Research Focus

Artificial Intelligence. Big Data. Cybersecurity. We tap into solutions and innovation for more power, efficiency, expansion, mobility, and safety. We develop better and new ways to improve everyday life, from wearable health devices to scenarios for on-time construction projects. We teach young coders, and the software developers of tomorrow. We explore how humans interact with computers, and how society interacts with electricity. 

Our faculty are accomplished researchers. Research is being conducted in the broad areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning, architecture, security and privacy, graphics, human-centered computing, systems and networking, programming languages and software engineering and computer science education.

Our research makes a difference. We are facilitating data collection by citizen-scientists around the world, creating musical robots for children with autistic spectrum disorders, designing multimodal displays for automated vehicles, enabling text entry for people with motor or visual impairments and saving lives by detecting buried explosive hazards.

Research projects in compilers, computer architecture, computer science education, and parallel computing have received funding of over $1 million each.

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Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) aims to realize the intelligent human behaviors on a computer, ultimately making computers able to learn, plan, and solve problems autonomously. This includes learning systems trained on massive amounts of data, interacting intelligent agents that perform distributed reasoning and computation, connecting sensors with algorithms and human - computer interfaces, and creating large networks of smart devices.

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Architecture

Research in computer architectures focuses on the design, selection, and interconnection of hardware components and the hardware/software interface to create computer systems that meet functional and performance goals.

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Education, Society, and Profession

Education research aims to find more effective ways to teach the design and use of computer systems and software to a larger and more diverse audience.  Research at MTU focuses on undergraduate education in graphics, systems and software engineering, e-learning, gender, and K-12 education.

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Human-Centered Computing

Human centered computing research bridges various disciplines, including computer science, human factors, sociology, psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, communication studies, graphic design and industrial design, in order to design and implement of computing systems that support human activities.

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Programming Languages and Software Engineering

Research in programming languages and software engineering focuses on the development of formalisms and frameworks in order to create high quality software.

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Security and Privacy

Computer security research focuses on maintenance of the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer systems .  Privacy research focuses on allowing individuals control over what information about them is to be shared and with whom.  Research at MTU focuses on access control, mobile and wireless security and storage security

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Systems and Networking

Systems research focuses on the hardware and software necessary to create a platform that meets users' computing requirements.  Research at MTU focuses on cloud computing, distributed systems, embedded systems, operating systems. 

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Institute of Computing and Cybersystems

The Computer Science department plays an important role in Michigan Tech’s Institute of Computing and Cybersystems (ICC). Graduate and undergraduate students gain valuable experience working with ICC members and our faculty, with industry, and with agencies including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the US Department of Defense. We join with researchers across campus and the world to promote research and learning experiences for a computing society. Meet the researchers and learn about our interdisciplinary projects. 

Explore Computer Science Research