DePaul University’s Institutes, Centers and Research Labs attract researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs who work together on multifaceted societal problems. As pillars of the university research infrastructure, they drive research and innovation spanning various fields that traverse the boundaries of departments and colleges such as health, social justice, intellectual property, biomedical informatics, data science, and computing.
The Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute is at the center of a large and growing movement that considers local assets as the primary building blocks of sustainable community development. Building on the skills of local residents, the power of local associations, and the supportive functions of local institutions, asset-based community development draws upon existing community strengths to build stronger, more sustainable communities for the future.
The Chaddick Institute is a dynamic forum for community leaders, transportation and land use professionals, and students. The Institute's technical and mobile workshops, collaborative events, research series, and study trips make it a visible player on both the local and national scene.
The Chicago Family Business Council helps family businesses and other closely held companies achieve their business goals through a unique peer support system and related educational programs that provide growth strategies for chief executives, their employees, their families and their businesses.
The International Human Rights Law Institute (IHRLI) is at the forefront of contemporary human rights and rule of law research, training and advocacy. Since its founding in 1990, IHRLI has designed and managed projects around the world on post-conflict justice, human rights documentation and analysis, capacity building for legal professionals, gender rights and human trafficking. IHRLI conducts scholarly research on international criminal law, international humanitarian law and a variety of human rights and rule of law issues. IHRLI also prepares DePaul law students, activists and scholars for careers in human rights through courses, fellowship programs, internships and research opportunities in Chicago and abroad.
The purpose of the Institute for Business & Professional Ethics (IBPE) is to encourage ethical deliberation in decision-makers by stirring their moral conscience, encouraging moral imagination, and stimulating research into business innovation and practices. IBPE programming serves as a forum for exploring and fostering ethical practices by the business community as well as for DePaul students and faculty.
The Institute’s purpose is to research the philosophies and practices of renowned Japanese educators Daisaku Ikeda, Josei Toda and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi. The Institute provides workshops and symposia on these educators and their philosophies and practices to students, educators, counselors, academics, and educational leaders in the greater Chicago area.
The Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) is a research center based at DePaul University that provides analysis and data to inform affordable housing policy and practice.
The Institute for Nature and Culture has been created by DePaul University to foster collaboration among the disciplines, researchers, conservation practitioners and the public on behalf of our environmental future.
The Institute of Global Homelessness (IGH) drives a global movement to end street homelessness. The Institute’s vision is a world where everyone has a home that offers security, safety, autonomy, and opportunity. Founded in 2014, IGH is the first organization to focus on homelessness as a global phenomenon with an emphasis on those who are living on the street or in emergency shelters. It is a partnership between DePaul University and Depaul International (London, UK), which provides direct services for people experiencing homelessness in the UK, Ireland, Ukraine, Slovakia, Croatia, USA, and France. The IGH staff and Advisory Committee work with a broad network of world-class advisors, experts, and organizations — balancing geographies, cultures, and skills.
The Mary and Michael Jaharis Health Law Institute (JHLI) responds to contemporary ethical, legal and moral challenges in the health care field through systematic, innovative approaches that influence policy development. To fulfill this mission, JHLI engages in community and business related programming, groundbreaking research, legislative issues, collaborative work with local and national leaders, and efforts to eliminate social barriers in health care. Through such initiatives, JHLI has earned a strong local reputation and has gained national and international attention for its work.
The Women in Entrepreneurship Institute is the nation’s first comprehensive Institute for women founders that integrates academic learning, research, incubation, funding and public policy. Launched in July 2018, the Institute supports women entrepreneurs through academic research and programs as well as initiatives that invest in the success and sustainability of women-owned businesses.
Characterized by academic rigor and community outreach, DePaul Law's Center for Animal Law examines local, state, federal and international policies relating to the rights and welfare of animals. Combining theory with practice, the center serves as a resource for the legal protection of animals by promoting both the enforcement of existing laws and the enactment of new laws designed to ensure and improve animal welfare.
The Arditti Center's mission is to promote excellence in the education, research and practice of risk management.
The Business Education in Technology and Analytics (BETA) Hub is a collaborative, cross-discipline initiative at the Driehaus College of Business that promotes new courses, research and community collaboration at the intersection of business and emerging technology.
The Center for Black Diaspora was established to promote and support the production of scholarly, cultural and creative work related to the experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world. The Center encourages and supports the study of black diaspora in all its complexities as shaped by the historical experiences of Africa and the West, and actively promotes comparative perspectives to illuminate the particular experiences of African people both on the continent and in the diaspora.
The goal of the Center for Community Health Equity is to improve community health outcomes and contribute to the elimination of health inequities in Chicago. Founded by DePaul University and Rush University in 2015, the Center integrates analysis, education and intervention in partnership with Chicago's diverse communities.
The Center for Communication Engagement promotes communication-based problem-solving and research-based solutions for social innovation. The center provides opportunities for DePaul students and faculty to pursue teaching, research, and service across a variety of areas.
The Center for Community Research is a setting where applied researchers can have an infrastructure to pursue their research. Our focus is on efforts to reduce stigma, empower citizens, and better understand the systemic and environmental barriers to full participation in community life.
Center staff actively bring research grants into the Center for Community Research of an applied nature, emphasizing the partnerships between community-based organizations and university researchers. Service is a critical component of this work, as the grants involve helping solve pressing social, urban problems in the Chicago metropolitan area. Finally, teaching is a critical part of this Center, as undergraduate and graduate students have an opportunity to be involved in learning skills and getting credit in a prestigious research-based setting. These students have a mentoring relationship with the research members, and this intensive supervision and instruction gives these students an advantage when seeking admission to graduate training programs or obtaining employment.
The Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence (CJIE) offers training, teaching and professional outreach to students and the Chicago journalism community to better navigate the world of investigative reporting. Events include annual FOIA Fellows training in public records access based on media law research, journalism integrity awards, and interview sessions with Illinois political leaders.
The DePaul Center for Data Science is a research, educational, and collaborative center that focuses on the applications of data science. The center is a joint venture incorporating faculty from several colleges and disciplines across DePaul University. The research focus of the Center is the development of innovative tools and methods in data mining, predictive analytics, and machine learning, as well as the application of these techniques in areas such as intelligent Web systems, social computing, business intelligence, healthcare, hospitality, marketing, image analysis, and more. The Center seeks partnerships with industry, as well as educational and non-profit organizations, to plan and conduct joint analytics projects that provide graduate students with an invaluable opportunity to work on real-world problems and to gain problem-solving experience in data science.
DePaul’s Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology (CIPLIT®) was established to promote research and concentrated study of intellectual property and information technology law, broadly defined.
The Center for Latino Research (CLR) strives to open and sustain dialogues that foster the empowerment and advancement of Latinx communities. To that end, the CLR creates learning opportunities for students and supports scholars in their research, while forging collaborative relationships with local, national, and international research partners. The Center publishes an award-winning scholarly journal, Diálogo, and sponsors on-campus activities, including a film series and a speaker series.
The Center for Religion, Culture, and Community (CRCC), which is housed in the Department of Religious Studies in the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, is focused on creating sustainable bridges between individuals and communities associated with different religious cultures.
The DePaul Center for Research and Education in Hospitality Leadership engages in applied research and education on critical issues in the national and international hospitality industry. Serving hospitality industry leaders, owners, entrepreneurs, and other practitioners, the Center draws on the expertise of Driehaus College of Business faculty, to offer an array of professional development workshops and ongoing consultation services.
The Center for Sales Leadership offers cutting-edge research and innovative educational opportunities for students, business and community groups interested in the sales industry.
The Center for Web Intelligence is a research group that focuses on the development of intelligent techniques and applications for the World Wide Web, including automatic web personalization, recommender systems, e-business intelligence, web usage and content mining, and intelligent web agents for information filtering. The Center conducts and promotes research in these areas, in addition to providing a central resource and repository for researchers and practitioners. The Center interacts with industry and peer groups through workshops, joint projects, and technology transfer.
A leading center of research and reflection on the Church in the global South, the Center for World Catholicism & Intercultural Theology (CWCIT) seeks to be at the forefront of the discussion about the relationship between globalization and the Catholic Church's future as a truly worldwide Church.
The Coleman Entrepreneurship Center empowers students, alumni and community members to build sustainable businesses that Do Good and Do Well in Chicago. The Center is a hub that connects, advises and inspires entrepreneurship and innovation, thereby creating businesses with purpose and passion. The Center’s experiential programs, vibrant ecosystem and academic curriculum cultivate a foundation for entrepreneurial success for the entire DePaul community.
The DePaul Humanities Center serves as a site for innovative discussion and research in the arts and humanities, engaging in interdisciplinary conversations that bring DePaul faculty, staff, students, and our Chicago communities together with the finest and most creative scholars and artists from inside and outside the academy. By means of its internal and external Fellows programs, its multiple yearly programming streams, and its commitment to supporting and spotlighting the most creative, rigorous, and ground-breaking approaches to scholarship, the Humanities Center strives to be the focal point in the University—and the larger communities in which it finds itself—for work within the arts and humanities.
Driehaus Center for Behavioral Finance promotes the growing field of behavioral finance through research, academic coursework and industry engagement.
The Faculty Scholarship Collaborative was established as a mechanism to promote, enhance, facilitate, and support faculty, staff, and their research assistants in methodologically diverse, socially relevant research. The Center offers physical space, technical resources, and human capital for designing scholarly projects, helping faculty obtain internal and external funding for their work, implementing funded research programs, and forming mutually productive and rewarding relationships.
The Statistical Consulting Center provides expert statistical assistance in all stages of quantitative research by faculty and graduate students working under the supervision of statistics faculty from the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Services are available to faculty, staff, and graduate students of DePaul University. The Center also encourages academic programs, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and commercial clients to utilize its services.
The mission of the STEM Center is to provide leadership and service aimed at strengthening STEM education throughout Chicago. The Center fulfills this mission by offering an effective program of study, lectures and opportunities to students and educators. Levering the University’s unique strategic position as an academic institution in a major urban area, the Center is uniquely positioned to support high quality primary and secondary professional development of STEM educators.
The Divergent Design Lab is a research and design lab that focuses on emerging technology, user experience, and contemporary social landscapes. Current research involves cybersecurity, vulnerability, malware, and social cognition.
The Equity and Health Innovations Lab is a research lab and studio that focuses on the design and evaluation of technologies to support marginalized groups. Using a participatory research approach, the Lab collaborates with students, faculty, local Chicago organizations and community residents to examine how technology can foster equity in health and wellness, and encourage comprehensive digital access.
The Innovation and Development Lab (iD-Lab) provides students the opportunity to gaining practical development experience by working on innovative real-world software development projects for clients. The Lab practices an agile methodology that foster innovation. The iD-Lab collaborates with a diverse range of firms such as Allstate and CareerBuilder. The foundation of these partnerships is the Lab’s ability to turn partner’s innovative ideas into functional prototypes.
The Innovation Lab facilitates social media listening, analysis and research. The iLab is utilized in faculty, student and community-based research projects, as well as included in course curriculum.
The Intelligent Multimedia Processing (IMP) Laboratory hosts the research activities of the Visual Informatics and Data Analytics (VIDA) Group. The IMP Laboratory mission is to develop machine learning and computer vision algorithms for intelligent multimedia processing applications. Current projects include the 21st Century Technologies Learning Analytics Project, a collaborative effort with School of Design in the Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media, and Identifying Gene Functions using Image Analytics, a collaborative project with Rosalind Franklin University.
The Laboratory for Interactive Human-Computer Analytics (LIHCA) studies Human-in-the-Loop analytics, sometimes called Interactive Machine Learning or Human-Centered Machine Learning.
LIHCA understands data by leveraging machine learning and interactive visualization simultaneously for disparate application domains including bioinformatics, medical informatics, journalism, and urban communities.
The Media Engagement Research Lab provides market research services to the DePaul
community, Chicago businesses and NGOs to investigate how consumers interact
with media. Current research projects can be found here.
The Medical Informatics (MedIX) Laboratory hosts the research activities of the Visual Informatics and Data Analytics (VIDA) Group. The Lab's research is focused on medical imaging, image processing, computer vision, machine learning, data mining and knowledge discovery for healthcare, medicine, and biology-related applications. Current projects include Smart Computer-Aided Diagnosis (SmartCAD) for lung cancer, a collaborative project with University of Chicago; and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Data-driven Definition, a collaborative project with DePaul College of Science and Health.
The Mobile Commerce Lab provides support for research and development related to Mobile Commerce and Information Systems.
The Next Generation Networking (NexGeN) Lab is a research hub for exploring novel directions in network development, including the Internet of Things, information-centric networking, and the advent of the tactile internet.
The Robotics and Medical Engineering (RoME) Lab integrates computer and engineering expertise to research and develop the next generation cyber-physical systems to better address real-life societal challenges in fields such as healthcare, disaster response, and space exploration. The RoME Lab also focuses on understanding the fundamentals of muscular, biological entities such as octopi and squid to help develop next-generation robotics aimed at enabling challenging surgical procedures.
The work in the Secure Design Lab focuses on researching user-centered interaction design that does not compromise or otherwise fatigue the cybersecurity of smart devices. Developed as part of a grant from the National Security Agency (NSA) for implementation of the Cybersecurity National Action Plan, the Secure Design Lab is equipped with state-of-the-art smart equipment and facilities.
The Software Engineering Research Lab develops and tests experimental, large-scale, software systems. Both M.S. and Ph.D. students work on a number of software engineering research projects, including tools for model-driven engineering; security, reliability, and usability of electronic voting systems; tools for distributed collaboration and collaborative software development; user interface development and usability engineering.
The Technology for Social Good Research and Design Lab brings together faculty, students, and other collaborators to design, build, and study tools with the goal of fostering equitable education and empowerment in urban communities. Taking a human-centered approach, research projects draw from fields such as learning sciences, computer science, human-computer interaction, experience design, data science, and psychology to address social issues, particularly in the areas of empowerment, learning, and human development.
The Virtual and Augmented Design Lab (VAD) hosts classes and projects that research and develop experimental games on emerging platforms.
The Virtual and Augmented Reality Communication Lab explores the intersection of communication and technology. The lab engages with research that leverages virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) tools to investigate how VR/AR impacts society, culture, media and interpersonal relationships. The lab also supports the use of VR/AR in the classroom, and offers classes and workshops for students and professionals.
The Wellness and Health Enhancement Engineering Lab (WHEEL), focuses on improving health and wellness systems, and technologies using user-centered design and usability engineering approaches. The lab's mission is to conduct exploratory, experimental and field research involving human interaction with computers, technologies and systems. The majority of WHEEL’s projects involve understanding persuasion, emotion, and trust in health information technologies, consumer health information technologies and technology-mediated collaboration in health (patient-to-patient, patient to provider and provider-to-provider).