The CECS has four research centers that will also be used for supporting research in the Ph.D. programs. These research centers are:

• Center for Lightweight Automotive Materials and Processing (CLAMP), which was established in 1998 with an initial grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to explore the design potential, application and manufacturing of advanced materials in lightweight automobiles through research and graduate education.
• Institute for Advanced Vehicle Systems (IAVS), which has the goal of providing an applied research environment for product development, manufacturing and system integration.
• Vetronics Institute, which was established by the U.S. Army to support research in vehicle electrical and electronics system integration. Several CECS faculty participate in research at the Vetronics Institute.
• Center for Engineering Education and Practice (CEEP), which was established in 1992 to promote industry-university collaborative research and to bring research experience to undergraduate and graduate courses.

Following are the areas of existing research strength of the faculty in automotive systems engineering.

Area	Faculty
Materials and Materials Processing	Kridli, Lee, Mallick, Mohanty, Reyes
Energy Systems, Powertrains, Combustion, Thermal Management	Jung, Kim, Li, Mi, Ratts, Shamim, Varde, Zhang, Zikanov
Dynamics, Controls, and Power Electronics	Argento, Shim, Kim, Mei, Mi
Vehicle Design, Manufacturing and Systems Integration	Chow, Kang, Mallick, Bhise, Chandra, Chen, Li, Liu, Zakarian
Vehicle Informatics and Communication	Guo, Murphey, Richardson, Xiang, Zhao

The CECS offers an interdisciplinary master's program in automotive systems engineering. This master's program was started in 1996 and now has 80 graduate students enrolled in it. The CECS faculty has the experience of teaching and conducting research on a variety of topics in the automotive field.