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Research Institute Centers

The NYUAD Research Institute is a world-class center of cutting-edge and innovative research, scholarship, and cultural activity. It supports centers that address questions of global significance and local relevance and allows leading faculty members from across the disciplines to carry out creative scholarship and high-level research on a range of complex issues with depth, scale, and longevity that otherwise would not be possible.
Centers

From genomics and climate science to the humanities and Arabic literature, Research Institute centers make significant contributions to scholarship, scientific understanding, and artistic creativity. Centers strengthen cross-disciplinary engagement and innovation among the faculty, build critical mass in infrastructure and research talent at NYUAD, and have helped make the university a magnet for outstanding faculty, scholars, students, and international collaborations.

al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art

al Mawrid is a research center and archive dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of the visual arts of the Arab world. Through a range of activities that include fellowships, research projects, conferences and colloquia, as well as the construction of a unique open-access archive, al Mawrid aims to be a major resource for scholars, independent researchers, and for educational and art institutions.

Principal Investigator:
Salwa Mikdadi
Co-Principal Investigators: Shamoon Zamir, May Al-Dabbagh
Program: Art and Art History, Social Research and Public Policy
Division: Arts and Humanities, Social Science

Mubadala Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental ScienceS (ACCESS)

An interdisciplinary, UAE-based research center on climate change and the environment.  ACCESS is developing an environmental monitoring network and innovative instruments based on intelligent drones to realize it.  ACCESS is developing regional climate and environmental models to help understand the observed data and make future scenarios.

Principal Investigator:  Francesco Paparella
Co-PIs: Shady Amin, John Burt, Monica Menendez, Olivier Pauluis, Farah Shamout, Shafer Smith, Antonios Tzes
Program: Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Biology, Mathematics
Division: Engineering, Science

Center for Astrophysics and Space Science

A merger of the Center for Space Science and the Center for Astro, Particle and Planetary Physics, composed of a unique combination of theorists, observers, and instrument builders dedicated to understanding the nature of the cosmos. Our research spans an incredibly vast range of temporal and spatial astronomical scales, from our own Sun and its planets to the whole Universe. CASS hopes to enhance facilitating and investigating for future progress in five core research areas.

Director: Andrea V. Macciò
Principal Investigator: Katepalli Sreenivasan
Co-PIs: Francesco Arneodo, Milan Bogosavljevic, Ian Dobbs-Dixon, Joseph Gelfand, Shravan Hanasoge, David Russell, Ingyin Zaw
Program: Physics
Division: Science

Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

CAIR advances fundamental research and applications in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Research faculty from NYUAD and NYU New York collaborate in five projects spanning areas from the collaboration of multi-agent systems, perception and navigation, deep learning, brain-robot interface, and other applications.

Principal Investigator:  Anthony Tzes
Co-Principal Investigators: Farshad Khorrami, Yann LeCun
Program: Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Psychology
Division: Engineering,  Science

Center for Behavioral Institutional Design (C-BID)

The Center for Behavioral Institutional Design (C-BID) at NYU Abu Dhabi is a globally recognized research hub that explores in depth the origins of human behavioral diversity, undertakes the development of empirically informed theories of human behavior, leads their application to public policy, and builds capacity in behavioral social science in the public and private sector, locally and internationally.

Principal Investigator: Nikos Nikiforakis, John Wooders 
Co-PIs: Olivier Bochet, Ernesto Reuben
Associate Director: Federico Bernardini
Program: Economics; Social Research and Public Policy
Division: Social Science

Center for Brain and Health

The Center will draw on existing strengths in the domains of Cognition, Health, and Data Science at NYUAD, the UAE, and NYU’s Global Network University (GNU). The research projects are strategically positioned in themes at the intersection of these strengths, allowing us to leverage existing resources to develop new interdisciplinary research directions. Each theme incorporates the Center’s Disorders and Methodology organizing principles. Finally, these research directions and ensuing collaborations are designed to be sustainable and provide a clear pathway to Center independence.

Principal Investigator: Bas Rokers, David Melcher, Dipesh Chadury, Kartik Sreenivasan, Olivia Cheung, and Osama Abdullah
Program: Psychology, Biology, Physics
Division: Science

 

Center for Cyber Security

A world class cyber security center partnering with key local universities, industry, and government agencies to facilitate cyber security research, education, and practice in the UAE and GCC region.

Principal Investigator: 
Ozgur Sinanoglu
Co-PIs: Ramesh Karri, Nasir Memon, Hoda Alkhzaimi, Michail Maniatakos, Christina Pöpper
Program: Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, General Engineering, Social Research and Public Policy
Division: Engineering, Science, Social Science

Center for Genomics and Systems Biology

Providing a nexus for cutting-edge life sciences research in the UAE, with world-class facilities and resources to promote innovative advances in genomics and systems biology.

Principal Investigator: 
Claude Desplan; Kris Gunsalus
Co-PIs: Dipesh Chaudhury, Gordon J. Fishell, John Burt, Justin Blau, Kenneth D. Birnbaum, Kourosh Salehi-Ashtiani, Michael Purugganan, Stéphane Boissinot, Youssef Idaghdour
Program: Biology
Division: Science

Center for Interacting Urban Networks (CITIES)

Developing fundamental research that can be translated into pragmatic ideas for increasing the livability of our cities. The rapid rate of urbanization is putting strain on urban systems and posing new challenges across a multitude of sectors.

Principal Investigator: Monica Menendez
Co-PIs: Azza Abouzied, Kinga Makovi, Saif Jabari
Program: Civil Engineering, General Engineering, Computer Science, Social Research and Public Policy, Economics, Film and New Media
Division: Arts and Humanities. Engineering, Science, Social Science

Center for Quantum and Topological Systems

A nucleation point for cross-disciplinary expertise in theory and application of quantum and topological systems, with an emphasis towards the unifying goal of robust quantum computation – combining all questions from theoretical foundations (quantum error-correction) over hardware (topological quantum materials and novel quantum chips), architecture (parameterized quantum circuits), and software (quantum programming languages and hardware-aware software optimization) to applications (quantum machine learning and quantum cryptography).

Principal Investigator:  Hisham Sati
Co-PIs: Muhammad Shafique, Saurabh Ray, Farah Shamout, Tuka Alhanai, Tim Byrnes, Pilkyung Moon
Program: Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering
Division: Engineering, Science

Center for Smart Engineering Materials

The NYUAD Center for Smart Engineering Materials (NYUAD-CSEM) is an institutional research platform for the research and development of smart materials and technologies that are relevant to the key sectors of the UAE's economy. By using an integrated, multidisciplinary, and synergistic approach to basic research, characterization, optimization, and implementation, NYUAD-CSEM aims to provide smart and sustainable solutions for sensing and diagnostics in the oil/gas and civil engineering sectors.

Principal Investigator(s)
Panče Naumov, Mohammed F. Daqaq
Co-Principal Investigator(s)
Kemal Celik, Mahmoud Rasras, Jamie Whelan, Serdal Kirmizialtin
Program: Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, Civil and Urban Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Center for Stability, Instability, and Turbulence

Instability of dynamics flows and their transition to turbulence are widespread phenomena in engineering, computer science, geophysics, biophysics, and the natural environment. The Center's interdisciplinary research will develop novel enabling technology to deal with this phenomena.

Principal Investigator: 
Nader Masmoudi 
Co-PIs: Tej-eddine Ghoul, Francesco Paparella  
Program: Mathematics    
Division: Science

Humanities Research Fellowships for the Study of the Arab World

The NYUAD Institute has embarked on a multi-year research fellowship program in the Humanities. This program aims to help create an energetic, multi-faceted research environment for the Humanities and the study of the Arab world at NYUAD's campus.

Principal Investigator: Nathalie Peutz
Co-PI: Erin Pettigrew
Program: Anthropology, Arab Crossroads Studies, Arab Music Studies, Arabic, Art and Art History, Literature and Creative Writing, Philosophy, Psychology
Division: Arts and Humanities, Social-Science

Library of Arabic Literature

The Library of Arabic Literature offers Arabic editions and English translations of significant works of Arabic literature, with an emphasis on the 7th to 19th centuries.

Principal Investigator: 
Philip Kennedy
Division: Arts and Humanities

Public Health Research Center

The center addresses critical topics for Abu Dhabi in public health science, including diabetes and obesity.

Principal Investigator: Raghib Ali
Co-PIs: Youssef Idaghdour, Scott Sherman
Program: Public Health
Division: Science, Social Science

Research Center for Translational Medical Devices (CENTMED)

A multi-disciplinary center combining expertise in engineering, biology, and chemistry to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice. The objective of CENTMED is to catalyze translational research collaborations between researchers and clinicians.

Principal Investigators: 
Rafael (Yong-Ak) Song, Khalil Ramadi, Sohmyung Ha, Mohammed Qasaimeh, Panče Naumov, Dipesh Chaudhury
Program: Bioengineering
Division: Engineering

Water Research Center

The Water Research Center (NYUAD-WRC) aims to promote innovative research in water desalination, wastewater treatment, environmental policy, and social issues. The center serves as an interdisciplinary innovation hub for water research where scientific knowledge is transformed into practical solutions.

Principal Investigator:
Nidal Hilal
Co-PIs: Raed Hashaikeh, Ali Trabolsi, John Burt
Program: Engineering, Chemistry, Biology
Division: Engineering/Science

About the Research Institute

Launched in 2010 as a world-class center of cutting-edge and innovative research, scholarship and cultural activity, the Research Institute was founded as a key component of the NYUAD campus, a campus where research would be integral to the undergraduate experience and would drive the graduate program. 

By supporting research on critical problems in and across disciplines, and attracting an international cohort of faculty, students, and researchers, the Research Institute has built a truly innovative research capacity in Abu Dhabi that catalyzes the development of Abu Dhabi as a capital of ideas, research, and education.