A - D
AI-Media Strategies (AIMES) Lab
John Wihbey, CAMD
The AI-Media Strategies Lab – AIMES Lab – focuses on the use of AI technologies in media industries, providing evidence-based recommendations to organizations, and producing research leveraging methods such as surveys, focus groups, experiments, and data analysis.
https://camd.northeastern.edu/research/initiatives/aimes/
ATo Lab
Alexandra To, CAMD/Khoury
We are a multidisciplinary research lab working in the intersections of human-computer interaction, transformational games, social justice, and identity development.
https://lab.alexandrato.com/
BioClimatic Urban Buildings Lab
Alpha Yacob Arsano, CAMD
Our research explores strategies to maximize low-energy, equitable bioclimatic building strategies in different climatic conditions. We study the potential of low-carbon building systems, thermal comfort and health of occupants, and the effect of climate change with a focus on cities in the majority world that are fast urbanizing.
BioInteractive Design Lab
Katia Zolotovsky, CAMD
The BioInteractive Design Lab (BInD) designs biology-mediated materials and systems that embed interactions and functions desirable in human products and constructions, such as health diagnostics, pathogen detection, toxin remediation, waste processing, communication etc. The lab focuses on biology-mediated materials and systems that embed interactions and functions desirable in human products and constructions, such as health diagnostics, pathogen detection, toxin remediation, waste processing, communication etc.
https://biointeractive.lab.northeastern.edu/
Brain Game Center for Mental Fitness and Well-Being
Aaron Seitz and Susanne Jaeggi, Provost Office
The Brain Game Center for Mental Fitness and Well-Being designs interactive experiences for diverse populations to transform how we think about mental fitness and well-being.
https://bgc.provost.northeastern.edu
Center for the Arts
Juliana Barton, CAMD
The Center for the Arts is a learning laboratory where people come together to experience the arts. We organize and host interdisciplinary exhibitions, programs, and research opportunities that explore critical creative practice and the role of art in contemporary life. Through partnerships with faculty, staff, and community organizations, we aim to build a vibrant creative ecosystem within and beyond the university.
https://camd.northeastern.edu/center-for-the-arts/
Center for Design
Paolo Ciuccarelli and Estefania Ciliotta Chehade (Interim Laura Forlano), CAMD
The complexity of the grand challenges surrounding health, security, mobility, sustainability and democracy demands a long-term shared research effort that crosses disciplinary boundaries. Design as an ‘interdisciplinary and integrative discipline’ – with its capacity to map the complex dynamics of an issue, foresee its evolution, and shape tangible and intangible interfaces, experiences, services and systems – can empower the network between and across disciplines. Design also facilitates the cross-disciplinary discourse itself through innovative communication methods, and as a ‘third discipline’ mediates across humanics.
https://camd.northeastern.edu/center-for-design/
Center for Transformative Media
Adriana de Souza e Silva, CAMD
The Center for Transformative Media (CTM) is an interdisciplinary research network dedicated to investigating the potential of emerging media technologies for creativity and social change. Research conducted in the CTM explores the potential of emerging technologies to transform society — and our potential to develop new media technologies — as well as how people and communities use existing and emerging media in innovative and creative ways.
https://camd.northeastern.edu/center-for-transformative-media/
CHAI Lab (Conversational Human-AI Interactions lab)
Smit Desai, CAMD
The Conversational Human-AI Interactions (CHAI) Lab at Northeastern University explores how conversational AI can be designed to support human flourishing. We study and create voice- and LLM-based systems across domains such as healthcare, aging, and everyday life, with a focus on personalization, collaboration, and responsible design.
https://chainortheastern.net/
Civic Science Media Lab (CS Media Lab)
Fanuel Muindi, CAMD
We practice civic science journalism to tell stories about the latest developments in civic science to inform, educate, and inspire the current and next generation of scholars and practitioners.
https://civicsciencemedia.org/
Co-Lab for Data Impact
Rahul Bhargava, CAMD
The Co-Laboratory for Data Impact focuses on narrative data strategies and is committed to advancing civic-oriented and impactful visual storytelling for issues of public urgency in the areas of diversity, transparency, and sustainability. The lab serves as a university hub for faculty, staff, and students looking to communicate visually with data in the public sphere and for external partners of various kinds seeking expertise in this domain. Through creative practice and research, the lab contributes to the fields of design and data journalism, exploring areas such as visual poetics, metaphors, and evidentiary aesthetics.
https://camd.northeastern.edu/research/co-laboratory-for-data-impact/
CoMM Lab
Brooke Foucault Welles, CAMD
At the Communication Media and Marginalization Lab (CoMM Lab) at the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University, we examine the relationship between marginalization and communication technology. Using theories of communication power and media control, network and computational social science methods, and data from online and traditional media sources, we aim to understand how and why marginalization happens. From social media to businesses to schools and more, we aim to identify – and disrupt – the explicit and implicit processes that prevent some people and ideas from being fully heard.
https://www.networkscienceinstitute.org/commlab
Creative Climate Lab
John Wihbey, CAMD
The Creative Climate Lab seeks to collaborate across disciplines and engage communities for justice-forward responses to the global climate crisis. Group members engaged in pilot research projects applying novel approaches, including participatory action and codesign research methods, to conceptualize, visualize, and address climate change impacts.
https://creativeclimatelab.sites.northeastern.edu/
Critical Futures Lab
Laura Forlano, CAMD
dags.
Bob De Schutter, CAMD
Dags (e.g., Design for Aging Gamers, Designing Age-friendly Games, Designing Accessible Games, Designing Across Generations, etc.) creates games that transcend age, honoring the unique strengths of every player. Through design experiments and research, it crafts experiences that connect generations and tell deeply human stories, celebrating the wisdom, resilience, and imagination of all players, no matter their age.
https://dags.gamesatnortheastern.com
Data Theatre Collaborative
Dani Snyder-Young, CAMD
Civic Data Theatre develops a human-centered set of tools and methods for scholars, community organizers, and government to facilitate democratic participation in local municipal projects. It reimagines how community meetings and data-informed democracies work, making government decision-making accessible to people who might otherwise be excluded from or alienated by it. In our process, community stakeholders collaborate with artists to examine, interpret, and create new information about a pressing local issue. Together, they translate quantitative data– a central language of government decision making– into gestures, narratives, and moments of embodied performance.
https://camd.northeastern.edu/the-data-theatre-collaborative/
Digital Civics Initiative
Chris Le Dantec, CAMD/Khoury
Establishing a network-wide research agenda and intellectual community around digital civics at Northeastern.
E - L
Experience Design Lab
Kristian Kloeckl, CAMD
The Experience Design Lab explores new approaches for how we design systems, environments, and services with a focus on how humans experience concrete situations.
https://xdlab.camd.northeastern.edu/
Extended Reality Initiative
CAMD
The Extended Reality Initiative is a talented and diverse team spanning Northeastern’s global university system currently experimenting with the immersive technologies underlying augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR).
https://xr.northeastern.edu/
The Games Studio
CAMD
The Games Studio at Northeastern is an environment that empowers collaboration and discovery. Students partake in the learning and community-building needed to succeed as academics and game developers.
https://games.northeastern.edu/studio-2/
Games for Life
Bob De Schutter, CAMD
Catering to a demographic often overlooked in the industry, the Games for Life team studies and crafts games and experiences specifically designed to resonate with players across their entire lifespan. Their creations intertwine meaningful moments and engaging mechanics to offer a gaming experience that resonates deeply across generations.
https://gamesforlife.sites.northeastern.edu
GhostLab
Casper Harteveld, CAMD
GhostLab is an interdisciplinary lab that combines design, social science, computer science, and engineering to explore and provide evidence for the transformative potential of games as a research and educational environment at Northeastern University.
https://www.researchgate.net/lab/Ghostlab-Casper-Harteveld
Health and Wellness Design Lab
Michael Arnold Mages and Miso Kim, CAMD
The Health and Wellness Design Lab is an interdisciplinary research and teaching group. Our research explores how design can improve health and wellness on an individual to a societal scale, and transition from cure to care systems. We study these relationships and develop tools to empower community members, health workers, organizations, governments, and others to confront complex questions related to health and support social and physical infrastructure for a healthier world. Our aim is to enhance equity, justice, and dignity of people, building a culture of health and wellness through the design of products, environments, and services.
https://camd.northeastern.edu/research/health-and-wellness-design-lab/
Health Technology Lab
Amy Lu, CAMD
The Health Technology Lab focuses on the intersection of health behavior and digital technology. We explore the psychological and behavioral effects of interactive media for health promotion. Our research delves into the mechanisms through whch digital media such as video games and apps provide health benefits by examining their design and motivational features. Our goal is to design and evaluate innovative health interventions and measurement devices that are theory-guided and evidence-based.
https://www.amyshironglu.com/lab/
Human-Centerd AI Lab (NEU HAI)
Dakuo Wang, CAMD
The NEU-HAI research lab’s focus lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI) and artificial intelligence (AI), with a focus on the exploration, development, and evaluation of human-centered AI (HCAI) systems. The overarching goal is to democratize AI for every person and every organization, so that they can access their own AI and collaborate with these real-world AI systems (human-AI collaboration).
https://hailab.io/
INTERACT Animal Lab
Rebecca Kleinberger, CAMD
The Interspecies Technology for Enrichment, & Research on Animal Connection and Togetherness (INTERACT) Animal Lab is uniquely experienced in developing technology for animal users. Lab members are dedicated to using thorough academic methods to advance our understanding of animal needs and to deploying ethical, real-world applications.
https://www.interactanimallab.com/
Institute for Cognitive and Brain Health
Charles Hillman, Provost
We investigate the effects of lifestyle choices, events, and health behaviors (e.g., physical activity, diet) and their physiological sequelae (e.g., fitness, adiposity, biomarkers of health) on brain and cognition.
https://cbh.northeastern.edu/about/
Institute for Information, the Internet and Democracy
Laura Edelson, David Lazer, Rebekah Tromble, and John Wihbey, Provost
IIID conducts high-impact, responsive research that keeps pace with rapidly evolving technology while addressing its profound implications for users and society. We don’t just study technology’s effects on democracy—we actively work to understand, evaluate, and improve how these powerful tools can better serve democratic values and institutions.
https://www.nuinfoinstitute.org/
Khoury Vis Lab
Enrico Bertini, Khoury/CAMD
Data visualizations are designed to leverage the impressive human visual bandwidth so that users can spot clusters, gaps, trends, outliers in the data within a fraction of a second. Visualizations, combined with interaction and animation techniques, can help experts interpret and explore complex data as well as gain confidence in their algorithmic results. Moreover, visualizations are highly effective tools for communicating with other analysts or stakeholders. Research on visualization involves understanding human perception and vision, visual encodings, design thinking, color choice, data simplification, interaction techniques, and animation techniques and designing the next generation of data analysis and communication tools.
https://vis.khoury.northeastern.edu/
Laboratory for the Scientific Study of Dance (LAB:SYNC)
Aston McCullough, BCHS/CAMD
LAB:SYNC focuses on the analysis of simple and complex models of dance behavior in relation to health outcomes across the lifespan.
https://labsync.sites.northeastern.edu/
LDSP Lab
Victor Zappi, CAMD
The LDSP Lab develops cutting-edge technologies at the intersection of real-time audio computing and musical interaction. We create novel frameworks for high-performance signal processing on embedded and mobile platforms and design new paradigms for embodied musical interaction with digital instruments, by leveraging machine learning and acoustic modeling. Our research bridges computational acoustics, human-computer interaction and musical expression, with a focus on making advanced audio technologies more accessible, efficient and expressive for musicians and developers.
M - R
Media for Empowerment and Impact (MEI) Lab
Maria Elena Villar, CAMD
The Media for Empowerment and Impact Lab blends mass media, strategic communication, serious games, and content-co-creation with public health, community-building, social engagement to drive social change. The lab focuses on understanding and maximizing media impact to create effective communication strategies that foster healthier communities.
https://meilab.sites.northeastern.edu/
Music, Imaging, and Neural Dynamics Laboratory (MIND Lab)
Psyche Loui, CAMD
Research at the Music, Imaging, and Neural Dynamics Laboratory (MIND) lab seeks to understand the networks of brain structure and function that enable musical processes: auditory and multisensory perception, learning and memory of sound structure, sound production, and the human aesthetic and emotional response to sensory stimuli.
https://mindlab.sites.northeastern.edu/
NuLaw Lab
Dan Jackson, School of Law
We engage with the fields of art and design to create new strategies of legal empowerment.
https://www.nulawlab.org/mission-history
NET Lab
Alina Lungeanu, CAMD
The Networks, Exploration, and Teams Lab (NET Lab) investigates how team networks are structured to advance scientific discovery. By combining social science, network science, and computational methods, the lab examines how collaboration, coordination, and leadership drive performance in high-stakes environments—from innovation teams to teams working in extreme environments, like those involved in space missions.
https://www.networkscienceinstitute.org/netlab
Paidia Studio
Celia Pearce, CAMD
Paidia studios creates innovative games that promote creativity and emergent behavior, typically analog but also occasionally augmeted with technology, including embedded electronics and AR.
The Partnering Lab
Ilya Vidrin, CAMD
An applied creative research initiative focused on embodied ethics in social interaction.
www.partneringlab.com
Participatory Design Research Group
Michael Arnold Mages and Estefania Ciliotta Chehade, CAMD
PD develops research-informed real-world design solutions for cities and large not-for-profit organizations.
Playful Mind Lab
Leanne Chukoskie, Bouve/CAMD
The Playful Mind lab designs sensor-enabled assessments and interventions that keep people playfully engaged. Our sensor integration and game design techniques have been applied to a wide array of use cases, all focused on a common goal of improving individual health and well-being.
https://playfulmind.sites.northeastern.edu/
Plural Connections Group
Nabeel Gillani, CAMD
Plural Connections is an interdisciplinary research and action lab based at Northeastern University. Our mission is to use tools from data science and design to advance pluralism: an inclusive response to difference in society. We aim to do this by promoting educational, economic, and social well-being through inclusive connections across lines of difference.
https://pluralconnections.org/
Principles of Expressive Machines (POEM) Lab
Chris Martens, Khoury/CAMD
The POEM research group investigates foundations of computing and programming language technologies in terms of their relevance to creative practices, including mathematics, software development, scientific investigation, the arts, and natural language.
https://www.khoury.northeastern.edu/~cmartens/
Public Engagement with Science Hub (PESH)
Fanuel Muindi, CAMD
The Public Engagement with Science Hub (PESH) at Northeastern University aims to build a community of scholars and practitioners from diverse academic fields in the New England area who share a passion for strengthening engagement pathways between scientists and members of the public.
https://camd.northeastern.edu/research/pesh/
Public Computing Lab
Chris Le Dantec, CAMD
The PCL is a group of researchers, students, and community members integrating design, computing, and public engagement to create the cities and communities we want to inhabit.
https://publiccomputinglab.net
Public Design Collective
Sofía Bosch Gómez, CAMD
Public Design Collective is a practice-based research group exploring how design can inform and reshape policymaking, governance, and public sector innovation. The collective documents design methods for innovation in Latin American governments, aims to foster collaboration with public institutions, and support more adaptive, equitable, and participatory approaches to governance.
https://publicdesigncollective.com/
Reality Design Lab
Wallace Lages, CAMD
The Reality Design Lab focuses on AR interface design, understanding user experience in XR, locomotion techniques, collaborative XR, and storytelling, games and other immersive experiences.
https://realitydesign.sites.northeastern.edu/research/
S - Z
Scalable Design Participation Lab
Carlos Sandoval Olascoaga, CAMD
We aim to advance the edge of how computing, public service, planning technologies, and design can be employed in planning and urban design practice as a medium to allow the broadest set of community members to shape their own environments sustainably, equitably, and holistically with the support of computational intelligence.
https://scalabledesignparticipation.org/
Semantic Matter Lab
Dietmar Offenhuber, CAMD
We study how data acts and exists in the physical world. We are an interdisciplinary research lab that reimagines data practices through experiential engagement. Our core premise is that data are not merely passive records but active agents shaping our world—physical entities with tangible impacts rather than abstract representations.
https://www.semanticmatter.info
Sociotechnical Equity and Agency Lab
Michael Ann DeVito, Khoury/CAMD
The Sociotechnical Equity and Agency Lab takes a qualitative, participatory approach that focuses on lived experience and perception to examine and address friction, harm, and inequity within sociotechnical systems. We engage in qualitative and critical research to provide deep context and detailed design and policy guidance that accounts for entire relationship between people and social technology. We instigate projects which aim to empower at-risk users and communities to better understand, adapt to, and resist computational systems.
https://sealab.sites.northeastern.edu
Sonification Lab
Mike Frengel, CAMD
The Sonification Lab is nested within the Music Technology program in the Department of Music at Northeastern University. Lab members include Northeastern faculty and students from a range of disciplines, including music, computer science, engineering, psychoacoustics, and design. Data sonification is an interdisciplinary field and we embrace involvement from all areas of research.
https://slab.sites.northeastern.edu/research/
Smart Cities Lab
Michael Kane and David Fannon, COE/CAMD
The Smart Cities Lab is designed to enable interdisciplinary research coupling the disciplinary fields in civil and environmental engineering with the advancing methods of artificial intelligence, machine learning, Big Data analytics, and computer sciences. The lab features a “living lab” for urban environmental temperature experimentation and control, virtual reality/drone research, and an electronic fabrication and build space.
Storybench
Dan Zedek, CAMD
Storybench has evolved into an all-in-one destination for media professionals interested in using advanced digital tools to tell impactful stories.
https://www.storybench.org/about-storybench/
Structural Futures Lab
Demi Fang, CAMD
Our research interests lie at the intersections of data-driven design, the human experience of structural design, and environmental impacts of structural systems.
https://structural-futures.org/about/
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan Kennedy and Ellen Clegg, CAMD
We track solutions to the local news crisis through our website and podcast, host conferences and events, and serve as a resource to the news startup community.
https://whatworks.news
The XR Education Design Lab
Eileen McGivney, CAMD
The XR Education Design Lab investigates how immersive technologies — known as extended reality (XR) or virtual reality (VR) — can bring transformative learning experiences into the classroom.
https://xred.sites.northeastern.edu/
XYZ DataLabs
Carmen Hull, CAMD
XYZ Data Labs brings an architectural approach to hybrid physical/ digital experiences of data driven artifacts across scales, domains and cultures. PI Hull is currently working on diagramming for ML system explainability, with three new data visualization projects in the works.
https://www.carmenhull.com/