Co-op Employment

John Hancock Financial Services has partnered successfully with Northeastern for more than 30 years. Each year, the company hires approximately 40 co-op students for a variety of positions in such diverse fields as finance and accounting, MIS, marketing and security.

Students get an invaluable opportunity to apply their skills and acquire new ones while adding value in a rigorous business environment.

Professional Development

Northeastern’s part-time High-Tech MBA Program enables technology specialists to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to become equally expert business leaders and advance their careers while working full time.

In 1999, Northeastern went beyond the traditional classroom and began partnering with leading high-tech firms to create custom, on-site programs that address issues related specifically to their businesses.

EMC Corp. was the first to take advantage of this unique opportunity, in which Northeastern courses are held at the company’s Hopkinton, Mass., headquarters. To date, 45 EMC employees have graduated from the program.

Executive Engagement

The GE/NU Partnership Day highlighted the possibilities of mutually beneficially collaboration between the university and the corporate world.

During the course of one day, 25 General Electric managers and executives made four keynote presentations on current issues in technology and marketing, and led 15 classes in five different academic areas.

Technology Transfer

Northeastern’s Barnett Institute is an internationally recognized center for advanced interdisciplinary research in analytical chemistry and biotechnology, whose work includes DNA and protein analysis and drug synthesis and development.

One of Barnett’s major projects was the development of polymer matrices that are used to separate fragments of single-stranded DNA. This technique had direct applications to the Human Genome Project and has now been licensed by Beckman Coulter, a leading laboratory instrument manufacturer.

Sponsored Research

The Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS) is one of only 19 National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers in the nation. Its mission is to revolutionize technology for detecting and imaging objects or conditions underground, underwater or embedded in the human body.

The center addresses real-world problems such as noninvasive breast-cancer detection and underground pollution assessment. Prototypes are transitioned for further development to corporate partners, including Raytheon Co., Mercury Computer Systems, The MathWorks, Lockheed Martin, Textron Systems and GE.

Strategic Investment

With financial support from the GE Foundation’s Learning Excellence Initiative, the colleges of Engineering and Arts and Sciences set out to improve the instructional quality and educational environment for first-year engineering students in an effort to ensure a diverse pool of engineering graduates.

At the end of the three-year project, teaching practices have been enhanced, regular assessments have increased and interdisciplinary collaboration and communication has improved. The result is a steadily improving freshman-to-sophomore retention rate.