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Tomorrow's design professionals will depend increasingly on an expanded mode of practice, demanding a greater role for multidisciplinary collaborations and research. CAED students both in undergraduate and graduate programs are encouraged to incorporate scholarship, empirical knowledge and experimentation and research skills in their thinking and design practices. The research skills imparted by the faculty offer students the ability to participate in the sharing of  knowledge while gaining the aptitude to design for our increasingly complex physical environments.

CAED is dedicated to supporting research in the following arenas.

• High Performance & Sustainable Design: This focus delves into the building sciences including comfort, energy and conservation, sustainable design, lighting, systems integration, and building information management. The focus is oriented toward the contextual relationships between systems and natural phenomena.
• Historic Preservation and Forensics: The 21^st century is built upon last century’s structures that inherently define our environment. Adaptive reuse, development and maintenance will all play a role in modern design. Students study how to engage the past within their design.
• Construction Methods and Materials: Material research and the technical processes of construction are changing rapidly. This focus is meant to articulate and explore the new avenues that are being made available to the designer and their impact on the profession.
• Digital Design and Fabrication: Advanced 3D fabrication, modeling, scripting and generative design are all new approaches to implementing design. Students are encouraged to explore innovative approaches to the performance envelope, construction methods, structural systems and fabrication.
• Design Theories: By taking a deeper look at the works of theorists and intellectuals, students are encouraged to explore the methodological underpinnings of contemporary theory and discipline- specific thinking regarding material, philosophy, history and the social context of design.

The College supports research through faculty driven laboratories including RFAB (Robotic Fabrication Lab) and NEDLab (Novel Ecology Design Lab).