Research Centers

Go inside UCSB's state-of-the-art Nanofabrication Facility where impactful technologies are designed and fabricated.

The numerous research centers, initiatives, and institutes that either lie within or are affiliated with UCSB Engineering are leading their fields in groundbreaking research and outreach. These centers are interdisciplinary to the core, often led by College of Engineering faculty in collaboration with departments across UC Santa Barbara, and with institutions around the world.

Institutes

AI Institute for Agent-based Cyber Threat Intelligence and Operation - ACTION
UCSB is the lead institute of the National Science Foundation's AI Institute for Agent-based Cyber Threat Intelligence and Operation (ACTION). The institute is aimed at developing a new paradigm for how mission-critical systems are protected against sophisticated, every-changing security threats. The novel approach partners human and AI agents while incorporating complex knowledge representation, logic reasoning, and learning to identify flaws, detect attacks, perform attribution, and respond to breaches in a timely and scalable fashion.

American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics - AIM Photonics
UCSB is home of the west coast hub of AIM Photonics, a U.S. federal manufacturing initiative in partnership with lead institution SUNY Polytechnic Institute. The goal of AIM Photonics is to create a national photonics-integrated circuit manufacturing infrastructure.

California NanoSystems Institute - CNSI

An integrated research facility with locations at UCSB and UCLA, CNSI is a center for nanoscale research in biotechnology tools and diagnostics, materials for energy production and storage, and information technology.

Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies - ICB

Army-sponsored University Affiliated Research Center and unique research alliance led by UCSB in collaboration with MIT, CalTech, and other partners. Research in the areas of biologically inspired technological innovations in systems and synthetic biology, control and dynamical systems, photonic and electronic materials, cellular structural materials, biotechnology tools, and cognitive neuroscience.

Institute for Energy Efficiency - IEE

IEE is dedicated to developing technologies that support an efficient and sustainable energy future. Areas of research are lighting, energy production and storage, buildings and design, energy efficient computing, electronics and photonics, and sustainability.

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics - KITP

The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) is the first and foremost scientific research facility where theorists in physics and allied fields congregate, for sustained periods of time, to work together intensely on a broad range of questions arising from investigations at the leading edges of science.