Engineering Institute

Collaboration for Engineering Education, Research, and Innovation

Multidisciplinary engineering research that integrates advanced modeling and simulations, novel sensing systems and new developments in information technology.

The Engineering Institute (EI) is an educational and research partnership center at Los Alamos National Laboratory that fosters collaboration between the laboratory and outside entities, namely universities.  In particular, the EI has a strong partnership between the Laboratory and the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) Jacobs School of Engineering.

The Institute aims to: 

1. Promote mission-driven, multidisciplinary engineering research that develops the next generation of state-of-the-art hardware and software tools
2. Attract, educate, and retain the world-class technical workforce needed to effectively and efficiently fulfill the Laboratory's national security missions

Educational Programs

The Engineering Institute's educational programs were developed in response to an identified need for a formal education program to be associated with the EI.  This need resulted from the fact that unlike the basic sciences, where most LANL hires are done at the Ph.D. level, engineering tends to hire at all levels and many of these engineers are subsequently interested in pursuing advanced degrees. 

EI’s education and research focus is on multidisciplinary engineering research that develops and integrates technical areas such as advanced predictive modeling, novel sensing systems, robotics, advanced manufacturing, and new developments in information technology.  More recently, this focus has led to many activities that embrace the concepts of cyber-physical systems, where sensing, processing, communication and controls are integrated and built into all types of engineered systems to improve their performance.

Innovation Sprints

Guided by the Engineering Leadership Council, innovation is important to fostering creativity across the laboratory. The ELC established an Innovation Hub (aka maker space open for 3D printing, virtual reality visualization, and machining of creative design ideas) and holds week-long sprints to encourage teamwork in engineering design activities.  Sprints are open to staff across the Lab and are one component of the Innovation Hub.