Research Areas

Research is a fundamental element that is integrated into virtually every program at the School of Engineering and is the basis for our graduate degrees as well as a growing number of undergraduate degree programs.

The University of New Mexico is the only university in the state ranked a “Research University/Very High Research Activity” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. This status confirms a university’s world-class research, academic excellence, exceptional student body, and highest levels of innovation, creativity and scholarship.

The School of Engineering has a wide variety of research interests that involve students as well as our state-of-the-art facilities on the UNM campus and with our nearby partners at Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Air Force Research Laboratory, as well as industries and universities worldwide.

UNM’s School of Engineering research activities are aligned with many of the grand challenges outlined by the National Academy of Engineering as well as the major clusters for support identified by the New Mexico Economic Development Department:

  • Aerospace Science and Engineering
  • Biomedical Engineering, Bioinformatics, Biocomputing
  • Energy, Environment, Water
  • Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure
  • High Energy Density Science
  • Integrated/ Additive Manufacturing and Robotics
  • Nanoscience, Nanotechnology, Microsystems
  • Photonics, and Optics
  • Scalable Computing and Cyber Security
  • Nuclear Non-proliferation and Safeguards
  • Quantum Computing and Quantum Information Systems