Tying Light from Lasers into Stable “Optical Knots”
Interference patterns between overlapping laser beams could transmit encoded information over thousands of feet through chaotic environments.
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.
Major Research Programs
Our faculty are nationally and internationally recognized for research in areas including:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Latest Research News
At the Edge of Wireless Innovation
More than three decades after Duke faculty helped develop modern wireless technology, the university remains at the forefront of its future.
Water is Scarce. How Can We Safely Reuse it?
Researchers are developing technology to attract and absorb contaminants from different sources so the water can be used again.
Ask an Expert
In this Q&A series, Duke ECE faculty members discuss their research, its impact, and how students can get involved.
Reevaluating the Architectures of Measurement
In this Q&A, the optics expert discusses his lab’s computational sensing research and its potential for impact in health and security applications
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
Catching Waves
Q&A with ECE professor and metamaterials pioneer, Steve Cummer
Higher Efficiency, Longer Lives
A Q&A with Duke ECE professor and computer architecture expert Daniel Sorin
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
The Intersection of Electrical Engineering and Materials Design
A Q&A with professor Adrienne Stiff-Roberts about Duke ECE’s Nanoelectronic Materials and Devices research