focused on discovering fundamental physical and biological mechanisms that underlie tissue morphogenesis—how shape and form are generated in biological materials. Because many genes and cell behaviors are shared by fruit flies and humans, she is using Drosophila (the fruit fly) as the model organism in these studies.