Signature Research Topics

Enabling creative, applicable solutions to pressing challenges

Duke’s Electrical and Computer Engineering research enables creative, applicable solutions to pressing challenges in human health, security, and automation, and new strides in fundamental scientific exploration and discovery. Government and industry organizations are valuable partners at Duke ECE, and our entrepreneurial spirit manifests itself in a growing portfolio of companies spun off from our research.

closeup view of a surface ion trap used in the quantum computing from Ken Brown and Jungsang Kim labs

Major Research Programs

Our faculty are nationally and internationally recognized for research in areas including:

eye with AI textures

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

We have built a team of internationally recognized experts in artificial intelligence and machine learning—in fact, Duke ECE is said to be among the world’s top universities in AI/ML research.

3D acoustic cloaking device

Metamaterials

Our faculty members demonstrated the world’s first negative refractive index metamaterial in 2000, and in 2006 a Duke ECE engineer invented a metamaterial “invisibility cloak” that renders objects undetectable at microwave frequencies.

neon cube in Kim lab

Quantum Computing

Our internationally recognized quantum computing team—part of the Duke Quantum Center—is replacing the bits of traditional computers with trapped ion qubits, which exist in multiple states at once.

hand holding chip in Stiff-Roberts lab

Nanoelectronic Materials & Devices

We are working to create self-assembling electronic devices, and exploring the potential of novel electronic materials to enable next-generation transistors, neuromorphic computing, solar cells, photodetectors, and more.

tire tread sensor

Sensing & Imaging

We’re developing novel approaches to gathering and analyzing information to make our world safer and more secure, and healthcare applications faster and more efficient.

lines of code

Trustworthy Computing

Close collaborations with industry and government partners drive our work to secure systems in the Cloud, on the ground and in the air.

$31M

in new research awards

fiscal year 2023

50%

of our faculty are IEEE Fellows

Major Research Centers

Agile Waveform Design

AFRL/AFOSR University Center of Excellence: Agile Waveform Design for Communication Networks in Contested Environments

Athena

NSF AI Institute for Edge Computing Leveraging Next-Generation Networks

ASIC

NSF IUCRC for Alternative Sustainable and Intelligent Computing

CAMMS

Coded Aperture Miniature Mass Spectrometer

CMIP

Center for Metamaterials and Integrated Plasmonics

DQC

Duke Quantum Center

EURIQA

Error-corrected Universal Reconfigurable Ion-trap Quantum Archetype

STAQ

Software-Tailored Architecture for Quantum Codesign

Spectator Qubit MURI

Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative

WaSH-AID

Center for Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Infectious Disease

Latest Research News

podcast cover art with cloud and lightning bolts
7/17 Podcast

Lightning Talks

Take a deep dive into the flashiest secrets of this common but little understood natural phenomenon with leading researcher Steve Cummer.

Ask an Expert

In this Q&A series, Duke ECE faculty members discuss their research, its impact, and how students can get involved.

9/27 Pratt School of Engineering

Co-Designing Tomorrow’s Computers

AI expert Hai “Helen” Li discusses how her lab designs new computer technologies, including personalized devices based on personalized algorithms

7/26 Pratt School of Engineering

Catching Waves

Q&A with ECE professor and metamaterials pioneer, Steve Cummer

4/6 Pratt School of Engineering

Engineering Systems for Future Computing

Quantum information scientist Kenneth Brown explains why Duke is positioned to lead the quantum systems charge and how students can explore the field