50 YEARS AND STILL GROWING As engineering schools go, 50 is young. What’s impressive to me is how quickly this engineering school has “grown up.” In this relatively short span, our College of Engineering has gone from a small collection of unaccredited undergraduate degree programs to a major research institution offering a full suite of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in important engineering disciplines. Of course, this rapid growth in scope and excellence did not happen by chance. From Arthur Thompson’s vision for creating a true engineering school at Boston University in 1964, to the efforts of deans Louis Padulo, Charles DeLisi and David Campbell to enhance the undergraduate student body and create high-impact research programs, this school has been on the fast track to success from the outset. Today, we are focused on creating Societal Engineers who will use their unique skill sets to move society forward and, as we do so, we are enhancing the quality of our student body, our faculty, and our instructional and research efforts. As we survey the engineering education landscape, we have achieved a standing equal to or better than many fine engineering schools that are much older than us. The momentum that has fueled our rapid ascent into their ranks gives us reason to believe the next 50 years will be very promising indeed.
Kenneth R. Lutchen Dean
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Inspiring Students, Transforming Society
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The Story Of ENG
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1975-1989: A Time of Explosive Growth
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1990-2005: Becoming a Leading Research Institution
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2006-Present: Creating The Societal Engineer
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New Directions
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1964-1974: Building ENG From the Ground Up
Fifty Years of Moving Society Forward Faculty 18 Alumni 28
18 High-resolution thermal image of bats in flight. College of Engineering researchers are using such images to develop bio-inspired flight control algorithms for UAVs.
INSPIRING STUDENTS, TRANSFORMING SOCIETY Over the past 50 years, Boston University’s College of Engineering has grown to become one of the world’s finest training grounds of future engineers and wellsprings of leading edge technology. The College has seen dramatic increases not only in the size of its on-campus community—from 10 faculty to more than 120, from 100 students to more than 2,100, from one building to eight and counting—but also in the quality and societal impact of its educational and research programs. In just five decades, it has risen to become a national leader in experiential engineering education and diverse fields ranging from synthetic biology to nanotechnology to photonics, resulting in record levels of student applications, research funding and philanthropic support.
Students make final adjustments before the processional at the College of Engineering’s 58th annual Commencement, May 2011 (Photo courtesy of Commencement Photos, Inc.)
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Fueling the College of Engineering’s success is a culture of innovation in which students learn by doing, customize their curriculum and collaborate with award-winning faculty on research aimed at improving the quality of life. At the core of the College’s mission, this quest to leverage the skills of the engineer to move society forward has inspired outstanding achievements by students, faculty and alumni.
ENG @ 50 Students like Habib Khan (ECE’14), who spearheaded a student organization, Global App Initiative, in which BU undergraduates learn how to design and build mobile apps that help community service organizations improve access to healthcare, education, nutrition and other critical resources.
These and thousands of other students, faculty and alumni have given the College of Engineering community much to celebrate in its first half-century. If its rich history of innovation and impact is any guide, the College can look forward to bringing a lot more positive transformation to the world for centuries to come.
Faculty like Professor Siddharth Ramachandran (ECE), who developed a new fiber-optic technology that can transmit vastly greater amounts of data at very low cost, and has the potential to boost internet bandwidth considerably.
Alumni like Matt Heverly (MS, ME’05), who has served as the Curiosity Mars rover’s lead driver, uploading commands to get the vehicle to maneuver around rocks, sand dunes, canyons and mountain inclines.
In 2012, two ENG alums helped enable the Curiosity rover to land safely and drive around the surface of Mars. (Rover photos courtesy of Matt Heverly)
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THE STORY OF ENG The seed for Boston University’s College of Engineering was planted in 1928 at a vacant American Airlines building at Boston’s Logan Airport. There a professor of science and mathematics at BU’s College of Business Administration, Hilding Carlson, began teaching aeronautical engineering and, in 1940, launched the New England Aircraft School. Offering a single AA degree in aircraft maintenance, the school was eventually “The soil was deeded to BU in 1951 and renamed as the College of Industrial Technology (CIT). rich for this little Over the next decade, CIT expanded to technical school offer BS degrees in aeronautics, technology and management at facilities at Logan to grow.” Airport and BU, and in 1963 was consolidated in one building at 110 Cummington Arthur T. Thompson Street, with Arthur T. Thompson appointed as its new dean. Following a joint decision by Thompson and BU President Harold C. Case, CIT became the College of Engineering on February 27, 1964. Dean Thompson’s mission was to transform the budding institution The New England Aircraft School, a steppingstone along the way to the founding of the College of Engineering
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1964 College of Industrial Technology renamed as the BU College of Engineering • BS program in Engineering Management renamed Manufacturing Engineering (MFG)
1965 BS programs in Systems Engineering (SE) and Information Engineering started • Aeronautical Engineering renamed as Aerospace Engineering and MS program initiated
1966 BS program in Bioengineering initiated, among the first in the nation
ENG @ 50 into an accredited engineering program, and, as he announced at the College’s dedication at 110 Cummington, to develop qualified engineers with “the capacity for responsible and effective action as members of our society.” Facilities in the College’s four-story building were modest, but the new dean was bullish about the future. “The soil was rich for this little technical school to grow,” recalls Thompson. And grow it has. In its first 50 years, the College has seen a dramatic increase in degrees conferred annually (from 0 to over 300 bachelors, nearly 200 masters and over 60 PhDs); enrollment (from about 100 to nearly 1,500 undergraduate, 0 The opening of the College of Engineering, 1964. Left to right are, to 400 masters and 0 to nearly Merritt A. Williamson, Dean of the College of Engineering and 400 PhDs); and advanced degree Architecture at Penn State, BU President Harold C. Case, and BU College of Engineering Dean Arthur T. Thompson. programs offered (from 0 to 9 masters and 6 PhDs). Total full-time faculty has risen from less than 10 to 126, annual sponsored research dollars from 0 to $52 million, and the College’s position in the annual US News & World Report’s annual survey of US engineering graduate programs has surged from unranked to the top 20 percent nationally.
1967 MS programs in MFG and SE initiated
1968 College creates joint master’s program in MFG and Business Administration • College receives first external agency award
Meanwhile, faculty and student research has significantly impacted the world beyond the lab through technologies that have upgraded the quality of healthcare, advanced more sustainable ways to produce and distribute energy, enabled much more efficient communication and computation, and enhanced homeland and global security. Inspired innovations from speech recognition software to point-of-care infectious disease diagnostics have moved society forward in countless ways. In just 50 years, the College of Engineering has risen to become a leading light in engineering education and research. In its bustling classrooms and labs, the future has never looked brighter, much brighter than one could have imagined back in 1964.
MBTA Green Line, 1966
1969 Constructing a “hovercraft” in aerodynamics lab
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1964-1974:
BUILDING ENG FROM THE GROUND UP To carry out his mission of building a solid, accredited academic program, Thompson began a vigorous effort to broaden and deepen the College’s technical scope. His first goal was to transition undergraduate degree programs in technology, aeronautics and management to new programs in systems, aeronautical and manufacturing engineering, and to hire new faculty to deliver them. By transferring administration of core liberal arts courses for the first two years of the new BS programs to the College of Liberal Arts, and consolidating selected material into a set of required courses common to all engineering programs, Thompson freed up funds to expand the faculty. Starting with an average of three faculty members per department, he increased total fulltime faculty to 12 by the end of his term. Key appointments included Merrill Ebner, who headed the manufacturing engineering program, and Richard F. Vidale, who eventually headed systems engineering. Faculty focused largely on teaching, spending one day a week on “creative activities” that could develop into research. ENG students in a typical lab setting, 1964
1969 Bioengineering renamed Biomedical Engineering (BME)
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1971 BS programs in Aerospace, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering accredited; MFG is first of its kind to be accredited in US
ENG @ 50 The new Manufacturing Engineering Department, which taught best practices in manufacturing engineering to students and industry professionals, was a notable success. Largely crafted by Ebner, the department was the first in the US to grant undergraduate and graduate degrees in the field and for many years was the nation’s most prominent. Around 100 students enrolled in the College of Engineering’s first full academic year in 1964, a figure that rose to nearly 300 by 1975. During Thompson’s term, the College instituted the first BS degree program in the nation in Bioengineering and new BS programs in Mechanical and Computer Engineering; MS programs in Aerospace Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering and Systems Engineering; and a joint MS program in Manufacturing Engineering and Business Administration. The Mechanical Engineering program was introduced within the Aerospace Engineering Department, resulting in a renamed Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department.
“When we started ENG and began building and expanding our departments, the realization was there from the top down that we should not try to emulate or beat the MITs and instead concentrate on doing certain things very well,” says Associate Professor Theodore DeWinter (ME), one of the College’s original faculty members. “We’ve since carved out niches from underwater acoustics to nanotechnology.”
By 1971, Thompson had not only broadened the College’s offerings, but also accomplished his core mission: the three initial BS programs in Aerospace, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering were awarded accreditation, with the Manufacturing Engineering program the first to be accredited in the US. “I felt I had completed my job because the school had taken off, we were accredited, and applications were coming in,” says Thompson.
1973 ROTC unit returns to campus at ENG faculty request
1974 BS programs initiated in Mechanical and Computer Engineering
ENG students studying airplanes at Hanscom Air Force Base, 1972
1976 BS program in Electrical Engineering (EE) initiated • MS programs in Applied Mechanics and Computer Systems Engineering initiated • Department of Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering (ECS) started
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1975-1989:
A TIME OF EXPLOSIVE GROWTH After a successful first decade, the College sought to expand at a time when major universities were reducing their undergraduate engineering programs. Its second dean, Louis Padulo, turned out to be the right person for the job. During his tenure as dean from 1975 to 1985, Padulo managed to transform the small College into a much larger, more visible and more respected institution. Attacking the problem relentlessly with marketing savvy and charm, he more than quadrupled the undergraduate student body— from 300 to over 1,300—in just 10 years.
Dean Padulo more than quadrupled the undergraduate student body in just 10 years.
Through recruitment efforts and initiatives such as the launching of a Society of Women Engineers chapter, Padulo increased the quality and diversity of College of Engineering students. By 1986, ENG freshmen had the highest average SAT score at BU, and math SAT scores
1981 Late Entry Accelerated Program founded
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1982 First corporate classroom engineering television course offered • College creates MS program in BME
83 PhD degrees in engine 1983 engineering initiated and offered through the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
1984 College establishes Neuromuscular Research Center (NMRC)
ENG @ 50 91 points above the national average of prospective engineering freshmen. That same year, ENG had one of the highest proportions of female (25 percent) and minority (20 percent) students in country. Padulo also introduced several creative initiatives that transformed campus life and expanded the College’s footprint. These included the Late Entry Accelerated Program (LEAP), which continues to offer master’s degrees in engineering for non-engineers; the Cooperative Education Program, which continues to provide industry internships; Corporate Classroom, a part-time graduate and continuing education program in which ENG courses were broadcast live to 35 high tech companies; and a freshman advising system that continues to this day.
Finally, the College created a number of research facilities in the 1980s with the opening of the Metcalf Center for Science & Engineering, new CAD and CAM labs, a wind tunnel, the Neuromuscular Research Center, and the Engineering Research Building, setting the stage for a more robust research effort.
Padulo also grew the faculty from 12 to 67 full-time professors, paving the way for the College to become more research-oriented. By 1986, nearly all full-time faculty members held PhDs, and sponsored research exceeded $3 million. “I wanted people who were driven to do research but also thought it would be cool to teach young students,” says Padulo, whose recruits included Stephen Colburn, Mark Horenstein, Allyn Hubbard, David Mountain and Herb Voigt; interim deans Carlo DeLuca (1986-1989) and Sol Eisenberg (2005-2006); and current Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen. ENG robot arm, 1982
1985 College initiates Cooperative Education Program • MS degree in BME initiated • First BME Senior Design Project Conference
1987 Engineering Research Building opens / First BU student graduates with engineering PhD
1990 Dean Charles DeLisi begins to significantly increase College research infrastructure/BU Trustees approve change from single PhD in Engineering to PhDs in Aerospace, Biomedical, Computer, Electrical, Manufacturing, Mechanical and Systems
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1990-2005:
BECOMING A LEADING RESEARCH INSTITUTION When Charles DeLisi, a leading biomedical researcher in mapping the human genome, became dean in 1990, he began recruiting several topnotch researchers and developing a research infrastructure that ultimately propelled the College to its ranking in U.S. News & World Report’s top 50 engineering graduate schools (realized in 2003) and boosted the Biomedical Engineering Department to the USNWR top ten. DeLisi founded the Biomolecular Engineering Research Laboratory, the first lab at an engineering college to apply the mathematical methods of engineering to biomedical problems; and recruited the eminent molecular geneticist Charles Cantor, a pioneer in synthetic biology and one-time director of the Human Genome Project who formed a biotechnology center and chaired the department. DeLisi’s successor, Dean David K. Campbell, working with then-BME Chair Kenneth R. Lutchen, won the department a $14 million Whitaker Foundation Leadership Award in 2001, one of only three ever awarded in the nation
1991 First students graduate with PhDs in EE, ME, BME
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1993 Centers for Advanced Biotechnology and Photonics Research initiated/ENG begins administering own PhD programs
1994 Biomolecular Engineering Research Center and Center for Hearing Research initiated
1995 MFG facilities integrated with Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation • Metcalf Center for Science and Engineering opens
1997 BU Photonics Center opens
ENG @ 50 at that level. Their efforts also led to the department’s $5 million Wallace H. Coulter Translational Research Award in 2005, making BME the only department in the nation to have received both awards. DeLisi also upgraded the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering departments through world-class recruits, and established a solid core of leading photonics researchers. “When I arrived in 1990, we were a very good teaching college, but we had very few research-active, tenured faculty members, and almost no research infrastructure,” says DeLisi, who is still an active BME professor. “We didn’t even have a laser, whereas now we are a brand name in photonics.” By 1996, College faculty members had garnered 18 fellowships with prestigious professional societies, and their ranks continued to swell as they established new and robust programs in several research areas. Between 1990 and 2000, more than 40 new faculty positions had been created, research space had more than tripled and annual external research funding exceeded $20 million, a more than fivefold increase. Under the deanships of DeLisi and Campbell, between 1990 and 2005 the number of full-time faculty rose from 62 to 120, and external research funding surpassed $26 million. By 2005, the College had eight primary research centers addressing critical problems in photonics, manufacturing, information and systems engineer-
2001 BU receives $14 million Whitaker Foundation Leadership Award to expand biomedical engineering • MS programs in Photonics and Global Manufacturing added • College launches Study Abroad program
2002 Center for Information and Systems Engineering started
ing, biotechnology, molecular biology, hearing and other areas. It had also expanded along Cummington Street, providing every department with a dedicated building, and initiated collaborations with other BU researchers through many joint appointments. As research-oriented faculty and facilities proliferated, graduate education at the College became more substantial: in the early 1990s the PhD in Engineering, administered by the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, morphed into seven distinct degrees administered by the College: Aerospace, Biomedical, Computer, Electrical, Manufacturing, Mechanical and Systems. Graduate admissions standards rose considerably along with many new fellowships and training grants. On the undergraduate front, Campbell set an ambitious goal—1320 undergraduate enrollment/1320 combined SAT scores—which the College achieved, and started what became the ENG Annual Fund to provide scholarships and research support to students. In 2001, when Professor Solomon Eisenberg (BME) served as interim dean,, the College launched a new Study Abroad program, one of a select few that enabled students to study engineering for a year in a foreign country without prolonging their degree program. Study Abroad participants developed greater awareness of how engineering could be a force for good across the globe—a sensibility that would loom large at the College in the years ahead.
2003 CCollege ll bbreaks k into top 50 engineering graduate programs in U.S. News & World Report
2005 BU opens Life Sciences and Engineering Building
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2006-PRESENT:
CREATING THE SOCIETAL ENGINEER When Kenneth Lutchen, a biomedical engineering professor at the College of Engineering, took over as dean, he became more acutely aware of undergraduates’ growing interest in making a positive difference in the world. “They want a purpose in life,” he observes. “It’s not just about financial success, although that is also important—it’s a powerful enabler. They want to know how their undergraduate experience will prepare them to have an impact on society.” So Lutchen redefined the educational mission of the College to create Societal Engineers who “use the grounded and creative skills of an engineer to improve the quality of life for one person or for an entire population,” and by 2010 rolled out a series of experiential opportunities to advance that mission. These include the Technology Innovation Scholars program, which sends ENG students out to elementary, middle and high schools to show how engineering impacts society; Engineers in the Real World, which brings working engineers into the classroom to talk with sophomores about what engineers do; the Lutchen Fellows program, which engages selected upperclassmen in high-impact, faculty-supervised research projects; senior design projects, which have become increasingly interdisciplinary and so-
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2006 Ingalls Engineering Resource Center opens • BU Chapter of Engineers Without Borders formed
2007 College initiates Dean’s Catalyst Awards to spark promising, interdisciplinary research collaborations
2008 New MS and PhD programs in Materials Science & Engineering, MEng program in BME, and MS and MEng programs in SE initiated • SE and MSE Divisions launched • College establishes new ME concentrations in MFG and Aerospace Engineering • ENG Leadership Advisory Board launched
2009 ENG starts concentrations in energy technologies and nanotechnology, minors in MSE and SE
2010 College initiates Lutchen Fellowship Program, Innovative Engineering Education Faculty Fellowship Program and Technology Innovation Scholars Program
ENG @ 50 cietal impact-focused; experiential course modules delivered by Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network faculty fellows; the BU Chapter of Engineers Without Borders; and the Binoy K. Singh Imagineering Lab, a well-equipped lab where students address societal challenges with self-directed projects.
develop Smart Cities that exploit sensor network data to improve the quality of urban life, to a new Center for Future Technologies in Cancer Care, led by Associate Professor Catherine Klapperich (BME, MSE) to develop point-ofcare cancer diagnostic and treatment technologies.
Several faculty members responded to the new Societal Engineer vision, shifting from frontal lecture to project-based, team-oriented, active learning. They facilitated dynamic educational experiences ranging from the “flipped classroom,” in which students view lectures online at home and implement what they learned in the classroom, to real-world “challenge problems” posed to students during a lecture as a way to immediately apply new concepts.
“Engineering must be about more than creating or refining technology,” Lutchen maintains. “It’s a profession. It’s a way to make a living, but it’s not about money. Societal engineers are perfectly positioned to make the kind of impact on our society that no other professionals can, and they have a passion to do so.”
Meanwhile, the College initiated the Systems Engineering (SE) and Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) divisions, encouraging multidisciplinary research collaboration; and new minors (MSE and SE) and concentrations (aerospace engineering, manufacturing engineering, energy technologies, nanotechnology, and technology innovation). The latter concentration, a unique initiative in partnership with the School of Management, allows engineering students to learn how companies transform ideas into products. Professional education opportunities surged on campus with the introduction of eight new professional master’s programs and four new certificate programs.
Boston University Creating the Societal Engineer:®
In keeping with his Societal Engineer focus, Lutchen recruited many new faculty members and oversaw or initiated several new research collaborations aimed at addressing critical challenges in healthcare, energy and the environment, communications and security. Examples range from an effort to
2011 College introduces six new MEng programs in CE, EE, MFG, ME, MSE and photonics • Binoy K. Singh Imagineering Lab opens • Certificate programs in Engineering Innovation, Energy & Sustainability, MEMS and Product Design launched • College trademarks “Boston University Creating the Societal Engineer”
2012 ENG adds Technology Innovation concentration • First Imagineering Competition
Attributes for Lifelong Impact and Success
s 'ROUNDED IN ENGINEERING fundamentals & depth in an established engineering discipline s 0OSSESS QUANTITATIVE STATISTICAL CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS s %XEMPLARY COMMUNICATIONS s 3YSTEMS THINKING s 'LOBAL AWARENESS
2013 ENG opens Center of Synthetic Biology • College initiates STEM Educator-Engineer Program (STEEP)
s 5NDERSTANDING OF THE relationship between public policy and technology INNOVATION s #APACITY TO IMPASSION A pipeline of STEM-based citizens s 3OCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND CONCERN FOR BOTH VALUE CREATION AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE
s #OMPETENCY IN INTER AND multi-disciplinary design s %XPERIENCE WITH CROSS functional teams s !N ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET AND PASSION FOR INNOVATION s ! COMPREHENSIVE UNDERstanding of product design, DEVELOPMENT DEPLOYMENT processes
2014 Engineering Product Innovation Center opens
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NEW DIRECTIONS Energized by the success of its Societal Engineer programs, the College of Engineering has an ambitious education and research agenda for the years ahead. For example, the new Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC), a unique, hands-on facility, educates all students on product design-to-deployment-tosustainability. The15,000-square-foot center, which integrates product design into the curriculum, includes a CAD studio, demonstration areas, laboratories and a machining and fabrication center, all in a reconďŹ gurable layout that will easily adapt to future technologies and needs. The 2014 opening of EPIC ushers in a new era in which design is integrated into the ENG undergrad curriculum. In the past, design was taught in silos, and the emphasis was on engineering drawing, material selection and machining. Students received minimal hands-on experience until their senior project. In the future, every ENG sophomore will take a course in engineering design; the emphasis will be on 4HE %NGINEERING 0RODUCT )NNOVATION #ENTER %0)# IS TRAINING "5 ENGINEERS FOR THE FUTURE MANUFACTURING ECONOMY IN THIS COUNTRY SAYS %0)# $IRECTOR 'ERRY &INE
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ENG @ 50 converting an idea into a manufacturing-ready, sustainable product; and all students will receive multiple hands-on experiences at EPIC. Meanwhile, the 2013 opening of the Center of Synthetic Biology (CoSBi) represents another major transformation for the College. CoSBi unites BU engineering and biology researchers to design and construct biomolecular components and synthetic gene networks to reprogram cells, endowing them with novel functions from new fuels to medical treatments.
Other upcoming educational initiatives include increased integration of digital technologies to enhance courses; new programs with the schools of Management, Education and Public Health; and a continued focus on building the engineering pipeline through outreach to K-12 students. Looking deeper into the future, BU has proposed to construct the Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering Building—a seven-story, 150,000-square-foot facility that will include interdisciplinary research space for faculty and students in systems and synthetic biology—within the next ten years. BU is also proposing a 165,000-square-foot science and engineering research building. Between 2013 and 2016, ENG will have expanded its footprint on the Charles River Campus by nearly 62,000 square feet with leading-edge labs and research centers, and transformative learning environments. Even as the College continues to leverage its strengths in photonic devices, technologies and systems; bioengineering; information science and systems engineering; advanced materials; and micro- and nano-systems to move society forward, it will also explore new frontiers, from big data to urban resilience engineering. Driven by a top-tier faculty and student body, its rich legacy of innovation is sure to keep growing.
An artist rendering of the proposed Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering at Boston University (Image courtesy of the Boston Redevelopment Authority)
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FACULTY
50 YEARS OF MOVING SOCIETY FORWARD Over the past 50 years, faculty research at the College of Engineering has led to many devices, systems and techniques that impact the world beyond the lab, from blue LEDs now ubiquitous in mobile devices and flat panel displays, to affordable, portable, user-friendly, point-of-care infectious disease diagnostics suitable for resource-limited countries. The following research highlights illustrate the impact College of Engineering faculty members have had on society during the institution’s first 50 years.
ACHIEVEMENTS Biomedical Engineering • The development, by Professor Edward Damiano (BME), of an artificial pancreas— the first fully automated system for regulating blood glucose in people with diabetes • The development, by Professor Charles Cantor (BME), of rolling circle PCR, a method used to amplify DNA from very small amounts of starting material • Research by Professors Bennett Goldberg and Selim Unlu (both ECE, BME, MSE) using wavelike interferometry to develop devices that could detect pathogens and circuit board features at a much higher resolution than competing technologies 0ROFESSOR 3ELIM 5NLU %#% "-% -3%
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ENG @ 50 • The development, by Associate Professor Muhammad Zaman (BME, MSE), of PharmaChk, a user-friendly, low-cost, portable, fast and accurate detector for screening counterfeit and substandard medicines, that could substantially improve fragile health systems and save countless lives in many developing nations • Professor James J. Collins’ (BME, MSE, SE) pioneering contributions to systems and synthetic biology, and to efforts to understand and combat antibiotic resistance Electrical and Computer Engineering • The development, by Professors Bahaa Saleh and Malvin Teich ( both ECE), of the entangled photon microscope, a new method for submicron imaging that provides focused images deep within a tissue specimen without significantly damaging tissue
• Research by Associate Professor Catherine Klapperich (BME, MSE), in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Center, that resulted in microfluidic systems for portable, user-friendly, low-cost, point-of-care infectious disease diagnostics • Work by Professors Sandor Vajda (BME, SE), Yannis Paschalidis (ECE, SE) and Associate Professor Pirooz Vakili (ME, SE) in developing powerful optimization algorithms for predicting the structures of complexes that form when two cell proteins bond together, structures that could serve as targets for cancer drug discovery
• Research by Professor David Castanon (ECE, SE), Adjunct Professor Ronald Roy (ME) and Professor Bahaa Saleh (ECE) in signal processing, acoustics and optics, respectively, that led to new instrumentation for medical imaging, airport security, landmine detection and other applications • Research, primarily by Mari Onstendorf and Carol Espy-Wilson that made ENG the leading academic institution in speech recognition in the 1990s and led to technology found in many of today’s speech recognition devices • The development, by Professor Thomas Little (ECE, SE), of smart lighting technology that exploits highly energy-efficient and controllable solid-state light sources both to illuminate a defined space and facilitate optical wireless communication among electronic devices within that space
• Highly interdisciplinary research by Professor Mark Grinstaff (BME, MSE, Chemistry) that has resulted in new materials and devices for clinical applications including joint lubricants, wound sealants and drug delivery systems
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Moving Society Forward — Faculty
• The co-development by Professor Theodore Moustakas (ECE, MSE) of the blue LED, used by millions in solid state lighting applications and electronic devices, from flat panel displays on handheld devices and televisions to general lighting (Blue LED photo by Gussisaurio)
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ENG @ 50 Mechanical Engineering • Research and development by Professor Thomas Bifano (ME, MSE) of MEMS-based, deformable micromirrors used in state-of-the-art telescopes and microscopes • The first articulation, by Professor John Baillieul (ME, SE), of the data-rate theorem, which informs the design of automobiles, aerospace vehicles and other technologies that require active control to operate • Research by Professor Xin Zhang (ME, MSE) on developing microsystems for multiple industries, ranging from key components in terahertz imaging, prominent in defense and healthcare technology, to MRI contrast agents • Research by Professors Soumendra Basu and Vinod Sarin (both ME, SE), who developed environmental barrier coatings with excellent corrosion, recession and thermal shock resistance that promise to bolster the efficiency, environmental friendliness and service lifetimes of silicon-based ceramic components in onsite power generation systems, aircraft propulsion systems and other applications • Research by Professor Michael Caramanis (ME, SE), Associate Professor Pirooz Vakili (ME, SE) and other faculty (including Ali Sharifnia, Jian Qiang Hu and Leonid Charny) that advanced the state of the art of manufacturing supply chains, resulting in more efficient supply chain management
• Research by the director of the College’s US Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation, Professor Andre Sharon (ME), resulting in the first fully automated, scalable “factory” using non-genetically-modified green plants to mass-produce vaccines and therapeutics within weeks
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Moving Society Forward — Faculty
CURRENT FACULTY RESEARCH Healthcare: Saving Lives, Cutting Costs Dozens of efforts are underway at the College of Engineering to boost the quality of healthcare while cutting costs. Major research goals include faster, cheaper DNA sequencing; targeted cancer treatments that minimize harmful side effects; noninvasive monitoring of cardiovascular disease; point-of-care diagnosis of infectious diseases; and advanced biomaterials for bone healing. As they advance our fundamental understanding of biology and physiology in health and disease and translate these principles into highly effective, affordable clinical technologies, ENG researchers are working at every scale of biology—from molecule to cell to tissue to patient. #ELL &INDING #ANCER %ARLY In the 1990s Professor Irving J. Bigio (BME) pioneered a noninvasive optical method, elastic scattering spectroscopy, to detect subcellular structural changes in tissue associated with the onset of many major cancers— information pathologists can only obtain with a microscope post biopsy. Clinically tested on hundreds of patients, the method shows great promise as a low-cost, low-maintenance, user-friendly clinical tool for diagnosis of early stage cancers in hollow organs, and collection of timely, critical information for cancer surgeons. 0ATIENT %NABLING ,IFELONG 0ROACTIVE #ARE Despite spending $2 trillion annually on healthcare, the US recently ranked lowest among 19 industrialized countries in its rate of “preventable” deaths. Leveraging electronic health records to dramatically improve health outcomes for far less cost, Professor Yannis Paschalidis (ECE, SE) is developing algorithms that assess patients for disease risk and trigger physician actions based on their risk classification, and wireless body sensors that dispatch medical information to the clinic in near real-time.
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-OLECULE !DVANCING 0ERSONALIZED -EDICINE Sequencing a human genome can take over one week and cost well over $5,000. But a new DNA sequencing method advanced by Associate Professor Amit Meller (BME) that exploits solid-state nanopores—tiny, nearly cylindrical, silicon nitride sensors that optically detect DNA molecules as they pass through the pore—is much faster and more accurate, and may enable clinicians to sequence a patient’s entire genome for as little as $100, revealing susceptibility to selected diseases and tolerance for selected drugs.
ENG @ 50
4ISSUE 4ARGETING 4UMORS Treatment options for solid, cancerous tumors include surgery, which is invasive and often requires a lengthy recovery, and chemotherapy, which is damaging to healthy tissue, can compromise the immune system and produce debilitating side effects. Associate Professor Tyrone Porter (ME, BME) has developed two far less toxic techniques that combine nanotechnology and focused ultrasound to kill localized malignancies rapidly.
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Moving Society Forward — Faculty Energy/Environment: Engineering a Cleaner, Greener World Global climate change, fossil fuel depletion and the quest for energy independence have intensified the demand for high-impact innovation in clean energy and sustainability. Recognizing the critical importance of cleantech breakthroughs to the nation and the world, the College of Engineering has put forward a unique and diverse portfolio of leading-edge research programs. Among other things, their efforts could lead to: -ORE %FlCIENT 3OLAR #ELLS Professor Theodore Moustakas (ECE, MSE) is layering quantum dots of varying sizes on solar cells so that they can absorb more of the solar spectrum, so as to develop low-cost, next-generation solar cells that produce at least a 10-to-20 percent efficiency improvement over what’s now on the market. 'REENER -ANUFACTURING Conventional primary metal production methods emit carbon dioxide or chlorine, but Professor Uday Pal and Associate Professor Srikanth Gopalan (both ME, MSE) have devised an electrolysis method to produce pure metals from their oxides with zero carbon emissions at a fraction of the cost. The method promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the industrial sector and enhance US energy security and economic growth. #LEANER -ORE !FFORDABLE &UEL #ELLS Fuel cells promise to reduce pollution and provide stationary, distributed or mobile power production from renewable and nonrenewable sources, but manufacturing them can be expensive. Pal and Gopalan have devised a novel process to manufacture solid oxide fuel cells that delivers equivalent performance at far less cost than conventional approaches.
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! 3MARTER 'RID Professors Michael Caramanis and John Baillieul (both ME, SE) seek a more intelligent power grid to sharply reduce the nation’s electricity costs and carbon footprint. Their point-of-consumption monitors and controllers and optimization algorithms could enable the grid to minimize power use and costs.
ENG @ 50 Information/Communication: Creating the Smarter City Collaborating with industry, the City of Boston, local neighborhoods and colleagues across BU, ENG researchers are advancing the mathematical foundations for a smarter, more efficient city in which distributed sensor networks collect and transmit data, and centralized software programs receive the data and act upon it in real time. These new systems may revolutionize the way the city is viewed: from a passive living and working environment to a highly dynamic one, characterized by: 3MARTER -OBILITY Professors Christos Cassandras and Yannis Paschalidis (both ECE, SE) and other BU researchers are developing a citywide, GPS-based system that assigns and reserves sensor-enhanced parking spaces based on a smartphone-equipped driver’s requested destination and price range, and another system that dynamically controls traffic lights to improve the flow of vehicles. 3MARTER 3ECURITY Professors Janusz Konrad (ECE) and Venkatesh Saligrama (ECE, SE) have devised a technique to process video data and pinpoint unusual events in cluttered urban environments that’s much faster and more reliable than conventional approaches. Saligrama is also developing a capability to search and retrieve footage of potentially suspicious activities in large surveillance videos. 3MARTER %NERGY Associate Professor Michael Gevelber (ME, MSE, SE), Adjunct Associate Research Professor Donald Wroblewski (ME) and Research Assistant Paul Gallagher (ME, MS’13) have designed software that can reduce building energy consumption and costs considerably. Optimizing air flow rates in HVAC systems, the software determines actual flow rates on a room-by-room basis by using the building automation system and measuring the system response.
3MARTER #OMMUNICATION A new generation of energy efficient, computercontrollable solid state “Smart Lights” could illuminate a defined space and facilitate high-speed, optical wireless communication and networking among electronic devices within that space. Developed by Professor Thomas Little (ECE, SE) and other ENG faculty and students in collaboration the NSF Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center, Smart Lights could be used in vehicle-to-vehicle communication and indoor navigation in stores, museums and other venues. 3MARTER (EALTHCARE Associate Professor Catherine Klapperich (BME, MSE) and Professor Christos Cassandras (ECE, SE) are developing apps that remind patients when to take prescribed drugs and undergo medical tests and screenings.
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Moving Society Forward — Faculty
Security/Defense: Innovation for the New Front Line Keeping citizens and soldiers out of harm’s way in a world where the front line can be anywhere depends increasingly on advanced technologies designed to counter a wide range of new, fast-changing threats. To that end, 30 faculty members at the College of Engineering are pursuing research that could lead to significant improvements in personal and homeland security, and enhanced capabilities for US armed forces overseas. Packing greater functionality and performance in security and defense technologies while minimizing their size, cost and energy consumption, they’re making great strides in: #YBER 3ECURITY Professors Mark Karpovsky, David Starobinski and Ari Trachtenberg (all ECE), are working to identify, understand and mitigate security risks to smartphones. Their ultimate goal is to design more secure networking protocols and hardware and develop more effective, software-based strategies to authenticate users and callers that leverage the devices’ unique features. 4HREAT $ETECTION 3URVEILLANCE Professors David Castaùón, Clem Karl and Venkatesh Saligrama (all ECE, SE) have devised new approaches based on machine learning, signal processing and other systems engineering techniques that could lead to faster, more accurate screening of luggage and passengers. 3OLDIER 4ECHNOLOGY To reduce the heavy equipment load borne by U.S. Army soldiers, three ENG researchers—Associate Professors Enrico Bellotti, Luca Dal Negro and Martin Herbordt (all ECE, MSE) are developing computer simulations of lighter, more energy-efficient electronic and photonics materials.
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ENG @ 50
2OBOTICS 5!6S Inspired by the flight dynamics of bats, birds and insects, Professors John Baillieul (ME) and Yannis Paschalidis (ECE), Associate Professor Calin Belta (ME) and Assistant Professor Mac Schwager (ME) (all SE) are developing a set of flight control algorithms designed to enable a new generation of unmanned aerial vehicles to navigate more effectively in cluttered environments for military, disaster recovery and other missions.
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ALUMNI
50 YEARS OF MOVING SOCIETY FORWARD Five decades of ENG graduates have applied lessons learned and made a tremendous impact on society through their work in academia, government and industry. They have developed anti-cancer drugs, engineered special effects for Hollywood blockbusters, commandeered Mars rovers, and much more, as illustrated in the following profiles:
Energy/Environment
National Teacher of the Year finalist Lewis Chappelear (BME’94) teaches project-based physics, robotics and CAD to L.A. high school students at his School of Engineering and Design. (Photo courtesy of Lewis Chappelear)
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,OW POWER $ISPLAYS Amit Jain (EE’85, MS’88) is co-founder of Prysm, Inc., which created laser phosphor displays for large format display applications such as video walls, using an innovative, low-power, environmentally friendly design that delivers long-lasting performance and brilliant picture. Clients include universities, government agencies and industry leaders. (Photo courtesy of Prysm,Inc.)
ENG @ 50 3MART 7INDOWS Rao Mulpuri (MFG, MS’92; MSE, PhD’96) is founder and CEO of Soladigm, maker of highly energy-efficient “smart windows” that switch from clear to tinted on demand to reflect or admit sunlight. Clients include one of the world’s biggest glass manufacturers. In 2010, GE selected Soladigm as one of 12 winners in their first GE Ecomagination Challenge. %COLOGICAL %LECTRONICS Krista Botsford Crotty (AME’97) is CEO of Alberi EcoTech, an environmental compliance firm that provides advice and documentation to businesses exporting electronic devices to European Union countries and the United Kingdom, which have more stringent environmental standards than the US. Crotty is now working to launch a green tech incubator in Las Vegas.
Information Systems/Communication 7IRELESS 4ECHNOLOGY Ronald Garriques (ME’86) has played a key role in the success of emerging wireless technologies at Motorola and Dell. For Dell he served as president of the Global Consumer Group, running development of desktops, notebooks, software and peripherals, and product design and sales. At Motorola he helped advance a new global platform for all wireless technologies. -OVIE 3PECIAL %FFECTS Christopher Miller (AME’95) leveraged his BU-based knowledge of computer-aided design, 3-D modeling and computer graphics into a career designing 3-D special effects for Hollywood movies, including Star Trek (2009), The Dark Knight, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
-ARS 2OVER ,EAD $RIVER Matt Heverly (ME, MS’05), a mobility systems engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has served as lead driver of the Curiosity rover. Heverly’s job is to direct the vehicle to maneuver around rocks, sand dunes, canyons and mountain inclines. Each Mars morning, Heverly and his 15 fellow drivers upload hundreds of commands to the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover. (Photo courtesy of Matt Heverly)
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Moving Society Forward — Alumni Healthcare
0ACEMAKER 4ECHNOLOGY David A. Casavant (BME ’85, ’88), a senior principal field clinical engineer at Medtronic Inc., co-invented and developed a new pacemaker modality called managed ventricular pacing (MVP) credited in peer-reviewed journals with improving and extending life. Since it was FDA-approved in 2004, MVP has become the top-selling pacemaker feature for Medtronic, and now regulates heart rhythms in over one million people throughout the world. -EDICAL -ONITORING George Savage (BME’81), chief medical officer and co-founder of Proteus Digital Health, has advanced a system of small, ingestible event markers that are implanted in a patient’s medications. A monitor worn as a patch on the patient identifies each pill upon swallowing and tracks vital signs, which are uploaded to the patient’s mobile phone and transmitted to caregivers and healthcare professionals.
Aerospace and Defense $EFENSE 3YSTEMS James McCoy (CE’85, MBA’05), chief information officer and vice president of Integrated Defense Systems at Raytheon and on staff since 1985, helps provide global capabilities integration to several international and US agencies, including the Armed Forces and Missile Defense Agency. McCoy was recognized by IDG’s Computerworld magazine as a 2012 Premier 100 IT Leaders honoree. 4RAUMATIC "RAIN )NJURY Kevin Kit Parker (BME’89), a professor of bioengineering and applied physics at Harvard and US Army paratrooper who served in Afghanistan, led a research team that pinpointed the mechanism behind traumatic brain injury. The research could yield drug therapies that first responders could apply to limit long-term damage. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Kit Parker)
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-ISSILE $EFENSE Nora Tgavalekos (BME’00, MS’03, PhD’06), has served as a senior principal systems engineer for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, directing engineering teams and flight tests for sea-based radar tracking of ballistic missile targets. In 2012, Aviation Week & Space Technology named Tgavelekos in its 40 Under 40 list of rising stars in the global aerospace and defense industry.
ENG @ 50
-ARS 2OVER ,ANDING 3YSTEMS Anita Sengupta (Aero’98), a senior systems engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, enabled the Curiosity rover to touch down safely on the surface of the Red Planet. Sengupta helped design the rover’s parachute to withstand the extreme aerodynamic environment associated with plummeting through the atmosphere at mach 2.2, the highest ever for a parachute on Mars.
-ARS ROVER #URIOSITY PARACHUTE WIND tunnel testing (Photo courtesy of NASA)
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