The Intelligent Systems Center (ISC) is one of few research centers on MS&T campus designated as eminent centers with annual funding from the state of Missouri. The ISC mission is to provide an interdisciplinary research environment in which faculty from various departments can cooperate and conduct research on sponsored projects involving real-world systems with special emphasis on system intelligence. ISC has integrated its primary research mission with MS&T's commitment to developing internationally recognized graduate research programs focused on emerging and critical technologies.

The approaches for accomplishing ISC's mission and objectives consist of (i) developing interdisciplinary research programs to match the emphasis areas of sponsoring agencies with the expertise of MS&T faculty, (ii) obtaining long-term federal research grants and industrial contracts, and (iii) developing multidisciplinary research facilities.

Interdisciplinary research teams consisting of faculty members and graduate students from several academic departments have been established to conduct research in emerging and critical technologies. The ISC has also developed state-of-the-art laboratories to conduct research on virtual reality, smart structures, neural networks, energy systems, agile manufacturing and automatic inspection, MEMS, robotics, structural health monitoring, etc. The Center also provides advanced computing facilities (hardware and software) to its research investigators and graduate students.

The Center members have been working with government agencies and industrial companies to address their technology needs and solve their technical problems. The research efforts supported by the Center have enabled ISC members to establish three federally funded research centers: the Center for Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies (CAMT) funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) in Friction Stir Processing, and the NSF I/UCRC in Intelligent Maintenance Systems.

ISC considers the education of graduate students as one of its major activities and provides state-funded research assistantships to selective graduate students through the Center's Investigators. The interdisciplinary nature of research provides an excellent opportunity for the students to interact with other students from different disciplines. The students also gain communication and project organization skills through working in a team environment.