Cristian Cassella
Associate Professor,
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Affiliated Researcher,
Dublin Innovation Institute
Contact
- c.cassella@northeastern.edu
- 360 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115
Office
- 422 ISEC
- 617.373.7509
Research Focus
Acoustic resonators, nonreciprocal components, zero-power sensors for IoT, nonlinear dynamics, ultrasonic transducers
Education
- PhD, Carnegie Mellon University, 2015
Honors & Awards
- 2025 European Frequency and Time Forum (EFTF) Young Scientist Award
- 2024 Søren Buus Outstanding Research Award
- National Science Foundation CAREER Award
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship
Research Overview
Acoustic resonators, nonreciprocal components, zero-power sensors for IoT, nonlinear dynamics, ultrasonic transducers
Selected Research Projects
- Boosting Radios’ ReSilience to Interference by Harnessing Magnon-Phonon Coupling In the First ElectromechanicaL SpinPhonic Devices (SHIELD)
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Enabling Higher Scale Factors in Gyroscopes Through soFt and LacAlized interface-States in microelectromecHanical resonators (FLASH)
- – Principal Investigator, DARPA
- Low-Power Computing based on Programmable Multidimensional Circuits
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Boosting the Cold Chain Efficiency Through Integrated, Magnetoelectric, Piezoelectric and Ferroelectric Devices in pAssive on-Chip Tags (IMPACT)
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Programmable Electromagnetic Surfaces Based on Ferroelectric and Antiferroelectric Hafnium Zirconium Oxide Films and Graphene for Terahertz Communications and Sensing
- – Co-Principal Investigator, AFOSR
- Nano-opto-mechanical Piezoelectric Resonant Infrared-sensitive Metamaterials for Quantum-Limited Photodetection
- – Co-Principal Investigator, DARPA
- Advancing Coexistence through a Cross-Layer Design Platform with an Adaptive Frequency-Selective Radio Front-End and Digital Algorithms
- – Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Massive Scale Computing and Optimization through On-chip ParameTric Ising MAchines (OPTIMA)
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Giant Tunability through Piezoelectric Resonant Acoustic Metamaterials for Radio Frequency Adaptive Integrated Electronics
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation CAREER Award
- Ferroelectric Integrated and Reconfigurable ScAlN Technologies
- – Co-Principal Investigator, DARPA
- Fully Integrated Parametric Filters for Extensive Phase- Noise Reduction in Low-Power RF Front-Ends and Resonant Sensing Platforms
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- X. Zhao, O. Kaya, T. Maggioli and C. Cassella, “Multipurpose Acoustic Metamaterial Anchors for Aluminum Scandium Nitride Contour Mode Resonators,” in Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, doi: 10.1109/JMEMS.2024.3399593.
- H.M.E. Hussein, M. Rinaldi, M. Onabajo, C. Cassella, A chip-less and battery-less subharmonic tag for wireless sensing with parametrically enhanced sensitivity and dynamic range. Sci Rep 11, 3782 (2021).
- X. Zhao, L. Colombo, Cristian Cassella, Aluminum Nitride Two-Dimensional-Resonant-Rods, Applied Physics Letters, 116(14), 2020, 143504
- H.M. Hussein, M.A. Ibrahim, G. Michetti, M. Rinaldi, M. Onabajo, C. Cassella, Systematic Synthesis and Design of Ultra-Low Threshold 2:1 Parametric Frequency Dividers, IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques, 2020
- C. Cassella, J. Segovia-Fernandez, High K2⁄t Exceeding 6.4% Through Metal Frames in Aluminum Nitride 2-D Mode Resonators, IEEE transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control 66(5), 2019, 958-964
- J.M. Puder, J.S. Pulskamp, R.R. Rudy, C. Cassella, M. Rinaldi, G. Chen, S. Bhave, R.G. Polcawich Rapid Harmonic Analysis of Piezoelectric MEMS Resonators, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonic Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 6(65), 2018, 979-990
- G. Chen, C. Cassella, T. Wu, M. Rinaldi, Single-Chip Multi-Frequency Wideband Filters Based on Aluminum Nitride Cross-Sectional Lamé Mode Resonators with Thick and Apodized Electrodes, IEEE Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2018, 775-778
Jul 20, 2026
Solving Complex Optimization Equations with the Analog Floquet Solver
ECE Associate Professor Cristian Cassella and his team developed the Analog Floquet Solver, a groundbreaking method that prevents physics-based Ising machines from getting stuck in partial solutions, allowing computers to successfully solve highly complex real-world optimization problems across fields like logistics, finance, and drug discovery.
Jul 14, 2026
Creating Shock-Resistant Sensors That Won’t Break Under Pressure
Research conducted by the Institute for NanoSystems Innovation on “Toward Enhanced Inertial Sensing via Dynamically Soft Topological States in Piezoelectric Microacoustic Metamaterials,” was published in Advanced Functional Materials, a top journal in materials science and engineering.
Jun 08, 2026
Northeastern Researchers Excel at Hilton Head 2026 Workshop
Northeastern University researchers achieved outstanding recognition at the Hilton Head 2026 Workshop by receiving Outstanding Paper and Outstanding Poster awards.
Apr 28, 2026
Breakthrough in Reprogrammable Wireless Tech
Researchers from Northeastern’s Institute for NanoSystems Innovation (NanoSI) and the Institute for Intelligent Networked Systems have developed a dual-mode, reprogrammable on-chip antenna, published as a feature paper in a special issue of Electronics titled “Monolithic Integration of a Dual-Mode On-Chip Antenna with a Ferroelectric Hafnium Zirconium Oxide Varactor for Reprogrammable Radio-Frequency Front Ends.”
Apr 13, 2026
ECE Student Receives 2026 Outstanding PhD Student Award in Research
Nicolas Casilli, E’21, MS’21, PhD’26, electrical engineering, is the recipient of an Outstanding PhD Student Award in Research, which recognizes those who have shown an exceptional ability to conduct high-level research and make contributions to the scholarly literature in their fields.
Feb 13, 2026
Patent for a Scalable and Sustainable Approach to High Performance Computing
ECE Associate Professor Cristian Cassella was awarded a patent for developing a “Low power Ising system.”
Jan 20, 2026
Patent for Advanced Subharmonic Identification Tags
ECE Associate Professor Cristian Cassella was awarded a patent for “Ultra-high-frequency subharmonic tags for passive and far-field identification.”
Dec 17, 2025
New Research Discovers Sensor That Can Detect Single Cancer Cells
ECE Associate Professor Cristian Cassella, Assistant Professors Marco Colangelo, and Siddhartha Ghosh have made a breakthrough in their research on sensors. They have been working on a sensor that can detect objects as small as single cancer cells, which will be incredibly beneficial to the future of medical technology.
Nov 04, 2025
New Sensor Design for Early Single-Cell Cancer Diagnosis
ECE Assistant Professors Siddhartha Ghosh, Marco Colangelo, and Associate Professor Cristian Cassella published their research on “Topologically enhanced guided acoustic wave sensors” in Physical Review Applied.
Sep 04, 2025
New Filter Technology Wins IEEE Outstanding Award
ECE Assistant Professor Cristian Cassella and his electrical engineering students, Onurcan Kaya, PhD’25, and Xuanyi Zhao, PhD’24, had their paper “Piezoelectric Microacoustic Metamaterial Filters” selected for the 2024 UFFC Outstanding Paper Award by the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society.