Research Centers

The college is home to a number of research centers, which reflect our range of partners, our commitment to translational research, and our diversity of funding sources.

CMP Students working at ORNL

Center for Materials Processing

Designated by the state of Tennessee as a Center of Excellence, CMP’s research efforts focus on the control of material properties through their composition and molecular structure, as well as how these factors relate to materials processing. Participating researchers come from all engineering disciplines.

Aerial image of traffic

Center for Transportation Research

CTR, a nationally and internationally recognized research entity, was created in 1970 to foster and facilitate interdisciplinary research, public service, and outreach in the field of transportation.

Power Lab in CURENT

CURENT

The Center for Ultra-wide-area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Networks (CURENT) was founded for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) prestigious Engineering Research Center program and is the first center of its kind at UT. The center works closely with industrial partners, and its research focuses on improving the nation’s electric power transmission system.

Summitt Supercomputer at ORNL

Innovative Computing Laboratory

Jack Dongarra, a Distinguished Scientist in the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UT and a Distinguished Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory founded the Innovative Computing Laboratory (ICL) in 1989. ICL is a world leader in enabling technologies and software for scientific computing.

Tennessee River Shoreline

Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment

ISSE promotes the development of policies, technologies, and educational programs in response to pressing environmental issues facing the state, the nation, and the world. The institute’s interdisciplinary research includes water resources, environmental security, energy and environmental policy research, education and social perspectives, agriculture and natural resources, and environmental sustainability.

Researcher Using Ultrasound Machine

Reliability and Maintainability Center

RMC is a university–industry association dedicated to improving industrial productivity, efficiency, safety, and profitability through the use of management systems, analysis techniques, and advanced predictive and preventive technologies to identify, manage, and eliminate failures.

Crystals grown in the SMRC

Scintillation Materials Research Center

The SMRC focuses the academic resources of several departments on research projects dedicated to the development of innovative materials for state-of-the-art radiation sensors and imaging systems. It conducts both basic research and research based on the scintillation material needs of private industry and national laboratories. Scintillator development is crucial to the advancement of a variety of commercial and scientific applications.