About

Michael B. Silevitch is the Robert D. Black Professor and a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University. He received his BSEE, MSEE, and PhD from Northeastern University in 1965, 1966, and 1971, respectively, and joined the Northeastern faculty in 1972. He was appointed to the Robert D. Black Endowed Chair in Engineering in 2003 and was elected an IEEE Fellow the same year for his leadership in advanced subsurface sensing and imaging techniques. His research focuses on subsurface sensing and imaging systems, detection of explosives-related anomalies, engineered system development, and engineering leadership. Dr. Silevitch directs several key initiatives, including ALERT, a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence for awareness and localization of explosives-related threats; Gordon-CenSSIS, an NSF Engineering Research Center for subsurface sensing and imaging; and the SENTRY program, which develops systems to neutralize threats in public spaces. He has contributed significantly to the development of detection technologies for homeland security, including detectors and imaging algorithms for nuclear material detection, and has led large-scale projects such as the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal used in cargo inspection. In addition to his technical contributions, Dr. Silevitch has been dedicated to improving STEM education, directing initiatives like CESAME and IMPACT, which developed and implemented exemplary curricula across numerous school districts. His work extends to space plasma physics, where he served as principal investigator on projects related to Earth's radiation belts, aurora borealis formation, and wave-particle interactions in space plasma. Recognized for his leadership and innovation, he has authored over 65 publications and 90 presentations, and has received honors including Life Fellow of IEEE and membership in the National Academy of Engineering.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Engineering
• Management
• Law
• Economics
• Engineering management

Selected publications

• Board 273: Engineering PLUS (Partnerships Launching Underrepresented Students) - Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES National Alliance

  2024

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Political Science
  • Management

  Abstract Despite significant investments by government agencies, universities, foundations, and industries that rely on the skills and talents of engineers, Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color (BIPOC) and women are underrepresented in the engineering workforce. Engineering depends on team collaboration, and research shows that diverse groups are typically more effective than homogeneous teams when complex problem solving are critical goals. The U.S. must educate a diverse engineering workforce to address the complex technological challenges faced by our society. Greater diversity in the STEM workforce will result in a new generation of engineering talent and leadership to secure our nation's future and long-term competitiveness. While there has been progress in increasing the number and percent of women and BIPOC graduates since 2011, engineering is still a discipline graduating predominantly male students. BIPOC students historically drop off the engineering pipeline at key transition points (see graph below) – they receive only 6% of engineering Ph.Ds. Women are also underrepresented among graduate degree recipients. As a community of educators and professional engineers, we are not addressing the problem systemically, i.e., we are not addressing the root causes that are 90% of the problem. Moreover, our current efforts to broaden participation in engineering fail to consistently leverage evidence-based, high-impact practices and redress obstacles, all of which are necessary to catalyze institutional change at scale. The Engineering PLUS Alliance, funded at $10 million over 5 years, is one of 17 National Science Foundation (NSF) INCLUDES Alliances of higher education institutions and the only Alliance focused on engineering. NSF INCLUDES is a nationwide initiative designed to build U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by increasing the participation of individuals from groups that have been historically underrepresented in STEM. The xxx Alliance posits that networked communities are needed to build an inclusive infrastructure that will drive the transformative, systemic and sustainable change needed to achieve 100K undergraduate and 30k graduate engineering degrees awarded annually to BIPOC and women students by 2026. The Engineering PLUS Alliance is built around the following key performance strategies: 1. Implement a collaborative infrastructure "backbone" informed by the 3-level NSF Engineering Research Centers (ERC) model. 2. Partner with The GEM Consortium, NACME, ASEE, NAMEPA, ARIS, other NSF INCLUDES Alliances (STEM PUSH), the NSF INCLUDES National Network, and Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (NELSAMP, UMLSAMP). 3. Establish a network of regional Hubs that builds on and expands NSF LSAMP Alliances. Members of regional hubs (institutions of higher education), will learn about the high-impact practices that are successful in increasing diversity in engineering education. The hubs will be the engines of national institutional change. 4. Train, empower & support a national network of stEm PEERs (Practitioners Enhancing Engineering Regionally) change agents who will accelerate the implementation of evidence-based practices and sustain institutional buy-in within their home institutions and beyond. 5. Implement a sustainability strategy by recruiting a national Advisory board of thought leaders from industry, academia, government, and society, who will also support fundraising. 6. Create a continuous improvement data, evaluation & research effort. Currently, in the 2nd year of this grant effort, our first cohort of stEm PEERS has been formed, and two regional HUBs have been established working in concert with synergistic funded efforts. Additionally, partnerships with national organizations informs and strengthens our strategic efforts. This poster outlines this broad initiative and summarizes plans as well as efforts to date.

  PublisherDOI

• Case Study–Puerto Rico Test Site for Exploring Contamination Threats

  GeoCongress 2012 · 2012-03-29 · 4 citations

  article

  Puerto Rico has one of the highest densities of Superfund and National Priority List sites per square mile. The specific pollutants in those sites have been well documented and monitored over time. Puerto Rico has its share of public health problems as it has the highest rates of preterm birth compared to other jurisdiction in the US. Other important attributes, such as the stability and diversity of the population, and the presence of a karst environment with a major aquifer that provides most of the water supply to the study area, make Puerto Rico a good case study to evaluate the impact of exposure to contamination on public health problems. In this paper, we present an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate the relation between preterm birth, a common and well defined health outcome, and exposure to contamination from well-defined sources, pathways and receptors. The rate of preterm birth in Puerto Rico in 2008, the most recent year with available data, was 19.6% or nearly 1 out of every five births. Puerto Rico has gradually experienced nearly a doubling in the preterm rate since 1990, when it was at just 11.4%. The usual causes of preterm births, such as lack of prenatal care in the first trimester, maternal education, maternal smoking in pregnancy, and increased use of assisted reproductive technology (ART), do not explain the increase in the preterm rate observed in Puerto Rico. Through integrated analytical, mechanistic, epidemiology, fate-transport, and remediation studies, along with a centralized, indexed data repository, the program will deliver new knowledge and technology in the area of contaminants as a potential cause of preterm birth.

  PublisherDOI

• Preface

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2011-03-17

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  In many sensing and imaging problems, the object is covered by some medium that conceals or obscures its relevant features. The object may emit some wave, field, or stream of particles that penetrate the medium and may be observed by a detector. Alternatively, a wave, field, or stream of particles may be used as a probe that travels through the medium and is modified by the object before it travels back through the medium on its way to the detector. The challenge is to extract information about the subsurface target in the presence of the obscuring medium.

  PublisherDOI

• Re-engineering Engineering Education.

  ˜The œNew England journal of higher education · 2009-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

• A Graduate Curriculum for Engineering Leadership

  2007-01-01

  article

  The increasing global competition in technology industries puts a premium on those exceptional engineering leaders who can direct multidisciplinary teams to bring innovative technic al ideas to the market in a short period of time meeti ng all cost goals. An educational program that would accelerate the development of such engineering leaders would be of great educational and societal value. We describe a new educational initiative, the Gordon Program, enabled by a gift from the Gordon Foundation. The curriculum of the program features a thesis-scale based o n the academic advisor/dissertation model, but directed t oward commercialization or deployment of a new technology. The Challenge Project will be supported by new courses in Leadership and Scientific Foundations of Engineering to give the graduate a broad scient ific framework to support rapid back-of-the-envelope quantitative assessment of technology problems, an understanding of the non-technical issues of commercialization, and a successful experience of l eading the development of a product in a time-critical environment.

  Publisher

• Cooperative Education as an Undergraduate Feeder into a Graduate Level Engineering Leadership Program

  2007-01-01

  article

  The Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems is a multi-university National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center founded in 2000. Its mission is to develop n ew technologies to detect hidden objects and to use th ose technologies to meet real world subsurface challeng es in areas as diverse as noninvasive breast cancer detec tion and underground pollution assessment. Part of its mandate is to create the graduate level Gordon Engineering Leadership Program at Northeastern University. This program will train graduates, call ed Gordon Fellows, who will constitute a cadre of technology drivers adept at envisioning new enginee ring products and skilled at leading multidisciplinary t eams to bring their ideas to market.

  Publisher

• Leveraging a Research Center of Excellence Towards the Education of Engineering Leaders

  2007-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (Gordon-CenSSIS) is a multi-university National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center (NSF-ERC) founded in 2000. Its mission is to develop new technologies to detect hidden objects and to use those technologies to mee t real world subsurface challenges in areas as diverse as noninvasive breast cancer detection and underground pollution assessment. With its commitment to levera ging technology transfer to spur economic development, Gordon-CenSSIS is intended to be a national model for the fusion of academic research and private-sector collaboration. In 2006, the Gordon Foundation provided a gift to sustain the NSF-ERC and create a new educational initiative: the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program at Northeastern University. This paper will describe the elements of the leadership program and indicates how it takes advantage of the research and development resources inherent in Gordon- CenSSIS.

  Publisher

• Single Particle Motion In A Rapidly Spatially Varying Electric Field

  2005-08-24

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Substorm Onsets And Single Ion Motion

  2005-08-24

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Editorial: Barriers in Subsurface Sensing and Imaging

  Subsurface Sensing Technologies and Applications · 2003-10-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• K. I. Golden

  38 shared

• P. Rothwell

  31 shared

• J. W. Cipolla

  Williams (United States)

  30 shared

• L. P. Block

  26 shared

• C.‐G. Fälthammar

  Louisiana State University

  12 shared

• Liu Chen

  9 shared

• Stephen McKnight

  Swarthmore College

  8 shared

• Elena Villalón

  Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

  8 shared

Awards & honors

• IEEE Fellow (2003)
• Life Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Enginee…
• Gordon Prize