Drexel's Nick Howley College of Engineering and Computing

10/15/2026

When scientists take on the biggest questions in their fields, they turn to Howley College research. 🌍

Fifty-three of our faculty are among the world’s most-cited scientists in Stanford’s 2025 rankings, across 21 fields. On the single-year list, Chaomei Chen ranks #1 in Information and Library Sciences, Yury Gogotsi #2 in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Steven Kurtz #4 in Orthopedics and Michel Barsoum #5 in Materials.

Meet them all: https://drexel.edu/engineering/news-events/news/archive/2026/October/howley-faculty-highly-cited-stanford-list/

10/13/2026

Congratulations to Francis Halzen, recipient of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos originating beyond our solar system.

Drexel researchers have contributed to IceCube's scientific work, including Christina Love, PhD, teaching professor of physics in Drexel's College of Arts and Sciences. Her research group has included Howley College students studying computer science and mechanical engineering.

Love also leads Name that Neutrino, a citizen science project that invites the public to help analyze IceCube data by classifying signals detected by the observatory.

Learn more and participate: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/icecubeobservatory/name-that-neutrino

10/09/2026

Students in MEM 425: Aircraft Design took a field trip to Elwyn Field in Media this summer, but they weren't just there to watch the planes.

Over the course of the term, they'd designed wings and tails for model aircraft using what they'd learned about aerodynamics. With help from the Propstoppers RC Club, they got to put those designs to the test and see what happened when their calculations met real flying conditions.

We've got some great photos from the afternoon, along with a story about what the students learned.

https://drexel.edu/engineering/news-events/news/archive/2026/October/engineering-elective-aircraft-design/

10/01/2026

New cross-disciplinary research from Drexel's Howley College could make it easier to grow large numbers of cancer-fighting CAR T cells in the lab while keeping them healthy and effective.

CAR T-cell therapy uses a patient's own immune cells, engineered to recognize and attack cancer. One challenge is that these cells tend to wear out as they multiply. The research group of Xiao Huang, PhD, an assistant professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Science, designed tiny particles that deliver carefully balanced signals to the cells. In lab tests, the particles kept human CAR T cells growing for more than 100 days, and the expanded cells kept their ability to kill tumor cells.

The study was published in Nature Communications. Co-authors include Ania-Ariadna Baetica of Howley's Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics and collaborators at UC San Francisco, Stanford, Penn, Thomas Jefferson University and Brown.

09/30/2026

Inaugural Dean Eunice E. Santos, Assistant Dean for Culture & Community Engagement Terrance Harris, and other college leaders joined student orgs and new and returning Dragons last week for our annual Dragon Jamboree! It's just one of many events where Howley College students can gather and celebrate what makes them unique . What events are you looking forward to over the next year?

09/30/2026

09/28/2026

Researchers from the Howley College School of Computer and Information Sciences will join experts in Minneapolis for the 20th ACM Recommender Systems Conference this week, September 28 – October 2.

Led by Michael Ekstrand, PhD, assistant professor of information science, the Drexel team will present research on recommender system evaluation, book recommendations, reproducible research and more.

SCIS researchers will also take on leadership and volunteer roles throughout the conference, connecting with fellow experts and contributing to the future of recommender systems research.

Good luck to our researchers as they share their work and connect with colleagues from around the world!

Read more: https://buff.ly/NLhUdU8

09/24/2026

Howley College of Engineering and Computing's undergraduate programs placed in the top 100 nationally in U.S. News & World Report's 2027 Best Colleges rankings, with undergraduate engineering at 57th and undergraduate computer science at 75th.

The rankings arrive during Howley College's first year, which unites Drexel's schools of engineering, computing and information sciences, and biomedical engineering in one college. Bringing these fields together reflects how today's biggest challenges work in practice. Artificial intelligence, sustainable technology and advanced medical therapies all draw on more than one discipline, and our students learn alongside peers and faculty across all of them.

Across the university, Drexel ranked 2nd nationally in co-ops and internships, 34th in most innovative schools and 80th among national universities.

Learn more about us at https://drexel.edu/engineering-computing

09/23/2026

Drexel researchers have found a cleaner and potentially cheaper way to make MXenes, the nanomaterials first discovered here in 2011. Instead of etching them out with acid, the team grew MXene in a furnace using titanium and methane, the same natural gas that heats many homes. The process skips several costly steps and avoids toxic waste, and it could one day help bring MXenes into electronics and quantum technologies.

Read more: https://drexel.edu/engineering/news-events/news/archive/2026/September/vapor-phase-synthesis-MXenes/

09/18/2026

Class is in session! 📚

We asked our first year students to pronounce some tough Philadelphia names and places that they'll get to know over the next four or five years.