Labs, Centers, and Research-Funded Scholar Programs

Labs & Centers

The faculty in the department is actively involved in sponsored research with support from various funding agencies, including

National Science Foundation (NSF)
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Department of Defense (DoD)
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Department of Energy (DoE)
Department of Education (DoEd)
National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)
Air Force Office of Science Research (AFOSR)
Army Research Lab (ARL)
Air Force Research Lab (AFRL)
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
And more

Research Centers, Labs, & Groups Directory:

FAU Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Engineering (i-SENSE)
Director: Jason Hallstrom, Ph.D., EE, Room 408A.
EECS i-SENSE Fellows: Jason Hallstrom, Dimitris Pados, Ramin Pashaie, Mahsa Ranji, Reza Azarderakhsh, Behnaz Ghoraani, Yufei Tang, George Sklivanitis.
Website: https://www.fau.edu/isense/
NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement (CAKE)
Director: Borko Furht, Ph.D., EE, Room 503D.
Faculty: Borko Furht, Hari Kalva, Oge Marques, Daniel Raviv.
Website: http://cake.fau.edu
Center for Connected Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence (CA-AI)
Director: Dimitris Pados, Ph.D.
CA-AI is a national leader in developing next-generation networked AI and connected autonomous systems spanning oceans, ground, air, and space. With strong federal and DoD funding, the center advances technologies in distributed AI, collaborative robotics, GPS-free localization, secure communications, and autonomous decision-making.
Highlights: Distributed AI systems, secure infrastructure-less networks, collaborative robotics across domains.
Website: https://ca-ai.fau.edu/
NSF AIDL: Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning Lab
Director: Hill (Xingquan) Zhu, Ph.D., EE, Room 507B.
Website: http://eng.fau.edu/research/aidl/
Adaptive Learning Systems Lab
Director: Zhen Ni, Ph.D., EE, Room 410B.
Website: http://www.eng.fau.edu/directory/faculty/ni/index.php
Applied DSP and Machine Learning Lab
Director: Hanqi Zhuang, Ph.D.
Focuses on digital signal processing, machine learning, and intelligent sensing for defense, energy, and industrial systems.
Highlights: DARPA-funded projects on intelligent sensing and detection, machine learning for complex signal environments, and cybersecurity.
Website: https://www.fau.edu/engineering/directory/faculty/zhuang/
Algorithms and Applied Machine Learning Lab (AAML)
Director: Mihaela Cardei, Ph.D.
AAML lab conducts research in the areas of algorithm design, optimization, and applied machine learning across different domains like UAV path planning, WSNs, education, and health.
 Highlights: predicting student success using machine learning and graph neural networks, efficient UAS path planning with dynamic rerouting using a space-time graph.
 Website: https://faculty.eng.fau.edu/mcardei/
Artificial Intelligence & Deep Learning Lab (AIDL):
Director: Xingquan (Hill) Zhu, Ph.D.
AIDL lab hosts a large NSF-funded GPU cluster supporting fundamental research and development of AI and deep learning across domains like health, biomedicine, and environment.
Highlights: Graph learning, biomedical decision support, AI in the environment, and conservation (e.g., marine animal tracking).
Website: https://www.fau.edu/engineering/research/aidl/
Bio-inspired Robotics and Communications Systems Group
Director: Abhijit Pandya, Ph.D., EE, Room 516.
Faculty: Abhijit Pandya, Sue Graves, Javad Hashemi, Ali Danesh, Manish Gupta.
Postdoctoral fellow: Riki Patel
Website: http://www.eng.fau.edu/directory/faculty/pandya/index.php
Bio-Inspired Sciences and Technologies (BIST) Lab
Director: Ramin Pashaie, Ph.D., EE, Room 317.
Website: http://www.eng.fau.edu/directory/faculty/pashaie/
Biological Data Science Research Group
Director: Michael Degiorgio, Ph.D., EE, Room 418.
Website: http://degiorgiogroup.fau.edu/
Biomedical Signal and Image Analysis Lab
Director: Behnaz Ghoraani, Ph.D., EE, Room 319.
Website: http://biomedsignal.com/
Biophotonics Lab
Director: Mahsa Ranji, Ph.D.
Designing and implementing optical imaging tools for the early detection of disease biomarkers in conditions such as diabetes, wound healing, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and related disorders.
Highlights: Optical imaging, bioinstrumentation, tissue metabolism, translational imaging
Website: https://www.fau.edu/engineering/research/biophotonics/
Center for SMART Health
Directors: Behnaz Ghoraani, Ph.D. and Sarah Du, Ph.D.
The Center for SMART Health is at the forefront of healthcare innovation, harnessing engineering and computer science to develop transformative technologies that enable early disease detection, personalized care, and improved health outcomes—ultimately reshaping the future of healthcare delivery. Highlights: Point-of-care diagnostics, Smart/hybrid prosthetics, AI-enabled rehabilitation, Wearable disease monitoring, Remote health monitoring & data collection, Functional neurosurgery, Bio photonics, Patient- centered, tech-enabled care.
Website: https://www.fau.edu/engineering/research/smart-health/
Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3)
Directors: Dr. Jason Hallstrom, Dr. Jinwoo Jang, Dr. Donna Chamely-Wiik, Pados, Dr. George Sklivanitis
The Center for Smart StreetScapes (CS3) is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center dedicated to creating safer, more livable, and technologically advanced streetscapes. CS3 brings together researchers, students, industry, government, and communities to reimagine how streets serve people.
Highlights: Smart mobility, intelligent sensing, privacy-preserving urban AI, and community-driven streetscape innovations.
Website: https://cs3-erc.org/
Computational Human Genomics Research Group
Director: Raquel Assis, Ph.D.
Our NIH- and NSF-funded group integrates statistical and machine learning approaches to uncover the origins of adaptive and disease-associated traits. 
Highlights: Machine learning, phylogenomics, structural variation, and gene expression
Website: https://assisgroup.fau.edu/
CPS and Applied Machine Learning for Cyber Security Group
Director: Ionut Cardei, Ph.D.
This group does research in Drone (UAS) Traffic Management, wireless networking, and applications of machine learning for cyberthreat intelligence.
Highlights: Conflict-free trajectory scheduling for Unmanned Aerial Systems, intersection traffic management for autonomous cars. Reasoning with LLMs for cyberthreat intelligence applications, network intrusion detection.
Website: https://www.cse.fau.edu/~icardei/index.html
Location: EE 419
Cryptographic Engineering Lab
Director: Reza Azarderakhsh, Ph.D.
Focuses on classical and post-quantum cryptography, secure protocol design, and secure hardware/software implementations.
Highlights: Quantum-safe cryptography, cryptographic accelerators, side-channel resistant designs, and Formal Verifications.
Website: https://faculty.eng.fau.edu/azarderakhsh/
Intelligent Systems, Computer Architecture, Analytics & Security Lab (ISCAAS)
Director: Arslan Munir, Ph.D.
Explores embedded and cyber-physical systems, intelligent systems, secure and trustworthy systems, parallel/edge/quantum computing, and AI.
Highlights: Secure autonomous vehicles, secure smart grid, AI-assisted spacecraft trajectory optimization, smart agriculture, human activity recognition, and quantum ML.
Website: https://iscaaslab.com/
LACCEI Engineering Learning Systems and Smart Adaptive Remote Lab
Director: Maria Petrie, Ph.D., EE, Room 525.
Website: http://sarl.fau.edu/
FPL Center for Intelligent Energy Technologies (InETech)
Director: Yufei Tang, Ph.D.
InETech is a smart grid control and research center advancing AI, data analytics, and renewable integration for energy systems. Specialized infrastructure simulates real-world power grid operations and prepares the next generation of energy engineers through training, workshops, and industry collaboration.
Highlights: AI-driven grid optimization, renewable energy integration, workforce training and development.
Website: https://www.fau.edu/engineering/research/fpl-center-intelligent-energy-technologies/
Machine Learning Control and Intelligent Systems (ML-CIS) Laboratory
Director: Zhen Ni, Ph.D.
Focuses on reinforcement learning, imitation learning, adaptive dynamic programming, and AI for energy systems, robotics, and cyber-physical systems.
Highlights: AI for microgrid optimization, robot navigation and interaction, swarm autonomy for unmanned vehicles.
Website: https://www.fau.edu/engineering/directory/faculty/ni/
MemAI Research Lab: Dr. Sven Thijssen
At the MemAI Research Lab, we conduct research on the acceleration of AI applications using emerging technologies, such as in-memory computing. We further focus on neuro-symbolic AI.
Highlights: In-memory computing and neuro-symbolic AI
Website:  https://www.sventhijssen.com/memai-research-lab/
Location: EE 432
Micro and Nanotechnology in Medicine Lab
Director: Waseem Asghar, Ph.D.
Focuses on low-cost point-of-care devices, biosensors, microfluidics, and wearable technologies to address global health challenges.
Highlights: Wearable heart failure monitoring, remote pathogen detection, and low-cost diagnostic devices.
Website: https://faculty.eng.fau.edu/asghar/
Multimedia Systems Lab
Director: Hari Kalva, Ph.D.
Pioneering AI-driven computer vision, visual analytics, compression, and streaming. The lab maintains an extensive IP portfolio with 100+ patents, licensed technologies, and standard-essential assets adopted across industry.
Highlights: Machine-to-machine video analytics, leadership in ISO/ITU video standards, cutting edge video coding with VVC, and intelligent conservation tech.
Website: https://www.fau.edu/engineering/eecs/research/mlab/
Networked Intelligence Control Systems (NICS) Lab
Director: Xiangnan Zhong, Ph.D., EE, Room 410B.
Website: http://www.eng.fau.edu/directory/faculty/zhong/
NSF Big Data Training and Research Laboratory
Director: Taghi Khoshgoftaar, Ph.D., EE, Room 507A.
Website: http://www.eng.fau.edu/directory/faculty/khoshgoftaar/index.php
Privacy, Security, and Trust in Autonomy Lab
Director: Mehrdad Nojoumian, Ph.D., EE, Room 503A.
Website: http://faculty.eng.fau.edu/nojoumian/research.html
Quantum Systems & Networking Lab (QSNL)
Director: Zebo Yan, Ph.D.
QSNL advances scalable and secure quantum systems through innovative research in quantum networking, distributed quantum computing (DQC), quantum optimization, and quantum machine learning. Our work delivers generalizable frameworks, reproducible benchmarks, and robust tools and guidelines to enable secure computation and communication in future quantum systems and networks.
Highlights: DQC orchestration, asynchronous entanglement routing, quantum security protocols, quantum optimization, and quantum machine learning.
Website: https://www.fau.edu/engineering/directory/faculty/zyang/
Location: EE Room 432
Scalable Intelligence for Motion & Autonomy
Director: Minghan Wei, Ph.D.
Advances scalable intelligence for motion and autonomy, focusing on robotics perception, planning, and control in complex real-world environments. Research spans energy-aware navigation, multi-robot coordination, and foundation-model-enabled autonomy that integrates learning and reasoning across tasks.
Highlights: Energy-efficient field robotics, vision-language-guided indoor navigation, and autonomous systems for large-scale fields.
Websites: https://minghanwei.github.io/ and https://faculty.eng.fau.edu/minghanwei/
Security, Privacy, and Intelligence for Edge Devices Lab (SPEED Lab)
Director: Ahmed Imteaj, Ph.D.
The SPEED Lab conducts research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, LLMs, cybersecurity, and edge intelligence. Our focus areas include large vision-language models, federated and distributed learning, multimodal and trustworthy AI, and privacy-preserving sensor intelligence, with applications in disaster response, autonomous driving, healthcare, agriculture, underwater systems, and critical infrastructure resilience.
Highlights: Supported by NSF, DHS, and ORAU; contributions in Robust and Efficient AI systems, LLMs, and intelligent decision-making at the edge.
Website: www.speedlab.network
Location: I-SENSE Lab 307
Security, Privacy, and Trust in Autonomy Lab
Director: Mehrdad Nojoumian, Ph.D.
Focuses on security, privacy, and trust in AI/autonomy, with projects spanning privacy-preserving computation, blockchain, and human–autonomy interaction.
Highlights: Privacy-preserving auction protocols, secure multiparty systems, trust in autonomous vehicles, blockchain security.
Website: https://faculty.eng.fau.edu/nojoumian/
Secure Systems Research Group
Director: Eduardo Fernandez, Ph.D., EE, Room 410B.
Website: http://security.EECS.fau.edu
Software Engineering Lab
Director: Shihong Huang, Ph.D., EE, Room 410A.
Website: http://www.eng.fau.edu/directory/faculty/huang/index.php
Spatial Network Database and Data Mining Lab
Director: KwangSoo Yang, Ph.D.
The lab broadly focuses on Spatial Big Data (SBD), including examples such as temporally detailed road maps that record speeds every minute for each road segment, GPS traces from mobile devices, and engine measurements of fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Highlights: Graph algorithms, optimization techniques, and deep learning frameworks for spatial networks.
Website: https://faculty.eng.fau.edu/yangk
Tecore Networks Labs
Smart Mobile Computing
Director: Imad Mahgoub, Ph.D., EE, Room 413.
Website: http://smc.eng.fau.edu/#/
Wireless and Sensor Networking Lab
Director: Mihaela Cardei, Ph.D., EE, Room 413.
Faculty: Imad Mahgoub, Mihaela Cardei, Mohammad Ilyas, Ionut Cardei, Valentine Aalo.
Website: http://www.eng.fau.edu/directory/faculty/cardei_m/index.php
Theoretical Cryptography Lab
Director: Feng-Hao Liu, Ph.D., EE, Room 412.
Website: http://faculty.eng.fau.edu/fenghao/

Research-funded scholar Programs:

These programs are designed to advance student career pathways or graduate education in high-need high profile academic disciplines – namely Computer science, Data science, Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity.